The Bible Is the Word of God; the Godhead Is the Father, the Word--Express Image, and the Holy Spirit. All of Mankind Has Sinned; Man Brought Sin into the World. Hell Is Real--Fear Him Who Can Send You to Hell. Salvation Is a Person--the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. There Is a Resurrection: a Resurrection of the Saved and a Resurrection of the Lost. And, Jesus Is Coming Again, as He Has Promised.
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LearningTranscript
00:00That's good. Amen.
00:04That's a unique gift that the Lord God has given mankind. He can sing.
00:09Amen. Now if you have your Bible, turn with me tonight to the book of Hebrews.
00:14The book of Hebrews, chapter number 13.
00:20Last chapter of Hebrews, 13 verse 17.
00:28Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17.
00:32The divine text says, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves.
00:37Now watch carefully.
00:39For they watch for your souls as they that must give account.
00:45That they may do it with joy and not with grief.
00:49For that is unprofitable for you.
00:52Father, bless this book now.
00:54And give me wisdom in thy name I pray.
00:58Amen.
01:00I came to this church in 1976. I was young, only been saved just a very few years.
01:05I was saved in 73, so I've been saved three years when I came to Temple Baptist Church.
01:10Needless to say, I was greener than that grass out there on the field.
01:14I had a lot to learn. That was a long time ago.
01:17I made mistakes.
01:19I regret things I regret.
01:21Things if I could do it again, I certainly would do it again.
01:24Some of the things I made mistakes out of ignorance.
01:27Out of being led the wrong way.
01:30Instructed the wrong way.
01:32And some just plain stupidity on my part. Amen.
01:35But I learned.
01:38I began to settle in on my soul that I'm the pastor of a church.
01:41The bishop is what we call them.
01:44And as a pastor of a church, I'm accountable. I'm responsible.
01:47I have a responsibility to God. Yes, I do.
01:50A lot of people like authority, but they take no responsibility.
01:53They like to bark out orders.
01:55They like to tell people what to do, this and that.
01:57You've met them. Then they run.
01:59But I'm here.
02:01I have to answer to God.
02:03There's a vast difference between the two.
02:05As I ministered down through the decades, I learned.
02:08I learned a lot.
02:10I learned a lot from experience, a lot from reading.
02:12Been to a number of schools.
02:14Done a lot of study and so forth.
02:16I don't get into all that stuff.
02:18Bottom line is, I've learned a lot.
02:21I've learned a lot.
02:23What I'm going to give you tonight are the things that I believe.
02:25These are things that I believe.
02:27I don't believe them because they're Baptist doctrine.
02:30I don't believe them because someone coerced me into believing them.
02:33I don't believe them because they're supposedly the right thing to believe.
02:36I believe them because they're part of me.
02:38This is ingrained in my, as you might say, it's part of my DNA now.
02:43If you notice, the apostle says over here in verse 17 that they must give an account.
02:48I'm going to give you a few things.
02:50This is in no wise exhaustive.
02:52You can't do that.
02:54All you have to do is get on the internet.
02:56Do a few searches.
02:58Get into some web pages of churches.
03:01They'll say that these things we believe, statement of faith, are all fine.
03:05This is all fine.
03:07But you'll find some of them are long.
03:09Some are short and so forth.
03:11I'm going to start with the scriptures.
03:13I believe the Bible is the word of God.
03:15I believe it's the word of God, folks.
03:17I hope that by the time my ministry is finished and I've finished my course and I'm gone from this world,
03:24I will have never left in your mind doubting of the scriptures.
03:29I hope that you have a firm foundation built in your soul to where when someone stands before you
03:35and begins to point out mistakes and errors and mistranslations and so forth and so on,
03:41that you scrutinize that person.
03:44You be as the Bereans were.
03:46You search the scriptures.
03:48You find who is this guy.
03:49What's the point?
03:50I mean, what is this leading to?
03:52What's the idea?
03:53And when I say I believe the Bible, this is the authorized version of 1611.
03:57All right?
03:58You say, well, what did God do for the word of God before that?
04:01What's he done with the word of God since then?
04:03The word of God is there, folks.
04:05The word of God is there.
04:06This King James translation is for English-speaking people.
04:10Before this was ever translated into English, Martin Luther translated it into German and so forth.
04:17And this, of course, gets into the doctrine of manuscript evidence.
04:20As I've said to you before, if you're going to take it upon yourself to call out mistranslations of the Bible and errors and so forth,
04:27you need to know two things.
04:29You need to know them.
04:30You need to know Greek.
04:32Now, what you read in some commentary, you need to know it.
04:35And then you need to know manuscript evidence.
04:38You need to know what you're talking about.
04:40And don't try to get up and impress people with something where you have a clue that you're talking about.
04:44That's sad.
04:45I know that may sound mean from me, but the point is I learned this down through the years.
04:51And I fully trust this book.
04:53I do.
04:54I believe it.
04:55I believe that Bible.
04:56And I believe verbatim, word for word.
04:59Here's what Paul said to Timothy.
05:21Now, the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible,
05:28were written by Moses.
05:30The Pentateuch is accepted by the Samaritans as Scripture.
05:34And how many has ever heard of a Chirite Jew?
05:37Some of you have.
05:38I've taught on them before.
05:40A Chirite Jew rejects the prophets and the writings and only accepts the Pentateuch as the Word of God.
05:49And they reject the oral tradition.
05:52The oral tradition of the elders.
05:55And the oral tradition is what they had 2,000 years ago when they said that, sure, God gave the law to Moses in written form.
06:03But the oral law, which became the basis for the Mishnah, is far greater and far more important.
06:10So what's Paul referring to here in 2 Timothy 3?
06:15What's he talking about?
06:16Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.
06:18See?
06:19What do you have in your hand?
06:20Well, of course, I believe Genesis through Malachi.
06:23I believe all three parts that make up the Old Testament, the law, the prophets, and the writings, are inspired Scripture.
06:30I believe that.
06:32Inspired means, by the way, God breathed.
06:35Theos noustos is the Greek for it.
06:37Noustos is that form of pneuma, breath.
06:42Theos, theos, God's breath.
06:45God breathed these words.
06:48The second thing is about the Godhead.
06:50Now, I believe that about the Scriptures, folks.
06:52Now, you know, I hear people all the time quoting mistakes and pointing out mistranslations and all of that.
06:57I've checked them out.
06:58I'll check them out.
06:59I'll check them, check them, check them.
07:01And they have no authority for it.
07:02The Godhead.
07:04In 1 John 5 and verse 7, here's what I believe about the Godhead.
07:08For there are three that bear record in heaven.
07:11This is what John said.
07:13The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
07:16And these three are one.
07:18Let John define the Word.
07:20In the Gospel of John, chapter number 1, the beginning was the Word.
07:23The Word was with God and the Word was God.
07:26The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
07:28So who's John talking about?
07:30The Lord Jesus Christ.
07:32All right.
07:33So there are three that bear record in heaven.
07:35The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
07:37The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
07:39And these three are what?
07:40One.
07:41All right.
07:42So I believe that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost make up what's called the Godhead.
07:48But here's something that it took me years to really get a hold of and learn.
07:51Hebrews chapter number 1 and verse number 3.
07:54Now you have many who support the deity of Christ.
07:57And of course I'm one of them.
07:58No question about that.
07:59No question.
08:00But this is one of the strongest statements in the Bible.
08:03It doesn't get any stronger than what I'm going to read to you from Hebrews 1 and 3.
08:06This talks about the incarnation of Christ.
08:09It talks about when Christ, God, became a man.
08:13Who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person.
08:18And upholding all things by the word of his power.
08:23When he had by himself purged our sins.
08:27Sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
08:31Now who do you think that was?
08:33Lord Jesus, right?
08:35We've located it.
08:36Well don't you notice the word, the image of his person.
08:39All right.
08:41If you look that up in Greek it's hypostasis.
08:44All right.
08:45It's what's called the hypostatic union.
08:47What's that mean?
08:48Well the word itself is hard to translate.
08:51So the translators, the King James translators simply said this is the person of God.
08:56Essentially what it is saying is this is the very essence of God.
09:01So he's giving you something that we can relate to.
09:04What is the essence of God?
09:05God's a spirit being.
09:07Right?
09:08He's a spirit.
09:09The Bible says that.
09:10God's a spirit.
09:11Do we know the essence of a spirit?
09:13No we don't.
09:14I've told you a thousand times.
09:15We do not know the essence of a spirit.
09:17What is the essence of life?
09:19Spirit.
09:20The Bible says the body without the what?
09:22Soul is dead?
09:24Or the body without the what is dead?
09:26Spirit.
09:28The spirit is the essence of life.
09:30God therefore is the essence of life.
09:32Do we know the essence of life?
09:34No.
09:35But we know the fact that God is the very essence.
09:38Who is he?
09:39He's an almighty, eternal, everlasting, absolute being.
09:47That's God Almighty the Father who manifested himself as God the Son 2,000 years ago
09:55and came into a world, a temporal world of existence.
09:58He did that.
09:59But when he left this temporal world of existence,
10:01he went back into the eternal world in the very presence of the Almighty.
10:06So the Lord Jesus Christ is the very image of the essence of God.
10:13In plain words, he is the essence of God.
10:17There's no stronger statement in the Bible as to the deity of Christ.
10:21There's not a Jehovah's Witness walking the face of this earth that could handle that scripture for a moment
10:27because they deny the essence of Christ being the essence of God.
10:32The Jehovah's Witnesses, and they're not original with it,
10:35Arius taught this in the first century after Christ.
10:38It's called the Arian heresy,
10:41and this is one of the reasons for the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.
10:46He was teaching that the Lord Jesus Christ was a created God.
10:50Arius taught that a long time ago, long before Judge Rutherford ever started it in the 1800s.
10:56And, of course, his disciples today, which are the Jehovah's Witnesses,
10:59they're not the only ones that deny the deity of Christ.
11:03Christ is God manifest in the flesh.
11:07In Romans chapter number 5, this is what I believe about man.
11:10Now, look what it says, Romans 5 and verse 12.
11:13Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
11:21and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
11:26Now, who is this man?
11:28How do we locate him? Who is this?
11:31Who brought sin into the world?
11:33Adam did. Not the woman, but the man.
11:37Because the Bible says plainly that the man, not the woman, was made in the image of God.
11:44Did I just make a bunch of people mad? Hope not.
11:48It wasn't said to make you mad.
11:50It was said to make you think.
11:53The Bible's a book that'll make you think.
11:55Yes, it will. It'll make you think.
11:58It in no way denigrates a woman or makes her second to the man,
12:02but it shows you the essence of how we came into being.
12:06So, the Bible says man brought sin into the world.
12:12Not the angels, not the cherubim, nor the seraphim, but the man.
12:17Now, is man original with sin? Was he the first one to sin?
12:21No.
12:23The angels had sinned long before man had ever sinned,
12:27but man brought it into the world.
12:29All right, now turn to Matthew chapter number 10 and verse number 28.
12:34Matthew chapter number 10 and verse number 28.
12:39In Matthew chapter 10 and verse 28,
12:42these are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
12:45There is no higher authority.
12:47These are his very words.
12:49Matthew chapter number 10, verse 28.
12:53Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul,
12:57but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
13:05Did you read that?
13:07Luke chapter 12 and verse number 5.
13:10He said, I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear.
13:15Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell.
13:22Yea, I say unto you, fear him.
13:26Now, there's a lot to be said about hell.
13:28This is not a message on hell tonight.
13:30All the aspects of it, the perspectives of it, the time of it,
13:33this, that, and so forth and so on.
13:35But I give you two simple statements.
13:37I believe in hell.
13:39So why do I believe in it?
13:40Because Christ said plainly, fear him that can cast into hell.
13:47You have to understand that sometimes your emotions and your feelings
13:52get involved in things.
13:54And you wonder, well, why would such and such a person go to hell
13:57and this one here go to heaven?
13:59And you judge people by the way they live, the life they live.
14:02But that's not what determines whether you go to heaven
14:05or whether you go to hell.
14:07What determines that?
14:08God does.
14:10And he's the judge.
14:11Now I want you to look at salvation.
14:13This is what I believe about salvation.
14:16Luke 2, verse 29.
14:20Simeon, an old man, he'd been in the temple all of his life
14:24waiting for the consolation of Israel.
14:27Luke 2, verse 29.
14:30Simeon said, Lord, now let us, thou thy servant,
14:34depart in peace according to thy word.
14:38For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
14:44He didn't say, mine eyes have seen the way to salvation.
14:49He didn't say, mine eyes have seen a salvation.
14:53He said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
14:57And what was he looking at?
14:58What's he talking about?
15:01He's talking about a person.
15:03Now you can go to 1,000 churches and get 1,000 different ways of salvation.
15:07You can get living a good life, salvation reward for a good life.
15:10You can get water baptism.
15:12You can get church confirmation.
15:14You can get everything under the sun.
15:16And they all have their ways, their methods, this, that, so forth and so on.
15:20The Baptist briders say, unless you are baptized by one of our duly appointed,
15:25duly a church of like faith and order, that's the word they like to use,
15:29you haven't really been baptized.
15:31And if you don't belong to a church of like faith and order like one of our churches,
15:35you're not even a member of the body of Christ
15:37because they teach that the only body of Christ on this earth is a local assembly of believers.
15:44Not so.
15:46You are not baptized by the Holy Ghost into a building or a group of people.
15:51You are baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ.
15:54Amen.
15:55And he said, upon this rock I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
16:00Baptists are notorious for splits.
16:04If you've been around a Baptist church a while, you've been in a split.
16:10And they split, and then they split again.
16:12And they fragment, they split again, they meet together, and they split again.
16:16And the ones who thought they loved each other split again, not too far away, down the road.
16:20And on down the road they go.
16:22And first thing you know, sometimes they'll split until there's nothing left in the building.
16:27So if you're a Baptist brider, where's the church?
16:30What happened to it?
16:32You see what I mean?
16:33No.
16:34No, the church is not a bunch of people that you're looking at inside a building.
16:37The church are the souls in that building that are born again.
16:40And they are in the bodies of some people in this building.
16:43Amen.
16:44So I believe in salvation.
16:46I believe it's a person.
16:47He that hath the Son hath life.
16:49And he that hath not the Son hath not life.
16:51But the wrath of God abideth on him.
16:53Salvation, therefore, is to receive life.
16:56To receive life is to receive Christ.
16:58To have Christ alive in your soul is to be born of the Spirit of God.
17:02He that hath the Son hath life.
17:05He that hath not the Son hath not life.
17:08Now, resurrection.
17:10John chapter number 5 and verse number 28.
17:13Here's what your Bible says.
17:15Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth.
17:23They that have done good unto the resurrection of life.
17:26And they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.
17:30There is a resurrection of the saved.
17:33And there is a resurrection of the lost.
17:35In Acts chapter number 24 and verse number 15 it says this.
17:39And have hope toward God which they themselves also allow.
17:43That there shall be a resurrection of the dead.
17:46Both of the just and the unjust.
17:49I do believe in a resurrection, folks.
17:52I do believe there is going to be a resurrection.
17:56A resurrection is not a reincarnation.
17:59A resurrection is to be raised up.
18:02Alright?
18:03To be raised up from the dead.
18:05From out among the dead.
18:08From those that are dead.
18:10One would be raised.
18:12Lazarus was raised from the dead.
18:17From out among the dead.
18:19The rest of the dead remain dead.
18:21But Lazarus was raised from the dead.
18:24That's what a resurrection is.
18:26The book of Acts 24 says both of the just and the unjust.
18:30The book of 2 Corinthians chapter number 5.
18:32When you get into the resurrection.
18:34You can go much further with it.
18:36Here's what he says.
18:37We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved.
18:41We have a building of God and house not made with hands.
18:44Eternal in the heavens.
18:46Now folks.
18:47You live long enough in this house.
18:49It's going to dissolve while you're in it.
18:52So you keep that in mind.
18:55If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked.
19:00For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened.
19:03Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon.
19:07That mortality might be swallowed up of life.
19:11Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing as God.
19:15Who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit.
19:20Do you have the Holy Ghost?
19:22You have him.
19:23You know him.
19:24He's in you.
19:25This is one of the greatest, sweetest things there is in this life.
19:28Because when I raised my head up on that sofa.
19:32In my brother and sister-in-law's living room.
19:35When I raised my head up.
19:38Somebody moved into me that was not in there before.
19:42And I knew it.
19:43Amen.
19:44And that is the earnest of the spirit.
19:46That simply means it is the down payment and surety.
19:50The guarantee that what he hath done for you.
19:54He hath begun a good work in you.
19:57He will perform it.
19:58He will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ.
20:01Therefore, we are always confident.
20:04Knowing that whilst we are at home in the body.
20:07We are absent from the Lord.
20:09For we walk by faith, not by sight.
20:12And we are confident, I say.
20:14And willing rather to be absent from the body.
20:17And to be present with the Lord.
20:19Amen.
20:20And this is such comfort.
20:21It is great comfort with me.
20:23Because I cannot count.
20:27There's no way I could tell you tonight.
20:29I have no way to remember.
20:31Of the times that I've walked into hospital rooms.
20:34Into the rooms of homes.
20:36Places where a dead body was lying.
20:39I have been there many times.
20:42Make no mistake about it.
20:43Many times.
20:45And when I look at that, it's a dead body.
20:48It's an empty house.
20:50There's nobody home.
20:51There's nobody there.
20:53They're gone.
20:54They're absent from the body.
20:56They are not the body.
20:58They're through with it.
20:59They've left it behind.
21:01But the Bible says they are present with the Lord.
21:04Amen.
21:05I have never.
21:06And I've been to the graveyard so many times.
21:08There's no way in the world I could count them.
21:10I have never buried any soul out here in the graveyard.
21:14I've buried plenty of bodies.
21:16I've never put a soul out there in that graveyard.
21:19They're gone.
21:20They're with the Lord.
21:22If they know the Lord, they are.
21:24And then there's finally the second coming.
21:28This is one of the first verses that I memorized when I got saved.
21:31John 14.
21:32He said, let not your heart be troubled.
21:35You believe in God, believe also in me.
21:37Do you all believe in God?
21:40In my Father's house are many mansions.
21:43If it were not so, I would have told you.
21:46I go to prepare a place for you.
21:48Yet if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you into myself.
21:55That where I am, there you may be also.
21:59That's a blessed promise.
22:01I will come again.
22:04How many of you believe he came the first time?
22:06Oh, there's no question.
22:07There's no question.
22:08He came the first time.
22:10Remember I've told you the archaeologist is your friend.
22:13The archaeologist is one of the greatest friends you have.
22:15He's working night and day.
22:17And every bit of dirt he overturns or rock that he moves or whatever.
22:23I have never seen anything ever cause doubt of the scripture from archaeology.
22:30Every bit of it.
22:31Every last bit of it supports this Bible.
22:35And I'm thankful for that.
22:37Amen.
22:38So the next time you see an archaeologist and he's doing his work, that's your friend.
22:43He's not your enemy.
22:44You have nothing to worry about.
22:45Nothing whatsoever.
22:47He said, I will come again and receive you into myself.
22:50When I got saved, I didn't know that there was a postmillennial, amillennial, or premillennial.
22:55I didn't know anything about a rapture.
22:56Didn't know anything about the mysteries of God we find in the Pauline epistles.
22:59Didn't know any of that.
23:01But I didn't know John 14 because I memorized it.
23:04He said, I'll come again to receive you into myself where I am.
23:07There you may be also.
23:08Well, he's coming again.
23:10Now, we hear a lot of people saying, well, preacher, you know, the Lord's got to be coming soon.
23:14There's no way in the world we can be going through what we're going through.
23:17And the second advent of Christ, it's got to be imminent.
23:22He's got to be coming soon.
23:25Well, he may be.
23:26He may be.
23:27And my hope is that he does.
23:29With all of my heart, I pray he does.
23:32But he may not.
23:34A day with the Lord is as 1,000 years and 1,000 years as a day.
23:38We know that from studying the Bible.
23:40And therefore, my little vapor, this passing shadow of life, of my few decades on this earth,
23:48is nothing compared to him that liveth forever and ever.
23:52But he may come in my lifetime.
23:54What a blessed thing that would be.
23:56And I could get into a thing tonight about the second advent,
23:58about the mysteries revealed to the Apostle Paul,
24:01about what we should be looking for
24:03and how quickly he could come and catch us up to meet him in the clouds.
24:10But this is one thing tonight that I firmly believe.
24:13I'll come again to receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
24:19And I'll say, as the Apostle John said on the Isle of Patmos,
24:22when he finished up that book, he said,
24:25Even so, come.
24:27Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
24:29Even so, come.
24:31Well, he came the first time.
24:33There's no doubt about it whatsoever.
24:35No doubt whatsoever.
24:37And he will come again the second time.
24:39I believe these things.
24:41There's a lot more that I could put in here that we believe.
24:43The fact of the matter is, when you get into the things that you believe,
24:46you could talk forever and just keep adding to it like an artist.
24:49Some artist doing a beautiful painting or something.
24:53They think they're finished and then they'll go home and they'll come back and look at it.
24:56Well, I need to work just a little bit more on this over here and that over there.
24:59And sometimes they have a hard time quitting.
25:03And they've got a beautiful piece of artwork that they put their time into.
25:08And the more you study, the more you learn, the more you believe, and the more you know.
25:13And I say to you tonight, even so, come, Lord Jesus, come.
25:18And I'll lay my head down tonight.
25:20And I'll lay my head down.
25:22And Lord willing, if I make it home, and I do, I'll lay my head down in peace.
25:28I'll sleep, rest.
25:31And if I don't wake up, I'll meet you by the river.
25:37Yeah, I'll meet you by the river.
25:39I'll be there.
25:41I'll be there.
25:42Will you be there?
25:44Amen.
25:45You can't sleep any better than that, folks.
25:47You can't rest any better than that.
25:49I'll meet you by the river.
25:51He's coming again.
25:53And I'll receive him to myself that where I am, there you may be also.
25:59Father, bless your word, the time we've had studying it tonight.
26:02Bless it to the hearts of the people.
26:04Father, I told them not what I thought they wanted to hear, what they needed to hear.
26:09I told them what I believe.
26:13And you know my heart.
26:15And you know what I believe.
26:18Father, tonight I pray it be a blessing to each one of them.
26:22In Jesus' name I pray.
26:24Amen.
26:26All right.