You got your Bible there in Deuteronomy chapter 6. I want to call your attention to some verses here. I'm not going to read every verse in this passage. We're going to skip down after one verse. It's not because those verses are not important. It's just because I know me. And I know that there's only so much I can get through, okay? And I'm not a gifted 20-30 minute preacher. I saw Jerry Savinsky listed in the guest book over there at the room, and I said, oh boy, I didn't even need to see that. That guy has got a gift, I'll tell you. I don't know how he does what he does. But I'm not that guy, and so I know I need to try to stay as focused as I can. But I'm going to start in verse 12. I want you to notice the Bible says here, Then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. If you'll come down with me to verse 17. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and His testimonies and His statutes. which He hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the Lord hath spoken. And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Then shalt thou say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. He brought us out from thence that he might bring us in, to give us the land which He sware unto our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all of these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always, that He might preserve us alive as it is this day. And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as He hath commanded us. Let's ask for the Lord's help today. Now Father, You know how much We all need you here today, and you know how much I need you. Lord, I want to share something today from your word that will be a help, that will be a challenge to these students. Lord, the older I get, the more I recognize how important they are, how much we need them. And we need them not just to be there, and not just to be in their place, but we need them to have your power on them in a unique way because we stand in a unique hour. Lord, I pray that you'll bless them today and help them and may something we say here today be used to help them in their preparation and in their future ministry that they might bring glory to you. Lord, I pray that it also might impact their current walk. For if we do not learn to be good Christians, then we cannot learn to be good servants of yours. And I pray you'll help us today. And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, like I do, that Deuteronomy is a unique book within the Pentateuch because they're at the doorstep readying to go into the land and a generation has passed off the scene since God gave Moses the law on Mount Sinai. A new generation of people that didn't cross the Red Sea. that didn't see the plagues on Egypt themselves. They've just heard some things here and there about it from their elders, from their parents and grandparents. They're going to be going into the land and I find it interesting that it says in verse 20, in time to come, when your son asks you, what mean the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Right there I think you see a foreshadowing of why Deuteronomy was so important. The name of the book tells us what its purpose is. It is a second law giving. It is Moses writing down again things that have already been written in other books of the law. But that this generation needs written down for them, and they need to be reminded as they get ready to go into the land what God said, what His laws are, and what He says He will do if they keep that law and honor Him, and what He will do if they ignore His law and dishonor Him. And these things needed to be written down and it is a refreshing of the law to this generation whose families have fallen in the wilderness and now they are about to go into the land. And they are reminded of all of the things. You see, Moses is not going to go into the land with them. Joshua will take them in, but the man who went up to Sinai, the man who was in the upper part of the mountain, and the Lord, all of the awesome scene that you see there that took place on that mountain that was so imposing and so intimidating that the people didn't want to go near it, and they just assumed when Moses didn't come down in a timely manner that he must have died up there. That Moses, He's not going into the land with them. They were going to need to be reminded of some things. And He says when your son asks you what these statutes and what these testimonies and these judgments, what do these things mean? He says there's some things that you need to relay to them. There's some things that we need to be reminded of. some things that we remember in our own lives and that we pass on to those who follow us. I'm 52 years of age now, and I'm standing very tediously, I might add, between two generations. I'm not an old man, but I'm now an older man. I'm too young to be young, I'm too old to be young, and I'm too young to be old. And I can see those that have gone before me and the things that they shared with me. And I can see those that are coming behind me. And by the way, at our church, brother, the senior saints ministry begins at 55 right now. We're going to change that in a few years. We're going to bump that up to 60. I'm not going there yet. But in any case, we got some things that have been passed down to us that are being passed down to us and that we need to pass on to others because it is just a human tendency over time to forget. To take things that matter and relegate them to insignificant. To take things that are important and let them be lost in the haze of time. And we're seeing that happen before our eyes today. Today I want to preach you a message whose title will rise from our text in verse 6 when he reminds us here to beware, to be careful, I should say in verse 12, chapter 6 and verse 12. Then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt. I want to speak to you today on the subject, beware lest you forget. Beware lest you forget. And I want to assure you today that I understand the difference between the New Testament and the Old Testament. And I understand the difference between them living under the law and us being freed from the law. And by the way, I'm excited about that. Freed from the law, oh happy condition. Jesus has bled and there is remission. Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall. Christ hath redeemed us once for all. I'm happy about that. I'm glad to be a New Testament pastor, not an Old Testament priest, amen. I'm happy about what God's called me to do. The law was hard and difficult in many ways. And I understand that we need to be careful and that we need to understand what the law is and what its purpose is. But I also want you to understand that Romans chapter 15 and verse 4 tells us that the Old Testament scriptures were written for our learning. And there are some principles here that we need to be reminded of. I don't understand some of the things I hear coming out of some quote-unquote rock star preachers today that want to say things like don't preach from the Old Testament, preach from the New Testament. You know, that what your people need is in the New Testament. They basically just want to throw 39 books of their Bible away. I don't understand that. It's all for our learning. Amen? Today I want you to understand that there are some things here that we can learn that will help us to make sure that we don't forget some things that need to be remembered. We'll see three distinct truths today that we need to be careful about and that we do not forget and that we pass on to those who follow us lest they forget. First of all, I want you to notice that he talks about their sinful past by type, if you will. And I'll explain what I mean by that in just a moment. He said, this is what I want you to say when they say, what mean these things? What does this law mean to us? And he says in verse 21, Then shalt thou say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt and upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. You know that Egypt is a type of sin, and it reminds us of the bondage that comes with sin. Since the days of Joseph, the Jewish people had been there in the upper part of Egypt there, in Goshen, and they had been made slaves, and they were building the treasure cities of Pharaoh. And as they labored under such terrible conditions and were abused, their cry rose up before the Lord, and He raised up Moses to go back to Egypt and to lead them out. But make no mistake about it, it was not Moses who brought them out, it was not Moses who brought the plagues, and it was not Moses who divided the Red Sea. God did all of that. God showed himself so mighty that he allowed a pillar of cloud to stand between Pharaoh's army and Moses and his people so that it was darkness to Pharaoh but light to them as they crossed. Only God can do that. He brought them out. But there is a picture here for us as New Testament believers understanding that Egypt is a type of sin and the bondage that comes with sin. And that we need to remember that there's a sinful past that God saved us out of. God's been good to us. And Egypt was different in many ways than where it was that they were headed. I want you to notice that there was a different situation. We see some interesting words here. It says, We were Pharaoh's bondmen. They were slaves. They were in bondage. We are reminded today that sin is a cruel taskmaster. It promises what it cannot and has no intention of delivering. It'll raise your hopes. It'll get you excited. Then it'll chew you up, grind you down, and leave you holding the bag of refuse in your life. Sin's no bargain. Never has been, never will be. You say, well, preacher, you're in a Bible college today, and we got a rule book that's almost as thick as our Bible. And you're going to talk to us about sin? Oh, yeah. Yeah, sin's a very real thing. Sin happens in our flesh, and sin happens in our heart. You see, a lot of those people came out of Egypt, but they brought Egypt attitudes with them. And those Egypt attitudes kept surfacing out in the wilderness. And God kept having to deal with them. So many of the stories that we know about those wilderness years revolve around the periods of faithlessness and disobedience on the part of the people all the way up to, right up to Kadesh Barnea when they turned back in their unbelief and God sent them out and they spent 40 years Now a whole generation had to die because a lot of people came out of Egypt, but they still brought some Egypt attitudes with them. You can be in Bible college and have a rule book that's so thick that you're like, man, I don't even have an opportunity to sin in certain ways. By the way, that's not a bad thing. And I want you to understand this, you can have a rule book that keeps you out of certain amounts of trouble as far as actually doing what might be in your heart, but you can come out of Egypt and have an Egypt attitude with you. It's the case in every Bible college and it's the case in every generation of Bible college students that there are some that are there because their hearts are hot for the Lord and they want to be used of God and they're trying their best to hone their gifts and to increase their walk with God. And then there's always going to be some that they got to the Bible college but they got there for a different reason. And then it may be that some get to the Bible college and once they get there some things start to change. They're away from mom and dad for the first time, and life is changing, and they've got decisions to make that they didn't make before. However we get there, when Egypt's attitudes start creeping in, we are in trouble. We're in trouble. And just being at a Bible college doesn't insulate you from that. I would know. I went to school. You know what? I have flesh. And I had to battle those things just like I do today and just like the people that I pastor do today. Don't ever let your guard down and think that just because the Lord brought you out of Egypt that you're good. No, Egypt's attitudes can surface in your heart at any time and when they do, it'll start you down a path and you'll wind up acting like an Egyptian if you're not careful. Even though God brought you out of there. It was a different situation. It's a type of sin. And in Egypt, sin abounded. It was a pagan society. It was a different situation and a different location. I want you to understand that the generation following is always at risk of failing to understand the dangers of Egypt because they've not seen it up close. They've heard the warnings and they've been told, but they've not seen it. Maybe you came up like I did. I don't know. Everybody here's got a different story. But I grew up in church. I'm not a pastor's son, but I grew up in church. My parents had gotten saved, my dad specifically had gotten saved either right before or shortly after I was born. I'm a little fuzzy on the detail on that, on that part of it, about the exact timing. But let's just say that I was almost or just barely here when dad got saved. And they started into church and then the Lord did a lot of great things in their life. And I mean, I went, I was in the church nursery like right away. I've never known a time in my life of being out of church. It's foreign to me. I struggle with it. I don't understand when I have people that I pastor that go through periods of difficulty for one reason or another and things start going awry in their life and all of a sudden I don't see them and I don't see them for weeks and then sometimes it becomes months. It's hard for me to relate to just because I've never been there. I don't know what that's like. I can't imagine that. Does it sound familiar to some of you? Because let's just be honest, it didn't matter whether you wanted to go to church, you may have grown up in a home like I did, that it was just, it wasn't a question of whether you were going to church, it was a question of how much you were going to suffer on the way there. You either get up and go and do it with a good attitude or nobody's going to enjoy the trip. And you'll be the one that's the worst for it. I went from, I grew up in Christian schools. I spent two years of my education in a public school, in a public high school, and then went back and graduated from the Christian school that I was at when I was younger. All my education was in Christian schools. I left Christian school and graduated and went off to Bible college. And I never, I didn't have the same Egypt experience that some had. Now look, I was a sinner and there's no doubt about it. There was some rotten junk in my heart and some rotten stuff that I did. But I was one of them sneaky Christian school kids. Everybody didn't see the mess that I did. Now some of y'all are identifying with me, right? You know what I'm talking about. You might look better than everybody else, but you're not better than everybody else. And I never was out in that Egyptian culture, if you will, the way I've heard some other folks talk about it. And sometimes if we've not been there, we think we can play with things that are very, very dangerous, and we think we'll get by. We think we'll take fire into our bosom and not be burned. We think we can play with the snake and not get bit. But those that have had the full Egypt experience know what it's about. I'll just be honest with you. I'm one of the old heads now, so I'm just going to go ahead and level with you. I don't have any patience with this crowd today. This sniveling, snot-nosed crowd that run around, Oh, I grew up in this strict, conservative, Christian home. And I missed out on everything, and it was so restricting. It was so binding. It was so legalistic. Cry me a river. Your family kept you out of Egypt. And you can get online and find your little recovering fundamentalist groups and let them stroke your little snowflake attitude about it. But the simple fact of the matter is, I grew up in a strict Christian home. I grew up under rules that some of y'all would say, what in the world? Were you in a monastery? What in the world? What kind of existence was that? I grew up under some strict rules. And I'm going to tell you what, I thank God for it. I'm glad I didn't get the whole Egypt experience that I could have. If God blessed you with that, you need to leave Egypt attitudes behind and understand that there's some things in this life you're better off not knowing, you're better off not experiencing. Thank God you missed some stuff. That Egypt experience is not what it's cracked up to be. But to one degree or another, God brought us all out of Egypt because we're all sinners. And we don't ever want a glory in the sin of the past. We don't ever want to make a show of it or make a spectacle of it or talk about it as if we long to go back to it or something like that. No, we don't ever want to do that. But we better not forget what the Lord brought us out of because if we do, we might be tempted to return. If we forget the misery and what it was like to lie on our bed at night and not know if we woke up, if we didn't wake up here, where we would wake up, or scared that we did know where we'd wake up. We might be tempted to return. And we need to remember where the Lord brought us out of so that we can help those who come behind us. come out of that and to be warned and to know that Egypt is dangerous and Egypt is destructive. So we see our sinful past. This passage also reminds me of the salvation of our soul. I want you to notice that not only is the picture of us being in Egypt and being in bondage, but notice if you will, the latter half of verse 21. He said, The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. Thank God for grace. Amen. I didn't bring me out. He brought me out. Moses didn't bring the plagues. God brought the plagues. Moses didn't part the sea. They didn't build a land bridge. They didn't bail water. They didn't figure out, they didn't engineer their way through this. God split the sea. He parted the waters. And they stood at attention as God's people went across on dry land. Then He destroyed the armies of Pharaoh with the same waters that He had just delivered them through. I'm telling you, I thank God today for salvation in Jesus Christ. I mentioned my dad getting saved. And the Lord called, when the Lord saves us, he calls us out, calls us out of Egypt, calls us to a different life. My dad was, his parents were both dead by the time he was, I believe, 11 years old. And he just sort of got jerked up from there. He didn't really get reared from there. He went into the home of his sister, who was much older than him, had never lived in the same house as him. She had children his age. And Dad always, I think, kind of felt like the fifth wheel. And Dad spent as many nights on the riverbank during the summertime probably as he did at home, running around with his friends, getting into trouble. He was kind of the, he would have told you, he was kind of, him and his buddies, they were kind of the riffraff in town. He eventually got married to my mom, and mom was saved, but she had really never been discipled, and she really didn't know how to live for the Lord or all that she was supposed to be doing. She had not really come up that way, and so she was saved, but she still had so much to learn. She was married to an unsaved husband, and he worked on Sundays. He ran a service station back then when service stations were service stations. And he was doing that on Sunday. And mom, they only have one car. Mom would ride the church bus sometimes to church on Sunday and go to Sunday school, go to service. And because of that, an independent Baptist church in my town, Central Baptist Church, Greenville, Tennessee, found out who they were. And they did what soul winning churches started doing. They came and they started aggravating dad. You know what I mean when I say that. And I mean, it got to the point that when headlights showed up in the driveway on Thursday night, dad got up and went to the bedroom. Mom said, he left me out there to face the music. And they came over and over and over again. And dad wouldn't listen, dad wouldn't hear. But there came a time when God started working on dad's heart. And back in those days, we're talking early 70s. Back then they would televise Billy Graham crusades on TV. Don't get excited. I know that he messed up in a lot of ways. I get it. But the man did have an ability to preach a gospel message. And my dad sat every night that week watching those sermons. God began to chip away at that old hard heart. Unbeknownst to him over on the highway, you could see the church from the house I grew up in. There was a little independent Baptist church. I never knew much about that little church. Green Lawn Baptist Church was the name of it. And there was a pastor there and he had just heard about soul winning. He had gone to a conference and he had learned a little bit about soul when he was trying to get soul winning started in his church. And he came on a Thursday night and nobody showed up. Nobody came. He was discouraged. He was down. He said, Lord, I'm gonna go in this neighborhood right behind my church here. And I really need I really need a chance to tell somebody about Jesus tonight. I'm discouraged. I'm just going to go to the first house that I find the front porch light on. I'm going to knock on the door and I really wish you'd give me a chance to tell somebody about Jesus tonight. Now I'll just tell you in the home I grew up in the front porch light was never on because we didn't use the front door. We've often said it's kind of interesting that the front porch light was on that night and nobody will admit to turning it on. But it was on. That pastor from that little church came up there and he knocked on that door. And that night my dad didn't go to the back bedroom. He stayed out there and he heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and he got saved. And God brought him out of Egypt. And I got to grow up in a home with a man who knew what Egypt was like, but knew that God had brought him out. He calls us out. He doesn't save us to stay in the mess of Egypt. He calls us out of it, and he changes our lives. He calls us out, and he changes our lives. My dad went to church that first Sunday. Mom knew a little bit more about church. He said, what am I supposed to do now? She says, we need to get baptized. She said, okay, we'll get baptized. He said, what else do we need to do? She said, well, you're going to start tithing your income. What's that? Ten percent? My dad's first Sunday after getting saved, he went to church, he went forward and professed faith in Christ, went and got baptized and put his tithe in the offering plate. He didn't know it was supposed to take time to grow into all that. He just did it. And the Lord saved him, and He changed him, and it changed our family. And I'm going to tell you, the reason I never struggled with tithing is because I grew up in the house of a man who said, son, we don't need any of God's money in our house. You give God what belongs to Him. And he said, don't be cheap. You mow that yard for eight bucks, don't you give him 80 cents. Give him a dollar. Don't you be cheap with God. He taught me that from a very early age. He passed some things on. But I just want to say this to you before we move on today. We need to learn to rejoice in our salvation. I get around some Christians and they tell me they're saving. I'm like, really? I walk up to people, I never have understood this. I say, I'll talk to Christians. Sometimes people that I pastor, hey, how you doing? Well, you know, good. I don't know where I picked that up. I picked that up somewhere in Alabama when I was over there. Well, you know, good. He'll look at me and say, I don't know nothing good. I'm like, what is wrong with you? Hell, you missed it. Good thing. I tell our people every Thanksgiving, if you don't have a thing else to quickly thank God for, you ought to start every time you think about Thanksgiving, thanking Jesus Christ that your sorry soul is not burning in hell today. Hallelujah for salvation. Don't get over it. I listened to Brother Dwight last night singing, I never lost the wonder of it all. One of those old CDs and I called it up on YouTube. Thank the Lord for salvation that is rich and that is free. Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation. Lowly upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. We stood there. on Mount Carmel and I looked down across that Kidron, not Mount Carmel. Mount of Olives. And I looked down across that Kidron Valley over to Jerusalem, and I couldn't help but think about Him coming down that hill, the One who has salvation, and He says, Rejoice! Hey friend, rejoice that you were brought out of Egypt. Don't look back in Egypt and wish that you had what they've got. Don't wish that you could have the leeks and the garlic. Rejoice over your salvation and thank God that He brought you out and that He changed you. We're never going to reach the world with a depressing Christianity. We're never going to reach the world with long-faced Christians that walk into church looking like they've lost their last friend. I mean, if it doesn't do something for you that makes you look a little different than they look, Egypt's going to say, well, we'll just stay where we're at. That's a long trip, it sounds like. Rejoice in that salvation, the sinful past and the salvation of our souls. And I want you to notice lastly, and I only have a few minutes left, but this is really what this journey has been all about today that I want to share with you before we finish today. Notice verse 23, and he brought us out from thence that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swear unto our fathers. Friend, he brought us out so that he could bring us in. Egypt is a type of the world, Going into the promised land is a type of living the victorious Christian life. Possessing our possessions. Becoming who God wanted us to be all along. Living the life of victory that God has saved us to live. He didn't just save you to take you to heaven. He saved you to live a victorious life here. I want you to notice two quick principles about that victorious life. Victorious living is living. in the presence of God. Notice verse 23 says, He brought us out from thence that He might bring us in to give us the land where He sware to our fathers. Notice verse 24, And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God. We are living in a day of an absence of the fear of God. The fear of God is gone in our culture. I'm telling you, I hear people say things nowadays that just when it comes out of their lips, it just I'm just I'm appalled and I don't even want to stand near him. I'm thinking the fire is going to fall. It's got to just any time now. It's just remarkable. I'm amazed, though, at the lack of fear of God. Among God's people. You may know some of my friends that from my hometown, Brother T.L. Jones. He's a graduate here that preaches here sometimes. He's from my home church. Pastor Finley Cutshaw from over at Eastside Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He's a dear friend of mine as well. And Brother Finley said something one time that I never forgot. He didn't grow up the way I did. We were at the same church but only briefly because he got saved after high school. He got saved later. I was already gone to Bible college when he got saved. And so he didn't grow up the way I did. He didn't come up in a Christian family. And I'll never forget, Finley said one day in a moment of exasperation, he said, that's the problem with all you guys that grew up in Christian schools. You don't take anything seriously. You know what he was saying? He said, there are some things that are precious that matter to me and I don't understand why they don't matter to some of you guys. You know what he was saying? When the Lord brought me out of Egypt, I gained a fear of the Lord. And he was saying, some of you guys need that. Some of you need that. Oh yes, I know God is love. Please, I do. Our theme this year at our church is all things with love. From 1 Corinthians, from Romans chapter 12 verse 16. Thank the Lord for love. But look, there needs to be a healthy reverential fear of the Lord. In Psalm 19, 9, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous all together. Psalm 34, 11, come you children, hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Psalm 111 in verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. Have all they that do his commandments, his praise endureth forever. And I could go on to Proverbs and list you 14 times in Proverbs alone that the phrase the fear of the Lord appears. And yet everything's a joke to us nowadays. Nothing really matters. The truth of the word of God confronts us and we say things like, well, you know, I just feel like. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that as a pastor. Well, I know, Pastor, but I just feel like. And what you and I feel like doesn't matter, friend. If we're so caught up in what I feel like that I have forgotten the fear of the Lord because I'm not going to stand before me and I'm not going to stand before anybody like me. I'm going to stand before the holy God of heaven and the fiery eyes of the holiness of Jesus Christ is going to try my works and I ought to take that seriously. There ought to be some fear of God in our lives once again. I want you to notice also that victorious Christian living is obedience to the precepts of the Word of God. Not just living in the presence of God, but living in obedience to the precepts of the Word of God. Ecclesiastes 12, 13 says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. We just talked about fearing God, but he also says there in verse 24, the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes. He says, these things matter. And I want you to notice that's been a consistent theme. If you go back to verse 17, you shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded thee. Verse 20, he says, he talked about the statutes and the testimonies and the judgments that the son would ask about. He told us here that he commanded us to do these statutes in verse 24 and in verse 25, And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He hath commanded us. And yet I live in a day when modern Christianity is saying, Oh, all those do's and don'ts. I'm free. I'm free. Yes, I understand this is Old Testament. Yes, I understand this is the law. But do you understand that so many of the commandments of the Old Testament are reaffirmed in the New Testament, and some of them are said in even more strident terms? Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, you heard it said of old time, I shall not commit adultery, but I say unto you, if a man look on a woman the lust after her in his heart, he's already committed adultery with her in his heart. That's not a lesser standard, that's a greater standard. And we have got to get back to a place where we understand that this book is to be obeyed. These are not suggestions to live your best life. These are orders from headquarters. And could I say this to you? God hasn't changed His mind. I know it's 2023. God hasn't changed His mind. I was born in 1970, grew up, came of age in the 80s. Came here in 1990, graduated in 95. And the Bible still means the same thing then now as it did then. And I got a lot of people that I went to school with that don't think so. Can I just in the couple minutes I have left just bare my heart to you about some things that I see changing among our fundamental independent Baptist churches and among those that are being called to lead them nowadays. And by the way, they're not all young people. Some of them are my age. But they forgot. Beware lest you forget. They forgot about some of the commandments, the statutes and the testimonies. Friend, while you're here, you settle in your heart where the Word of God is. And you figure it out. And when you do, you close that up and you go forward and you stand on the truth of God's Word. I do not understand people going to Bible college and then getting out of Bible college and trying to figure out where the Word of God is. I talked to a preacher years ago. He's in heaven now, but I talked to him years ago and he sat on the platform of a Bible college. If I called the name of it, many of you would know where it is. And he asked a question about their position on the textual issue, sitting on the platform about to preach in their chapel. And this was a number of years ago. and the president was not on the platform yet, but when the president got to the platform, the guy who was sitting next to the guest preacher said, Brother, so-and-so just asked the $64,000 question, and he phrased whatever question it was that he asked about the textual issue, and the guy looked at him, and the clock was just about to tick, and the last prelude song was finishing up, and he just looked at him and said, We don't know where the Word of God is. And just blase, just got up and started the service after that. And that's an independent Baptist institution that's supposed to be training the people that are going to lead us in the future. And we don't even know where the Word of God is. You know what? I don't read every new book about textual criticism that comes out. I don't spend my time debating the textual issue and the Bible version issue with a bunch of people. You know why? Because I settled it a long time ago. This is the Word of God. And you can guess about that and question what that might mean or what it might not mean if you want to. But let me just tell you, I don't have any qualms about it. I'm standing here preaching the Word of God today. And I feel sorry for preachers that I went to school with that can't say that anymore. They're not sure where it's at. You need to settle the issue of alcohol, friend. I'm having such a hard time with my young couples, my young families nowadays. I pastor in a military town and they're coming in and they've got all of these permissive attitudes about alcohol and they think as long as they just don't get fallen down drunk that they're okay. And here's the problem. The problem is that they've been to a church somewhere where a pastor has taught that to them. That's the problem I'm having. I can't believe how badly Christians want to drink today. If I had time, I don't. If I had time, I could tell you a story about the night that God sealed that for me, and to this day, I've not had a drop of it. Now, I've had a lot of other problems in my life, a lot of other sin, but I'm just going to tell you what. I got no patience with it, and you better settle what you believe on it and drive a stake down and not compromise. I never thought I'd see the day, Brother Luke. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd have to interview a deacon nominee at my church and get him to sign a piece of paper that says, I don't drink alcohol. I know that sounds very legalistic. But I have to do that because if I don't I'm going to wind up with a mess. Modesty. Feel that? Just the mention of the word. You say the word modesty nowadays and you are all of a sudden a legalistic ancient relic who is also a defender of people that have been abused or that have abused others. No friend, that's ridiculous. You know where I first read the word modest? In the Bible. Perish the thought in the New Testament. I read that word. Now look, I understand that some of those things are prickly pears, and you may not draw your lines exactly in the same place I draw them, but you better draw some. And you better have some biblical principle behind why you draw it. Because guess what? If you're not married yet, if you don't have children yet, one of these days you're going to. And if the people in church who want you to change your position don't get next to you, your little girl just might. And if you don't know what you believe and why you believe it, and you've not got it settled with the fear of God behind it, you'll start changing some stuff. Entertainment. We're overwhelmed with it. We're the entertainment society. We're flooded with it. It's constant. Devices, phones, it's all there. Don't get nervous. I got mine. But we're constantly fed diets of entertainment. Social media. has given us access to so much stuff. I'll never forget when I was in Bible college, I had two statements that were made that I never forgot about entertainment. And I can't remember the men that said them. One said, the worst thing about television is that it presents life without God as perfectly normal. The second one was another guy said, you'll never be offended by what the devil gets you to laugh at. And he was talking about the fact that at that time there was a homosexual character that was made fun of in a whole lot of TV shows. Well, now they're not made fun of. Now they're praised. You know why? Because we're not offended by what we laugh at. And excuse me, but you can sit there through so on social media and scroll through video after video after video. And if you're not careful, the devil will get you to laugh at that, that you should be abhorred by. There's a lot more we could say. Doctrine. Guys that I went to school with are full-blown Calvinists. Messing and charismatic theology. And I'm thinking, how in the world did that happen? How in the world did that happen? You see, if you're not careful, you'll get out there and you'll forget some things. And in your desire for success, in your desire for numbers, you'll start compromising some things. And that compromise will no no end and will eventually even get into your theology. Here's the simple fact today. Statistics, not a fact. I'm just going to say statistically speaking, statistically speaking, sitting in this room this morning are some guys that will eventually become Calvinists. I pray not. I pray God not. But statistically speaking, there's some guys that'll go that route. There are some people who will forsake the Bible that they always loved and say that it's got problems, it's messed up, we need a new one. Statistically speaking. How's that going to happen? You're going to have to forget some things. You're gonna have to put some things out of your mind. I wanna encourage you, while you're here, get some things settled in your life, drive down some deep stakes, and don't forget the statutes, the commandments, the testimonies. They are what you will ultimately be judged by. Not the size of your church, not how many followers you've got, and not how many likes you get. Beware, lest you forget. Father, thank you for our time today. You know, there's so much more we could say, but I pray enough has been said that we understand the importance of this. I pray you'd speak to hearts and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.