Doctrine

[0:00] 1 Timothy 4 verse 1 2 Timothy 4 verse 2 2 Timothy 4 verse 1 it says,

[1:01] In the lands of times some shall depart from the fathom. Getting here to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. 2 Timothy 4 says, They will not endure sound doctrine.

[1:13] They shall turn away their ears from the truth. Shall be turned unto fathoms. It tells us about doctrine. Paul says, Preach the word with all longsuffering and doctrine.

[1:24] So doctrine is important. What is doctrine? Who knows? What is doctrine? Teaching, isn't it? Simply teaching. God says doctrine matters.

[1:35] God says that in the lands of times there's going to be doctrines of devils. That sounds pretty drastic, doesn't it? Pretty drastic. Diabolical teachings. And the word tells us that a time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine.

[1:51] We desperately need good sound doctrine. Good sound doctrine is important for us. That's why there's teaching. You have teaching here at the other place. Teaching.

[2:02] It's very important. Be a student of God's word. Our Lord foretells a time of falling away. When there will be a falling away. A great deception. An apostasy.

[2:14] Lukewarmness is going to prevail. It's going to be a hallmark of the last days of the church of God. A time of apostasy. And apostasy. I looked up the definition of apostasy.

[2:27] Apostasy. It means a rebellion. A defiance. Of an established system of authority. A breach of faith. It means going astray from the true teachings of the Bible.

[2:38] So we're talking about doctrine. And apostasy. And apostasy means going astray from the true teachings of the Bible. Now we love the Bible.

[2:48] We love God's truth. We love what is true teaching. And we must hold fast to that. And in the Bible we see the Lord warns us so many times.

[2:59] He warns about these times that we live. And I know there's training going on here about many false teachings that prevail. There's many very nice, well-meaning, genuine people who will knock on your door and try to sell you a gospel that's not a biblical gospel.

[3:17] And the Lord tells us. He says, watch out for wolves. He said to the early church. He says, watch out for false prophets, for false teachers, for false teaching, for false gospel.

[3:30] And he warned about damnable heresies. So heresies that are condemning and destructive, dangerous, unbiblical teachings. These are things we should take heed and look out for and be aware of.

[3:44] Be very aware of. The Word tells us of a spirit of truth and a spirit of error. In 1 John 4 verse 1, John writes, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God.

[3:59] Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. And in 1 John it tells us of a spirit of error and a spirit of truth. We want to be sure we've fallen in the right one, don't we?

[4:11] It's very important that we do. And there's many, again, they might have been well-meaning people. You know, Joseph Smith, when he knelt down and he had a vision and was all nice and shiny and bright.

[4:24] And he heard a voice. Maybe he did hear a voice. Maybe he did see a vision. Maybe he even saw an angel. Wow. Wouldn't that be something that you should believe? If an angel comes to you and tells you another gospel, should you believe it?

[4:37] No, sir. God's very plain about that. Test the spirits. Try the spirits. Absolutely. And so we must search out and find biblical Christianity. These are dangerous days we live in.

[4:50] And it's sad to see these cults prevailing in many quarters. And we must search out the Bible for the truth. As did the Bereans in Acts 17. It says they were more noble than those at Thessalonica.

[5:01] In that they received the Scriptures with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so. They received the Word with all readiness of mind.

[5:13] They searched the Scriptures whether these things were so. They checked the Apostle Paul out. So you better check me out tonight. Amen? Amen. Check out the preaching. Check out the teaching. Search the Scriptures.

[5:24] That must be our guiding light. And it's vital for us to test everything by sound doctrine. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 21 it says, Prove all things.

[5:37] It's the same kind of thing. Try, prove, test, check, prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good. Fact is there are two kinds of doctrine.

[5:49] Two kinds of doctrine. Sound doctrine or sick doctrine. Now I'm not saying sick is a good thing in this context. Some of you might think, oh, this church is really sick.

[6:01] We want it to be, we don't want it to be as in the lukewarm kind of sick. Okay? And there's a sense whether it's sound doctrine or sick doctrine. Because that's actually what it kind of means.

[6:11] Sound doctrine means wholesome, healthy doctrine. Yep. It's the opposite of the opposite of healthy and sound is unhealthy, unwholesome. Sick.

[6:22] Amen. Sick doctrine. So it's important we learn to distinguish between the two, the false and the truth. The sound and the sick doctrine. And sadly many in these days are biblically illiterate.

[6:35] Biblically illiterate. So it means that they're not studying the Bible. And so when someone knocks on their door and they have a nice smile and they give you some nice, colorful, you know, high quality gear.

[6:49] And a nice, shiny Bible. Nice pictures. Nice pictures. They can be very easily swaying for some because they're not grounded in the Bible. And so they easily fall prey to false teachers and teaching.

[7:04] And the church has been dumbed down. Dumbed down so much that in some quarters you don't get the Bible talk. It's like all fanciful talk.

[7:16] It's not biblical teaching. And so people are suffering because of that. Because of a neglect of doctrine.

[7:26] And so we see many false teachers running rampant. Many of the popular TV preachers today, in fact pretty much all of them, are suspect.

[7:38] And we need to be very guarded and careful about them. Now the Lord says in 2 Peter 2 verse 3, are some who will make merchandise of people. You know, they send us your love gifts.

[7:49] Send us your, you know, you can get a little bottle of holy water from the holy land if you send a donation of $50 to our ministry.

[8:00] And, you know, God's going to bless you if you give to me. That's what they're like. And the Bible says in 2 Peter 2 verse 3, they're making merchandise of people. That's what they're doing. Just like the Bible said they would.

[8:12] And the antidote for the sick church is sound doctrine. That's what we need. It boils down to a need for the Word of God. The Word of God. We need the Word to discern.

[8:25] We need the Word for our nourishment so we can grow. We need the Word to bring us true freedom. In John 8 verse 32 it says, You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

[8:36] It will make you free, the truth. So we call to obey the Bible. Jesus said, If you continue in my Word, then are you my disciples indeed. Continue in my Word.

[8:47] Very important. So this is where the question needs to start. The Bible. The Bible. The only true source of authority is the Scriptures.

[8:57] It's our only source of authority. Not some hierarchical church structure with the Pope at the top of it or whoever else it might be who's running it. The true source of authority that we need is God's Word.

[9:12] The Scriptures. And our authority is not set by the changing views of what people think is a good idea. That changes and changes all the time, doesn't it? Fashions and fads. We have those in churches too.

[9:24] I've seen some churches where the fad was dancing. Or the fad was slaying in the spirit. Or the fad was people spewing out demons. Or the fad was people carrying on in lots of different ways.

[9:37] Or the fad was a particular kind of style of music. And then another style of music. And then the top of the Pope's preacher was this guy. And then the next week it was another guy. And you had to go over to a certain place to get the uniting.

[9:49] And then the uniting was in some other place. And people were chasing this here and there and everywhere. And all of these fanciful things. The authority is not the changing idea of what people think is a good thing at the time.

[10:01] It's not what's popular at the time. It's not what people want is our authority. It's not what the Pope says. That's for sure. We know that what is true, we know what is true by searching the scriptures.

[10:14] We must do that. I urge you to that. And check out what is taught. Especially when it's taught. For me, check it out. Don't take it as gospel. Check it out.

[10:25] Does it measure up? And there are false sources of authority today. Human philosophy is one. Human tradition. Human feelings and emotions. Human reasoning.

[10:36] People follow those as their source of authority. And they get in all kinds of trouble. Or whether it's the latest prophetic announcement from the mounds. Or the supposed apostle of the day.

[10:47] Of the particular denomination. These are false sources of authority. We need something that's consistent and unchangeable. The word of God.

[10:58] This is our authority. We need to watch out for false teachings and false teachers. In 2 Peter 2 it says, There shall be false teachers among you. And as a church we want to stand for some things, don't we?

[11:10] As a church, as God's people, in this place, in this body, we want to stand for some things. For some things. We have God's authority. If we can stand for this authority.

[11:22] For God's word. The Holy Bible. Faithfully translated for us here in the King James. We believe every word of God is true. The word of God is here.

[11:33] We can hold it and know it's right and true. And it shows us what's right. It shows us what's wrong. It shows us what's false. And it shows us what's true. The Bible is our perfect authority.

[11:44] Perfect, pure, infallible for judging things. What is right and wrong to discern truth from error. And as a church we stand for the Bible. We stand for Christ.

[11:55] We stand for Christ and his blessed gospel of salvation. We stand for every sound doctrine that's taught in God's word. We stand for it without apology. We stand for the New Testament church that was founded by our Lord and established.

[12:09] And we're a part of it. We're a part of that remnant that's been right through history. The faithful remnant. The faithful godly seed. The faithful people of God.

[12:20] That suffered and died and bled for this book to be in our hands today. People who loved God enough to stand against the establishment. The established church of the day. Non-conformists. People who stood and died for the gospel.

[12:34] True. And we believe we stand for the preaching of the gospel. We stand for reverence and godliness in our worship. We stand for what is right and true with other men and women of God down through history.

[12:46] We stand and walk in that tread. And we love God's word. We stand in its defence in these evil times. We stand for true Christian homes with sweet godly wives and caring providing husbands.

[12:57] We stand for these things in this day when it's under attack. You are under attack. You that have a godly home. You that have a godly marriage. You are under attack. Because the enemy wants to destroy that which is good.

[13:10] And we stand for what is right. And what God stands for. We stand for the word of God. We stand. We're men and women of the word. And we stand for some things. Now we have perfect revelation.

[13:23] Perfect revelation. That which is in part has been done away. Sadly many have erred following after supposed visions and so called special revelations and special truths.

[13:34] People like Mohammed. Special revelations. A special message. People like Joseph Smith. Ellen White. Kenneth Copeland.

[13:45] And many of these faith prosperity teachers and preachers. Men and women. For all their talk of visions and new revelations. They are truly the blind leading the blind. When they are going astray from this.

[13:57] We know it's wrong. We don't need some latter day apostles and prophets. Imposters. Charlatans. And frauds. It's through the lens of the Bible that we can see the truth clearly.

[14:09] We must have the Bible as the lens. This is our authority. We can trust God's word. We can take him at his word. And we stand for it. Stand for strong teaching.

[14:19] Preaching. Hard preaching. Faithful. Faith building ministry. We need that today. In this wishy-washy world. We need faithful Bible instruction. Sound doctrine.

[14:31] Sound doctrine. So just some thoughts around that. I just thought of some little pictures I can paint for you today. About sound doctrine. Sound doctrine. And one little tangible picture I'd like you to have in your mind is a loaf of bread.

[14:52] Unleavened bread. Unleavened bread. It illustrates sound doctrine. Sound doctrine. As we think about the church we like a loaf of bread.

[15:06] It describes the church as a loaf. In fact, I can't think of that scripture. A woman and a wood meal. How does it go? With a woman and a wood meal. Yeah.

[15:17] I'm thinking of that one in 1 Corinthians where it says, you're one bread. I think it does say that. You're one loaf or one bread. And so we think of the church as described as bread.

[15:29] Unleavened bread. So it speaks in the word of God about a batch of dough. Of bread. And our Lord speaks about the false doctrine of the scribes and Pharisees as being leavened or yeast.

[15:41] He talked about the error of the scribes and Pharisees as being like yeast. Now, in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 6 he says, A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

[15:54] A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Purge out therefore the old leaven. Leaven in the Bible, it speaks of a number of things. But in this context you could think of it speaking of sin or of error.

[16:09] And just an easy-wingsy little bit. Wouldn't hurt, would it? No. Yes. Just a tiny little bit of leaven in the lump. God says, A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

[16:23] A whole loaf of bread is leavened by just a little bit of leaven. A little bit of yeast makes that dough rise and makes it into a tangible loaf of bread.

[16:37] Shaded though, he makes bread. So, and we'd say, a loaf of bread. And Paul says, purge it out. Get rid of it. Don't tolerate it. And so, leaven of error is dangerous for the church.

[16:56] Truth is more important than anything else. Separation is something that this talks of. So, some people these days, they tune out of the Bible.

[17:08] They'd rather hear some preacher go on about some supposed visit to heaven. Or some extra-biblical revelation. And that's when we get in trouble, people.

[17:19] When we get, when it's all about such things as that. And it's getting away from the more sure word of prophecy. We get in trouble with that. When man-made feel-good philosophies or such things replace the Bible as the authority.

[17:37] And so, now some people would say, well, oh look, you know, maybe we could get around that. Maybe we can make allowances. Maybe we can excuse. Just a little bit. It's only a little, only an eensy-meensy bit of leaven.

[17:50] Or maybe they'll say, well, you know, there's black and white and there's sort of in between, you know. As if there's nothing black and white. There's nothing, this is right and this is wrong. As if there's nothing we can stand for anymore.

[18:03] That's how we see it. How far he is. At times, exactly. And nobody cares anymore about what's true. And you might get called judgmental if you actually, you might tread on someone's toes or say something.

[18:15] Well, this particular preacher taught this. And that's not in the Bible. You know, this can happen. Or these particular practices that are common in some circles.

[18:28] It's not in the Bible. Like slaying in the Spirit. You can search here all your life and slaying in the Spirit isn't in here. So there's certain things that people just accept them. It's the dumb thing. It's kind of the fanny thing.

[18:39] But they are not biblically grounded. And some people might say, oh look, you're being too judgmental, preacher. You're being too judgmental, speaking up. But David said in Psalm 119, Therefore I esteem all my precepts concerning all things to be right.

[18:57] And I hate every false way. David said he actually hated that which is false. And that's pretty strong, isn't it? Isaiah said, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it's because there's no light in them.

[19:11] He was pretty heavy too. Pretty strong. Straight down the line. Black and white. Our Lord Jesus was black and white. There was no mistaking way taught. As were Peter, James, Jude.

[19:21] There was a distinction between right and wrong. But nowadays there's a spirit of compromise. A spirit of compromise. Where it's overtaken the church. And you just blend together.

[19:33] You know, it's just one big happy family. And parent church movements, just follow the crowd. Just go with the flow. Just drift along. I think of that picture of like a boat floating down the stream.

[19:47] Peacefully floating down. And everyone's having a nice laid back on their nice pillows. And maybe having a snore. Peacefully floating down to the rapids. Just down.

[19:59] Yonder. I've heard it say, if you go with the flow, just be careful where the flow is going. All right. So, you know, church growth gurus are teaching preachers and churches.

[20:12] Just embrace the culture. You know, let's just have a hodgepodge smorgasbord. And people pick and choose the bits they like and the bits they don't like. And that's why we're having so much trouble.

[20:23] And churches are falling over like dominoes to this kind of, this chaotic spirit of the world. That's just invaded the church.

[20:33] And we don't contend earnestly for faith anymore. And I say today, enough is enough. Enough is enough. It's a day of compromise. And we need to stand for something.

[20:44] So let's be that bread that's unleavened. Amen? A bread that's unleavened. That leaven has been removed. That which is doubtful, we don't want to touch.

[20:55] It's even a tiny bit of it. And so, Paul says how false doctrine spreads like a cancer. Now, I don't know whether you've had a bit of a, I had one on my hand one day, something that looked a bit doubtful.

[21:09] And I went down to the doctor and got it cut off. Alright? When there's something doubtful, you want to deal with it, don't you? When it could kill you. Cancer. Two-to-one thing two, Paul says false doctrine spreads like a canker or like cancer.

[21:23] It's like gangrene. Now, I've visited someone in hospital lately and he's got a skin-eating disease. It's not a pretty sight. Not a pretty sight. Weeping and pussy and bleeding and festering and spreading and sore.

[21:38] And, you know, when it goes to the nth degree, you end up having to get your leg cut off you. This guy got pretty close to that. Gangrene. And Paul says that these false teachings can spread like a canker, like cancer or actually gangrene.

[21:55] And I've heard gangrene, this is what someone calls it. It's when a disease is in a body, in some part of the body, when it's inflamed, so corrupted that it continually spreads, attacks other parts and at last it eats away the bones.

[22:09] It's dangerous stuff. It cannot be tolerated. It's like cancer in a human body. False doctrine. We must cut it out. And so, I must be guarded. You must be guarded.

[22:19] We must be guarded about the teaching that we partake of. In Ephesians 4, Paul talks about people tossed to and fro like a storm, a boat in a storm.

[22:31] Tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine. And rather, let's grow up into him. So, we've seen that picture. Just get in your mind's eye that picture of bread.

[22:43] Unleavened bread, right? Another picture tonight, another picture is a bride. A bride. A bride. Okay. Bread.

[22:56] Unleavened bread speaks of separation. A bride speaks about purity. Purity. You know, when you see the bride and you see the wedding, a marriage, it's something that's beautiful and pure and precious.

[23:15] And the Lord says that his church is pictured as a bride. It's beautiful. That's how Jesus sees you and me as his people, as a bride.

[23:28] To be pure, glorious, spotless. God wants us to be that picture today of a bride. God wants us to be that picture today of a bride. And yet we see false doctrine, in effect, it spoils that purity that God wants his church to have.

[23:46] It spoils it. Paul says, if someone brings another gospel, people like Mr. Smith, Mr. Joseph Smith, let him be accursed. That's pretty strong, isn't it?

[23:58] Let him be accursed. We want to guard the purity of the church. I'm sure that your heart is that, that we want to guard the church. As, you know, when we want to stand guarding a bride.

[24:17] Protecting her purity. And we want to be like that with God's church. Amen. God's word is pure.

[24:29] Paul talks of a time when people corrupt the word of God. And he tells us you should have boldness to preach the word. We can be unashamed of the gospel.

[24:43] Yet false teaching dilutes that. Perverts that. It taints it. It spoils it. It infects it. And we should be guarding against it. So protect the church.

[24:53] There's that sense that the church would be the pillar and ground of the truth. So it should be like a building. It's like rock solid. It's grounded. It's got a firm, strong foundation. And it's built as a pillar.

[25:05] It would be standing straight and tall and true and sound. Sound building. And a sound church. So God's calling out people for his name. Faithful, fruitful people.

[25:16] We've seen the bread. Unleaven. It speaks of separation. We've seen the bride. It speaks of purity. And thirdly, another picture to think about doctrine today.

[25:27] A battle. A battle zone. The battle that we are engaged in, brothers and sisters. As a church, we stand against some things.

[25:38] It's a battle. It's a battle for the truth. The battle lines have been drawn. They've been waged on many fronts. Here's some ways that people have talked about what they put down as six major kinds of heresies.

[25:51] This is someone's list. There's probably a lot more than this. Or we could argue how many there are. But this is someone's list of six. Six heresies.

[26:02] Heresies talks about deviations from the truth. One is heresies about revelation. Revelation. So they distort, deny or add to scripture.

[26:14] False claims of apostolic or prophetic authority. Extra-biblical revelation. Revelation. It's when people say, I've got a word from the Lord for you. Okay, where is it? This is it here.

[26:26] This is the word from the Lord for you and for me. It's right here. Some people, and I've been in places and heard preachers like this. And someone laid hands on me and prophesied over me and said, I'm going to go to Murray Bridge.

[26:43] I haven't been there yet. It was a false prophecy. It was a false prophecy. You've got to be careful about, thus saith the Lord. Be careful if you say something.

[26:55] Let's be very careful about revelation. This is the revelation we need. And the revelation is in contrary to extra-biblical revelation.

[27:06] That's where we end up following Ellen White and the Mormons and who knows who else. And the latest guru who comes along, who calls himself the preacher of the gospel.

[27:17] Revelation. Heresy is about God. About God. They're promoting false gods or idolatrous distortions of the true God. We want to get right about God. Theology. The doctrine of God.

[27:28] The doctrine of God. Heresy is about Christ. The doctrine of Christ. Some people deny his unique lordship. They deny his genuine humanity. They say that Jesus is just a good prophet or a teacher.

[27:40] Heresy is about Christ. Heresy is about salvation. Number four. Teaching legalism. On the one hand. Oh, you've got to do this. Got to do this. Got to do this. To keep your salvation.

[27:51] Or to do this. Or do that. Or on the other side of the coin. Licentiousness. So anything goes. You know. One, two, three. Pray after me. Then live like the devil.

[28:02] You know. You've got legalism and license. And these are both heresies about salvation. They're denying the gospel. Heresies about the church.

[28:12] You know. Some. They just reject the church. The church is precious. It's a bride. It's us. It's you and me. It's God's people. Framed and grounded together.

[28:25] Another heresy is heresies about the future. Heresies about the end times. False predictions about. You know. We had some fellow that was talking about. Jesus was going to come back. How many months ago was that?

[28:36] A couple of years ago. Someone was saying that Jesus was going to come back on a particular day. Heresies about the future. Claims that Christ's return has taken place. Some people say I am the Christ.

[28:47] We've got people like that in Australia. Heresies about the future. So the word calls us to a battle. It's a battle when these things happen. You've had some training about these cults that are around about to prepare you to face them.

[29:01] But the fact is we're in a battle. A spiritual warfare. And Jesus says through his word through Jude. He says you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

[29:15] It's a spiritual battle. You know. You have an enemy. An enemy. And he's committed against you. And look. I can say some good things about the devil. I can say some really good things about the devil.

[29:27] He's a hard worker. Amen. Amen. He's always going about seeking who he may devour. You know. He's got quite an appetite. You know. He's slavering at the chops. And he's got his eye on you.

[29:38] Yeah. He wants to devour you. He muts you up. And eat you up for breakfast. Yeah. Alright. You've got an enemy. He's committed. He's a hard worker. We'll give him credit. Yeah.

[29:48] Because he's always roaming around. Seeing who he's going to devour. And friends. It's a spiritual battle. We're fighting spiritual forces.

[30:00] And thousands have suffered and died so we can have sound doctrine. And yet these days it's almost like doctrine is a dirty word. Oh. Doctrine. You're getting legalistic talking about doctrine.

[30:10] No. We should get. This is the law of the Lord. This is God's truth. We should get serious about it. Take it seriously. You're called to this fight. It's a fight of the faith.

[30:22] And it may get costly for you. People might say. Oh. They might mock you and label you and reject you. Because the faith is under attack. It's under attack today.

[30:32] And so we must contend for it. It means fight for it. Combat. And so we see a spirit of truth and a spirit of error. Don't believe every spirit. Try the spirits. False doctrines are demonically driven.

[30:46] What did we read earlier on? Doctrines of devils. Dignotic. Diabolical doctrines. Driven by demons. And so we've got to very carefully measure such things.

[30:58] What is the spirit behind it? What is the spirit behind some of these things? You see some of these movements that have only been around 100 plus years. You think. Wow. Does that measure up with historic Christianity?

[31:10] We've got to question. Be very careful. God wants us to be strong. A strong, sound church. Call out heresy.

[31:22] The signs are all around us. There's a shallow gospel. That's very popular. There's a lot of so-called holy laughter. And bizarre signs and wonders that are going on.

[31:34] People go to some places and you see it on the internet. Feathers fall from heaven on the people. Or gold dust sprinkles them. And they have these amazing things.

[31:46] Or oil starts to come all over them. And then they go and get them tested. And it's a bit of shiny plastic from down the shop. It's not God. It's not. These feathers and gold dust.

[31:56] It's not in the Bible. That's why we've got to be careful, people. Amen. We've got to be careful about bizarre things that are not in the Bible. And don't treat doctrine as a dirty word.

[32:06] It's actually what we need. We need doctrine. And it's not unloving or judgmental to once and have the truth. When we see this global ecumenical movement, it's another sign of the end days, this one world church where anything goes.

[32:22] Just be a big blend. A big blended group where we can hold hands with the Catholics who created Mary and call them our brothers and sisters.

[32:32] No, they're not. If they're worshipping Mary and such things, we cannot cosy up to the Church of Rome. In the old days, they were the ones killing us. And now they're just a little bit more cunning about it.

[32:45] Friends, there's a need for separation. People, you might think this might be a bit something you've not heard. I'd like to try to explain. If you'd like to challenge me later and you question what I'm saying tonight, there's a need for walls for safety.

[33:00] In Nehemiah's day, a city without walls was exposed and in danger. And a separation has to be there between what is God-ordained and what is not.

[33:13] A divinely ordained wall of spiritual protection. And there's a valid place for that. Where there's a wall that keeps us safe from that which is untrue.

[33:28] Because what we're witnessing, as I say we're in a battle, what we're witnessing today is treason. Treason. There's a preacher who's reputed of old, who says, To pursue union at the expense of truth is treason to the Lord Jesus.

[33:47] We see today, we hear about people going over to the Middle East and then coming back radicalised and could endanger our own people here in this country and undermining our law of government and way of living.

[34:01] And it's the same here where some people are joining forces with the enemy. It's treason. People used to get shot for that in time of war.

[34:12] And treason has been defined as the crime of betraying your own country, attempting to kill or overthrow the sovereign or government. So when we join hands with the devil, we're actually fighting against God.

[34:26] So we've seen the Bible is our lens through which we see the truth. We've seen the bread, that lump of dough that should be guarded and protected, the separation, not infected with the leaven, the yeast of error.

[34:46] We've seen that we should be a church that's a bride, prepared for our husband yet to come. When Jesus comes, he wants to come for a glorious bride without spot or wrinkle. We're all pure and glorious.

[34:58] And we see that we're in a battle for the truth. It's a battle ring. It's a spiritual warfare, a conflict against a spirit of error in all its guises. So we need to be that people with sound doctrine.

[35:12] Friends, think of sound doctrine. Just to get a grip on this just a bit further, sound doctrine. What is sound doctrine? It's doctrine.

[35:23] It's teaching that's founded on the Bible, not on fanciful other thoughts or views or philosophies or what's popular or what makes people feel good.

[35:34] Now, some churches, it's all doctored about what makes people tune in to the radio station. That's how they judge what kind of music they play and such things.

[35:45] A preacher of all said this, how we can test whether something is true or false. And this is a good guide. Good guide. Just get a hold of this.

[35:56] Two simple questions. Whether something is true or false. Number one, does it glorify God? If so, if it be so, it is true.

[36:09] If it glorify God. Number two, does it exalt man? Does it exalt man? If not, it must be false. If it exalts man.

[36:21] It's a good little guide, isn't it? Right judgment and wrong judgment. And people say, don't judge. But there is rightful judgment. There is rightful judgment. Righteous judgment. Judge righteous judgment.

[36:33] And the Bible is the way to do that. So memorize the Bible. Study it. It's good to put it in your heart. Very important to ground yourself in God's Word.

[36:44] Check out the teachings that we receive. Beware of Latter-day Revelation. About salvation. About God. About the Church.

[36:55] About the Scriptures. About the great truths of regeneration. Regeneration of holiness and such things. And watch out.

[37:05] Because we've doctrinally, we're under attack. And friends tonight, I just want to urge you to think how. How can I be more careful about where I'm going and what I believe.

[37:20] This is our only solution, really. The more that we get in the book, the more that we get in the book, the more we'll be safe. All right? I urge you tonight to get in the book.

[37:32] Get in the book. Come to studies. The studies here. Tuesdays. The studies Wednesdays at the other location. Study. To show yourself approved unto God.

[37:44] A work minute. A work minute.