Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me a long last narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart.
You know I know He lives, He lives within my heart.
Rejoice, rejoice so Christian, lift up your voice and sing.
Eternal hallelujah to Jesus Christ the King.
The hope of all who seek Him, the help of all who find.
None other is so loving, so good and kind.
He lives, He lives, Jesus lives today.
He walks with me and talks with me a long last narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart.
You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.
All right, let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father God, thank you for allowing us to be back here at this service,
at this church, Lord. I just pray that we give you glory as we worship your name
and I just pray that you fill a path to shelter with the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for giving us your son to resurrect from the dead, Lord.
Thank you for giving him so we could have eternal life, Father. In Jesus' name, Amen.
All right, for the next song, song number 36.
Song number 36, Christ arose. And sing it like you mean it.
Christ arose because this is what we're celebrating. It's His resurrection.
Christ arose. So, song number 36. Let's start on the first.
Lo, in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior, waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord.
Up from the grave He rose, with a mighty triumph for His foes.
He arose from victor, from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose, He arose, hallelujah, Christ arose.
Mainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Savior.
Mainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord.
Up from the grave He rose, with a mighty triumph for His foes.
He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose, He arose, hallelujah, Christ arose.
Dead cannot keep His prey, Jesus my Savior.
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord.
Up from the grave He rose, with a mighty triumph for His foes.
He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose, He arose, hallelujah, Christ arose.
That was some really good singing.
If you still need a bulletin, lift your hand high, one of our ushers can come by and get you a bulletin.
We have our memory passage on the front, we have our service and soul winning times inside.
As well as our church stats, please make sure to update your soul winning captain or lieutenant for any salvations to report.
Also make sure to turn your maps to brother Dylan.
Also we have our list of expecting ladies.
Continue to pray for all of them as well as our prayer list.
Our homeschool field trip as well as our Mother's Day tea.
Make sure if you signed up for that to be paying attention for any email that you need.
Also we have the Austin Texas Soul Winning Marathon happening May 21st.
This evening we do have a couple baptisms right after the service, so if you would like to stick around for that you can.
Also we're going to be partaking of the Lord's Supper.
It's going to be happening at the end of our service and so some people may even wonder.
Some churches practice what's called closed communion.
I don't necessarily subscribe to that particular definition or what most people define that as.
To me communion is available to those who are saved and they're not on the 1 Corinthians 5 list.
And they're doing it with respect to the Lord Jesus Christ.
So whether you're technically a member of our church or not does not make you qualified to take of the Lord's Supper as that's not found in the Bible anywhere.
So if you're going to say it's closed to those who are saved and basically not in grievous sin then I agree with that definition.
But some people say you have to be a part of their church specifically to take of the Lord's Supper.
That's just not something that I impose.
So anybody that's even a guest of our church or if they're not sure if they're an official member it's okay.
You're still welcome to participate with us if you'd like.
You don't have to. It's not a requirement.
But if you if you'd like to you're welcome to join in with us.
Again it is for those who are only saved not in need of church discipline.
And they're taking it reverently. They're thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ as they partake of the elements.
I've heard some people say in order to take Lord's Supper you can't have like this unconfessed sin.
But I think that that's a strange doctrine that isn't really supported by scripture.
And it's confusing because I would think like what person so prideful to think that they have zero sin in their life or something like that.
You know how big of a sin or what does that mean.
Do I need to do a little confessional before I do the Lord's Supper. I mean I don't know.
So obviously no one's perfect.
And so I just want to make sure that you understand that.
I'm going to be a little bit more detail specific when we kind of get to that part of the service.
And this the sermon is not only about that but I am going to address those elements.
So thank you for being here.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song for the evening.
He lives on high number thirty two song thirty two.
Song number thirty two. He lives on high.
Song number thirty two.
On the first price the savior came from heaven's glory to redeem the loss from sin and shame on his brow.
He wore the Thor crown glory and upon Calvary he took my blame.
He lives on high. He lives on high.
Triumphant over sin and all its stain.
He lives on high. He lives on high.
South Bay he's coming again.
He arose from death and all his sorrow.
To dwell in that land of joy and love.
He is coming back so glad tomorrow.
And he'll take all his children home above.
He lives on high. He lives on high.
Triumphant over sin and all its stain.
He lives on high. He lives on high.
Someday he's coming again.
We resolve to Jesus come confessing.
Redemption from sin he offers thee.
Look to Jesus and receive a blessing.
There is light. There is joy and victory.
He lives on high. He lives on high.
Triumphant over sin and all its stain.
He lives on high. He lives on high.
Someday he's coming again.
I would rather keep the ordinances as I deliver them to you.
But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ.
And the head of the woman is the man.
And the head of Christ is God.
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head.
But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head.
For that is even all one as if she were shaven.
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn.
If it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God,
but the woman is the glory of the man.
For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man.
Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man.
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord.
For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God.
Judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering.
But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.
For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it.
For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in, or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not?
What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.
And when he had given thanks, he break it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me.
After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come.
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.
And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your son Jesus Christ, and the fact that he died on the cross for our sins, was buried and broke again.
I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit now, and enable him to thunder forth the message you've laid on his heart, and help us to pay attention and apply the sermons to our lives. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen.
Amen. So we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and we actually did the first part of this chapter a few weeks ago.
But we're going to be focusing on the second half of this chapter, and I want to look back at verse 17 where the Bible read, verse number 17.
Now in this, that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.
And the title of my sermon this evening is this, churches that make you worse. Churches that make you worse.
And notice here in the passage, the Bible is saying that you could literally come together and end up being worse off than you were before.
Now the coming together is what we use the word church to mean. Church is an assembling of believers. It's the congregation of believers.
It's not a building, it's not some abstract idea, but rather it's when all of God's people in a local area gather together and they have a service to worship God.
That's what we look at church being the local congregation, the local assembly.
And the Bible is saying that sometimes people come together and they end up leaving worse than they were when they first got there.
And there's a lot of churches out there today that will literally make you a worse person if you go there. It's not making you a better person.
Now some churches are mixed bag, some churches, some services make you better, and some services make you bad or make you worse, okay?
And ultimately, the goal should be that church is always making you better, that it's edifying you, building you up. No one's perfect, we understand that.
But at the end of the day, this church had gotten to such a bad place that literally services were making people worse by going than actually not going.
Now, of course, this is not an excuse to not go to church, okay?
I'm sure someone out there on the internet is like, yeah, that's why I didn't go to church today, you know.
Look, that's a lame excuse not to go to church, okay?
But at the end of the day, it is technically better to not go to a wicked church than, you know, to forego church than to go to some wicked service or something.
To go and worship a false god or something like that or to go and hear lies being told to you that's actually going to make you worse over time.
And that makes sense because if you think about it, when you go out soul winning and you run into somebody that's never really been to church,
often they're a lot easier to get saved than someone that's been going to a terrible church all the time.
Someone that's been going to a bad church ends up just learning all kinds of heresy and false doctrine and lies and ends up making it harder to get that person saved than the person that's, you know, a lot fresher meat.
You know, someone that hasn't been tainted so much by lies and heresy and false doctrine.
So it's important to realize that while church is one of the greatest institutions, it's the greatest institution, I mean arguably, on the earth, it can be a detriment if not done correctly.
You know, it's kind of like a gun. A gun is a great tool. A gun is a great instrument.
But obviously used inappropriately, it can be devastating to people, right?
So we want to treat guns with respect. We want to understand the rules of a gun.
We don't want to use guns improperly. The same is with the church where we want to make sure that we're abiding by the rules that God has laid out and we're not abusing church.
We're not doing church wrong.
Now I just have two simple points this evening of why a church is going to actually make you worse.
The first point is if they're teaching false doctrine.
False doctrine is never a benefit. It's never going to help you.
You know, it's not good to go and listen to a bunch of false doctrine on purpose or something like that.
Sometimes people are like, oh, I want to research all this guy believes or whatever.
But you want to be careful with that because false doctrine can still twist your mind, pervert you.
It can cause a lot of damage to you.
And from a logical perspective, it doesn't even make very much sense to go listen to a bunch of lies on purpose.
It should actually grieve your soul. It should cause you to want to get away from it and not harken to it.
But I want to show you here in the Bible, look what it says in verse 18.
For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you and I partly believe it.
For there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
So it's saying the first reason why you coming together is having a problem is because you have all these divisions.
Now, a church divided is not good.
Just like the Bible says a house divided cannot stand, a church divided is not going to stand.
It's not going to go through trials and all kinds of difficulty.
You know, that's one of the great things about our church is because of how much unity it has.
We're able to actually withstand a lot of pressure and still be united.
You know, there was a church named Steadfast and some tribulation and turmoil came.
And as a result of that, what happened? A complete church split.
It was Jacksonville. Steadfast Jacksonville literally had a complete division, had a complete separation from the church.
And you say, why? Because there was heresy there.
I mean, because there was false doctrine there. What was the false doctrine?
Well, probably the most important false doctrine that caused that was on who's really ordained or not.
And who should be the leader of a church? And can a church ordain its own leadership?
And who are you really supposed to follow? You know, praise God that a church here understood that importance of doctrine,
understood, hey, we need someone that's been ordained, that is legitimate to come in and help our church.
And the Fort Worth church is willing to take on someone that they don't necessarily know from Adam,
but they at least realize it's fitting the biblical model.
And I remember the Jacksonville church, they were really like bellyaching and they're like,
well, why don't you come out here and we get to know you and talk to you and stuff like that before we decide,
you know, if we want you to be our pastor. And I'm thinking, like, I'm not doing that for Fort Worth.
I mean, for us, I'm not going out barbecuing the Fort Worth and trying to win them over. I'm not campaigning.
I'm not going out and seeing how, you know, things are going to go make sure everybody's OK and tuck them in at night or anything like that.
Pat them on the head, give them a binky or something, you know. No, no, no.
It's like, why does one group of people have a problem and another group not?
It's because of heresy, because of that division and false doctrine does that.
False doctrine being taught behind the pulpit is going to end up dividing people in a church,
causing all these factions and all these little schisms.
And then whenever there's actual turmoil, there's actually a kind of a problem.
You'll end up seeing those churches split, break apart and have that, you know, culmination, that manifestation of what was there all along.
Right. OK. And even this church, while it didn't necessarily have a split, you kind of had a lot of splintering after the fact, you know.
And of course, it's always going to be because of false doctrine.
But churches that don't start with a bunch of false doctrine or don't have a bunch of false doctrine constantly fed them, they don't have that type of a problem typically.
OK. You know, as evidenced by the fact that I've had to pastor four different locations, two churches, four different locations.
And I've had to throw people out of three of those locations.
OK. Steadfast Fort Worth, steadfast OKC and steadfast Jacksonville.
I've never thrown a single person out of pure words. Now, it's the same pastor.
It's the same doctrine. And it's still sinners.
But what would be one of the differences is that one church didn't have a bunch of lies being told it over and over and over again.
And often when that happens, it can actually make you worse.
It can cause you to be spiritually less mature, more carnal, more focused on a lot of problems.
And in fact, I heard this, you know, through the grapevine, but basically coming through the church and talking with Pastor Anderson, talking with him specifically.
He said that a lot of people complained, saying like it felt like there was something off with the church.
You know, felt like there was issues with the church before, you know, it basically had its pastor have to resign or step down.
They were like, I was concerned about this particular doctrine. I heard I was I was concerned about what was creeping in.
And here's here's the point that I really want to make. Obviously, we have a really good practical application of this.
But this can happen at any point in time.
And so that's why it's important that every man, every person in the church is constantly being a Berean, constantly going home,
constantly knowing the Bible for themselves and reading the Bible for themselves so that they don't allow that false doctrine to come in and taint them and taint their family and end up making them worse.
Just because, oh, well, I just go to church and I just trust the pastor or whatever. Yeah, but that church could be making you worse.
You know, I was going to an independent Baptist church. It started out pretty good.
But then it started getting to where it was just like a pre-trib sermon. Every service, you know, I can tolerate a pre-trib sermon every once in a while.
OK, I'm not so holy and so righteous that, you know, I have to agree with every single word that comes out of a pastor's lips to like the service.
But when it's just literally just every single Sunday, it's just pre-trib, pre-trib, pre-trib.
You're just starting like you're like, wow, why am I even here? And it's not making me a better Christian.
It's not helping me or benefiting me or positing me anything. And so you start in the questioning, like, why am I even here?
And it's one of the most important things about church and the thing that makes me more upset than anything.
If I have someone help guest preach or I have men of the church preach, here's the most important thing that can possibly happen is that everything they say is true.
Like, I would rather it be the most boring sermon ever and true than the coolest sermon ever with lies in it.
OK, and some people, they're like, oh, I don't like this preacher. He's kind of boring. But it's like, is everything he's saying is true?
And a lot of times this is the temptation, especially if you're a younger preacher, is you're like, I want to preach something really cool.
But here's the thing. The truth is cool. You know, when you preach the truth, you get people upset.
You're like, I want to be a hard preacher. OK, then preach things that are true because, you know, lies are never that hard.
Lies really don't, you know, convict the soul. They don't really offend people like the truth does.
The truth gets people all upset. OK, the truth makes people really angry.
But what makes me angry is hearing lies in the pulpit, you know, because I love the truth and I hope we have a church that's filled with people that are seeking the truth.
And so when they start hearing lies, they start saying like, I don't I don't like this. You know, that's the face that they make when they hear something bad.
Go to Titus chapter two for a second. Go to Titus chapter number two. And I want to look at a couple of verses here.
But church should be emphasizing truth over feelings. Well, you know what you're going to say is going to offend somebody.
But is it true? Hey, people won't like you if you say that. But is it true?
Well, I don't know if you're going to grow a church with that kind of a message, but is it true?
Well, people are going to cancel you and get mad at you for saying that. But is it true?
You know, this church, there's so many churches here, like it's mind boggling how many churches exist in the Dallas area, even just Baptist alone.
I mean, when I look it up, I'm just like there is literally a Baptist church within a stone's throw everywhere.
And, you know, some of them aren't even that bad seeming. A lot of them seem to have the right gospel.
I've looked at some of them. They have soul winning, you know. So then why have a church?
Why have a Baptist church? Why go somewhere else? Why do we have a group of people?
Well, here's the thing. While they might have a lot of good things going for them,
I noticed that a lot of churches are just not interested in the truth at all costs.
And let me tell you something. Why is a church meeting an hotel? Because we elevate the truth at all costs.
You say like what? Like a building, like personal financial comfortability, like over people liking you, over whatever.
Hey, I don't really care about that stuff as much as I care about the truth.
Now, I'm not saying I don't care about those things because I do. You know, I'd love to have a great building.
I'd love to have, you know, financial security. I'd love to have all the extra cherries on top.
But let me tell you something. I'm not willing to have any of those if I can't have the truth.
And a lot of Baptists today are being pressured not to preach things that are true because they're unpopular.
So they'll only preach the popular truths and then they'll mix in a little bit of lies here and there.
Whereas I want to say, here's just all the Bible. Here's just what the Bible says.
That's the goal of this church. That should be what our goal is as a Christian is just to hear the truth.
Good, bad or ugly. What does God want me to hear today? What does God want me to do today?
OK. And notice the instruction to the pastor in Titus chapter two, verse one is this.
But speak down the things that become sound doctrine. Now, sound doctrine means that it's never going to change.
It's not the science of today. It's not like wear a mask, don't wear a mask, wear three masks, wear two masks,
wear one and a half masks, you know, have you know, it's just like it's always the same message.
It's not a changing with the wind. It's like, well, what do I do in this situation if my husband's, you know, treating me bad?
Don't get divorced. But what about this one? Never get divorced. What about this one?
It's just sound doctrine. It's just like, well, let's say someone believes in Jesus, but they're a really bad person.
Are they saved by their faith? Yes. What about this scenario? Saved by faith. What about the scenario saved by faith?
What if they do no works? Saved by faith. Just sound doctrine. It doesn't matter what the circumstances are.
It doesn't matter what situation you put yourself in. It doesn't matter if it's America 2022 or if it's, you know, year zero.
The year of our Lord. It doesn't matter if it's 30 AD, 30 BC, 4000 BC. It doesn't matter.
The Bible is true and it's timeless. And those that are going to preach the timeless truths of the Bible have to realize the Bible is full of sound doctrine.
No matter what the world thinks, it's always right. The Bible is always right.
What's the point that the aged men be sober? They take their life seriously.
Verse three, the aged women, likewise, that they be in behavior. Verse six, the young men, likewise, exhort to be sober minded.
Notice that there's an emphasis on having the right mentality, on the right behavior that's going to come from the right doctrine.
When you have false doctrine, you're going to have the wrong idea and you're going to have the wrong behavior.
Therefore, going and hearing lies is going to make you worse than you were before.
There's no point in taking your kids somewhere, dropping them off to hear lies. It's going to ruin them.
How about the public fool system? Making them worse than when you put them in before.
And you say, yeah, but there's some good there, too. Yeah, but how much poison do you need for something to be bad?
How much leaven is going to leaven the whole lump? And I know some people have survived public school.
I guess we've all survived, but I feel like I have some battle scars.
You know, there's some things that happen at public school that I wish I could unsee, unhear, undo.
You know, and if you say, hey, Pastor Shelley, would you rather go back to public school, like live your life again, go back to public school?
Your parents, you know, have you learned the Bible and education from home? It wouldn't be a question.
Oh, but won't they be weird? No, they'll be weird if they go to public school. Have you ever met the kids coming out of public school?
I mean, they all look bizarre. Green hair and purple. I mean, what happened to hair coloring now?
It's like literally having your just normal hair color is the minority position.
I mean, it seems like every restaurant ever has got green hair and pink hair and purple hair.
And I used to think, like, those are the freaks. But it's now just like everybody. So I'm just like, what's going on?
Everybody dresses weird, acts weird. I mean, being a fundamental Baptist, you stick out like a sore thumb all of a sudden.
But but at the same time, it's like, but it's still normal. It's still good. It's still right.
I don't want to look like the world, especially the world we live in right now.
I mean, yeah, in the 1950s, the 1920s, they had some cool looking stuff going on. But America 2022.
I don't want to look like that. I don't look like Flava Flav. I don't want to look like the celebrities of today.
I don't want to wear a kilt. I don't want to wear a skirt or whatever skinny jeans that they have going on nowadays.
I mean, that stuff's bizarre. And it's bizarre when pastors start looking like that.
Why? Why do they start looking like the world? You know, because they're trying to fit in with the world and they want to be heard by the world.
And they're going to teach false doctrine and going to that church. I tell you, it's going to make you worse.
Say, hey, I don't like steadfast Baptist Church. I'm going to go to Gateway. It's going to make you worse.
I want to go to the big fun center, the big FBC Southern Baptist Church. It's going to make you worse, my friend. Not better.
I don't meet those people and think like, wow, they're really on fire for God over there. You know what they do?
They put a wet blanket on Christianity. You know what they do? Actually, they put a really expensive blanket on Christianity.
That's what the Southern Baptists do, because they have all the money.
Southern Baptists have all kinds of money and fancy buildings and all kinds of the programs and all the extra fluff or whatever.
But yeah, if you go there, you know what you're going to get? Covetousness.
You're going to have a love of money if you go to one of those churches. What are they going to do?
They're going to have the Dave Ramsey special where you can go and learn how to be wealthy, where you can go and learn to have all kinds of money.
But you know what you're not going to hear is sound doctrine. You know what you're not going to hear is unpopular messages.
You think it's a coincidence that they're the most popular denomination? It's not a coincidence, my friend.
Hope you would to Hebrews chapter number. Oh, no, sorry. Keep your finger. Look at verse seven.
And all things showing myself a pattern of good works and doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity.
So notice how much corruption is allowed in doctrine. Zero.
Uncorruptness is an attribute that Baptist preachers that every preacher is supposed to have.
They're not allowed to preach any kind of false doctrine and false doctrine is going to deteriorate any church.
I don't care how good it started. Just even a little bit of false doctrine is going to cause it to start least start to crumble, to start to fade away.
It's going to create divisions in the church. And obviously those that are unsaved are going to gravitate towards what?
All the false doctrine and lies taught in the sermon. You know, it's funny when you start realizing someone's preaching false doctrine,
you start hearing a bunch of loud amens or someone that normally doesn't amen.
Or maybe there's a moment where the pastor is kind of in the flesh and says something a little bit in the flesh and somebody is just like, amen.
And you're thinking like, that wasn't an amen moment.
You know, because why? Because those that are unsaved have an unsaved ear and it attracts it's attractive them, right?
They like that. So they're going to appreciate that. Go to Hebrews chapter 13, just to the right in your Bible, Hebrews chapter 13.
You know, Second John chapter number one makes it clear that if someone came to you and they transgressed the doctrine of Christ,
that you're not allowed to bring them in your house or bid them Godspeed.
Why? Because bringing some false doctrine into your house is going to corrupt your house. It's going to taint your house.
It's going to make you worse than you were before. It doesn't matter how strong you are in the faith.
It doesn't matter how much you know the Bible. You don't want to be around false doctrine.
You're not supposed to tolerate false doctrine, especially when it's in coordination with who Christ is specifically.
OK, so obviously none of us are going to agree 100 percent on the Bible. We understand that.
OK, obviously there's secondary doctrines, but the doctrine of Christ is not secondary.
So you're not going to let a Mormon come into your house and teach you that Jesus is brothers with the devil.
You're not going to let a Jehovah's Witness come in and try to tell you that Jesus is just a God or something like that.
No, no, no. He's the God. He is God. OK, he's not a God. He's God manifest in the flesh. OK, so we don't want some false doctrine creeping into our ears, especially about who Christ is.
We don't want these Trinity deniers coming into our house and telling us that the Trinity is not three persons, one God.
Why? Because that attacks who Jesus is. Now, of course, Trinity deniers all attack Jesus in different angles.
It doesn't matter, though. They're either attacking his deity or they're attacking his sonship, and both are essential doctrines and believing in Christ.
Hebrews 13, look at verse 8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
That's a good verse, meaning, you know, when Jesus Christ was the son yesterday, you know, when Jesus Christ was the son today, you know, when Jesus Christ was the son forever.
I've heard so many weird doctrines about how he used to not be the son or he won't be the son in the future.
And this is what you call strange. OK, look at the next verse. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines,
for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied there.
And so the Bible says we don't want to be carried away with divers and strange doctrines.
The word divers, I always think of it by putting an E at the end. It's like diverse or meaning various or a lot of.
There's a lot of strange doctrines in the world. You know, some people say, like, how do I know it's the truth?
There's all these options. OK, yeah, there's a lot of crappy options out there.
But you know what? I want to care what the truth is. And the truth is the Bible.
And we're not supposed to be carried away with diverse and strange doctrines like denying who Jesus Christ is or any of these kind of doctrines.
And Jesus Christ is the same. So whatever doctrine comes from the Bible, the five year olds in this room that are able to understand what I'm saying,
the doctrines that they learn at five years old are going to still be true when they're ninety nine years old.
But the King James Bible is going to be the word of God right now and forever.
There is never going to be a time when this King James Bible stops being the word of God.
There's never going to be a time when faith alone is not the only way to heaven. There's never going to be a time when Jesus Christ isn't the son of God.
There was never a time where people weren't saved by putting their faith in the gospel.
There was never a time where any of the doctrines of the Bible weren't true. They were always true.
Now, of course, some doctrines get revealed to us chronologically and in a certain way.
Yeah, of course, there was changes in how people would worship God.
And we understand that there is a little bit of change there. But when it comes to just the doctrines,
the beliefs of a Christian, when it comes to the beliefs of the Bible, they're universal.
They're timeless. They're without time. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
Look, the doctrines of the Bible were established before the world was even founded.
We read this morning the lamb slain before the foundation of the world,
meaning that all of that doctrine was already established before you and I ever even thought about being existing.
So that's it's important to say, OK, what does that mean to me? How does that apply to me?
Learn the doctrine now so it'll stay with you forever. Never change on doctrine.
Doctrine is always in. Why are we an independent, fundamental Baptist church? Because the doctrines didn't change.
What changed America? America changed. Some Baptists have changed.
But you know what? The King James Bible didn't change. And you know what?
I don't want to go with the shifting sands of this world. I don't want to become, you know, some new thing.
I want to stick with the old. And of course, some people call us the new independent Baptist.
But here's the thing. The only thing new about us is the fact that we believe the old truth.
Still is that we still believe what everybody believed before.
But it's not like we believe something new. In fact, I could find you every belief I have.
Someone believed it way before I was even born. Why? Because the Bible was true before I was born.
All the doctrines are true. And we don't want to have any corruption because that will cause us to come to church.
And it be the worse, not for the better. Go back to 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. Go back to 1 Corinthians, chapter 11.
So what's what's the point of the sermon? You don't want to go to a church that's going to make you worse than you were before.
In order to make sure that you're not getting worse as a person, you cannot tolerate false doctrine.
OK, you don't want to you don't want to just sit there and soak in a bunch of false doctrine, a lot of false teaching, because it will make you worse as a person.
It cannot. Lies can never help anyone. Lies never benefit anyone. Listening to the devil never helped anyone.
And so it's important to make sure that every doctrine you hear is coming from the Bible and you're searching the Bible and you're studying the Bible.
And you already know the doctrine for yourself. You know, you should already come to church pretty much already knowing all the truths.
Ready to hear it again, ready to hear it confirmed, not like I can't wait what brand new truth I'm going to hear today, you know, or people that try to get up.
And I want to teach you something that no one's ever taught before. That should be a scary statement coming from behind the pulpit.
Now, of course, there's new ways to discover old truths. You know, we want to bring a fresh perspective.
We want new applications, but it should always be the same timeless doctrine, the same timeless truths of the scripture.
You know, I love it when I find a new place in the scripture that points to Jesus dying on the cross.
You know what? It's still Jesus dying on the cross. It's still Jesus being risen from the dead. It's still faith alone. Right.
So if I find this new truth that changes my doctrine, then it's probably wrong.
OK. First Corinthians, chapter 11, the first reason why they were coming together for the worst is because of false doctrine, because the heresies in the church.
But here's the second point. Look at verse 20. When you come together, therefore, in one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
Now, to understand this verse, which I think is actually a little bit difficult of a verse to be understood.
But I think what the apostle Paul is doing is he's using a little bit of inflection,
a little bit of sarcasm in his voice to illustrate that what they're doing is not to have the Lord's Supper.
Not so much as a commandment, but rather he's describing what they're doing.
So if you think of him saying it this way, when ye come together, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
So he's basically saying, like, what you guys are doing is not to have the Lord's Supper. You're doing something else.
Okay, now that's going to make perfect sense when we read the next verse, right? Look at the next word.
For. Now, why does it say for? Because he's explaining what he just stated.
Why are they not having the Lord's Supper? What's the problem here?
For, it says, for in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken.
What? Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in, or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not?
What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
So he's saying, what you're doing is wrong. What you're doing, I cannot praise you.
And if you get the context of 1 Corinthians, chapter number 11, at the very beginning of the chapter,
he praises them for following the ordinances, okay, for doing a good job.
So then why is he not praising him here? Essentially, you have to understand 1 Corinthians is like, he's like saying,
hey, I gave you a checklist of 100 things to do. 98, good job. But there's two things that he really got screwed up.
Okay, he talks about the difference between men and women's hair lengths.
And then in the second portion, he talks about the Lord's Supper. And that's typically how anybody's going to critique you.
At your job, if you're doing 100 things right, he's not going to go through the list and tell you you're doing this right,
you're doing this right, this right, this right, this right, this right. They'll say, hey, you're doing everything right.
But here's a couple things you got off. But here's some issues that I have with you, right?
So he's saying, even though I praise you for keeping the ordinances, this specific rule, this specific statute, you're not doing correctly.
Now, what's part of the problem? The part of the problem, they're not even eating together.
Some people are showing up and eating a full meal, and other people are having absolutely nothing.
And he's saying, this is not the Lord's Supper. What you guys are doing is not the Lord's Supper.
If half this room is eating, is gorging on donuts and kolaches, and this side is eating nothing, that's not the Lord's Supper.
And first of all, you have to understand that the Lord's Supper is not about our flesh.
So point one is this, why people are coming together for the worst is because of false doctrine.
But here's the second point, because they come to feed the flesh. Church is not to feed your flesh.
But that is what many people are turning church into, is basically they're appealing to the flesh and they're feeding people's flesh.
Now, of course, feeding the flesh is kind of a euphemism, but it could even be very literal.
What is feeding the flesh? Eating. Right. Eating food is feeding the flesh.
That's why the Bible talks about fasting as a spiritual thing. What is the point of a fast?
You're subduing the flesh. You're saying no to the flesh to be more spiritual. Right.
Obviously, we need food to survive. We eat to survive. And we have to have that. It's a daily need.
But you don't have to gorge the flesh. You don't have to overindulge the flesh.
And by saying no to the flesh, it kind of helps you learn how to say no in other areas of your life.
OK. But when it comes to church, we don't want to engage the flesh.
We want to engage the spirit by eating, you know, Heim's brisket.
You're not engaging the spirit now feels like it. But, you know, it feels like it's it's good to the soul.
Right. The soul food. But at the end of the day, that's not going to make you a better Christian.
Having the right doctrine and understanding that brisket is better than other meats is the right doctrine.
But eating it doesn't make you more spiritual. It doesn't make you a better Christian.
OK. Putting beans in your chili technically doesn't make you a worse Christian.
It just feels like it. OK. And it's going to feel like it later when you have to use the bathroom.
But here's here's what we're talking about. We're talking about the Lord's Supper is not about having a great meal.
It's not about feasting. And I'll be honest with you, when I was little and I'd go to church,
we'd have the Lord's Supper after after tasting it, I was like, man, I want more.
You know, I was like, man, this tastes really good. I want a whole I want a whole glass of grape juice.
I want a whole, you know, cracker or whatever, because I was like, man, it just tastes so good.
But it's not a snack. It's not a meal. It's not about eating.
Obviously, we eat in the picture and the semblance because it's picturing receiving.
Right. We're receiving Christ's sacrifice for ourselves. But this church has got it all screwed up.
People are showing up to what? Feed the flesh. And then some people are not eating at all.
Well, how did they even partake? You know, this doesn't even make sense.
And he's saying, where do you eat? At your house. Right.
We're not coming to church to eat. We're coming to church to learn the Bible, to praise God.
We're not coming here to get fed. You know, it's not a food pantry.
I know some people think church is a food pantry, but it's not. If it is, it's a spiritual food pantry.
OK, it's not a physical food pantry. It's not so people can get a meal.
It's so people can hear the word of God. Now, he says a little bit further in this chapter.
He says in verse number twenty three, for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you,
that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.
And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, Take, eat. This is my body.
This is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.
Now, I'm not going to we're not going to partake of the Lord's Supper just right this second.
But because it takes a little while to pass out, I want to go ahead and get that ball rolling.
But I want to explain these things and then I want to kind of we'll kind of go through the passing out.
But you need to hold on your elements before we get to the part that we're going to partake because we want to partake together.
That's the whole essence of this chapter. OK, but notice if the church is screwed up on the Lord's Supper.
Right. If they're doing it wrong, wouldn't it make sense that then Paul's going to tell him how to do it?
Right. That's why he's saying it. He's like saying, hey, look, you guys are doing this wrong.
Let me tell you how to do it. Right. And he's saying, how did we do it?
Well, the Lord Jesus, the same night he took the bread, he broke it in their presence and then he gave it to him.
And then they ate. And while they ate, what did they think about? They didn't think about how good it was tasting.
They were thinking about Jesus. They were doing it in remembrance of him and remembrance of the cross.
So that is the point. Why? Because he was broken for us. So, you know, when we do this, it's not just to do it.
It's not like, OK, I popped a cracker. We're doing it for the symbol. We're doing it for the metaphor.
We're doing it to remember Christ. And, you know, we break bread all the time. We don't really think about it.
When we break bread tonight, we're supposed to be thinking about how that was Jesus being broken for us.
How he was put on that cross, how he was beaten and bruised and drugged all the way up to Calvary and nailed onto a cross.
And his face was so marred, you couldn't even tell. Just like a cracker, I mean, once you start breaking it, it kind of loses its normal form.
You don't see it the way that it was before. You know, that's kind of the picture that we're illustrating here is that Jesus was broken for us.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to break the bread and then I'm going to have a few of our ushers come.
They're going to take the elements and they're going to pass them down the aisles.
And you can take a piece of the bread and take a cup of the juice and just hold on to it.
And then when we get everything passed out, then we'll partake together.
But I just want you to understand the symbolism that we're doing this evening.
So I'm going to go ahead and break the bread.
So if we can have our ushers come down real quick and they'll start passing this out.
Now, again, this this bread, while we understand that it's just physical bread, it's a picture of how Jesus was broken for us.
And what I really like about the Lord's Supper and we think about this is that even though it was one piece, it was one Jesus.
There's enough for all of us to have a piece, right?
It's kind of like the bread being multiplied parable where it just keeps coming.
And we only need one sacrifice, one breaking of Jesus for all of us to be saved.
Right. And so when we eat this bread, we need to think about Jesus.
We need to think that he's the bread of life, according to the Bible.
You know, there's a lot of symbolism with Jesus Christ.
Now, it also says in verse twenty five, it says after the same manner, also he took the cup when he had supped, saying this cup is the New Testament of my blood.
This duty is off as you drink it in remembrance of me.
So again, the the Jews, the fruit of the vine is a picture of Jesus Christ's blood and his blood being spilt for us.
Now, of course, this was necessary for us to have salvation.
The Bible makes it clear that his blood is what gives us that cleansing salvation.
I like First John, chapter number one, verse seven, where it says the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanseth us from all sin.
You have to understand, without that blood, we are too sinful.
God would throw all of us into hell.
So the only way was for Jesus, God's son, his blood to be shed so that we could have that forgiveness of sin.
Again, partaking of these elements, though, is not so that my thirst is satisfied.
It's not so that my hunger would be satisfied.
It's that we're picturing what Jesus did for us.
And it's not a symbol of anything carnal.
It's a symbol of a spiritual thing.
Obviously, you know, we're not Catholics.
This is not literally Jesus.
OK, if you think this is literally Jesus, you should probably walk away.
OK, we don't think we don't believe in transubstantiation.
We see Jesus in the symbol and we think of Jesus in our hearts.
And that's the importance of communion.
Now, the Bible does warn.
It says in verse number 27,
We should not be condemned with the world.
So according to the Bible, there is a warning to those partaking of the Lord's Supper that they don't do it unworthily.
Now you say, well, what does that mean?
A little bit has to go into interpretation here.
But I think when you study the Bible, it becomes pretty clear who's unworthy.
We have a picture of someone that partook of the Lord's Supper in the Bible who was unworthy.
Who was that?
Judas Iscariot.
Why? Because he didn't believe in Jesus.
Don't get confused.
Jesus didn't leave, lose his salvation.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
He was a devil from the beginning.
He never believed in Jesus.
He always was there for the wrong purpose, the wrong intentions.
So when he took of the Lord's Supper, he was doing it unworthily because he didn't care about the Lord Jesus Christ's death.
He didn't care about his resurrection and he didn't believe in it.
OK, so someone who's not saved should not partake in the Lord's Supper.
OK, because that would be unworthy.
Of course, it's not talking about how sinful you are, because if that was the case, none of us are worthy.
I mean, who's going to stand here and say like, well, I just want to let you know I'm worthy of the Lord's Supper, but you're not.
That sounds like a Pharisee, which would say, stand by thyself, for I am holier than thou art.
You know, that's not the right doctrine.
I do believe, though, that there is a group of people that can be saved and still take of the Lord's Supper unworthily.
Otherwise, this passage wouldn't make much sense because the Bible says that some of them are sleeping as a result of doing this incorrectly.
Now, sleep is only ever attributed to the saved, not to the unsaved.
So the context is making clear there has to be a saved person suffering a consequence of eating the Lord's Supper unworthily.
Now, where can we go in the Bible to find out what that would look like?
Well, how about a few chapters before? Go to Chapter five, First Corinthians, Chapter five.
And think about this. This is the exact same passage.
The kids are taking the sacrifice very serious tonight, OK?
They're very upset that the Lord, you know, was sacrificed, and I get it.
First Corinthians, Chapter five, look at verse one.
It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
So notice that there's fornication in the church that's worse than the world would suggest.
It says, if you skip down, though, a little bit, it says in verse number four,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together
and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Satan.
So notice they're coming together for church.
But here's the question. Are they letting this guy partake in church?
The answer is no, because I'm sorry if they're following the instruction, the answer is no, they are.
But they shouldn't be. They're supposed to be delivering him unto Satan, meaning they're casting him out of the church.
Now, notice what the consequence is for this guy.
For the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
So notice he's literally going to die as a consequence to being cast out of the church and being church discipline because he's not going to get it right.
Now, this isn't saying for sure he's going to die, but it's just basically suggesting that if you don't if you're not going to follow church discipline
and you're just going to live every want, God could literally kill you for doing that.
You know, some people say like, oh, what's the big deal about fornication? We love each other.
OK, well, God could kill you for it. I mean, I don't want God's curse on my life.
I don't want God to be displeased with me. OK. And you're basically trotting underfoot the son of God.
You're taking his grace and you're basically just trotting it underfoot.
You're making it a mess. You you literally could be counted.
God can be more angry with you than just an ignorant, unsafe person.
And God could cause you to be perished because of that sin.
It's a wicked sin. It's not supposed to be tolerated in the church and it's not the only one.
Notice in this passage, it says in verse number 11.
But now I've written unto you not to keep company of any man that is called a brother.
Be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one.
Notice this. Know not to eat.
How can you have the Lord's Supper with someone that the Bible literally says not to eat with that person?
So here here's what I'm saying. I'm saying someone who's obviously no one here is perfect.
So point number one of partaking the Lord's Supper incorrectly or making it worse.
You're not saved. That's bad. And the the Corinthian church had people that weren't even saved in First Corinthians 15.
He talks about people who don't even believe in the resurrection. They're not saved.
OK, we have other people that are saved, but unfortunately they're in bad sin.
Those people should not have been partaking Lord's Supper. There was a lot of false doctrine in the church.
And, you know, as a result, they also weren't thinking reverently about the Lord's Supper when they partook of the Lord's Supper.
It wasn't a spiritual meal. It was a physical meal. It was a carnal meal. It was a fleshly meal.
But we don't want to go to church to feed the flesh. We want to feed the spirit.
So I think we've I think we've got it all passed out at this point. Are we pretty much good?
So we're going to do is we're going to partake of the bread first. And the bread pictures the Lord Jesus Christ body, which was broken for us.
And Jesus Christ said in the Book of Mark, he broke it, he blessed it and he break it.
And then he gave to them and said, Take, eat. This is my body. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to eat this bread.
Ready? Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the bread of life. Thank you for giving us your son.
Thank you that he was broken for us, that he was willing to sacrifice his body for our sins.
I pray that as we partake of this bread, that you would bless everyone here,
that you would give us more spiritual understanding, that you would help us to take the Christian life seriously,
that we would see the example that Jesus set for us.
And we, too, would be a willing partaker of the sufferings of this life to be pleasing unto you.
And Jesus name we pray. Amen.
The Bible also says in Mark 14 that Jesus took the cup and he also blessed it.
He said, This is my blood of the New Testament.
So the New Testament was literally ushered in with the shedding of Jesus Christ blood.
And of course, that blood gives us that cleansing of salvation.
It's what saves us. His blood put on the mercy seat and on upon the altar.
And so as we partake of the juice this evening, we understand that it's the picture of Jesus shed blood for us.
Let us pray. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for allowing your son not only be broken, but for his blood to be spilt.
The precious blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses us from all of our sins, that not only was it shed,
but it was put on the altar as an eternal picture of the sacrifice that your son did for us
so that we could be perfect in your sight, justified by his righteousness, not our own.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
And so as we partake of the Lord's Supper, we're reminded of the spiritual aspect of Christianity that is not a carnal aspect.
If you go to a church where they're teaching you false doctrine, it's not going to make you better, it's going to make you worse.
And if you go to a church where they're only feeding the flesh, you're not going to be growing spiritually, and it's going to end up being a detriment to you.
Now what I liken this unto, which would be offensive to some, but if you're going to be a marathon runner,
what's not going to help you is gorging the flesh. Right?
Because the more you eat, the bigger you're going to be, the heavier you're going to be, and it's going to make that journey more difficult.
It's going to make you running more difficult. Okay?
The same is with the Christian life, in the sense that if I'm going to a church where I'm having my flesh being fed and a constant just gorging,
what I'm going to do is I'm going to become fat spiritually to where I end up making it harder to run the Christian life.
It's going to be more difficult to do the Christian life.
I'm not going to desire to serve God as much when I'm constantly feeding my flesh.
That's why it's important to feed the spiritual man, not the carnal man.
And when we go to a church, I'm not interested in seeing how fun it can be.
I want to see how fundamental it can be. Okay?
Some people are like, oh, your church isn't that much fun. Okay.
Yeah, but is it spiritual? Oh, I want to sing the songs that are more fun.
Well, I want to sing the songs that are more fundamental.
You know, if you would, in your Bibles, I want you to go to one more place here for me.
Go to 2 Timothy, chapter number, actually, just go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
You know, when we talk about the false doctrine, it's going to cause you to potentially even overthrow your faith.
You know, I was going to have you go to 2 Timothy chapter 2,
but you know, the Bible just talks about shunning profane and vain babblings,
for they will increase into more ungodliness. Okay?
The word will eat as doth a canker, as the Bible describes it.
And a canker is like a cancer.
And when you're constantly hearing false doctrine over and over again,
it can cause you to get your mind warped and you can start believing weird doctrines.
One of those doctrines that I find, you know, really cantankerous is that of end times doctrine.
And in the passage of 2 Timothy chapter 2, I know I want you to turn there,
but he said that they overthrew the faith of some, telling them that the resurrection had already been passed.
So that tells me that end times doctrine is important.
If you don't have the right end times doctrine, it can cause people to stumble.
It can cause people to fall. It can destroy their faith.
So it's important to have the right end times doctrine.
And of course, having the right end times doctrine, though, doesn't always feed the flesh.
Now, if I was going to invent an end times doctrine that would make my flesh feel the best,
what do you think would be a doctrine?
How about a doctrine that says, you know what, no suffering, no pain, no bad.
Jesus is going to just rescue you out of the clouds. No problem.
You don't even have to worry about anything.
Actually, just continue enjoying your boat, your 401k, go play golf,
because pretty soon Jesus is going to just suck you out of here and you won't have any problems.
And you say, what kind of doctrine does that sound like?
It's called the preacher of rapture.
And I'll tell you something, it sounds good, right?
I mean, no one that's a Christian would say, like, I don't want to sign up for that.
Okay. No one's like, you know what, that tribulation thing sounds pretty cool.
You know, the beheadings sound awesome.
You know, I just, I really want to go through all that war and wrath and famine.
I mean, nobody signed up for that.
Everybody signed up for the preacher of rapture if it was an option.
But here's the problem. It's just not true.
And I'm just not interested in telling my congregation something that's not true.
Now look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto Him,
that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us,
as that the day of Christ is at hand.
So, of course, he's saying, look, don't let people trick you into thinking that Christ is about to come.
Isn't that what we already had in 2 Timothy 2 where they're saying the resurrection's already passed,
which could cause some Christians to be like, what's the point now or what's going on?
I don't even get it. Christ already came and I got left behind.
It's a weird version of Left Behind. Okay.
The movie where they're like left behind, but we weren't raptured, but nobody.
I mean, it's like, I don't know what you would think. It's weird.
And false doctrine is always weird. It doesn't make any sense. Okay.
But he's saying you cannot just be soon shaken in mind
because there's something that we have to have before Christ can come.
What does he say? Verse 3, let no man deceive you by any means,
for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.
So notice two things have to happen before Christ can come,
a great falling away and then the man of sin being revealed.
Now, of course, you could argue that we kind of see the warning signs of that,
where there's a great falling away, isn't there?
Isn't there a lot of churches today that aren't interested in the Bible anymore?
They're not interested in his commandments.
They're not interested in hearing what God actually said.
They say the Bible's hateful.
They say burn the Bible. They, sir, ban the Bible.
They say, you know, who wants to hear what the Bible is?
They don't like Leviticus already,
but pretty soon they'll want to get rid of the New Testament too
because they apparently haven't read John Chapter eight.
You know, it's not that loving either.
OK, Matthew 23 wasn't the most loving chapter of the Bible either
when Jesus is literally telling the Pharisees they're children of the devil.
Revelation, not the most loving portion of scripture, my friend.
OK. Yeah. First Corinthians 13 is great.
Let's read it at the wedding. But you know what?
There's also other places in the Bible.
And Second Thessalonians is warning us
that a couple of events have to happen before Christ can come.
And you say, well, what about this timing of the man of sin being revealed?
OK, look at verse four, who opposed and exalt himself
above all that is called God or that is worshiped
so that he as God sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
So you say, hey, when is this event?
When there's a guy standing in the temple claiming that he's God.
Hasn't happened yet.
When does that happen?
According to the Bible, it's the midpoint of the tribulation
or the midpoint of the 70th week, essentially.
And then we get a great tribulation period right after that.
You say, why is that important? Why is end times doctrine important?
Well, here's the thing. If you're in pre-trip mode,
you're not prepared for the spiritual task before you
and they're not trying to train you to become more spiritual.
They're training you to be what? More carnal and more fleshly.
You know, when the Babylonians are coming,
what did all the false prophets tell them?
Oh, peace and safety, nothing bad is going to happen.
What's Jeremiah saying? You're all going to die.
There's a sword and famine and all kinds of horrible things are coming, you know.
So it's no new thing under the sun that a bunch of false preaching
is being taught right now of don't worry about anything.
We don't have to worry. We're getting out of here.
Let's just have fun. Let's just party.
Let's just have a good old time. No, no, no, no.
We need to be getting more spiritual.
We need to take the Bible seriously.
And if the last few years has not woken you up to the fact
that our world is in a bobsled to hell, nothing will.
I mean, our world is getting so wicked so fast.
I think that, you know, if you can't see us because you're blind,
you're just spiritually blind.
And these churches, though, they're not preaching what the Bible says
because it's not popular. They're going to lose friends.
They'll lose money. They'll lose whatever. I don't know.
But by preaching a preacher rapture, what's going to happen
is it's going to get to a point where there's so much tribulation
and there's so much evil that you can't deny it
that it's going to cause people to just start walking away from the faith.
They're going to say, well, he kept telling me that we weren't going to have to go through this.
So me going through this, that must mean the Bible's not true.
That must mean that Jesus isn't actually coming
because I heard the longest time that Jesus was coming.
But now that we have all these horrible things happening,
it's going to overthrow the faith of some.
People are going to be frustrated by the confusion.
People are expecting Christ, and then who comes?
Anti-Christ, meaning all the people in these churches that are not saved
by hearing that Christ is coming, when the anti-Christ comes,
they're going to be like, he's here.
Take his mark.
And you say, oh, they won't convince people to take a mark.
Oh, yeah, well, the Book of Ezekiel talks about servants of God taking a mark of God.
I know the devil knows that passage is there.
He's going to convince people.
He's going to get one of these modern Bible translations.
It'll probably just say exactly what he wants it to say and that.
And they'll convince them, oh, no, no, no.
I'm the real Christ, and this is a different mark.
The mark was the mask.
The mark was the COVID vaccine.
You know, the mark was being a fundamental Baptist or something.
You know, the mark was some other thing.
It's already happened.
No, no, no, this isn't the mark of the beast.
This is, you know, the good thing, right?
Take the 666, OK?
And they're going to convince a lot of people to take the mark.
And what made them worse is by hearing all that preacher of doctrine.