In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of doctrine in the church. He acknowledges the impact of their online presence, with thousands of people downloading sermons from their website. Despite the small numerical value of the congregation, the preacher draws a parallel to Gideon's small army, highlighting the potential impact of a dedicated few. The sermon focuses on the power of doctrine to demolish mindsets and beliefs that keep believers in bondage, and the preacher prays for the congregation to embrace pure doctrine with passion. The sermon references Romans 6 and 1 Timothy 4, emphasizing the need for believers to be rooted and grounded in doctrine.

We're going to talk about doctrine. And I know that you probably have an instantaneous dread that have just come over you. You're thinking this is going to be the worst hour of your life, that you're going to be bored, and that this is going to be dry and crusty. But I'm going to pray here in a minute. We're going to ask for the Lord to quicken it, make it come alive. Because I believe this is a very, very, very important message for the church. And I'm going to get into it. And I believe that by the time that we're finished with this series of teaching, you're going to understand why doctrine is important. You're going to have a hearty understanding that why you must be doctrinally rooted and grounded. Because there's so many dangers out there if we're not. If you're there in Romans chapter 6, we're going to read that passage of scripture. And then I'm going to pray. And then we're going to turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 4. And if you all will notice, my notes have come back. That's a good thing. And there are seasons for everything. A couple of weeks there, the Lord just dealt with me just to speak from my heart what he had given me. But yesterday I was blessed to be able to spend the majority of the day in the word of God and in prayer. And in this regard, I'm very serious about this message. There's almost a very deep solemnness and almost a trembling fear for the body of Christ in general. And this message will be broadcast out on the Internet. And go around the world. And I don't know what our hits have been lately. But I know at one time we were between 16 and 18,000 hits per month on our website. People all around downloading sermons and listening to these messages. And so I know that because that we come, we see a relatively small group of people today that we think the impact might not be as large because of the numerical value of the people that are here. But you've got to understand something that number one, Gideon only took a handful of soldiers and they kicked some mighty tail in. It was just a small number of warriors. And so let me tell you something about the dynamics of the kingdom of God. It's not the majority win. It's whoever's on God's side wins. That's the kingdom of God. And whether there's three or whether there's 3000, whoever's on his side is going to win. And so we need to understand that. Let me tell you, I'm not purposed to have a big church. I'm purposed to have a church, a true church, one that Jesus is coming for. It's beautiful and arrayed in the garments of righteousness and holiness and purity and truth. That's my desire. Now, should the church grow? I think the church should grow inwardly. I think once the church has grown inwardly, it'll grow outwardly. I think when we mature, whenever we become biblically healthy and strong, that we will be bringing people in to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, we're going to read out of Romans chapter six, verse 16 and 17 and 18. And then we're going to pray over this message. The word of God says this. Know ye not that to whom ye yield your servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. Basically, what this is saying is, is that the decisions that you make, the lifestyle that you live, deems and shows and evidences who your Lord truly is. If we continually are yielding ourself to sin, living a lifestyle of flagrant sin, then sin is our master and not Christ. If we are servants of righteousness, that will be worked out in the nuts and bolts of our day to day living, that we will be righteous in our conduct, righteous in our attitude, righteous in our actions. And that is a consistency. There doesn't mean that we don't make mistakes and end up falling flat on our face from time to time into sin, sometimes even scandalous sin. It just means this, that that sin is inconsistent with our normal employment of our actions. Amen. So my my true course of life is that I live righteously by the power and the grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Now let's read on. But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart. See this. You have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, which was delivered you being then made free from sin. You became the servants of righteousness. Now let's pray. Father, without divine illumination, all we have left is a letter of a law that kills. Father, your word says it's the spirit that quickens or gives life. Father, it's my earnest prayer this morning that you would make this word come alive, that it would not be a dull, dry, crusty, theological resemblance of truth, but Lord, that it would be the living essence of truth, the word of God. Father, I pray that the ground of the hearts of your precious bride, your people will be broken up to receive the incorruptible seed of the word of God. Lord, let us by your sovereign grace see our need for true doctrine. Oh, God, quicken us. Lord, let us be awakened inwardly. And Father, I pray that this would not fall on on stony hearts nor deaf ears, but Lord God, that it would fall up on the hearts and ears of those, Lord God, that are zealously yearning to know you even more. Teach us by your spirit, teach us by your word, that we might grow and increase in the knowledge of your son and of your character. And it be all unto your glory in the name of Jesus, your wonderful, precious son. Amen. Turn with me in your Bible over to first Timothy chapter four. We thank God for you, Miss Jerry. It's good to see you here. Charles, Mr. Henry. Good to have you here. The word of God says in first Timothy chapter four, verse 16. We know this passage. But it says, take heed unto thyself and unto the what? The doctrine, the doctrine. And it says, continue in them, continue them. For in doing this, thou shalt both save, say, save. So that thou shalt save thyself and them that hear thee. Beloved doctrine matters. Doctrine matters. It says, take heed unto yourself and into your doctrine. For in so doing, you're going to bring salvation to your own life. Listen, not by your works, but by the power of God that's demonstrated through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we respond, there is a powerful, powerful work of the spirit that takes place. And you'll save yourself and them that hear you. Now, I want you to be very closely, or very mindful of the words that are being spoken this morning and guard them. Lest the adversary come and steal away the good seed that's being sown. When we hear the word doctrine. It's almost that there's an automatic cringing that takes place in us. And I'm just speaking from past experience. It's almost like a dread that takes. It's almost a seizing of us in a certain dread because we've misunderstood the beauty and the truth that's ascribed to this word doctrine. Our culture that we live in, I'm talking about our church culture. Our religious culture has wrongfully defined doctrine as some type of a dogma that's only applied to theologians for debating purposes. That's actually outside of the grasp of or the relevance towards any normal believer like you and me. And that's what culture is trying to teach us. But let me tell you something. If you're born of God, you must be founded upon pure and true doctrine or else you're going to fail. Else you're going to be blown about with every other wind of doctrine. We need to be anchored to Christ through pure doctrine. But this word doctrine is perceived almost as some type of an abstract subject that's void of any practical properties whereby an average Christian might find a benefit from it. I think that you and I both understand this and have felt this mood before even in our own hearts. The common Christian immediately begins to feel a negative mood that comes over him when this word doctrine is mentioned. And what we do is that we begin to ascribe it to thoughts of boredom. We begin to ascribe it to thoughts of intellectual or lofty religious idealism that's way too complicated to be useful or that doctrine that is solely purposed for seminary professors and their students that are underneath their care. Also, we have this mindset that we just trust our spiritual leaders to have strong and balanced and rightful doctrine. Our pastors, we want our elders to have it. We want them to have a vivid understanding of doctrinal matters. And being so, we leave the matter exclusively into their hands as we graciously withdraw from the idea altogether. We'll leave it for them to do all the study of the holy writ of God's word to be able to have a very hearty and heartfelt conviction of doctrinal matters. That we leave it in the hands of the pastors and we leave it in the hands of the elders and the theologians and the students of theology that we just almost wash our hands of it because of this dreaded notion that we have. And I can tell you that it happens. I mentioned to Stacey last night, I'm going to preach on doctrine and she's like, oh, dear Jesus. And that's just the common sentiment that we have. That's just the common mood that we have. They're like, oh, it's going to be boring. It's going to be dry. And beloved, apart from solid biblical doctrine, beloved, we're going to fall for anything and the enemy will deceive us wave after wave, day after day, year after year until he charms us into the abyss of eternity itself. And not the good side either. Now, I'm going to make a few other comments about this negative mood concerning doctrine. I'm laying a biblical foundation here. I'm laying a foundation as to the perceptions that we have that need to be dealt with, that need to be overcome, that we might go on to the greater matters of the word of God that we might mature and to grow the embrace. If we embrace this negative, this negative idealism that we have towards doctrine friend, or if we embrace the tolerance of it, where we start tolerating this mood, embracing it in our hearts. Let me tell you what it is. It's the bedding ground for an absolute unceasing torrent of unbiblical or extra biblical practices to creep into the church and into the private lives of Jesus Christ redeemed people. Did you hear what I just said? When you embrace this mood where you see doctrine as something that's distasteful, to where it's something that's boring, to where it's something that's irrelevant, to where it's something that's not beneficial to the common Christians such as you and I, beloved, we're opening a door and we're providing a bedding ground for an absolute unceasing torrent of unbiblical or even extra biblical practices to creep into the church and into our private lives as Christians. Having said that, I'm going to make mention of a couple of things right quick of people that I have been in friendship with over the years that were not rooted and grounded in solid sound doctrine. And there was a wave that came to the church a few years back. Some of you will remember that gold dust was falling everywhere and there were feathers that were manifesting and coming out in church servers like there were feathers from the Holy Spirit. Beloved, the Holy Ghost is not no bird. What is wrong with us? You know what's wrong with us? We don't have any doctrine. We fall for anything. We fly from one thing to the next, one meeting to the next, one fad to the next because we are not rooted and grounded in solid biblical redemptive doctrine. We don't have any working knowledge or understanding of the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we can run from meeting to meeting and we can all hold each other's mouth open and get flashlights. And I've seen this. And so has my wife in church services that we're looking inside each other's mouths to see if God's turning our fillings gold. And calling that by the name of Jesus Christ, extra biblical practices. It is not biblical. There's gold dust all over the place. In fact, in some congregations, in some meetings, they found certain people coming in before the service and hiding little bits of gold glitter so they could sprinkle them on the floor. So I'm just trying to boost people's faith. Know what you're doing is, is that lawlessness that God is not big enough to convert and change his people so that we have to help God out. It's unscriptural. It's extra biblical. And it's demonic. It's demonic that we have been to those services where everybody's running around with little pocket flashlights, grabbing one another by the nose, tilting their heads back, looking in. I think, do you see it? I think it's turning gold. I think it's turning gold. But that's not of God. And how can we fall into such craziness? How can we fall into such lawlessness and goofiness? Because we are not rooted and grounded in Christ through solid biblical doctrine. We're tossed to and fro. We're blown about by every other doctrine, doctrines of devils. Because we have no working knowledge of doctrinal matters from the gospel of Jesus Christ. And these things come in to the church. They creep in. What does it tell you? We're always worried about the guys that creep in behind the pulpit. It's not that that you need to worry about. It's about the people that creep into the pew that you need to worry about. That try to have extra biblical experiences and to put a tag of spirituality in the name of Jesus Christ upon it. And there is no doctrinal foundation for it whatsoever. Beloved, if it's not in this book, disregarded as refuse, thrown away as dung. If we don't see the apostles and Jesus Christ practicing it, beloved, it has no application to our lives. We don't need to be running around in the church and looking for feathers that are falling out of the wings of the Holy Ghost, beloved. He is the divine, holy third person of the Trinity. And how dare we compare him with something of this earth? The Holy Ghost did not come as a dove. We read that inference in the word of God that he came as in a form. It was in that resemblance, but it was the Holy Spirit. It was not a tangible, physical bird that lit upon Jesus as he was coming out of the baptismal waters of the river. Jordan, I believe. And so, beloved, it's my intention in these messages that I'm going to be presenting to you. And it's my prayer. To deliberately and systematically destroy these infected ideas that we have concerning doctrine and to firmly and deliberately establish us in the concreteness of authoritative scripture. Amen. Now, I want to share a scripture right quick, and this is not a foundational scripture. It's a peripheral one where it talks about these strongholds that we have in our mind, where we have this gloomy, almost grip upon us whenever we're talking about doctrine. Beloved, when we're talking about the doctrines of regeneration, the doctrines of faith, the doctrines of repentance. Beloved, it should be our heart should be so excited and uplifted and upbeat and happy and glorious and Christ exalting to hear of the doctrines of Jesus Christ. And that we have escaped this mood to where we're like, oh, God, not another boring doctrinal sermon. Beloved, it's the very essence of true life and the true redeemed hearts of the people of God. The Amplified Bible in First Corinthians. I'm sorry. Second Corinthians 10, four and five for the weapons of our warfare are not physical weapons of flesh and blood, but they're mighty before God for the overthrow and the destruction of strongholds in as much that we refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thought that sets itself up against the true knowledge of God. Friend, let me ask you a question. Where do you think that the very essence and descriptiveness of the Almighty comes from? Doctrine. It comes from doctrine. How do you know that God is loving and merciful and kind? How do you know that God is holy and just? How do you know that our God is a God of wrath for those that reject his son, Jesus Christ? How do we know that we have been taught that from pure doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ? So the word of God says that we have weapons for this warfare. They can pull down these strongholds that we have in mind that would bring us to a place where we feel almost. Completely uneasy with doctrinal matters. We've been taught that by cultural religion that whenever we get into doctrinal issues, we leave that per Pastor Derek. Listen, if the true sovereign doctrines of God's word are not rooted and grounded as a foundation in your life as the individual believer, Satan will draw you away from the hope that is in Jesus Christ. And you will never come into a kingdom that's incorruptible and full of his glory. Never. The only hope that you have is in the doctrines, the powerful God wrought and Holy Ghost empowered doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. And so I think it's very fair and accurate to say that we've all had these ideas and feelings in regard to certain subjects such as doctrine and these. Feelings that we have friend are inaccurate. You may think that I'm ranting too much about this, but I'm laying a weighty foundation about these moods that exist that are destroying us as God's dearly born people. We have these feelings that have been very heavily influenced by our upbringing. We've been influenced by our culture. Even by religious teaching that's come from the church. And these influences are very powerful, my friend, and these these influences assert themselves in the regulation of what we embrace. They assert themselves in the regulation of what we tolerate and what we reject and what we cast away. Is that not right? How many times have I heard a pastor? Yeah, I just can't buy that because it's not the way I was brought up. Have you ever challenged according to the doctrines of Christ, the way you was brought up? Could it be that you was brought up wrong? The stuff that I was taught and stuff that my mom and my dad was taught when we were young. And the church that we went through was not doctrinally accurate. Was it? And then by the grace and the mercy of God, he has retaught us. I can't go back and say, well, that's not the way I was taught because what I was taught wasn't right. They taught me a bunch of garbage. They didn't give me pure doctrine. They gave me a bunch of manmade idealisms about God, and it wasn't consistent with the nature of God because it wasn't drawn from the word of God. It was drawn from denominational tenets that were inconsistent with true doctrine. And it was pounded and pounded and pounded. And it created fallacious or fallacies of belief that we had in our minds. And I can't go back and say, this is the way that I was brought up. Now, I can't tell you I can go back in my child raising techniques and say this is the way that I was brought up because I was brought up scripturally in regard to discipline. That if I was in folly, that my mom and my dad would punish me with physical corporal punishment. They would take the rod of correction, which is God's chosen ordains means for correction and drive that folly from my heart. I've made up a lot of excuses, but I don't think any of them worked because I still got beat. And it didn't kill me. Young person and adult, look at me right now. If my mom and my dad had not disciplined this hard hearted rebel, I would not be in this pulpit today. I would not be here today. I'd probably be locked up in some prison cell, probably would have been next to Tony Mack because I was headed that way. I had the nature in me and so do your kids. You think your kids aren't so bad? Your kids are rotten. Unless you say, well, he's picking on my kids. All of our kids are rotten. They're born that way. They're cute little, cooing little boy over there. Give him about another 18 months to see what happens. And you ain't gonna be smiling near as much as you are right now. The Bible admonishes you, solid biblical doctrine to use the rod of correction in this in love and to drive that wickedness from the heart of that cute little cuddly boy. He's over just cooing and carrying on. So the word of God tells us here that we have mighty weapons ordained of God against that are available to refute these ideological strongholds or theories or reasons that are set against the knowledge of God or they're set against truth. Hello. And these weapons that God has made available into the church of Christ lead captive every thought or every idealism. It leads that into captivity and to the obedience of Christ. Simply put the word of God and its assertion through anointed preaching and declaration of doctrine will demolish these mindsets, prejudices, inaccurate beliefs that we hold fast to that keep us as God's people in bondage. And so it's my intention in this series to boldly declare through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the word of God, the truth about doctrine, the importance of doctrine to the preacher and to the newest believer alike. And it's my prayer that the Lord our God will open up the eyes of our heart to enlighten our understanding that we as God's precious people purchased with his blood might embrace pure doctrine with passion, eagerness and with zeal. Let me read to you a few quotes by some men of God that I do respect. John MacArthur said this. Doctrine matters. What you believe about God and the gospel and the nature of man and every major truth addressed in scripture filters down into every area of your life. You and I will never rise above our view of God and our understanding of his word. J.I. Packer said this. Doctrinal preaching certainly bores the hypocrites, but it's only doctrinal preaching that will save Christ's sheep. Wow. Admiram Gordon. Doctrine is the framework of life, the skeleton of truth to be clothed and rounded out by the living grace of a holy life. Tyrant Edwards. Doctrine is the necessary foundation of duty. If the theory is not correct, the practice cannot be right. Tell me what man believe what a man believes and I'll tell you what he will do. J.B. Gambrell. We may invigorate and renew our courage by reflecting that divine power has always attended the preaching of doctrine. When done in the true spirit of preaching, great revivals have accompanied the heroic preaching of the doctrines of grace and that whole lofty mountain range of doctrines upon which Jehovah sets enthroned sovereign and grace as in all things else. God honors preaching that honors him. There is entirely too much milk sop preaching nowadays trying to kill sinners to enter into a truce with their maker and to quit sending and join the church. The situation does not call for a truce, but a surrender. Let us bring out the heavenly artillery of heaven and thunder away at this stuck up age as Whitefield, Edwards, Spurgeon and the Apostle Paul did and there will be many slain of the Lord and then they will be raised up to walk in newness of life. When doctrine is thundered out solid, biblical, godly, pure doctrine, the oracles of God. Let me give you two more. Harold Brown said this, a non-theological faith cannot explain itself, but too theological of faith loses its contact with the reason for his existence. Listen to this. Too much enthusiastic faith without a corresponding degree of theological understanding is almost certain to lead into error and perhaps into serious heresy. Too much doctrine accompanied by living and growing faith is the recipe for dead orthodoxy. So it's doctrine mingled together with the breath of God, the baptism of the Holy Ghost that makes the doctrines of Jesus Christ come alive unto a living power that's actuated out into our life and day-to-day living. Beloved, you will never live more godly than the doctrines that you live, the doctrines that you embrace. You won't do it. It's impossible. And then one of my favorite preachers of all time, Jonathan Edwards, the first great awakening, great preacher. It's of exceedingly great importance that we should have the right notions, conceptions of the nature, the attributes and the perfections of God. It is the very foundations of all religion, both doctrinal and practical. It is to no purpose to worship God, except we know what we worship and who we worship. It is impossible that we should love and fear and obey God as we ought, except we know what he is and have the right ideas, say right ideas, the right ideas of his perfections that render him lovely and worthy to be feared and to be obeyed. I mean, these are some very noted great men of God that have led powerful moves of the spirit of God, talking about the importance, the imperativeness of solid biblical doctrine firmly rooted in the hearts of each one of God's precious saints. We need to have a hearty understanding and revelation of the importance of doctrine in our lives, not something to shrink back from, but the true biblical doctrines of Jesus Christ are to be wholeheartedly embraced with prayer and fervency that God may reveal them line upon line to our own hearts. And so contrary to shallow and unscriptural cultural religion, doctrine matters. Doctrine matters. In fact, doctrine is imperative in so much it is impossible to truly be regenerated apart from sound doctrine. You cannot be saved without sound doctrine. Hear my heart. Friend, please hear my heart. I'm not speaking this morning about a dry, dull, incomprehensible religious jargon. On the contrary, I'm speaking of the very oracles of almighty God, the very fundamentals of the faith, the very tenets of the Christian life that define who we are as God's dearly beloved children. And one of the greatest pitfalls in modern Christian Christianity is the very doctrinal deficiencies that we exhibit. Many good hearted people are passionately, passionately following every new gimmick on the market of religious fanfare because they are not doctrinally aware and because they're not doctrinally secure. They're like chaff blown about by every wind of unsound doctrine because they are not anchored to Christ through the gospel of Christ. Sound doctrine is Ephesians four. Are you glad you're here? Is this doctrine boring you? By the way, Doug, it's good to have you here, brother-in-law. Now, in Ephesians chapter four, pardon, sir. Okay, Stacey's right back and punch him if he falls asleep. Your little wife ratted you out the other day and said you've been working too hard. She said you're putting in way too many hours. Yeah. Good work habit is a good product of good character, isn't it? Sometimes we can let our good work habit get too much of us, can't we? If you're there with me in Ephesians, let's look at this. It says in verse 14 that we henceforth be no more what? Children. How many of y'all have children in your family that just know everything? They think they do. But do they really? Why is it that you have to put a leash on them and reel them back in? Because you know the folly of their heart and they don't know what they think they know. That's the way it is with people that don't have any doctrinal foundation. They're just like children. They're running headlong into things that destroy lives. And then they want to put a religious tag on it and call it by the name of Jesus. Are you with me? You know, we'll chop the head off a serpent and we'll take the picture of Jesus and cut his head off and put it on there and we'll call it Jesus. Let me tell you something, beloved. It's still a viper. That which is of Christ is Christ's. That which is not is not. Let's not mingle the holy with the profane. Amen. Toss to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lay and wait to deceive. But speaking the truth and love the truth doctrine that we may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. You see this? Do you realize why God has put pastors and teachers and apostles and evangelists and prophets into your life? That you might mature and grow up in the things of God. Let me tell you something. God has put a pastor in front of you this morning, another pastor in front of you on Wednesday night and a pastor that fills in when this pastor and that pastor is gone. That gives you pure biblical doctrine. Why? That you might not be children any longer. That you may, by faith, lay hold of the doctrine and that you might be saved from every cunning slight of man from every tempest that blows doctrinally out there that is not of Jesus Christ. God has put men of God that are biblically sound that have a working knowledge of doctrine into your life, that you might, as they are, be solid in the doctrines of grace, solid in the doctrines of regeneration, solid in the doctrines of faith, solid in the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And where you're not moved by the doctrines of men, the doctrines of devil, that you know that this is the doctrines of truth and that this is a lie from the pit of hell and you will not follow them. It's imperative, my friend. It is imperative. We're halfway done. Is it hot or cold out there? Cold? You want my jacket? Can I give mine to somebody? It's a little bit warm up here. I'm gonna take a break here for station identification. This is a 777-JESUS. Boy, but listen to me. If we are not anchored in solid biblical doctrine, you will be tossed about by every cunning and deceitful tactic of Satan. Friend, listen to me. Do you think Satan knows his doctrine well? How do you think he comes? Do you think he comes with horns and green snot dripping from big long fangs and big old long claws? Let me tell you how he comes. He comes to you disguised as an angel of light with doctrinal errors that slowly but methodically get you off the path. You know, like the casting crown song. It's a slow fade. It's a slow fade. Starts introducing subtle heresies, subtle lies to get you off in the practical, the practical thoughts and the practical decisions that you make day in and day out to get you off track. So we'll know that this is really what it means. This is really what you can do. The next thing you know that the life that you once lived, the faith that you once practiced and embraced has become a thing of the past. I want to make a quick point and I think I will not get through to finish this point today, but this is a very important point. You might want to write it down. Biblical doctrine and salvation slash freedom from sin are inseparably tied one into the other. Biblical doctrine and salvation or slash freedom from sin. And the reason I have to explain that because a good part of Christian folks don't even know what they're saved from. It's like A.W. Pink said in that quote that was on the screen that the modern day evangelist woefully misrepresents Christ and they preach him as a savior from hell and not a savior from sin. Jesus Christ and his salvation is a powerful demonstration of the power of God to break the power of sin in your life. If the power of sin is still asserting itself in your life, we continue to pursue God and cry out for his mercy that we might be regenerated to where that power of sin is broken off to us, to where we can do what God has asked us to do with a joyful and a pleasant heart. Now, listen to this. It's altogether likely, my friend, that a flood of false converts that are in the church today are a direct result of the false doctrines that have crept into the church. Could it be that we have so many goats in the pew that it's because the church has so many sermons that feed goats, that permit goats or raising a whole herd of goats? Could it be that as goes doctrine, as goes reality, as goes the practical workings of man? Hello? The apostle Paul, in his address to the church of Rome that we read earlier, mentions the former entanglements with sin and then wholehearted subjection to its power being eradicated by obedience to the form of doctrine that had been what? That had been delivered unto them by apostolic preaching. Paul goes on to say that being then made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. This is the effect, but the cause is the preaching of sound doctrine that has been embraced by the hearts of the believers that were in Rome. Say, man, if you're getting sleepy, slap yourself on the side of the face, wake yourself up because this is important that you get this. It's important, my friend, that we see the link here between the deliverance from sin and the preaching of biblically sound doctrine. Now, friend, listen, it's not necessary for you to correct me after the service this morning in regards to the work of the Holy Ghost in conversion and the conversion of souls because I'm in agreement with you. But what you may have forgotten is that the spirit of God works together in concert with the agency of the word of God or sound doctrine to regenerate the hearts of sinful, wicked men. Mark 16, 20 says, listen, listen to this, the gospel, and they went forth and they preached everywhere and then the Lord was working. Jesus already descended. The scripture before this, he went to be the father. He went into the clouds and disappeared. He wasn't with them in tangible bodily form. It says that the Lord was working with them, though, confirming the word with signs and wonders following. What was he confirming? The word, the doctrine, the doctrine, and we see it as such an insignificant, light, trivial matter. Beloved, it is the concrete, abstract matter, doctrine. And listen, friend, you must be rooted and grounded in solid biblical doctrine or else you'll fall for every whim of the devil. Every, every temptation, every distraction, you'll fall, you'll fail, and you'll never be erected upright and expressing and emanating to a community the goodness and the glory of our mighty God that should be demonstrated out through our lives and practical living, practical holiness. The Bible talks at experimental living and it's experiential, living it out day by day. Doctrine, we're living it out. It's not something that we preach. It's not something we believe alone. It's what we live by. It's what we practice. It's who we are in our hearts. And so could it be today that the carnality in today's assembly is fueled and empowered by the fleshly doctrines that have been sown into the hearts of the people of God on a weekly basis? I believe it has some merit, not exclusive, but some merit. I believe it does. I believe the pulpits become so weak. I believe that there are pulpits that are filled with preachers that have no true grasp on solid biblical matters, solid biblical doctrines. And they're preaching all of the benefits apart from the true gospel itself being the very primary factor. It's a biblical truth, beloved, that the doctrines of grace, regeneration, repentance, faith, and other fundamental doctrines work as preparatory graces unto, listen to me, they work as preparatory graces unto the sealing of the spirit of God. Unto the sealing. Do you see that? That doctrine goes first, then the spirit of God comes and seals you as his own. Don't believe it? How about Ephesians 1, 13 and 14? In whom ye also trusted after, say after, after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. Do you see that? Beloved, the preaching of sound biblical doctrine that the Holy Spirit then has something to work with. After we heard the word of truth, the gospel, the doctrines of salvation, in whom we believed, then we were sealed by the Holy Ghost of God. Do you all with me? This is very beautiful to me. This is something that should be attractive to the church. Beloved, that doctrinal matters should be very important to us as God's people. Listen to me, friend. I'm going to ask you to do something. Other than a few authors, every book you've got in your home that's not 100 years old, take it to the trash barrel and set it on fire. Set it on fire and burn it. Burn it up because let me tell you what it is, it's unbiblical. Let me tell you something, if Mardels could catch on fire and burn to the ground, you'd only lose about 20 good books. And I'm saying that as a sad countenance. Just this weekend, I went to Mardels to find my brother a book for his birthday. And there were only about 20 books there that I'd even think about buying him. And there were probably about 20,000 other books that need to be burnt because they're unbiblical. They have no doctrinal truth. They're all secondary. They're all secondary means. It's all about benefits, all that you can get. Because we have so many goats that come to get something for free. We want to benefit, but we don't want a commitment. And church, I'm challenging this church, this local body. And listen, if anyone's listening to this message on the internet, I challenge you to, any book that you have in your home, save for a few, Leonard Ravenhill, A.W. Tozer, men like R.C. Sproul, some of these great men of God, and John Bevere, take those books and burn them. Soon, and very soon, we're going to have books in this church. I'm going to build a bookstore here. I've already started at the printer. Right at this moment, I have 12 sermons by some of the greatest men of God in the last century and two centuries ago have preached. One is a sermon by A.W. Tozer on the miracle of regeneration. And I'm going to have 100 copies of each one being made, and I should have them here next week. And I'm going to have a table set up, and they're going to be free to you to have those if you'll commit to read them. And I'm going to have a Bible bookstore in this church where you can go, and for what we pay for it, can buy solid biblical doctrinal books that you might learn doctrine. Listen to me, not the high lofty theological stuff that we're talking about, men that preach with the anointing of the baptism of the Holy Ghost on their lives that presented a gospel that's worth dying for. It's not a need driven or desire driven gospel. Are you with me? And we're going to have a bookstore to where you can purchase these doctrines and that you can be a good Berean that you can study and search and read and have your life blessed with powerful, relevant biblical doctrine. See what culture tries to get you to believe is is that these doctrines of old are not relevant to today's age. Well, having listened to Conrad Maywey preach last week on the radical depravity of man, let me tell you something. There's nothing that will work to fight and overcome that radical depravity that we have other than the proven doctrines of sovereign grace. Nothing. The heart's deceitfully wicked above all things. Let me tell you, nothing that they're conjuring up today and their little witch huts that they put in Mardels is going to deliver you from that depravity. And I'm not meaning to anger some of you. I'm just telling you the way that it is. What you read, it's a desire-driven gospel. It's a flesh-driven gospel and people are flocking to it. And they will tell you that the doctrines of old are not relevant to today's culture. Let me tell you, they're relevant to today's culture because depravity is depravity whether it was 2,000 years ago, whether it's 6,000 years ago, whether it was Cain or whether it was you before you came to Christ, you're equally as wicked in your heart. Depravity is depravity. And beloved, the old doctrines work powerfully by the agency of the Holy Ghost to smite us as sinners, bring us to our knees and give us a lively hope in Christ whereby we might trust him and call out upon his name and be powerfully and authentically born again. And not the superficial, cheesy, quasi-Christian garbage that you find on the shelves of your local bookstores in general today. So are you with me in that? And I'm willing to invest money. I'm willing to invest and to have a nice and we may not have a whole bunch of books, but you know, there are bookstores, one's Rare Christian Books in Dixon, Missouri, that they have powerful books that are written by men of God. But you know what? The most important book we need is right here. But listen to me, don't downplay the importance of reading material written by anointed men. Amen? Don't downplay that because it is important. Where was I at? Ephesians 1, okay. Is everybody okay? I can't go much longer because the pizza's gonna be here in about 30 minutes. Did you have a question, Ms. Annette? I'd love to. Well, we can just put them in a bag and we'll have a big book burning, just like they did in Acts. They had a book burning, remember that? They brought their books out and they burned them. Friend, listen to me, I'm gonna say something and this may make some of you mad, but of what they have in a lot, I'm not saying all, but a lot of the books that are on the market today is nothing other than rewritten religious jargon that's covering up the guise of the practice of witchcraft and new age movement stuff. It's all it is. You know that book that they're selling, what's it called? The Shack. You know who wrote that? Lucifer wrote it. And Christians wanna read it. Christians wanna read it. It's new age. If you have that in your home, as soon as you get home, you take that thing and you tear it into a thousand pieces and you put it somewhere where no one could ever find it. Get rid of it. It's devilish. It will destroy your faith. It will ruin your life. It's garbage. Let me tell you who put the big stamp on it, Oprah Winfrey, the new age prophet for Satan. I didn't mean to hurt anybody's feelings by saying that, but I'm not gonna retract it. I'm gonna go on so we can round this out. The modern contemporary church has greatly undervalued the great doctrines of the faith and placed a greater emphasis upon the frivolous ideas and the frivolous practices and thereby robbed its people of the greatest need in Christianity, and that is regeneration. The changes in dynamics, my friend, are noted by the inordinate emphasis being placed upon the benefits of the gospel while neglecting and rejecting the gospel itself. Let me say that again because I need you to hear this. Friend, listen to me. This is important. The changes in dynamics in this culture that you and I live in are noted by the inordinate or the excessive emphasis being placed upon the benefits of the gospel while neglecting the very gospel itself. The secondary has overtaken the primary and the danger lies in the motive that's underlying the whole thing. The secondary is becoming the primary and that is indicative of a corruption and greed that strokes the please-me nature of Adamic beings. Gospel benefits, beloved, removed from gospel context is idolatry. The gospel declares that we must be crucified upon a personal cross and rendering of ourselves dead. From this death by faith and hope comes a resurrection by the power of God unto salvation and then thereby there are benefits. The reversal of that order to where we might experience the benefits of redemption while neglecting and avoiding the gospel is idolatry. It's heretical. But it's the consensus, my friend, among a growing number of contemporary professors of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul warned young Timothy and he said this, take heed to yourself and to your doctrine. Take heed to yourself and take heed to your doctrine because if you do this, you're going to save yourself and those that listen to you. It's the responsibility of the ministers of Jesus Christ to preach biblical doctrine. It's the responsibility of the followers of Jesus Christ to subject themselves to such preaching, teaching and exhortation. It's shameful, beloved, that we lack in doctrinal knowledge. It's shameful. The lack of this cause, beloved, is the lack that we have in our lives to break the bands of wickedness that we might have intact in our lives even now. This lack is the cause of our weakness against sin. This lack is the cause of our susceptibility to erroneous doctrine. This lack is the cause of our inability to defend the faith. This lack is the cause of our drifting away from truth unto lies. It's the lack of doctrinal knowledge. And again, my friend, I'm not suggesting that doctrine alone is sufficient. It is not. And I'm aware of the need for the spirit that gives life. But you must understand the need for doctrinal truths planted in our heart. The Holy, the Holy Ghost of God may find something within our lives to which he can agree and that he can work with. I'm not promoting dogma. I'm not promoting legal Christianity. And I'm not preaching that hypertheology replaces obedience and the work of the Holy Ghost or any such thing. But what I am preaching is the need for pure doctrine deeply planted into our hearts, soundly garrisoned in our minds and implemented by faith into practical, holy living. Paul, in his grand description of the word of God in his address to young Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 said all scripture is inspired by God. It's inspired of God and it's profitable for doctrine. Do you hear this terminology? That all scripture is inspired of God and it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God might be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Somebody's fixing to get beat. And he gets sent out of children's church. There's nothing left but the fearful indignation of a mad mom. It's not our children's church leaders to be tortured by unruly disobedient children. If our children's church teachers send out your child, don't sit there and pat them on the little shoulder and say, oh, it'll be okay, mommy loves you. Because if mommy really loves you, mommy's gonna spank you, amen? Worst beating I think I ever took in my life was in church when I mailed a little paper airplane down to the preacher, me and J.R. Lauer. I don't know if you guys remember that or not. I didn't think that thing would fly with such F-14 qualities. And this was back in the 70s whenever women wore them hairdos that looked like beehives and their hair sticking up wherever and that thing just cruised right up across the top of that hair. And it got down front, it caught a gust of wind, it came right up to the pulpit and hit the pastor right in the face. That was the last time I ever did that. Pawpaw didn't even wait for the elders and the deacons meeting after church to beat me. Today, I'm still scared of paper airplanes. They're of the devil. A.W. Pink said this, many of the pulpiteers of the last 50 years acted as though the first and last object of their calling was the salvation of souls. Everything being made to bend to the name. In consequence, the feeding of the sheep, the maintaining of scriptural discipline in the church, the inculcation, that means the act of impressing by repeated admonitions. Y'all ever wonder why sometimes I'm so redundant on certain things? It's inculcation and that means the act of impressing upon by repeated administrations of practical piety. It was crowded out. Listen, it was crowded out and only too often all sorts of worldly devices and fleshly methods were employed under the plea that the end justifies the means. That's pragmatics. And thus churches were filled with unregenerate members. In reality, such men defeated their own aim. Their hard heart must be plowed and harrowed before it can be receptive to gospel seed. Doctrinal instruction. What did I just say? Say a little bit louder. Say doctrine. Isn't that wonderful? Do you feel free? I hope you don't feel all pious saying that like you're some long bearded theologian sitting at Cambridge University. The beloved your call of God to study doctrine, to know doctrine, and to live doctrine. So they defeated their own own aim. The hard heart must be plowed and harrowed before it can receive the gospel seed. Doctrinal instruction must be given on the character of God, the requirements of his law, the nature and heinousness of sin. If a foundation is to be laid for true evangelism, it's useless to preach Christ unto souls until they see and feel their desperate need of him. What's doctrine do? It impresses upon us biblical truth whereby we see God's greatness, our lack, and our need to whereby we can respond by faith to Jesus Christ. The final paragraph, you'll be able to go home and tell your kids, your grandkids, and your great grandkids that you sat through a sermon on doctrine and that you enjoyed it. So in closing, friend, it's my earnest intention not only to preach to you sound doctrine, but also to show you your need of it. And by the help of the Holy Ghost to give you a desire for it. Our shallowness in doctrine is the predecessor of our shallowness of living. Our lack of stable doctrine is the culprit of the instability that is in our lives. A man can never live beyond sound doctrine. I'm not talking about the crusty theology of university professors, but the living doctrines of Jesus Christ, God's son. So church, the character of God is essential doctrine. The gospel of Jesus Christ is sound doctrine. It's essential doctrine. Clothe yourself in it, test yourself with it, examine yourself by it, and give yourself to the proclamation of it. For in doing so, you'll save both yourself and those that hear you. Amen. You made it, Doug. It wasn't that bad, was it?