Welcome to the Susquehanna Valley Baptist Pulpit, preaching a life worth living, abundant life in Christ, and now the message. Luke chapter 21. Luke chapter 21. We're going to begin reading in verse 7. Luke chapter 21, verse 7. And the scripture says, and they ask him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? And what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? And he said, Take heed that you be not deceived, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ. And the time draweth near. Go ye not therefore after them? But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified. For these things must first come to pass, but the end is not by and by. And then said he unto them, Nations shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines and pestilences, and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these, They shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my namesake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it, therefore, in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer. My text this morning is from that verse, verse 14. Settle it therefore in your hearts. Let's pray. Father we come to you now in the name of the Lord Jesus and I plead again this morning for the filling of the Holy Spirit of God. Thank you for this good church, this good pastor, their love for you. their faithfulness, stick-to-itiveness to the Word of God. And how we, I pray, Lord, that you'd fill me with the Spirit of God, that as I preach, your Word would go forth in power. If there's any here without Christ, convict them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Turn their hearts to the Son of God, I pray. And for those that are saved, dear God, may they have those things settled that are most important in life. Do a work in our lives, and Lord, we'll thank you for it, in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, the passage that we just read, the Lord Jesus is getting ready to go to the cross. In just a couple of days, that's what's going to take place. His disciples have heard him say a lot about it. Remember, even on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus, and Peter standing by, when he heard what they were talking about, he went to sleep. He didn't like it because they spoke of his coming to cease at Jerusalem. He had been preparing them for what was about to take place. They were most concerned at this particular time about the end times, about what would happen later on. And he wanted to remind them that there are a whole number of things got to take place. See, they were looking for the Messiah to come and to free them from the bondage of Rome. And what they didn't realize was that the Messiah did have to come, but his first purpose of coming was to free us from the bondage of sin and from the condemnation of sin by going to the cross of Calvary and paying our sin debt there on the cross. For the Bible says, for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins and was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now what a powerful truth. Jesus had to go to the cross first. And he reminded them some things. For instance, in John chapter 15, he lets them know these things have I spoken unto you. I'm going to have to turn to it. My mind went blank there for a second. When you become an old man, going blank every once in a while is common. Some old man say amen to me right there, if you would. Thank you very much. All right. I feel better about it now. Chapter 15, beginning in verse 19 of the book of John, the scripture says there, Verse 19 if you rub this world the world would love his own but because you're not of the world But I've chosen you out of the world Therefore the world hateth you remember the word that I said unto you The servant is not greater than his Lord if they have persecuted me They will also persecute you did they persecute him They did guess what? They'll also persecute us You say, but we live in America. Doesn't make any difference where you live. This has happened throughout all the time. People standing for God have been persecuted. goes on in many different countries today. As a matter of fact, look at chapter 16. In chapter 16 he says, These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. In the passage that we read, we see that he tells them that they were going to be called before judges. They were going to have to give an answer for certain things. And he says, you need to have some things settled. So that you don't even have to think about your answer. You've got this matter down. You need to have some things settled. We live in such an unsettled day. I mean, people change. That's why these polls, you notice how the polls during the election, they changed every day. You'd hear one day they're leaning this way, the next day they're leaning that way. You know why? People don't have anything settled. They don't have truth settled, they don't have right and wrong settled, and so they're just swayed by all the different things that they heard. Let me tell you, what's already swayed me is the Word of God. That's enough for me. If God says that it's so, my life verse is Psalm 119, 128. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way. Now, you can talk to me about a lot of different issues, you know, that don't matter, anything, and I say, okay, whatever. But when God has said something about anything, I already have it settled, God's right. If I disagree, I'm wrong, and I'm just gonna stick by His Word because His Word is truth. The Lord Jesus Christ said that His Word was truth in John chapter 17 and verse 17 in His high priestly prayer. But he's telling his disciples, he's saying, you need to have these things settled. You don't have to be careful about what you're going to answer because you've already got it settled. This is the way that it is. A number of things you need to have settled. Number one, you need to settle your salvation. I appreciate that Sunday school lesson, man. If you missed it, I mean, that was settling stuff right there. That's just settling you down. You need to have salvation's facts settled. See, the only way that any of us get to go to heaven is through the death-bound resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Jesus made this statement. He said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Have you been born again? And I say, well, preacher, I don't know. Then you don't know if you're going to heaven or not, do you? Because except a man be born again, he cannot, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That was the Lord Jesus Christ who made that statement. And he made it to a very religious man, a man who believed in God, a man who prayed at least five times a day, a man who fasted at least twice a week, a man who gave tithes of what he possessed. I mean, this man was a man who had sought after God, but he said, marvel not, I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. There are going to be a lot of church members in hell. Matter of fact, let me just say, I'm a Baptist, but there are going to be a lot of Baptists in hell. Because they thought that their mom and dad's salvation would get them to heaven, they must be born again too. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Have you been born again? That marvelous verse that Pastor Starr began with in 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. According to the scripture, He wrote this thing so that you can have eternal life and know that you've got it. If you don't know it, you better get it settled. Because you see, you have no guarantee of tomorrow. You have no guarantee of another minute or another hour. The only way you can be sure of heaven is to get it settled today, and that's through the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Now the world is screaming at us that we're to be open to everything out there. And they don't mean that, by the way. We're to be open to all their warped ideas about things. That's what they mean by that. Jesus didn't say, oh, be open-minded about things. Jesus is very close-minded about things. Again, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Paul was very close-minded about it. He says, for there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. The Apostle Peter said in Acts 4.12, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. One way to be saved through Jesus Christ. It's not through religion. It's not through the church. It's not through your good works. It's not through the baptistry. It's not through being confirmed. One way to heaven is through the person of Jesus Christ. The one who died for our sins was buried and rose three days later from the dead. As a matter of fact, at the beginning of that passage in 1 John 5, beginning in verse 11, he says, This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Do you have the Son of God? I'm not talking about the Son of God of the Chosen. You understand that the Chosen is a series that was done by the Mormons. They have a different Jesus than the Jesus of the Bible. You understand that? We get all excited when we hear some program that's on TV that mentions Jesus. And we think, oh wow, isn't this going to be wonderful? Better make sure you get the right Jesus. You say, does that really make any difference? Makes all the difference in the world. You know, back in Exodus chapter 32, you've got Aaron, the high priest. He made a calf. And after making a calf, he said, Israel, these be thy gods that brought thee out of Egypt. And then he said for the next day that they would have a feast unto Jehovah. That calf wasn't Jehovah. God was about to destroy them all. And had Moses not prayed, they would have been destroyed. You understand, because it does make a difference what you're really worshipping. You want to have the right Jesus, and the right Jesus is the one of this book, the one who is the Son of God, yea, God himself, who took upon himself flesh to be the sacrifice for our sin. He is the only way to heaven. By the way, in our congregation, we have a Spanish congregation as well in our church, and I have a couple of men that their first name is Jesus. Now, that's a good name. Matter of fact, it's the greatest of names. The thing is, if you're trusting that Jesus, who is one of those men, you're still lost. You've got to be trusting the Jesus of the book. You've got to have the right Jesus. That's all there is to it. The one who is God, the God of very gods. In the book of Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6, he says, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. See, He is the Mighty God. He is the everlasting Father. That's the Jesus you've got to believe in to have eternal life. You say, a preacher, I believe in God. Well, so does the devil and he trembles. See, James is very plain about that. It's through Jesus Christ that you get saved. You go to heaven. Salvation's fact. Have you been saved? Have you had a time when you took Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as your personal Savior? You saw yourself as a sinner on your way to hell, and you trusted Christ to save you. See, I used to think, I didn't get saved when I was 22. I got saved at a radio station where I was a disc jockey. But I used to think that one day I'd stand before God. I believed in God. I believed that there was a God, didn't know anything about him. I believed I'd stand before God and he'd put all my good work on this big scale and all my bad works on the other side of that scale. And I was such a good guy, the good would outweigh the bad and God let me into heaven. And had I died then, I would have went straight to hell to burn for eternity. I had to find out that I was a sinner on my way to hell with absolutely nothing I could do to save myself. Jesus Christ died on the cross. I knew that somebody named Jesus had died on the cross, but I didn't know He was the Son of God. I didn't know He came to die for my sin. I didn't know that He was the sinless one and only a sinless person could die for the sins of others. I got that matter settled. I took Jesus as my savior. The Bible says that he saved me. That's salvation's fact. And then there's salvation's future. I mean, isn't it a shame that there are people out there, they trusted Jesus to save them, then they think somehow they could lose it. Now think with me for just a moment. There's something inconsistent about that, isn't it? If only Jesus can save you, but you decide whether or not to keep yourself saved, that if you do something wrong, Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Your works can't get you saved, your work can't stop you from being saved. Once you've trusted Christ as Savior, He gives you, very excellently done today, He gives you everlasting life. Thank God I've got it settled. I've had people tell me to go to hell. And I'm glad I can look at them and I can say, I can't. I can't. Hallelujah. This is settled. I know Christ is Savior. No matter what happens, any time, any place, whether it be cancer or a car wreck, doesn't make any difference. Whether it be a heart attack. And when I die, I'm going straight to God. Hallelujah. There's a place at the table already set for me, according to Ephesians chapter 2. So, number one, you need to settle your salvation. Number two, you need to settle your standard. Now, you say, preacher, what do you mean by that? I mean, what is your basis for truth? My standard is, thus saith the Lord. As I said earlier, Jesus said, thy word is truth. Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, beginning in verse 16, he says, I believe God's word is truth. The psalmist believed it. He said, thy word is true from the beginning and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. I've got an eternal word from God, his word that is truth. Matter of fact, turn with me over to the book of Psalms, Psalm 19. Tremendous passage on the truth of the Word of God. Psalm 19. I didn't say 119, I said 19. And we're going to begin reading at verse 7. Psalm 19, verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Now let's see what Jesus has to say about it. Go over to the book of Matthew, Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter 5. Interesting passage in Matthew chapter 5, because it's right after Jesus gave what's known as the Beatitudes, all the blessed. It's amazing how many people want to believe all the blesses, but then don't want to believe the other things that he says in the same message. But I want you to look at it there in Matthew chapter 5, verse 17. Jesus said, think not. that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Now let me ask you, has heaven and earth passed? Has it passed? It hadn't, has it? It's still around. Guess what? His Word's still good. His Word's still good. Now, when Jesus said that, by the way, they didn't even have the written New Testament yet. All they had was the Old Testament. Has heaven and earth passed? No, it hadn't. You see, His Word's still good. All of His Word is good. Thank God we've got all 66 books. I've got all of His truth. God has not changed one bit. The Bible says, and I mentioned being born again a few moments ago, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. You say, I found out how to be saved through God's Word. How do I know it was right? Because His Word is right. His Word is true. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4, he says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Let me tell you why there's a battle over the translations. They're wanting to change the words. They don't like the words. I've heard people say, well, you got to understand this new translation. It's easier to understand, but you've changed the words. Well, it gives the thoughts of God. No, no, you don't understand. If you change the words, you change the thoughts. Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Thank God I've got an every word Bible. I want to know what His words say. They translated it from the right text, and they translated it the right way. That's verbally. They gave His words. That's what I want. That's what I want to have. And I don't want a translation that leaves out half of one verse and a whole verse over here and even a passage over there. I want one that's got it all. Every time he uses the word virgin in the scripture, I want it in my Bible. I don't want it there half the time. I want it there every time that he used it in his word. Thank God, I've already settled this matter about the standard. My standard is, thus saith the Lord, I want what God has to say. God says in Psalm 138 and verse two, he says, he esteemed his, I'm gonna have to turn to it. I had one of those old man lapses again. There you go, Psalm 132. It's happening more and more the older I get. But at least I still remember that it's true. You wanna know what God thinks about his word? Now that my fingers don't turn to the right chapter nearly as quickly as they used to either. Of course, I'm ending up with my fingers looking like this. Psalm 138, verse two, I will worship toward the holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." Now, we know from the scripture what God thinks of His name. His name is holy. He says, we're not to take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. And yet God has exalted His word above His name. Why do you think that is? I'll tell you why I think it is. Because your name's only as good as your word. If your word's not good, your name's not good. There's no doubt most everybody here can think of a person that you know of as a liar. And when you hear their name, that's what you think. Liar. But the Bible says it's impossible for God to lie. And because it's impossible for Him to lie, I know His Word is truth. I know about all the prophecies of Jesus' first coming, they were fulfilled literally, exactly like He said. Guess what? All the promises concerning the second coming of Christ, they're going to be fulfilled the same way, literally. Quit making a picture out of everything. God said it. Trust it to be so. God's kept his word over and over again. You see, this matter is settled. Well, preacher, I just don't think, I don't care what you think. I care what God says. His word, I've settled the standard. Have you settled the standard? What about the abortion question? His word settles all that. Try to make it a political issue if you want. I tell you what, according to God, it's still murder. Still murder. Boy, that's not popular in a lot of places. That'll get folks upset, won't it? You say, well, what about culture? Let me tell you something about culture. Because I've heard these preachers say, well, you've got to understand the culture there of the Corinthians. What went on? No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. You cannot explain away the Word of God by culture. Let me tell you, every culture is wicked. Every culture is defiled. The farther away from God they get, the worse their culture gets. Culture never trumps Bible. The Bible always trumps culture. God destroyed an entire world in Genesis chapter 6 because of their culture. God kicked the Canaanites out of the land because of their culture. God eventually kicked Israel out of the land for the same reason their culture had become wicked. They were doing the things that God told them that they were not to do. You see, God's very serious in His Word. His word is truth and we judge all culture according to God's word. You need to settle your standard. Let me give you a third thing. You need to settle your service. You got to get your salvation settled and get your standard settled at being the word of God. Then you need to settle your service. Are you going to live for God? Are you going to live for yourself? Jesus said in Matthew 6, verse 24, no man can serve two masters. For either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Make up your mind who you're gonna live for. You're gonna live for mammon? I'll tell you what I need. I really need to make sure I'm secure. Well, that's not happening here. Do you realize, well, there is no way, there is no way you can inflation proof or government proof your security. You say, well, preacher, I bought gold. Okay, you bought gold. You know, over in North Korea, One of the Kim Jong whatever's, either the dad or the son, I don't know which one it was, they told all the North Koreans that they were to turn in their gold. One businessman said he wasn't gonna do it. They killed him, took his gold. How'd that fit for him? That made it real secure, didn't it? I got news for you, I don't care how much gold you have, all it takes is one bullet and you got nothing. Unless you want to secure your future get close to God Make your life count by using it for things that are eternal And by the way, there's so many scams out there and you know these phishing things I don't know how many call I get so many calls a day. I Never respond to the emails or the text I'm not going to even have anything to do with them. Now that doesn't scam proof me, I understand that. Because there's still that widow over in Nigeria who's got millions of dollars that she'd like to put in my account. Listen, I know of one Christian school principal. He thought, man, we're really needing money. We've got to build a new school building at our place. And so he allowed them to do that. They took everything that church and school had. Everything. He lost his job and everything. People are so silly. They'll get a note from Amazon that says, we need your account number to make sure that you're real. No, I know I'm real. You don't need anything from me. It's not Amazon. Do you understand? It's not Amazon. And even if it was Amazon, if they've lost my account, that's on them. They're really good about stuff that they do. There's people always trying to get your stuff. Your security's in God. Stay close to him, serve him, live for him, make your life count. He says, and I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Living for Jesus is the most important thing that you can do. Making your life count for him. Now, if you're gonna do that, the very first thing you need to do is obey him and the first things he says to do. For instance, when a person gets saved, the first thing they're told to do is to get baptized. First thing, Jesus told the disciples, Matthew 28, verse 19, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. So first we're to go and we're to make disciples, we're to teach them how to be saved, and then when they get saved, we're to baptize them. Interesting thing, read through the book of Acts. They'd get people saved, they'd baptize them. They at Pentecost, then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there was added unto them three thousand souls. I mean, these people got baptized right away. They didn't wait a week, didn't wait a month, didn't wait a year. They got baptized right away. Peter goes and wins the household of Cornelius to Christ. But he's got some of the Jewish brethren who had trusted Christ as Savior with him, and they didn't think Gentiles could get saved. So God filled them with the Holy Spirit of God. By the way, the Bible says in Acts 10, verse 43, Well, then they were filled with the Holy Spirit and God made it plain to the believers that were there that, hey, these Gentiles got saved. Peter asked the question to his companions, can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? They couldn't offer an objection. So then the scripture says in verse 47 of Acts chapter 10, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. He didn't ask them to pray about it. He didn't, I'm not against the class on this, don't misunderstand what I'm saying, but he didn't say, well, we're gonna have a class for six months before we're gonna do this. It's interesting, he baptized him right then. And that was the command. Why did Peter make it a command? Because Jesus had commanded the disciples to do it that way. That's why. I'm just simply saying, you've got to settle it. If you've been saved and you've not filed the Lord and Believers baptism, since your salvation, you need to go ahead and make that right. Now, baptism doesn't save you, just like this wedding ring. This wedding ring doesn't make me married. It just simply tells everybody that I am. If I hadn't been married and had it on, it'd be a lie. If you got baptized when you weren't saved, you just lied to everybody. See, it's a testimony that you trusted in the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then you get in a local, fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist church. I happen to know of one right around here. It's right here. And I don't know this area that well. There may be a hundred of them. I don't know in Harrisburg. I doubt there's that many. I'd be shocked if there were. That'd be a wonderful thing for Harrisburg if that was true. But you see, the Bible says, and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. That's powerful. Now, whereas the Bible does not record the baptism of everybody that got saved, you do not find anybody in the book of Acts who got saved and refused to be baptized. Not one. Not one. Well, preacher, I was sprinkled. Yeah, that's what you were. You were sprinkled. You weren't baptized. Because baptism is by immersion. I'm just simply saying, you know, hey, we need to have some things settled. We need to have our salvation settled. Listen, we need to have our standards settled, the Word of God. We need to have our service settled. And the Bible says, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Yeah, that's part of our service, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone. And by the way, we need to have our subjection settled. What is that preacher? And that is, you know, I have dual citizenship. I'm a citizen of heaven, and I'm a citizen of the United States of America. I have one citizenship that is higher than the other. My citizenship in heaven, my first allegiance is to my God and my savior. I'm a patriot, man, I bleed red, white, and blue. I love America. I thank God in our church, we've got so many veterans, and every Veterans Day, every Memorial Day, every July 4th, we honor all the veterans that we have. We have them come forward and stand. Man, they line up all the way around the front of the church, not just veterans, but active duty as well. We honor our first responders. We just like honoring people. I mean, we are just patriotic. We love our nation. Has our nation always been right about everything? No, no nation has been, but it's the best one there is. Do we have problems? Still got a bunch of them, but still the best one there is. We love it, but I tell you what, my loyalty first of all goes to my God. You need to get settled who you're gonna be subject to. King Jesus, he's the one. Jesus said, why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say. Need to settle your subjection. Jesus first, above all things. One last thing. Need to settle your stand. Daniel had his stand settled, you see. He had purposed in his heart he would not defile himself with the king's meat. Now, if he had stopped eating the meat and started looking sickly, he'd have been put to death. Another time he was told he couldn't pray. Yes, pray was it. The king said that he couldn't pray to his God. He had to pray to the king. So he went home, opened up his window so that everyone could see everything that he did, and got down and prayed. For that he got thrown into the den of lions. Why? Because he'd already settled some things. The three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they'd already settled some things. When Nebuchadnezzar made a statue and said, when you hear a musical instrument, you fall down and you bow to it. And they wouldn't do it. I don't know about anybody else in the kingdom, but they're the only three that we know about that didn't bow. I'm sure that some of their Jewish brethren had said to him, well, hey, listen, it doesn't mean anything. God knows. I mean, you're leaders. You're leaders. You've got a high position. Don't put your life in jeopardy. No, no. When Nebuchadnezzar came, he said, I'll give you one more chance. Your God's not going to protect you. I'm going to throw you in the fiery furnace and you're going to be burned up. Your God can't help you. Oh, King, we're not careful to answer thee. Our God. Our God will protect us, but even if He doesn't, we're not bowing. They had it settled. People get upset that you won't be like them. You make decisions to give up something because you see that, hey, in the scripture, that's wrong. You're even going to have, you're going to have other Christians get upset with you about that. You just have to decide, I'm going to obey God. You need to settle your stand. Stand for right, no matter the cost. If it costs your family, then so be it. If it costs your friends, if it costs you your job, if it costs you your life. We are here ambassadors for Christ. We are to be good ambassadors. Do you understand that? Showing our allegiance to him first of all. The psalmist said twice, he says, my heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed. I will sing your praise even with my glory. Do you believe drinking alcohol is wrong? Why? Well, for that, you've got to go to your standard and find out why. Check it out. Do you believe evolution is wrong? Oh, definitely, man. Talk about something that is so idiotic and phony. Well, they teach that in the colleges. Yeah, they teach murdering babies okay in the colleges, too. Colleges teach a lot of things that are false. But it's absolutely impossible. There are three basic theories of evolution, and each one of them proves conclusively the other two are impossible. Notice they're all still theories because they're not fact But I've got a book that tells us how everything came about in the beginning God created Not all you understand long time ago billions and billions of years boy if they didn't have billions of years They wouldn't have anything to say Billions of years ago. There was this little dot of dirt that was so compacted that it exploded And out of that explosion came all that you see around you today. Really? It exploded? It's a funny thing about explosions. Explosions take things that are orderly and makes them disorderly. Explosions take things that are alive and makes them dead. And this explosion, the greatest heat, the greatest explosion, out of it came all the planets, all the solar systems, all the billions of stars. Out of that great explosion somehow came life. Oh, but that was only after a billion years. Where did it start? What nonsense. What ridiculous nonsense! I tell you what, it takes a whole lot more faith to believe in evolution than it does in the beginning God created. He's God! Do you believe rock music is wrong? Why? I tell you what, there's a whole lot of Christians that won't even look into it, won't even study the scripture because they're afraid it is. And once they study, then they won't have any choice. I had to give it up. They don't want to give it up. I mean, you just got to settle some things and be willing to pay the price because you've settled those things. You know, Jesus told the Jews in his day that their worship was vain. Teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men, not the commandments of God. The commandments of men. Yeah, man says this and it's contrary to God's word. Well, then man's wrong. And we're going to stand on God being right. You see, as Jesus was telling the disciples, you need to have something settled so that when you're called into court, when you're called in to make a statement, you don't even have to think about it. You already know what you believe. Stand on it. Get some things settled. Is your salvation settled? If you've not gotten it settled, you need to get it settled today. I don't care what you are. You say, preacher, I'm not even a Baptist. Doesn't make any difference. You can get saved too. Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. I tell people being a member of my church isn't going to take you to heaven. You understand that? Being a member of my church won't take you to heaven. You gotta have Christ to go to heaven. Now we can tell you how to get there, but you still gotta have Christ. You being on our membership role doesn't guarantee heaven. We just believe what you said when you told us you were saved. Do you know Christ as Savior? If not, you need to get that settled today. Single young people, you got a lot of pitfalls waiting for you out there. The devil's got a lot of temptations. Have you settled your standard yet? Have you settled that this is truth? Thus saith the Lord. Bible says that God be true and every man a liar to where you're willing to stand on God's word. Teenager, do you have that settled? This is God's word. Do you have it settled? God's right. You're gonna stand for right. I'm gonna tell you what, you're gonna be in the minority most of the time. But it's not about being in the majority, it's about being right with God. You got your service settled? Do you have your stand settled? When I got saved, God changed my life completely. And as I read the scripture, became convinced that all of it was true, every bit of it. I found that as I took God's side on things that there were people who had been friends who just didn't want to be around me anymore. There were some friends that were very, very dear to me. I hated losing, but I'd rather be right with God. Have you settled these things in the Lord? Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Thank you for listening. If you would like to contact us, please write us at P.O. Box 126-541-Harrisburg, PA 17112 and visit our website at www.svbcpa.org. Until next time!