(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 I want to begin by thanking Pastor Shelley for the opportunity to preach the Word of God today. It's always exciting to do that. And we're there in Titus chapter 2. We'll start in verse 1 where the Bible read, But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Immediately this chapter, it opens with an insistence for us to have sound doctrine. That's so important. And it's too bad because a lot of Christian churches don't emphasize their teachings. They don't emphasize what they believe. And so it leads to a culture of who cares? Does it really matter? Let's listen to the 15 minutes soliloquy and go to grab some lunch, right? They don't really care. That shouldn't be us. We should have sound doctrine. We should care about the teachings of the Bible as Christians. And you know what we say should constitute right doctrine. That's what we should hold to. And I believe that's what's being emphasized here in Titus chapter 2. Now I have with me a prop. It's this packet right here. Just a couple of sheets of paper. And I don't know if you can call it a prop. Call it whatever you want. But my point is I have this. This is the core beliefs of Steadfast Baptist Church. Now let me just say that I agree with 100% of what's written on here. Every, not word, letter. Every letter. I love it all. This is all great. And how could I not? I'm a Christian. A lot of this is fundamental stuff. I mean it talks about the word of God in here. The King James Bible is the preserved word of God in English without any error and is word perfect. I can't help but just want to like preach that right now. Right? I mean that's awesome. It's great stuff. Salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith. If I disagreed with that somebody dragged me out of here right now. Hell. Everyone who does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation will spend eternity in constant torment of flames of hell. Doesn't mince any words. I like that. I'm not going to go through the whole thing but we have eternal security discussed here. The Trinity which was touched on in the morning service. Some doctrine on the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. Baptism. We're a Baptist church. So it's good to see that our view on baptism is outlined here in this doctrinal statement. Which by the way we're not going to be sprinkling any babies any time soon. We've got a baptismal right there. If you're saved and you haven't been baptized wait till Pastor Shelley returns and he'll dunk you right there. That's what we believe. And there's a bunch of other things. Some doctrine on church. Doctrine on creation. Hey I love learning about how God created the world in six literal days. There's other important teachings on here as well that you could argue are secondary. Meaning that they're not damnable heresies if you disagree with them. But we have our view on the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ which this church is a post-tribulation, post-tribulation, pre-wrath rapture believing church. Which means we don't agree with this idea that Jesus could come back at any moment. And you know what helps our side of the argument on this is that the Bible literally says after the tribulation. But that's a whole different topic for a different time. We have views on sin, talks about alcohol, talks about all fornication, sodomy, homosexuality, bestiality, pedophilia. It's all brought up here as sin. Talks about the death penalty. Talks about false doctrines as well. So I love this. And here's the thing. I'm standing right now in a room filled with people who probably, you know, let me put it to you this way. You all acquiesce to what's on here. Most of you. A vast, vast majority. There may be visitors who are new. Babes in Christ. I get that. But in general we adhere to this collectively and that's great. There's unity there. I appreciate that. And Titus 2, look at verse 6. Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity. Our doctrine should be uncorrupt. It shouldn't be mixed with heresy. It shouldn't be mixed with lies. It should be pure. And that's what we have here. Praise the Lord for it. That's what we have here. It should be precise. It should be dialed in. It should be biblical. It should be biblical. It should be true. And it is. Here's the thing. There are a lot of people out there who are looking for a church like this. They may not necessarily know it yet though. And here's what I mean by that. Obviously right now our society is going insane. I think we can all agree. Things are going crazy outside of these walls. And thank God I have a church I can go to to be around normal people on Wednesdays and Sundays or else I don't know what I would do. I'd lose my mind. But my point is right now a lot of people are waking up to just how corrupt leftists are. And the Democratic Party and the Jews. People are noticing these things. And they're looking for a home. They're looking for a community. They're looking for a church that they can go to where they can be unified on doctrine. A unified force with a common mission. And they may not know about a lot of these things that I brought up yet. They may need a soul winner to expound it to them about how to be saved and then disciple them on the other issues I brought up. But my point is there are people searching for something out there. And unfortunately as a result they get sucked into bad churches. They may get sucked into some false prophet's church because they happen to believe politically the same as them. And they may get distracted with the political fight instead of serving God. There's certainly a lot of Christians doing that. But they're searching for something. And so that's where Steadfast Baptist Church can come in. Because what we can do, what we can achieve as a church is we can say, hey, why don't you come join a group of people who love the Lord. Who want to do something great for the Lord Jesus Christ. Who want to make a difference in America. Not carnally by getting involved in the carnal fight. But rather by getting involved in the spiritual fight. Here's the problem though. If you don't mix sound doctrine with good works, how exactly do you think you're going to appeal to people? Now look, I'm not preaching lifestyle evangelism here. I get it. We go knock people's doors and we go straight into the gospel and we preach the gospel and we show them how to be saved. And I agree 100% with that obviously. But I do believe that having good works to match this doctrine will only make us more effective. It'll only make this church more appealing. It'll help grow this place. Now let me say this. I believe we should strive to make this as appealing and palatable as possible for the outside world. Here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying we should compromise on anything in here. We will never compromise on anything in this doctrinal statement. We shouldn't. That's a lot of bad churches are doing thinking that they're accomplishing something by gathering a large crowd into a group that doesn't necessarily even adhere to scripture anymore. We will not compromise and we shouldn't compromise. We should stand firm on what the word of God says. But in addition to that, while standing firm, let's make sure we represent this in the best way possible because it can only make us more effective. It can only make us more effective. So I have a challenge for the church this evening. Look at verse nine, exhort servants to be obedient under their own masters and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity that they may watch this part right here. Adorn the doctrine of God, our savior in all things. So it says here that servants should be obedient to their masters. And what I believe this is describing is the employer employee relationship that we have today. That's how you can apply it. And it's saying they should be obedient. Please their master in all things, not purloined, which is talking about stealing. Don't steal. Have honesty. That's what fidelity is referencing. Why? To adorn the doctrine of God. We've dotted our doctrinal I's at Steadfast Baptist Church. We've crossed our doctrinal T's. But how about we now adorn our doctrine with righteousness? How about we make sure that we adorn what we believe with righteousness, with godliness, with faith, love, patience, meekness, all these attributes that the scripture tells us are important. And so the title of my sermon is adorn your doctrine. Adorn your doctrine. And the reason why I say your doctrine is because this is inside us right here. And this isn't just biblical. We own this. We own this right here. This is our doctrine. You say, I don't agree with 100 percent. Maybe there's some secondary issues that you're not quite on board with, whatever the case may be. The reason you're sitting here is because something appealed to you that was in this doctrinal statement, I would think. And so this is our doctrine. And we need to clothe ourselves in the appropriate apparel suitable for this. And think about this. We do this carnally every day. We wear things that we think will be suitable. I mean, you don't see me in a wife beater right now. Imagine that. What if I'm wearing what if I was wearing clown shoes? What if I had a mohawk? What if I was in a dirty, greasy, white trash, stained wife beater? I apologize, you know, for the imagery there. Here's the thing. You would be like, this is weird. Rightfully so. But it doesn't change what I believe. It's just that I'm expressing it in a very poor way that makes what I believe look bad. Well, here's the problem, is that there's Christians, they may have this right, but they're making it look bad by their lifestyle. They're making it look bad by the way they conduct themselves. Let that not be you. You know, the Bible says, only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. What does that mean, become it? It's suitable for. Our conduct should be suitable for the gospel. It should be suitable for what's in here. It should be suitable for what we believe. Turn, if you would, to 1 Timothy chapter 2. Paul said, thou hast fully known my doctrine. He owned it. It was his doctrine. It was biblical. It was righteous. It was, you know, obviously what the Bible said. We need to adorn that. We need to adorn that. And this concept is taught, 1 Timothy 2, look what it says in verse 9. In like manner also, 1 Timothy 2 and verse 9, in like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame, face, and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh or is suitable for women professing godliness with good works. So we have here an exhortation for women to adorn themselves with these positive attributes and really to sum it up, what do we have? Good works. Adorn your doctrine with good works. Turn, if you would, to Psalm 132. Psalm 132. Exodus, I'm sorry, you turn to Psalm 132. Ephesians 6 says this, for which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Paul says he's an ambassador. We are ambassadors for Christ. How are you representing him? Think of the evil, wicked ambassadors the United States sends abroad. Some of them sodomites. How do you think that makes our country look? You know, in the same way, when we go out into this world, heck, even the way we conduct ourselves in here, we need to have the mentality that says we are ambassadors for Christ. Our behavior matters. Our conduct matters. Why should we adorn our doctrine? To make it look good. And if you've done that, you know, the Bible in 1 Peter 3, it talks about, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts 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. And there's multiple ways to look at that scripture. One of the ways I apply it is that we should be ready to give an answer for how it's possible for us to remain positive in the midst of persecution. And then the very next verse, it says 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. So here's some motivation for you. You have enemies, believe it or not, if you're a Christian. That's inevitable. We all have enemies who mock and scoff at the word of God. But here's what you have to understand about these enemies. They're waiting for you to fall on your face so that they can say, I told you so. I told you that church was a cult. I told you you shouldn't have gone there. I told you what you believe is crazy. I told you you're an extremist. I told you that wasn't the right direction to go down. That's how they are. They're waiting for you to fall on their face. And if you complete your story, if you finish your story, if you do what's right. And you never waver from the Christian life, you never give up on the Christian life. You can shut their stupid mouth. They could be ashamed. They'll be let down. Oh, wow. They didn't crash and burn like I thought they would. They're doing better than ever. Their kids are well behaved. God's providing for them. They can pay the bills. They're able to get by just fine. They've never been happier. They have this joy about them that I've never seen before in their life. And that's a positive testimony. Psalm 132 is where I had you turn. Look at verse 9. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness. Psalm 132 and verse 9. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness and let thy saints shout for joy. Righteousness there could mean the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I get that. But I also think we can look at this as adorning ourselves with carnal righteousness as well. We know the priests, they wore linen, picturing good works. And so we should also cover ourselves with good works because that's what other people see. That's what they're able to observe. Turn back if you would to Titus chapter 2. So let's get into some specifics. And as part of the application, I want to make sure that I stick to mostly Titus chapter 2 because I think this chapter gives us plenty of things to adorn our doctrine with. So I'll be sticking to things that emanate from this chapter mostly. Look at verse 9. Titus 2 and verse 9. Exhort servants to be obedient under their own masters and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Not purloining is not stealing, not skimming off the top. And in the context of your job, what this is referring to is not stealing from your employer. The first point I wanted to make is adorn your doctrine with integrity. Adorn your doctrine with integrity. Those with no integrity, they will do wrong the second they feel they can get away with it. But here's the problem with that. If you actually believe in God, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have to understand you're never outside of His purview. He's always watching you. Even if you may think that you're alone, He's watching you on the job. He's watching if you're slacking off. And He's watching if you're stealing behind your boss's back, which is wicked as hell. Showing all good fidelity is honesty. It is integrity. The quality of being honest, moral, upright, no matter what. Even if you feel like you're not being watched. And for some of us men who go out into the workforce, we may not have a boss who's just like breathing down our neck and is one of these, what's the term here? They're really like uptight and watching everything you do. Thank you. Micro-manager. You guys want to come up and finish the sermon for me? No, I appreciate that. Micro-manager, right? And so, as a result, you have to have the integrity to work hard anyway. Now, there's a career expert website which said this. 75% of employees admit to stealing from their employer at least once. Now imagine, your boss knows you're a Christian. Somehow, someway, it's going to seep out, folks, all right? You can try and hide. It's going to seep out eventually. They know that and they catch you stealing behind his back. How do you think that makes this look? You tell me. Do you think his chances of visiting your church go up or do they go down if you are stupid, if you're a punk, if you act like a punk on the job? What do you think? How do you think that makes this look? You might as well adorn this with clown shoes then. You might as well adorn this with something that looks horrible. Do you really want to do that? Is that how you want to represent these doctrines? I don't think so. Employee theft costs employers up to $50 billion annually, this website said. Approximately 95% of U.S. businesses are affected by employee theft. Typically, how this will work is maybe you have someone manning the cash register and they're in an isolated area or so they think and they take some money and pocket it and they think they can get away with it. Proverbs 20 says, the just man walketh in his integrity. His children are blessed after him. So the just man walks in integrity, adorns his beliefs with it and that should be us. Another attribute of someone with integrity is working hard, working hard on the job. Again, maybe you don't have a micromanager who's looking at every single thing you do under a microscope. Are you going to work hard anyway? As unto the Lord? Because that's what the Bible says. You're actually working unto the Lord Jesus Christ. What if Jesus gave you the project you're working on in your job right now? Would you slack off on it or would you get it done? When you put it that way, I think it adds more gravity to it. You say, yeah, but I work at Walmart. Hey, work at Walmart with your might then. You say, I dig ditches on the side of the road. Well, dig those ditches with your might. Put your heart into it. You say, well, you know, I'm just an administrative assistant. I have a lowly job. Whatever the job is, I get it. It's not perfect and there are days that suck. I understand that. But put your heart into it and God will bless you and you never know, maybe he'll be responsible for you getting a promotion because he sees your integrity. He sees how you are adorning your doctrine with integrity even when no one's looking. And maybe you get a promotion as a result. It would be a shame in my mind if you were lazy, if you were skimming off the top, and you were outperformed by the atheist in your company. What if you were outperformed by the Jew in your company? What if you were outperformed by the Islamicist in your company? I mean, what if it's like a woman with a garbage bag on her head and she's doing better than you? I mean, that'd be a shame. We should be the best at our jobs. My second point is this, adorn your doctrine with obedience. Titus 2 is where you should be. If not, head back over there. And we'll look at verse 9 again. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters. Obedience means that you please the boss. You don't answer again. You don't talk back. You're easy to work with. Respect and obedience go hand in hand, folks. They go hand in hand. Because it's possible for you to do what your authority says, but have this grimace about your face that you would rather be anywhere else. All right, fine. Is that really obedience? Like, have a good attitude about it is what I'm trying to say. Have respect for the boss. You know, the Bible talks about submitting to each other, and I believe the context of that is at church because here at church we have authority. You think about the soul winning time. Whoever's in charge of that soul winning time is my authority. When I go to Brother Jason's soul winning time, he's in charge. What he says goes. If he pairs me up with so and so, I'm going with so and so. Oh, I don't want to go with him. You know, me and him have a beef. Well, too bad. That's who he paired me up with. You know, the reality is we need to submit to authority, even at the local church level, and there's different authority figures in church. Think of your tribal chief, your leader, the leader of your tribe. What he says is what we're going to follow. You know, mine happens to be Brother Milstead. And you know what? What Brother Milstead wants to do with the tribe, I will follow. That is the authority structure. And of course the pastor. What the pastor says goes. You say, I want a democracy. You can go anywhere else then, where the church is run by a deacon board of women who feel like they're in charge. They're large and in charge, feminists with a bull dyke haircut. And yeah, go ahead. You can go there. But here we got a man of God in charge, and what he says goes. Because guess what? He follows the word of God. He follows the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Apostle Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. Follow me as I follow Christ. Some guys are, oh, I don't follow any man. You holier than thou. I don't follow any man. Give me a break. All right, you just, I'm not going to get distracted with that. All right, here's the thing. You look at Daniel. You think Daniel had a righteous boss? What do you think of Nebuchadnezzar? I mean, that's a godly Christian right there, right? Nebuchadnezzar, man, that is a model Christian. Because some people say, well, my boss is wicked. I can't follow him. How about Nebuchadnezzar? How about Pharaoh? Did Joseph succeed in Egypt? The answer is yes. And the last time I checked, Pharaoh's not a fundamental Baptist. Nebuchadnezzar, not a fundamental Baptist. And you know what the Bible says about Daniel? I won't have you turn there, but it talks about how he found them, Daniel, Mishal, Azariah, you know, basically Hananiah as well. One of the main characters in Daniel, these three men right here, it says that they were ten times better. We should be ten times better as Christians. We should be ten times better, not as a prideful thing, but to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. To glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Look, if you would, at 1 Peter chapter 3, the Bible says to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Uh-oh. You know, the Bible's diametrically opposed to feminism. Because what does feminism say? Marriage, as far as authority is concerned, is 50-50. It's trash. It's trash. I don't believe it. The Bible doesn't teach that. It says women should obey the husband. The husband is the boss. He's the authority. He's the boss. 1 Peter chapter 3, look at verse 1. Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may, without the word, be won by the conversation of the wives. That word conversation, it's sort of an older way of describing behavior. And it's saying here that your behavior as a wife can win over other people. It can win over other people to the faith because I don't care what anyone says, every man out there deep down wants a submissive wife. And they may say differently, but that's because they've got some soy in the tank. 1 Peter 3, it says in verse 5, for after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God, watch this, adorned themselves. That's the whole purpose of the sermon, adorning oneself with good works. And these women adorned themselves with what? Being in subjection, it says, unto their own husbands. It's amazing because I just finished talking about the boss at work. Plenty of women have no problem going to a secular job and obeying the boss at work. That's totally fine. They'll say, yes, sir. They'll get him coffee. They'll do whatever. But then when they get home, the gloves are off. And it shouldn't be that way. Verse 6 says, Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. So the Bible's talking about subjection, which is, I believe, manifested by not just doing what you're told, but also having reverence for your husband. And that's what it's describing here. Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. So it's talking about reverence. She had reverence for her husbands. And I think wives should revere their husbands. You say, this is imbalanced. No. I think husbands should love their wives. That's what the Bible says. Likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. So yeah, we should love our wives as well. There's a responsibility on our shoulders to do that. I'm not Islamic. I'm not saying, I'm not saying, put them in a garbage bag and chain them up or whatever they do in the Middle East, the hellhole out there. You know, I'm not saying that. I don't think we should treat our women like Muslims do at all. The Bible is balanced. But yes, it does say that women should not only be in subjection to their husband, but revere their husband. Again, no issue saying yes, sir, to some random boss that hates them probably. And then at home, it's like just blasphemy for me to preach that they should say yes, sir, to the husband. Now, I'm not necessarily prescribing that to this passage, meaning your wife is godly and righteous if she doesn't say that. Maybe you have your own thing. Every couple has their own thing. Babe, I don't know, I've never used babe with my wife, but maybe that's what you call your husband. Whatever, you have your word. God bless you, that's awesome. You go with your word. I personally, I like to be called sir in the house. That's my personal thing, and that's my personal opinion. If you have something else, great, go with it. The point is, revere your husband. That's the point I'm making, whatever word you choose. Now, if you would flip back to 1 Peter 2. You know, Proverbs 20, it says, even a child is known by his doings. The children in this room should adorn their doctrine as well. With what? Obedience. To who? Their parents. And it makes this look good. You say, what are you talking about? I've heard testimonies of families in this church going to restaurants and complete strangers walking up to them and saying, wow, I can't believe how well behaved your children are. Because the children of this world are taking the food probably and just throwing it all over the place, banging dishes together. They can't control them without the iPad. They've got to put them in front of a screen, but there's families in this church where they can take their kids out to a restaurant and they're sitting and they're well behaved and people look at that and they say, wow, that's amazing. That's fantastic. Now, they don't necessarily want to hear about how you did it. You know what I mean? But here's the thing. The results, the fruit is there and it makes this look good. It makes this look good. You know, what to God? People wouldn't look at a family that's well dressed, the man dresses like a man, the woman dresses like a woman and they're clean cut and they've got everything figured out and they don't just assume, oh, they must be apostolic. They must be Mormon. You know, people, they did that to us. I remember I was out to dinner with a family in this church and somebody chimed in to our conversation because we happened to be talking about the Bible, which I guess is this foreign concept, and they automatically, oh, are you guys Latter-day Satans? Excuse me, Latter-day Saints? Are you Latter-day Saints? Are you Mormon? Are you Mormon? No, no. How about this? We make it so that when people see straight-laced families, they assume, oh, that must be a fundamental Baptist family. Let's get our reputation right. And you know what, children, yes, your parents should be instructing you and the onus is on them to do that, but you children, you have the ability to make our teachings look good. You have the ability to make this church look appealing because people want well-behaved children. And if they see you out in public obeying mom, obeying dad, sitting down normally at the restaurant or wherever you may be, you're making the Lord Jesus Christ proud and you're representing His doctrine well. 1 Peter 2, it says, Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may buy your good works, which they shall behold glorify God in the day of visitation, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. So the Bible's saying here that we should have our behavior honest among the Gentiles, honest among this world to glorify God. And that's the theme of this entire sermon, adorning our doctrine with good attributes. But then the very next verse talks about submitting to authority, and I believe in terms of government, every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. And I don't think that's coincidental because I think that's part of having good behavior in the sight of the Gentiles being law-abiding. Let me tell you something. You don't have to worry about a bunch of fundamental Baptists taking to the streets to riot and destroy businesses for a reason. And we need to retain that reputation as law-abiding citizens. We follow the law. We're not deranged leftists who shoot presidential candidates. We're not deranged. We're not crazy. No, we're not domestic terrorists even though they want to paint us that way. They're the domestic terrorists. Let them have that mantle. No, we adorn our doctrine by obeying the law. We adorn our doctrine by paying our taxes, following the rules, the regulations, be respectful to the police. Now, I'm not saying that we compromise on the Bible if there's some law that says it's illegal to go soul-winning. If it's illegal to go to church, you'll find me at church. If it's illegal to read the Bible, I'm reading my Bible. We obey the higher powers. And there are times where it's more profitable to obey God rather than men. I get that. But when it's not in conflict with this, as dumb as it may seem, we obey the law. And what I mean by that is there are going to be some rules and regulations out there passed down by the government that we don't like. But if it's not in conflict with this, we go with it. We obey it. That's what the Bible teaches. And that's what we emphasize as a church. People want to attack us, and they say like, Oh, you preach murder. Aren't you the church that wants to go kill people? No. I mean, just come visit us, and you'll see. People are normal. It's not like you come here, and it's a KKK rally. It's not like you show up, and everyone's just like, Hello, my Nazi brethren. How's it going? Like, no. No. We're normal people. They want to paint us as abnormal because often that's what they are. But this is a normal place. And guess what? We follow the law. We obey the law. We believe in obeying the law of the land, no matter what you read online. I got a little worked up. Sorry. Let's go to our third point. Adorn your doctrine with meekness. Adorn your doctrine with meekness. 1 Peter 3, if you would, 1 Peter 3 is where I'd like you to turn. And you know, we should adorn our doctrine with meekness. Now, what is meekness? Humility, kindness, gentleness. How do you expect us to bring new people in if we're puffed up and prideful? I just don't understand. I mean, how is that going to work, right? People don't like that. And again, I get it that there are things more important than just having the biggest church in the world. I'm not trying to be carnal here. But if we want to reach more people, if we want to try and get more eyeballs on the preaching of God's word, our conduct matters. And I believe we should adorn our doctrine with meekness. 1 Peter 3 says, whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning. Verse 3. Sorry about that. 1 Peter 3, verse 3. Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man in the heart and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. What God values in a woman is a meek and quiet spirit, and it's described as an ornament that women should put on. And this, again, is in conflict with the way our world operates, because women, they feel this pressure to go out on social media and to garner as much attention as possible. And here's my issue with that. It's not a meek and quiet spirit. Now, let me be careful with this. I, of course, support. There's some women on social media that I think put out some good stuff. I am not saying women shouldn't be on social media. Here's what I am saying. If you're a conservative, quote unquote, e-girl. If you're one of these conservative, quote unquote, influencers who's getting up there, you're not sincere. You only care about clicks. You only want to pedestalize yourself by showing off your body and dressing like a whore. That's not meekness. And, you know, the right wing, so-called, they need to repudiate this and reject this and say this isn't conservative. Now, last time I checked, conservatism should align with scripture. And the Bible describes women as having or that they should adorn themselves with a meek and quiet spirit. Look at Matthew Chapter five, Matthew Chapter five. The outward appearance, it often reflects what's happening inwardly. So we should care about the outward appearance. Is it everything? No. But again, often it reflects what's happening inwardly. And those who are meek, those who are meek will manifest that often with the way they dress because they're not looking for attention. They're not looking for attention. And that's what meekness is all about. It's humility. Matthew five, verse five, Jesus Christ said, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Those who are meek and humble, they're not looking to step on others to get ahead. And so they're promised to inherit the entire earth because that's not what they were seeking for carnally speaking in this life. And so Jesus promises them to inherit the earth. You know, if you're meek, you don't want to climb over everyone no matter what. You're not self-willed. You want to see other people promoted. They praise God when other people in this church are promoted. Praise God for that. You know what Moses said? Envious thou for my sake. Would to God that all the Lord's people were prophets. That's what I want to see as many men who are preachers as possible, whether that's soul winning or behind the pulpit. And Moses had this idea and he was meek. The Bible says, would to God all the Lord's people were prophets. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I am meek and lowly. And so this is an important attribute for us because, yeah, like I said, we've dotted our doctrinal I's. We've crossed our doctrinal T's, but don't let that puff you up. Stay meek. Be humble about the knowledge you've been gifted. You know, when I learned from a sermon, you know what I did? I sat on my rear end and listened. That is not worth bragging about, folks. I just sat there and it was spoon fed to me by the pastor. And so let's not get puffed up because we have a lot of knowledge and I do think we have knowledge. You talk to people in this church. There's a lot of Bible knowledge in this church, but let's not let that puff us up and issue meekness as a result. Turn back to Titus 2. My fourth point is adorn your doctrine with grace. Adorn your doctrine with grace. And this I think specifically would apply to new Christians, babes in Christ. You know, the Bible says in Titus 2 11 for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. The grace of God in regards to salvation is offered to everyone. We have accepted it. And that grace that God has shown us, let's show it to others. And let's show it especially to newborn babes in Christ who don't have it all figured out yet. You know, toddlers, they're going to say silly things. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. You help them get it right. But you expect that from a toddler. My three-year-old, his grammar is way off because he's three, right? So we need to make sure that we have the expectation that new people who just get saved, of course, they're going to say silly things. They're going to do silly things from time to time, even things that violate the scripture. Are you going to just jump down their throat and give up on them, throw them overboard? You know, I'm thankful as a babe in Christ when I first got saved, I had friends who witnessed me do stupid crap, all right, that I regret. I shouldn't have said that or done that, whatever. I made mistakes. And they didn't give up on me, throw me overboard. They showed me some grace. They reproved me. They said, hey, maybe you shouldn't do this. You know, perhaps you should, you know, fix this area. I had someone tell me, hey, you know, you should refer to the pastor by the title, pastor last name. I wasn't doing that out of ignorance. Not only because I disrespected the pastor or anything, I just, out of ignorance, I was a babe in Christ. I didn't know. So I'm saying that and I had somebody tell me, hey, I think you should probably switch this up a little bit here. Show the proper respect to the pastor, right? And there are a lot of situations like that where I was taken aside and helped in a gentle and kind way, not just given up on. Well, you're just a bozo. It's like, why do that to someone? Give them a chance to grow, just like we give toddlers a chance to grow. Let's give the spiritual toddlers a chance to grow. I'm not saying don't say anything at all. There's a time and a place for correction. I get that. But let's do it in a way to where it's encouraging for them. And let's not give up on them in the early stages of their Christian life. That's all I'm saying. Turn to Colossians 3. My fifth point is adorn your doctrine with charity. Adorn your doctrine with charity. Colossians 3, it says in verse 14, Colossians 3 and verse 14. It says, and above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. So I'm talking about putting things on, adorning our doctrine, adding things, wearing good works. Well, here we have the Bible saying for us to put on charity. What is charity? It is a godly, authentic love. It is a godly, authentic love. And we should adorn our doctrine with charity, a perfect love, a godly, a biblical, true love, authentic love. You know, that is what helps us win over the lost every single week when we go out and we evangelize. You know, 1 Corinthians 13, you don't have to turn there. I'll just read this for you. It says charity suffereth long and is kind. Longsufferingness, that is a aspect of charity. And we need to make sure that we have that in here. There are going to be people who you feel wrong you in here or outside of here. Just let it go. We need to be a people who are forgiving. We let things go. We don't hold grudges. How do you think this place will look if visitors come here and we're at each other's throats? Oh, this guy's a Packers fan and he's arguing with the Cowboys fan, which I'm not even sure that they're rivals. I don't care. But my point is that's a stupid argument. There's a lot of very carnal reasons people get upset with each other. And here's a great way not to do that. Remind yourself of the common mission and remind yourself we're all on the same team. We're all on the same team. And we're all striving for the same goals, the same spiritual goals to get as many people saved as possible to make America Christian again. And the thing is, don't be distracted. Don't let carnal fights and just nonsense take you off course. Forgive people. It's going to happen. You're going to get irritated inevitably with someone. Just let it go. Just let it go. Because that's I'm sure what you would want them to do to you. That's what we want God to do to us. And so let's adorn our doctrine with charity so that when people come here, they see a unified church so that when people come here, they see a family. They see a family. You are my family. And I want it to stay that way. I don't want carnal crap, carnal stupidity and dumb arguments to get in the way. The Bible also says and is kind. How do we win over the lost without kindness? Imagine if you were a jerk to people out soul winning. You think that's going to help them get saved and adhere to the doctrines on salvation we have here? No. You know, it's like if they tell you they're not interested, that doesn't mean tell them to go to hell. No, thanks, I have something better to do. Well, go to hell then. Like, just chill out. Move on to the next door. It's hey, here's a 10 minute video. Whenever you have time, everything I was going to show you on your front porch is in this video. Can I leave you with a verse? If you say yes, give the verse. If not, all right, have a nice day. Leave them with a good taste in their mouth. That's how we adorn our doctrine with charity and make it so that your soul winning is a heck of a lot more effective. And they're more likely to maybe give that video a look. If you were kind unto them, if you were loving to them, if you used their name, if you showed them some grace, and you showed them that hey, there's people in this community who care about their soul. Go back to Titus 2, if you would. Point 6. I only have two more, these are short, all right? So, don't be so worried. It's okay. Point 6, adorn your doctrine with soberness. Titus chapter 2, it says in verse 11, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. You know, people say, oh, you give people a license to sin with your doctrine on salvation by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. False. The grace of God teaches us to live soberly, to live righteously, to live godly in this present world. And we need to adorn our doctrine with soberness. Now, I'm not just referring to, you know, not getting boozed up. I get that. Obviously, that's been preached. If you're drunk, you're not sober, you're not being serious. And that's what I think another application is to this is seriousness, being serious, being grave. This is why earlier in the chapter in verse 2, it says that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. You take life seriously if you're sober. Of course you don't drink. But on top of that, you take life seriously. Not everything is a joke. Not everything is a joke. The Bible speaks against foolish talking and jesting. And to me, we'll end up making this look like a clown show if everything's a joke. We don't take church seriously. You know, I'm up here if I'm guest preaching in a Hawaiian shirt or something like that, not taking the preaching of God's word seriously. If this whole thing is just a big joke to us and all we do is just joke around, everything's funny. You know, to me, we're not adorning our doctrine in the right way. And people are going to think like, man, they must not take church very seriously at all. They must not take their beliefs very seriously at all. Now, of course, I have to caveat this. I'm not saying never joke around or something, right? It's OK to joke around. We do plenty of that, obviously. That's fine. I like joking around. People make fun. Here's the thing. I think ethnic jokes are hilarious. You say, can I joke around with you about your ethnicity? Have at it, Hoss. Go for it. I think it's funny. What do you think comedians joke around about constantly? Race. Who cares? Does it matter? Like, it doesn't matter. It's just an attribute that is meaningless. It's like your hair color, your eye color. Go ahead, terrorist jokes, bring them on. All right? I love it. And the irony of it is I'm from New Jersey. I was born in New Jersey. But bring on the Middle Eastern jokes, man. I love it. But you know what? Let's not make fun of sin. Let me rephrase that. Let's not joke about sin. Fools make a mock of sin, the Bible says. Hey, let's make the jokes that are appropriate at the right time. We're hanging out. We're fellowshipping. I'm for it. Let's have fun. I'm for it. But you know what? You're not going to find me joking around about fornication. You're not going to find me joking around about adultery. You're not going to find me joking around about sodomy. That's filth. That's abomination. God hates it. Why in the world would I make jokes about it? That's sick. You know, there are certain things that are off limits. Yeah, I'm fine with the ethnic jokes, but don't make fun of me for being a Christian. That's where you're crossing the line. If you're going to mock the Lord Jesus Christ, that's where you're crossing a line. If you're going to just joke about sin, if you're just going to joke about things that God hates, that is crossing a line. And also I would add this. If everything constantly has to be a joke, I think you're crossing a line a little bit. It doesn't have to be. People say, oh, you're you're just a stick, you know, stick in the mud. You are a stick in the mud. OK, so be it. I don't care. Call me whatever you want. But the reality is we need to take the things of God seriously. And there is a time to joke and have some fun. But there's also a time to get serious. There's also a time to get some work done. We're here to work. This isn't, you know, playtime. The house of God isn't playtime. Here's my final point. And we're done. Adorn your doctrine with zeal. Adorn your doctrine with zeal. Verse 14, Titus Chapter two. Titus Chapter two, verse 14. Talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. That he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works, zealous of good works. Jesus redeemed us to purify us, but also so that we would be zealous for the things of God. And, folks, there are a lot of things to be zealous for in this life. You could be zealous about video games. You could know every character in Mario Kart and their abilities and what they do and have it memorized front and back. Same with sports. Same with movies. Same with all things out there. There's so many distractions. But you know what I say? Let's adorn what we believe with some zeal. Let's care about what actually matters. This life is so short. Why waste it away with the things of this world? The zealous Christian is faithful to church. The zealous Christian talks about the teachings of God's word. The zealous Christian purifies his or herself from sin and wants to live righteously. The zealous Christian is faithful. The zealous Christian is faithful to the things of God. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 9, and I'll be done. 2 Corinthians chapter 9, and that'll be the last place I'm going to. The Bible says about Jesus in the book of Isaiah that he was clad with zeal. And I think as Christians, we should be like Jesus. That's the name Christian. And he was clad with zeal as a cloak. Let's be clad with zeal as well. Let's put on zeal to make our teachings look as appealing as possible, as palatable as possible. 2 Corinthians 9, verse 2. You say, why? Who does this affect? This sermon right here, it's geared toward people who either wholeheartedly reject everything on this list, and they're not saved. Or maybe there's people out there who, they're with us on salvation and these core issues, but they're not with us on the post-tribulation rapture. They're not with us on replacement theology. They're not with us on the reprobate doctrine. They're not with us on the death penalty, which I don't understand how, but anyway. They're not with us on some of these other issues, potentially. We have old IFB brethren who match that description. They are saved, but not quite with us on some of these other things. What if they visit our church and they find it to be completely lacking in zeal? How does this make these things look? 2 Corinthians 9, look at verse 2. Here's my hope, is that if we adorn our doctrine with zeal, this will happen. For I know, verse 2, the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achiah was ready a year ago. And pay close attention to this. If you like writing in your Bible, underline it, highlight it, put a star next to it, put an arrow next to it. I'll just read it. Here we go, ready? And your zeal hath provoked very many. Why adorn our doctrine with zeal? To provoke very many and bring them one step closer to this. Bring them one step closer to this, folks. All right? Paul said, hey, your zeal provoked very many. It was the inspiration, it was the impetus for others to take the things of God seriously, to be faithful to church, to love the word of God, to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with their life. And you know what? Wouldn't it, God, that Christians from other churches, perhaps their churches are dead, perhaps they're not, but they're coming to us from other churches, and maybe they're not completely on board with this. There are a few secondary issues, you know, like I talked about, replacement theology, post-Repriority, whatever. Our views on the rapture, some of these secondary issues, maybe they're not fully on board. But wouldn't it, God, they would come here and they would say, I may not agree with everything they believe. I may not agree with everything in this doctrinal statement. Hey, I may not be on board with the post-trib pre-wrath rapture. I may not be on board with replacement theology. I may not be on board with the reprobate doctrine. Maybe they're even walking around with an NIV because they've been deceived by false prophets out there who say that the NIV is just an improved version of the King James or that it's based on better manuscripts. Perhaps they're all screwed up on bibliology. Perhaps they have these problems. They're wrong on some of these issues that are on this list. But wouldn't it, God, that they would come and they would visit this church and they would see just how much you care. They would see just how much zeal this place has. They would see just how much you care about the Word of God, how much you care about souls, how much you care about getting the lost saved, how much you care about your children, how much you care about every single word in this book. You take it seriously. You want to read it. You want to memorize it. You want to live by it. And it makes this place look like a desirable place to go and worship the Lord. They see your excitement. They see your passion. They see your zeal for souls, for doctrine, for the Christian life. And they just can't help but admit, I may not agree with everything they have to say, but I just can't help but admit it, this place is absolutely on fire for God. I would like that testimony. I thought it was great when we had a preacher, guest preach for us from outside of our movement, and he was enamored by the fact that the kids can sit in the service quietly. More of that, folks. That's how we represent our doctrines to the fullest extent possible, in the best way possible. What did I say? I said, in closing, adorn your doctrine with integrity. Look, see, it's closing. We're done. Adorn your doctrine with integrity. Adorn your doctrine with obedience. Adorn your doctrine with meekness. Adorn your doctrine with grace. Adorn your doctrine with charity. Adorn your doctrine with soberness. Let's be serious. Let's take this seriously. Adorn your doctrine with zeal. My challenge, the reason why I wanted to preach the sermon, it's simply this. If you've been daydreaming the entire message, I ask that you wake up for this one statement. All right? Don't just believe your doctrine. That's great. Don't stop at just believing your doctrine. Adorn your doctrine as well. All right? With that, let's have a word of prayer. Father of God, we thank you so much, Lord, for our church and for the fact that it is sound doctrinally, that it does get a lot of things right. And I get it. We're not perfect. We're striving to improve every day. And, you know, we're working hard, Lord, to get better and better. But I just pray, Father, that you would help us to represent the teachings that have been passed down to us. Help us to represent them in the best way possible so that we can be as effective as possible at bringing new people in. We love you. And in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 316. Song number 316. I have decided to follow Jesus. Song number 316. Song number 316. Everybody sing out together with me on the verse. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though turning back. No turning back. The world behind me. The cross before me. The world behind me. The cross before me. The world behind me. The cross before me. No turning back. No turning back. Great singing, everybody. We're all dismissed.