Hey man, I'm trying to figure out this stupid timer, but I guess it's not going to work here.
All right, anyway, good morning everybody, and I just want to say once again thank you
to all the people that traveled for the wedding yesterday, and it's good to have our evangelist
from Spokane, Brother Daniel, Miss Marina, and the kids here, and all the other folks
from Spokane.
I just want to say thanks once again for coming, it was a really, I had a really good time
at the wedding yesterday, so thank you, and of course Ryan and Amanda show up for church
late.
No, I'm just kidding, I had to give it to them a little bit, I'm just kidding.
You're not the only people that were late, so don't worry about it, but after that sermon,
really?
No, I'm just joking, I'm only kidding.
All right, so I've been preaching a series called Threats to Christianity, and so I've
preached, this will be the third sermon in that series, and basically I'm just trying
to show that there can be threats from within, within our own church, there can be threats
from without.
I preached about that last week, where you'll have these wicked people that just constantly
try to destroy churches, and they'll do it from without, they can do that from within
also, but our own sin can also be a threat to our church, and I'll elaborate on that
a little bit more today, but today I'm preaching threats from above.
Threats to Christianity, threats from above, and you're like, well, what threats do we
have from above?
Well, my first point is that a threat of Christianity is the devil's accusations against us, that's
why I chose Revelation chapter number 12, let's look at verse number nine, where the
Bible reads, and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and
Satan, so there's no doubt who we're talking about here, right?
Which deceiveth the whole world.
He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him, and I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God, and
the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down.
See, Satan is not cast down yet.
He still has access to go to God, and we'll look at the verses that prove that, but he
does still have access, and what's it say that he's the accuser of our brethren?
So anybody that's saved, Satan is going to God on a daily basis, it says, which accused
them before our God day and night.
So 24-7, the devil's just up there accusing believers to God.
Now are all the accusations right?
No they're not, I'll show you that also, but sometimes they are, and I'm sure a lot of
times they are, like have you seen what your servant so-and-so did today, God?
And so he's up there accusing us to God.
Now God has to judge sin, and even though we are not appointed under wrath, if you're
saved, you're saved for everlasting life.
But it doesn't mean that on this earth, we're not going to receive some sort of chastisement
from God for our sins.
And I believe that one of the reasons why Satan goes to God to accuse us is so that
God will do something about the things that we're doing.
Now obviously, again, we're saved, we're covered by the blood of Christ, but that doesn't stop
God from clouding up and raining on us, so to speak, here in this life.
And Satan is called the accuser of our brethren, and he accuses us before God day and night.
So what would be a help for us to not do a lot of things that Satan's going to accuse
us to God for?
Now let's look at Zechariah chapter 3 verse 1.
And Satan goes after God's ordained leadership too, and we'll see this in Zechariah chapter
number 3.
And the devil is constantly trying to resist the works of God going on in the world.
And that's why you'll see some churches are persecuted more than others.
Some churches have already given up.
They're not really churches anymore, and they don't get messed with at all.
But if you're a Bible-believing church that is soul-winning and standing and preaching
the right things, you're going to have some darts thrown at you from the devil himself.
And look at what it says in verse number 1.
It says, and he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord,
and Satan standing at his right hand to do what?
To resist him.
This isn't Joshua from Moses and Joshua.
This is another Joshua.
He's the high priest at the time of the second temple being built around that time.
And it says, and the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuked thee, O Satan.
Even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuked thee.
Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
So notice that he doesn't say, you know, that Joshua's not saying, I rebuked thee, Satan.
He's allowing the Lord to rebuke him, right?
It says, now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel.
And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, take away the filthy
garments from him.
And unto him he said, behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with a change of raiment.
I believe this picture is salvation, obviously, or actually living right before God.
Obviously, I think that Joshua was probably saved before this.
But obviously, even men of God sin.
Even everybody sins.
So nobody is exempt from sinning.
I think that sometimes people get this idea that leadership never sins, or that you have
to have this sinless perfection, and all your children are sinless perfection in perpetuity,
according to the Calvinistic doctrine.
And we don't believe that here.
Everybody sins, and nobody is on a pedestal at this church.
So look what it says, and I said, Let them set a fair miter upon his head, and clothe
him with garments.
And the angel of the Lord stood by, and the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying,
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my
charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will
give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
And so the charge is what?
That you have to walk in his ways, and keep his charge, and he's going to give certain
privileges to someone that's a man of God like that, and it says he'll judge my house
and keep my courts, and also give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
Who was standing by him?
Satan was standing by him.
And then you also have an angel standing by him.
So I wonder if this is where Looney Tunes got the idea of the devil on one shoulder,
and the angel on the other shoulder.
It kind of seems like that's maybe where it came from or something, because that's exactly
what I think of as like, Satan's resisting you here, the angel of the Lord's over here,
something like that.
But the point is that the devil is standing and trying to resist the work of God.
He wants to kill us.
He wants to have God kill us.
He wants to have God punish us.
And he knows he's going to hell.
He has but a short time.
And so he spends a lot of his time walking to and fro in the earth, searching out people
that he can seek and devour.
And how does he do that?
Well, he gets God to do his dirty work.
And you're like, what do you mean he gets God to do his dirty work?
Well, if he can accuse us of something that's legitimate, then God will take it out on us
here on this earth.
It's like, say someone comes to you and your kid's being a brat or whatever.
They hit another kid.
And someone comes and says, hey, your kid is just awful.
They've done this, this, and this.
And then what is the right parent going to do?
If once they diligently seek out, whether it was true or not, of course, you don't just
spank without getting all the facts.
But what's going to happen, you're going to end up spanking your child because they did
something that they were misbehaving.
And so God will take out and punish his children.
The Bible says that he scourges every son whom he receiveth.
So that means every person that's saved still gets scourged, still gets spanked because
we are God's children.
And he's going to hold us accountable in a different way than he would some unsaved person
or some even reprobates.
They have the grace on this earth.
And then once they die, those people that are not saved, once they die, they go to hell
for all eternity.
Well, God, he punishes us as saved people on earth, but in heaven, we're in heaven forever
more.
There's no more punishment.
There's no more sin.
Take a look at Job chapter one.
Job chapter one.
And this is where we can really see how the things that Satan does, it's kind of given
us like an insight of how Satan operates through the book of Job.
The book of Job is a great book.
It teaches us that even when we haven't done something wrong, sometimes things can happen
in our lives.
And so just because something's wrong happened in your life, it doesn't mean that you actually
did something wrong.
So sometimes we have to be discerning on why things are happening.
And don't be discerning for other people.
Discern for yourself.
Don't be looking down your nose at other people and saying, well, that's because they were
late for church or whatever.
That's why their car broke down because they were late for church.
I mean, don't do that.
Don't be like Job's friends.
Job's friends came to comfort him, and Job ended up saying, miserable comforters are
you all.
So we don't want to be a miserable comforter.
We don't know sometimes the reason why things are happening in people's lives.
Sometimes it's just a test.
Sometimes it's just something that you're having to go through as a trial.
Now look at Job 1.6.
It says, now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before God.
Now the sons of God is talking about saved people.
And you're like, well, how are saved people in heaven going to God?
Well, because once you die, then you're absent from the body.
You're present with the Lord.
So whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
And so we're going to be up there with Him.
And so obviously there's saved people at this time, the time of Job.
And they're coming before God.
And it says, Satan and Satan came also among them.
So does Satan still have access to God in heaven?
Yes he does.
And then Job 1.7 says, and the Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou?
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
up and down in it.
So Satan has special powers and abilities apparently to walk to and fro in the earth
and from walking up and down in it.
So he has some fast traveling aspects to him.
And it says, and the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered My servant Job that there
is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth
evil?
Why is God bringing this up?
Because I believe that Satan's going to and fro in the earth looking for someone that
he can accuse of something.
And he probably has noticed Job.
And if you're living godly in Christ Jesus, he's going to notice you also.
Even if you're not living godly in Christ Jesus, he's going to notice you also.
But it says that, then Satan answered the Lord and said, doth Job fear God for naught?
Like is Job fearing God just because nothing bad is happening to him?
Hast not thou made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath
on every side?
Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land.
And so this is a testament to Job because God is blessing him tremendously because he's
probably the most righteous man on the earth in that time.
And he didn't do anything wrong to have all the things happen to him.
Look what it says in verse 11, but put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath
and he will curse thee to thy face.
So what is he doing to Job right here?
He's accusing him, he's pre-accusing him of something that he will do if God takes his
blessings in his life away.
And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, all that he hath is in thine power, only upon
himself put not forth thine hand.
So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.
So it's just really interesting that Satan is allowed to be in the presence of the Lord,
but he's the one that fooled Adam and Eve, he fooled Eve at least, and then Adam willfully
took of that fruit.
And so ever since then, Satan is called the God of this world, small g.
So he does run a lot of the affairs that are going on in this world.
He has people in high places, principalities, and powers, and so on and so forth.
And he has his own army, he's the general of his own reprobate army.
All the angels that fell from heaven, so to speak, all those angels, which is a third
of the angels, he took one third with him, and then all the people that he has on this
earth that serve him.
He has all these people, and what is their mission?
Not only to destroy Christianity and God's people, but he also wants to kill every single
person on the earth.
So these people that serve him, they don't realize that Satan is deceiving them and that
he just wants to kill them also.
All these rock stars that sell their soul to the devil, it happened a lot in the 60s
where they just started dying, they would be really popular, and then all of a sudden
they would just die.
They lose control and alcohol and drugs, and they're dying at like, I think Jim Morrison
died at like 27 years old, just in a bathtub in Paris someplace.
Of course we have a lot of stuff like that happen now, but why am I bringing that up?
Because the devil, he's like a net, and he wants to just drag as many people to hell
with him as he can, so he has his fingers in every single thing in our world trying
to stop people from believing in the right and true faith, which is faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
So Satan's accusations though, from what we've seen so far, are not always true, because
we know that that's not what Job does once God allows this stuff to happen.
So the Bible says that Satan is the king of the children of pride.
So just like the reprobates that trouble us, he is the one who they learned it from.
He's the one that orchestrates all this stuff.
Where do they get all these ideas to torment us and terrorize us all the time?
From their father, the devil.
His accusations though sometimes are true, but obviously some of them aren't.
He's the accuser of the brethren.
What do reprobates do to us?
They falsely accuse us of stuff all the time, and saying that we believe stuff that we don't
really believe, or saying that we're violent and trying to kill people, or trying to commit
genocide.
Like, show me one person that we've killed.
Show me one person, maybe we've slayed them spiritually, but we don't believe in violence
at this church.
But I'm just saying this is just an example of things that we get accused of that aren't
true.
We're accused constantly, and so where do they learn that from?
They learn it from the devil.
Look at Job chapter 2.
Job chapter 2, just one page over.
Job chapter 2 says, again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves
before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou?
And Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and walking
up and down in it.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him
in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil?
And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him, to destroy him
without a cause.
See, he moved God to destroy him.
So that's what he does.
And what I didn't read is how all of his children were killed, all of his wealth was taken,
and his wife, you know, basically was hating his guts, pretty much.
But he lost everything except for he still had his good health.
So Satan, you know, is coming to him again, and God is just like, have you considered
how great Job is?
And then verse 4 says, And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all
that a man hath he will give for his life.
So what's he trying to do?
He's trying to get God to allow him to physically do something to Job to make it, you know,
because I mean, it's one thing to be, you know, you're depressed about all this stuff
that's happened to you.
He's gone through the literally the worst day that you could possibly ever go through
and lost everything, lost his wealth, and more importantly, all of his children, all
ten of his children were killed, and everything that he had, but he still had his health.
And so Satan's saying, well, you know, maybe I was wrong about the last time, but what
about this?
And so he says, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath he will give for his life.
He's saying, you'll give up everything, but if your health is touched, then you'll give
it all up willingly, and you don't really care.
So it says, But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will
curse thee to thy face.
So isn't this another accusation?
He's accusing him, and let me say this too really quickly, that God will put a hedge
of protection in our life, just like he did with Job, but that protection can come down
based upon what God is allowing to happen, because you might be going through the valley
and everything's good and everything's right, but maybe there's a test that you need to
pass.
There's going to be testings.
Things can be taken away from you just like that.
And Job did not reply to God.
He never cursed God to his face, obviously, and even when God appeared to him in a whirlwind,
he still did the opposite.
Then he realized just all the stupid things he said.
He did say some stupid things, but give Job a break, he's going through the hardest thing
that anybody's ever gone through besides, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And look at verse 6, it says, And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand,
but save his life.
So why am I saying that it's a threat to Christianity that Satan himself accusing us is a threat
to Christianity?
Because it seems like that's what happens.
And so it can happen, it's a threat to Christianity, because some people don't pass the test.
Some people can't handle the trials, and then instead of handling the trials, and getting
through them, and doing what's right, staying in church, staying in your Bible, and yeah,
sometimes things, when things go wrong in your life, that's the last thing you want
to do, because for some reason we just like to blame God for the things that go wrong
in our life.
And really, a lot of times it's our own fault, or it's outside influences.
And yeah, maybe God allowed those outside influences to harm us, but you don't blame
God.
And there are tests in our life, there's tests of our faith.
Now turn to Ephesians chapter 6.
How do we fight against this?
Well, the Bible gives us some real good advice here by the Apostle Paul.
Because sometimes all you can do is all you can do.
But shouldn't we do everything that we can to try to resist the devil, to try to avoid
his traps?
The Bible says in Ephesians 6, 10, it says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord
and in the power of his might.
So we have to be strong in the Lord, not in our own strength, not in our own abilities,
but in the power of his might.
It says, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of who?
The devil.
So the wiles is the trickery, the things that he's putting into our lives.
And so God has given us this spiritual armor that we're supposed to put on.
This is an example that Paul is using and calling it the armor of God, because that's
what it is.
This is how we spiritually fight.
He's not saying go buy a suit of armor from medieval times and wear that around.
He's saying it's a spiritual armor.
It's the armor of God.
It says in verse 12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
See, we're not fighting a physical battle.
But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
So this is, you know, if you want to say, well, I don't believe in conspiracy theories,
this is Paul telling you there are conspiracies.
There are things happening in our world that we can't stop, we can't help.
And there are rulers of the darkness of this world.
There is spiritual wickedness in high places.
This is something that we are going to battle with as Christians for our whole life.
Because there's influences out there that we can't go against.
We don't have the power to fight.
So how do we fight?
Well, with the armor of God, it says in verse 13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor
of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.
What is the evil day?
Well, how about Job's evil day?
Evil means harm.
Job's life was harmed severely by the devil.
And not only that, he touched his health, just like God allowed him to touch his health,
but not to kill Job.
And so not only did he lose everything, but then his health is in bad shape.
He's covered with boils from the crown of his head to the bottom of his feet.
Now you might not know what that feels like because you've never had it happen before,
but I'm sure it wasn't very comfortable.
Boils?
Do you know what a boil is?
It's like a legion that forms in your flesh and fills up with fluid.
And that's why it says he's scraping them with a potsherd.
He's like just trying to get some relief from the pressure of these boils.
Just having one boil is bad enough, but having them all over your head, all over your whole
body, that was probably excruciating.
But how do we stand against the devil?
Well, we put on the whole armor of God that we can withstand in the evil day, and having
done all to stand, what's all you can do?
Putting on the armor of God.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about you with truth, and having the breastplate
of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
See, a lot of people like to preach about the armor of God, but they don't put this
part in there.
Most Baptist churches that I've ever been to, they never talk about this part of the
armor of God.
Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, that means you're
outgoing soul winning.
That's part of the armor.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye should be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which
is the word of God.
So God does give us protection, and he also gives us offensive weapons to be able to withstand
the devil, the wiles of the devil, the fiery darts that are going to be hurled at us in
our life.
If you think Christianity is just a walk in the park, it's all sunshine, and puppy dogs,
and butterflies, and green soft grass, you're mistaken.
We have to be able to endure as soldiers.
And again, that part doesn't get preached a lot.
Your life might be difficult sometimes, but is God just going to leave you in that state
forever?
No, it's a trial that you need to pass.
It's something that we have to be tested on, and in order to be tested, and for us to come
out as gold, we need to have the whole armor of God, we need to have the fear of the Lord,
and be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.
That armor isn't our armor, that's his armor.
But we have to don that armor in order to resist.
So number two this morning is the threat of making ourselves God's personal enemy.
And it kind of piggybacks off of what I was just saying, because when we do personal sin,
that's when he's going to go up and accuse us.
But he's also just going to say, well, hey, what if I do this to their life?
Are they going to still serve you, Lord?
Are they going to just spit in your face?
Are they going to quit church?
Are they going to quit soul-winding and doing the things that you've asked them to do?
And he's just constantly tempting, he's constantly accusing.
It says he's accusing us day and night.
That's a lot, isn't it?
And you think he doesn't know who you are?
Like when the seven sons of Sceva who were not even saved, they're these Jew exorcists
or whatever.
It's kind of like a Catholic exorcist, like they really have no power.
But these seven sons of Sceva, and they're like, then that demon-possessed person just
starts snatching these guys and beating them up and strip them naked and beat them and
wound them.
And before that he says, Paul I know, and Jesus I know, but who are thou?
So I mean, it's a scary thing, but if he knows who Paul is, he knows who Jesus is, he knows
who we are too.
If you're saved, he knows who you are.
Now number two, the threat of making ourselves God's personal enemy, well, how do you do
that?
Well, by being worldly.
That's how.
Look at James chapter four, verse four.
James chapter four, verse four.
The Bible reads, adulterers and adulteresses.
This could mean literally, this could be spiritually.
I tend to think it's more spiritual, but it says, know ye not, that the friendship
of the world is enmity with God.
That means when you're friends with the world, or worldly things, or you're a worldly Christian,
you're at enmity with God.
God's got a problem with you.
Isn't that what it's saying?
Whosoever, that means anyone, therefore will be a friend of the world, we're talking about
saved people here, is the enemy of God.
So is it possible to be saved and be an enemy of God?
Well, that's what the Bible says, folks, and you're like, well, Jesus just loves, that's
all he does.
Sometimes he gets angry.
He's not just one thing, folks, and this is Christianity 101 today.
God is love.
He doesn't reject anybody.
He loves everybody.
He loved the whole world, but he doesn't always stay loving those people.
If someone's the worst piece of garbage on the face of the planet, like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey
Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Elton John, I mean, God doesn't keep loving them, even though
they reject him to the point where they become a reprobate person.
So anyway, God says, whatsoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy
of God.
So you can make yourself God's enemy, and if you're a Christian, that is a threat to
your Christianity, because God, instead of wanting to bless you and put a hedge of protection
about you, he is having to spank you and correct you.
And there are sins unto death, and we shouldn't pray for people that are saved to die because
of their sins.
The Bible says that.
I don't say that you should pray for it.
There are sins unto death.
There are things that you could do that God would kill you for.
You're like, well, that sounds mean.
Well, you know, that's how God is, though.
He is a God of judgment.
He loves judgment.
You're like, well, the Bible says not to judge, again.
This is modern-day Christianity.
They'll say, we're not supposed to judge, but Jesus says, judge righteous judgment.
And the Apostle Paul said, I have judged already, not even being there.
So obviously, it's OK to judge.
We're just not supposed to be judges as hypocrites.
So God says, if you're going to be a worldly person, a worldly Christian, you love the
world like Demas, having loved this present world, then he's going to cloud up and rain
on you.
He's going to punish you, and he's going to be your enemy.
And you don't want to be, as a Christian, why would you want to be God's enemy?
That's like the worst thing that you could want, because there's no enemy more powerful
than he is.
None of your other enemies can see everything that you do, hear every thought you have,
know what's in your heart at all times besides God.
And so why would you want to make the supreme being, the supreme God, the only real God
that there is, your enemy by being worldly?
So it says, do you think that the scripture saith in vain the spirit that dwelleth in
us lusteth to envy?
And so our spirit fights against our spiritual man, our fleshly spirit fights against the
spiritual man, and wants us to do evil.
And it says lusteth to do evil.
Lusting means to desire to do, or excuse me, to do envy, not evil.
But envy is evil.
But it says, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth
grace unto the humble.
So if you hear like, well, you're not supposed to be a worldly Christian.
And then you're like, well, I don't care what the Bible says.
I don't care what the pastor says.
I don't care what God has to say.
Isn't that being proud?
You're puffed up.
You're proud about something that you want to continue doing.
It's like we all have these high places in our lives where we'll just say, well, everything
but that, Lord.
We serve you well, except for we still have the high places.
And whatever your high place is, I don't know.
But a lot of us, we still have some kind of idol in our heart.
That's why he says he adulterers and adulteresses.
Because sometimes we can be spiritual whores.
Sometimes we can be spiritual whoremongers.
We can be spiritual adulterers and adulteresses.
But what's it say in verse 7?
It says, submit yourself therefore to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
How are you going to resist the devil from getting involved?
You resist him by submitting yourself to God.
Instead of being worldly, instead of worrying about all these things in the world that you're
missing out on all the time, you can still have a good time as a Christian.
It's not like I'm up here saying, don't have fun.
I'm going to get some wooden benches next week so you can't be comfortable in your seats.
No more music, no more guitars, no more piano.
It's a cappella and we're going to have all the worst people sing louder than everybody
else.
I mean, we don't want this church to be uncomfortable.
We don't want our lives to be just boring all the time.
But people equate not being worldly with boring.
But I will submit to you that you can live a Godly life and not be bored.
Why don't you love the things that God loves and quit loving the things that the world
loves.
Quit trying to join in the world with everything.
Quit trying to be friends with the world on everything.
Quit trying to be friends with people that God hates.
And you're like, God hates?
Yeah, there's some people that God does hate.
And there's some people that we should avoid.
There's some people that shouldn't be allowed to step foot in this building.
So how do we get ourselves to not be worldly?
Well, it says, draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.
You get close to God, He's going to get close to you.
And He will cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
See, if you're worldly and a churchgoer at the same time, aren't you double-minded?
You're loving the world.
When you come to church, you're pretending to be this spiritual person or whatever.
And obviously, we all have an appearance in our public personas that might not be exactly
always.
If you've just gotten in a fight with your wife on the way here, but you're all just
like, yeah, everything's all good, but really inside you're just like, grrr.
Things like that happen.
Maybe you're not having the best day, but you know what?
You get here, you sing the songs of God, you sing the hymns, you sing the psalms, you
fellowship with the brethren, you go out soul-winning, you listen to the preaching,
you apply it to your life, and you know what?
You might not feel like it's so boring.
I love coming to church.
I love staying after church with people and talking with them and talking about the Bible
and talking about all manner of things.
I love fellowshipping with the saints.
I wouldn't trade that for anything.
Because what's really terrible is not being able to go to church, not having a good church
in your area.
I mean, there's churches that we planted in this state, and they kind of won the lottery
when it comes to, for lack of a better word, okay?
But they won, well, it doesn't always have to be money, all right?
You can win lotteries for other things, like deer tags.
But anyway, there's some churches in this state that are like our church, and it boggles
my mind when people, they get into church, they get comfortable, and then they just want
to go back to the world.
They want to forsake the things of God and live their life.
And I talked about that in my wedding sermon yesterday.
It's something that I see young married people do is they get away from their parents, they're
on their own and making their own rules, and then they decide, well, maybe I shouldn't
be as spiritual as I used to be.
Let's go have fun.
And you know what's not fun?
Your life being destroyed because God says you're worldly, and you become his enemy,
and you're at enmity with God.
That's the last thing I want.
I mean, obviously I have sin in my own life just like you all have sin in your own life.
And we should go to God and confess our sins every single day, not to be saved but to be
right with God.
Say, God, I've sinned before you.
I'm sorry.
That's humble.
Be humble.
Don't be proud and go, I don't think God really cares about that.
He's not talking about that.
He's not talking about my worldly thing that I do.
No, he is.
And here's the other thing.
Some people don't like when their sin gets touched on and church are like, are you preaching
against me?
Yes.
I am.
If this applies to you, then yes, I am preaching.
I'm preaching right at you.
And I'm not just like picking on a particular person.
I'm just saying, you know, when these types of subjects come up, you know, people love
the hard preaching against the homos.
They love the hard preaching against the Jews.
They love the hard preaching against all manner of things.
But when it comes to their sin or something that they're not doing right, they get all
offended and, oh, you're preaching against me.
I'm just not going to come back to church.
Man up.
Woman up.
Just take responsibility and own it.
Just own it.
You know, because if you don't own it, you're proud.
You need to be humble and not proud.
And yes, we're going to sin.
But go to God and be humble about it.
You know what?
He'll give you mercy.
God doesn't want to be your enemy.
He wants you to be on his side.
But how can you be on his side if you're worldly?
And he's saying, don't be worldly.
He says, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.
You've walked away.
He's never walked away.
He's always right there waiting for us like the father with the prodigal son.
He saw him a far way off when he just started to think, well, if I do this, this, and this
to come back, then he's going to accept me, he's going to do this, I'm going to tell him.
This is what I'm going to tell him.
He already had it planted out what he was going to say.
But when he comes and his father sees him, he runs towards him.
He sees him a far off.
So God wants us to be humble, but he never stops being there for us.
You stop yourself from allowing God to bless your life.
Humble yourselves in the sight of God and he shall lift you up.
You want to get lifted up?
You want to be where God is okay with you and not your enemy?
Well humble yourself in his sight like David did.
David was a man after God's own heart.
He humbled himself to God and that's why he was a man after God's own heart.
And then sometimes it's things that we say that will make God our personal enemy.
Look at Ecclesiastes 5.1.
Ecclesiastes 5.1.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 5.1, it says,
Keep thy foot, will now goest to the house of God,
which is where you're at today by the way,
and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools.
Some people think that just going to church and putting money in the offering plate is
making them right with God, but that's not what the Bible teaches at all.
It says, be more ready to hear.
When you come to church, you should be willing to hear what the Spirit says unto you through
the word of God and apply those things.
It's better to be ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider
not that they do evil.
God wants you to obey him.
Obedience is better than sacrifice, folks.
So it says, Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything
before God.
What is he saying?
You should be careful what you say.
Hasty means you're just always ready to puke out whatever you want to say.
In this context, it's like, let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God.
So don't be hasty.
Everybody's heard that term.
Well, let's not be hasty now.
Let's not just make a rash decision out of the blue.
It says, For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few.
You know how you stop looking like a fool, quit running your mouth.
Maybe learn to be quiet, like it says in the book of Thessalonians, chapter number four.
It says, Learn to be quiet.
Do your own business.
And don't just utter things before God without thinking about what you're saying.
It says, For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by
the multitude of words.
So if you keep your mouth shut, you don't look as foolish because you're not talking
all the time, right?
So a fool's voice is known by the multitude of his words.
God's saying, when you're before me, when you're in his house, it's better to just be
quiet instead of just running your mouth about everything.
Well, the church should be doing this.
Well, the church looks like that.
The pastor preached against this.
I don't agree with that.
I don't like this person.
Better be careful about how you talk about people and about the things of God in his
house.
It says, Better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not
pay.
And a vow is when you basically promise to do something.
Yesterday they said vows to each other.
They're called the I do vows.
And it's for richer or for poorer, and sickness and in health, and all these other things.
And they promised before God, they vowed before God that they would stay together for all
the days of their life.
She said that she was going to obey Ryan, and you heard her.
But when we vow to do that, and then we break those vows, and obviously I'm not beating
up on people that have been divorced and remarried.
If you didn't know it was wrong, now you do.
Just be the best spouse you can moving forward.
But for the sake of other people here that have not made that mistake, don't vow to be
with someone for the rest of their life in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer,
all those things, and then not really mean it.
It's better to not vow.
It'd be better to not get married than to vow a vow to somebody and then break it.
Because why?
Well, it says, Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin.
Neither say thou before the angel that it was an error.
I didn't really mean it, Lord.
I really didn't love her.
I really didn't want to stay together with her.
If you were saying that it was an error, look at what it says.
God's not going to just let you take that back.
It says, Wherefore, should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands.
And I'm just using marriage as an example, but anything that you say, I'm going to do
this.
I'm vowing to do this, which we shouldn't swear to do things.
But I believe swear and vow are a little bit different.
But I'm not talking about that necessarily.
I'm just saying, when you say you're going to do something with God, you better do it.
Because what's it say?
For in the multitude of dreams and many words, there are also vanities, but fear thou God.
When you say you're going to do something and you don't do it, God's angry at your voice
and he's going to destroy the work of thy hands.
Does that sound like he's your friend?
Sounds like he's your enemy, right?
And another way that you can make God your enemy is by willfully sinning without regard
to the seriousness of it.
And in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 28, and it's under the verses that talk about assembling
together on a regular basis and not forsaking the assembly, it says in verse 28, He that
despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses.
So when they received the death penalty, they despised what God said and they did it anyway.
They died without mercy.
You're like, God killed people?
He said, yeah, that's what it says, right?
Of how much sore punishment suppose he that he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified
an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace.
You're saved, you've accepted Christ as your Savior, but you count the things that he did
for you as an unholy thing?
Then it says, For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense.
So what's he saying?
God's going to take vengeance against you, isn't that what it's saying?
And then it says, And again, the Lord shall judge his people.
So yes, it is possible to become the enemy of God.
What are the threats to Christianity?
Well, there's a pretty strong threat from God himself that he will judge his own people.
And look what it says in verse 31, one of the scariest verses in the Bible, in my opinion,
is it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
As a saved person and an unsaved person, it's scary, right?
And now turn to Hebrews chapter 12 verse 25.
So it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God.
We don't want God judging us for all the wicked things that we're doing.
We should be able to get the basics right in our Christian life, folks.
The basics and then move on from the milk to the meat of the word.
In Hebrews 12, 25, it says, See that ye refuse, not him that speaketh.
Now in the context, it's talking about how Moses spoke the Ten Commandments and the people
were so afraid and the mountain's smoking, it's rumbling, there's this earthquake going
on, and they're hearing this voice that's telling them, thou shalt not commit adultery.
They're hearing the voice.
And in the book of Hebrews, Paul is kind of likening that to our Christian lives.
He says, See that ye refuse, not him that speaketh, for if they escaped not who refused
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh
from heaven.
So is it possible for a Christian to turn away from God?
Yes.
But it's not possible to lose your salvation.
This is where people just, they'll take a verse like this and they'll go, See, you can
lose your salvation.
You can turn away.
You can just quit believing.
No, that's not what it's saying.
It's saying that if you're going to have that attitude, then your life is going to get,
you're going to be punished.
You're going to be chastised for it.
And it says, if they're going to refuse a voice they heard on earth, we shouldn't refuse
the voice that we hear in heaven telling us, and that's obviously not an audible, the word
of God is in heaven right now, but it says, whose voice shook the earth, oh, I'm sorry,
if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, it's talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promise saying, yet once more
I will shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word, yet once more, signified the removing of those things which are shaken
as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
So I believe he's talking about the end times when there's this great earthquake and it
says heaven and earth are shaking, heaven and earth are on fire, all this other stuff,
and it says, wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
How does he expect us to serve him with reverence and godly fear?
That's the opposite of, you know, oh, I don't care what God says.
I'm saved, I can do whatever I want.
Yeah, you can, but there's consequences to those actions.
That's what I'm saying.
And we, you know, the threat from God to Christianity is if you're not living the Christian life,
then you're going to have some problems.
Not only is Satan just bombarding us or bombarding God daily and accusing us, but then we do
things ourselves that allow us to get accused.
We do things ourselves that God has to judge because he's the judge of the whole earth.
He's the judge of his own people, and the Bible says the Lord shall judge his people.
It's a fearful thing to fall into his hands, right?
So it says, verse 29, for our God is a consuming fire.
Now you're not going to hear that preached in most pulpits today, that God is a consuming
fire in the context he's not talking about unsaved people.
The context is he's taking examples of unsaved people and then applying them to saved people.
Because yes, God can become your enemy this morning.
By how you live your life and by the things that you love.
If you love the world, you're an enemy of God.
That's what the Bible, and you're like, well God so loved the world.
Yes, he loved the people, he wants them to be saved, but we're not supposed to pattern
our lives after the world, after Egypt, after Babylon, after Rome, or whatever.
And here's another thing that he will cloud up and rain on you about, is major sin.
Obviously you're like, major sin?
Well all sin is equal.
I like to use this example because it's a good one.
Stealing a pencil and shooting somebody in the face are two completely different things.
Wouldn't you agree?
How about stealing a million dollars versus stealing a pencil?
Which one's worse?
So are there greater sins?
Yes.
The ones that delivered Jesus the pilot, the Jews, had the greater sin.
And they'll have a greater damnation.
So turn to Hebrews 13, 4.
Hebrews 13, 4.
I only got a little bit of time left, but I'll try to keep this going fast.
So Hebrews 13, 4 says, Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled.
But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
And these are sins that will get you kicked out of church.
These are sins that will get your life destroyed.
God will judge your adultery.
God will judge the whoremongers of his people.
We killed 22,000 fornicators in one day in the Old Testament.
Now fornication isn't considered a sin that is punishable by death.
The punishment is you pay the dad and then you marry that person.
You're not supposed to just fornicate and then act like you're just getting away with
it scot-free.
You're not.
But if someone's a fornicator in this church, that means someone that's not married is committing
fornication, then they either can get right with God or they can get out.
But when it comes to adulterers, I believe that people should be able to reconcile their
marriages.
You can't get divorced.
You vow to vow, remember?
But I believe if someone's an unrepentant adulterer, someone that just doesn't care,
they're going to stay with that person anyway, then I will kick them out.
And I will not receive them back again until they make their marriage right.
And so the reason why fornicators are kicked out is because they need to get married.
They're committing an act that God does not want them to do.
It's a major sin.
Adultery is a major sin.
And then the other thing is siding with and loving wicked people and reprobates that hate
God.
So when we side with the wicked over God and his people and his men, then God is going
to be upset with you.
Look at 2 Chronicles 19, too.
This is a verse I've gone to quite a few times.
But do you think that you as a Christian, if you help and love the worst and most vile
people in this world, that God's going to be okay with that?
See, I get emails all the time by these people.
How dare you say that?
How dare you bring this up?
How dare you stop loving transgender people, and how dare you think that all homos are
going to hell?
Well, I'm just preaching what has been preached for thousands of years.
I'm just believing what the Bible says.
And this king that it's about to talk about here is not a bad king.
He's a good king.
But see, God is not a respecter of persons.
He's going to judge those people.
Look what it says in 2 Chronicles 19, too.
It says, And Jehu, the son of Hanani, the seer, went out to meet him and said to King
Jehoshaphat, Shouldst thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord?
Should you do that?
Should you help them?
Should you love them?
What's it say?
Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.
So God will cloud up and reign.
He will pour out his wrath upon you in this life for simply loving those people that God
hates.
Doesn't it say that they hate the Lord?
Well, guess what?
When you hate God, he hates you back.
It's like you draw an eye to him, he draws an eye to you.
You hate him, he hates you back.
Because if you hate God, that's a pretty strong feeling.
And that just shows that that person has been turned over to the reprobate mind.
They can no longer be saved.
So if that's true, which it is, then the Bible says that if you do those things, then you're
going to have wrath in your life.
So when these Christians, and maybe some of them do mean well, maybe they've been just
being taught garbage from their pulpits from their pastors and just saying, well, God never
gives up on anybody.
To the last final breath, they can get saved.
I agree that that's probably true in most cases, but there are some cases where that's
not true at all.
And the Bible says that people can be twice dead.
The Bible says that they can be clouds without rain.
And so when we love false prophets, like people always, if I condemn a false prophet, people
always message me or email me or something and they say, how dare you condemn that false
prophet?
You should be praying for him.
Did you talk to him before you preached that sermon?
It's like, do you think that Joel Osteen just got me on speed dial?
No, he doesn't.
If I called him, I probably would never get through to him.
Matthew 18 is for the local church.
It's not for outside the church.
So anyway, let's look at 1 Peter 3, verse 8.
Moving along here.
How do we avoid these pitfalls?
How do we actually avoid all this stuff?
I love this passage here from Peter.
It says, finally, be all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren,
be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrariwise,
blessing, knowing that you're thereunto called, that you should inherit a blessing.
How do you have a blessed life?
Well, he just told you how to have a blessed life.
For he that will love life and seek good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil,
and his lips that they speak no guile.
Let him eschew evil, that means avoid it, abstain from evil, and do good.
Let him seek peace and ensue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open under their prayers.
So is God watching over us?
Yes, he is.
Does he listen to what we have to say?
He listens to our prayers?
Yes.
It says, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
What's the context?
He's talking about saved people here, in my opinion, and it says, who is he that will
harm you, if you be followers of that which is good?
But and if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror.
Neither be troubled.
So are there people that terrorize us?
We all know that that's true.
It does happen.
There are these terrorists that hate Christians and try to destroy them.
But it's good if we suffer for righteousness' sake because we're getting rewards in heaven
for that later on, and maybe even in this life, but it says, but sanctify the Lord God
in your hearts.
That means what?
Set him apart.
He's special.
God's special.
Don't count his name as not special.
Don't count your Christian life through him as not special.
Hold him in your hearts as sanctified, and be ready always to give an answer to every
man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a
good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed
that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
He's basically talking about sometimes we're going to have trouble because of our righteousness,
but we also can have trouble with being unrighteous because it says, for it is better if the will
of God be so that ye suffer for well-doing than for evildoing.
It's better to suffer because why?
You're getting rewards.
You're going to get blessings.
You're going to get extra blessings.
But if you're doing evil, you're getting punished anyway.
You're still going through that same stuff, but it's for being bad, and you're not getting
rewards.
You're lacking rewards because of that.
We have two options.
If you're living a righteous life, yeah, you're going to suffer persecution, but it's better
to suffer persecution for living righteously than it is to suffer from God beating you.
It's better to be beaten for being righteous, basically, is what it's saying.
Last thing, and I'll go through this really quickly, but the last threat from above, I
would say, would be the threat of making our church an enemy of God through heresy and
compromise.
So, I talk about Satan and how he accuses the brethren, and sometimes it's false accusations.
Sometimes it's true, and I showed ways that we can avoid that by putting on the armor
of God.
And then, of course, we have the second one, which is our personal sin, the things that
we do, living worldly.
Those types of things, major sins, being hasty with your mouth, all those things, are another
way that God can be a threat to our Christianity.
And then, number three, the threat of making our church an enemy of God through heresy
and compromise.
This has just always bothered me, but I know that there's an unbroken chain of believers
from the beginning and still is.
I think about the churches that it talks about in Revelation.
Go ahead and turn to Revelation chapter 2.
But it bothers me that they're not there still.
It bothers me that any of these places does not ... I didn't look them all up, so if you're
going to fact check me later on about this, and I miss some great fire-breathing, preaching,
independent Baptist church in Ephesus, then I looked.
I made diligent inquisition to try to find one.
I found Baptist churches in some of these places, but then when I look, they're saying
what we believe, and then it has NLT next to the scripture.
I wouldn't go to that church.
So anyway, look at Revelation 2, 4, it says, Nevertheless, I have someone against thee.
He gives the positives, but then he gives negatives.
It says, Nevertheless, I have someone against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
So when we lose our first love, who should our first love be?
God, right?
And it says, Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first
works.
The first works that Jesus asked the disciples to do were what?
Yeah, follow me, and I'll make you to become fishers of men.
So our love for our neighbor helps us to love God more.
And so when we've lost our love for God, when we're not as loving or think upon him as fondly,
because we're pretty fickle people sometimes.
But when that happens, as a church, you know, it's not just one individual here, it's talking
about to the whole, you know, I'm sure there was good people in the church that weren't
like this, but I feel like that this was happening on a scale where God has to step in and do
something about it.
And it says, They just quit sowing me.
That's what it is.
Repent and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy
candlestick out of its place, except I'll repent.
What do the seven golden candlesticks represent in Revelation?
The churches.
I will remove your candlestick from its place.
That means you will cease to be a church.
And guess what?
This church is not there anymore.
So maybe they got it right from the letters.
But you know, it's been a while.
It's been a couple thousand years now, and I don't know how long there was a true Baptist
church or a true church that believed the right doctrine, okay?
How about that?
But there was a guy called John the Baptist, and I'm okay with being called a Baptist.
So anyway, but what happens?
Well, if you won't repent and get it right, if the pastor of the church won't go soul
wanting, if he doesn't have a soul wanting program, the people have lost their love for
soul wanting.
You got one and two people showing up to the Times and things like that, then, you know,
it just means that we just need to get our love back.
We need to go back soul wanting.
And in order to stay a biblical church that is lacking compromise and lacking heresy,
and we want to put our love back into where it belongs to love the Lord our God with all
of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as thyself, this is Jesus'
recipe for getting your church right.
But there's churches all over this city right now that aren't even real churches.
Their candlestick has been removed a long time ago if it ever was a real church.
If a church is a Pentecostal church and they believe they teach you have to repent of your
sins or in a oneness God or in rolling on the floor with demonic tongue talking, then
that's not a legit church.
If they teach you can lose your salvation, that's not a legit church.
But you can be a church that's got some messed up things about it, like the Church of Corinth.
I mean, Paul wrote a couple letters to them and they had a lot of problems, didn't they?
But I don't remember it saying that they had a problem loving people and going soul wanting.
So what is a threat to the Christian church?
Well, God is also a threat to that Christian church because if they stop being what they're
supposed to be and they're not really a church of God, then he'll destroy that place.
And that church was a legit church.
The Church of Ephesus, Paul planted that church.
There's a book called the Book of Ephesians.
It's to the Ephesian believers.
We can read about it in Acts chapter 20.
We can read about it in other chapters of the Bible.
This was a legit church.
It was a great church and Paul even warned the elders of Ephesus that grievous wolves
were going to come in, not sparing the flock.
And then Jesus writing this letter, this is a red letter edition.
If you have a red letter edition in your Bible, this is the words of Jesus here.
He says he is going to remove that candlestick out of its place.
And so I don't want this church to become a compromising, heretical church.
I don't want this church to stop soul wanting and stop loving God.
Look at the Church of Pergamos.
Verse 13, it says, I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seed is,
and thou holdest fast my name, and has not denied my faith, even in those days wherein
Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
So this is a place where Satan dwells, and there's martyrdom happening.
He loves this church, but it says, but I have a few things against thee.
Because thou is there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling
block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit
fornication.
That's a weird thing to be teaching in the church, the opposite of what God says.
He's teaching them to eat sacrificed things, and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
So I don't know if the Nicolaitans are connected with those things, or if that's what the Nicolaitans
were, these people that were teaching these false doctrines in their church.
But it says, repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against
them with the sword of my mouth.
Who's he fighting against?
He's fighting against a church that was a legitimate church, and it got all messed up
in its doctrine, and started compromising, allowing these people to come and stay in
their church, and then throw them out like they were supposed to, and then the enemy
just takes over.
This is what happens to Baptist churches too.
Maybe you'll have a pastor that's preaching right, and when he retires or resigns or moves
to another church or whatever, he's preaching salvation by faith alone and all these things,
and then you get some repent of your sins heretic that comes in and steps in as the
pastor and just slowly destroys that church.
And they're slick with it.
But we don't want the doctrine of Balaam in here.
We don't want the doctrine of the Nicolaitans to come to this church, because I don't want
God to fight us with the sword of his mouth.
Now the last spot I'll have you, and it's just verse 19.
The church of Thyatira says, I know thy works in charity and service and faith in thy patience
and thy works, and the last to be more than the first.
So he always gives them something good.
They're doing something good.
Now withstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel,
which calleth herself a prophet.
So you've got a woman preacher in this church, and what's she teaching?
To teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication.
So number one, she's not supposed to speak in the church at all.
She's not supposed to be preaching.
And then you're definitely not supposed to be teaching people to commit fornication and
eat things sacrificed to idols.
So she's teaching kind of the same things that the people at Pergamos were teaching.
So there's always going to be these wolves and these weirdos that try to come in with
false doctrine, and we have to be staunchly against those things.
We can't suffer false doctrine to be in our church and heresy, because heresy leads to
compromise.
I was watching a video about the Waldensies, and they can trace back their lineage as Christian,
and they were like Baptists.
But you know where they compromised in the 1500s, after they'd been enduring all this
persecution, they had a meeting with some reformed theologians or whatever, and they
basically compromised some of the things that they believed.
And so the Waldensies, I believe, were just like Baptists today.
I mean, they believed in salvation by faith, they believed in internal security, they even
believed in the reprobate doctrine.
There's a book called The Martyr's Mirror, and there's accounts of the Waldensies and
what they believed, and one of them they said, because when they're disputing with
the Calvinists about stuff, they're like, we believe that reprobates get that way from
their own ways.
So it's like they were right about that too.
But then they compromised with the Calvinists, and then now you look back and you see history
of Anabaptists that were sprinkling babies and believing in Calvinism.
But how did they get there?
They finally allowed themselves to be compromised because they were tired of fighting, they
were tired of going through it.
And the Waldensies, they believed in regular baptism, like you're supposed to, but then
they changed when they compromised with the Calvinists.
So look, folks, Calvinism is a wicked belief, it's a wicked doctrine, it's not true, all
five points of Tulip are wrong.
My point is that God's going to give us some space to repent.
If we have some errors in our church, or we have people committing errors in our church,
He's going to give us, He's not going to just, it says He'll come quickly over some things,
but He's going to give us space to repent.
It says, I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her, into great
tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
And I will kill her children with death, that doesn't sound nice, and all the churches shall
know that I am He which searcheth the reigns and hearts, and I will give unto every one
of you according to your works.
So you want to do wicked works, well God's going to judge you according to those things.
Now I'm not saying you're going to lose your salvation, I'm just saying that God will,
just like He has the devils, we already have a lot of things going against us, the devils
constantly accusing us of things, and then we have our own personal sins to deal with,
but then when we allow these types of things to enter into the church and fester, and the
church goes wrong in doctrine, then we've failed, and God's going to go, taking this
candlestick away.
And I want this candlestick to last for a long time.
And however long it takes before the Lord Jesus comes back, I want Sure Foundation Baptist
Church to be a church that's not full of compromise, not full of heresy, not full of wicked people
but a church that God will look at and say, I love this church, I might have a few things
against you, but this is still a legitimate church.
So just as a final statement, the threats from above are directed by what God's people
do below, in most cases.
So number one was the threat of the devil's accusations against us, it's a threat to our
Christianity, and number two, the threat of making ourselves God's personal enemies, that
is also a threat to our Christianity.
And the threat of making our church an enemy of God through heresy and compromise, that
is something that only we as the church can, I mean, that's a decision solely based on
our own vigilance and diligence in making sure that this church is right on doctrine
and not filled with wicked people, and the wicked need to go.
So anyways, let's pray, Lord, we thank you so much for this great assembly here of believers.
I pray, Lord, that you would help us today as we go out soul winning, and I pray that
you just bless our fellowship, Lord, thank you for all these people that came this morning
to hear your word, and I pray that we would apply these things to our life and think on
these things and meditate about these things in you, Lord, and that we would always be
vigilant about how the devil is accusing us and not give him space to do that.
I pray that you would help us to not just be filled with sin, Lord, in our personal
lives, and Lord, that if we do sin, we would confess those faults to you and those sins
to you, and Lord, I pray that you would help our church to stay pure and filled with great
doctrine and that we would love you, Lord, we would love other people and try to bring
them the truth and that this church would never fizzle out or be removed by you, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.