Acts chapter 20 verse 26 through 32. You know we've been on the marks of the church. I believe today will be the last lesson on the marks of the church. There's some things the true church, marks of the true church are bare. It's in Acts chapter 20. We'll learn here Acts chapter 20 verse 26 through 32. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn, every one, night and day, with tears. And thou, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." Here Paul is telling that he says that he is pure from the blood of all men. Wouldn't that be a great thing to be able to say? That you could be pure from the blood of all men. And we see here in verse 27 why he is able to say that. In verse 27 he says, For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. He shared all the counsel of God. He didn't stop at the gospel, he went on to all the counsel. And that's what the true church is to do. All the counsel of God. The true church will stand on Bible doctrine. On all of it. It will teach it all. Paul taught them all the counsel of God. He taught them what God would have them to do. For a church to be a proper church, it not only must teach and preach the proper gospel unto salvation, but it also must teach those who are saved to observe all things that God has commanded. Matthew 28, verse 18 and 20. Jesus says, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 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. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. In our day of ecumenicalism, which means under one roof, people want to throw away doctrine. They want to throw it out the door and let's all meet together under one roof and just get along. They want to end the Great Commission at verse 19. They want to say, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. But they don't want to observe all things. They don't want to teach all things. They don't want anybody telling them they're wrong in their false doctrine, or in their wrong doctrine. They want to be happy in their wrong doctrine, and they want you to let them be happy. But that's not what true churches do. They want to tell us not to get caught up in the non-essential doctrines. I like to ask them what part of the Bible is non-essential. You know, what part of this Bible is not essential? Every word of it was inspired by God. God did not inspire all these words just to waste our time when we read it. He inspired them for our health, for our growth, to bring us to Him and then to help us live a life for Him. A proper biblical doctrine is most essential for the Christian growth. If a Christian does not believe right, the Christian cannot behave right. It will do us all good to remember that salvation itself is threefold. Our salvation is a trinity in a way. Step one, we believe the gospel, trust it in Christ, and was washed in the blood, we are saved forever from the penalty of sins. This step is done and it cannot be undone. Step 2 is sanctification. We learn from the Bible and from those in the proper church true biblical doctrines which help us cleanse ourselves from the sins in our life that will keep us from being proper Christians. This step is ongoing and should continue until the day we leave this world. Step 3 is glorification. That is when we receive our new robe and finally be in the image of Christ that it speaks of in Romans 8.29. We are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus. This step is yet future. We are saved, but we are not yet perfect. The second step, which I hope all of us here this morning are now in, is the reason that no doctrine in the Bible is not essential. We should be better Christians tomorrow than we are today. And to do so, we've got to be in the Bible, we've got to learn Bible doctrines, we've got to know what the Bible teaches, and we need to hear it from the preacher and those in church with us. A proper church will not only teach proper doctrine, it will stand against and warn of false doctrine. Just as Paul here warned the church of danger in 29 through 31, in Acts 20 again, From 29 through 31, Paul says, For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things. He's saying, out of this very church that he was here, I think it was Ephesus wasn't it, right? Out of that very church, he knew that people, men of that church was going to rise up and speak perverse things. Speak things that were not biblical doctrines. Speak things that were not true. He was warning them of it. And draw away disciples after them. He's telling them ahead of time so that they would see it and not do it. God in the Old Testament, He warned Israel what they would do so that the remnant would not do it. He knew they was going to do it. And God also tells us in the Bible there will be apostasy in life. It's going to happen. We can't keep it from us, but we cannot be part of it ourselves. We can keep ourselves out of it if we obey the Bible, if we read the Bible, if we stand on Bible doctrine. We don't have to be part of the apostasy. We can't stop it from happening, but we can stop ourselves from being part of it. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears." That's how important it was to Paul that he warned them against this night and day for three years. He warned them. And that's important. We need to warn people against Paul's doctrines and the shirking that goes on around us. So the church today must be willing to warn others of false teachings. So many churches today want to just get along with anything and everything. They do not want to take a stand and be seen. Nobody wants to ruffle feathers or ripple the waters. Well, Jesus ruffled feathers and rippled waters. And if you call yourself a Christian, which means little Christ, then don't be a chicken. If you're going to be a church, don't be chickens. Don't be afraid to ruffle feathers. If somebody's teaching wrong, let them know. The Bible gives us a way to do that. It says a heretic after the first or second admonition, reject them. You admonish them, you take them to the Bible and you tell them where they're wrong. You do it with the rod. You do it lovingly, but you do it rightly. Pat them on the back and say, you'll be alright, you'll get it one day. Now you do it right. You stand on the Word of God, you show them where they're wrong, and if they won't listen, put them out. That's it. You can't play with false doctrine. And as Brother Mark has been preaching in the 23rd Psalm, he's been preaching on the rod and the staff. A lot of people, a lot of churches would like to leave out that part of verse 4 that talks about the rod and the staff. They want the comfort, they want the green pastures, but they don't want the rod and the staff. A lot of churches would like a pastor that would lead them in the green pastures. What they say is green pastures. They want the green pastures that they like. They want to lead the pastor to the pastures that they want. But that's not what the real church is to do. It's to follow the man of God. that's leading them in the word of God. They want the comfort, but they don't want the rod or the staff. People don't want to use the rod because it will bring division. Proper Bible doctrine will bring division among people. Some people just won't have nothing to do with proper Bible doctrine. They would rather just try to get along with wrong than stand against it. Well, if we read the Bible, all those who are good examples stood against wrong, and all those who are bad examples compromised with it or was on the wrong side the whole time. Paul here in verse 29 and 30 warned of grievous wolves and also them who would rise up and speak perverse things. These men rose up out of their own ranks. And you think of the rod and the staff that the preacher's been preaching on. Think of what David done. When David was out watching the sheep and when the baron of the line came, he did not tell them, well, just come on in and we'll have a meeting and see how we can get along. He didn't say, come on in, don't worry, my sheep won't hurt you. He didn't say, Come on in and teach us what you know, and then we'll teach you what we know Let's learn from each other I don't work we learn from where God we learn from the one that brings us into all truth the Holy Spirit We don't need some false teacher to come in there and teach us something he knows Now he said you are up to no good and he got the rod and he beat the living daylights out of the bear in the line Yeah, he he just when you When you know something up to no good, you don't mess with it. When something's false doctrine, don't mess with it. You put it out. That's what proper doctrine will do to a church. It will help the shepherd protect it. When the church knows proper doctrine, proper doctrine will give the church a backbone and a foundation to stand on. And when the pastor says, we need to take care of this problem, the church will stand behind him because they know proper doctrine. Proper doctrine will give a church a love of truth and a hatred for error. If you love the truth, you will hate error. If you love flowers, you hate weeds. If you love the vegetables you eat, you will hate weeds. If you ever hope to get a harvest, you do more than just sow the seed. You go out there and you hose the weeds. These people that want to just get along with everything say forget the non-essentials. The only thing that matters is going out here preaching the gospel and getting people saved. That's very important. But you've got to teach Christians after they're saved. These people don't want to just throw the seed and let it be. You do that with your garden and all you're going to have is a bunch of weeds. You're not going to have much of a harvest. And that's what the proper Bible doctrine does for the Christian. It hosts his weeds. It prevents and corrects his errors. This is for us, by the way, and not just for the preacher. We're reading Titus chapter 2 verse 1 through 8. Titus chapter 2 verse 1 through 8. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the age of men be sober, brave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers of home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise, exhort to be sober-minded, in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing uncorruptedness, gravity, sincerity. Sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you." Now there Paul's writing to Titus, the pastor of a church, and telling him, you teach a Sound doctrine so that they will teach the people under them, the people coming up behind them. Sound doctrine. It's not just for the preacher himself to teach. Once you know it, you're supposed to teach it. Once you know it, you're supposed to teach those coming up behind you. You're supposed to teach your own children, your grandchildren, the children growing up in the church. You don't have to have a position to be a good teacher of doctrine in the church. You don't have to be the pastor. This is for everyone. Everyone needs to know doctrine, and then everyone needs to pass it on. A true church will put Baptists out there on their sign, and it should mean that we follow certain doctrines. If a church does not have enough backbone to put what they are on the sign, I don't expect them to stand for much. And also, that is an open invitation to wolves and those who speak perverse things as followers. If you ain't got enough backbone to put what you are on your sign out there, then you just telling the wolves to come right on in. You just telling those that believe anything and everything, come on on in. We'll get along with you. Because we ain't going to stand for no doctor. That is the day in which we live though. Most churches that start today are non-denominational. Now they're even Not just leaving a denomination off their sign, they're leaving the word church off their sign. They call it fellowship assemblies or fellowship stuff like that. But 90% of non-denominational churches will have Pentecostal holiness beliefs in them. Most of the time they will. That's charismatic beliefs or something even worse. They're just messed up. And most of them are looking for signs, wonders, dreams, and visions, unknown tongues, and so on. They're not looking to the Bible for how God wants us to do. They're looking for the next new thing. The next new thing that will draw the crowd in. That's all they're interested in. Well, God ain't more interested in drawing the worldly crowd into His church. He wants the church to get godly and show the world something different. The church is to be peculiar. The church is to be something different. It's not to be worldly and bring the world into it. Now all that stuff is confusion and God is not the author of it. A true church will stand for something and let others know what it is. You'll let others know what you're standing for. If you're a Baptist church, you should stand on Baptist doctrines. Not all Baptist churches do. A lot of them don't. They might have Baptist, not just because they've got Baptist on the sign don't make them right, but it should. If you're a Baptist church you should stand on Baptist doctrines, should stand on biblical doctrines. Not only does a failure to teach and preach proper doctrine and stand against false doctrine hinder Christian growth and endanger the church, it also angers Jesus Christ our Lord. In Revelations chapter 2, Revelation chapter 2 verse 12 through 17. And the angel of the church of Pergamus write, These things saith he which hath a sharp sword with two edges. I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. And thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr. who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against him with the sword of my mouth. He that hath ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it." Jesus is born in the church of Pergamos, and you see here that they allowed false doctrines in their church. He said a few things he had done and then he said, but I have a few things against thee. The doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of Nicolaitans. Jesus here tells the church that has a loud false doctrine in it and has failed to stand against them. He tells them to repent or else or I will come to thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Jesus said he will fight them right in the church house. He said he's going to come to them and fight them. And he's saying he will use a sword against them. He's going to use a Bible. He's going to use a rod. And so what does a sword do? What do you think a sword does? It cuts, it divides, it wounds, and it even kills. Jesus is saying it would be better for his cause It would be better for those who will do right for this church to split wide open, or even be dead and gone, than to allow false doctrine to be taught in it. He's saying you need to get that false doctrine out of there, you need to stand against it. Or if you go on in that, then he'll let them die. He'll come against them. Those who are going to do right will come out of it. Or take over at once. One of the two. They're going to stand up and do what's right. or it's going to be, you know, he's going to fight against it to the death. I mean, he ain't going to let a false church go on, you know, in his name. One of these days it will be seen to be a false church. If it's claiming his name, it's going to have to do right or he's going to come against it. A true church not only has a love for Christ, if you love Christ, you'll stand against false doctrine. It has a love for lost souls. If you love lost souls, you're going to stand against a false doctrine that allows them to go on to a devil's hell comfortably in their sin or in their false religion. That's why a lot of people don't want to talk about doctrines because they want to be comfortable in the wrong. And a lot of times that wrong leads them straight to hell. If you go out here and you witness and you knock on doors, and you knock on these doors and people say, well, I've always been saved or I was saved as a baby. I was saved before the foundations of the world. You don't get saved that way. You get saved by hearing the word of God. You get saved by the Holy Spirit bringing conviction to you. You remember that day that the Holy Spirit brought conviction to you. That's a day you'll remember. That's a testimony that you'll tell somebody that how you got saved is the day that the Holy Spirit brought conviction to your heart. You realize your need for a Savior. And you accepted, trusted Christ and Him alone. You ain't putting your trust in a baptism. You ain't putting your trust in church membership. You're not putting your trust in anything but the finished work of Jesus Christ. That's how you get saved. And that's what the church needs to go out and tell people. Don't let them be comfortable in their baby baptism and they're on their way to hell. You know, true church will love lost souls and it will also have love for one for another. 1334, a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. John 1335, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another. 1 John 4.11, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. And there are many more verses that speak about us loving one another. Now how can we honestly say I love you but I do not care if you believe false doctrine? How can we honestly say I love you and you will be fine in the era that you believe? That's just a flat out lie. Would you believe a parent that loved his child and really loved their child if they were constantly allowing them to go out and play in the road? Would you believe that a parent really loved their child and gave them poisonous snakes to play with? Of course the answer would be no. There's no way. So why then does the religious crowd want us to believe they love one another or they love anyone but themselves when they tell us not to say anything against their and they want us to be all friends with one another. Being friends don't mean you love one another. Telling somebody the truth means you love somebody. You don't really love somebody if you won't tell them the truth. If you just want to be friends with everybody, that's why I want everybody to like me so I'm not going to cause no trouble. I'm not going to stand on the truth. I'm not going to give anybody any reason to be mad at me. That's loving yourself. That's not loving somebody else. That's not loving that person who needs to hear the truth. That's loving your own wicked self. It's like them spiritually saying, Let them play in the road and enjoy it. They enjoy it. Just let them play in the road. That's where they want to play. It's like them saying, let them play with the poison sticks. It will upset them if we take them away from them. That's what they're saying spiritually. If they're telling us not to get doctrine into it, not to stand on Bible doctrine, then they're telling us, you know, you just let them play in the road. Let them play with poison. It'll be alright because that's what they want to do. Well, sinners like sin. Sin is pleasurable for a season. There's pleasure in sin for a season. And the world likes it. The flesh likes it. And if we can let people continue on that route, then they'll go to devil's hell with their blood on our hands because we failed to tell the truth. We need the desire to be like Paul. Paul said he was pure from the blood of all men. The true church should be pure from the blood of all men. We should tell not only those we meet, there should be enough true Bible doctrine taught in the churches that the people in the churches are going out telling people how to get saved, that they need to be saved, plus they're helping the disciples and young Christians. And those new Christians, whether they go to this church or not, are out telling people how to get saved. So that cleanses your hands from the blood of more people than you'll ever meet. But if you don't do that correctly, then the blood of those people are on your hands. You haven't warned people correctly according to the Bible. Don't think that false doctrine is alright. Don't let people play in it. and say, you'll be alright. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5.6, your doing is not good, know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. A little false doctrine will leaven the whole lump. A little false doctrine will ruin a whole church. If you allow it to go on, it will ruin it. And then Galatians 5.9 says, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. The Holy Spirit gave us the Bible to teach us right, godly doctrine. He will lead us into all truth. The true church will stand on it and teach it. It will also stand against false doctrine, no matter who it may offend. We must set out to please only God, and if we please Him, then we have done well no matter who gets mad about it. The true church ain't out here to please this whole world. The true church is out here to please God, and to do so, you must learn Bible doctrine, you must teach Bible doctrine, you must stand on Bible doctrine. The mark of a true church is the doctrine it follows, and it must be biblical, and it also must stand against false doctrine, unbiblical doctrine. There are so many false doctrines growing in our world today. There are churches in this county that have pastors who have graduated seminaries and these seminaries have taught them Calvinism and these churches are going into Calvinism. I don't understand. I don't understand how people can go into something after they've sat in a church and they've heard the truth and then they go into Calvinism. But they do. They do it every day. And it's happening more and more in our county because It's something rapidly growing. But the Bible did warn us that the apostasy would come, and that's part of it. False doctrine is the apostasy. All these false doctrines will allow other false doctrines to be taught. Calvinism lends itself to anything. If God's at fault for everything, then what's the matter what you're taught in church? God allowed it. God didn't just allow it. He didn't just allow it. He come up with it. He made it happen. So God ain't behind all that. That ain't God. The church needs to stand against it. The church needs to know what you believe. Be able to teach what you believe.