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

Hey everybody, welcome back to the channel. I appreciate you as always. Tonight, we're talking about doctrines. So I titled this Conviction vs Doctrine. Last week we talked about convictions, conscience, and condemnation. And today, we're gonna do all doctrine. I'm gonna kinda relate and tie in how conviction works with that. So what you're gonna find is that doctrine determines our direction, and if we have the wrong direction, we're gonna forfeit our protection. And so, in this sermon, you're gonna learn the difference between precept, principle, and how those things work together to equal doctrine. And a lot of good stuff in here to help. And as always, we appreciate you guys. Don't forget, send us your prayer requests and your praises. God bless. All right, amen. While you're in Hebrews chapter number 13, we're gonna get there in just a second, but last week we talked about conviction, conscience, and condemnation. Talked about how those things relate. We talked about the difference between having a conviction and the voice of conscience versus the voice of condemnation. And so I'm gonna review that here in a second, but tonight's sermon is called Conviction vs Doctrine. And so basically what this is about, it's a little bit of review from last time, but it's about the difference between conviction and doctrine and how doctrine does obviously drive conviction. So what are doctrines? Doctrines are teachings. They are sets of beliefs that we get from the Bible, but it's also a lot more than that. And so I'm gonna get into that here in just a second. Now, if I were to give you a test and say, all right, hey, what's the difference between precept and principle? Would you be able to give me an answer? And if not, that's okay. I can't remember when the last time I taught this was. So before we get started, I wanna just lay a foundation with some definitions so that it's easier for you guys to understand what I'm talking about. All right, let's talk about a principle. What is a principle? So a principle is a foundational truth that basically acts as a foundation for a set of beliefs, okay? And a precept is something that is designed to drive behavior, to change behavior, okay? That's what a precept is. So quick example, down here on Fairview, hey, you got this sign that everybody sees anytime you drive down there. It says 35 miles per hour. Speed limit is 35 miles per hour. That is a precept, okay? Now you go a little bit further down the road, you cross into Meridian and you get over to Cherry. There used to be, and I don't know if it's still there, but there used to be a billboard, it's definitely there in the wintertime, that says, please drive carefully, okay? Careful driving saves lives. There's something to that effect, okay? That is an example of a principle, okay? So you see the difference there. The speed limit is designed, or that sign rather, is designed to get us to change our behavior. And I don't know if you're like me and you got a heavy foot, sometimes, you know, it's designed to slow that down. Or in a lot of people's cases around here, to speed up. I don't know if you guys noticed this, but there's a habit of people that want to drive 20 miles an hour down that road, and I'm not quite sure what it is, but it is what it is. Now let's apply this to the Bible. So last week we spent some time in Corinthians talking about the doctrine of conscience, the teaching of conscience. And specifically Paul brings up how we are to protect a brother's weak conscience. Remember he talked about that? That in itself is a preset, okay? Now the principle in that is deferment. And you remember the deferment where Paul said, hey, look, we know we have knowledge, okay? We know that if somebody eats this food, that somebody sacrificed to an idol, it's not gonna kill you, it's not gonna hurt you. So we get that, we understand that. However, there are people without that knowledge and their conscience being weak are defiled, okay? So the principle in that is for us to recognize the larger picture and exercise care and caution and say, okay, you know what? They don't have this knowledge right now, so instead of just brow beating them, instead of making fun of them and putting them down, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and take the high ground and I'm going to take care of you. So in your presence, I will not do anything to offend you. That is a principle, okay? But the precept is to take basically what Paul said about the conscience of the brother and protect it. So just protect a brother's weak conscience, be cognizant of that, that is a precept. And so when you take precept, okay, principle, precept plus principle, you get doctrine. And that's what we're gonna say. When you take a precept and you add principle equals doctrine or teachings. Who's ever heard of the word indoctrination? Hey, everybody in here has. Who's ever gone to an end doc? You get a new job and what do they do? They give you an orientation. Some employers call it end doc, okay? The military is notorious for this, having end doc. And what's the point of that? Well, it's to teach you their policies and to help you behave in a way that is consistent with how they want you to behave while you represent that company, okay? That is a form of doctrine. And people say, oh, doctrine is just religious, it's just Bible, no. There's doctrine all over the place. Wherever you work, okay, wherever you went to school, there's doctrine. And so with that being said, what do we know? There's doctrine that comes from God and I'm gonna show you that. There's doctrine that comes from man. And we all in this room know that there is doctrine that comes from devils. So we're gonna talk about this conviction versus doctrine. And so again, just to review before, we're gonna read something out of Hebrews in a second here. I just wanna bring a couple of things up from last week. So we talked about how conviction brings movement, okay? It produces action. We saw that in John chapter number eight. We took a look at the conscience's role in conviction and we studied how if falsehood enters in, we accept it as truth, what does that breed? It breeds wrong conviction, causes us to go the wrong direction. And I had three points last week and I said the conviction is specific, condemnation is vague. So when you're in your daily life and something's beating you down, okay? You're just getting this label and it's just like, you know, you're trash, you're terrible, you suck, blah, blah, blah, okay? And that is not the voice of conviction. That doesn't come from the Holy Ghost. And we pulled all kinds of verses last week talking and I gave you specific examples of who we are in Christ. And we ought not to forget that. When we forget that, we don't remember that, what happens? We invite the enemy, okay? And knowing that we are in spiritual warfare, we ought to be aware of that because guess what? There are doctrines of devils and when they come in and guess what they do, okay? They mess with that conscience, they cause a wrong conviction in the wrong direction. And number two, I said that condemnation comes from the flesh or the devil, but conviction comes from the Holy Ghost. And I just kind of mentioned that. And number three, I said, conviction leads to action, condemnation leads to retraction. So when we live a life where we are just allowing people or some kind of principality to condemn us, that does not allow us to move forward in our walk with Christ. It inhibits our work and it causes all sorts of problems. It causes us to pull back. So what I'm gonna say today is that doctrine points to direction, okay? And if we have the wrong direction, that equals a loss of protection. You don't believe me, go look up the doctrine of Balaam. Hey, go read Revelation, look at the doctrine of Balaam then go back to the book of Numbers and study that passage out, what happened? Well, Balaam decided, well, because I can't curse the children of Israel, no problem. I'll go ahead and introduce this doctrine of fornication and all of this idolatry and all this trash garbage and get them to move in the direction that I want. What happens, people lose their protection, okay? You start acting like that or living your life in accordance with the doctrine of Balaam, what happens? Is God just gonna protect you? No, you might actually forfeit your hedge of protection and get a disease, destroy families, lives. I mean, there's all sorts of horrible things that can come from that, okay? So that's what we're gonna say today. Doctrine points to direction, wrong direction equals a loss of protection. And so I'm saying that so that we are very aware that doctrine is very important, okay? Doctrine is very important. And you're gonna see how deep this doctrine goes this evening. So now let's get to it here. Hebrews chapter 13, look down at verse number nine. Bible says, be not carried about. And what does carried about mean? That is movement, okay? Saying, hey, don't be over here, over there, over everywhere, okay? Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. So what could carry a person about with diverse or many different doctrines, strange doctrines? And I've already said it, that is conviction, okay? Look, probably everybody in here has heard me say this, or you've heard this yourself. You go talk to a Mormon out stolen, okay? I just know that it's true. Has anybody in here ever started to give the gospel to a Mormon and they cut you off and they just say, but I had this burning in my bosom. I had this feeling and I just know that the Book of Mormon and the doctrine of covenants is true. I just know it's true, I had this burning in my bosom. That's conviction and conviction comes from the Holy Ghost. I have had that said to me more than five times in my life, okay? And what I'm here to tell you is that wrong, strange, diverse doctrines, what does it do? It carries you over here, over there. I mean, how many positions has the Mormon church changed on in the last 60, 70 years? Didn't they used to teach that the mark of Cain was on all black people? And now they're like, we didn't really mean that, we got new revelation, okay? But does that deter people? No, go down to one of these little synagogue temples and tell people that and listen to the responses. You know, you'll hear anything. I asked an old one this here. I said, come on, man, you gotta be honest with me. Did you guys used to believe that? He said, yes. And he said, that was true, but in 19 whatever, God lifted the mark of Cain for a more diverse world. There's that word, diverse. Remember, diversity is perversity. I'm sorry, it's about, but it is true. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter number 32. So anyways, falsehood being accepted as true, like we talked about last week, it does get to the conscience. You can train your conscience to not condemn you, to not bring God's law in front of your eyes, inside of your head, which obviously causes all sorts of problems for people. Now, let's get to the source of the doctrine that we are really interested in, that we preach about all the time. Deuteronomy chapter number 32. We're gonna look at a couple of things here. Look down at, look down at verse number one. So the Bible says this, give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Okay, so understand this is God speaking now to the nation of Israel. They're about to embark on a journey to take over the promised land. Look at verse two, my doctrine. Notice that word there, that possessive word there, my. God is saying that my doctrine, my teachings, which include principles, which include precepts, my doctrine shall drop as the rain. Picture in your mind rain coming down and that being doctrine. And one of the things I think about is that at the time, God is telling this nation this, in all the many years after that, right? There's a lot of situations and things that rise up in our lives and you look in scripture and you're like, well, that's not in there. And I read an article today before I came to church and this guy was like, you know, sniffing cocaine is not listed as a sin in the Bible. So therefore we gotta be careful, okay? We gotta be careful about preaching things that aren't listed in the Bible as doctrine or as precepts or as principles. But it's like, yeah, you know, what about the fact that we're the temple of the Holy Ghost, we ought not be hurting the body, you know, be sober. There's, you know, this is what I'm talking about here. There's all sorts of things in the Bible that are doctrine. We're commanded to speak things which become of sound doctrine, okay? We are allowed to use these precepts that God has given us as drops of rain, meaning many. God's doctrine wasn't just designed for this time period here where Moses was alive. It was designed to be scattered from the time he gave it and even a lot before till the end of time, okay? So he says, my doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill, distill as the dew. Yeah, what does that mean to distill? That means to purify, okay? So what is he saying here? My teachings, okay, which include principles, which include precepts, hey, they're gonna drop down as the rain, okay? You're not gonna be able to necessarily put a number on all of them. So he says, my doctrine shall drop as the rain and also pointing direction, okay? It comes from God. It is his doctrine, okay? We embrace it. He says, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass. So this is obviously the doctrine that we are interested. Now we're interested in false doctrine to an extent as well, but what you're gonna find in the Bible is the stronger that you get on actual doctrine, which comes from God, which came down from above, okay? The easier it's gonna be for you to be like, that's wrong, that's not right, okay? And that also will translate into doctrine that it's just in the world that doesn't have a religious connotation to it, okay? So when people are pitching sales things at you, not like selling carpet or a car or something like that, but whatever it is, okay? They're trying to get you to believe a certain thing. Old enough one, you know? Well, whatever it is, it doesn't really matter, okay? You're gonna be able to spot truth a whole lot better across the board. Now, let me give you an example of this run awry here. Same chapter, just skip down to verse number eight, and I'll show you an example here of some really bad doctrine. So here's the doctrine that comes from God. Look at verse eight. So it says, when the most high divided to the nations, their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. Okay, this is also quoted in Acts chapter 17, and it's a reference to Genesis chapter number 11. Remember, okay, during that time, the whole earth was of one language. What did they do? Hey, let's go ahead and build this tower, okay? Let's go ahead and have a one-world government speech, everything one, and God came down and was like, yeah, I don't think so, okay? He put a squash to that. Now, this is one I heard of today. Verse eight, again, okay? When the most high divided to the nations, their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam. So I watched a video by this guy. He's got 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube. This video that I watched that was recommended to me had close to 200,000, okay? And he, I think he was using the ESV, and he says, do you guys wanna know why I'm using the ESV? It's because it says, sons of God here. He says, the new King James uses the sons of Israel. The NIV uses the sons of Israel, okay? He's like, but the problem with that is, is that when we got the Dead Sea Scrolls, and this is what he said. He said, and more original manuscripts were found, we got the truth. And so this is correct. It says, sons of God. Then he brings you over to Psalm 82, and then guess what he does? Then he brings you over to Job, okay? And then what does he do? Then he starts bringing up the Nephilim. And so what he says is, well, okay, when the most high divided the nations to their inheritance, when he prepared the sons of God. So the sons of God, this is what he says, are the Nephilim or the angels, okay? So at Genesis chapter 11, when God came down, and he divided the nations, he didn't just leave them out dry. He left them with direction. He put angels over all of those nations and cities, and then they started to abuse the people, and then they started to marry the people, and then they grew tall. You know, and this is how it goes, okay? And this guy has 1.8 million followers, and probably almost double that of people that just haven't subscribed, or people that would just look at that and say, yeah, I agree with that. Well, you say, prove it. Well, most Christian people out here in the world today believe in the Nephilim doctrine, okay? If somebody has an NIV, or they are not King James only, so in other words, their original manuscript only, guess what? Guess what? Those books actually substitute in some places, sons of God for the actual word Nephilim, okay? Which is not anywhere in the Bible. This is correct, sons of Adam. What God is simply saying is, hey, I divided the children of men, okay? So they could no longer be in one place with one sick, twisted agenda to do their own thing. End of story, okay? But that is how the train wreck goes. You get false doctrine. It takes you into the wrong direction, and then you lose your protection, okay? So you can't tell me that this guy is blessed of God. I haven't even checked yet, but I'll guarantee you anything he's got a workspace gospel, almost guaranteed he does, okay? So that was just kind of for free there. Go to Proverbs chapter number four real quick. Proverbs chapter number four. So Deuteronomy 32, very clear, okay? God's doctrine, okay? He came up with it. It's from him, preserved throughout all generations. The picture of rain there, many droplets covering a span of area, okay, is signifying in my opinion to us that he's got us covered from front to back, all ages, if I could use that word, of history, all periods of history, okay? Proverbs chapter four, look down at verse number one. The Bible says this. Hear ye, children, the instruction of a father, attend to no understanding. Look at this, verse two. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. Now you go ahead, and we're gonna do this again in Matthew later, but you go ahead and take the book of Proverbs and pinch it in between your fingers and say the word doctrine, okay? That's doctrine. A lot of times when we hear the word doctrine, we think, okay, salvation, free gift, post-trip, pre-wrath, baptism, okay? And that's how we think of doctrine. Doctrine is much, much, much more vast than that. I'm gonna get there in just a second. Go to Colossians chapter number two. Colossians chapter number two. So again, people say, well, your church indoctrinates people. Well, yeah, that's what God does. That's the whole point. You say that like it's a bad thing, right? You say that like it's a horrible thing. What does your church do? Charm people with a flute, you know? What are we, a bunch of snakes? I mean, give me a break here. Colossians chapter two, look down at verse number 22. Real quick, I just wanna show you this. We looked at the doctrines of God, okay? Very briefly, but look at this here. Colossians two, verse 22. So Paul says, which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. And what you're gonna find when you study this out is these commandments of men are typically gonna be based in tradition. Now there's nothing wrong with having traditions. We have traditions here. Every church has traditions, okay? But the issue comes when you're like, if you don't do it this way, and it's not clearly stated, it did not come from God himself, okay? But you're like, no, you have to have a pulpit with a slant right here. It has to be this tall. You have to wear that. You have to do this. No instruments, okay? It's like, okay, now you fall into this category because you cannot prove that from God from the Bible. Again, a couple of examples I've already mentioned, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and the doctrine of Balaam found in Revelation. So we can see that obviously men come up with their own commandments and teach them for doctrines. This is wrong in Paul's warning of that. And there are several warnings of that in the Bible. Go to 1 Timothy chapter number four and we'll look at the next one here, which is number three, the final one. Very simple, very, very easy. 1 Timothy chapter number four, look at verse number one. The Bible says, now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith. You say, well, how is that? Well, here it is, giving heed, meaning giving attention, okay? Giving heed to seducing spirits, okay? Anybody says, oh, you don't believe that there's spiritual warfare today. Well, Paul warned us that there is and will be until Christ comes back. That there would be people that give heed, they pay attention to seducing spirits and look at this and doctrines of devils. So we need to be aware of this fact that in the spiritual world, they are concerned about doctrine, okay? This is why in Ephesians, we read about the fact that God wants to use the church as the manifold display of his wisdom. We go to this book and we say, you know what? We're gonna get our doctrine from him because it comes from him and it distills, it purifies. And we exercise that in our lives. I'm gonna show you that in a second and why that's so important, okay? And that process breaks through what we do on a daily basis. Somehow that transcends the reality that you and I see and it ends up into the spiritual realm, okay? And so we know that there are devils plural, okay? There are demons. And however it is that they operate, they whisper, they inspire, they place false doctrine into the ears of people. They consume it, they believe it and they spread it like wildfire. And of course we all know the internet is no shortage of that. All right, Isaiah chapter number 28. Isaiah chapter number 28. So what does this have to do with conviction? Well, doctrine drives conviction, okay? If we believe doctrine and we believe the right doctrine, it's gonna point us in the right direction. Of course, wrong doctrine, wrong direction. And of course that's going to hinder our protection. Now let's get into, we already understand what doctrine is. We understand it's made up of principles. It's made up of precepts, okay? We've explained the difference there. But what does it take to actually understand doctrine? Do you actually understand biblical Bible doctrine? Isaiah chapter 28, look down at verse number nine. And what you're gonna see here is that all doctrine does need to be confirmed and approved by God, meaning by the word of God. Look at verse nine. So the Bible says this, Isaiah the prophet, whom shall he teach knowledge? Okay, what are you talking about there? Well, he's crying out and saying, whom is God going to teach knowledge? Remember Isaiah is prophesying during a time where people are starting to rebel against the word of God. So he says, whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Now pay attention here because it's our goal to understand doctrine. Not look doctrine again, it's not just like, okay, where are you at on tribulation? Where are you at on prophecy? Where are you at on this? Okay, that's all important, that's all good. But that's super milk type stuff, okay? That is super milk. If you could just quote that super babe, look what he says. Whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Now look at it, look at this here. Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts. So you take all of these basic doctrines that we constantly talk about, salvation, baptisms, I mean, and the list goes on. Go to Hebrews chapter six and you can read about them because Paul clearly outlines what they are, okay? When you finally have made up your mind and understand this is what the Bible says about those things, okay? Now it is time that you can actually begin. You're a white belt, you're a white belt at that stage. You just beginning, okay? White belt is what you are, okay? At that point in time can you then advance to really understand doctrine? Again, you go back and you pinch Proverbs. You go pinch that book and then think to yourself, how much of this can I actually explain? But better than that, how much of this am I actually applying in my life is a better way to say it. Look at verse 10, for precept, remember that speed limit sign, remember that command that Paul gave us about protecting our brother's conscience. For precept must be upon precept and precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little, okay? This is something that takes incremental advancement. It takes time, okay? He says precept upon precept. So you get to understand doctrine by first being weaned off of the milk, okay? And I'm not saying anybody in here is on the milk. I'm just simply stating facts here because that's really what presets are. At that point in time, you start to learn, hey, this is actually what the Bible says. Hey, did you know Matthew chapter five in the Beatitudes? Christ said this, okay? You start little by little internalizing these truths and understanding them in your heart. Then what happens? Then you proceed to understand doctrine. Now you're starting to get your belt increments. You're starting to advance. In fact, go to Matthew chapter number seven. Matthew chapter number seven. And let's look at some here. So that's what Isaiah is saying. Hey, it's fact upon fact. It is precept upon precept. And how's the Bible written? In lines, in verses, okay? That is why we do take time to go verse by verse through a book of the Bible. People always wanna fight online. What's better verse by verse or topical? Well, if you weren't super weak sauce, you could just do both. You know, we got three services a week, do whatever we want. We can go through two books at a time. We can go through one book at a time. We can do topics. We do everything we wanna do. But when you got one little week service, you know, a week, and then you got the small groups and you're playing game, you know, it just doesn't profit anybody, does it? Then it allows you to have them stupid arguments in those stupid fights. Look at this here, Matthew chapter seven. Look at verse 28. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine. Verse 29, why were they astonished? For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Now speaking of pinching, go to Matthew chapter five real quick. Keep your place right there though. Keep your place right where you were just reading with your finger, if you don't mind. And look at Matthew chapter five, verse number one. Look at this. So what did we just read? Well, Jesus had just got done preaching the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven, verse 28. So that means what you're about to read here, verse one of chapter five, all the way to Matthew chapter seven, verse 27. Okay, that's the doctrine that the narrator is telling you about. Now I'm not saying that the whole book isn't doctrine. I'm just saying that's the doctrine that they were astonished at. They heard that preaching like, whoa, he's not teaching like a scribe because how would the scribes teach? Well, it's obvious by the implied context here. There'd be a probably be like, can we see this today? Well, you know, this could mean this. It could mean that. It might've been this. We don't really know until Messiah comes back, you know, and gives us a lot of money. I don't really know, you know, but let's just all get along and drink as much wine as we can and be merry. Of course I injected all that, but you get the point. You know, some of it's true. Hey, look at Matthew five, verse one. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain and when he was set, his disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and taught them. So understand doctrine will teach you. And look what he says in verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And so of course you have this portion, you know, go to, let's see here. Go to chapter six real quick. Obviously there's so much, I don't have time to get into it. Again, pinch Matthew five to Matthew seven. That is filled with doctrine. How much are we applying? How much do we actually understand? Okay, so next time somebody wants to hammer you out here on, oh, what doctrine is? All right, let's talk about real doctrine then pal. How much doctrine do you really know? Yeah, you can name things, but do you really know it? Do you really understand doctrine? Do you understand what Jesus meant here? For example, look at verse 25 of Matthew six. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life. What you shall eat or what you shall drink nor yet for your body, what you shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment. So what is this? The doctrine of anxiety, okay? Do you understand that? Do you exercise that in your life? Let's see, go back to go over to Matthew seven, one more for you. Look at verse six. Here's another one for you. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs. We've already talked about this. You know what that is? That's doctrine. People say, oh, that's not, that's horrible that you would say that. My Jesus would never say that. That's doctrine that distills. You know what that doctrine does? That doctrine keeps sodomites out of the church, okay? And what's the equality there? What happens when we do that? We're protected. We got that protection, don't we? So that doctrine equals what? It equals protection big time. What happens in other places that don't do that? You already know. Mola station city is what happens every single time without exception, without exception, okay? So I just wanted to highlight just a couple of quick things there, okay? Go back if you can, if you've got time and just read Matthew five to Matthew seven, verse 27 and then read obviously, you know, verse 28 and just understand that is doctrine. How much do we know? But not only know, how much are we using? How much are we actually doing? There's a lot in there. We spent a lot of time a couple of years ago going through that stuff, okay? It's very, very important. And that's what Isaiah is talking about, okay? That's the doctrine that we're moving into. That's where we wanna be. We don't wanna be just stuck on level one all the time, right? Now it's important to revisit those things because part of doctrine is repetition. Part of indoctrination is repetition, is repetition in the Bible, okay? But we want to preach the entire, the whole council of God. Go to Mark chapter number seven. Mark chapter number seven. We're getting close to wrapping this up here but let's go to Mark chapter seven. Let's look at one more thing here. I probably should have brought this up earlier but it's okay. Mark chapter seven, verse number five. And so the Bible says, then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, why walk not the disciples or not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders? Is that word there, tradition of the elders? Isn't that funny? Like it's like a Catholic Pope or some kind of Catholic priest walking in here. Why aren't you, you know, why are you got your sleeves rolled up and why are you doing it? And it's just like, what about the traditions? I'd be like, how did you make it past the sign? I mean, did that not offend you first of all? And then he'd be swan diving out of here but that's a story for another day. We got a no questions asked policy when it comes to pedophiles. So anyways, notice what he says here. Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders but he bred with unwashed hands. So he's like not concerned about the word of God, right? What are their convictions? The Pharisees ascribes here. Are they based in real doctrine? Are they based off of real solid sound conviction? No. Okay, who's got the defiled conscience here? It's these religious idiots. Verse six, he answered and said unto them, well hath, Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written, this people on earth me with their lips but their heart is far from me. So again, doctrine that distills, doctrine that comes from God which we all have a copy of here. You know what that does? That draws your heart closer to him. That's why we're so big on application in our type of churches, getting you to move. Because again, that is also a precept. Remember a precept is to get you to change behavior and those come from God. And so that's why we have to be careful not to teach for doctrines the commandments of men. And this is the mistake that a lot of churches go into. Oh, you know, if you don't do this, this is definitely gonna happen to you. I was watching this thing about, I don't know if I mentioned this already, I'll just do it again because it applies. But there was a popular show on TV many years ago called the Dogger Family. It was a family that had a bunch of kids and they just were on like reality TV because it was real popular. And I watched this woman, I guess it was one of the daughters and she did an interview. And she's like, you know, I'm just so free now because I can wear pants and I can listen to all this music and stuff. And it's just like, oh, it's not, okay, well, let me see where she's going with this. And she's, you know, the interviewers asking her questions about what it was like to grow up in there. And she was like, I remember the first time I got a ride from someone during the shooting of one of the episodes and they were listening to songs and had drums in there. She's like, and I freaked out and I thought I was gonna die. And she said, the reason why I thought I was gonna die is because my pastor told me, if you listen to music that has drums in it, God's gonna come down and kill you. Okay, that's the wrong way to get the point across. That's the, see, that's what happens when we aren't careful. Did God actually say that? Or is somebody just trying to control, to Lord over people to get them and to force them to do things? You know, look, if you wanna be a preacher, you wanna sit under a good preacher, find one that's not concerned with getting involved in your business. Okay, if you wanna be a preacher, set it in your heart right now, not to wanna Lord over God's people. You've got the word of God, you've got the Holy Ghost, you're saved. You preach the word of God and people are either gonna listen or they're gonna bounce, man. And it ain't your fault. All your job is is to preach the word and that's between you and the Holy Ghost there, okay? That application has to come from you. You can't force it. You can't guilt trip people because when you do that, you get people like that. You get people that are hurting, people that are just distraught, that are, you know what they're doing now? A lot of those people, now they're looking for the new evangelical for truth because in their eyes, oh, look at how free they are. They can preach sermons with the music stands down, holes in the jeans and it's okay, God hasn't killed them. So therefore they must have the truth. See what happens when God's people get destroyed by lack of knowledge. That is the perfect example of that. Verse seven, look what he says here, Mark seven, verse seven. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. So that's why I said earlier, okay? The doctrine that comes from men, they're typically what you're gonna find is some sort of tradition that that man wants to force down your throat. Look no further than the Catholic church and their doctrine of lady and all these other crazy things they have. Go to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter number four. So like I said, we're getting pretty close to being done here. We're gonna look at two more verses and then that is it. Ephesians chapter number four, look down at verse number 14. And I just wanna kind of show you this because Paul gives this warning to everybody, okay? He says this, that we henceforth, so from here on out, okay, that we henceforth be no more children, okay? Now look at this language here, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. Now look what he says next, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. So he says, every wind of doctrine, okay? You notice how he calls them children. You know, obviously that was just a phrase that they would use, but as a child, and this is why we need to protect people that come in this church that are new, okay? They're new and we need to say, hey, like in your conversations with them, you need to start to be able to be aware of where they're going with things, okay? Because as a child, as someone is new to the faith, so you go get somebody to say they start coming to church, okay? Be careful with them, okay? Because as they're learning, as they're drawing from the breast, as Isaiah put it, as they're on the milk, as Isaiah put it, that is the prime time that the enemy wants to come in and try to pull a fast one and exercise his slight and then display his cunning craftiness to try to draw them away from serving God, from being strong. And obviously it's the way he says children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine. So we wanna get people past those solid doctrines as soon as possible. Like, hey, here's what the Bible says about this, about baptism, salvation. Obviously you probably already got the salvation to them, right? But there's obviously other things that are milk. Again, go see Hebrews chapter six for a good list on that. We've already done that a few months ago, okay? The point is our job is to try, and it's different for everyone, not everybody learns the same, okay? And so that also draws in the doctrine in the Gospel of Matthew, in the sermon on the Mount of Patience, okay? Having patience with people and, you know, just understanding not everybody learns the same and so on and so forth. Go to 1 Timothy chapter six, because as children, it's easier to get people tossed to and fro. Last one right here, and this is kind of just a warning that I wanna leave everybody with regarding doctrine. 1 Timothy chapter six, verse number one says this. Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. So again, think about that in light of everything I just told you, okay? The doctrine which comes from God, which we are very concerned with in church, teaching, preaching, and solidifying on, okay? Did you know that that doctrine can be blasphemed? Okay, can the doctrine of men be blasphemed? Well, according to some people it can. You don't wanna do my tradition, so you're not saved, you're gonna help. Okay, of course we got those idiots, okay? But can their doctrine? No, nobody cares about that, okay? But the doctrine which comes from God, if it's not exercised properly, if it's not taught correctly, what are we doing? We're blaspheming God. Again, this is just one more of infinite proofs that you cannot separate God from his written word, okay? Again, you find it right here, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. Of course, go read this back on your own time. But when we're at work and we're like, yeah, you know, I ain't doing that, you suck. You know, we just have this bad attitude towards us, okay? Guess what? Now the doctrine of God is being blasphemed. We're not having a good testimony. And that's not to say you're not gonna have issues, because everybody's gonna have issues with people at work. It's just a thing. But the doctrine is what we need to learn. How do we respond to it? How do we actually handle those problems? Okay, and when we do it right, his doctrine is not blasphemed. It's not cursed. It's not made to be vile or to stink in the sight of men and wisdom goes forth and God blesses us. And that's the way that this works. So we're gonna stop right there. Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church. And again, for this teaching, I just pray you would help us to all increase in doctrine, Lord, as we understand, doctrine is very deep, very vast, and it's very much in the Bible. And it is all about the application. And we thank you for that, Lord, in Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, one more song and we'll be dismissed.