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

So, two Sunday nights ago, we started a Bible study where we were going through just the Pure Words Baptist Church doctrine specifically, and it was just a lot to kind of take all in. So, we're just picking that back up, and we're just going to kind of continue through where we were going. So, when we had gone through this, I had kind of broken it out in some different categories. On your paper, you don't necessarily have this dividing line, but if you look on the front page underneath church and baptism, then there's the second coming and the rapture. Essentially, I would kind of put a line in between baptism and second coming, an invisible line, and everything above that is like core doctrine of the church. So, you say, what is core doctrine of the church? It's basically everything from that point where this is just what this church really believes. I mean, if you're going to really knock at these type of doctrines or these viewpoints, you probably need to just find another church. I mean, this is like the core doctrines of the faith. This is what Baptists believe. Even if you kind of take these few doctrines, it's basically four topics. So, the first one we talked about was the Bible. Then the next three, salvation, hell, and eternal security, that's basically just salvation. What is salvation from the Bible? Then we have the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, and creation. That's basically who's God. I mean, who is the God that we worship? Who is the God of the Bible? Then the next section, kind of church and baptism, this is just about church. So, if you kind of break it up into four main topics, that's kind of where we were. We left off with creation, so we'd finished talking about who God was. So, now let's kind of look at the church. Well, let's look at verse number 13 of what we read in 1 Timothy chapter number 4. It says, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and under the doctrine continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. The Bible emphasizes the word doctrine. What does the word doctrine mean? It means belief. It's not really a mystical word. Sometimes it's maybe not that common, because you don't really use it outside of church. But what your doctrine is, what you believe. And so, it's important for a church to lay down solid foundational doctrines, core doctrines, important doctrines, so that you and me, we can live successful Christian lives. And these are things that you need to teach your children. You need to teach them the core doctrines of the faith. And so, I'd give you kind of a head start. And I had said this in the previous sermon that we had talked about this, but I think every church should know what their doctrinal statement says, and be able to defend it and believe it with their whole heart. That's why I personally think you should write your own, as a pastor. It doesn't have to be like you're reinventing the wheel, but I'm just saying, you should probably be the one that's putting together the statement of faith, because you should be the one defending it. And even if you were to just directly copy someone's else, which I'm not saying that's wrong, but if you were to do that, you should still believe every single word of that thing that you copied. Whereas, you see the Southern Baptists today, what they do is if you go to their doctrinal statement page, it'll say, we just believe the Baptist faith and message of 2000. So, all of them just magically believe this Baptist faith and message of 2000, even though it says you have to turn from your sins to be saved, even though their lengthy explanation of salvation omits the resurrection of Jesus Christ, even though they have all kinds of false doctrine and error in there, every Southern Baptist church believes that? That's kind of junk, is what it is. So, it's important for us to understand what we believe, and let's focus on church now. I'll read the statement that I had written. The church is a local congregation of believers and is for the edification and exhortation of the saints. So, what's the purpose of church? The purpose of church is for us to gather together and us to be exhorted, to praise God, to sing praise unto the Lord, and for us to be exhorted in what? In the works of God. Hey, go soul winning. Hey, read your Bible. Hey, get the sin out of your life. Hey, all the things that the Bible teaches we're supposed to be teaching that from the pulpit. It's supposed to be edifying and encouraging you and telling you, hey, this is how we're supposed to live our lives. Some people say church is a hospital. I reject that. I think that that is stupid. I don't want a bunch of sick people coming in here. You know, I want people that are healthy and normal and natural. I hate going to hospitals. I try to avoid them as much as possible, but you know what I do love? Church. I love going to church. And look, if you're sick, don't come here. Go to the hospital. You say, hey, church is a hospital. Wrong. Not this church. I don't want you coming here getting us sick. And you know, according to the Bible, there's certain people that aren't even supposed to be in church. They're supposed to be kicked out because they're so sick you don't want them in here. They have to go fix that, take care of their issue, then they can come back into church. Church is somewhere that's supposed to be holy. It's supposed to be set apart. It's supposed to be a place where we come and worship the Lord. Now, obviously, none of us is perfect. None of us is without sin. No one in here can stand up and be like, well, I'm righteous. You know, I'm good. I got it all together. Obviously, we're all saints by faith. Obviously, we're all saints by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously, we're all washed in his blood, but we need to follow his rules in order to have successful church. Now, in the Old Testament, you don't really see the word church, but go to Psalms chapter 89. We'll see what the Bible has to say about the church because it's not really a new concept. The Bible, you know, even in the Old Testament, they were still doing what we consider church. Look at 89 verse number 5. The Bible says, and the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. So, what is church? According to the Bible, church means congregation. What is a congregation? It's a church. What are these words meaning? It's meaning a group of people. And see, the purpose, even in the Old Testament, for people to get together, worship God, praising God. So, we see in the Old Testament, they were still congregating, and they were still praising God, and certain people were cast out of the congregation. It's not a lot different. They still had the priest. You even see in the Old Testament, they stand by in a pulpit of wood and preach and teach the word of God and read the word of God. Hey, that looks and sounds like church. That's why they called Moses the church in the wilderness. And look, when the Lord Jesus Christ is there with his disciples, they're reading the Bible and preaching and all these things. Multitudes come out and hear Jesus Christ preach the word of God. So, church, obviously, the Lord Jesus Christ found it in the New Testament, but we see in the Old Testament, they still have the same picture of the church. Now, let's look at verse 7. It says, God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. So, you have a couple words here. Church can mean assembly. It could mean congregation, but they're all interchangeable, essentially. Church, assembly, we even see congregation. You'll even see modern churches today, they'll call themselves assemblies of God. Obviously, that's a false denomination, but it's not a bad word. It's not the name that's condemning. There's even church of Christ. That's a phrase found in your Bible. So that's not the phrase. Let's not throw out the phrase. But, you know, church of Christ is a false doctrine, is a false denomination. They teach baptismal regeneration. They teach all kinds of wicked false doctrine. So, we can look at these Bible words, assembly, congregation, church, they mean basically the same thing. Now, if we go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 2, so that's why even in my definition I said the church is a local congregation. I'm trying to help you understand what the word church means, and we notice it's a congregation of something. It's of believers. So, church is supposed to be for the saved. Some people think, and especially in the modern evangelical movements today, they want to try and bring as many unsaved people in as possible. That's not my goal, because the only way you can bring unsaved people into this church is by changing the church, making it less spiritual and more carnal. I mean, this church is about as far as carnal as I can imagine. I mean, you look at the outside, none of the flesh wants to enter. You come in, it's still not that great. But, you know what? Hopefully, the singing and preaching of God's word and the soul winning will stir that spiritual man, and the spiritual man will say, I like that. I like this church, not because it's so amazing. I mean, I do like this mural, okay? It's pretty cool. But, you know, it's not really going to drive in all the unsaved. It didn't seem to work so far, okay? But, obviously, we're trying to bring in believers. So, church is for believers. The preaching is for believers. I don't get up here and preach the Romans Road every single service. If I did, you would be so bored, I don't think anybody would come to Sunday night service. I mean, if I was just going to get up and preach the gospel again, and again, and again, you're like, we did that at 2, and we did that at 2.15, and at 2.30, and at 2.45, and at 3. I mean, that's what we do soul winning. Soul winning is where you get to hear the gospel over and over and over. Here is where you get to hear all the other parts of the Bible, all the other parts that aren't as pleasant. Look, salvation is really nice to hear. Oh, it's just free. You know, I just receive it by faith. I can do anything I want and still go to heaven. Yeah, you can. But, let's learn what happens when you do whatever else you want. Let's figure out what happens when you do those sins. Now, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse number 2. The Bible is going to tell us, it says, under the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. So, when he's addressing the church of God, who does he say they are? They're the sanctified in Christ Jesus. So, if I'm going to address the church, I'm saying, hey, it's because you're all believers. It should be assumed that a New Testament church, everybody in that building is virtually saved. I mean, minus the toddlers and babies that can't believe yet. I mean, it should be an assembly of all believers. Now, of course, there could be a Judas in there. But, obviously, he's claiming to be saved too, right? He's claiming to be sanctified. So, church is supposed to be of saved people. That is the goal. Go to chapter 14. Flip over just a couple more chapters. Go to chapter 14. Let's look at verse number 3. It says, but he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. Look at verse 4. He that speaketh an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. So, again, what's the emphasis of being in church? It's to be edified by the preaching. It's not to come in here and have a contest who can speak the most foreign languages. No. We're going to preach the language that we all know so that we can all be edified by God's Word. And we see in 1 Corinthians, it was like this contest of who can just come up and do the coolest thing. I got a new doctrine. I got a new song. I got a new tongue. I can preach whatever I want. And Paul's like, whoa, buddy. You're supposed to get up and preach to where people can be edified in a tongue that they understand. If someone's getting up here preaching in Russian, it's not going to benefit anybody tonight. Anybody speak Russian tonight? I don't think that's going to help. Oh, I'm super spiritual because I can speak Russian or whatever. Who cares? We're supposed to get up and preach the Word of God to help people. It's to help you. And if I don't preach things that are plain to be understood in your language, something that you can know and understand and walk away with, then it's pointless. Why come to church if you can't learn anything? You know, people would go to the Roman Catholic Church and they'd have the whole service in Latin. Nobody speaks it. Nobody understands it. How was that edifying? It wasn't. It was a joke. It's against what the Bible teaches. Church is for you to come here and get something out of the Bible. Learn how to be a better Christian. Be encouraged and exhorted to be better. And yes, change. It's not come as you are and leave as you are. It's come as you are and get better. Leave different. Become a new man. Remember Saul? He started prophesying with the prophets and then became a new man. I hope that next year you're different. And the year after that, you're different. And you just keep getting closer and closer to the conforming to the image of Jesus Christ. Closer to Jesus Christ. That's our goal. If anybody's arrived, then go ahead. You can leave. You're great. But I'm not there. You're not there. We're trying to get closer and closer to the picture of Jesus Christ. Go to 2 Corinthians, chapter number 10. 2 Corinthians, chapter number 10. And the Bible says that he's given us the authority for edification. You say, I don't like these type of sermons. I just want to hear something pleasant and fun and encouraging. You know, something that's going to make me feel like I'm really special. Look at verse number 8. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 8. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed. So according to the Bible, the guy that's going to get up and preach, he has authority to do what? So the goal of preaching is to edify. So if I were to pick on someone's sin, it's not to condemn them. It's not to damn them. Even throwing somebody out of church, it's not to condemn them. It's to try and help encourage them to get some sin out of life so they can be more pleasing to God. They can get back to fellowship with the Lord so they can do things for God. They can serve God. The point of church is to edify. Let's look at one more place right here. It's going to bolster this one more time. Chapter 13, verse 10. Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification and not to destruction. So if you ever get an opportunity to preach in church, what should be your mentality? Edify. To help people. Some people, they hear the hard preaching and then they get an opportunity to preach and so they just want to get up and be mad and scream and yell and say mean things. Look, I don't get up and just think, what's the meanest thing I can say? How could I just be really rude to somebody? And sometimes people give criticism that doesn't benefit you. I've had criticism lots of times for me where there's nothing I can do to fix it. Or they say, I don't like you because you're ugly. Okay, how do I fix that? I don't like the sound of your voice. I don't like the way your face looks. How is that going to encourage anybody? How can anybody be edified by that? But clearly, hey, the Bible says you're a sluggard when you don't go out and preach the gospel. You can fix that. Go out and preach the gospel. So you see there's a difference between being a mean jerk idiot and being someone that's edifying through hard preaching. And hard preaching needs to always be coupled with love, meaning that it has an ability to be edifying to help people, to love people, not just condemn them, not just damn them, not just to be mean and rude and a jerk to them, but rather to encourage them to serve God, to get sin out of their life, do that which is right. So the spirit in your heart should be, if you get a chance to preach, to edify the congregation, to help people, to love people. Now obviously we use hard preaching to be more effective. If I get up here and I just make generic statements like, hey, we need to love Christ, love your wife, do that which is right. We're all going to leave and think I'm doing everything that's right. You know, you got to make it practical. You got to make it specific. You got to make it plain unto people so they can understand what the sin is so they can get it right in their life. So that's pretty much, you know, the doctrine of the church. It's the local congregation of believers and the purpose for edification, exhortation of the saints. So go through it to John chapter number three. So here's another part of church would be baptism. Now here's the thing. Some Baptists will say there's two ordinances of the Baptist church. There's baptism and communion. I don't really subscribe to that viewpoint because first of all, there's a lot of ordinances of the church. Hey, who the pastor is, that's an ordinance of the church. The fact that you're supposed to throw people out, that's an ordinance of the church. There's a lot of different ordinances of the church and honestly, baptism in my opinion is not even necessarily an ordinance of the church. That's just part of the great commission. I mean someone who's an evangelist who's not even a part of just going out to a place where there is no church and is preaching. I still think if they get someone saved, they should baptize them. But is that part of the church? No, that's just part of the great commission. So I don't think baptism is just restricted to church, okay? But there are some things that are restricted to church. I don't think that just some random person should just go out and start preaching the Bible. Look, women are allowed to get people saved but they're not allowed to pastor and preach. There are certain restrictions within a church and I think baptism is greater than just inside the church. Preaching the gospel is greater than just inside the church. So baptism is important. We're Baptists. We emphasize baptism but let's understand what we mean by that. Let's read the statement I had. After putting all your trust and faith in Jesus, believers should be baptized by immersion which is not a part of salvation but rather demonstrates the belief in Christ that they now have. So what is baptism? It's the fact that hey, your public profession that you put your faith in what Jesus Christ did for you. It doesn't save you. The only thing it does is answer of a good conscience towards God. And in John chapter number three, we're going to first lay down what you think you wouldn't have to but the fact that baptism is by immersion. Look at verse number 23. The Bible says, and John also is baptizing an anon near to Salem because there was much water there and they came and were baptized. Now some people, actually a lot of people don't do baptism by immersion. They do sprinkling or like head dunking or some other kind of, they'll take a baby and they'll literally dunk its head, you know, or they'll just sprinkle a little bit of water on it. It's called christening. You know, I was at a baby store recently and they were asking for christening outfits and it's like, I'm just thinking, oh man, what, to get water sprinkled on your head? What do you need a whole outfit for that for? But obviously according to the Bible, we know that baptism means to be immersed into water. Even the Greek word literally means to be immersed in water. Go if you would to Mark chapter number one. And why would they need so much water if they're just going to sprinkle? I mean, I could just do that with my cup right here. I mean, I could just go around and sprinkle all of you, you know, like the Catholic Pope, you know, is going to get, or the Catholic priest is going to get up and just sprinkle everybody a little bit of holy water. He doesn't need to have much water. The reason why you need much water is you got to cover their whole body. If you're going to get a, you know, a grown man like Samson when he's in here, you need a lot of water. I mean, and look, some of these people in the Bible, they need, they have lots of them showing up. Look at Mark chapter number one, verse number nine. And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth Galilee and was baptized with John and Jordan and straightway coming up out of the water. He saw the heavens open in the spirit like a dove descending upon him. Now, explain sprinkling with that. How do you come out of the water through sprinkling? I mean, he came out of the water. Look, obviously he's talking about the fact that he went down into the water and then he came straightway up out of the water, signifying the fact that baptism is by immersion. That's the only legitimate baptism is by immersion, even though there's literally billions who do not baptize like this. Methodists sprinkle, Catholics sprinkle, because method is just Catholic light. Protestant, you know, all these Protestants are just Catholic light. So there's still a lot of people that don't baptize by immersion, even in the world we live in today. Go to Acts chapter eight, we'll see it further, more proof of the fact that baptism is by immersion. So maybe you ran into a Catholic, maybe you run into a Protestant that wants to argue with sprinkling. Where should you turn? Well, Mark one's a great place to turn. Acts chapter number eight's another great place to turn because not only will Acts chapter eight prove the fact that it's by immersion, it also proves why someone gets baptized. What is the requirement of baptism? Unless you got an NIV, you know, it's pretty clear what's going on here. Let's look at verse number 36. And as they went another way, they came under a certain water and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Phillip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And they went down both into the water, both Phillip and the eunuch. And he baptized him. Why would you go into water to sprinkle? I mean, think about it. Hey, here's a river. Let's go into it to sprinkle. I mean, all he needs is the canteen with him and look, nobody's traveling these long distances without a canteen. Okay. They need to drink water. So obviously he's noticing the water saying, hey, here's an opportunity to be baptized. You keep preaching to me how Jesus Christ said that he was supposed to baptize all nations, you know, teaching them all things to observe, right? So let's go get baptized. And he's like, oh, wait a minute. Do you believe though? He's like, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Hey, he's putting his faith in Jesus Christ. He's trusting in the Messiah. Now let's get baptized. Now let's go into the water and picture the fact that you're trusting his death, burial and resurrection to save you. Not the baptism, not the getting your, your body wet, but the fact that your faith was in Jesus Christ. That's the outward demonstration that, hey, I believed in Jesus Christ. People are excited to believe in Jesus Christ and get baptized. Now go to Romans chapter number six. This is the verse that I often show people. If maybe I just got them saved and I want to emphasize baptism or why you should even be baptized. It also proves that it's not by sprinkling. Look at Romans chapter six, verse one. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many as was baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. The like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. So again, there in verse four, it says that we're buried with him. How do you bury somebody with water without immersing them? That's the picture of the immersion. They're buried in the water. They're completely covered in the water, six feet under. Then they come up, up out of the water. And what does that signify? Well, it signifies something spiritual. Obviously the physicality of it has no impact on your body. It's not going to change the flesh. It's not changing the spirit, but it's the fact that, hey, now I'm dead to sin. As soon as you believe in Jesus Christ, as soon as you have faith in Jesus Christ, you're dead to sin. Meaning what? Well, what was the sting of sin? It's death. Okay. And the fact is you're never going to die. So you're dead to sin. No matter what sin you commit in the future, grace is going to cover that. So you're dead to the sin. But the question is, should you keep on doing that? What does it say? God forbid, right? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Why? Because, hey, we're buried with Christ. So let's picture that. And then when we come up out of the water, it signifies the fact that we want to walk in newness of life. Now I want to try and serve God with my life. Now I want to do the things that are right. Now I want to be pleasing unto him. And the person that doesn't get baptized is pretty much never going to serve God. I've never met a like on fire soul winner that's never been baptized. It just doesn't happen. There's not somebody that's faithful in a church that's reading their Bible, that's going soul winning. They say, you know what? I've never been baptized. It just virtually doesn't ever exist. And as soon as you meet that person, you start talking to him, it's like, hey, let's get baptized. Like, yeah, let's do it. You know, the people that serve God with their life, they're going to make the first step of obedience. They want to, they're excited about it. So I encourage anybody that's saved, that's never been baptized, get baptized. It pictures the fact that you want to serve Christ. It demonstrates your belief in Christ that you have. Go to one last place. Go to Colossians. We'll see it emphasize the exact same thing. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Pretty short epistle, but it's very powerful. Look at chapter number two, verse 12. Buried with them in baptism, where also you're risen with them through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead. Again, buried. So there's a lot of ways that you could prove that baptism is not sprinkling. Basically, just let your Bible fall open and just read about baptism. I mean, it's very clear in a Greek Bible, the word baptism literally means immerse. So go if you would to second Thessalonians chapter number two. That's basically the core doctrines of the faith. That we believe in baptism, you know, is a demonstration of our faith. So if someone were to come in here and try and say, well, baptism is a part of salvation. Look, they're not going to be welcome to stay in this church with that type of belief. They have to repent of that. Not only that, they're not welcome to come to church and try to change how church works. Oh, let's have my wife get up and preach. Oh, you know, church is just wherever we're at. So I'm going to have people, you know, come to my house and we're going to have church. Wrong. No, church is here. Church is when we're assembled and we have a man of God, a qualified pastor getting up and preaching the Bible. We're not going to have all these life groups and student groups and all this junk. And somebody wants to come in and bring that infection in here. It's not going to happen. These are core doctrines to be a part of this church. You're not going to come in and ruin these doctrines, believe something different, try to teach people something else different. Or you're not going to come here and reject the Trinity, reject to God the Father, reject the Son of God, reject the Holy Ghost, come in here and start teaching revolution. These are not acceptable doctrines. So come in here and start teaching other people and have. Or salvation. If you got salvation wrong, obviously I'm not just going to throw them outward and try to get them saved. But if you got someone unsaved, just come into church week after week, there's a problem. It needs to be addressed. It needs to be fixed. Or if they're coming here with the NIV, hey, you want to read the NIV with me? Well, my Bible says something different, pastor. You know, I get up and read some verse. Hey, my Bible says something different. Can we read this one? No, get out, go find the stupid church and go be part of them. But you're not going to be a part of this church. So that's the core doctrines of the faith. These are not like negotiable. They're not like questionable. It's not like maybe we'll change it next week. This is just locked in. Now, the rest of these things are still things that I believe 100% with my heart, okay? It's not like these are like, well, these are, you know, cool things. It's just if someone had a different viewpoint, I'm not going to throw them out of the church, okay? We're not going to disassociate fellowship with people. You know, I'm not going to say I can't, you know, support this church because they're different on these other, you know, viewpoints or opinions. They say, hey, we have a different Jesus, though. Uh, no. Hey, we're sprinkling. No. Hey, we think salvation's by works. Not going to happen. Hey, we're an NIV church. Never going to have fellowship with them, period. King James only. That's for us and anybody we associate with. King James only. So that's what I mean by core. I mean, this isn't like negotiable. But when we get down below this, look, if somebody had a different viewpoint, I could still be a friend of theirs. We can still hang out. We can still go soul-willing. We can come visit our church or whatever. So what is that? Well, these next two pretty much couple together. The second coming, the day of the Lord, and the rapture of the day of the Lord. So this is like prophetic, you know, interpretation of the Bible. This is prophecies that are going to happen. These are things that have not happened yet and how some people believe it did happen. That's a different preterism. That's stupid. We're not even going to talk about that. But let's say there was a church that just disagrees with us on the second coming of the rapture. That doesn't mean I wouldn't be friends with them. I couldn't associate with them. I wouldn't visit their church potentially. So again, like I said, we're talking about the difference between core and non-core now. Look at second Thessalonians chapter number two, verse number three. We're going to talk about the great falling away. The Bible says, let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition. So what are we talking about? Well, the context of this is when the Lord Jesus Christ comes to back. Look at verse number one. It says, now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him. That you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as the day of Christ is at hand. So verse three is pretty famous. A lot of people might know it, like let no man deceive you. What is he talking about? We got to back up a couple of verses and read it. He's talking about the coming of Jesus Christ. And it says, notice our gathering together unto him. So the second coming of Jesus Christ, it says there's some prerequisites to that day. So let's read my statement. Then we'll read that verse again. Jesus Christ will return again after a falling away, after the son of perdition is revealed, and after the tribulation. So let's read our verse. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except the coming of falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition. So we have two of the elements that I put in my statement from this verse directly. And some people will believe in like a private rapture where Jesus Christ secretly returns. Okay. And then believers are caught up and meet him together before the antichrist. And then they'll read this verse and it's like, what are they saying? They just, they don't even know. They're like, well, this is like a private, you know, coming back or whatever. So the problem is Bible doesn't mention that the Bible says when he comes back, every eye shall see him. It says in revelation and it's a main event. It's not like a small thing. It's not this private hidden thing. Jesus doesn't do these like private hidden things. The only thing I could even think that'd be close to that is after the resurrection, he only appeared to his disciples. Okay. But that's obviously because we're saved by faith, but this is when he comes back to judge the unsaved. So he's going to show himself to the unsaved. It's going to be obvious. His day of his wrath is come is what the Bible teaches about this. So go view what the first Thessalonians chapter number four, then put back just like a page and look at verse 13, but I would not have you be ignorant brethren concerning them, which are asleep that you sorrow not even as others, which have no hope for, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this, we say, and you by the word of the Lord, that we, which are alive and remain into coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. So according to the Bible, there's the coming of the Lord in first Thessalonians chapter four, let's read verse number 16 for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the Trump of God and the dead and Christ shall rise first. Then we, which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord wherefore comfort one another with these words. So we're kind of looking at these two doctrines together. So the second coming, according to the Bible is the rapture. They're the same event. We saw in second Thessalonians chapter number two, that the coming of the Lord was our what gathering together unto him. Now, what is this describing? I mean, if this is not us gathering, you know, together with them, it says in verse 17, then we, which are alive and range shall be caught up together with them. So you can't separate these two events. The coming of the Lord is the rapture hint, hint, secret, you know, resolve. So people that believe in a private rapture, they have to separate these two events. They have to try and say, well, the coming is actually when he's on the white horse and his faithful and true and the battle of, you know, Armageddon, that's when they think is the second coming. And then there's just this private rapture. The problem is none of that fits with the Bible. And you don't have the gathering together in revelation chapter 19 and 20. When we see the battle of Armageddon, that's not, we're already with them. He's just coming down. So we see here, he's going to bring those that are already, you know, sleep in Jesus, alive in heaven with him. And then us that are alive and remain shall be caught up together and will be changed in a moment. The twinkling of an eye and we'll be with together with the Lord. That's the second coming and the rapture. It's called the day of the Lord. Now go if you go to Matthew chapter number 24. So we noticed that the, the return of Jesus Christ was before a falling away or was after a falling away after the son of perdition. And I also mentioned that it was after the tribulation. So let's see if there's a verse in the Bible that just happens to say that because some people believe in pre-trib, despite the fact that the Bible has a verse that clearly says that it's after the tribulation. Look at Matthew 24 verse number 29. The Bible says immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the star shall far from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of man coming, coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great Lord. How could you not say that this is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? I mean it says the son of man is coming. What does it say in first Thessalonians chapter four? The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it say in second Thessalonians chapter number two verse one? The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and what? Our gathering together. So if in first Thessalonians chapter number four it says that when he comes we're going to be gathered. If in second Thessalonians it says when he comes we're going to be gathered. Wouldn't you expect it to tell us here that we're going to be gathered with them? Well let's keep reading. Let's keep reading verse number 30. Let's read it again. And then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. So what was it? It was the gathering of us together. It's the coming where we're going to meet him. We're going to be caught up together. We see the angels are getting us. I mean to say that these are not the same events. I mean they couldn't fit together better. It's talking about the same thing. That's why Paul says look you have no need that I write unto you. You already know it. He said how could he say that? Well because Jesus Christ already told us multiple times in Matthew and in Mark and in Luke because there's parallel passages. Luke 21 and Mark 13 say the same thing. So it's clear that the second coming and the rapture are the same event and that's when we're caught up together. Now this is really basic honestly but even if someone still decides I don't believe that. I believe it's some other time or let's mix them you know mix them up and and shred them with dispensationalism or with whatever false doctrine or heresy that they're crept into. I could still be their friend. They're still welcome to come to this church. If you still think I still think it's pretty true brother you're still welcome in this church. I'm not going to throw you out. I'm not going to be mean to you other than the fact that from the pulpit I'm going to demolish that doctrine. So if you're really offended by me demolishing false doctrine then you'll be offended. But I'm not going to call you out personally and say this guy he's really stupid. He believes in the pre-trib rapture. Maybe some unsaved false prophet I might say about him. Okay go to if you went to Mark chapter 13. Mark chapter 13. We're going to see it one more time and actually I was pre-trib most of my life and it was from a simple fact that I was ignorant of what the Bible said. I just didn't know what the Bible said and people anytime they would preach this doctrine was really you know mystical. It's very vague. They wouldn't show very much Bible. The best I would get is to say hey it'd be like the days of Lot and Noah. They were spared from judgment so that's kind of how we're spared. Which is true in a sense because obviously anything that has any kind of validity has a little bit of truth to it. We are saved in a sense but we're not saved from tribulation. We're saved from wrath. We're saved from the wrath of God and we see Lot was saved from the wrath of God. Noah was saved from the wrath of God but guess what they both had tribulation. They both actually went through tribulation so we understand these words and these these definitions. It's very clear what the Bible is saying. Look at verse number 24. The Bible says but in those days after that tribulation the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light. This is what changed my mind. I read Mark 13 verse 24 and I was like what did that just say? Did that say after that tribulation? Then you keep reading and it says hey verse 27 he's going to gather together his elect from the four winds. I was like that sounds like first Thessalonians 4. I flip over I'm reading first Thessalonians 4 and I was like it's after the tribulation. I mean I don't know how you get around that. It was just super clear. It was crystal clear and then studying more I found out more verses that I was ignorant of and it's just like I just felt lied to my whole life. There's so many Christians today they believe in a preacher rapture and I think the interesting thing about this doctrine is it's a pretty easy one to change people on and it's kind of like a gateway drug to say hey maybe you're wrong about something else. Maybe there's something else that you've been lied to about. Obviously I've always taught and I still believe that the King James Bible is the most important doctrine when you're discussing with somebody but maybe you could kind of hook line sinker with some like pre-trib stuff just to get them to realize hey maybe you're wrong about a few other things too you know because this one you know really opened my eyes about a lot of other things too. So let's go if you would to first John chapter number three. That's the second coming. That's the rapture. Actually I do want to look at one more. Go to Revelation chapter number seven because we've been focused on the second coming. Let's look at one more. Let's just really nail this doctrine down to the ground all right. I already preached the sermon 13 pre-trib arguments destroyed. Go check that out you know if you still believe in the pre-trib rapture but the Bible makes it clear that there's going to be a tribulation a great tribulation and then the rapture then the second coming. That's what the Lord's coming to save us from. Look at Revelation 7 verse or chapter 7 verse 9. After this I beheld in a little great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands and cried with a loud voice saying salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb and all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God saying amen blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever amen and one of the elders answered saying unto me what are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they and I said unto him sir thou knowest and he said to me these are they which came out of great tribulation say hey where's the rapture well it's right here they got pulled out of what great tribulation it wouldn't be super excited I mean you're about to get your head chopped off and then all of a sudden Christ comes back in the clouds you're raptured up into heaven now you're just singing amen hallelujah you know praise the Lord I mean that'd be so exciting so joyous what a great time you thought you were about to die and then all of a sudden in a moment you're in heaven with the Lord praising with all the believers and the saved the elect and his wrath is poured out in the unbelieving room and when you read this when the wrath's pouring out we're all excited say oh man you're so you hate these reprobates yeah you know what I'm gonna like it when he's pouring out his wrath I'm gonna be singing praises the Bible already told me you say what do you think about that I'm gonna joy you know I'm gonna be joyful in the blood of the wicked now go back to first John chapter number three first John chapter number three I don't know that we might have a part three okay but I just like talking about doctrine it's important it's good to you know lay down these foundations and why do I cover it it's because just because you come to this church doesn't mean you automatically know all the doctrine it doesn't mean you believe all the doctrine and certainly doesn't mean you can teach anybody else the doctrine so somebody might come up and say hey y'all are y'all are against the preacher rapture why do you believe that uh watch this movie I want you to be able to open your Bible and be able to show them clear verses so if you don't know hey memorize some of these verses memorize the references at least kind of know where to go in your Bible some places you could turn to because you're gonna have family members challenge you you're gonna have friends challenge you you're gonna have people challenge you on the core doctrines of the Bible and I'm not just standing up here making things up it's literally what the Bible says if I have something on this statement that's not what the Bible says then let's change it let's fix it I only want to believe what the Bible says look at first John chapter three verse four whosoever commit a sin transgresseth also the law for sin is the transgression of the law what is sin you know there's a stupid analogy that people say that sin is missing the mark wrong false never say that that is not right and in any kind of capacity what if I said hey let's try and get 50 people saved today and we got 49 is that sin what an idiotic stupid explanation but we missed the mark didn't we look sin is not missing the mark it's breaking rules it's when someone tells you to do something and you don't do it or you violated or you break the rule let's not try to soften sin sin is when you transgress God's law God says thou shalt not and you decide to do it anyways that sin it's wicked it's wrong it's evil and we shouldn't we shouldn't try to say oh it's not that big a deal we just all miss the mark you know whatever no God is holy God is righteous and our sin is wicked and we should not try to cover it up we should just admit it and forsake it and turn from it and you know when we commit sin or the sins that we have of our past we shouldn't try to soften them because we did them you know what we should still look at it say it's wicked it's evil it's unrighteous and I hope I don't do it again I hope you don't do it because it's it's horrible don't try to lessen sin don't try to make it well you know I don't think divorce is that big a deal because I'm a divorce person you know I don't think fornication is that bad because I committed fornication you know I'm lying we all lie whatever you know everybody steals a little bit here and there you know I drink you know so whatever who cares people can drink and I smoke and I do look we shouldn't lessen sin we should make sin exceeding sinful that's what the bible does that's what the law does and look the new testament church should do the same thing we establish the law we don't forsake the law we don't destroy the law we establish the law and if anything when Christ came he made sin exceeding sinful he didn't lessen the commandments he increased them he was saying you've heard that have been said thou shalt not commit adultery he's like I say unto you whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after has committed adultery with her already in his heart that's higher he's saying look you've heard just not to commit adultery I said don't even look lustfully that's more Christ came to make this the law in your heart he says not only just your actions what are your thoughts the thought of foolishness is sin is what the bible teaches he came to try and tell men look you're much more wicked than you really think buddy because the Pharisees thought they were righteous they were willing to justify themselves he was trying to preach to them and make it clear to them look you're a lot worse than you think you are and if you think you're whole why do you need a physician he's like why are you coming to me the reason why they did is because they're you know full of hate and I guess the haters of God have to go around and troll them you know the haters of God love to troll you know righteousness and the truth go to Hebrews chapter number seven now probably one of the most contentious things when it comes to New Testament doctrine is just defining sin it's it's kind of interesting there's a lot of false doctrine there's a lot of different opinions a lot of different viewpoints you know what is sin and people are very confused about how does the Old Testament relate to the New Testament and what's really a sin and well is it just the Holy Spirit that has a guidance and I guess if I just don't feel bad about it it's not really a sin or whatever I mean there's all this confusion and I think the bible is actually pretty clear the bible is very clear about where the lines are what is sin what is not sin how the New Testament has changed and that's the best way to explain it saying there's a change nothing was you know destroyed got Christ didn't come to destroy the law but to fulfill the law but when he fulfilled the law some things changed okay look at Hebrews chapter number seven let's look at verse number 12 for the priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the law so you say hey you don't observe the Sabbath you're right you say why it's not because the Old Testament is just you know gone away in a sense it's because there's been a change of the law that's why obviously the Old Covenant does not apply to me it's waxed away it's decayed it's vanished okay but the Old Covenant does not just take every law of the Old Testament and just throw them away what happened is there was a change of the law everything dealing with the priesthood changed all of it a hundred percent it used to be all of Aaron it was the Aaronic priesthood now it's the priesthood of Melchizedek which is the Lord Jesus Christ so all the animal sacrifices gone all the temple gone the veil was rent and twain gone look anything dealing with the sacrifices and the worship of the God through the priesthood was gone now we have one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus you don't have to go to the Aaronic priest to make sacrifice you just boldly go to the throne of grace through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ so then what was changed that's basically the question you know what was changed so let's understand first of all what happened something changed what changed the priesthood but not only that the law also changed right what did it say for the priests are being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the law so some laws changed some Old Testament laws no longer apply and the best way I like in this this is my earthly example okay if you're 15 years old can you drive a car in Texas not legally you can what happens when you turn 16 and you get a driver's license now you can drive so what happened something changed you got older okay and in the New Testament something changed now we have Christ so certain things in the Old Testament do not longer apply all the things that we're picturing Jesus Christ they no longer apply to us there was a change in the law of that look at Hebrews chapter 9 verse 10 which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and cardinal oranges imposed on them until the time of reformation now what was our definition of sin a transgression of the law so the only way you can be convinced of sin is if the Bible tells you no now I believe that we're going to apply that logic okay so the only way I'm going to take a law off the table then is if the Bible specifically tells me was taken off the table okay so what is it telling us here there it says what meats drinks divers washings and cardinal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation you say what's the time of reformation well look at verse 11 but Christ being come and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building so what was the time of reformation when Christ came when Christ came and died on the cross that is when things changed he became the high priest so anything dealing with the priesthood with the meats drinks divers washings and cardinal ordinances are done away but does this say hey thou shalt not murder oh that's it's done away of course not that's stupid obviously what is it saying look you can eat any food you want in the old testament there was laws you were not allowed to eat pork okay and this is things that atheists all kinds of people are going to throw at you oh you're eating pork the old testament says that you shouldn't eat pork you bible literalist you say you believe everything in the bible yeah i do but i also believe the new testament and the new testament says there was a change of the law so now i can eat whatever kind of meat i want and you know what you're not supposed to judge me go to colossians chapter number two the bible says this again and another place colossians chapter number two look at verse number 16 let no man therefore judge you and meet or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moon or of the sabbath days which are a shadow of things that come but the bodies of christ so according to the bible look we don't have to observe any of the dietary restrictions in the bible all of them were done away with so hey can i eat pork amen give me some bacon i love bacon i'm gonna keep eating it that's why the new testament's called the new testament the new testament's called the better testament because we get to eat bacon that was specifically why no i'm just kidding obviously this is a restriction that has no longer applies because it was changed and why did it even exist okay obviously the picture was the fact that god's people were supposed to be clean and holy and righteous okay and those that were unclean the unsaved were pictured with the unclean meats and in the new testament look god's people is not just the nation of israel it's anybody that believes in christ so now we see we can eat any meat he's picturing the fact that now we've all been reconciled into one there is no distinction between the jew and the gentile we're all made one in christ jesus that's why it's blasphemous when you try and separate the meats again because the spiritual significance there is racism again trying to say oh the jews are more special the jews are god's chosen people because their ethnicity because their race wrong it's always been a spiritual salvation and that's what the bible was picturing not only this it talks about sabbath days so obviously the sabbath that's a one of the ten commandments i mean that's pretty serious god wrote this with his finger and you have seventh-day adventists today they literally try to observe the sabbath in their minds okay so they on saturday will not do any work supposedly or whatever they try to follow this statute look that's done away with in the new testament because jesus christ is our sabbath and seventh-day adventists they don't believe in jesus christ to save them they're trusting in their works so they're they're replacing the spiritual sabbath with a physical sabbath and they don't even believe the spiritual sabbath wicked you say how are you going to observe the sabbath pastor shelley spiritually i rest in christ from all my works i know i'm going to heaven not because of anything i do in my life i could go home and play video games for the rest of my life and go to heaven because i know that salvation is by faith and i've already believed in jesus christ i already have a turn of life you know what god might just take my life i mean you know the video game might come out the team might just explode or something i don't have one hey but if i had a video game console on tv just like explode and like the microchips would stab me and i'd die or something i mean god would not be pleased with me if i just decided to be that wicked and slothful especially of all the things he's given me already go if you would to romans chapter number 14 we'll emphasize it again even the the verse that we talked about in first timothy chapter number four it says it's a doctrine of devils to go around telling people there's certain meats that they can or cannot eat in the new testament so obviously there was a change something changed the meats the drinks divers washing so if you have a commandment in the bible that has nothing to do with the dietary restrictions that has nothing to do with the priesthood that's not symbolizing the coming of the lord jesus christ it still applies don't print any marks on your body uh that still applies buddy that wasn't picturing jesus christ dying in the cross fyi that's not the meats drinks divers washings cardinal ordinances anything in the old testament that was a law still applies look the death penalty for murder was instituted before any of the law it was told unto noah it was saying hey man should be killed whenever they kill somebody else he was told noah when he got off the ark and look that law has always been an existence it's always been wrong to steal it's always been wrong to kill it's always been wrong to lie but you know what at noah he said you could eat any of them any of the food so at noah's time they can eat all the food but then what happens then they go under the law they have certain dietary restrictions now in the new testament now it's lifted and the only reason it would be sin is if god said no but in the new testament that was changed so it's no longer sin you can't tell me it's sin because it's not sin and this is just pictured with anything in our lives right at one point in my life it was illegal for me to drive and then another point in my life it's legal for me to drive right something changed so us in the new testament things have changed now we have different statutes or limitations now look at romans chapter 14 verse 20 we'll confirm this one more time for me destroy not the work of god all things indeed are pure but it is evil for that who eateth with offense so again how could you say that eating food that god created is a sin inherently it's not inherently lying is inherently a sin we just know that's wicked and that's wrong the only reason that that would be a sin is if god told you specifically not to eat that but we see in the new testament that's a doctrine of devils to try and limit what type of foods we should eat so you say how do you categorize sin pastor shelley well if it's not a meat drink divers washing cardinal ordinance or respect of a holy day it still applies that's how i believe it and you know some people even say this is like the ceremonial law there's like moral law civil law and like ceremonial law i think that still makes it kind of vague i just say look if it's not one of these things on this list the meats the drinks the divers washings you say what's cardinal ordinances because that's a little bit vague okay but there were certain things that they had to do a specific to the priesthood certain clothes that they had to wear certain places they had to be certain timing certain events these are just all the fleshly things that had to do with the specific ordination of the priesthood they no longer apply so let's go to providence chapter 23 let's look at some things that are sin because with the new testament christianity with the evangelicals today they want a green light sin why because they're trusting in work salvation and if you're trusting in work salvation basically your doctrine is i'm better than other people because if you believe just telling one lie will send you to hell then everybody's damned to hell okay so if you're trusting in work salvation at the point you're all trust you're all going to go to hell the only what work salvation does is it says i'm better than a group of people because you say hey well i'm not a murderer so i know i'm going to go to heaven well i'm not a rapist so i know i'm going to heaven i'm not ate of hitler so i know i'm going to go to heaven in a sense there's somebody somewhere that they're better than it's a doctrine of pride well then they have to figure out so if you're going to be better than somebody we have to categorize sins don't we we have to figure out sins that are good and sins that are bad so they have basically their own minds list of sins that are acceptable for them to still commit and go to heaven right well here's the thing you don't want to feel bad about your sin okay you don't want to feel like you're on your way to heaven so you keep taking things off of your damnable sin list okay this is why the doctrine of the new evangelicals basically green lights everything that's you know if it's not murder i mean they basically say it's okay it's okay to drink it's okay to get tattoos it's okay to watch tv it's okay to hang out with sodomites you just do whatever you want buddy and let the holy spirit guide you no it's the flesh that's guiding them and they just want to make sin basically nothing because they say oh jesus didn't even condemn the adulterous so i can't judge anything i don't want to judge anything or judge anybody you know who god knows their heart and you know the holy ghost didn't tell me it was wrong to commit adultery maybe it was right in their situation we don't know everything no i know adultery is always wrong adultery is always sin adultery is always wicked look fornication always wicked always sin they say oh but they loved each other wrong it's we have god's commandments we don't throw them out i'm not going to throw any of god's commandments there's some that changed yeah but in this doctrine of change we see a lot of confusion so here's a doctrine alcohol is sin every time you say hey what about this time sin now obviously alcohol being a sin there's a difference between having a little bit of alcohol and being a drunkard according to the bible drunkards are thrown out of the church okay and i gave my sermon already about that the five things i consider how you're a drunkard but if someone has a beer one beer i'm not going to throw them out of the church but it's sin don't get me wrong it's wicked i think it's wrong i think it's stupid and drinking alcohol makes you stupid but it's a sin today and because people want to lower the bar of righteousness they will teach that drinking alcohol is not a sin they will say well anything could be abused i mean look people could abuse their wives does that mean we shouldn't get married you know and people can abuse guns does that mean we shouldn't have guns look that's a dumb analogy and look alcohol is always a sin it's always wrong there's nothing good about it it never benefits anybody and i even went to a dinner recently where the people behind me they're talking about oh alcohol's you know so good for you you know i heard the doctor say that a glass of wine is good for you every day and a pack of cigarettes they sound like they're dying and i'm like what yeah it's not affecting you at all you drunk loser you you hillbilly idiot i mean good night you sound like you're about to die like a gargoyle or something some kind of beast that came out of the sea trying to justify how great drinking and smoking is and look yeah god made our bodies able to withstand a lot of damage i don't i'm not going to glory in the fact that my body can take a lot of damage i'm going to try and limit the damage to my body and alcohol will only damage your body look at proverbs chapter 23 let's look at verse 29 this is where i always like to take people whenever i want to look at this look at verse 29 who hath woe who has sorrow with contention of babbling who hath wounds without cause who has redness of eyes they that tarry long at the wine they that go to seek mixed wine look not thou upon the wine when it is red when it giveth his color in the cup now is that a suggestion or a commandment that's a commandment and what is sin a transgression of the law it's when you break one of god's commandments now according to this he says there's a certain beverage you shouldn't even look at now here's my question these people that want to have this doctrine of drinking alcohol is you know okay i want to say well where's the beverage that i'm not supposed to ever touch which one is that they don't have that they don't have that beverage they think well there isn't a beverage that you couldn't touch there isn't a beverage that you can't look at well my bible says there's a beverage that i'm not supposed to even look at and then it even tells us what kind of beverage it is it says when it giveth his color in the cup when it moveth itself aright proving its fermentation guys like let me just make it real clear this is a beverage that's fermenting that's changing itself and you know some people say they say well alcohol was always wine in in the bible they'll say it's impossible for wine to not be alcoholic he's like you don't understand technology back then you're just so ignorant of history because they had no way to preserve it oh okay let's take some grapes and let's squeeze them into a cup which is literally recorded in the bible is that alcoholic i don't have to be a rocket scientist i don't have to be a husband man i don't have to be a wine connoisseur to realize that if i squeeze grapes into a cup it's not alcoholic that's stupid and even if you read historical documents they have many ways that they preserved wine for juice many ways they would sometimes boil it into a sap okay kind of like you have the day if you go to the grocery store you can buy great concentrate in the frozen section can't you what is that then you mix it with water and you have you have great kool-aid it's the same thing they boil it into some kind of sap they would preserve it underground there was all kinds of ways that they would preserve you know different fruits into just juice throughout history and look obviously there's always been people making wine and alcohol too both have existed from the beginning always there's not this well at some point they didn't have alcohol or they did or whatever it's stupid and obviously the bible's saying there's a beverage that you can't even look at and then it condemns it even further let's look at another verse go to proverbs chapter number 20 proverbs chapter number 20 verse 1 wine is a mocker strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise now this is what they'll say they say oh but you're ignoring all the verses that say wine's a blessing and look there is there's verses in the bible that says wine is a blessing okay so if you have a verse that says wine's a blessing wine is a mocker well let me let me help you out with this you have two options either a the bible's contradictions or b wine can mean two different things it's super clear and why would god in proverbs chapter 23 tell you hey this is the type of wine the one that's moving itself right and changing color why would he give that designation if wine always meant the same thing i mean think about it if it always means the exact same thing why would he have to describe what type of wine he's talking about because there's different kinds of wine and the bible's saying this kind of wine whatever reading about in 20 is a mocker it doesn't say sometimes oh if you drink too much no it just is a mocker it will always be a mocker alcohol is always wrong and if you don't think it's wrong you're deceived you're stupid you're an idiot you're you've just been deceived by this world you've been deceived by budweiser and by the billboards and by some false prophet and by the alcoholics you know whatever they are going out evangelizing their alcoholism across this country and look in this country at one point alcohol is illegal it was literally illegal it was bootleggers it was the time of the tea tollers tea tollism in this country it was illegal to have alcohol i mean that talk about public opinion changing talk about you know the laws in this country changing was it right then or was it wrong then now i'm not saying that there should be laws against alcohol because the bible doesn't say there's any laws about you know alcohol but obviously people had a different feeling about it and back then the drinkers were always in dark and secret and hiding and i wish it would go back to that i wish it was such a shame and such a ridicule to be a drinker to be an alcoholic rather than now where it's in every restaurant i mean you go to a family restaurant and they're trying to give you a jack daniels they're trying to give you a wine they're trying to give you liquor i mean they got the wine glass on the table hey let me fill that up for you no why don't you get rid of it i don't want to even look at it that's what the bible says i need to give them that verse hey i'm not supposed to look at that get it out of my sight it's gross it's disgusting i don't want to see it i don't have anything to do with it just like rotting food i mean that's how i look at wine i mean you're going to bring rotting food under the table at a restaurant people would be repulsed people like what are you doing this is gross this smells terrible i don't want to be around it how is that different than alcohol i hate how it smells i don't want to be around it it's like rotting food is how i view it i don't want to touch it i'm not interested in it you say oh if you ate some rotten food would you would you die no but it's not healthy it's not helping go if you would to first corinthian six let's let's cover another topic real quick but clearly what does the bible says it says to be sober i could show you dozens of places in the bible that say to be sober so there's another clear cut way to prove that drinking alcohol is a sin because anytime you drink any alcohol you've lost your sobriety some part of your judgment has been destroyed go to first corinthians chapter number six we're going to get a long list here look at verse number 18 the bible says flee fornication every sin that a man doeth is without the body but he that committed fornication sent against his own body so the bible even in the new testament will specify certain sins and if you look at the statement that i have here i said all fornication sodomy homosexuality bestiality pedophilia lasciviousness are sin and i put verses there so you can look it up and you can say hey this is a sin romans chapter one makes it clear homosexuality is a sin you say that word is not found in the bible yeah it's described though men with men that's not that's undeniable what the bible saying there bestiality pedophilia these type of things unfortunately are running rampant in this country things that people are wanting to do wanting to try and normalize wanting to try and make you know everybody accept i'm never going to accept it this church is never going to accept it it's part of our doctrine and i'm not afraid of what i believe about it you know what the people that do these acts they should be afraid they should be ashamed they're the ones that are wicked we're not wicked for saying that this is sin and not only is it sin it's worthy of the death penalty in many cases sodomy and homosexuality definitely bestiality definitely pedophilia death penalty not only that because we have all these weird perverted things they just kind of carte blanche accept lasciviousness you say what's lasciviousness it's basically just anything that's dirty magazines dirty things on the internet dirty movies all this type of stuff that used to be very taboo they used to be illegal you weren't allowed to publicize it now today you go to a bookstore they got all kinds of magazines on the internet i mean the internet is just filled with this junk and this filth everywhere and because they have all this weird aberrant stuff this you know really extreme strange disgusting perversion of the flesh it's trying to kind of make it open a door for this type of lasciviousness we ought to be far away from lasciviousness the bible says that it's good for a man not to touch a woman but you know today people are so far in the other end the other extreme they think you're crazy they think it's crazy that i'm not gonna let my daughter go necking with some boy or something you know go hold hands and go make out and do all these things not gonna happen she's gonna be in my presence and they're not gonna be doing that kind of touching in my presence the kind of touching that is acceptable for my daughter is the same touching that the boy would do to me i say if you wouldn't touch me that way don't touch my daughter that way period that's the type of touching that's acceptable in my house and look just because there's all this lasciviousness in the world today doesn't mean i have to accept it it's sin it's wicked and we'll we'll kind of we'll finish off this list one more time we'll have one more sermon where we kind of go through this but it's important to know why you believe what you believe and it's important to get your doctrines because it's going to preserve you and even if it just seems so obvious to you you still need to spell it out with your children open the bible show them the verses explain the verses unto them show them and teach them what the bible says because nobody just automatically knows everything nobody just knows all the parts of the bible knows every sin you have to diligently teach your children you have to diligent teach and train yourself and there's a lot of levels to learning even you as a person you might know everything everything i showed you you might say i already agreed with the pastor shelley but here's my question if i took this sheet away and i just asked you could you show me all those references could you teach your children all those references could you could you teach you know could you get up and preach a sermon on those topics so there's different levels of learning obviously it's important to know it it's important to have heard it it's important to be familiar with it it's important to know it but it's also important to be able to teach it and to train and to teach other people so let's close in prayer thank you father so much for your word thank you so much for your your doctrine it drops us due thank you for it be so pure i just pray that we get in our hearts the importance of your doctrines the importance of your words that we would teach and train our children and our families and that we know we would be saved from a lot of filth and wickedness and all kinds of evil by by learning your commandments by getting them written on our hearts by changing our hearts through your word i pray that we would never have a bad opinion of doctrine but we either embrace it and we love it and we cherish it and we want to get it to know it at a better level in jesus name i pray amen