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you you you you Well, good morning everyone welcome to Mountain Baptist Church Take your song books and turn the song 218 Song 218 in your song books will sing hallelujah tis done if you would stand Will sing song 218 Is The promise of Salvation to give unto him who on Jesus his son will believe Hallelujah is done I believe on the son. I am saved by the blood of the crucified one I believe on the son. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one though the pathway be lonely and dangerous to Surely Jesus is able to carry me through Hallelujah Son I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one I believe on the son. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one Many loved ones have I and yon Heavenly throng they are saved now in glory And this is their song Hallelujah is done On the son I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one On the son I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one There's a part in that Chorus for you and for me and the theme of our praises forever will be Hallelujah is done I believe on the son. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one Hallelujah is done I believe on the son. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one And let's pray Heavenly Father Lord again, we just want to thank you God just for the opportunity and privilege it is to come to a church that believes your word and Pastor that faithfully preaches your word. I pray Lord that we would just understand how blessed we are and Lord I pray Lord that you would just bless the service today, and we love you and pray all of this in Jesus name Amen, or you may be seated and Take your mountain Baptist song books Baptist Psalms hymns and spiritual song books and turn to page number six page Number six in your mountain Baptist Psalms hymns and spiritual song books will sing Psalm 96 on page number six Oh sing unto the Lord a new song Sing unto the Lord Oh the earth sing unto the Lord Bless his name show forth his salvation from day to day Declare his glory Among the heathen his wonders among all people For the Lord is great And greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all gods Give on to the Lord all ye kindreds of the people give on to the Glory and strength Oh sing unto the Lord Oh Song sing unto the Lord all the earth sing unto the Lord Bless his name show forth his salvation from day to day For all the gods of the nations are idols But the Lord made the heavens Honor and majesty are before him Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary Give on to the Lord all ye kindreds of the people give on to the Glory and strength Sing Give on to the Lord Do unto his name bring an offering and come into his courts Oh Worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness fear before him all the earth Say among the heathen that the Lord The world also shall be established That it shall Be moved He shall judge the people Righteously Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad let the sea Roar and the fullness thereof Let the field be joyful and all that's there in child the trees of the wood rejoice Before the Lord for he cometh For it cometh to judge the earth He shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with his truth Oh sing unto the Lord a new song sing unto the Lord all the earth sing unto the Lord bless his name show forth his salvation from day to day Amen so welcome out Baptist Church on this Sunday morning just some announcements here Church services will be normal today So obviously we're in our Sunday morning serve service, but we're gonna have our selling time at 1 p.m. Then we'll have our afternoon service at 4 p.m I'm taking a little pause on my series on overviews of the the books of the Bible Got some subject requests when it comes to sermon so But I also have sermons that I'm wanting to preach so you know that being said not that I don't want to preach What people request, but there's stuff that's on my mind, and so you know stuff You got to get off your chest that type of thing. I'm just kidding, but so that being said I will be taking pause from that this week because I'm gonna be doing a different sermon this afternoon But I may do the same next week just depending on just different subjects and stuff like that so it is what it is I'm sure you'll get over it We'll get the Isaiah eventually when it comes to the overview series there, but so As Far as soul-winding goes regional times there just beyond the church group there when it comes to that We do have prayer meetings that are upcoming here August 25th the women's prayer meeting August 30th the men's prayer meeting and And then the soul-winding marathons so this this it's this Saturday right the 24th is The the Moorefield West Virginia soul-winding marathon and Then on September 21st, which is the day before our church anniversary service. We're gonna be going to cannons Berg PA and so Excited about that and so You make it to any of these that'd be great and then On that 22nd. We're gonna have our church anniversary service, so we'll have food in between the services that type of stuff Right, I mean at least games and stuff like that I'm not sure if we're gonna do the dunk tank and all that stuff again, or if we're gonna try something different You know, but we'll have some fun stuff to do either way. So So that being said We'll be celebrating seven years This September technically, it's September 17th, but obviously it doesn't always fall on a Sunday Actually most time it does fall on a Sunday. So you got to pick which Saturday or which Sunday we do it But we'll definitely be seven years in by the 22nd So, you know at that point you can definitely say it's been seven years and so On the back your bullets in there first John one Chapter one or first John first John. Yeah one is Our memory chapter for the month of August. We're gonna be memorizing the book of first John. So So we'll be doing chapter two next month and so on so forth Psalm 118 8 is our memory verse of the week and this is a easy memorize So kids if you want to get a piece of candy for memorizing a verse this one is pretty short But it's a really good one to have memorized is Psalm 118 verse 8 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man And the next one is actually pretty much the same except instead of saying putting confidence in man put confidence in princes So so you can get like two verses for one right there in Psalm 118 so birthdays What day is it 18 Denzel I don't think yours is until next week, right? so And then we have Michael Jones and then Holly and all that at the end of month here. So did we miss anybody? this month That we didn't get sing. Happy birthday to you. Does anyone want to admit that? so Brett Lane You're gonna get you're gonna get something to you like every day your birthdays in February, right? No March When's your birthday, that's what it is. Okay, so mixing you two up So So February March is to get happy birthdays to them the whole time so anniversaries, so We'll have the same happy anniversary to the Joneses and then you guys aren't yet, right? So you're the anniversary of what next week or no? Yeah next week. Yeah So you're on 19, right? So we'll pray for tabby more so on that one Had to put up with you for 19 years And then pregnancy stare be in prayer for Rachel Hiles and Be in prayer obviously still for the McCloy family for crystal McCloy recovery process there and so Be in prayer there be in prayer for anybody that's wanting to have kids and maybe struggling in that area different things like that That's always kind of an open prayer that that I believe we should all be praying for there. And so if anybody's You know, obviously I don't ask people that type of so that's all personal stuff but you can pray for that And the Lord knows who's I got those requests. And so I think it's about what I have for announcements that I can think of so Offering boxes in the back there if you want to give a tithe or an offering mother baby rooms for the mother babies only Who's reading this morning brother Nick? So brother Nick's gonna be reading 2nd Timothy chapter 4 after we do one more song All right, take your song books and turn to song 208 Song 208 in your song books was saying grace greater than our sin before we do that Sorry Jones's It's up 14 years I still travel there brother. All right, so we have 14 years for the Jones's it was like a week or two ago or something like that right Yeah, well happy anniversary to you both Y'all stand up just like I don't think so Stand up All right, all right, all right, we'll get you all right 14 years have a happy anniversary. Here we go ready happy anniversary To you Happy anniversary Happy anniversary to you Happy anniversary God bless you Happy anniversary to you Okay, there you go perfect awesome, all right, so we'll sing song 208 Marvelous grace of our loving Lord Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt Yonder on Calvary's Mountain poured There where the blood of the lamb was felt Grace grace God's grace Grace that will pardon and cleanse with Grace grace God's grace Grace that is greater than all our sin And in despair like the sea waves cold Threaten the soul within fun and loss Great that is greater. Yes grace untold Points to the refuge the mighty cross Grace grace God's grace Grace that will pardon and cleanse with Grace grace God's grace Grace that is greater than all our sin Dark is the stain that we cannot hide What can I fail to wash it away? Look there. It's flowing a crimson tide Whiter than snow you may be today Grace Grace God's grace That will pardon and cleanse with Grace Grace God's Grace Grace that is greater than all our sin Marvelous and fond and matchless Grace Freely bestowed on all who believe You there are longing to see His face Will you this moment His grace receive Grace Grace God's grace Grace Pardon and cleanse with Grace Grace God's grace Grace that is greater than all our sin All right, take your Bibles and turn to the book of 2nd Timothy chapter number 4 2nd Timothy chapter number 4 and your Bibles will have brother Nick read that for us 2nd Timothy chapter number 4 2nd Timothy chapter 4 the Bible reads I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ Who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom Preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables But watch thou in all things endure afflictions do the work of an evangelist make full proof by ministry For I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness Which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them Also that love is appearing do thy diligence to come shortly unto me for Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world And and is departed unto Thessalonica Cretans to Dalmatia Titus unto Cretans to Galatia Titus unto Dalmatia Only Luke is with me take mark and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the ministry And take a kiss have I sent to Ephesus the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus when thou comest bring with thee And the books but especially the parchments Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil the Lord reward him according to his works Of whom be thou where also for he hath greatly withstood our words and my first answer No, man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me that by me the preaching might be fully known And that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom whom be glory forever and ever Salute Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus Erastus abode at Corinth, but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick Do thy diligence to come before winter Eubulus greeteth thee and Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit Grace be with you. Amen Let's pray dear heavenly father. Thank you for this opportunity to come back to church and hear your word preached Please fill pastor with your Holy Spirit and help us all be edified in Jesus name. Amen Well a CD about my being squared up so There's certain things that bother me and it's like cement symmetry all that stuff anyway Well You're there in 2nd Timothy chapter 4. Like I said, I'm gonna be doing another sermon this evening That's just more of a well, actually I'm probably just gonna be ripping face tonight on tongue talkers So I'm gonna be preaching against speaking and speaking it with tongues speaking in tongues the Pentecostal type stuff This one is one that I've been thinking about recently is the entitled the sermon is preach the word preach the word And what I'm getting into is that preaching When we preach we need to be preaching the Word of God Meaning that if you're preaching a sermon and the Word of God is brought up very seldom then you might as well call it a TED talk You know you basically just get up there and start talking about stuff And I'll say this even if you're paraphrasing and basically talking about Let's say you're talking about a Bible subject but you're not actually bringing up the Word of God You're not actually quoting the Word of God. You're not reading the Word of God Then it's still a TED talk in my opinion And you're like what's a TED talk? Anybody ever see those those basically we're just talking about a subject and there's a whole audience listening to it They could be talking from anything from gardening to I don't know like herding sheep I don't know Like there's all kinds of different talks that people have And there's nothing wrong with getting up and talking about a subject or whatever But when it comes to preaching when it comes to the job of a preacher the job of a pastor The job of someone that's supposed to be a spiritual leader The idea of not reading the Word of God and not quoting the Word of God is ridiculous Now look at this passage right here And I'm going to be getting into my points as far as why this is such an important aspect Because we've all been the churches where verses are rarely brought up And I'm talking about in the Baptist realm where we read a whole chapter at the beginning of a service They'll read a little passage sometimes it'll just be one verse They'll read that and that's pretty much all you get for the rest of the sermon And then the rest of it's just blah blah blah blah blah blah blah About maybe some anecdotal like storytelling or something that's going on or what they learned over here in this It's like where's the Word of God when it comes to the sermon? And here's the thing you may have noticed that I purposely, most of my notes are just Bible verses Because this is what I believe about preaching is that the Bible should be the backbone or the skeleton of any sermon And if it's not then don't call it a sermon, don't tell me that you're some preacher of the Word of God If you're not using that as the backbone of a sermon And so in verse 1 here it says I charged thee therefore before God and Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead At his appearing and his kingdom, preach the Word And that's the thing that I'm going to be hitting on because this actually talks about different things about preaching as well But the specific thing that I want you to notice is it wants to start off with preaching the Word And we're talking about the Word of God here, but it says be instant in season out of season Now that's talking about one being up to date, talking about things that are relevant But also things that are relevant whether it's in season or out of season meaning like when it's popular or when it's not popular, right? And that means that when you're preaching something, you shouldn't preach something, basically there's a preacher that is only preaching that which is popular Because they don't want to get any blow back from it, they don't want to have any persecution So they're just like I'll just preach whatever is popular that's not going to ruffle feathers But then you have people that only preach that which is out of season in the aspect of that's all they care about is just causing ruffling feathers and all that stuff And they won't hit on stuff that's still needed, okay? The idea here is that you need to preach at all and you shouldn't be on just one side of the spectrum, okay? This also means too that there can be things that are maybe more relevant meaning as far as like maybe doctrines that need to be defended, right? There's certain things that are out there that are really being attacked, you need to hit on that But you also need to preach on the doctrines that aren't being attacked because you still need to have that foundation You know I remember when modalism came up as far as becoming more prevalent And you know it's just one of those things that like the Trinity and stuff like that is an important doctrine but it wasn't necessarily being attacked So therefore it wasn't being preached as much And really you need to have all of that in a balance So we need to hear sermons that are on doctrines that maybe aren't being attacked just so that you're refreshed on it, you have a good foundation on it So then if it does get attacked you're ready for it, okay? So there's different aspects there You're preaching, you're reproving, you're rebuking, you're exhorting with all long suffering and doctrine The idea there is that you know not all sermons are going to be a bed of roses where everybody's just like loving it You're going to get your feet stepped on, you're going to be reproved, you're going to be rebuked But in the end there should be an exhortation there to say okay yeah you messed up but here let's move forward, right? And notice what it says here in verse 3 When they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned on the fables I don't believe this is just end time prophecy though that will definitely be the case in the end This has always been the case to a certain extent, okay? Where there's people that just don't want to hear good doctrine, they don't want to hear something that goes against what they believe And they just want someone to scratch their ears essentially, like a dog They just want to be comforted and they don't want to hear anything that would be a rebuke or reproof or anything like that But the thing that I want to focus on is preaching the word So preaching the word, go back to 1 Timothy 4 and verse 13 So you know how I was talking about preaching sermons that you got to get off your chest? This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time, okay? Being in churches where the word of God is just so scarce in a sermon I cannot stand sermons that lack the word of God And listen, I'm not saying, some of these sermons may be very edifying in the fact of just like It'd be kind of like if I did a whole talk on calculus and told you how to do calculus It's not that that's not profitable at all, right? Like if I was, let's show you how to do some trigonometry over here It's like, well you could apply that, you could use that, it's not like it's completely like useless But spiritually speaking, is that something that I should be doing up here is like teaching a math lesson? Teaching a history lesson? You know what I mean? In the end, you could teach a history lesson maybe on the Bible but you're still using the word of God Because the Bible is a history book In the end, I mean it's not fictitious stories, these things actually happen And so in verse 13 there, so you're in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 13 It says, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine Now Timothy is a preacher and Paul is giving him basically commands saying Preach the word, be instant in season out of season, give attendance to reading And to exhortation, to doctrine Notice the doctrine there Is that you need to have doctrine You need to know the different doctrines that are in the Bible You need to know where it's at, how to defend it, all of that And I'm not just talking about the preachers, like obviously the preacher needs to know that But everybody in the pew should know this And obviously people are going to be at different levels when it comes to this I'm not expecting the children to know every last doctrine that's in the Bible and to know exactly how to defend it But listen, as adults, you should know how to defend doctrines of the faith Specifically, if you were to look at which one specifically How about our statement of faith? Go to our website, look at our statement of faith and then make sure you can You know at least a verse for each one of those Just one verse, that's fine, but you know what, you should be adding to that rolodex of verses in each doctrine And that's where preaching, if I preach a sermon on a certain doctrine, you'll be like, oh there's another verse And you can just add to that, and add to that as you go on But go to Nehemiah chapter 8, Nehemiah chapter 8 Now really this is my big point that I want to make here There was some video where someone sent it It said this is like basically Christianity of today Where this guy was talking about how when they're talking about a Bible subject How there will be people that are just blitzkreedom with Bible verses And how that's just like so bad Like you can't have a good theological discussion when you have people that are just throwing out Bible verses everywhere It's like, what? Are you kidding me? Okay, you know what, no, listen, tone it down on the Bible when we're talking about Bible That is the mentality, isn't it a strange mentality? And the fact that, now obviously if you're throwing out Bible verses that have no relevance to what you're talking about Of course, that's dumb, right? Don't throw verses out there just to throw them out there It better be pertaining to the subject But listen, I mean, what that means is that person doesn't care about the Bible The Bible's not the main priority in the discussion, which means that it's garbage When it comes to Bible doctrine, when it comes to theology, if the Bible is not the backbone of that doctrine, then go out the door with it And so, go to Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse 1 I'm getting ahead of myself with this, but the idea is that when you preach the Word of God Do you realize that you are putting yourself in a position to where you are going to be harshly judged? Okay, meaning that I'm up here preaching the Word of God and I'm telling you what I believe it means That is a big deal And when you don't use a bunch of Bible, what you're doing is you're setting yourself up to preach false doctrine You're setting yourself up to maybe even blaspheme a truth in the Bible unknowingly Because you're just talking about something and you're not backing it up with, hey, here's a verse though Like, I believe this and here is why This is called, in most writings when it comes to, let's say argumentative writings or anything like that Citations, right? You're citing your arguments You're citing that and the citation is basically the source in which you have evidence for why that's true Who here has listened to a whole sermon before and there's no Bible and all you're thinking in your mind is That sounded good, but is it true? Right? Isn't that annoying? To be just constantly like, that sounds cool, but is it even true and I just waste 30 minutes of my time Now in my case it's an hour of your time, right? But in the end, let's say someone preaches a sermon, but they're using Bible throughout And let's say you didn't really, maybe the sermon just wasn't that great I know it wouldn't be my sermon because mine are always fantastic, right? I'm just kidding, but obviously there's sermons that just kind of fall flat and you're just like, that sounded better in my head You know, than the way it came out Here's the thing, is it ever really unprofitable if you got a lot of scripture? If anything, you're like, that was a cool passage that you brought up there You know, and you're thinking about that passage or whatever If anything, you're getting some Bible reading in Does that make sense? Like, if at all possible we use the word of God just for that fact But go to Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse 1, it says This is where Ezra is going to be reading the word of God, reading the law It says in verse 1, it says And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate And they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded to Israel And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women and all that could hear with understanding Upon the first day of the seventh month And he read therein before the street that was before the Watergate from the morning until midday Before the men and the women and those that could understand in the ears of all the people Were attentive unto the book of the law And notice it says And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood which they had made for the purpose For the purpose Now, a pulpit of wood, we call this a pulpit but really it's more of the platform Actually if you look at really old churches like maybe in England They have kind of like this stepping, like basically this whole thing that's made out of wood that has the podium and everything in there The idea is that you're above the people and people can see you Okay, so whatever that's worth, you know So, but that idea there is definitely biblical as far as being higher up so people can see you If you had stadium seating, you wouldn't need it, right? If all these seats were just kept going up and up and up, then you don't need that But look at verse 8 here This is what I want you to really focus in on, okay He's reading the word of God Obviously the law of God, so we're talking about the first five books of Moses specifically It says in verse 8 here, so they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly Distinctly And if you don't mind underlining in your Bible, then underline that word distinctly This means that when they're reading it, they weren't paraphrasing it They were reading it word for word Okay When you read the Bible, you should be reading it word for word When you're memorizing the Bible, you should be memorizing word for word Because when you're quoting the Bible, you should be quoting it word for word Does that mean it's wrong to paraphrase? No, I'm not saying, like obviously there's times where I'm like Hey, I'm kind of paraphrasing what this is saying over here But you're kind of prefacing it with that, aren't you? Saying, hey, just so you know, I'm paraphrasing this, so you may need to look this up to get the exact wording This should be word for word read, okay It says, and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading Now here's the purpose of preaching Is for it to make sense, okay My job as a preacher is for it to make sense When you're out preaching the gospel, what are you doing? You're giving them the verse, you're like, here's the verse For all the sin that comes from the glory of God What does that mean? Okay, then you say, well we've all sinned And none of us can make it to heaven because of our sin We're all imperfect, there's none righteous, no not one That means none of us are righteous So there's nothing wrong with explaining it But you know what happens first? You read it distinctly You read it, you quote it distinctly Word for word, so that there's no mistake That's the word of God, and that's what you're trying to teach, okay And go to Isaiah 28 Again, the point of preaching, the point of preaching is not for me to just get up here and just read it You can do that, right Like if I just got up here and just started reading verses off and be like, there you have it You know, there's the word of God It's like, well that's not really preaching, that's just reading it, okay But you need to read it before you get into the preaching Because what are you even preaching at that point? You're preaching the word And this is where preachers really need to get back to what is the point? What are you even doing? Number one is preaching the word Before you're instant, in season, out of season Before you're reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all long suffering and doctrine You have to be preaching the word And if you're not preaching the word, then all that other stuff doesn't matter at that point It's all predicated on preaching the word The word Go to Isaiah 28 verse 9 Isaiah chapter 28 verse 9 Now, this isn't to say that if you were listening to some other preacher And they didn't bring up as much Bible as maybe I bring up or someone else brings up That they're garbage Okay, that's not what I'm saying This isn't a competition of how much Bible we can use in the sermon, okay And I'm not saying that there's a set amount of Bible that you have to have in the sermon But I'll say this Each point should at least have one verse Right? If you're making a point and you don't have one verse backing up what you're saying Then what's the point of that point? Right? You should at least have one verse I believe you should have at least probably two Because out of the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established Because then you know, okay, that's not just out of context That's not just some obscure passage that's saying that I have also this verse over here Now there comes a point where you're beating a dead horse And you don't want to go to Let me go to every place the word grace is mentioned Like if I'm preaching a sermon on grace and be like Let me go to every place the word grace is mentioned And at that point you've zoned out because you're like I get it I got it after the second one, okay And so Isaiah 28 and verse 9 here Notice what it says It says whom shall he teach knowledge And whom shall he make to understand doctrine So what's the subject here? The idea is being taught knowledge and doctrine, right? And it says them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast Now I specifically believe that this is foreshadowing Or basically talking about how in the New Testament when Jesus is preaching It talks about how he's revealed it on the babes, right? Not necessarily like we're talking about actual babies But those like babes in Christ that are going to hear it That are going to learn and all that stuff And it's basically this is an attack on those that should have known But didn't know Even though it was given to them line upon line So notice what it says here in verse 10 It says for precept must be upon precept Precept upon precept Line upon line, line upon line Here a little and there a little So when it comes to learning doctrine It needs to be line upon line Precept upon precept What's a precept? A commandment Just another word for a commandment And if you read through Psalm 119 You'll see it used just interchangeably, right? Precept, law, commandment, testimonies, right? But you know, line upon line You know when we go through Wednesday night for example Line upon line, right? Read the verses, explain the verses Read the verses, explain the verses If you want to know how simply How I do Wednesday night is that right there How do you structure your sermon? I start reading the chapter I read it to a certain point where it's like talking about a certain subject in the passage I read that and then I explain that And then, okay, we got that I read the next part And then I explain that Now there's times where I jump down because it gives you an answer later on It's not like saying you got to go in order all the time When it comes to that But line upon line, precept upon precept Is that, hey, I personally can't stand expository preaching through a chapter when they don't read the chapter Like read the chapter Now, again, it depends on the chapter too, right? Because sometimes, you know, maybe it's the subject and you've read the chapter already And here's the thing I'll say this, most churches that I'm friends with, they read the chapter before the service anyway, right? Before you even get into it, you've read the chapter So that's already taken care of, isn't it? Like it's already read You've already read it And at that point, you could maybe not read every verse along the line And you've already covered your bases But to think of like not reading chapter and then talking about it is crazy to me But line upon line, precept upon precept And later on here, it's going to basically condemn those that heard, that should have known better Even though it was line upon line, precept upon precept, right? That they were hearing preaching line upon line, precept upon precept But yet they weren't, you know, they weren't obeying it and stuff like that And that gets into, you know, those that knew the truth You know, they held the truth and the righteousness of all that Even though it was given to them in that manner, okay? But preaching should be one, I believe start off with reading the word of God distinctly, okay? Reading it distinctly, that means word for word Word for word And I believe it should be taught line upon line Meaning this is that if I read a verse, some verses are very self-explanatory, okay? So like if I read a verse that says God is good, I don't really need to expound on that, do I? Like it literally, I mean, we got to at least be at that level where we can just read a phrase and know what it means But there's going to be passages where you're like, what is this talking about though? And then you got to go on from that, okay? So line upon line, precept upon precept, hear a little, there a little, notice too That when I preach a sermon, I realize that most people aren't going to get everything in the sermon, okay? They're not going to catch everything that I say, they're not going to maybe understand everything that I say, all that But get a little bit, right? When I preach a sermon, the idea is that I'm preaching the meat of the word most times, right? But within that meat, there's a lot of milk that's being stated, okay? And children, like my kids will be like, I didn't know what you were saying here, I didn't know what you were talking about here, but I understood this Hear a little, there a little, okay? Understand a little bit here, and then next time around, you already got that established, next time around, pick up something else This goes for any type of learning, okay? You're learning a language, you're learning a subject, you're never going, I don't care if the person just explain everything to you in one sitting You're never going to retain that in one sitting, just not going to happen And that's fine, that's just how our minds work, we can't bring in and remember that much information at once, okay? So if you ever leave a sermon, you're like, or, I'll say this, I have to remember this, okay? Because I preach sermons on subjects, and I've stated things, and then later on, someone will say, hey, what do you think about this? And you'll be like, oh, I never knew that, and I'm like, I just preached on that And I don't take it personally because, you know, I'm not like, well, you do not pay attention to me, or you're not listening to me, you know, like, whatever No, it's just the fact that our minds can only take in so much, and I have to realize that because obviously I know it because I'm the one writing it down, right? But know this, is that there's been times where I've looked back at old sermons because when I preach on a, let's say I preach on a subject again I purposely look at my maybe most recent sermon in times past because I want to make sure I'm not preaching the same exact thing, okay? Meaning like, I want to make sure I'm kind of coming at it from a different angle, using maybe some different verses, you know, to where it's not just, I don't want to be like those evangelists that go around preaching three sermons a year And they just repeat them over and over again, that annoys me as well, that's another sermon for another day though And the fact of the matter is that I want it to be fresh, I want you to be like, hey, this was different than the last time you preached this, you know, this is some new information, whatever And so, I'll look back, and sometimes when I look back at a sermon, I'll listen to it and be like, man, that's a good point, I forgot all about that, you know? And it's my own preaching, right? But the thing is that, you know what, I forget things too And when you're learning something, let's say you're studying for a test, who here has studied for a test, crammed for the test, and you end up doing good on the test, but then you don't remember half the stuff that you studied for later on Because you just crammed it all in for that one test, right? Well, guess what, when I preach a sermon, I'm cramming in a whole bunch of stuff, there's certain things that I'm seeing, and I'm like, yeah, let's put that, you know, that's good, that's good, that's good And then I'll preach it, and then I forget about it, right? Because I can only take in so much, okay? So that being said, here a little, there a little, that stuff adds up, and that's where consistency matters, right? That you're hearing and preaching all the time, that's where reading the Bible matters, you know, like, when you're reading through the Bible, the first time you read through the Bible, don't expect to learn at all I've read through the Bible scores of times, and I'm still seeing things that I never saw before, never noticed before Specifically when I'm going through the Wednesday nights, because I'm having to slow down and look at every little detail, because I have to explain every detail And then I'm like, man, I never noticed that Or I thought that was talking about that person, but it's actually talking about this person, right? Have you ever read a passage the whole time you thought it was talking about the one person over here? The thing that comes to mind is the sons of Sceva that are basically trying to cast out devils in Jesus' name And you remember the devil says, Paul I know, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? Right? I always thought it was the devil that leaped on them and started injuring them And so I was going through the passage and realized, no, it was the man that they were trying to cast the devil out of that leaped on them and injured them And just details like that, you don't see Here a little, there a little And those type of things just take time Now, go to 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 6 The next point is, when it comes to preaching, yeah, you need to be reading the word distinctly But also, if you're going to prove a point about what you believe something means, you need to compare it with other scripture Because any doctrine needs to be able to hold water against the whole Bible If it contradicts the Bible in other places, then you need to fix your doctrine Then your understanding is not good What people do is they go into a passage and be like, I think it means this And they just completely disregard the rest of the Bible as if that doesn't matter that it has to fit All doctrine should fit hand in glove with every other doctrine in the Bible If it doesn't, there's a problem But what I see people do is that, one, they just disregard it They don't even think about it, they don't even bring it up They don't like try to test it and prove it And then other people that are basically like that person that's putting a puzzle together And it doesn't fit and they just like, get it down in there and they just shove it in They're like, yeah, there it fits It's like, no, it doesn't And then they jam it in so hard they can't even get it apart now And now they're just like stuck with that doctrine 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 6 And this is getting into comparing spiritual things with spiritual And specifically what I'm talking about is preaching to saved people I'm talking about preaching sermons to the saved And this passage is talking about two different groups The beginning of the chapter is talking about those that, when they came to preach the gospel to them And there's different ways, different approaches that you do to preaching the gospel to where you're preaching to the saved In the end, aren't you using the word for both those though? Because faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, so you kind of have to have the word of God for that But don't just be like, well, you know, yeah, you need the word of God to get someone saved But you don't really need the word of God for a sermon It says in verse 6 here, how be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect Yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world that come to not So when it comes to the wisdom that we're preaching, it's not the wisdom of this world And this gets into philosophy, this gets into a lot of different avenues, I'll show you some verses on that But the idea here is that there's a lot of worldly wisdom There's a lot of false doctrines that are based off of worldly wisdom and not scripture Calvinism is a big one of those, right? But it's not just alone the Calvinism to where it's just all about worldly philosophy and worldly wisdom And then they try to smash that worldly philosophy into the Bible and make it fit Instead, you should be looking at, well, what does the Bible say and make that your philosophy Make that what is your thinking process to the world And that instead of trying to shove your thinking into the Bible And another point I'm getting into is using words easily to be understood What they call that is exegesis or isegesis Exegesis is like you're pulling out the meaning from the Bible, isegesis is you're shoving your words in there And the funny part is the people that use that terminology, that theological terminology are the ones that are the most guilty of it You need to exegete the passage, it's like you're the ones literally doing the opposite I feel like they need to have that guy that's just like, you keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means Right? And, anyway, so, gotta get my Princess Bride references in there Where did I stop reading there? Okay, but it says in verse 7, it says But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory Which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory But, as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but that which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Now when you say, well what's comparing spiritual things with spiritual? The word of God with the word of God And you say, well it says spiritual things with spiritual, how about what Jesus said in John chapter 6 and verse 63 It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life So if you want to say, well it's spiritual things, not the word of God, how about the words of God are spirit? How about who's the head of the church? Jesus Christ, the word of God made flesh and when the word of God is not preeminent in your preaching Then don't tell me that Jesus has preeminence in all things This is something that when it comes to my preaching, I have taken the heart from day one that there's going to be scripture all over the sermon You know this is one of those things too where I think things that you've gone through sometimes help shape who you are I kind of talked about this growing up being the shortest person in class, probably helped my personality, probably helped the person that I became to be because it makes you humble Going to churches and hearing sermons over and over again and wasting my time listening to the sermons with no scripture has made me into the person that I am So if you're like there's so much scripture, thank those people that were before me for overloading you with scripture But let me ask you a question and all joking aside with that, what would you rather have though? Would you rather have too much scripture like that is blowing up my mind with how much scripture is being thrown at me right now? Or would you rather have the fact that you're just like in a famine, like you're in a desert looking for an oasis of water because you're ready to just perish with thirst Because that's what I felt like being in those churches, I'm just like just give me some Bible To the point where I'm just like I'm just going to start reading, just open up your Bible and be like who's going to read Because I might as well stay at home and you're like are you saying that you shouldn't go to church, that's not what I'm saying But you all know, you've probably been there where you're just like I was probably better off staying at home But what I want to show you is that this is biblical, read the Bible distinctly, preach the word, give attendance to reading Then make sense of it, then explain it This idea of one verse, you know a story, a poem and a prayer, we've seen the consequences of what that causes You know what that causes? No doctrine And when you don't have doctrine, then that causes you to get out of the things of God This is the same reason why people leave, why children leave when they turn 18 and they leave and they get out of the things of God Because they did not have a foundation of the word of God for all the doctrine that they were being taught and what they were doing They were just like well you know that's what my parents did but I have no reasoning behind it And if they do have a reason behind it and they have been taught that, then you're going to be like those people that God is rebuking saying it was line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little and you did nothing with it So it is a two-edged sword, when you're in a church that does preach the word of God, that does preach doctrine and then you don't follow it There's still punishment of how much sore punishment, right? There's still punishment if you're ignorant, right? If people came up through church and they were ignorant on doctrine and ignorant on this because it wasn't being taught They're still accountable, right? But they're not as accountable as the person that had all of that And this is where you don't want to take for granted the preaching of the word of God when you do have it, okay? And again, when I'm stating this, I am not claiming to be the best preacher by any stretch of the imagination I'm not claiming to have the best, you know, explanations when it comes to doctrine I'm not claiming any of that, there are preachers that are way better than I am, okay? But the best preachers are those that use the Bible The best preachers are those that back up everything they say with the Bible And by the way, those are the ones I want to listen to I'm a very analytical person I need to know A plus B equals C I need to see A, I need to see B, and I need to see that that makes sense that it equals C I don't want to just take your word for it And you know what that turns out to be is the fact, our memory verse is that it is better to put your trust in the Lord than have confidence in man Is that a lot of these sermons that you're listening to that people will, that will preach that don't have Bible in it You know what you have to do? You have to say, am I going to trust this person or not? Instead of saying, I don't have to trust that preacher, he literally just proved it from the Bible It's black and white in the Bible, I'm trusting the Bible, right? I'm judging whether what he said makes sense and that actually fits with the Bible and I'm actually trusting the Bible there Wouldn't you rather come out of a sermon saying, I trust the Bible, I trust what God says, than I trust what the pastor said on this subject This could be for any subject, this could be for marriage, right? I've heard sermons preached where they'll literally say, well, you know, in a marriage, you know, it's 50-50 and you need to submit yourselves one to another And I'm like, the next verse literally says the wives need to submit themselves unto their own husbands It's just like, but people will run with that, they'll be like, well, that's what the preacher said So, comparing spiritual things to spiritual, how about, you know, study the issue of thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth Meaning that you are rightly putting the word of God in the, I guess the categories they need to be in, right? If you think about it, like, what would be an example of this? What's a parable and what's a statement, right? What's a commandment, what's a story, right? That's just rightly understanding, okay, if I hear this, this is a straight up command, well that has a lot more priority, doesn't it? Than this story over here that would allude to a truth, okay? And, know this, is that when preachers don't use the word of God, there's a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death And, you know what, it will sound good in a lot of cases I've heard stories, I'm like, that sounds good, except it doesn't match the Bible Like, there's a verse that completely contradicts what you just said But here's the problem, is that a lot of people that are in these churches, they don't know the Bible very well And therefore, when they hear it, they're not like thinking, well this verse contradicts it And let me ask you a question, do you just want to constantly be listening to a sermon where you're just constantly like, I better make sure I'm on my game to make sure that I can debunk everything the pastor's saying Because he's just not using any Bible verses, okay? Now, how about this in 1 Peter 4, 1 Peter 4 and verse 11 And I'll say this, when it comes to people that want to, that don't want a bunch of verses and they're just like, you know what, you're just throwing too much Bible at me You know, I just want to talk about the history of the church and I want to talk about, you know, all these different things, this philosophy and everything else He is ignorant, let him be ignorant at that point That's what I think about that You want to be that ignorant, you want to be that foolish, then you know what, go for it Have fun going down the path of the broad way of foolishness and wisdom of this world that you think is right You're like, man, you're angry this morning, I'm not really angry, this is just something that is just a pet peeve of mine when it comes to this And there's a lot of people that like that type of preaching and all that stuff and I just don't get it, okay? Again, I'm not claiming to be the smartest person in the world, I'm not claiming to be the best preacher or anything like that But I'd rather take the person that's not as smart or that isn't as intelligent but they're using the word of God in their sermons I'd rather take that person any day of the week over someone that is extremely intelligent but doesn't use any Bible, any day of the week Now, in 1 Peter 4 and verse 11 it says, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God Now, oracles of God are talking about the words of God, okay? Oracles, you kind of see oral in there a little bit as far as basically what is spoken by God, okay? And so if you speak, let him speak as the oracles of God You can say, well, you know, that's not necessarily quoting it but you're speaking as it Well, here's the thing, in order to speak as it, you kind of have to know it, don't you? Right? If you're going to speak as the oracles of God, then it has to match the oracles of God as far as what you're saying And how are you going to match what you're saying if you don't read it, if you don't know what it says? So, here's the cheat code of speaking as the oracles of God, it's just speaking the oracles of God Does that make sense? Like, here's the cheat code, how do I know what I'm saying is just like the word of God, it's the same thing that the word of God is saying Just read the word of God, just quote the word of God Does that make sense? Like, that's the cheat code That is like, no question, don't have to worry about it But you know what comes up, you know what I think in a lot of these cases is that people, preachers get filled with pride and they want it to be their words that are remembered You know, it's like, well, that preacher said this right here and it's like in quotations and it's like, that's their, they want that written in a book and read a hundred years from now or whatever That that's what that person said, you know, it's like the people that are just quoting off Charles Spurgeon quotes all the time It's like, I don't give a rip what Charles Spurgeon says because he's a heretic that's in hell right now But, in the end, it shouldn't be about people quoting you You know what I'd rather have, instead of, let's say the children in this church leaving a sermon and be like, you know, what pastor said that was so profound And they start repeating that, you know, and then they're just like, this is what pastor Robinson said Instead of saying, you know what, that verse is amazing and they start repeating the verse They start repeating the Bible What do you think is more important? What do you think I would rather have? I'd rather have everybody in here coming out of a sermon and saying, and repeating a verse that was used in that sermon That holds way more weight than anything that I could say Any cute phrase I could say, you know, or anything that's just funny or rememberable or whatever Or maybe it's just like motivating Listen, there's a lot of motivating phrases that are out there But how about, you know, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Listen, nothing, no quote from any human being would be more profound than the word of God Ever And people are constantly, preachers are constantly trying to be profound like the word of God They're trying to basically get that gravitas across where it's just like, oh man, that preacher right there, man, he really knows how to bring it home And really, shouldn't it be all about the Lord? When it comes to anything that we accomplish, isn't it really the Lord that's accomplishing it though? And I don't have to say that we don't have a part in it It's not that we obviously aren't laborers together with God But in the end, Jesus deserves the glory for everything The reason I have even air to breathe to go out sowing is because of the Lord Jesus The reason that I even have the message of salvation is because of the Lord Jesus He deserves the glory He's the one that is profound His word is so above anything that any human being can put together And I believe preaching in the case, preachers need to be meek in the fact that they realize the word of God is just so far above anything that I say And the idea here is that obviously we have to say something because we need to explain it But I feel like a lot of, there's a lot of preachers out there that just want the limelight They want that congratulations, they're like, man, that was so good Man, that was just fantastic How you said that, what you said, I'm putting that on a bumper sticker That's actually embarrassing to me when people say, when people ever say that phrase that you said that was so profound, it's embarrassing And listen, if you think that anything that I say is profound, that's fine I'm not saying that's bad, but I find that kind of embarrassing Actually, I don't remember anybody ever saying that and you're probably all like, yeah, you don't say anything like that The most profound thing you said is you're as lost as a goose in a caboose in a snowstorm But you know what, I didn't even come up with that I'm just plagiarizing someone else that said that And isn't that the truth, a lot of these phrases that people say that's attached to somebody wasn't even originated by them They borrowed it from someone else, all that Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 1 there And before this, when he came to the Corinthians first, he was preaching them the gospel But I want you to see here that How do we win people from Christ? Do we win them by just being like this great orator and this eloquent We're just waxing elegant in our speech No, actually not In verse 1 it says, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified Notice this, when he came to those that weren't saved, what did he focus on and basically didn't think about anything else? It's just the gospel Jesus Christ and Him crucified, right? It says, And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God Because what is the power of God unto salvation? The gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek The power of God is in the word of God Because the word of God is quick and powerful and sharp in any two-edged sword The power of the gospel is the gospel And, you know, this idea of coming with enticing words And I'm talking about like this flowery type of like trying to grab your emotional heartstrings and like all this stuff It gets into vain philosophy The Bible says in Colossians 2, 8, it says, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit After the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ And if that doesn't explain to you a lot of this Reformed Baptist theology and this Calvinism stuff Where it's all about double jeopardy and it's all about like the effectual call and the general call and all the stuff that's not in the Bible Sovereign's not in the Bible, double jeopardy is not in the Bible You know, all these different things that they mention, the general call, the effectual call, none of it is in the Bible No chapter and verse, it's philosophy, it's their own thinking and it's vain, it's vain deceit You know what that leads to? False doctrine But they don't care about like this is what the Bible says distinctly, do they? This is very important that we use plainness of speech The Bible says, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14 1 Corinthians chapter 14, I thought you were going to speak about tongues tonight, this afternoon, yes, but you're getting a preview Actually, it's just the fact that this chapter isn't talking about that gibberish garbage anyway It actually has a lesson to be taught, okay? But, in 2 Corinthians 3, for example, it's talking about Old Testament, New Testament, about the fact that it says in verse 12 that It says, seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech And when it comes to preaching, I could be preaching on a very complex topic, but I'm going to use plain speech Things that are easily understood, okay? So, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 7 Now, 1 Corinthians 14 is specifically dealing with speaking a foreign language, right? If I came in here and started speaking Spanish, and no one speaks Spanish, that's what it's talking about, okay? But this can also go into the realm of what churches do where they start going off on other languages, okay? And they're just like, well, in the Greek it says this, and in the Hebrew it says this, and all that And listen, if you don't know the language, then just stop talking about it But in the end, even in those cases, you have to kind of be like, well, hopefully the pastor is right on that And I'll say this, if you're explaining some other language and you can't get it from the text in English, then you're wrong Because the King James Bible is perfect, by the way The English, if it doesn't support it and you have to go to another language, then your interpretation is wrong, your understanding is wrong Sometimes I'll bring up the Greek because I want to debunk what other people try to do to the passage And say, they're wrong, it actually means what the Bible says, it actually means this and they're out to lunch But this is what you're talking about, this is what they did, you know, if you think about the Catholic Church They didn't want people having it in the Bible in English, they wanted it to be in Latin so they could be in darkness And they can't understand what's being said It says in verse 7, it says, and even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds What are we talking about? Reading the word of God distinctly It says, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle? I mean, think about this, if you don't have a Bible verse that's distinctly saying what is being preached, then how can you just be like, alright, let's go You know, that he that readeth may run, right, he that runeth may read The idea there is that you want a sermon to be like, I got it, there's what it says in the Bible, I can run now, I can go with that But if you're like, it's uncertain, right, you're not really sure Or you just have vague preaching, right, meaning this is that I believe preaching should be distinct in the fact that it's not so vague You're like, I think I know what he was saying, I think I know who he was talking about, I think I know what he was talking about And you know what that, that's a politician's way of preaching Of not being distinct because you don't want to be nailed down on what you believe And they want to be vague about it so that no one's offended and that everybody on either side of the fence would be like, well, he could be saying that, he could be saying this, right It's like, no, this is what it is And if you don't like it, then get over it Or prove me wrong, you know, that's the way it should be But it says here, in verse 9, it says, so likewise ye except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood How shall it be known what is spoken, for ye shall speak into the air Listen, if you can't understand what I'm saying, what's the point? If I use such flowery diction or vocabulary that you're just like, I don't even know what that word means I don't know, like, how many of you guys listen to somebody and they'll say this whole sentence and you're like, I have no idea what that person said Because their vocabulary is so high up in the sky that they're just like, I have no idea This gets into theological terms, all that stuff, that basically people just extrapolate it just so that they can sound smart They can sound like they are just very intelligent and therefore I should listen to them, I should put my trust in them because they're really smart Beware of those type of sermons where it's all about what language they're using, what vocabulary they're using Because if you can't understand what they're saying, then what's the point? So I believe preaching should be used with language that's easily understood Now here's the thing, it doesn't mean that I have to limit my vocabulary to the language of hop on pop from Dr. Seuss I don't need to bring it that far And here's the thing, there's been times where I've heard preaching where a word is used that I didn't know But I knew from context what was being said and I looked at the word and I ended up using it a lot because I learned some vocabulary But it shouldn't be that you're listening to the sermon and you're like, half of what's being said and you're like, I need to look that up in a dictionary later Right? It should be like, mostly you understand, there might be like a higher word here, there might be a phrase here that I didn't understand, whatever That's fine But when it comes to this, we need to know, we need to stick with the simplicity that's in the word of God So go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 And what I want to say here, when it comes to preaching, preaching should ultimately be very simplistic That doesn't mean that the topic isn't complex, but the job of a preacher is to take a complex subject and explain it in a simple manner That's the job of a teacher, isn't it? The job of a teacher is to take something that's complex that someone doesn't understand and break it down in simple terms and simple ways of comparison to where they can understand that And then put it all together and be like, there's what it is That is the job of a preacher, that's the job of a teacher, and listen, some people aren't good at it Not everybody's meant to be a teacher Some people know a lot, but they couldn't teach you that to save their life And again, I'm not saying I'm the best teacher in the world, but my job is to basically take something that's maybe very complex, break it down into pieces that are easily understood And maybe you have to compare it to something else in the Bible so that you can understand what it means And then take all those building blocks, imagine like you have this big tower of a doctrine, right? Well, I take each piece, but you know where I start? The foundation When you build a building, where do you start? The foundation Okay, here's the foundation of every doctrine, salvation is by grace through faith alone For salvation Foundation, every doctrine If any doctrine contradicts that, it's wrong Facts Then you build up and you're like, okay, now I know that, what about this piece of the puzzle? And then this piece, and then this piece, you know what you have? You have line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little And you keep building up until you're like, I got the whole tower, there it is And what preachers do in a lot of cases, they make the simplest thing the most complex thing They're like, what does believe mean? They're like, what does believe mean? Believe is so complex, you know Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen It is clearly trusting in something you can't see. Boom! Defined it I've just blown the minds of every theologian out there because I just explained it in simple terms Actually, I use the Bible That is all believe is, is trusting something you can't see If you can see it, it's not believing So, we believe in the Lord Jesus though we see Him not We trust that He died on the cross, rose again the third day, and that He's given us eternal life even though we can't see it That's faith It's not, you know, real faith Repentance or sins Real faith works Except there's no Bible verse There's nothing to prove that, okay We need to stick with simplicity That's in the gospel, the simplicity that's in doctrine Every doctrine in the Bible is actually very simple in its structure It's the details that get a little more complex sometimes Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 3, it says But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtleties, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ So, when it comes to preaching the gospel or when it comes to gospel in general, it's simple, isn't it? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved That's how simple it is Believing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved That's pretty simple Here's the problem Is that people that are, the people in the world, specifically people that aren't saved They look at simplicity as being foolish Just facts They look at it like, that's too simple, that can't be right, that's foolish Because it's simple Because in their mind, everything has to be complex Everything has to be convoluted And they need to be super, you need to be super intelligent to understand anything It's like, no, how about a child can understand the gospel And if your, if your gospel presentation is more complicated for a child to understand, you're wrong But I'll say this, is that every doctrine in the Bible, the skeleton of every doctrine in the Bible is simple to the core It's simple to the core It's not hard, listen, think about, you know, I'm going to use a big term, eschatology, right? End times prophecy Okay, revelation You know people are just like, that's so complex Not really There's going to be a tribulation The antichrist is going to be trying to kill all the saints Jesus comes in the clouds We're caught up together with him in the clouds And he pours out his wrath on the earth There, I just explained eschatology to you I just explained the events Now obviously you can get into how long is that tribulation period How long is the wrath being poured out What's going on when we're being caught up Like you can get into all the details But really it's just tribulation, rapture, wrath, and you see that throughout the whole Bible Not hard, is it? I just explained it to you in like less than a minute People are going to be clocking and be like, it was actually a minute and two seconds The simplicity, listen, if a doctrine is over, if it's so convoluted and complex, you're wrong If an explanation on a passage is so convoluted and complex, you're wrong But you know what? The people in this world, the intellectuals in this world, they cannot stand simplicity They cannot stand something being just very down to the core simple Because they want to be known for being smart They want people to look to them as if you can't understand this on your own You need me and therefore you need to listen to what I have to say to get all your doctrine The only thing which you have received from him abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you But as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth and is no lie And even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him How about that every believer can understand the word of God just like anybody else? You don't need to know Greek, you don't need to know Hebrew, you don't need to go to Oxford, you don't need to go to Cambridge You need to know how to read, you need to know how to understand You know like, obviously you need to be able to understand reading comprehension, right? But in the end, the Bible should be simple to the core So meaning this is that when you're preaching the word, one, it should be read distinctly Word for word, here's what it says But also, I believe that preaching to the core should be pretty simple Could we talk about complex things? And you could be saying, man that was like very deep There's a difference between being deep and being convoluted Does that make sense? There's a difference between that Think about a structure, that's high up there But if you looked at the structure, guess what, it's the same all the way up Right, if you looked at the steel columns, you looked at the steel beams It's all the way up the same, it may be a little like thicker members as you come down to the bottom But it's literally the same thing as you go up Really it's just simple, it's just beams, columns and some bracing But it's huge, right? It's huge That's not to say that it wasn't complex to design it Does that make sense? Like the design of it is very complex And everything that goes into why it works and everything else is very complex But the structure to the core is very simple Though it's massive And there are some massive doctrines in the Bible, but to the core they're very simple and straightforward And that's the way preaching should be And listen, am I perfect at that? No, I'm not Sometimes I take things for granted as far as what I think is well known And it's not But everybody does that, right? Where there's something to your mind is very well known, but to someone else they don't know it at all And there's times where I preach something and I didn't give the building blocks beforehand because I thought everybody knew it It is what it is, none of us are perfect But in the end, that's just the process Pick up something from the preaching But anyway, preach the Word If you're going to preach the Bible, if you're going to be a preacher, you better have a bunch of Bible verses That is a requirement in my book And if you don't, I don't want to hear the sermon So let's end with a word of prayer Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today, we thank you for your Word And pray that you'd help us to be good stewards of your Word Lord, help me, Lord, to preach the Word of God distinctly To give the sense, to remember the simplicity within doctrine And Lord, help me to be the preacher I need to be Lord, we love you and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name, Amen But today we'll come and sing one more song and then we'll be dismissed Alright, take your songbooks and turn to song 288 Song 288 in your songbooks, we'll sing I Am Resolved If you would stand, we'll sing song 288 I am resolved, no longer to linger, charmed by the world delight Things that are higher, things that are nobler These have blurred my sight I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee I am resolved to go to the sea, leaving my sin and strife He is the true one, He is the just one, He hath the words of life I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee