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

So we're going to be starting a new series coming up on Sunday mornings, and I've entitled it Defining Doctrines, Defining Doctrines, and I don't mean that necessarily in the sense that we're going to go through and define doctrines, but I want to talk to us over the next few weeks about doctrines that define us as Baptists, or what people would call elsewhere as Baptist distinctives. There are certain doctrines that we hold to that set us apart, and there are certain doctrines that we hold to that are distinctive to our faith. They define who we are, and that's where I get that title for this series, Defining Doctrines, is the fact that there are doctrines that define us as Baptists. Now what I want to start out doing is just kind of introducing the series this morning, but really you say, you know, I've heard plenty of other sermons on this type of thing. We're going to look, first of all, as we begin, at that long-held acronym, Baptists, who's ever seen that? Who's ever seen, you know, B stands for this, and A stands for that, and we'll talk about it a little bit more. Not many hands went up, so maybe this won't be a long series of things you already know, but we're going to look at that because there are certain things in that acronym that I agree with, in fact, all of them, the Bible. If you take that word Baptist, it starts out with the letter B, obviously, it says biblical authority is one of the things we believe as Baptists. We believe in the authority of Scripture, that is our final authority. That acronym goes on and says the A would stand for the autonomy of the local church. That's another thing that makes us very unique as Baptists, that we believe in independent churches. And we also will be talking about the priesthood of the believer, that's the P there in the acronym. The fact that we, as God's children, can come boldly before the throne of God, that we don't need to have an intermediary here on earth to stand between us and the Lord God, that we can actually come boldly before the throne of grace. We're going to talk about the T in there, the two ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. We're going to talk about the I, which is the individual's sole liberty, that every person has to choose whether or not they're going to believe on Christ. And we're going to talk about the S, the saved and baptized church membership, you know, the person needs to be saved and baptized. And we're going to talk about the two offices, you know, what are the two offices inside of a church, that would be the pastor and the deacon. We'll get to all these things, and of course those are long-held beliefs, those are things that most Baptist churches are going to agree on, all those things. But even now, as we're kind of part of this new IFB, as we're part of a movement, if you want to call it that, of people who are holding to certain, there are also certain doctrines that we hold to that are also defining us, even apart from some of our Baptist brethren. Not that we have come up with something new, but rather that they've moved away from these things. And, you know, it's kind of like the Stooges joke, you know, where they look for the volunteer, and everybody else steps back when there's one guy left, right? That's kind of us, you know, we're the ones holding that line, everybody else just kind of steps back, and now we're there alone. Because of some doctrines that define us, these doctrines that we hold to, they define us for who we are. You know, one of those doctrines that we'll look at will be Christ's suffering and health. You know, that used to be something that was common knowledge, people just understood that, that the Bible teaches that Christ, you know, after he was crucified and buried, that his soul went and suffered health for three days, and three nights it came back. We're going to look at that. We're going to look at, you know, another, what would be another doctrine that defines us as Baptists today, particularly as New IFB Baptists, would be the doctrine of reprobates. This is one we're catching a lot of flak for, unfortunately. But it's not, again, not because we're preaching something new, but because people are starting to draw back from some of these truths. We're going to look lastly, of course, at soul winning and church planting. That's something that we put a lot of emphasis on as a church that, you know, associates with this New IFB. So you know, those are some of the things I want to talk about over the upcoming weeks. You know, I could try to sit down and cover all that in one sermon, but I'd probably end up talking way too fast trying to cram it all in. It would probably be way too much information just coming at you all at once. So I'd like to just take each one of those, one at a time, and just dedicate a sermon to each one of those over the next few weeks. And you say, well, you know, I understand a lot of these things. You know, maybe you're here and you already have this all figured out. But here's the thing, the Bible is real clear and gives us examples that old truths must be repeated. We have to repeat old truths, otherwise we lose them. Why is it that a lot of Baptists today don't hold to the doctrine of reprobates? Why is it a lot of them are drawing back on soul winning and church planting? Why is it a lot of them don't even understand the fact that Christ suffered hell because they don't preach anymore? Because these truths aren't being repeated and they start to draw back. If you're there in Jude chapter 1, look at verse 3 where the Bible reads, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you unto the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered on the saints. For there are certain men crept and unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 5, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this. So Paul here is trying to not remind these things, he's trying to put them in remembrance in verse 5 of things that they once knew. And really that's the point of the series is to put us in remembrance of things. Maybe we still know them, but it would be a shame that if one day we were to find ourselves learning or being taught some doctrine from a pulpit we would say, I once knew that. That was something I used to understand, that was something I remembered but I'd forgotten. And really, you know, the reason why we preach the same things, the reason why old truths must bear repeating is because repetition is the key to learning. I mean there will be things that you'll preach over and over and over and over again, but it won't be until that sixth, seventh, eighth time that it finally clicks with you. It's a lot, it's like that a lot in the Christian faith. And if you would, turn over to 2 Timothy chapter 4, I want to take a look at this too. You know, it's good for the body of believers to be reminded of the things that they once knew. It's good for the body of Christ to be put in remembrance of even these basic truths that we all understand. You know, the fact is, we're an active, soul-winning church, we put ourselves out there and people are looking for churches like this and there's new blood coming in all the time. And a lot of times people, you know, we might have been in church, maybe we've been in church for a decade and we already understand all these things. Let's not forget that there's also people that are coming in that are new that don't know these things. These things need to be taught over and over again, and these things need to be put in remembrance as a brethren. And really, you know, it's safe too, not only for the congregation to be put in remembrance, but it's also safe for a preacher to remind himself that his job is to get up and to repeat old truths. There's nothing new that's going to come from this pulpit. There's nothing new that's going to be unique to this pulpit, there's nothing that's going to be something that I came up with. It's all going to be things that have been found in this book and things that have been preached many, many times before by many other men. And really, it's dangerous when a person gets that kind of attitude where they're going to say, well, I'm going to try to come up with something new just for the sake of creature tainment. You know, just trying to make sure I have everybody's attention and make sure everybody's excited or try to impress somebody or try to, you know, get a viral YouTube video by coming up with some new doctrine or gain a following by teaching some new thing. It's dangerous because what happens is people end up going into heresy because they can't go find some new thing because there is no new thing under the sun. And everything that has been, that you could possibly find in scripture, even if it be doctrinally correct, it's already been preached. You're not going to find some new thing. So we'll go in there, you know, a preacher can go in there and start trying to wrestle something out of the Word of God, get some crazy interpretation, you know, end up spending too many hours on YouTube watching Pentecostal debates and come along with some new doctrine. Well, maybe, you know, they're listening to this preaching, let me go listen to some other false teacher and see if I can't get some strange new doctrine to teach to people and try to impress people or gain a following. So it's safe not only for the body to be put in remembrance of these things, to remember that these old truths, but it's also safe for the preacher as well. And preachers should be reminding us of these old things because of the fact that, like I said earlier, it takes, sometimes it takes quite a bit to get it through our heads. We have to hear things over and over again. You know, I talk to people all the time that say have been listening to Pastor Anderson, you know, they listen to all the preaching online and amen. I love that. But I think sometimes we can have this attitude where we kind of take for granted that whether that they know everything. We'll just say, well, if they've been listening to Pastor Anderson, surely they must know and understand this. Having never asked them, we just assume that because they say they listen to Pastor Anderson, they must know all the things that have been, you know, all the things that the Bible teaches that he's preached on. And that's not necessarily the case. I run into people all the time that they love the preaching, they listen to preaching, but, and I can even recall sermons that I've said, surely, you know, some people I'll say, you were there when it was preached. I know you were there, you heard it preached and it went right over their heads. And that's why the Bible says here in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 2, this is Paul, you know, commanding his protege Timothy, the preacher, the pastor, telling him how to preach. He's saying in verse 2, preach the word, you know, that's a good place to start, you know, that's the foundation. Preach this and you can't go wrong. Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season. Preach the word when it's popular, preach it when it's not popular. Preach what people want to hear, but also preach what they don't want to hear. And probably more on the latter than the former. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with what? All long suffering with patience. Having to say probably the same things over and over again. Having to preach some of the same truths over and over and over. That takes long suffering. That takes a patience, that takes an understanding and saying, you know what, I'm just going to continue to preach the word, the things that are in here, and remind and put the brethren in remembrance of these things, because these things are our foundation. These things are the things that are going to help us lay a strong foundation and grow. And if you think about it, you know, not only as preachers command us to preach the word with all long suffering, meaning that we are to put people in remembrance of the things that they once knew, reminding them of things that they've already learned once before but might have forgotten. Not only are we commanded to do that in scripture, but the scripture also is laid out that way. We can find examples of that in the Bible itself. I mean think about the fact that there are four gospels, right? Now is each gospel its own unique story? No, there's a lot of overlap. There's a lot of parallel passages in there. There's a lot, I mean, a lot of them cover the exact same subject material. It's the same thing being repeated over, maybe just a little different. Because we have to hear things over and over and over before we really let them set in on us. You can think about even Old Testament books like Kings and Chronicles, you know, they tell the same stories. Some details are left out, and other stories, and one book from another. What about Deuteronomy and Numbers? He said this is how I want it built, and then he says that's how they built it. That's a lot of the same things just being repeated, and I think God does that to show us that repetition is important, that it's important to be reminded of the same things over and over. Turn over to John chapter 21. They say all that because of the fact that I know that when I stand up and I say, hey, I'm going to preach a series on the Baptist acronym that people, you know, just human nature have a tendency to just kind of gloss over and say, well, I guess I can tune out for the next X amount of Sundays because I already know all this, but I'm trying to remind us this morning that we shouldn't just dismiss these things or take them for granted because they're important doctrines, and the Bible commands us to be reminded of these same things over and over. Look at John chapter 21 verse 25. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which Jesus did. The witch, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. So, John here at the end of his gospel is saying that if he were to write down every single thing that the Lord did, there would be so many books that the world could not contain them. Now, he's saying is that literal or is that just him waxing a little up and I don't know. He says, I suppose that the world could not even contain them. But the point he's trying to make is that there was a lot of other things that could have been written in the scriptures. You know, the last gospel here, there's a lot of other things that could have been written about Matthew. There's a lot of other different things that could have been written about Mark and Luke and John. There's probably other gospels that could have been added. There's other witnesses that could have testified of these things and had different perspectives and told about different things. Even Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John probably could have held back a lot of things that Jesus did. They were only inspired by the Holy Ghost to write down these certain things and they're the same things that are written over and over. So you know, we could, the Bible tells us right here, there's a lot of other things that we could be reading about as we read this book over and over again, as we go through it. We hear the preaching over and over again. There's a lot of other things that could have been written, but these things are written for our admonition and that's why it's important for us to be reminded of these things is because that is the key to learning. That's how these things are going to sink in. That's how we're going to truly make these, you know, part of the very fabric of our life. Not just understanding a concept or understanding a doctrine and knowing that's what the Bible says, but actually having preached and preached and preached until we understand the importance of it and actually apply it to our lives and walk away and be made better for it. You know, people, like I said earlier, sometimes get so caught up in just wanting to hear or say some new thing. You know, they just want to hear some new doctrine, they just want to be the one to preach some new exciting thing, and you know, but the Bible, I believe, is showing is because of the fact that it repeats itself. Because of the fact that we are commanded to put people in remembrance of these things with all longsuffering is that we should probably spend more time just shoring up the things that we do know than trying to discover some new thing. You know, that's a tip I've given out from time to time in the preaching class that I've heard as well and applied and said that's a good tip on preaching. You know, if you're one who desires to preach is that preach what you do know. You know, there's plenty of things in the 66 books of the Bible that we're sure of 100% that no one's going to argue with you about, that no one's going to step back and say, I don't know about that one and call into question what it is you mean. There's plenty of things that are rock solid in the word of God that we have to preach. And there are things that people have to be reminded of over and over again. I mean, think about it. If you come, let's say you come to church just Sunday morning, you're Sunday morning only and you get about 45 minutes preaching. It's every, you know, you do that once a week, you know, for 52 weeks a year. Do you really think that when you go out in the world, everything, you're going to remember every single thing that you've heard from the pulpit once a week? Probably not. I mean, I've been faithful to church and listening to preaching for, you know, 17 years and there's things that I hear preached and I say, you know what, I totally forgot about that. I remember I heard a sermon about that a long time ago and then a preacher will preach on that exact same thing and say, wow, I can't believe I forgot that. So as we go through this series and we start to look at these things, you know, stay with me and pay attention because these things are important and they'll help you and this is the type of preaching that we need. If you would, turn over to 1st Timothy chapter 4, 1st Timothy chapter 4. You know, Paul was a big proponent of preaching the same thing and reminding people of the same truths. He said in Philippians 3, you're going to 1st Timothy 4, but he said in Philippians 3, finally my brethren, rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you, to me is not grievous but for you it is safe. He's saying, look, to write the same things again, to write the same things, to remind you of the same things, it doesn't bother me, you know, and it shouldn't bother you because of the fact for you it's safe. You know when you should feel unsafe is when the guy starts to preach something you've never heard, something you can't understand, when you've never heard it anywhere else. I mean if it's Bible, it's Bible, but when you start to hear the guy that's going to start talking about taking you back in the early chapters of Genesis and wants to remind you of the Nephilim, look out, that guy's going off on a tangent, that guy's been spending too much time on YouTube. Paul says reminding them of the same things was safe for them and it wasn't grievous to him. You're going to 1st Timothy 4 but I'll read to you from 2nd Timothy 2 where it says, of these things put them in remembrance, he's telling them again, he's charging Timothy saying, put them in remembrance of these things, the things that I'm commanding you, the things that you have learned and seen and heard and need do, he's saying you need to put them in remembrance of these things, you know not just try to wow them with some new thing or try to impress them with some new thing or gain a following with some new thing, no. Put the faithful in remembrance of these things. Look at there in 1st Timothy 4 verse 1, now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter days some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. I mean right there, that's why it's safe to be put in remembrance of these same things. That's why it's safe to have the same things written unto you again because we're living the last days and the Spirit speaketh expressly that in those times, those latter days, some are going to depart from the faith and what are they going to do? They're going to have to seducing spirits and what's the result? They're going to give heed to doctrines of devils. They're going to start to preach things that are demonic and are contrary to the Word of God. We see that all the time, it's already taken place and just the multitudes of false religions that are out there today and all the false ways that are being taught and promoted and they're very hypocrisy and if we're not safe or if we're not careful, we can get swept up in there. He says in verse 2, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from means which God hath created be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. Verse 6, if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good conscience. You want to be a good minister in Jesus Christ? Paul said hey, you want to be a good minister Timothy? Don't preach doctrines of devils. Put them in remembrance of these things. The last times, remind them that this is what's going to happen in the latter days. Put them in remembrance of these things and thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. Again, putting them in remembrance, recalling to mind, reminding them of things they already know so they don't forget them. Because when you do that, when we start to remind ourselves and we start to be reminded of the things, of these things, of these biblical, simple, basic biblical truths, just down to earth, just the meat and potatoes of the Word of God. And there's a lot of other things outside that acronym. There's a lot of other things, you know, and that's the job of the preacher every time he gets behind the pulpit. Not just, you know, on some mini-series he's going to preach through. You know, as preachers we should always be reminding the brethren of these things. And if you preach the Word of God, you don't have to worry about whether or not you're going to do that. If a preacher just gets up and preaches the Word of God, you will put the brethren in remembrance of these things. And when you do that, you lay a foundation. You begin to lay a foundation that people can build their lives upon. You begin to lay a foundation that people can begin to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You need to have that foundation in your life. I mean foundations are very important, aren't they? So try building a house without a foundation. Go submit your plans to the city, whoever it is that approves them, you know, the county, and say, I'd like to build this house, and they'll say, where's your foundation, where's the plans for your foundation? I don't have one. I'm not going to use one. Do you think that's going to get passed? No way. Because they understand how important a foundation is. And you know, go look at images of houses that were built without a foundation. I was looking at something that got me thinking about it when I was writing this sermon. I said, no, I'm just going to Google that. I'm going to see what a house looks like. And that happened, especially, you know, back in the day, they would build houses all the time without a foundation. And it looked like they were, it looks like an inflatable house, right? And somebody pulled the plug and it's just going. I mean, it just bends and contorts and moves in ways, and it's just the weirdest thing. You know, like you don't know if you're looking at a picture or is it like some kind of abstract, you know, New Age art that you're looking at, you know, that's how important a foundation is. If you don't have a foundation in your life of scripture, if you don't have some basic truths to stand on, like biblical authority, that the Bible is our final authority, I mean, that's one great truth. That's a foundation that we need to lay. If we don't have that, that thus saith the Lord, if you don't have that in your life, the structure of your life is just going to be like that house, collapsed on itself. Just start dropping through. It might start out good, it might look nice, but you give it time, and you let the storms come, and you let the winds blow, and the waves beat upon it, as Jesus said, and watch that thing begin to collapse. In fact, turn over to Matthew, chapter 7, and we'll see how important a foundation is. I mean, Jesus uses that exact same analogy. He compares his sayings to that of the foundation of a house. In Matthew, chapter 7, verse 24, we know the passage, it says in Matthew 7, verse 24, Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock, and the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. Why did that house not collapse? Was it because of how strong the beams were, the fasting that went into it, because they used the right nails, and screws, and the right adhesives, and everything, because it was just a structurally sound building? Is that why? No, because it was founded upon the rock. He's just saying, look, the reason it stood is because it was built upon my sayings. It was built upon this foundation. It says in verse 26, And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, he shall be like him unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and great, and was the fall of it. Notice in both instances, the winds blew, the rains descended, the floods came. That's a fact of life. There's going to be storms in life. You can't avoid it. That's just the nature of life. The question is whether or not your house is going to stand, whether or not your life is just going to end up in shambles, just scattered, and you go look at some of these hurricanes and things that come through, the tornadoes, and what they do to houses. It just looks like somebody just, you know, just scattered them. Is that going to be your life? You know, are you going to look like the mobile trailer park in Tulsa, Oklahoma that just got tore apart? It always goes after a trailer park. Ever notice that? Something to it. Is that going to be your life or not? You know, it's dependent upon one thing, not how nice the building is, not how what, you know, I put 30 year shingles on this baby, I'm good to go. No, there's no foundation that's going to crumble, because foundations, they're important because of the fact that they are the things that provide stability. And the thing is, you know, we can live our life without a foundation and think that we have everybody fooled, but if you start to look closely enough at somebody's life, you'll start to see the cracks. Have you ever been in a house that has foundation problems? There's cracks in the wall, aren't there? I mean, back when I lived in Michigan, we'd go in these old farm houses and, you know, and you would see it, you'd see a big crack running around the wall. Even here, even in these new builds, I had a boss who was always complaining about it, he had foundation problems, and he would just hear a pop one night and then he'd go out and look outside, big crack running right through his stucco. Houses start to settle, the foundation wasn't built right, it wasn't level, it wasn't square, it wasn't correct. You know, and sometimes we'll just say, oh, there's a crack, let me just move the painting over that. There we go. You know, if someone comes over and looks a little closer, you've got foundation problems. They don't say, oh, hey, you've got a crack in your wall. That's not where they stop. They say, oh, you've got a problem down there where you can't see it. The things you can't see, that's where the damage is. That's what needs to be corrected. That's what needs to be shored up. Because that's what's going to provide stability in your life. He reminds me of what Jacob said to Reuben, his firstborn. I won't have you turn there for sake of time, but Jacob said to Reuben in Genesis 49, remember he was about to die, he starts to tell all his sons what shall be in the latter days. And he says this son is like this, and this son this. And he gets to Reuben and he says, thou art my firstborn, my Mike, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. And that's a pretty good thing, wouldn't we like our fathers to come to us and say that to us. You know, you're my firstborn, you're the beginning of my strength, you're the excellency of dignity. These are good attributes that he's giving to him, aren't they? This sounds good. This is like the guy that's got a nice house, he's got the three story with the three car garage and the wraparound porch, and it looks really good, right? But he says in verse 4, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. He says, but you know what your problem is? You're unstable. And he says the reason why is because thou wentest up into thy father's bed, and then defileth thou in, and he went up to my couch. So Reuben was the kind of guy that had all these good things going for him, but he couldn't control himself, he had no stability in his life. And because of that, even though he had all these other things going for him, being the firstborn, his might, the beginning of his strength, the excellency of power, he had all that going for him, but it was instability that brought him down, it was his instability that was going to hold him back for the rest of his life. And that's a truth that we all have to learn. I don't care what we have going for us, if we do not begin to build upon this foundation and be reminded of these truths, it's just a matter of time before that crack shows up in the wall. It's just a matter of time before the house starts to fall through, and we have to move out and our life has just been in shambles. The Bible says in James 1a, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. People move to live their life like that. Well, you know, I believe the Bible is the word of God, but that part of it I don't really like. I know that applies to some people, but to me it's a little different. That's double-minded. Either the Bible is the word of God and it applies to you and it's either going to benefit you or not. You know, there's no like, it's not, the Christian life is not a buffet. You know, everyone gets to the buffet, they want to skip the salad and everything and just jump right over to the nacho cheese and the chips, right? This is the part I like, the nacho cheese. You get the skin off first, right, and then you get in there and you put some beef on there or they want to skip the food and just go right to the soft serve. This is the part I like, just put some sprinkles on, some nuts and some chocolate. That's all I need. That's not the Christian life. Christian life is the whole meal, it's the whole buffet. You got to have all of it. You can't be unstable, you can't just pick and choose, you can't be double-minded and say, well, you know, I like what it says here, but I'm going to leave that off. You have to include the whole deal. If you want to build a foundation that you are going to be able to stand upon, if that's not important to you, enjoy the soft serve, you know, and enjoy the headache it brings, you know, the brain freeze from you just constantly down. That's the one thing you're always going to eat. So people who decide, who are not put in remembrance of these things, people who are uncertain of where they stand, they're double-minded, they're unstable. They're uncertain of what they really believe and why they believe it. They're unstable. And people who are uncertain where to stand, what usually ends up happening to them is they fall. You ever done that, like maybe you're trying to go down some steps a little too fast and you kind of, your brain gets a little mixed up and you miss that step or, you know, you're trying to get through a grocery store and someone else is in the way and you do that thing and, you know, people who aren't sure of their footing, they end up falling over. And sadly, a lot of times our instinct, when we start to fall over, we just start grabbing, right? We'll grab the person next to us and bring them down too. So we need to know, we need to be stable, we need to be, have a foundation and we're going to have those foundations by being reminded of these things, these sayings. You know, you may know every single doctor that I'm going to cover over the next few weeks. You may know it. You may know these things forward and backward, you may say, I've already heard this, I already understand that, I get it. You know, if not, you will, hopefully, if you come and listen to these sermons and take notes, you'll begin to learn some basic doctrines and learn some things. But even if you have learned these things, even if you do know all these things, have you forgotten their significance? I mean, we say all the time, the Bible is the King James Bible is the word of God, even. But we have, have we forgotten the significance of that, of saying that we hold in our hands the very word of God, that we have an authority that we can try the spirits with, we can try the preaching with, that we can try the other false, we can try false ways with, and say, well, it doesn't line up here. I mean, what a gem. We have a light that shineth in a dark place, the Bible says. If I were to take this and put us all in a van, or I guess this group would need a bus, right? We'd have to go and we took you out to some, you know, we went out to some deep, dark, remote part of the country, there's no light pollution, we went out on the just, you know, the most moonless night, where it's just pitch black. If I were to take you all out there and hand you, and have one flashlight, and say this is the one, this is the only light source you have, to get back to civilization, and then I'd just come through that light, and left. You would go looking for that light. You would want that light. You know, even if you, once you got that light, you'd be careful how you'd use it. You know, you'd probably pick out somebody and say, well you're going to be the guy that carries the light, you know. You're going to find that guy who doesn't, you know, stumble or, you know, not Mr. Butterfingers, right? You're going to give it to him, you're going to maybe not use it all the time, you're going to turn it off and on. You're going to be very careful with that light. Well, you know, that's the way it is in the world right now. We're living in a dark world, spiritually, right? You know, I know we're down in sunny Tucson, you know, we're just, you know, an hour or so south of the Valley of the Sun, right? We get 300 plus days of sunshine a year, and we don't, we forget what clouds look like. But I'm telling you something, the world is spiritually dark. The things you can't see are dark. And we're living in spiritually perilous times. And we need that light. And it's this book right here, The Light That Shineth in a Dark Place. Do we take it for granted? Do we take for granted that simple truth? Maybe you already understand that. But do you take it for granted? That's some of the things we're going to talk about. You say, well, I already know all these things. I already understand these things. Well, are you taking them for granted though? I mean, you already know the foundation is built in your house, right? You already know it's there. I mean, you get up every morning and make sure it's still there. No. You know it's there. No one drives by and looks at a house and go, wow, what a great foundation, you know. They're admiring everything else. I like the shutters. I like the trim. I like the fish board. I like the color of that. I like the driveway. I like how they did their porch. Look at the garden, the grass. They never drive by and go, man, is that block or is that port, you know? How far below the frost line is that a 16-inch footer on that? No one's really interested in that. They end up taking it for granted. We're going to go through the series and that might be your attitude. Tell me again about sodomites. Let's hear some more preaching on the facts, right? I'm all for that. Amen. I've preached it, you know, but there's a lot more to the Christian life than just ripping on the homeless every day. And these are the things that are going to help us grow. You know, in this church, you know, praise God has people in it that are new. We got fresh blood in this church and there's some things that we all need to learn and there's some of us that just need to be reminded of some of these same truths. And what are these truths? They're a foundation. There's another thing we could liken them onto. We could liken them onto landmarks, right? Things that are just set up, that's been there for so long. You know when you see that landmark, you know exactly where you are. In Michigan, where I lived, I was just a few, you know, maybe like 30 miles south of the 45th parallel. Who knows what the 45th parallel is? You know, it's the 40 down the globe. Yeah. All right. I mean, hopefully I don't just completely display my ignorance here, but I believe it's halfway between the equator and the North Pole. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. I'm going to solve it. It's fine. It's pretty much my go-to on that. It's got the young mind, you know, I've been through school, so you know, I'm old and probably need to be put in remembrance of these things. So that's what it was, but you know, and that's kind of like a significant, you know, line on the earth. That's like a significant, you know, landmark. And whenever you would drive up and get up into northern Michigan, they would mark that along certain roads. You could pull over and there'd be a monument built. This is the 45th parallel. You know, you could go down to, you know, certain parts of the world where the equator is, you know, and you could say, you're on the South Pole, but you're south of the equator and you're north of the equator, and you can just walk a few feet, right? And that was a landmark. You knew exactly where you are. Well, that's what these truths are that we're going to talk about in the coming weeks. That's what these truths are, these foundational truths. These are landmarks that cannot be moved. But here's the thing about a landmark. They can be moved. You know, some landmarks can be moved. I mean, don't get me wrong, you know, every analogy falls apart at some place. The 45th parallel is always going to be there, but what if someone came along and just slowly moved that marker of the 45th parallel just a little bit at a time? You know, I didn't go look at the 45th parallel every single day in my life. I might see it once a year. And when you go by every so often and maybe just you get there and go, is that exactly where it was last year? How are you going to go unless you're looking at it all the time? I mean, if you look at something every day, you'll know whether or not it's at a place. You'll know whether or not somebody's moved it. We have to have these foundations. We have to have these landmarks. The Bible says remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. You know, when something's set up and established and it's important, it needs to be, you know, not to say, well, you know, it needs to remain there. Well, that ancient landmark, it's been around so long. Look at it. It's all kind of beat up and dusty and old and I keep, we've seen it a dozen times. You know, Mount Rushmore. That's kind of like an ancient landmark, right? I lived, I grew up in the Black Hills, not like less, about an hour away from Mount Rushmore and I would have, anytime relatives came out from elsewhere in the country to visit, I had to go see Mount Rushmore. Let me tell you something, after you seen Mount Rushmore once, you know, I'd rather just look at a quarter. There he is again, you know, show me some currency. You really want to see his face that bad, you know, because once you've been there once, you've seen it, buddy. You know, that's it. You get there after the, I mean, I went there, I can't remember, it's probably at least four or five times, maybe even more than that. And you're just there like, oh man, there's that big rock again. Yep. It's, you know, but here's the thing, I didn't go up there with a jackhammer and say, well, I've seen enough of this. It's time for something new. Let's throw some dynamite up on that thing and blow it out. Let's get a new landmark, right? We need to have those landmarks, even if we get tired of looking at them, it's important that they're there. It's important there because they remind us of things. They remind us of important truths that are going to be foundational in our life. So that's what we're going to be doing over the few weeks, these next few weeks, is looking at some of these ancient landmarks in the Word of God. And let's not grow tired of looking at them and understand that they're there, they're important. It's our job to look at them because then we'll know whether or not somebody's moved them. You know, if you only look at that landmark once in a blue moon, can you be certain whether or not it's in the same place? And people are already beginning to move these landmarks. And we talked about some of them in the beginning. You know, the doctrine of the reprobates is a big one, isn't it? That's an ancient landmark that our fathers have set. That's not a new doctrine with us. That's not something we made up. There's plenty of preaching. The first time I ever heard about the reprobate doctrine, it wasn't from Pastor Anderson. News flash. It was from an old IFB preacher. That's an old doctrine. What do we see the old IFB doing? Holding the white, moving the landmark. Oh, we used to say that they're reprobate, that they're beyond hope of salvation, but now what are they doing? We're going to roll out the red carpet for them and welcome them into church. And cozy up and shame on you if you don't feel the same way. That's somebody moving an ancient landmark. That's somebody taking the word of God and saying, oh, and changing things. Don't pay attention to that. Just listen to me. That's somebody getting between you and the word of God, your final authority, trying to tell you something that's not right. They've already begun to move these things. And specifically, we could apply it to every single one of these doctrines over here and look at it. The doctrine of biblical authority. Well, now we have churches, you know, we didn't mention it, but what about the rapture? Well, I thought the Bible was our final authority. When I read after the tribulation, it sounds to me like the rapture is after the tribulation. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you've got to read this commentary and you have to read, you have to understand this concept of dispensationalism and you should read this man's notes. Well, I thought the Bible was our final authority. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you should also read all these other things and let them be an authority. So we can already see already that people are already beginning to move that landmark of biblical authority, aren't they? And unless we stop and look at biblical authority, they're going to continue to move it. Right. Priesthood of the believer. You know, that we can go to the word of God, we can understand the word of God, we can pray to God, that we can know God's mind, that we can communicate with Him through prayer and Bible reading, but now you have pastors who want to get up to tell you what the Bible really means. And how do they do that? By going back to the Greek, right? By going back and trying to dig up some language that you don't even know and say, well, let me tell you what the Bible really means. They're moving that landmark and saying, you have to come to me and I'll tell you what God says. It's not good enough for you to do it on your own. You know, the two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, there's a lot of false doctrines going on about that. I mean, go look at, you know, go look at the Catholic Church. Go look at, you know, just all these different denominations of things. They have strange doctrines being talked about, the baptism and Lord's Supper. There's just a ton of heresy about those things. And we need to look at these ancient landmarks and let them become a foundation in our beliefs. Individual soul liberty. The fact that a person has to choose for themselves whether or not they're going to be saved. How is that landmark getting moved today? Because of the fact that Calvinism is creeping in, this doctrine of predestination. That if they're going to get saved, they're going to get saved no matter what. That it's not up to us to go and preach the gospel to them. And listen, I've heard Baptist, independent, fundamental Baptist preachers get up and say things that sound exactly like that Calvinistic doctrine. If God wants them saved, they'll get saved. You know, and every time I bring it up, I'm always reminded of that prayer that I heard a Baptist preacher get up and pray in front of his congregation. Lord, send us a great harvest of souls. Just send them to us, Lord. The Lord said, go. Go win them. The fields are white in the harvest. Go. But we've got preachers standing up saying, Lord, send us souls. Just bring them in the door and have them come down the aisle. That way I don't have to do any hard work. Why is that? Because that ancient landmark is being moved. Where now they're saying, oh, it's Calvinism. Oh, it's predestination. If they're supposed to get saved, they will. It's a false doctrine. We're going to look at that. What about saved and baptized membership? You know, that's often not enough for a lot of Baptist churches. You've got to line up in all these other peripheral doctrines. Oh, you don't believe in the preacher rapture? You're out. Well, I'm saved. I'm baptized. I believe salvation is by grace and faith. I believe all these other things. That should be enough for me to be a church member here. But now you have to line up on all these other things. It's not enough just to be saved and baptized to be a church member. There's a lot of ancient landmarks that are being moved today. The two offices we're going to look at. The pastor and the deacon. I mean, why do we need to stop and look at that? What ancient landmark could possibly be moved? How could the foundation be destroyed in regards to that? Well, how about a deacon-led church? You think that's not out there in Baptist churches? Where the pastor has no authority? Where it's just a board of deacons voting on the color of the carpet and everything else? And running pastors out happens all the time. And if we don't stop and look at these things, who's to say it won't happen again? Christ, suffering, and hell. That's another one that we mentioned, right? I mean, people have gotten so far removed from that simple doctrine that now we're being accused of blasphemy. Oh, you're blasphemous. And we're going to look at it. If you don't understand and believe that doctrine, you need to be here when it's preached. The reprobates already talked about that. Soul winning and church planting. That's an ancient landmark of going out. He that win his souls is wise. That's Old Testament, friend. Jesus taught that we were to go out and win others to Christ. That's been something that we've known for a long time. Of going out daily in the temple and in every house, teaching and preaching Jesus Christ, door to door. Going out two by two and reaching the lost where they are. But what do we see today? We see that ancient landmark slowly being moved. Now we have all these other less effective methods. Lifestyle evangelism, street preaching. It goes on and on. Start preaching that sermon now. But I'm just trying to make a point and show you that even these doctrines, and there's a lot of other ones we can talk about, but even just these doctrines, these ancient landmarks, these foundational truths, there's already people that are trying to get you over on the shifting sand. They're already trying to get you away from these things. They're already trying to take down these landmarks and move them. And these foundational truths, they define us. That's why it's definitive doctrines. These are defining doctrines. And if we take the time to study these doctrines, to learn these doctrines, they're going to establish us on a biblical foundation. So when the false doctrine comes, when someone starts coming around and saying, maybe we should have a few more deacons and maybe those deacons should be able to vote. Maybe the pastor shouldn't be in charge. Well maybe we're going to be able to turn them to these foundational truths and say, no, actually the pastor is to be in charge. And we'll understand what a pastor is and what a deacon is. Or someone comes around and says, well maybe it really is before the tribune. Maybe it isn't after the tribune. No, no one's going to come around and say that. No one's going to come around with the pre-chip, right? That would be a hard one. I'd like to see somebody do it. But someone will come around, well maybe the reprobates, maybe these homos aren't that bad. Maybe they can be saved. Maybe we should let them in. And you don't think that hasn't happened. That's happened. I mean there's Baptists who are saying, put them in with the kids. So we need to study these things. We need to know these things. These simple, basic, biblical truths. Because they will establish us on a foundation so that when the heresy comes, and go ahead and turn over to 2 Peter 1, when the heresy comes, we'll be ready for it. We'll be established. We won't be that house with no foundation with a big crack up the wall. Somebody can just come over and push it over. And it just collapses. We're going to have a strong foundation. 2 Peter 1 verse 12, it says, Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them. You know, it's not just for the people that haven't learned them. It's also for the people that know them already. They need to be put in remembrance too. Though you already know these things, I'm not going to neglect to put you in remembrance of them. And be established in the present truth. Why is it that we have to remind ourselves to be established, to be reminded? Yea, I think it mean, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that surely I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance. That was Paul's desire. That he would teach them these truths, that he would teach them truths, sound biblical doctrine, that he would put them in remembrance of these things, though they already knew them. And that he would stir them up, and rile them up, and get them excited again about these things. So that they would always have them in remembrance. That they wouldn't get bored with those little truths, and just say, nah, it's not that important. If you stop being excited about it, if you stop understanding how important it is, if you start to neglect the significance of these doctrines and doctrines like it, they will not always be in remembrance. They will be forgotten. And you will have need that one teaches you, again, the first things of Christ. And that's the goal of this series, to stir you up, to remind you of some things, or maybe to teach you some things that you don't know, and help you understand things and learn new things. So there are many new and exciting things being taught out there, aren't there? There's a lot of new and exciting things being taught on the internet. There's a lot of new and exciting things being taught in the world of the ruffinites. I mean, you want some strange, fascinating theories, go listen to some... Actually, don't, but I'm saying, you know, it's out there. You can go read about their theory on UFOs and everything else. You laugh, but that's the truth. But you know what, only the old foundational truths, those are the only things that are going to serve as a trustworthy foundation. That's something that you can actually build your Christian life on. I'll have you turn to one last place. Go to 2 John 1. We'll close 2 John 1. 2 John 1, verse 5, it says, And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we have heard from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. Why? For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but you receive a full reward. He's saying, look, you need to walk in the old commandment. He's saying, not the new commandment, but an old commandment. You need to walk in it. Why? Because there's a lot of deceivers out there, and He doesn't want you to lose those things which we have wrought. That's why we have to put these things in remembrance, to keep us from deceivers, to keep us from losing these things. The Bible says in Jeremiah 6, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, wherein is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. You know, we're going to look at some of the old paths, we're going to look at some of the old doctrines, the same things that maybe we've already heard and understood. We're going to look at them again, because they are the good way, and we know where they lead. They're going to lead us to rest. It's going to give us peace. When the false doctrine comes, we're going to have peace about it. We're not going to be troubled, we're not going to be swayed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Because we've taken the time to put ourselves in remembrance of these things, and been reminded of them, and stirred up, so that we're not going to be led astray. We're going to walk in that old path, and it's going to lead us down the good way, and we're going to find rest. It's a good thing that it gives us peace to know what we believe, and why. So stick with me in the coming weeks, and we can learn some foundational truths. Let's go ahead and pray.