Thank you.
All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome back to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you would,
let's turn to our first hymns to song number 224. Song number 224, There Shall Be Showers of
Blessing. That's song number 221. 224. There shall be showers of blessing. This is the promise of
love. There shall be seasons refreshing, sent from the Savior above. Showers of blessing,
showers of blessing we need. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead.
There shall be showers of blessing, precious reviving again. Over the hills and the valleys,
sound of abundance of rain. Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need. Mercy drops round us
are falling, but for the showers we plead. There shall be showers of blessing, send them upon us,
O Lord. Wrecked was thou a refreshing, come and now honor thy word. Showers of blessing, showers
of blessing we need. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead.
There shall be showers of blessing, O that today they might fall. Now as to God's word confessing,
now as on Jesus we call. Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need. Mercy drops round
us are falling, but for the showers we plead. All right, with that we're gonna have a word of
prayer. I just pray, Lord, that you just bless this service tonight, and I pray that we just
be edified as we grow up and learn to grow more spiritually, Lord. I pray that this sermon be
edified to us tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, for the next song, song number 31.
Song number 31, He Lives. Song number 31.
Song number 31, He Lives.
I serve a risen Savior, He's in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever man may say.
I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer. And just the time I need Him,
He's always near. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me,
a long life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to Him poor.
You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.
In all the world around me, I see His loving care. And though my heart grows weary, I never
will despair. I know that He is leading through all the stormy blasts. The day of His appearing
will come at last. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks
with me, a long life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to Him poor.
You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.
Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing eternal hallelujahs 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, Christ Jesus lives today.
He walks with me and talks with me, a long life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to Him
poor. You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.
Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin,
lift your hand nice and high. One of our ushers can still get you a bulletin.
On the front we have our Bible memory passage, Psalm 146 verse 2. Any of you kiddos that can
quote this can get a treat on our Wednesday service. On the inside we have our sort of
soul winning times, church stats. Is there any soul winning reporting that did not happen?
You didn't, you forgot to give it your soul winning lead or something for the past few days?
All right. Is that from today are you saying or somewhere else? Okay. Who are you with? Okay.
All right. And then on the right please continue to pray for all of our expecting ladies. We have
our prayer list there. Please be praying for everybody mentioned as well. If you have any
additional please email us. We'd like to add it to the bulletin. We do have our church reminders
there on the back. Please take note of all of those. On the bottom we have the ladies
Christmas party. It is going to be this Friday from 6 to 9 pm. The dinner is going to be provided
and we are having it be a nursing's only event so we'd really encourage you dads out there to
watch the kiddos. As I always say, throw peanuts at them. You know it's always a good suggestion.
If not, you can survive, right? You can survive. Use the rod of correction if needed, right? Just
extra practice. Also if you'd like to participate there's a gift exchange. Please bring just a wrapped
$25 gift and then you can RSVP to my wife either via WhatsApp, Facebook or in person if you don't
have those options. If someone was listening online and didn't even have those you could email
but that's pretty much what's recommended. Also down below we have the Christmas caroling December
6th. We have the December 10th Dallas soul winning marathon. Just to give you an FYI,
the Christmas caroling will meet here at 6 pm. So just meet here at 6 pm and then we'll go out
Christmas caroling. It gets pretty dark pretty much around six and we'll just get organized
and we'll head out. We'll do it for about an hour. So hopefully everybody shows up by six.
We can get out in less than 15 minutes and then we'll go caroling for about an hour.
And it won't be too too far from here. We'll try to stay within about a 10-15 minute drive
of this area but we are going to try and go to the nicer areas. So that's where all the lights
are, right? We'll just try to find some nice areas with the lights and we'll go sing to them. They
usually really enjoy it and really like it and as brother Ben said, if they don't agree with us this
Audimite deception will change their mind. No, I'm just kidding. So but we can go out and sing
some Christmas cheer. Spread that. December 10th is our Dallas soul winning marathon and
there's a sign-up sheet. So if you want to sign up on the back cabinet, please do sign up if
you're planning on attending just so that way we can anticipate proper lunch scheduling and plans
like that. And we will pretty much have a regular schedule. 9 am we'll meet, have breakfast somewhere
over there and then we'll go out from about 10 to noon, have some lunch somewhere and then go
back out for another round in the afternoon. If you can even only participate in one or the other,
please still do. You don't have to do the whole day but obviously you're encouraged to do the
whole day but if you just want to show up for the morning session or just the afternoon session,
know that you're definitely still welcome to participate and we would like to have as much
church participation as possible for that. That's pretty much all I have in regards to announcements
this evening. We're gonna go ahead and sing our psalm of the week. Psalm 15. Psalm 15.
All right, we could turn to our Bibles or you could turn to your white handouts to Psalm 15.
Psalm 15.
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 walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart.
He that backbiteth not with his tongue nor doeth evil to his neighbor nor taketh up a reproach
against his neighbor. He that backbiteth not with his tongue in whose eyes a vile
person is condemned but he honoreth them that fear the Lord in whose eyes a vile person is
content but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that swear it to his own hurt and change it not.
He that puteth not out his money to usury. He that swear it to his own hurt and change it not.
He that puteth not out his money to usury. Nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that do it
these things shall never be moved. Nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that do it these
things shall never be moved. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill.
As the offer play goes around please turn to your bibles to 1st Corinthians 13.
1st Corinthians chapter number 13.
1st Corinthians chapter 13 the Bible reads though I speak with the tongues of men and
of angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal
and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge
and though I have all faith so I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing
and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned
and have not charity it profiteth me nothing charity suffereth long and is kind charity
envieth not charity vaunteth not itself is not puffed up doth not behave itself unseemly seeketh
not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in
the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things charity
never faileth but whether there be prophecies they shall fail whether they be tongues they shall cease
whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away for we know in part and we prophesy in part
but when that which is perfect has come then that which is in part shall be done away when I was a
child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put
away childish things for now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part
but then shall I know even as also I am known and now abide of faith hope charity these three
but the greatest of these is charity let us pray father thank you for this great chapter in the
bible we thank you for pastor and his family and all my brothers and sisters in christ today
and we just thank you for all the showers of blessings and the abundance and the plenty that
you gave us this year and all the souls that we won to christ help us to finish strong lord
and help us to do more works and become more complete christians and I just pray that you
will be with pastor as he preaches this sermon and fill his heart with the wisdom that he needs to
deliver this message to us and help us to take heed to the principles and become better
christians and when I say these things in Jesus name amen amen. 1st Corinthians 13 is a real
famous chapter of the bible it deals with the subject of charity and charity is kind of an
interesting word in the bible it's kind of synonymous with love but I like the fact that the
bible used the word charity here in 1st Corinthians 13 because the little bit of distinction here is
that charity is kind of signifying true love is kind of the way I would word that is that you
know sincere true godly love is what charity is kind of in essence signifying because the word
love in the english language is pretty broad people say I love pizza people will say I love
ranch dressing that's a weird love okay people will say all kinds of things and then obviously
you say you love your brother you love your sister you love your mom you love god all these things
can be true yet have different nuances as far as what they really mean and what you're kind of
alluding to and in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 the word charity is talking about a true sincere
genuine godly love that the bible wants us to have and of course charity is really the main essence
of christianity this is kind of the heartbeat of the bible is that we should have charity
and it's the it's the goal of the christian life and and that's important to kind of understand
when we're kind of talking about some of the verses here that we have here in the bible and
you know there's some strange views when it comes to some of the latter verses here in this chapter
but look at verse number eight the bible says charity never faileth and again I believe what
it's trying to say is a true sincere love is going to win you know it's it's funny how the
reprobates always say love wins because I'm like it's true love is going to win the problem is that
they're not loving the problem is that they're freaks and they have hatred in their heart and
and really they they don't love anything but of course love will win love never loses love's
going to be triumphant god is love and of course god is going to be ultimately victorious but even
in our lives it's basically saying that charity itself is the thing that's going to keep going
forward keep moving it's never going to fail whereas there's lots of things that are going
to fail and are not going to last forever and you know one way that you could look at this and and
I believe this is what the context is implying is that whenever I bestow a work upon someone out of
charity meaning that I have a true sincere love and I and I want to do good under this person
I have altruistic viewpoints here and and I'm doing it out of a godly sincerity
it is going to last forever and and what the bible means by this is is you know when you do
a good work it's never going to be forgotten god is going to remember that good work that you have
in that charity and it's just never going to fail because it's going to be realized in heaven you're
going to be rewarded for that true and sincere charity that you did nothing can be taken away
from it you can never lose any rewards according to the scripture that have been earned something
that's been fully earned and and the transactions already transpired you can never lose that and so
when the bible is saying charity never faileth you know when you go out and preach the gospel
and get someone saved when when you give alms to the poor out of a sincere heart like those things
are going to exist for all of eternity because god will remember them and god will reward you
but there's some things that are not going to last forever and what does it say in the next
breath it says but whether there be prophecies they shall fail now due to youtube censorship
this should be immediately obvious that some sermons have just disappeared you know sometimes
people come like what can I I can't find this sermon and I'm like I don't know you know it may
just it may just be gone forever and it's like when will we ever hear that sermon again it's
like never I mean before modern technology every sermon failed because every sermon just
eventually faded into non-relevance or everybody that had heard that sermon eventually died
you know of course there's still some older sermons people like Charles Haddon Spurgeon
you know of course people transcribed his sermons and they put them in a book and they gave them to
me you know so I have Charles Haddon Spurgeon's you know sermons but I don't read them because
I don't care and they're all weird anyways but you know of course preachers even before that
we don't have all of their sermons they're gone and of course those sermons in and of themselves
aren't going to necessarily exist beyond the sermon itself you know the point of a sermon
is to change people's hearts and then for those people to do the works and then their works live
on but the sermon doesn't live on and that's what it's saying the prophecy the preaching
it's going to eventually fail it's going to eventually not do anything anymore it's going
to eventually come to naught whether they be tongues they shall cease you know there's certain
languages that become dead languages eventually and they just cease to even exist and nobody uses
them nobody talks in that language they just have no relevance anymore he even says here whether
there be knowledge it shall vanish away you know of course this will you know make some people mad
but I've heard NASA say they're like the technology to go back to the moon was lost you know now of
course through new technology they figured out new ways to do this or whatever but yeah it's real
that some knowledge and some technologies are gone you know that's why things like the pyramids
or Stonehenge are a marvel you know they're considered like the seven wonders of the world
you know certain things like this because people don't even know how that happened or they don't
know what technology was used and and of course even just personal knowledge you know stories
that your great-grandparents told their children may have ceased because everybody forgot them and
there's no one to tell those stories anymore there's so much knowledge there's so much
information there's so much stuff that's just going to eventually end but one thing that'll
never ever end is charity charity will never ever fail it'll never end the charitable works
that are done in this life will last forever they will never cease just like the gospel it's never
going to end it's the everlasting gospel so that's what this verse is saying I've heard some people
tell me like this is saying that somehow like can't the canonistic canonicity of the bible is
you know in view of this verse or some people would say like speaking in another language
like stopped you know because of these verses or something like this that's not what the
chapter's about at all you know it's talking about what I just said and look at verse nine
for we know in part and we prophesy in part but when that which is perfect has come then that
which is in part should be in a way so let's say oh see when that which is perfect when we get the
final canon of scripture we no longer need the apostles giftings or anything like that
of course I do believe in what's considered cessationism but I don't believe this is a proof
text for that you know cessationism is the viewpoint that the apostles giftings ceased
or stopped with the apostles that essentially they're no longer in prevalence today I do not
believe that is because of these verses and that's not why I believe that I believe that
because number one we see only the apostles doing it in their lifetime and then number two we know
more we don't have any more apostles so when you just put that puzzle piece together you realize
okay these things have ceased so then what is the apostle Paul saying he's saying that right now we
don't understand everything about the end of the world heaven and god and all that we know only a
little bit but when he says when that which is perfect has come he's talking about eventually
we're going to die and go to heaven and we're going to understand everything okay then that
which is in part should be done away meaning all of the gaps that we have in our mind or all of
our understanding now is going to just completely be eviscerated because once you really understand
what's going on then that all that other stuff is irrelevant it's kind of like a child sometimes
children don't understand adult things you know they may not understand all of the ideas of how
babies come into the existence right or they may not understand everything about you know some
kids are taught santa claus or something like this right but it's like after they have full
realization of these things after they've seen the real deal or they know it's like you're not
going to go back to the child's viewpoint or have that kind of limited understanding that's what the
apostle paul is trying to allude to that's why he says the next verse when i was a child i spake as
a child i understood as a child i thought as a child but when i became a man i put away childish
things so he's saying when i was little i perceived the world through the eyes of a child and you know
certain things didn't you know always make perfect sense to me but now i understand what they were
actually talking about and they make i can see them in a new light because i'm now an adult and
i understand it you know it's similar you know a guy that's single may not understand every verse
about marriage and then he gets married and then he's like oh wow you know and then you know you
don't have any kids you don't understand everything in the bible but then you have to start having
kids you're like oh wow yeah that's a lot different right ever as you grow and as you age and as you
become more mature things are seen through a different light and you have better understanding
and and that's why he says in verse 12 for now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face
now i know in part but then shall i know even as also i am known so the what the apostle paul is
saying eventually of course we're going to seek the lord jesus christ in the flesh and all of
those thoughts that you've had of what he looks like are going to be completely eviscerated and
you won't care anymore because you'll actually know what he looks like right i mean a lot of
people are just so obsessed with what jesus christ looks like and there's all these pictures
and paintings and ideas and i would just venture to just say this they're all wrong and we have no
idea now i do know he's not black okay sorry to burst your bubble all right he's also not asian
and he also probably doesn't look like dylan okay now beyond that i don't really know entirely of
course revelation gives us some hints to some of the glorified view of jesus and he's got hair white
as wool and eyes the flame of fire and his feet look like the shining brass and of course it's
going to be an incredible sight but you know at the end of the day i don't really know but
eventually it'll be face to face eventually i won't even have to wonder anymore eventually you know
our faith becomes sight of course and you know while we won't know everything in this life the
bible still wants us though to follow kind of the instructions here in verse 11 to put away childish
things and as i would word it become mature and the bible teaches that we should not just be mature
physically but we should become mature spiritually and so the title of my sermon this evening is this
spiritual maturity spiritual maturity and of course i explained all this just to help you kind
of understand where i'm coming from but you know i just want you to understand this chapter a little
better but let's go to hebrews 5 it's going to give us more uh verses that kind of come in line
with what i want to talk about this evening but we want to be like the apostle paul and put away
childish things and become a man and and not just physically spiritually as well there's a lot of
people who may be a man physically but they're spiritually a toddler they're spiritually a baby
and it's important that we become mature spiritually this is why when the bible talks
about the office of a bishop it doesn't give a carnal age because the carnal age is not nearly
as important as the spiritual age the spiritual age of the individual is much more important and
of course there can be individuals that are much younger than you physically but are more
spiritually mature and we shouldn't despise their youth just because they're younger than us doesn't
mean they couldn't teach us something that they couldn't be more spiritually advanced or educate
us in the word of god and of course we all should strive to have a spiritual mature age you know not
just be physically old or or considered just like well as long as somebody's old they should be the
pastor you know i've heard weird ideas like every pastor should just be an old guy or something
and it's like i don't really care how old he is you know i don't want a biden up here trying to
tell me what to do you know i'd rather have someone that's spiritually mature regardless of how old
they are physically okay now hebrews chapter 5 verse 8 the bible says though he were a son
yet learned the obedience by the things that you suffered talking of jesus and being made perfect
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him obviously that's talking about
obeying him by believing in christ first ten called of god and high priest after the order
of milk has a deck of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing you are
dull of hearing for when the time he ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again
which be the first principles of the oracles of god so what he's saying in verse you know
11 is that i he's like i want to teach you more about malchizedek but you guys for whatever reason
haven't even soaked in the basics you don't even understand just the fundamentals of the faith
and just the really baby simple doctrines and because of that i can't then go on to elaborate
and explain to you the deeper things about malchizedek and the priesthood and you know
this is important for a couple reasons to understand that not all of the bible is on a
basic level not all of the bible is just real simple and real easy there are things in the
bible that are hard to be understood you know it's always funny to me when i talk to younger
christians in the faith and they're getting challenged on their faith and anytime they want
to ask me a question it's like well i just really want to understand you know romans 11 and i i just
really want to understand matthew 25 and i just really want to understand you know galatians 5
and i want to understand first john chapter 3 and i'm like look these are some of the passages
that even say people want to understand it takes you know for some people it's taking them
lifetimes to study the bible and to pray and to meditate to understand fully like all the verses
in the bible and get a really good graph and it's like sometimes these people just want just hey i
just want to understand this it's like well sometimes you need to lay down some basics verse
just to get to that point where it's going to really manifest in your mind now of course if you
have a great preacher and you have great men that you can just stand on the shoulders of them
sometimes you can fast you can fast track a lot of this information you know myself included i've
learned a lot of great spiritual truths from other men who studied the bible prayed and meditated and
learned the bible for themselves and then spoon fed it to me and you want praise god for great
preachers and men of god they're willing to study the bible and to hand it down but of course we
have to do our part we have to learn the basics we have to study the bible ourselves and read the
bible otherwise some things just won't click some things just won't make sense to us just like
explaining complicated adult subjects to children it won't make sense until they grow up is the same
with the bible there are certain topics there's certain subjects that will probably never click
in your mind unless you mature unless you grow up and what he's trying to emphasize is that you
must decide to just learn and grow and not just be stuck on the basics just over and over and over
again i think that a lot of christians genuinely do complain that care about church would complain
like i don't feel like my church is feeding me and you know that's a legitimate concern because
the church should be feeding people and they should be growing but at the same time you will
not grow simply by just showing up and walking through the door you personally have to read the
bible on your own you have to pray you have to memorize verses you have to put into practice the
word of god because the bible says that you don't want to be a forgetful hearer meaning you could
show up at church every service and be the exact same or worse spiritually because you're just not
doing anything yourself you know you can you can and again of course we could take a baby and we
can spoon feed it but eventually that baby needs to learn how to eat for itself and it needs to
grow up and and learn on its own and and this is an important thing he's trying to say like
at this amount of time you guys should be a teacher but for some reason you're still
needing me to spoon feed you basic things and notice how he says this in verse 12
the first principles of the oracles of god now that's important principles of the oracles of god
now look at chapter 6 verse 1 therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ you have
to understand that these two verses are in in synchrony are are are basically in symphony
with one another because they're talking about the same subject so he's saying i don't want to
spoon feed you the basic doctrines anymore let's leave the basic doctrines why because if we keep
reading in chapter 5 look at verse number um 12 again he says and become such as need have
i'm sorry and be are become such as have need of milk and not a strong meat he wants to give them
the strong meat but they can't handle it you know i'd love to give ellie the brisket and the ribs
and the steak but she can't handle it she needs just the milk right now but as she grows up
like abby abby loves the strong meat okay abby she loves steak and i love that about her you
know she's my she's my texas girl okay but you know as you grow up you start handling the right
doctrines you know you stop putting beans in your chili you start eating the strong meat
of the word you don't need the soft tender delicate beans in there you can handle some
meat you know you can handle and not just some just pure meat right because i just want the pure
meat sermon right and of course a church like ours we could dive into some of the deep aspects
of the bible and get some of the strong meat but we have to do something we have to grow ourselves
we have to grow up and we have to mature and we have to be willing to learn and read the bible
ourselves because if we're not even just doing the basics then you know as a pastor all i'm going
to do is just sit up here and preach on basics because you got to get those right you got to
get those those billing boxes but if people actually start doing all the basics and getting
all the regular stuff done then you can start moving on to better topics more interesting
things deeper things that's why it's important for a church to become spiritual mature and he's
you know he's saying here these people should have gotten to that point verse 13 for everyone
that uses milk is unskillful and the word of righteousness for he is a babe but strong meat
belong to them that are a full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil so he's saying that he wants to give strong meat to them but they
can't handle it because they're a babe and he's saying the strong meat is given to those who are
a full age here would be my synonym mature this is your spiritual maturity because they're of a
full age meaning that they've reached that point of full maturity and we're still again talking
about spiritually in verse one he says therefore that there's a reason why that word's there
it's because it's there for a reason therefore therefore since what he wants them just to not
basically be stuck in these basic things and he doesn't want them to just be a babe forever
and he wants them to be a teacher and because he wants them to go into perfection therefore
leaving the principles of the doctrines of christ now of course what is the basics you know he says
let us go into perfection not laying in the foundation of repentance from dead works and
of faith toward god so here's another thing if if we're leaving all of this then that must mean
we're talking about something different he wants to bring up something different now of course
what did we start with this and in verse 10 called of god and high precept of the order of what
melchizedek okay so he wanted to explain something about melchizedek then he brings up kind of this
tangent about how he doesn't feel like they can handle it look at chapter 7 verse 1 for this
melchizedek king of savelim priest will say then he brings back up chapter 7 again melchizedek why
because chapter 6 is kind of just a tangent and he's just trying to say like look i wanted
to explain this thing about melchizedek but i'm kind of feeling like you can't even handle it
because you guys are babes but we need to leave this this basic stuff and go on into perfection
which perfection means completion you know when you look at fruit that's growing on the vine
you would say if it's a full age it's perfect it's complete it's matured right that's what
he's wanting from us but you can't get there spiritually speaking if you only have the basics
you have to have more than this so that's why he's saying therefore leaving the principles of the
doctrine of christ let us go on into perfection not laying in the foundation of repentance from
dead works and of faith toward god and of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands
and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment so you're saying look the doctrine of
hell the doctrine of salvation by faith the fact that works don't save um just getting baptized
and ordination these are all the really basic simple just on the cuff doctrines once you've
got that we're going to move on now why would you move on from the doctrine of salvation
let me i'll explain that thought but look at verse three for a second and this we will do if
god permit what is he saying this will do we'll go on to perfection if god willing we'll go on to
perfection now again why would i never lay down the foundation of repentance from dead works and
a faith toward god again well verse four because four because it is impossible for those who are
once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy ghost
and have tasted of the good word of god and the powers of the world to come if they should fall
away to renew them again under repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the son of god afresh
and put them to an open chain why would i not teach someone to repent from dead works and a
faith towards god because i can't get them to repent again because once you're saved you're
always saved so i don't i don't need to convince someone that's saved if they fall away to get
saved again what would i what would i preach to someone that's fallen away that's saved i would
preach them james too faith that works is dead wouldn't i i get there and say you need a kick
in the pants you know you need to get in church you need to quit drinking you need to quit smoking
you need you know i wouldn't lay down the doctrine of faith i wouldn't lay down the doctrine of hell
why would i teach somebody about hell that's a backslidden christian because they can't go to
hell that's and again that's not going to motivate them to to to do the right thing if they
understand the right doctrine it could motivate a bunch of unsaved people to follow the bible
but of course i'm not going to teach them about hell i'm not going to teach them about baptism
because they already got baptized they already got baptized they already learned about salvation by
faith they already learned about hell so you know what they need they need other doctrine you know
what would be a good doctor for this person hey you're going to reap what you sow hey you know
it's an important doctrine to teach people you're going to be rewarded according to your works
whether that be good or bad wouldn't that be a good doctrine to teach somebody that's in this
particular case and of course it clearly says in verse number six to renew them again under
repentance you know if you think this person is uh unsaved my question is always this what did
this person repent of the first time because it says that i would have to make them repent again
now if we use the same word in the same chapter the repentance in this one was repentance from
dead works and a faith toward god that sounds like salvation i can't get someone to be saved again
now if i needed to get someone saved again wouldn't that mean that christ would need
to be crucified again because the first crucifixion didn't work for them because they got saved by his
crucifixion but if they somehow lost that salvation well we need christ to come down
here get crucified again and believe in the second crucifixion and if they lost that salvation then
we need the third crucifixion right and he's trying to draw a difference here in the book
of hebrews that the blood of bulls and and calves and goats don't take away sin and it wasn't the
multiplicity of sacrifices that took away sin but rather was the once for all sacrifice of christ
that took away sin and of course it would put christ to an open shame saying he didn't really
pay every sin if you got saved and then you had to get saved again so he's saying look you're
we're putting christ to an open shame by trying to get someone saved after they already got saved
now wouldn't this make perfect sense to say you know the number one reason why you shouldn't
preach salvation by you know try to get people saved that are already saved is because they can't
lose their salvation that's the whole point of what he's saying because of this reason
i'm going to stop teaching you this because you can't lose it and you've already gotten saved
even if you fall away i'm not going to renew you again under repentance i would then be
crucifying christ the son of god afresh and put him to an open shame now verse seven says four
this is still in connection to the reason why we're leaving the principles of the doctrine of
christ what's another reason why because the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh off upon it
and bringing forth herbs meat for them by whom it is dressed receive a blessing from god but that
which bare thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh in a cursing whose end is to be burned so
what is our this is a parable obviously he's saying that there's earth and the earth is either
bringing forth fruit or is bringing forth thorns that's real clear in the bible okay what's the
earth you know well again we don't we don't really have an entire explanation of this parable
but if we just study the bible and we get other parables that have the exact same elements and
when i say exact i mean exactly the same elements luke chapter number eight very clear the parable
the sower is talking about seed being sown into the soil same same story here and it makes it
clear though that that soil is men's hearts and in the three groups that are saved one is in the
stony ground one is in the thorny ground and one has no thorns the one with no thorns what brings
forth fruit the one with thorns the thorns choke the fruit and it's not fruitful now what are the
these things represented above though what does the fruit represent converts getting people saved
right what does the thorns represent in the parable of luke chapter number eight the cares
of this world the deceitfulness of riches which enter in choking the word so what is he basically
saying in verses seven and eight he's saying that look if you serve god you're gonna have fruit and
you're gonna be rewarded of god and if you let the chairs of this world you let the deceitfulness
of riches if you let all the sin in this world enter into your life you are going to basically
let that choke and it says something's gonna be burned but does it say that the earth is burned
no it's saying that the thorns are going to be burned okay well if you compare that with
first corinthians chapter number three the one the person that lays up the wood hay and stubble
his works are burned yet he himself is saved so again it's not that the earth is burned it's not
that the earth is destroyed the thorns are destroyed and of course our bad works our bad
labors our bad fruits are going to perish because they weren't of charity remember we're talking
about the things that last forever the charitable things are going to last forever they're never
going to fail the things that are going to just basically wood and stubble though that were not
done in charity that were not done in godly sincerity they're going to be burned up lost
forever and and it's you know it's a bad deal verse nine but beloved we are persuaded better
things of you now of course he means he brings this up because he just brought up the guy that
fell away and he brings up in the last verse the guy that was bearing forth thorns and stuff and
he's like saying i'm persuaded that you're not going to be one of those bozos you're going to
do what you're going to be the person that goes on to perfection you're going to be the person
that becomes a full age you're going to be the teacher you're going to be the one that produces
the fruit and your spirit you're going to become spiritually mature and he says notice this and
things that accompany salvation now i do find it again mind-boggling that people will tell me
that the previous verses were talking about salvation when verse 9 says that this was things
that accompany salvation it couldn't be any clearer that he wasn't talking about how to go
to heaven he's talking about something in verses 7 and 8 that accompany salvation what accompanies
salvation reward or cursing based on your works and he's saying i'm persuaded better things of you
and what and things that accompany salvation though we thus speak
for god is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love
so again if we connect the dots here verses 7 and 8 have to be talking about things that
accompany salvation and they have to be talking about what our work and labor of love of course
our work and labor love have nothing to do with going to heaven nothing to do with salvation and
of course this is why a lot of people believe in work salvation because they're unsaved and then
when they come to chapter 6 it is clearly about works and then they're like well this is saying
you know you're going to lose your salvation it works and it's like obviously the person's
looking at hebrews chapter 6 the wrong way we're not talking about unsaved people getting saved
we're talking about the saved person becoming spiritually mature that was clear in chapter
5 that was the context and of course once he explains this full thought he comes back to
chapter 7 explaining the thoughts about malchizedek and you know chapter 7 is a pretty deep
chapter of the bible i mean explaining some really deep concepts about malchizedek
and jesus christ and and some really good doctrine so of course god wants us to become
as spiritually mature and he's not going to forget our work and labor of love which you
have showed toward his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister
why charity never fail charity never faileth and we desire that every one of you do show the same
diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that you be not slothful but followers
of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises so he doesn't want us to be slothful
you know what's one of the reasons why people become or don't become spiritually mature is
because they're lazy is because they're slothful and so he just tried to encourage you to stop
being slothful don't be the guy that's just producing no works or just bad works you know
the thorns and the briars of this life but rather be diligent and of course adam he had to suffer
the consequences of sin he had thorns and briars so he had to work harder to get that fruit and
of course the more sin you have in your life the harder it's going to be to produce fruit
the the the more difficult it's going to be for god to use you not saying he can't some people
have said oh well if you commit fornication you could never get someone saved and it's like
that's stupid i mean the woman at the well is like a five-time adulterer and she's going around
getting people saved with her testimony of being an adulterous okay that's that's nonsense you can
get someone saved you can do a great work for god no matter how backslid you are i mean samsung
did his greatest work and his most backslidden condition you know knocking over the two columns
or whatever that wasn't the the shining glorious moment of samsung okay he was pretty bad but you
know in that moment of clarity god still used him and you know what god can still use all kinds of
people regardless of where they're at but you know i don't want to live the samsung life and
just hope in my last dying breath i get one last good word for the lord you know i want to be the
person that's working towards spiritual maturity not being slothful learning and studying the bible
and trying to grow in the lord now i want you to go to first corinthians chapter number three
first corinthians chapter number three
so i have really just kind of two points to kind of draw from the text this evening and i've already
given you point one so don't worry all right point one of why you would want to become spiritual
mature so that you can then teach notice that the goal of this was that they could be teachers
of course when you learn all the principles of the doctrine of christ you can teach others the
principles of the doctrine of christ right you can go out and you can preach the gospel and you
can teach people about baptism and you can help people learn all the different fundamentals and
as you mature then you can even teach more things you have better understanding and of course we
love it that that people would become teachers here you know we want the men to be able to preach
sermon if needed we want the men to teach the other men you know the word of god if needed we
want soul winners to teach other soul winners how to to preach the gospel and evangelize we also
want to have the women learn the bible as well as the men because they're going to be teaching
the next generations and they're going to be sitting down with young timothy and god willing
they're going to impart unto him their faith in the scriptures and teaching him all the important
doctrines and what kind of woman to be looking for you know proverbs 31 is a mother teaching her
child her son the bible and instruct this is the kind of woman you want and this is the kind of
qualities and characters you're looking for and you need to stay away from these bad friends and
you need to stay away from poison and alcohol and you need to be wise and giving them all kinds of
instruction you know homeschooling wasn't invented a few years ago proverbs 31 already had homeschooling
right there in the bible or he had that woman the mother of lemme well sitting down all day long
teaching her son and educating him in the word of god and teaching him the bible you know people
will be like oh you're against women teaching the bible to me yeah i do but you know what not to my
son not to my child i love it when my wife wants these and of course i'm not even saying that i
couldn't learn something for my wife she helps me all the time with the bible you know i'm not
going to let a woman get up and preach and be the pastor of the church because the bible says that
that's inappropriate that's not the right place that's not the right time but you know what god
willing we'll have a lot of preachers in the next generation that all their doctrines coming from
what their mom taught them so it's like you want to get your sermons in get them in your son right
now okay start teaching all the way i've preached a lot of things that my mom taught me who remembers
me saying something my mom taught me oh yeah yeah behinds all the room because i constantly
you know she's preaching right now why she taught me all these different doctors i'm wearing a tight
belt because of my mom right now okay you know my mom taught me lots of good doctrine lots of
good things you know and her preaching still lives on through me okay so don't get this weird idea
that women are inferior or or they can't be spiritual i mean frankly speaking there's plenty
of great women to mention in the bible timothy gets his faith from his like maternal side not
even his paternal side so women of faith is a very important thing and we want them to be spiritually
mature you know it's not like oh i'll never be the pastor so i don't need to know the bible
i'll just go play on my phone and watch tick tock videos in the mother bay room
that's stupid that's foolish you know the mother bay room is not like a cool extra hangout it should
you should still be listening to the sermon and paying attention you should still be growing you
should still have a bible in the lap you should still be turning to all the places you should
still be reading all the verses and you know i'm not even against the idea of women talking about
the bible you know it's not like after the sermon you only have to talk about your shopping wants
okay you could bring up verses in the bible there's nothing wrong with it now again i'm not
saying you have to i'm just saying that women should want to know the bible and want to know
doctrine and to grow up spiritually and become mature and it's important because when you become
spiritually mature other things don't happen like what well let's look at first corinthians
three verse one and i brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal
even as unto babes in christ i fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto you were not able
to bear it neither yet now are you able for ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among you
envying and strife and divisions are you not carnal and walk as men so what the apostle paul
is trying to say is that when people are being carnal when people are causing strife when people
are causing contention they are not spiritually mature and it's evident someone that is spiritually
mature is not going to be causing all kinds of conflict and strife and division amongst god's
people okay of course i i'm going to cause a lot of strife with the world you know the world's not
going to like anything i have to say right i'm going to rub them the wrong way all the time and
of course i am for peace but when i speak they are for war i'm not asking for it i don't want it
i'm not interested in it but no matter what i do you have all these trolls and losers and locusts
and bugs and mosquitoes that come out of the woodwork to try and pay attention what we're
doing over here okay so that's inevitable you know amongst us and amongst our friends and amongst
those who love god we shouldn't be drawing up all these fights and these petty quarrels and all this
strife and all this contention people that do that just they should just write like a big
sign on their forehead that says like i'm a babe in christ you know we've even had pastors pastors
that just it seems like all they do is just cause strife like all they have they just just dream up
something to get mad about and it's always these petty silly you know insignificant things and they
just always want to be contentious about everything it's like you're just so carnal now i don't know if
you're carnal because you're just unsaved that's the only you know mode you have because if you're
unsaved carnal is your only mode right but even a saved person could just be in the flesh and just
be a carnal person you know and choose not to walk in the spirit and you know what that's a foolish
attitude that's not something that you should want and it's evident of people that are not spiritually
mature you know i've had plenty of conversations with people i have a high respect for like my
friend pastor stephen anderson my friend pastor roger menes other pastors where we strongly
disagree with one another on certain things in the bible you know they were never mad at me or
like striving with me or causing a contention or didn't it didn't ruin our relationship or anything
like that it's like hey you know i strongly disagree with you strongly disagree but we still
like each other why because a mature person isn't just gonna get mad at you for everything you do
that's dumb you know i guarantee there's pastors that don't like things i've said or done or
disagree with me or think that i made a mistake even but you know they don't have they don't have
to get up in a sermon and scream that i'm stupid you know that's someone that is not spiritually
mature that's someone that's just carnal and you know someone that's spiritually mature doesn't
have the need to just always cause a division and a strife and then of course you know when you
respond it's like you started it or something right it's like come on give me a break
you're obviously the one causing all these problems you know you're the you're the source
of all this contention and you're the person that can't let it go you're the person that can't move
on you have to constantly bring it up it's like you're just a carnal person you know all the
bickering the gossip and and here's where a lot of it comes from envy it comes from envy now he
says in verse three among you envying strife and divisions let me tell you something there are a
lot of churches that just cannot handle someone being better than them and you know why envy
just envy there's so many people that just can't stand the fact that they have pastor
anderson listeners going to their church yeah you know and i hear about it all the time tons of
people people come to our church from all different states all different places and they're like my
church doesn't like me because i listen to pastor anderson you know we had people come from
tennessee recently and they were just like man you know i can't even go to this church or they
come from they talk to me from new york or they talk to me from california or they talk to me
from all kinds of different places texas i mean they talk to me about all they're just like man
i go in my church and they treat me different they throw me out they won't baptize me i mean
we baptized someone in the last 12 months that their pastor refused to baptize their daughter
only because the dad listens to pastor anderson online he didn't cause any problems he didn't
even bring it up the pastor's questioning him it's like you know why i believe that probably
happens it's because they baptized no one ever right but if you've ever gone to an old ivy church
okay a lot of people right when they do baptisms you know what they do is they do a short like
little testimonial they'll say like hey when did you get saved how did you get saved what convinced
you to get baptized and you know it's the last thing these preachers want oh yeah i listen to
pastor stephen anderson online and i got saved listen to his gospel presentation and i changed
my life and i'm gonna get baptized you know they don't want they don't want them to say that out
loud because everybody will think like this pastor anderson guy must be a good guy i mean look at the
fruit that's right in front of us and because of envy he refuses to baptize them you know what
that person's not spiritually mature it's so it's so stupid and it's so silly and it just shows
someone that's not really mature at all they're just a carnal child at heart and they just can't
handle someone being better than them you know what praise god for all the christians that are
better than me i sure hope i'm not at the peak of anything i i want tons of people to be better
than me because you know that's a sad date of affairs if there isn't people that are better
and smarter than me and know more of the bible you know and praise god there's plenty that are
you know what i i told myself this when i started pure words about the church i said if my church
is a warming pod for people to go to faith for a better church and be listeners of stephen
so be it who cares why why would that even matter you know of course we have tons of people that
come to our church that were reached by other men that were reached by other people and you know
it's hard to bring in people off the street you know i've gotten people saved i've drug them to
church i've gotten people saved and brought them in got them baptized you know they usually don't
stick it's hard to get them to stick and let's be honest you know most of you in this room you're
not going to the church where the guy that got you saved is up there preaching right so again why
would i think that's any different anywhere else that a lot of people are just entered into other
men's labors you know what the spiritually mature person doesn't care about all of that they're not
fixated on all the numbers and who's who and what's going we're all on the same team
you know that's what the apostle the apostle is trying to bring up he says in verse number four
for while one says i am of paul and another i am of apollos are you not carnal you know preachers
will get up and they'll be like this isn't so-and-so's church or you know this is my church
or you know you better only listen to me you know that people tell me they said look they're this
pastor is throwing people out if they listen to any other preacher like any of these certain
preachers or the new ivy or whatever and he's just like what kind of a carnal person are you
i mean this you know oh you better be a me you know better be a paul or whatever it's like who
is paul right isn't that what he says verse five who then is paul and who is apollos but ministers
by whom he believed even as the lord gave to every man i have planted apollos watered but
god gave the increase so then neither is he that planted anything neither he that watereth but god
that giveth the increase now of course this is tied back to first corinthians chapter 13
that the whole point of even serving god is for god you know if you're not doing the works out of
the right heart it's meaningless anyways but the person that just sincerely just loves people and
just wants them to be saved and wants them to be baptized and wants them to get plugged into church
they don't care where they care that they're doing it you know i don't care as much that you
come to my church is that you're just plugged in a church i don't care you know where it's at or
who it's with or whatever i just want you to do it you know and that's the right mentality for
a spiritually mature christian is to say i just want people to do it who cares who gets the credit
for it you know but the carnal people you know they're just all about the numbers and they're
all about like you know i got five saved how much you get saved it's like i don't know because i
don't care to sit here you know it's like i look at all the signatures in my bible you know about
all the people i got saved or whatever it's just like look i'm not against you if you keep numbers
or stats but at the end of the day it's not about just numbers and stats it's about souls
and it's about the work of the lord and it's about you know you having a charitable heart
inside and trying to do the work of god for god and and just to do the right thing and to love
people it's silly to just get so wrapped up in oh well you know this person's my disciple or this
is my you know that's a cult some churches are just cults frankly speaking where they
it's all about the minister and it's all about that pastor and it's all about what he did and
you know that's that's a foolish attitude
if someone preaches better sermons than me and of course that's true okay but i'm just saying if
someone's out there preaching better sermons than me that are gonna that are gonna give you more
knowledge more faith inspire you more who am i to stop you from listening to that you know if
there's a sermon out there that maybe ministers to you maybe there's a subject that i'm not an
expert on there's a part of bible i don't understand as well maybe someone has a personal
experience that i don't have that helps them to minister to another person and there could be
someone out there that needs that message or wants that message and people are going to limit them
on getting that information how do you actually care about those people how do you actually care
about the souls of men when you want to hold them back from things that they could get access to
or be ministered to i mean you're just a wicked person in my opinion
i mean that's a wicked attitude it's evil you know and it's carnal and of course nothing carnal is
good everything carnal is is it's enmity with god is what the bible says it's a war with god
go to the proverbs chapter 20 go to proverbs chapter number 20
and it's just so funny to me all these people they're just so obsessed with us that that like
left it's like do you even know what that means to leave stalker stock much you know people are
just like oh i'm leaving the new ip what they really mean is i'm going to incessantly talk
about them for the rest of my life and watch all the sermons and it's like how do you know they
watch all the sermons because anything i ever say that could possibly use against me is always found
and used against me and i'm thinking like how do you even know that it's like you have to be the
only way is you're watching every sermon and i'm just thinking like what kind of loser hates me
and is listening to my sermons you're a loser don't why why waste your time you know it just
makes no sense proverbs 20 verse 19 he that goes about as a tail bearer reveal his secrets therefore
meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips you know tail bearing is not saying something
that's untrue it's saying something that's true but someone that's mature doesn't have to share
everything that's true you know when you observe people doing stuff you don't have to tell anyone
and some secret some things just need to be not repeated some things just need to not be said
people make mistakes people do dumb things people are not perfect and we shouldn't just make
everyone have to relive every dumb decision they've ever made and every mistake that they've
ever made and just you can't let anything go and you just have to hold people accountable
like the one mistake they made is just that's the only way we can talk about this person
it's that we're obsessed with this one person's mistake forever it's like that's just a bad way
to live your life you know you should let people live things down and and you should not just be
hyper focused on every negative thing that someone did i mean this is a way to destroy your marriage
you want to destroy your marriage just obsess with all the bad things your spouse has done
and i guarantee your spouse is screwed up i guarantee your spouse has done dumb things at
a time but you know what the charitable person the mature person lets things go doesn't just focus on
everything and doesn't have the need to tell everybody everything and let me give you some
marriage advice never ever ever ever criticize or share negative things about your spouse
and you say well to who anyone the mature person in marriage will not will not share negative
information about their spouse even if it's true it just doesn't benefit anyone now of course there
could be a time and a place in the right environment you know if you're going to like counseling
specifically or you have to give a police report or something yeah i get it but you know what it's
not for you to just go and tell your parents every dirty secret about your spouse and you
shouldn't be telling your friends at church every dirty secret about your spouse and you shouldn't
be just telling the random church member that just showed up all about your marriage it's like share
much look it happens people just walk up to a complete stranger and they'll just tell them like
my husband did x y and z last night you're just like whoa okay i'm you know this is weird right
i mean that happens don't do that that's not the mature thing to do you know the mature thing
to do is to keep secret secrets and to not just just open your mouth and just let your mind fill
it you know what you need a lot of times when your mind's full keep your mouth shut you know
look what it says in proverbs 26 verse 20 where no wood is there the fire goes out
so where there is no tail bearer the strife ceases as coals are to burning coals and wood
to fire so is a contentious man to kindle strife the words of a tail bearer's wounds and they go
down in the innermost parts of the belly you know the bible is saying when you don't have this tail
bearing person there is no problem and let me say this when there's no carnal person there is no
problem you know a church that has a lot of problems is just it's there's a reason there's
a lot of carnal people in the church when a church really doesn't have a lot of problems
there's really no contention there's really no strife there's no gossip it's just there's no
tail bearer in the midst and we've had these issues we've had moments in our history where
we have a specific person that is just a tail bearing spigot and just spinning around just
sprinkling everybody with their their crap as it were and basically it just caused all kinds of
problems and then you throw that person out and it's like all of a sudden just it doesn't even
exist anymore it's like that's necessary is to get rid of those type of people in your lives
and then not be around and of course we as a church need to become a church so that none of
us are that person none of us are so concerned with all this trivial nonsense do you see what
so and so did and watched and where and you know what they're i don't care i just don't care you're
you're a sinner i'm a sinner we're all going to make mistakes why would we want to sit here and
be petty towards each other for every little grievance that we have you know i see lots of
things that i don't like and i'm not going to sit here and just pick everybody apart and treat them
differently and get mad at everybody and police everybody and you know what we too as a whole
church need to do the same thing we're not being petty about little things we're not mad and
grieved about every bad thing that someone did or said or whatever you know the mature person just
moves on and just says i don't care because it doesn't matter that knowledge will cease anyways
as the bible told us in first green things chapter 13 go to luke 8 go to luke 8 and when you decide
you know what i'm gonna alert i'm gonna instead of spending so much time bickering gossiping and
being envious of everybody i'm just gonna go ahead and start becoming mature then you get the second
benefit is you produce fruit why because number one you're going to be able to teach others and
number two you're going to be able to produce fruit and of course the antithesis of this is
the person that's causing strife and envy and gossip instead of producing that thorns you know
you should produce some fruit which is what winning people to christ encouraging people to get baptized
encouraging people to serve the lord encouraging people to get back into church encouraging people
to stop drinking alcohol encouraging people to make spiritual decisions helping people learn
doctrine you know but this doesn't happen overnight you know in order for you to teach
the bible and start producing fruit you have to read the bible and you need to read the whole
bible you know if you want to become a sole winner it does not happen overnight people that just get
saved you say like i want to win someone to christ you're not going to do it in one day
i mean it's you know unless you have like the miracle just like the fullness of the
holy spirit come upon you like the apostle paul did where he could just go out and just like
preach the little bible but you know people that just got saved usually are not there yet
they're going to need to do some stuff like read the romans road a little bit you know
study those verses a little bit memorize them kind of learn a layout of the of the gospel
presentation maybe start going out learning how to talk i mean there's a little bit of a process
to go from the day you decide you want to get someone saved to actually successfully just
getting people saved you know it takes a little bit of effort it takes a little bit of energy
and of course the person that's never going to do this is just a spiritual babe and what we
should strive to be is we should all strive to be mature enough that we could get someone saved on
a moment's notice man woman even the the young the young teenagers and young adults they if you're
coming to my church you should be someone that you could just open the bible and just get someone
saved no questions asked there's not really you know obviously some people are better maybe more
more experienced but generally speaking if you're saved and you've been coming to my church and
you've been having this much opportunity by this time you ought to be teachers and you shouldn't
need the first principles again okay and and you should strive to become a spiritually mature
person and you say well i'm too busy gossiping about everybody yeah stop doing that and start
learning how to get someone saved you know that'll help you and of course when you're more focused
on getting people saved you start realizing you have less time for all the carnal things
because your focus that your priorities are in the right area of life whereas when you are just
constantly worried about all the petty little things and strife and envy you don't have time
for the spiritual things luke chapter 8 look at verse 10 and he said unto you it is given
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of god but to others and parables and seeing they might not see
and hearing they might not understand now the parable is this the seed is the word of god
those by the wayside are they that hear then come to the devil and take away the word out of their
hearts lest they should believe and be saved notice that in verse 12 it tells you the salvation
message believe and be saved you hear the word of god you believe it you're saved but the devil
wants to take away what the word out of their heart does the bible say the devil wants to make
sure that they don't repent of their sin the devil wants to make sure that they don't get plugged
into church the devil wants to make sure that they aren't sorry enough for their sin no the devil
wants to take away the gospel message lest they believe it and are saved notice that the devil
understands how you get saved the devil's not confused and the devil knows that his one objective
is to try and confuse people or to take away the gospel or to stop them from hearing it because if
they believe it they're saved you know verse number 13 they on the rock are they which when
they hear receive the word of joy and these have no root which for a while believe and in
time of temptation fall away so hey they believe they're saved they're walking in faith they have
the faith for the lord but you know what that faith wanes and they end up falling away who's
this these are the people who read about hebrews chapter number six yeah if they fall away you
know they tasted of the good word of god and you know taste means a short while the word taste
means a short duration isn't that what we read about in this in this in this passage that they
believe for a little bit it says and these have no root which for a while believe so it's like they
didn't really do it for very long they tasted it they got saved but they fell away does it say get
them saved again now they're already saved they need to get the they need to get the stones out
of their heart this is what they really need and you stop being stony ground now it says in the
next group it says and that which fell among thorns are they which when they have heard go
forth and are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit
to perfection so again you can think about hebrew six it follows the same pattern because the stony
ground was that first group and then the thorny ground was the second group in that parable it's
trying to explain these these different groups of people and again those that have the cares
of this world the riches of this life they bring forth what no fruit to perfection why because of
the thorns the thorns that are there choking that word verse 15 but that on the good ground are they
which in and notice this honest and good heart so is the ground grounds the fine for us i already
explained this but i'm just showing you it again the ground is the heart and of course the hearts
what's producing the stuff right and out of your heart can come what thorns as i mean this is the
parable this is jesus telling you what this means and jesus said thorns are coming out of your heart
i believe that but of course you know you study the works of the flesh and you you you realize
that what defiles a man is not that which goes into the man well what proceedeth out of the man
is which defile the man adulteries and thefts and fornications so of course your heart is wicked and
you know it's deceivable things and desperately wicked who can know it is what the bible says
you know so if you really understood the the fleshly heart it doesn't have good desires
that's why disney's always like follow your heart i wonder why they say that
probably because they read the bible and they realize hey i know how to get kids to be wicked
tell them to follow their heart you know why because their foolishness is bound in the heart
of a child right and you got to drive that away with a rod of correction they don't say follow
word of god follow the bible follow your heart right that's a wicked idea but those that have
a good art having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit but notice this with patience
meaning it's going to take a little bit of maturity to get there you're not going to just
day one get people saved you're not going to just day one know all the doctrine of the bible
you're not going to just day one be able to explain everything and understand everything
about it takes time you got to learn all the basics you got to study everything
then things start clicking you know if you don't get a lot out of sermons honestly it's probably
because you have limited bible knowledge because i guarantee the people have the most bible knowledge
seem to get the most out of sermons because they're making all kinds of connections and
the holy spirit has a lot more to work with inside of them because the holy spirit is going to bring
to remembrance all things that christ instructed you in and so of course we want to be the
spiritually mature christian that can teach others and is going to produce fruit and is going to do
it with patience you know sometimes it takes a while to get people saved even if you're our
great soul winner so you go to north richland hills good luck there you know you you get the
maps that dylan made it's like i don't know where we're going you know but hey even brother ben he's
he's lamenting we're going soul winning and it's been it's been rough and it's been rough for a
while i mean multiple weeks in a row it even seems like and he's just like it feels rough and
i'm just like hey why don't you talk to this lady and hey she was super receptive and she got saved
you know it took some patience to say you know what sometimes it takes a lot of doors some areas
are rougher than others you know what i'm glad that we still went to that neighborhood so that
person can still get saved you know i'm glad that we have people that are willing to patiently go
so on you know sometimes people go so any i think they just expect to get 30 people saved the first
time they go out that's not realistic go to james everything unless you're going to the bahamas i
mean you're just you're not going to see that kind of that fruit you know it's great to go to the
bahamas because it's just laying on the ground you just pick it up but some of these areas have been
gleaned a lot i mean there's so many baptist churches in this area already obviously there's
been a lot of gleaning already done here so we're not getting this the handfuls on the ground as much
we sometimes have to work a little harder to get some of the salvations here but you know we should
still do it we should still work our vineyard and we should still try to produce some fruit here
while we have it and the spiritually mature person isn't just only interested in soul winning if they
can get every you know every doors of salvation the spiritually mature person isn't going to just
do it for a while the spiritually mature person is going to do it just forever just going to with
patience just constantly get person saved person saved look at james 3 verse 13 go to now eat it
say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and
get gain whereas you know not what it shall be and the morrow for what is your life it is even
a vapor that appear for a little time and then vanish away i'm reading chapter four i'm sorry
verse 13 of chapter 13 i was like this has nothing to do with my sermon who is a wise man and a dude
with knowledge among you let him show out of a good conversation his works with neatness
of wisdom so again he's saying you know the wise men who's gonna be the wise person the one that's
been matured and growed and developed he has he's a dude with knowledge meaning his nose a lot right
verse 14 but if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the
truth this wisdom descended not from above but is earthly sensual devilish for where envying and
strife is there is confusion and every evil word you know let steadfast baptist church never be
named as the confusing devilish sensual strife and contentious church let it be known as the
spiritually mature church and you say well how do we know when everybody here is a teacher
when everybody in here is producing fruit and when there's not contention in here
yeah look there can be all all the contention they want out there but when there's not
contention in here you know why it's because we're mature and and i'll say this if we weren't mature
we would have strife so there is no strife it's evidence of maturity in the room it's evidence of
people that care about the bible because where there's a bunch of carnal people there will be
strife where there's a bunch of women there will be a cat fight where the you know i mean have you
been to any you go to all the other churches they have tons of cliques and fights and women clit
you know women's you know groups or whatever and they all hate each other and it's just
it's gross you know because carnal people are carnal people but you know what spiritually
mature people love everyone and they can get around they can get along with everyone and they
they like everyone and of course you know people get mad they're like oh pastor Shelly made this
mistake or did this wrong even if i did they're mad that my church doesn't get mad at me about it
but it's like well that's just because our church is mature apparently they're just so mad it's like
you should be mad about it it's like well i'm just you know older than you think about this
do your kids do they seem to fight a lot but you know what it's not a very adult thing for adults
to constantly bicker and fight is it right when i became a man i put away childish things little
kids fight about everything me first i want it no i want to do it i want to get it it's mine
you know and it's all about me me me me me i i i and it's like you get pastors that seem to have
the same attitude it's about me me me i i i and it's just like you're a little baby up there
who cares you know when someone comes up to me and they're like man i really like this sermon
pastor minutes i'm like i need to listen to that sounds sounds great or a lot of times i've
listened to it i'm like you're right that's a great sermon yeah i like the bible too i like
good preaching too what what we're on the same team folks you know and the spiritually mature
person just likes the bible they love christianity they love preaching they love people getting saved
you know if someone comes to our church that's a soul winner and they say i got 10 times more
people saved than you pastor chelly it's like praise the lord it's not a competition i don't
have to have the the most numbers you know right now we're getting smoked in the baptism competition
because i have to carry ozz on my back no i'm just kidding
but you know what praise god that we have soul winning captains and people that aren't pastors
that say i want to get a bunch of people saved and i want to get a bunch of people baptized
and i care about people why because they're a spiritually mature christian and they don't have
to be pastor for it to count they don't have to be the deacon for it to count they don't have to
be whatever for it to count they just say i just love souls and i just want people to be saved and
i just want to do the work of god why because they're a spiritually mature person the spiritually
mature person doesn't have to be in the driver's seat they just want the job to get done they just
want it to they want things to go well you know and praise god for men that'll hold up
moses's hands you know and praise god for people that's a spiritually mature person right there
you know it's a spiritually mature person the bible jonathan because as soon as he realizes
that david's the right guy he strips off all of his garments and he just says hey here you go david
why because he doesn't have to be david he doesn't have to be the guy let me tell you something
all those pastors out there you're never going to be pastor anerson
you're not get over it get over it he's better than you in a lot of ways
but maybe you have an area that you can you can be better than him who cares you know but let's
be honest i mean the guy's read the bible so many times cover to cover good luck catching up
the guy's read the greek translation more than most pastors have read it in english
the guy has memorized more chapters of the bible than you know a lot of these pastors combined
have you even thought of it's like well he i you know sermons he's like there's
a reason why sermons are so good he's read the bible so much there's a reason why you know you
can't even hardly find a sermon they get nuked after five minutes of listening and five thousand
people watch them and the people that have never been censored they have like eight views
it's because your sermons are terrible it's because you don't have anything interesting to say
you know and of course why wouldn't you want to seek out the guy that knows a lot of bible that
sounds great i would love to listen to the guy who knows a lot of bible you know i love being
around people like this that know the scripture and the word of god and you know the mature person
says i want to learn from other people that are that are wise not like i've arrived i know it all
let me just let me just teach you you know the spiritual mature person says i need to learn more
and i need to listen and i need to go to church and i need to read the bible and i need to grow
and it's it's you know it's about the cause of christ it's not about me
and let us be a church that cares about charity and cares about others and wants to teach others
and wants to produce fruit not for our own glory and vain you know exercise but rather just because
we we love other people let's close in prayer thank you heavenly father so much for the word
of god for the the self the selfless and just unspeakable gift that your son gave us and and we
we only know in part but i pray that we wouldn't limit ourselves by being lazy but rather we would
challenge ourselves to grow up to be mature to learn more and more of the bible so that we could
be used of god that we could give more honor and glory to the lord we could encourage more people
to be spiritual i pray that we wouldn't be focused on ourselves in this life but rather we'd be
focused on what we could do for others and that we would just pull many people out of the fire
we would help people to get baptized we compel the backslidden to start serving the lord
and that we would be a church that doesn't doesn't care about the scoreboard for us
personally but just rather cares about pleasing the lord in jesus name we pray amen
all right for the final song song number 437 437 battle hymn of the republic
437 battle hymn of the republic
my nights have seen the glory of the coming of the lord he is trampling out the vintage where
the grace of wrath or store he had loosed the faithful lightning of his terrible sword
his truth is marching on glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah
his truth is marching on i have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps
they have built the him an altar in the evening news and dance i can read his russian sentence
by the dim and flaring lamps his day is marching on glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah
glory glory hallelujah his day is marching on he has sounded for the trumpet that shall never sound
retreat he is sitting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat oh be swift my soul
to answer him be jubilant my feet our god is marching on glory glory hallelujah glory glory
hallelujah glory glory hallelujah our god is marching on in the beauty of the lilies christ
was born across the sea with the glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me as he died
to make men holy let us die to make men free while god is marching on glory glory hallelujah
glory glory hallelujah
glory glory hallelujah while god is marching on god bless you are dismissed have a good night