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All right, Luke chapter number six. So what I'm preaching about this evening or what we're gonna study this evening for our Wednesday night Bible study is this statement here on why we should be religious. Why we should be religious. We're gonna take a look at the Bible and see what that says. The reason why I picked Luke chapter six is because it does a very good job at portraying in the first two verses man's religion and then the next three verses, pure religion. Okay, look down at verse number one. It says, and it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields and his disciples plucked the ears of corn and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. Now notice this, and certain of the Pharisees said unto them, why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days? So what's the idea here? What are the Pharisees, these certain Pharisees, what are they focused on largely here? Elevating the tradition of man and trying to pass it off as law, right? As God would endorse this. Now look how Jesus responds to this. He says in verse three, and Jesus answering them said, have you not read so much as this? Now oftentimes when you're reading these things, you know, you just wanna get through the chapter and it's easy to kind of gloss over this, but he's being very harsh on them, right? He's insulting their intelligence and rightfully so. He's saying, have you not read so much as this? And he's just gonna give them one little snippet of scripture here, right? So pay attention to this, but also notice what he's doing here, right? They come at him with their law, with their tradition, with their religion, which is false by the way. And he responds with the ultimate authority, which is the Bible, which is the word of God, which is pure religion. He says, have you not read so much as this, what David did when himself was in hunger and they which were with him, how he went into the house of God and did take and eat the showbread and gave also to them that were with him, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests alone. You see, the Pharisees here, not being saved, can't rightly divide the word of truth, kind of like we've been talking about, right? So they take certain portions of scripture and they elevate them above others. And Jesus is trying to explain to them, hey, you don't even know the foundations here. You don't even know the fundamentals. You don't even know how to prioritize what the real important issues are here. You've got no clue. Verse five, it says, and he said unto them that the son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath, highlighting to them a fact that they missed greatly. And it wasn't, this was just one thing that they missed. I mean, they missed tons of things here, but you get the concept. Now turn to James chapter number one, James chapter number one. So here you see a battle, right? Man's religion versus pure religion, okay? Religion in the world today and amongst so-called Christianity gets a real bad vibe, a really bad vibe. I'm gonna prove that to you here in a moment. But if you look down there about verse 27, what does the Bible say about religion? Is it good or is it bad? Well, the Bible says in verse 27 that it's good, right? It says pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this. Then he's gonna explain a couple of concepts, right? Pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this. What does he say next? To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. Now most people today, you could probably go to, I don't know, go pick 50 churches in the Treasury Valley and say, hey, do you think it's a good idea to go visit orphanages and maybe preach at nursing homes and visit widows? What are they gonna tell you? Definitely, 100%, amen, that's great, right? Works, works, works, baby. We gotta do the works, we do all that stuff, right? And then out of the next breath, they're gonna say we hate religion, okay? So it's like, wait a second, that's, according to the Bible, that is a religious act. That is a pure religious act. But you have got to read the rest of the verse. What does the rest of the verse say? And to keep himself unspotted from the world. That's the part of the verse that they do not like. That's the part of the verse that they will not preach, that they will not teach and they will not adhere to because that turns people away. That is difficult. But you know what, my friend, that's religion and that's pure before God and the father, the Bible says, it's pure. It's a good thing, okay? Now I wanna show you this here. This has been bothering me for several years. And I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not. I got Caden all riled up before the service, but who's heard of Jefferson Bethke? Yeah, some of you guys have heard of him. Well, he's got this video on YouTube and it went viral several years ago. I think it's got 34 some million views right now, okay? I mean, there's secular musicians and news channels that don't even have 34 million views on their video. This thing went viral, okay? And the title of the video is this, why I hate religion, but love Jesus. Why I hate religion, but love Jesus. Now, maybe if you would have said why I hate the religion like the Pharisees had it and love Jesus, maybe we could give him a little bit of a pass here, right? But he doesn't clarify that. Now, if you're wondering who this bozo is, he's a Christian author and evangelist. I didn't take the time to find out what church he goes to. If you look him up on YouTube, you'll find videos of him promoting alcoholic beverages and all sorts of modern Bible versions. Basically, stuff that would spot you by the world, okay? The exact opposite of what the Bible teaches. Now, I told Caden before the service today, I wanna get you a little bit upset before the service just because it's fun, I'm the dad, you know? And I said, listen to this video here. He didn't even make it two minutes, right? But one of the things that he pointed out was that the guy's like, hey, before I read this, I'm not, you know, I'm not judging anybody. Well, I've got, I printed this out in 14 size font so I could see it and I've got like three pages here. So how did you come up with this if you didn't judge a situation? That's the question that I have. You see, you are judging and he would judge people like us and call us fundies and call us Pharisees, call us religious zealots, which hey, I don't have a problem with that, but he would make that claim about us because we preach hard, we teach Bible doctrine, we teach you should read the Bible and follow it. Not for salvation, right? We've hammered that home several times and we'll continue to do so, but just because we preach that to make ourselves disciples and better Christians like the Bible says, why, because we wanna follow the pure religion in the Bible before God and the Father, right? Which is the whole package to visit the fatherless, the widows and the reflection, amen, no problem with that. I've got no problem in the world with that, but what about keeping yourself unspotted from the world? You know, that's what we need to be focused on. So I'm just gonna pick a few of these stupid things here and read them to you. So he says, what if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion? Well, I would say you're on drugs perhaps because why does James say pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this? Why? Okay, he says, what if I told you that voting Republican really wasn't his mission? Look, you get somebody saved and two seconds later, they should be able to tell you that, right? Look, there's all sorts of people that would tell you that. You can give this book to a college professor that hates God and he'd probably read it and tell you, well, yeah, that's true, okay? So look, okay, I got you there. So I'm gonna skip down. He says, I mean, if religion is so great, why has it started so many wars? Well, like which ones? Like the war that you're starting with us? Right? That we're gonna finish? He says, why does it build huge churches but fails to feed the poor? See, it's all about those ham sandwiches. I told you that. It's about malt-o-meal to Africa and the ham sandwiches at the homeless shelter. It's not about giving the gospel, right? Where's that in his heart? From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speak of the Bible says, and I don't hear anything in this about preaching the gospel to the lost. What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul? I mean, he doesn't obviously believe that verse because he's concerned about just feeding the poor, right? Which most liberal commie type people are. Oh, we gotta feed the poor, we gotta feed the poor, we gotta feed the poor. Look, I'm not against feeding the poor, but I'd rather get them saved because how does it profit the kingdom of God to go out and feed a bunch of people that hate the Lord Jesus Christ? What sense does that make? Is that the ministry that Christ put forth on this earth while he was here? No, you're on drugs. He says, but in the Old Testament, God actually calls religious people whores. Now here's a mission for you. I didn't have time to find this, but if you can find that verse for me, I'd love to see it, okay? Man, good night. He says, let's see, they can't fix their problems and so they just mask it, not realizing religion's like spraying perfume on a casket. See, the problem with religion is it never gets to the core. It's just behavior modification like a long list of chores. What do you mean by that? Are you saying that because we preach that we should do things a certain way to profit and to gain the advantage in life, like the sermon I preached on Sunday or other sermons that we've preached to help you along in the Christian life? Hey, if you wanna be successful, maybe you oughta do this, this, and this. Is he saying that that's like a long list of chores and that's religious and we shouldn't do that? That's what it sounds like to me. He says, now I ain't judging. I'm just saying, quit putting on a fake look because there's a problem if people only know you're a Christian by your Facebook. And look, okay, I'll give you that one, no problem. We've met people like that before, right? I hear you there, but there's no distinction made anywhere in this stupid poem about man's religion versus the pure religion of the Bible because the Bible says religion's a good thing. This is all, all religion is crap and garbage according to this guy. But you know what, if you read the comments section, it's Christian after Christian, worldly person after worldly person, heathen after heathen that agree with it. That's a problem because most messages that we preach here, you're not gonna find both of those crowds liking them or supporting them, right? Because God's word divides. It doesn't bring the saved and the lost together for some cause, okay? It doesn't do that. It separates people like it should. He goes on to say this, because if grace is water, then the church should be an ocean. It's not a museum for good people. It's a hospital for the broken. What sect of Christianity do you think this guy is? Yeah, Calvinist probably, right? He doesn't use, I don't really see him using the word faith here. It's grace, right? He has grace. Just let anybody come in no matter what they've done, no matter what they believe, no matter what they say, no matter what they do, because hey, we just gotta have grace. Only grace, man. No faith, no standards, no moral. Don't follow the Bible. If pedophiles come in here, just forgive them until they prove themselves otherwise and we'll put them in the back row. I mean, that's the attitude that a lot of churches have. It says in the Nazarene Manual that somebody who's a pedophile, that they can't hold a position of leadership, but they're more than welcome to sit in the pews. And that's what I see here reading this. Now, how does that sound? How would you like to be a part of that religion and take a chance at your children being profiled on a weekly basis? But I'm a fundy and a crazy Pharisee, right? He says, which means I don't have to hide my failure. I don't have to hide my sin. Well, you don't have to hide it. I mean, but depending on what it is, what are you in here, railing and running your mouth? You know? Look, some people need to get kicked out of church, okay? This isn't a hospital necessarily for the sick. Yes, we want people to come in here and learn and grow, but when people wanna act stupid, then guess what? You're gonna get the boot, man. And you've seen that over and over again since we started this church. Look, I'm not on a hair trigger to kick people out of here, right? But there are certain things that people cannot do and still come to church. And if that makes us Pharisaically religious, then so be it. Because I'd rather follow God's word and put on that pure religion than this kind of garbage right here with no standards, no morals, I mean, not pleasing God at all. Now look at this, he says, which is why Jesus hated religion and for it he called them fools. Well, he did call the Pharisees fools, which is kind of funny because when we call people fools, I call the Mormon leadership and they're, you know, Russell Nelson, I say, okay, Russell Nelson in the 12 quorum of apostles are a bunch of fools. That's a true statement, right? What would he probably say or his followers probably say? That I'm mean. That I'm hateful. That we're judgmental, right, yeah, exactly. Right, you know that's what they would say. But they've got no problem at, you know, quoting that. It's like, okay, I agree, but you see the hypocrisy here, he says, don't you see so much better than just following some rules? He says, now let me clarify, I love the church, I love the Bible, and yes, I believe in sin. Well, do the modern versions not have James 1.27? Maybe I should have checked. I'm not gonna get the big book out tonight cause we got a lot of stuff to cover. Let's see, he says, how Jesus and religion are on opposite spectrums. Well, Jesus and that pure religion seem to be on those same spectrum. That's right. But he doesn't make that distinction. He doesn't say that. And the reason why I brought this up is because this video went viral. 34 million views viral in the last eight, nine years. I mean, that's a pretty big deal. And it sums up what most people think about the word religion. It gets a bad rap, but that's not what the Bible teaches. So he says, see, because religion says do, Jesus says done. That's not a good statement to make. What did Jesus say was done? Right? All the standards just, okay, after John chapter 21 just chucked the Bible. We don't need Acts. We don't need Romans. We don't need first and second Corinthians. We don't need Galatians. We don't need Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. I mean, come on, get out of here. Right? That's not what that means. But they'll say, hey, you preach a sermon on Christian living and standards. They, oh, I guess I'm a religious idiot. Right? We're all out of line here according to him. He's saying that we're not doing what Jesus said. So religion says slave, Jesus says son. So he's just okay with whatever you do, no matter what, doesn't matter. Right? This is their Christianity here though. Religion puts you in bondage while Jesus sets you free. Religion makes you blind, but Jesus makes you see. Now, false religion puts you in bondage. I mean, not being saved means you're in bondage. And we talked about that last week. So yeah, amen, when a person gets saved, they believe on Christ, you're free. And you have the ability to see as long as you feed your eyeballs with God's word and it goes down into your heart, right? Then it becomes a lamp unto thy feet. And we've talked about that. He goes on to say this, religion is a man searching for God. Christianity is God searching for man. And say that again. Religion is man searching for God. So what are you saying? That God has to call you? God has to choose you? I mean, it's not looking good. Grace, the alcohol, you know, the standards, right? It's really not looking good for this guy. He says, which is why salvation is freely mine and forgiveness is my own, not based on my merits, but Jesus' obedience alone. No, it's a true statement. You're saved by grace. You don't have to work for it. We agree. But just because salvation is a free gift doesn't mean we should use that as a cloak for covetousness and all sorts of manner of sin. Just because salvation is free, should we just continue in sin? What did Paul say? God forbid. It's stuff like this that puts a bad taste in the world's mouth. This is what you're up against when you knock on people's doors. This is what you're up against with your coworkers and with your family and your friends. They see this and think of you, who's trying to do the best you can, you're trying to follow that pure religion, and they say, Pharisee, Pharisee, he's wrong. And they don't even know where they got it from. Just listen to this one time. It goes down to the heart and it just festers into an octopus of just garbage and just a web of brainwashing that is just hard to break through, you know? He goes, so for religion, no, I hate it. In fact, I literally resent it because when Jesus said it's finished, I believe he meant it. Okay, so if you wanna read the rest of it, I'll leave this up here on the song book or on the big Bible book. Just come get it and you can take a look at it. But you know, look, you're there in James chapter one. Look at verse number 26. Back of verse, look at verse 26. So if any man among you seem to be religious, he's going to hell. He's out of the will of God. Okay, hold on, let me look at this again. If any man among you seem to be religious, oh, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart. So if you don't learn to bridle your own tongue, to think before you speak like that fool, Jefferson Beckley or whatever his name is, or like the Pharisees that we read in Luke chapter six, I mean, that describes these types of people. He says, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. The Pharisees religion was vain, it was empty. Why? Because it put God down here and man up here. You know what Jefferson Beckley's religion does? It puts God down here and man up here. Because what he says about religion is not what the Bible says. The Bible speaks of a pure religion before God and the Father, which is what? To take action, right? To visit the Father in widows and the reflection, to commit selfless service to people. No problem, amen. But it also says to keep himself unspotted from the world. And that's what they don't like. That's what they're really going after. And they're doing it very cleverly. That's work. All right, go to Ephesians chapter number five. So what we're gonna do is we're just gonna talk about this statement here. So our goal as Christians is to be religious. And if you really think about it, what is the word religion or being religious? What does that mean? What's a religious person? Somebody who's devout, right? Somebody who's dedicated. Somebody who does something on a regular basis. Who here goes to work religiously, right? I know some people that don't go to work religiously and still have jobs. I haven't figured that one out yet. But they're out there, okay? I know people that watch during football season, they watch the game religiously every Sunday. I know people that watch baseball games. I know Mariners fans that watch, anytime the Mariners are playing, they're plopped down right in front of a TV. They watch it religiously. Okay? So these types of people can't stand there and say that religion's a bad thing. Because you know what? They preach that religiously. They preach their false gospel religiously. They cut us down religiously. Okay? But we're gonna break this phrase down, unspotted. The Bible says to keep himself, that we should be, as a people, we should keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Think about a, you know, I don't know, you gotta get a fresh suit or a fresh garment. You know, a nice clean garment, right? And you spill something on it. Doesn't look very nice anymore. It kind of diminishes, right? You're like, ah man, that's horrible, right? Every time I get a new tie, I spill salsa on it back here. Almost every single time. And I'm like, man, it's never gonna be the same again. How am I gonna get this out? You know, Jessica has a way of getting it out. But some, like the red ones and stuff, it seems to just stay there, you know? Especially if there's like oil and that stuff. I don't know what it is. But it's bad. It's not what we want. And that's exactly what the Bible's saying here. We should keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Why? Because hanging out with the world will spot you. It'll make you less effective. It's a bad thing. You're there in Ephesians chapter five. I'm gonna read for you 1 Timothy 6, 14, which says this. That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebucable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you study this subject out in the Bible to keep yourself unspotted or what spots are, I mean, heck, you could read Leviticus chapter 13 about all the different spots that the priests were supposed to look at and discern whether this was something serious or not as serious, right? And you can apply that today to being sin, right? All I'm trying to say is the Bible speaks a lot about spots, they're bad. You don't want them, okay? Look at verse 27, Ephesians chapter five, verse 27. You're gonna see the desire of the Lord here. Look at this. It says that he, talking about Christ, that he might present it, right, the body of Christ, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing that it should be holy and without blemish. This is why Paul ripped the Corinthian church a new one. This is why he tore the Galatians apart because of this verse here. And that's why he's telling a pastor, hey, you need to make sure you're in line with this, that you get people to become religious without pure religion because Christ wants it that way, right? He doesn't want his local church as the example in the community filled with spots because then the world looks at that, what do they say? Hypocrites, you're a hypocrite. You preach one thing, but you're over here doing another. Now back up and look at verse 26. You know, just to tell you why. It says that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. Go to Titus chapter two. That he might sanctify it, meaning separate it from the world, and cleanse it with the washing of the water of the word. Think about that. What would Jefferson Bethke say to that? Oh, you're being legalistic. You're religious because you preach the Bible and the people should follow it and do it. Yes, because that's what it says over and over and over and over again. Look, this is a Bible study. I'd like to see you try to refute that. So you're there in Titus chapter two. I'm gonna read for you 2 Peter 1.4. You don't have to turn there. I'm just gonna read for you this. So we just briefly took a look at what that means to be spotted, right? It's a bad thing. So let's say our church decides, you know what? We're gonna go ecumenical, which is never gonna happen. That would be spotting, that would be a spot. That would be a wrinkle. Christ would not be pleased with that. Say we bring in the rock bands here. Let's say we bring in Lecrae and all these Christian rappers. They are tainted with the world. That would spot this church. That would be a bad thing. That would cause us to be wrinkled, right? Because then the world's gonna look, well, you're no different. How are you different? You're saying the same things. You're doing the same gestures. You're throwing up the same signs. Why even go to church, man? What's the point? So he says this. So here's why the Bible says this. To keep himself unspotted from the world, right? And they'll say, well, you don't know what that's talking about here, right? We have to live in the world. Yeah, when you read the word world in the Bible, obviously sometimes it talks about the world in the physical sense, like people and trees and you know, just humanity. And other times it's talking about the culture and the direction in the world as it's ran by the lowercase G God of this world, the devil. But listen to this verse here. It'll give you a good definition of the world. Second Peter 1 forces this. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. So you need to understand the philosophy of the world is corruption and promotes lust. That's what it does, right? How's that for some discernment? You say, I wanna get help with my life's problems. I'm gonna go to a therapist. You better be careful because they are taught and driven by the world's wisdom, which will produce a lust inside of you and that wisdom that they might give you is corrupted. All right. Titus chapter two, look at verse 11. It says this, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, not just some men. Verse 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. Now what a concept there. We should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. So yes, we are on planet earth, right? I don't think anybody wants to argue that. But you know what? We need to make it our mission to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Why? Because the world promotes ungodliness, lust, and it promotes pride, self-righteousness, right? I mean, that's what this is saying. These are the things that are in the world. These are the things that we need to watch out for so that we don't hit those spots, okay? Now I'm not saying that it's possible for you to never sin or anything like that. We're all sinners. But you know what? We also all have the new man as well, right? And like I always say, we need to make it a point to walk in that new man. Turn to 1 John chapter number two. 1 John chapter number two. But hey, that verse says that we should learn to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. But Jefferson, Bethke, and all these bozos that would agree that that's a good video, they would say that's being religious. That's bondage. We're free in Christ. We don't need to worry about that. But again, that is not what the Bible is teaching us, is it? Look at verse 15, 1 John chapter two, look at verse 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now look, that's not saying that's proof. You're not saved. We know plenty of people that are saved that love the world. But again, what are we gonna do? Just quit? Just, oh, well, I'm done. No, not at all. Look at verse 16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. Verse 17, and the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. And we know the will of God can be found in John chapter six, verse 40, and that is to believe on Christ. It's to get saved. That's the will of God, right? But we have a mission after we've done that will, and it's to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. It's to be a religious people. Religion is a good thing if it's pure in the sight of God and the Father. Now turn to, let's see here. Go to 1 Timothy chapter four, and keep your place there, because I've got several other verses we're gonna read from. From there. All right, so now the question is, okay, how do we do this? What's the best way to go about being religious? Okay, so we're just gonna focus on three things here. You're at 1 Timothy chapter four, look at verse 13. Number one is gonna be real simple. Just got a real quick statement for you. Learn the instruction manual and follow it. This is simple, right? Go to work, say, boss, how do I become successful? You know what he's probably gonna say? Hey, here's our policies, here's our procedures, here's your job, learn it, and do it. Right, when you learn those things, what does that tell you? You can do your job well. But if you're the kind of person that says, well, I'm just gonna go to work and just have my boss just tell me what to do every day, you're not gonna go very far. You're gonna be the kind of person that just shows up, there's gonna be all this work that needs to be done, and you're gonna be so blind, you can't even tell that that stuff needs to be done. He's gonna be like, okay, there's somebody I have to constantly babysit, so I'm just gonna keep him over here, right? And then when somebody comes along and says, you know what, I see this needs to be done, I see that needs to be done, or just takes the initiative and goes and does it, right, that person is blessed in his deed. That's the type of people we need to be. You see what I'm saying here? We need to learn the Bible, we need to learn the instruction manual and follow it. And yes, guess what, that's being religious. Show me somebody who's not religious about anything. Maybe somebody who's in a coma. Well, they're still religious in the coma, okay? And I'm not making fun of people in a coma, I'm just throwing that out there. First Timothy chapter four, look at verse 13. Here's what Paul tells Timothy. Look, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. So you say, what's a good way for me to become religious? Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. Real simple, real simple, right? Give attendance, what does that mean? Well, you ever heard of, I mean, church attendance? You guys all are here today, right? You come here regularly. You know, the action or the state of going to some place regularly over time. Well, he says, hey, give attendance to reading. That means you go to your place where you read the Bible every single day. That means you're constantly scouting for brethren to exhort every single day. That means you're the type of person that looks and says, hey, I'm not sure about this doctrine, I'm gonna go to the word of God and give attendance to reading and learn that doctrine. Yeah, amen. Those three things are what we're gonna talk about here. Now, go to Matthew chapter number four. Like I said, keep your place there, Timothy. We're gonna come back to it. Matthew chapter four, look at verse four. Here's what we're gonna see. He says, you know, Paul said, hey, look, Timothy, till I come, give attendance to reading. We're gonna focus on reading and how important it is and why and how we should read the Bible. Real quick, okay? Did you notice something about that verse? He said, give attendance to reading. It's not optional, it's a commandment. It's something we should do and something that we should do religiously. Matthew chapter four, look at verse four. It says this, but he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. It's kinda hard to live that way if you don't read the book, right? You gotta read it every day. Give attendance to reading. That's why we read the whole chapter at the beginning of every service, because we wanna give attendance to reading. We wanna set the standard. Hey, this is a good thing. We don't just read, you know, a few verses and then tell stories and poems. I did tell you a poem, but you know, I'm giving you plenty of verses afterwards. All right, so give me a break. So, all right, go to 2 Timothy chapter three, 2 Timothy chapter three, but you get the point. We need to give attendance to reading. It is a commandment, but you know what? It's a commandment that's gonna bring you blessings. It's gonna bring you joy and it's gonna save you a lot of heartache and trouble in life. Think about that, making wise the simple. There are a lot of people that are simple and they need to wisen up and you're not gonna do it unless you put your nose to this book. Look, praise God for everybody that comes to church week after week, but if you don't read, you will never be wise. I know people that go to church regularly all the time, great many people, I love them to death, but you can tell they don't read. I'm not talking about people here. They don't read and it shows by the decisions and the things that come out of their mouths. 2 Timothy chapter three, look at verse 16. This is gonna tell us what reading the Bible will do for you. Remember, give attendance to reading. Look at verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. What does the word inspiration mean? It means God-breathed, God-breathed these words. They are spirit and they are life. It's not like just reading some instruction manual off the shelf at work. It's not like reading hop on pop or whatever book you wanna read. It's fine to read other books and I encourage you to read other books, but not at the expense of God's word. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and it is profitable for what? For doctrine, that's right. For reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, which Jefferson Bethke would say is religious and it's not good. Again, look, I'm destroying this verse by verse, page by page, chapter by chapter in the Bible. From page one to the end of the Bible destroys that entire poem. Verse 17, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Now that doesn't mean you're gonna be without sin. It means you're gonna be perfect as incomplete, not a bozo, not just simple, okay, but complete. That's the desire. And it takes a religious person to accomplish that. Think about that. It takes a religious person to accomplish that. If you say, oh, I don't like religion, I hate it. Yeah, it shows by the stupid stuff that comes out of your mouth. It shows by stuff like this poem that I read to you. That's somebody who's simple. That's somebody who's really not really, I mean, he's pretty much following his own advice. All right, let's see here. Go back to 1 Timothy and just stay there. 1 Timothy 4, 1 Timothy 4. So just real quick, we saw, hey, your Bible reading is a commandment. It's gonna benefit you, right? It's not like these commie dictators are out there in our country and across the world, right? Their rules and the stuff they wanna impose, it doesn't really profit you if you haven't noticed. It doesn't profit, right? But these types of commandments, they profit you. It's a good thing. It'll bring you joy and it will save your life. Look, I'm talking beyond salvation. It could save your marriage. It could save your relationships. It could save your job. It could save you all sorts of stuff if you will let it. So real quick, I just wanna give you some quick tips here on reading the Bible. 1 Timothy 4, look at verse 14. It says, neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. So what is he saying there? Hey, you know, when you got ordained, you know, you got a gift and you need to use it. You need to stir that thing up. You know what? All of us have different gifts, but one gift that we all have is the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost can cause you to understand the Bible. Open up thy law that I may behold wondrous works. I mean, you know, that's a Psalm of David. You know, open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous works out of thy law. I might be misquoting that, but you get the point, right? Basically, you meditate on the Bible. Guess what happens? Illumination, you get to see. You can see, oh, I'm not conducting myself right. Oh, that's why everybody hates me. Oh, that's why I can't hold a job. Oh, that's why my wife hates me. Oh, that's why the kids hate me, right? Because you took the time to meditate on your problems and bring yourself in line with what we've got. So how to read the Bible real quick, we're just gonna give you a couple of tips here. Number one, obviously you gotta read it, but one thing that comes up over and over and over and over again in the Bible is to meditate. Don't just read for the sake, I read 20 pages a day. You need to meditate on these things. You need to read it and at least think about it a little bit. This is why Bible memorization is so good, because it causes you to meditate on God's word and it really just teaches you so much. I mean, just try memorizing a couple of verses, the verses on the back of the bulletin. It's gonna, I mean, it's really gonna open up to you things you never even saw before, okay? So just keep your place there in 1 Timothy 4. I'm just gonna read for you guys a couple of verses here. Joshua 1, 8 says this. It says, this book of the law shall not depart out of their mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then shalt thou have good success. So when you meditate on God's word, what does the Bible say you're gonna get as a blessing? Prosperous, yeah, success. Real prosperity. Not like these jokers on TV. Write me a check for $10,000, you know, and God will bless you. No, that's not real prosperity, right? But when we meditate on God's law, you read a passage, you know, read a story in the Bible and just stop for a few seconds and think about it. Just think about it. Run it back in your mind. Not only will it help it to stick to you, it to cleave unto you for a long time, but it's gonna open up so much more wisdom in your heart and you will be blessed, you will be prosperous and you will have real success. Psalm 119, 48 says this. My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes. Look, this really is a concept I should preach about. I mean, I should preach a whole sermon about meditating, you know, on God's word. I'm just giving you a few verses here. Now look down at verse number 15. You're in 1 Timothy 4, look at verse 15. He says this, meditate upon these things and don't miss this. Give thyself wholly to them, right? Don't just step in this thing, man, with one foot. Give yourself wholly to them. Then look at the rest of the verse. That thy profiting may appear to all. There's nothing wrong with people seeing you as a religious person if it's done in the right way. Amen. That's what he's saying. Hey, yes, people are gonna see the change in you. Look, I've seen people and I've been like, man, this person's pretty simple. You know, they get on fire. I mean, they're reading the Bible. They're doing, you know, the right things. They're going to church, they're meditating. And now you wouldn't even recognize them. It's like, man, this person's like super duper smart. Now it's like, what have you, like not even the same person you were a year ago. Look, they didn't get that way by being self-willed. They got that way by meditating and giving themselves wholly unto these things, by being religious, doing these things religiously, right? That pure religion, that's what we're after here. Let's see, go to Acts chapter two, Acts chapter number two. Let's meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them. So real quick, like I said, I want to just give you three things on how you can focus on being religious, being a religious person. The number one is what? Give attendance to reading. Don't skip that, give attendance to reading. Look, it's a commandment, but it's just gonna bless you. You're not gonna get any negative benefits from reading the Bible. Nobody's ever been like, oh, I read the Bible and my whole life, you know, just turned upside down. Everything sucks and you know, I wish I would die. At least I hope nobody's done that, okay? You got bigger problems if that's happened to you. But you get the point. The next thing that Paul tells Timothy after giving attendance to reading is exhortation. Just as important, exhortation. And again, this is a doctrine. The doctrine of exhortation is something that these, you know, anti-religious people would say, you know what, you're just a Pharisee. You're just being religious. Well, let's see if that's true. What does it mean? You know, exhortation, you know what that means? It's to strongly encourage or urge somebody to do something. It's preaching the Bible or having a conversation, giving advice with the expectation of getting a response. That's exhorting, right? When I preach these sermons, it's because I'm trying to exhort you. I'm trying to get a response, a change. Look at Acts chapter two and verse 40. It says, with many other words did he testify, this is talking about Peter, with many other words did he testify and exhort saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. So what was Peter doing? He was preaching to them the gospel and saying, hey, your current generation, they are man's religion. They are the Pharisees of Luke chapter six. They do put God down here and man up here. And he's like, save yourself from that. But don't forget, don't miss that last part there, this untoward generation. Meaning that every generation is untoward, is of the world. Unless they get saved, unless they get on board with that pure religion, right? So he's exhorting them. He's trying to get a response out of them. Look, when we go soul winning, we're exhorting people to change what they believe. You know what? But it doesn't, it's not just my job. It's not just the soldiers. It's everybody in the church's job to exhort one another. You see somebody doing something, hey, that's not wise. You got to exhort them. You want to strongly encourage them to change directions. Why? Because you care about them. Not because you're worried about being called religious or some Pharisee or something like that. So be it. Look, the world's always going to call you names. And yes, Jefferson Bethke, in my opinion, is the world. He is the world. He's no different than any college professor. It's no different than a Mormon or a Catholic. Right? They all say, oh, we're not religious. They all put man up here and God down here. They all do it. Let's see here. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter four. 1 Thessalonians chapter number four. We're getting close to being done here. So we're talking about exhorting, exhortation. We need to give attendance to exhortation, to exhorting, to encouraging people to do righteous things, to do religious things. 1 Thessalonians chapter four, look at verse one. Furthermore then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us, how you ought to walk and to please God. So you would abound more and more. Well, wait a minute. Bethke boys said that Jesus said it was done, man. We should just go home. If you're one of the called, you're one of the chosen, you're one of the few and proud, pick up that liquor bottle and go home and start chugging them. And you might think that's mean and that's a little harsh and a little far fetched, but I don't think it is. That's the message that I see from that individual. He promotes alcohol and he promotes the world because that poem is the world. That's not the Bible. That's not pure religion, undefiled before God and the Father. So you can't just do one and not the other. There's two elements to that verse, selfless service, right? And self work, keeping yourself unspotted from the world. All right, let's see where we at here. Go to one chapter. Actually, you go to Hebrews chapter three. But it's kind of funny. Why did Paul tell the Thessalonians, hey, you know what? You should be minded to please God. You should be minded to please God. We should conduct ourselves in a manner like I talked about Sunday to please God. But the world looks at that, people like that idiot, old Bethke, and they say, oh, you're just promoting religion. You're putting people into bondage. So what do you do? You just get a Bible and cut out everything after John 21? How do you rightly divide that guy's doctrine? I don't know. If you figure it out, let me know. All right, real quick. I'm gonna read for you a couple verses. You're in Hebrews three. I'm gonna read for you 1 Thessalonians 5 14 which says this, now we exhort you brethren, warn them that are unruly. Uh-oh, back with that judgmental stuff, man. Warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak and be patient towards all men. These are all things of exhortation. We have to help each other out in life. It's not enough just to come here, hear the sermon and bounce. I mean, sometimes you have to do that. Sometimes I have to, I understand. We're not just Christians Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesdays, right? We need to be religious seven days a week, 24 hours a day, right? Don't ever be afraid to call somebody and be like, hey brother, you know, let me exhort you. Let me just encourage you. Let me just help you out in some way. That's how we grow. That's why fellowship in these churches is so sweet because it's just full of exhortation and that brings blessings. All right, let's see. I'm gonna skip some of these other ones. Hebrews three, look down at verse 13 says, but exhort one another daily, right? Daily, wait, that's kind of, oh, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, right? But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. When you see somebody jacked up and you don't do anything about it, it gets worse. It gets worse. It's not just my job to do it. Anybody in here can do it. You see somebody going down the wrong road, there's nothing wrong with saying, hey man, I'm concerned with what you're doing. It takes heart and discipline. But you know why we don't do it? You know why we don't do that? It's because we're worried about offending people because that's the doctrine of the world. Don't offend anybody, they might leave. Look, if you've been coming to this church long enough, you should know, you don't care about that. I'd rather see people write or out. I mean, it's that simple. All right, let's move on here. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter number 32. So he says, give attendance to reading, that's daily. That's a commandment, it provides blessing. Give attendance to exhortation. What do we see in Hebrew chapter three? Daily, right? Because what happens when we neglect it? You don't know if that sin tomorrow is gonna strangle that person. And you had the chance, you had the opportunity to stop it. Don't be that guy, don't be that person. And then next, he says to doctrine. Remember, he says, hey, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation and to doctrine. These are the three things that are gonna help us become religious. Deuteronomy 32, look at verse number two. I love using this verse talking about doctrine. He says, my doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass. God's doctrine in his speech, it distills, it purifies. It removes spots, it removes impurities and it makes us perfect, it makes us clean. It makes us effective, that's what it does. And it is so important. You know how a bozo can make a video called why I hate religion but love Jesus is because he has none of those three things. No Bible reading, no exhortation and no doctrine. He couldn't tell you the doctrine of pure religion if it hit him upside the head. Go back to 1 Timothy chapter four. While you're turning the memory for you, Titus chapter two, verse one, which says, but speak out the things which become sound doctrine. Romans 6, 17, but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Look, don't let people shame you for obeying doctrine. That's not okay, that's not good. Look, we're the ones that are obeying the truth. We're the ones with the power, we have the word of God. We have the authority, which means we could be bold with this stuff. You could be bold with your family. You could be bold with your coworkers. You could be bold with these people at the door, why? Because you've got the truth and religion is pure and it's a good thing according to the Bible. 1 Timothy 4, look at verse 16. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Now who here wants to argue that Timothy wasn't saved before I heard this? Get out of here, what did he talk about? Talking about eternal life here? No, doctrine will save your life. It will save you from jail. It will save you from being fired. It will save your marriage. It will save your children. It will save you mentally. It will save you physically. It will do, the only thing it's gonna do for you is bless you. Yes, you will lose friends. Yes, you're gonna lose certain family members. But hey, nuts to them. Get out. Bye-bye, right? Because we want to have that pure religion which is undefiled before God and the Father. That's the goal. Why should we care about this? Because God cares about it and he wants us to be religious. Go to Romans chapter 12. We're done. Romans chapter number 12. Very familiar verses. Romans 12, look at verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, this is an exhortation, he's trying to exhort these guys, right? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Look, he died on the cross. He went to hell for three days, three nights. He rose from the dead. You know what, it's reasonable to give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. That shouldn't be too hard. That's reasonable. That's all he wants. He doesn't even require it to get to heaven. We should desire that. But the only way you're gonna do that is if you learn to be religious. It's a good thing. Verse two, and be not conformed to this world. Why? Because we're commanded to be unspotted from the world. That's why. He says, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Meaning if you're spotted by the world, you will never be able to prove that acceptable will of God. People that are just soaked in the world, they can't preach the gospel very well. They suck at it. Even ones that are saved, right? And I've seen it. People that are stupid in the world, they try to come soul winning for a little bit, and their presentation is garbage. They get hit with doctrine, and they can't refute it. Because they're spotted by the world. It clouds your mind. It makes you less effective for Christ. So, you know, think about that. Pure religion, according to the Bible, is a good thing. Amen. Pure religion, according to Jefferson Bethke and all his followers and people that think alike, is garbage. And that's why they can't tell the right hand from the left. How's that for a study? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for clearly defining the things that the world is so against, Lord, and that we just pray that you'd help us to become a zealous people. Lord, they would desire to be religious in the way that you told us to be. Pray you bless the fellowship and the soul winning to come the rest of the week, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.