Word turned to Acts, chapter 2. I hope everyone has a copy of God's Word with them today. This is not the words of man, it's the words of God. You want direction for your life. You want to know the truth. You want to read something that you can put your faith and confidence in, that you know it's solid, reliable. Something that you can really put your faith and know that it's true. It's the Word of God. And Acts chapter 2, again reading in verse 42, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs which were done by the apostles, and all that believed were together and had all things common. and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they continued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. Verse 42, it says, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. I want to speak about doctrine this morning and the importance of the what the Word of God has to say about doctrine. May we look to the Lord in prayer. O gracious Father, as we bow in Thy presence, we pray that You will bless us as we read Thy Word. May You open up our hearts, open up our minds to receive the ungranted Word which is able to save our souls. We thank You, Lord, for all Your blessings. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Beloved, we're living in an age of so many false doctrines so many different prophets, so many different teachings, so many different denominations, so many different churches, so many different beliefs. I plead with Mount Zion to stay in this book, stay in the Word of God. If we, Brother Roger, Brother Dave and myself, do not preach the Word of God, do not believe it, you are to put your confidence in God, not in man. We're to preach the truth. Paul told Timothy, preach the word. Preach the word. In season and out of season. So when we preach to you, we should be preaching the word of the living God. And this is why it's so important because so many today don't believe in the verbal inspiration of God's word. There's so many translations today who have, who reject the King James Version and they have other versions today and they have forsaken the old paths. And so many of these versions have taken out scripture and added scripture and removed the deity of Christ and the blood because they don't want a slaughterhouse religion, they say. Beloved, I believe in the old time religion. The old time. The old past. The word of the living God. And this is why it's so important that we, as God's people, study to show ourselves approved unto God. All of us, especially the ministry, and yet it's your responsibility as believers to be as Bereans, to search the Scriptures daily to see if those things are so. So I want to exhort you this morning to be students of the Word of God. In the book of Jude, which is one chapter, in verse 3 it says, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith. which once was delivered unto the saints." This is talking about objective truth. The Word of God. The Word of God. The teaching. Doctrines means teaching. The teachings of the apostles, the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the Church of God is built on the foundation, it says in the book of Ephesians, of the Lord Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone that brings two walls together, and the apostles and their teachings is what we're to believe and follow. He also says, and Luke makes this comment in Luke 1.1, for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth and order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us. There are some basic things that we believe as believers. I know each individual church may differ in some of the basics, but in reality there are some major things that we all agree on. Acts 2.42, just read that one, and they continually, steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers. 2 Timothy 3.1, there's no also that in the last days, perilous times shall come, and I believe we are in the last days. Look around you. Paul mentions in Now, the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the later times some shall depart from the faith. Again, the faither is talking about objective truth as taught by the apostles and by the Lord Jesus Christ and has been written by inspiration and recorded for our edification and growth in the things of God. But take this warning that in the latter times, some should depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Everyone who's preaching and teaching is not of the Lord. Now, you must understand that and guard yourself. Speaking about, and I don't make no bones about it, Catholicism, it's a very religious organization, but very ungodly. It's ungodly because God's not in it. It's ungodly because they teach a different gospel. And Paul mentions in Galatians, the first chapter, if anyone preach any other gospel than what I've declared unto you, let them be cursed. And beloved, I didn't say this. God said it. Now, I know we're living in an age where we compromise and where we kind of, you know, we don't want to offend anyone, but when it comes to God's Word, we must take a stand. Must. And if you have children that in any way can be influenced by Catholicism, I warn you, in the name of Jesus Christ, stop it. Cut it in the butt because it's of the devil. Anyone who would deny the Lord Jesus Christ and say that his The Lord's Supper, as we call it, symbolic, actually turns into the very blood and body of Jesus Christ, and say that the redemptive work of Christ is conditioned upon sacraments. It's religion. And this is what we're talking about. This is not the apostles' doctrine. The Roman Catholic Church started in 313 A.D., approximately. But going on, there's others. other things which are just as bad as Catholicism. Other things we have to be concerned about is the doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses, who deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Another ungodly group as far as their doctrine. I'm not saying the people are morally evil or wrong, don't get me wrong, but I'm saying the doctrine which these groups teach is contrary to the Apostles' doctrine. contrary to the doctrine of Jesus Christ. And we must take this seriously. What are we to stand on? The Word of God. The Word of God to guard us and protect us. Jesus taught in Matthew 24, verse 11, and many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many. Look around you today. You can see the fulfillment of that prophecy. Of all the false prophets and Jehovah Witnesses, Unitarians, Unitarians also reject the deity of Jesus Christ. They only believe in God the Father. Jesus is only a good man, but not God manifest in the flesh. Beloved, that's going against the apostolic doctrine and the teachings of Christ and the apostles. Paul said in Acts 20, 29, for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. This is the warning. Beloved, one day Roger and David and myself may pass on. We will if God delays His coming. But beware that wolves don't come in in sheep's clothing, as Christ warned in the four Gospels. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, who draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears." And this is our, I believe in our age we have lost sight of that danger in the churches of warning our people against false doctrine, false teachings that I've just mentioned a few this morning. Peter taught in 2 Peter 3.3, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. We're living in an age now where there's a group of people, professing Christians, called pederasts, who deny the second coming of Jesus Christ, that it's past. It happened in 70 A.D. They deny the resurrection of this body. They do not believe in the bodily resurrection as taught by the Apostle Paul in the Corinthians letter and in the epistles of Timothy. He says there are some who have denied the resurrection, that it's past. We have the same thing today. That's heresy. It's false doctrine. It's against the apostolic doctrine of the Apostles and Jesus Christ, who taught about His second coming, I will come again. He came in 70 AD, yes, in power and authority and demonstration and destroyed the temple and destroyed the shrine there and all the glory of man there. But he has never came in his second coming in power and glory as he will be when he says in the book of Revelation, every eye shall see him. If the devil's been bound, as they say, someone's loose out there. If it's not the devil, I don't know who it is. Also, John taught in 1 John 2.18, little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard, that Antichrist shall come. Even now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. We're living in America. You can take the Word of God and burn it, and they won't say anything. But you take the Koran and burn it. and they'll lock you up. Who would ever think that this nation would decline to such an evil? That they place no value upon the word of God, but they place value because they don't want to offend the enemy. We are at a spiritual war with Muslims. They don't want to admit that, but they know it. The love of this war going on in America and in Israel and across the whole world is a holy war. The Koran is contrary to God's Word. It's a false prophet. They claim it was inspired. It has false teachings. It's unbiblical. It's unsound. And it is ungodly because God's not in it at all. This is a holy war, and don't you forget it. I know sometimes we don't like to hear that, But it's the truth. It's better that you know the truth. They went out from us because they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. You know, in the John Gnosticism was a group that taught that Christ only came in appearance, but didn't really have flesh and blood as we do. And they claim that he didn't really come in the flesh. And this is Antichrist. Antichrist. And John was dealing with that. This is going back in the time of the apostles. They had false doctrines then. We've progressed 2,000 years approximately. Look at what we have today. You can go on, turn the TV on, the radio on and hear everything under the sun being taught. Go to the bookstore and you can see every religion there is being taught today. mental physics, mental gymnastics, all using great words and wisdom and humanism to declare what they believe to be God. God is just an intelligence, a mystic, a force. They want to do away with the true and living God, if possible, because if there is no Father, no Son, no Holy Spirit, if the Word of God is not true, then there is no judgment. There is no hell. Oh, the Word of God speaks very clearly of the damnation of the unjust, of the eternal damnation, the eternal fire, an eternal judgment. It's a reality that one day every lost individual in this world who know nothing of Jesus Christ will face a holy God. Paul warns us in Ephesians 4.14 that we shouldn't be tossed to and fro, that we henceforth be no more children cause to and fro, and carry about with every wind of doctrine by the slot of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." And if you think they're not crafty, you sat down with a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses, and you'll see how crafty they are. They got their scripture verses. They got their translation. They got their version. They got their pet verses. The average Christian today wouldn't know how to deal with a Jehovah's Witness. Because they don't read the Word of God. And Paul is telling you and I, from henceforth, be no more children. Calls to and fro and care about with every wind the doctrine. This isn't advice, this is a command. There's people waiting to deceive you, deceive your family, deceive your children. It's your responsibility as a father and as mothers to guard, to know the Word of God and to guard your children. And Father, it's your responsibility to guard your home against false doctrine that could be put into your children. You may not realize it. If you send your children to a school that indoctrinates them in a false doctrine, especially those who teach and deny the deity of Christ, or to schools that teach Catholicism. And there's many Christians, I hate to say, that do that. Not realizing the danger of having their children from a baby on taught and indoctrinated the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and other groups It can affect their lives, their thinking, their thought processing. And I don't blink an eye in saying what they teach is doctrines of devils. Paul said in 1 Timothy 4.1, now the spirit speaker, expressly that in later times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. And every false cult fits in that category. I say it with no regret as far as telling the truth. We need to be honest. If we believe the book, then we have to denounce all things that come against God's Word. If a group comes up and says, Jesus Christ didn't rise from the dead, that he's still in the graveyard, we must reject them as false prophets. If a group comes and says that Jesus was a good man, he lived a good life, but he wasn't God, Then we must reject them as false prophets. It's our responsibility as ministers to declare the truth. Paul said in 1 Timothy 4, 13, "'Til I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.'" Doctrine is important. It does matter what you believe, beloved. That's the trouble with a lot of charismatic churches. They're emotionalism. They're very emotional. And God does work through our emotions. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with feeling praise and joy when you sing and worshiping God in Spirit and truth. But when emotionalism comes above doctrine, then it's wrong, beloved. Doctrine has to be the basis of what we believe. And what we believe, that should stir our emotions. But it's just the other opposite around. All they feel is feelings and emotions. And it's not the truth. Jesus said you should know the truth, and truth shall set you free. Beloved, if you don't think this is serious, go back and read church history back in the 16th century when men were burned at the stake for not bowing and kissing the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. and burned at the stake. Children, read the Baptist in the Baptist Book of Martyrs how Baptists were hung and beheaded and their children were taken and thrown over cliffs and killed because they wouldn't bow to the teaching of Catholicism in the 16th century. There's many books out there written about our history and most Baptists have never read it. Beloved, we have been brought through the centuries by blood and blood because they took the Word of God as their rule of life and they believed it and they were willing to die for it. Doctrine is important. What we believe is important. Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 5.17 says, Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in word and doctrine. What are we to teach the church? The Word and doctrine, the teachings of the Word of God, the doctrines, the teachings of God's Word. It's important to you to know the things of God as believers. Now, there's a certain doctrine which builds up in 1 Timothy 6, where Paul says, If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness. true teachings, the true grace of God, will lead you to a godly life. Notice in Titus, the book of Titus, he says in chapter 2, beginning reading at verse 11, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Now, the gospel that's being preached that doesn't emphasize godliness is not the gospel of the apostles and of Jesus Christ. The true gospel of the grace of God teaches us that we should deny ungodliness, worldly lust, and that we should live soberly and righteously in this present world. looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The preterists say that verse has been fulfilled in 70 A.D. We have nothing to look forward to. There is no blessed hope. See the heresy of that teaching? And beloved, there are preachers and teachers today teaching that the second coming is past, the resurrection is past. Be aware of these teachers, beloved. in their teaching and their false doctrine. In encouragement to Brother Dave and Roger and myself, Paul writing to ministers in 2 Timothy 3.16 says, All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God. This is God's Word. God breathed, beloved. When God says something, it's settled. Whether you understand it, whether I understand it, it's truth no matter what we understand. It's the Word of the living God. All our Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. For doctrine. The first thing Paul mentions here is for the church or the God is for doctrine, for teaching, for training, for edification, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. The Apostle Paul, in the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, says this, Verse 8, Wherefore, he saith, when he ascended up on high, he let captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Those gifts is the gift to understand the word of God, to study the word of God, and to teach doctrine to the church of God. Now that he ascended, what is it also that he descended, first in the lower parts of the earth, He the descendent, and the same also the descendent up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. It's the same office there, pastor-teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, that we all come in the unity of faith. And of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, a mature man, unto the measure of the statue of the fulness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children caused to and fro, and cared about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which the head Even Christ. Beloved, it's the responsibility of the God-called pastors, God-called men of God, to be indoctrinated, to be taught from heaven by the study of the Word, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, that we can teach the flock of God, that you be not tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. That is our responsibility, to indoctrinate, to teach and train the people of God. We stand in need of your prayers. It's a serious calling. 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 2, Paul says, preach the word to Timothy. Preach the word. I believe that if we lack anything today in our churches, and in my own ministry, every minister has to speak for himself, is the lack of expository preaching in our ministry. And I've been praying much about this. Expository preaching is when you take a book of the Word of God and you teach it verse by verse by verse by verse. That is needful today. That people can get a grasp of the book of Romans, the book of Ephesians, the book of Galatians, the book of 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Timothy, Thessalonians, and see that in its content, verse by verse by verse by verse, as it fits together. Sometime a preacher will get up and preach on his stand and say, oh boy, a preacher picked me out this morning. You know, I've had people tell me that, but I don't even know what they're talking about. But when you take the Word of God and you deal with each doctrine as it comes up in its verse, you're not picking on anyone. It doesn't look like we're picking on someone. Now, I know the Holy Spirit one time will apply a message right to someone's soul, and they feel the power of it in their lives. So, oh, somebody's been talking to someone. No, the Holy Spirit's talking to you. Preach the Word. Be instant in season. Out of season. There's times ministers may travel and go to a visiting church and may be asked to preach. Or one of us may be sick or afflicted or can't preach and one may only spare the moment. You're supposed to be in season. Be ready. And I must confess, sometimes God seems to bless us more then than He does other times. In those seasons. You know why? Because I believe it's because we're more dependent upon God. I said, Lord, if you don't give me something today, I'm empty. And I feel like that almost every Sunday, even when I study. Preach the Word. Oh, that's what we need today. You know, Peter said, "...desire that sends you a miracle through the Word, that you may grow thereby." Do you want to grow this morning as a Christian? Do you want to grow as a believer? There's no substitute for your personal reading of God's Word. Now, you can take this and you can leave it. You have that option. And I plead with you in the name of Jesus, you're a believer this morning, that you take time to meditate in God's Word and grow as a Christian. Special fathers who have the responsibility of the home, who have the responsibility to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. who have the responsibility to be a spiritual head to their wives. The men are the head of the home, and they have the responsibility not only to raise the children up in nurture and admonition of the Lord, but to be a spiritual head to their wives, to their maids. It's a grave responsibility, men. Don't take it lightly. Pray. Be in prayer. Lord, help me to be the husband, the father, that I should." Sound doctrine. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, 3, "...for the time will come when they will not endure." Sound doctrine. It's so easy to see today when people reject the deity of Christ. God was manifested in flesh. One of the major things that we believe as God's people is that God, the Son, was sent into the world became flesh, and God is our substitute. That it was God manifested in flesh that went to Calvary. It was God who said, I and my Father are one. He was referring to His essence with God. He was one with God in their essence and deity. And the Jews took up stones to stone Him. They knew what He meant. But all we have people today denying that oneness. Sound doctrine. But after their own loss, they shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables. Oh, how true that is today. Look around you and see how many today are concerned with the truth of God's Word, and they turn their ears away from the truth, and have been turned to fables, to logic, to reason. A lot of churches don't preach the Word of God anymore. They have lectures. We're living in the 21st century. Preaching of the Word of God is a thing of the past, and a lot of the so-called churches, they give lectures. As Brother Roger mentioned earlier, be thankful that you have a church to come to that preaches The Word of God. And for you that are visiting, if you have a church that you go to that preaches the Word of God, be thankful. Don't take it for granted. Be grateful that you can go and you can hear God's Word proclaimed from the pulpit. The Word of God with no mixture of human reasoning and logic. Thus saith the Lord. And we need that today. Be grateful for that today. In the exhortation in Titus chapter 1 verse 9, Paul says to Titus, holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers. Beloved, there's many gainsayers out there today, many rejecting the Word of God, and the only way we can fight the enemy is with sound doctrine. We can't take corrupt doctrine and straighten out corrupt doctrine. We've got to have sound doctrine. Oh, how important it is for the ministers, for Roger, Dave and myself, to be students of the Word, to be indoctrinated in God's Word. Let it be our study day and night to meditate in the Word of God. We have a calling which is beyond any calling in this world. To teach the family of God, instruct them in sound doctrine. Paul says, speak thou of things which become sound doctrine. Sound doctrine. Beloved, we've taught enough doctrine in this church that everyone here should be sound in the faith. But you know, like so many things that we teach, it goes through one ear and out the other. Unless you digest the teachings of God's Word personally, and meditate on those Scriptures yourself, and read the Word of God, you'll forget it in a week. Jesus taught, take heed what you hear, for what measure you receive, it shall be given to you again. Remember the parable of the sword, the Word of God was preached, it sold, and I believe only one group in that sword were the children of God, that's the ones with good ground. You have professors and possessors. There's a lot of people who profess, know nothing of the Lord. They know nothing. You must have your heart prepared by the Holy Spirit, that good ground, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has been made alive and quickened by the Spirit of the living God, to receive the things of God, because the Word of God says very clearly in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14, And we have to remind ourselves of this also. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Beloved, there is many who hear the things of God, the preaching of the atonement of Jesus Christ, the second coming of Jesus Christ, and it means nothing to them. Why? Because they're dead and trespasses in sins. No fear of God before their eyes. Commentary in Romans 3 of this generation that there's no fear of God before their eyes. There's none that do us good. No, not one. They all have gone astray. There's no fear of God before their eyes. They don't fear the coming judgment, the wrath of God, when God's wrath shall be poured out on this world. Because the God of this world has blinded their eyes. At least the glorious gospel should shine into them. Oh, it's a sad commentary. When we look around us today in the world and see so many who have no fear of God, no love for God, no interest in the things of God, and are headed straight to destruction and have no concern, until their eyes close like the rich man, and he says, then, hell! He lifted up his eyes, being in torment. Beloved, this is reality. This is not a make-believe. This is not a fairy tale. This is the Word of God. This is God's revelation to you and I of coming events. He's coming again, and He's coming in power, He's coming in glory, and He's coming to judge the world with His glory and almighty power. It's not a beautiful picture to those who don't know Christ. The Word of God is very clear. I believe it's 1 Thessalonians, the coming of the Lord, He says, talking about the believers For they themselves show us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Beloved, this is what the gospel does today. This is what doctrine would teach you today, to turn from idols and turn to the true and living God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which has delivered us from the wrath to come. And in 2 Thessalonians, I believe it is, he says in verse 6, Seeing it as a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation of them that trouble you. And to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels." Beloved, there's coming a day when Jesus is coming again with his mighty angels. He's coming for one purpose particular. Notice this. and flaming fire, taking vinions on them that know not God." Beloved, this is not just a man coming, it's God coming to bring vinions on them that know not God. And multitudes don't know it. "...on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction." Did you hear that? "...who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. Young men, don't be talking in the back row. No more talking, please. This is serious. I don't like doing that, but we're talking about a subject which is very, very, very important. There may be, in your young age, you don't mind going to hell, you don't mind facing a holy God, you don't mind this everlasting destruction, but oh, I beg God to open up your heart and soul to see the importance of that. It's important. "...who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day." Oh, this is serious. Beloved, if we're fathers and mothers, we need to be praying for our children. I know we can't save them, but oh, we should be agonizing before the throne of God in their behalf. We should be trying to train them and teach them morally as much as we can, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That the Word of God, I believe the Word of God has a moral effect even on those who are not believers. There's a lot of young people today who know how to live a moral life. Why? Because of the teaching of the Ten Commandments. Because of the teaching of God's Word. because of the faithfulness of mothers and fathers and preachers and brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles who have taught them the best of their ability, like the grandmother who taught Timothy the words of God, the things of God, to live a moral, clean life. We all need that teaching. Be grateful for it. Even if you're not a church member, even if you don't follow Christ, be glad that your parents have loved you enough to teach you moral teaching from God's Word. holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. But speak thou of things which become sound doctrine." And all this next one, adorn the doctrine of God. Christians, this is our responsibility. Adorn the doctrine of God. Tatters 2.10 says, not prolonging, beshowing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. And how do we do that? How do we adorn the doctrine? By living the truth in our lives every day. practical, godly living. As Paul said in Titus, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, that we should live soberly, godly, in this present world. We do that, then we're adoring the gospel of God. Other people are seeing it and it gives the glory of God. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Beloved, that is our responsibility as disciples and believers in Jesus Christ to follow the Lamb and to live a godly life. Yes, it calls to be a disciple. Yes, it calls to be a Christian. Yes, it's not just coming up on the island, join the church, be baptized, and then forget God until you die and you wake up in glory. No. There is a God-given responsibility to everyone who goes under the water in baptism. You're saying, I died to the world. You come out of the water. You're saying, I was resurrected in newness of life. To walk in newness of life. Not walk the old path. Not walk ungodly. Not walk like you did before, but to live a God-like life. A Spirit-filled life. Walk in the Spirit, Paul says, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Beloved, these things are important to the children of God. They're important. Doctrine is important. And that doctrine must be manifested in our lives and be you seen and read of all men. Paul says we're living epistles, read and known of all men. Our lives are affecting everyone around us, whether we understand it or not. Oh, beloved, I pray. that you will be students of the Word. I'm going to read one more verse. Hebrews 13, 9. I was going to follow on after this one, but I'm going to stop here. Strange doctrine. Be not cared about with doubters and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meeks, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. There is a lot of strange doctrines being taught today. But I beg you to read the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Read the epistles. Read the book of Revelation. Read the Word of God. Read the Old Testament. Read the book of Genesis to your children. Creation. Yes, we believe in creation. We didn't evolve from some sperm in the sea and come up out on the land. We believe that God created man. That's another lie of the devil. Philosophy, humanism. There's so many things we could bring to your attention this morning, but beloved, I pray that you'll be students of the Word. May you be stirred in your heart, Lord, teach me the truth. You should know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Take your responsibility, fathers, and teach your children. If you're not having a devotion with your children at night, I pray God burden you, you can't sleep. And if we're not bringing our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, shame on us. It's our responsibility. And oh, the age, this age in which we're living, oh, you can't discipline your children. God forbid that we don't discipline our children, biblically and in love. No wonder children have such a stubborn will today, rebellious will, because authority is gone. You know, it speaks in the Word of God that in the last days, perilous times shall come. It says there shall be a spirit of lawlessness. Can't you see it happening? Even our courts are taking out the Ten Commandments. They're doing away with the Ten Commandments. They're doing away with the laws of God. And what are you going to have when you do away with the law of God? Lawlessness. If there's no law, who breaks the law? Beloved, we're living in a very critical age. It's a great time to be alive. It's a great time to be a child of God. It's a great time to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. But it does cost to stand for the truth. It'll cost you something. It may cost you friends. It may cost you family, but you have a responsibility to stand for the truth, and so do I, and so do Brother Roger and Brother Dave. We must take a stand against error. Either we believe the Word of God, if we don't, if we don't believe it, let's lay it aside and quit, close the church and go home. If we believe it, then let's leave it. May we pray. Our gracious and loving Father, we thank you for the Word of God. We bow in admiration for the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. We thank you for the apostles who gave their lives in death for the cause of Christ. Father, we thank you for all the martyrs down through the centuries who have died, burned at the stake for standing for the Word of God. I pray that there will be more of us today who will be willing to die for the cause of Christ, and we know we can only do that by the grace of God. But oh, help us to be faithful. Help us to be students of the Word. Help us to teach those sound doctrines to our people. Help us to love the things of God, to love the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Fathers, we close in prayer. We thank you for what you taught us. We thank you that we're children of God, the privilege of being called the sons of God, the children of God. We thank you for that blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. For it's in his name we do pray. Amen.