Are You in the True Church?

I'll talk while it's warming up. Maybe, I don't know if, for the web, if you can focus on the PowerPoint for a while. I'll probably be in this for about 10 minutes, and then we'll come back and talk about it. I don't really want to get ahead of myself, so I think I'm just going to wait. There we go. Okay. Let me just read to you. Sit back and let me read. Okay. God had a plan for the physical earth and physical mortal man before He ever created the earth. Before it was ever—and I'm not going to make comments on it, but I'll start off—before the world was ever formed or recreated for mankind, God knew what His plan was going to be. He knew He was going to create man, and He knew what the purpose for man was, a purpose that almost the entire world has lost sight of, but God has opened our minds to see. He created the physical earth as a temporary place. It can, and the Bible says it will be burned up when the purpose for it is complete. At that time, it will be replaced with a new heaven and new earth. God created the earth, as we know it, in six days. We'll get to the seventh day in a minute. God created man as a physical, mortal being on the sixth day of creation. Man was created with the potential for becoming immortal, but he does not have an immortal soul and can die an eternal death. Adam and Eve rejected God and His law and chose to govern themselves rather than being governed and led by God when they chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As a result, they subjected man to death and to be under the sway of Satan's way, which leads to death, rather than being subject to God and His way, which leads to life. Satan is a real, live, spirit being who is the adversary of God. He rejected God before man was ever created, and he is in opposition to God and His plan and people now. Satan is the God of this world. He has deceived all mankind, and he is dedicated to destruction, division, and death for all mankind, especially those who commit to and follow God. The Bible is the Word of God, and it contains all truth. It is the only source of truth on the earth, and it is profitable for instruction, correction, and direction. It shows us the way to live. God's people, those who He calls and those who choose to follow Him are sanctified, that is, set apart by living by every word of the Bible, including all ten commandments, just as the Savior and Messiah Jesus Christ did, leaving us an example that we should follow. We do not add to or take away from anything written in the Bible. If we love God, we obey Him as He says to obey.

We observe God's weekly and annual Sabbath. The weekly Sabbath was created by God on the seventh day of creation, and it is time that is dedicated to Him. No work is done on the Sabbath day, and His people gather together before Him and with each other, each Sabbath, in obedience and out of respect and honor to Him. We observe all the appointed times that God commanded His people to observe that are listed in Leviticus 23 along with the weekly Sabbath. His these days, known as annual Sabbath or appointed times, picture the plan of God and salvation for mankind. No work is done on those days, and His people gather before Him and with each other at these special times. Abraham was a friend of God and kept God's commandments and statutes. As a result, God blessed him and made a covenant with him that in him all nations would be blessed. That covenant promised physical blessings to his descendants and a spiritual blessing for the whole world. We believe that God still loves the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, known as Israel, and that He knows where these people are in today's world. David was a man after God's own heart. Because of David's loyalty and heartfelt commitment to God, God promised his throne would last forever. That throne still exists today, and it is the throne which Jesus Christ will take upon His return to earth to establish His kingdom.

Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah and Savior, who was God and was born as flesh and blood. He lived a perfect life. His life and suffering perfectly fulfilled all the prophecies of His coming recorded in the Old Testament, and His life paid the penalty for our sins. He died in our stead.

Jesus Christ died and lay in the tomb for three days and three nights, exactly as He and the prophets foretold. He was resurrected to eternal life, the first of the first fruits and the first born among those who dedicate their life to God and who are truly led by His Spirit. Because of His resurrection, we have the hope of eternal life.

Before Christ died, He started His Church based upon the truth of the Bible. He is the living head of the Church, which is comprised of those God calls and who respond to His call through true repentance, turning from their ways to His way and who are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. During the New Testament time, or Church age, which spans the time of the Apostles until Christ's return, God calls people from all nationalities and tongues. No one can come to understand the truth unless the Father who sent Christ calls Him. Upon baptism and the laying on of hands, one becomes a member of the body, the Church, and the Holy Spirit is imparted to Him or her.

After His resurrection, Christ was taken up into the heavens where today He sits at God's right hand. He promised to return again, and He will return to set up His kingdom on earth at the time the Father sends Him. Prior to Christ's return, the world will turn more and more away from God and morality and become an evil, lawless, and violent place. Because of her sins, the modern-day nations of Israel, known as the House of Jacob, will go into the time of Jacob's trouble as prophesied in the book of Jeremiah.

As Satan is cast down from heaven, knowing he has but a short time before the return of Jesus Christ to claim the kingdoms of this world as his own, Satan will wreak havoc on this earth, which will enter the time of great tribulation foretold by the prophet Daniel and Jesus Christ. In the year before Christ's return to establish His kingdom on earth, God will exact His wrath on the world in a time known as the Day of the Lord, during which time the seven vials ascribed in Revelation are fulfilled and the great armies gather for what is commonly called the Battle of Armageddon. At the seventh trump, Christ will return and slay the armies that are gathered to fight against Him. Those who lived and were led by His Holy Spirit, known as the firstfruits or the saints, will be resurrected and stand with Christ on the Mount of Olives at His return. Satan will be bound, and Christ will usher in a thousand-year period known as the millennium, wherein all people on earth will live by His laws and be under His government. The saints will serve as kings and priests under Christ. It will be a time of worldwide peace, joy, and abundance under Christ's righteous rule. At the end of the millennium, the rest of the dead, all those who have ever lived and died and who now are sleeping in their graves, they have not ascended to heaven or had any consciousness since their death, will be called the life by Jesus Christ. They will be resurrected, and their minds open to the truth of God. During the white throne judgment period, they will have an opportunity to choose God, represented by the tree of life, or Satan's or their own way, represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Those who choose God, determined by the choices they make, will live. All those who reject God will be burned up along with the physical earth, which purpose is now fulfilled, such as the second or eternal death. After the destruction of the physical earth, there will be new heavens and a new earth. God the Father will live on the new earth with those who overcame the world by the blood of the Lamb and who now have eternal life. Thus, salvation is made possible for all mankind by a loving, merciful, and patient God, whose will it is that all repent and receive eternal life. Thus, complete the purpose for mortal human life and the physical earth, the rest of eternity awaits those who yield to and serve God with all their hearts, minds, and souls.

Pretty succinct, but a pretty beautiful picture, isn't it? When you see what God had planned. When you see that before the foundation of the earth, He had a tremendous plan, a tremendous purpose in mind. For this planet, we call earth. For us who are mortal men. He has something in mind that we read about in the Bible and something that He wanted us to become, but our minds don't really grasp it. We just have faith that whatever God promised, it is going to be tremendous beyond what we can't even imagine in physical terms. You know, as I read through that, Artemy just wants to sit down and let you think about that for a while. But I want you to think about the love that God had for all of mankind, for Him to go through everything that He has for us. When you look around the world, the earth that we have and how beautiful it is, how it provides everything we need so perfectly, when you look at the patience that God has had with mankind and how they turned from Him right from the very beginning, even Adam and Eve, who He walked within the garden, who He created, who He personally taught, and they chose someone else. The patience, the love, the mercy, the compassion that God has had on all of mankind, is that He would still have this plan in place and that His will is that everyone would turn. Turn from their own way to Him is kind of miraculous in itself. It kind of defies our imagination to think that anyone could love someone, especially people who have disappointed Him so much and sinned against Him so much that He would do that. Our God is a very awesome God. Our God is a very loving God. Our God is very committed to what He set forth and planned before the world ever began. And for everyone in this room, He's opened our minds to understand that. Do we understand what precious knowledge it is to know what God's plan is, to know the truth of those things and so much more that we read in the Bible, to know what His plan is and to see how perfect it is? You know, you read through it and when you see what God has done, you know it has to be true because there isn't a man on earth or a group of men who could ever come up with a plan as perfect as what God has put together. There isn't. The best sixpin writer, the best novelist, the best researchers couldn't put that together. It is the perfect plan for a perfect God who had everyone's good interest, best interest at heart. And it's in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. You can't read the Bible and not see what God's plan is. You and I see it. But how many outside of the church see it? That also look at the Bible or claim they love the Bible or know the Bible. How many of them actually see the truth? Let's go back to Matthew 13.

Matthew 13. Christ preached that gospel. When He was on earth, what you just listened to, He preached that, and of course a lot more. The disciples after Him preached that. We preach it. It's the truth right from the Bible. In Matthew 13, verse 16, Christ, when He is talking to His disciples who wonder why does He speak to the people in parables? Why don't they understand what they're understanding? He says this to them, and He would say this to you and I as well. Blessed are your eyes before they see. Matthew 13, 16. In your ears for they hear. For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men decided to see what you see, and they didn't see it. And to hear what you hear, and you didn't hear it. What a privilege! What an honor! That God would open our minds to see the truth. That we have the peace and the settledness of living, knowing that God is in control, that God is in charge, and exactly what is going to happen.

Oh, there's a lot implicit in those steps. That isn't all fun and games. A lot of trials and a lot of hard times come on God's people, but He does it for a purpose all with us in mind.

The Bible says, you know, so many in the world, I just heard it on the news the other night, was talking about a child who had been killed, that she'll be an angel in heaven. No, that isn't the destiny of man. The destiny of man, the potential of man, is to be higher than the angels, it says in Hebrews. God is creating something, a class of spirit beings, that isn't there today. At some point, the 24 elders were created. At some point, the four living creatures, angels, were created. And God is creating, from mankind, someone, and a group that will work with Him for whatever He has planned for eternity. Our minds can't even grasp what it is. It's a tremendous, tremendous calling. And it's a beautiful thing, and I would challenge all of you when you're feeling down, when you're feeling despair and despair, think about God's plan. Think about what He has done. And I don't think you can possibly, I don't think you can possibly say upsets unless you're not living or giving yourself to God that you, in the way that you should. Because if we go on here in Matthew 13, at the end of the chapter, there's several parables that pertain to the kingdom of God because the world has been focused on the coming of Jesus Christ, the establishment of the kingdom, the completion of the purpose for this earth, the revealing of the saints. And here it talks about a pearl of great price or a treasure hidden in a field. Remember that? When you find something so valuable, you would sell everything that you have. Well, again, let me ask, is there anything more valuable than what you have been called to? Is there anything more valuable that you can even imagine on earth that you have been called, than what you have been called to, and what God has opened your mind to see the purpose for your life is? There can't possibly be. You're not thinking correctly if there's anything on this earth that is more important than that. And God would say, when you see that, when you find that great pearl of great price, you hold on to it. Just like Mr. Johnson said, you grasp it. You cling to it. You give your life for it. It doesn't necessarily mean, you know, someone with a gun up to your head. Give your life as in you yield your way to God's way and live the way He said to live. Give it up for Him. If you're thinking clearly and you know these things, you would not do anything to break the covenant that you made with God.

You know, God, at some point in our lives, looked down and said, I'm going to call Him, I'm going to call her. And so we began to understand there's more to life than just the things that whatever motivated us before. We looked into the Bible and we realized, whoa, this is far, far different. This is alive. This is God speaking. This is the source of truth. This all makes sense. This is what God is doing. And we responded by returning from our way, turning to Him, true repentance. We responded by entering into a covenant relationship with Him where we were baptized.

And we said to God, when we, at the time of baptism, I commit my life to you, wash away my sins. The rest of my life, you can write your principles, your ways, and my mind and my heart. And He put His Holy Spirit in us as a down payment of what He planned for us because He wants us to have eternal life. He put His Holy Spirit in us. God, certainly, has made us some tremendous promises.

When you read and what you know what He has given, look at the covenant that He offers us. I will give you eternity. I will give you things that you can't even imagine. The rest of eternity, you will be doing things that absolutely will just... we wouldn't even understand it if He told us. But we have our part in the covenant, too.

What is that? He says, if you want this, then when you entered into the covenant, then you need to obey Me exactly the way I said to follow Me. You follow Me exactly. Deuteronomy 12, verse 32 is very clear. You follow the source of truth. You follow the Bible. You don't add to it, and you don't take away from it.

The Bible is the source of truth. God says, you obey Me. Jesus Christ Himself said, if you love Me, keep My commandments. Follow My way. He didn't put any asterisks in there and say, well, unless you want to do this, I'll give you a pass.

No, He didn't say that. He wants us to strive for perfection. He's looking for us to become perfect. It's a covenant relationship. It's a relationship that God has called us into, and God is very interested in relationships.

He wants to know you and I well. He wants us to know Him very well, and He's built into our lives and into our week, even. Time for us to be together. We are with Him in the morning when we pray, when we acknowledge Him. That's time we spend with Him. He wants to, and it's pleasing to Him for us to acknowledge Him and come before Him in prayer.

Earnest, heartfelt, fervent prayer at times, other times, conversational, just talking to Him. Because He is our Father, He is the world, the universe's greatest counselor, He can give us the answers to our problems. He can guide us into what we need to do.

He can show us the right direction if we talk to Him, if we get to know Him and spend time with Him. When we open the Bible, when we look at the Word of God, when we absorb that truth, that pleases Him. It's a relationship. Time we're spending with Him. Time in a covenant relationship you would spend with someone if they were really important in your life. I tell people at baptism, this is the most important commitment you will ever make.

It lasts for eternity. The second most important commitment is marriage. What's one of the key things in marriage where marriages break down and partners no longer love each other? It's communication, right? Communication. They stop talking to one another. They stop spending time with one another. We can't do that with God. We have to continue to acknowledge Him. And you know He built into our week. Time for us to be with Him as well.

Every day we get up in the morning, we go to work. It's nice to spend time with our wife and our husband in the morning, have a cup of coffee. But you're out the door. You're doing something. You're not going to see them until the evening. But hopefully there's the time. But isn't it nice on the weekend where you have a whole day to spend with your husband or wife? Don't you just like that time together?

Doesn't it just make you feel good to be able to spend that time? You know, God created the Sabbath day because He wanted our undivided attention. He wanted to spend time with us. He wanted that time not to be encumbered by, you know, whatever the daily activities are that we go through. He said, get all those done ahead of time. And on the Sabbath day, you reserve that time for me. You and I are together. We're going to enjoy each other's companies. We're going to learn more about each other. And I want the whole family together because He's working with not just me or just you, but all the group of people that He has.

And He said, be here with me. Come where I want you to be. On this one day of the week, I've reserved it out of your busy schedules, out of your busy life. One day isn't busy. One day is reserved for God. You spend the time with Him.

I don't know. It doesn't seem like it's that much to ask, does it? For what God has offered us, it just doesn't seem like that much to ask to give Him the time that He wants, if we really are interested in Him, and if we really are committed to the covenant that He has given us. If we really want to spend the time with Him, because it is the rest of eternity that we'll be spending with Him.

If we don't enjoy it now, what makes us think that we would enjoy it later?

And so God had a great plan in mind, and He wanted to know people, and He called certain people out. John 17, 17, you know the verse. It says, Jesus Christ Himself says, sanctify them, set them apart by truth, your word is truth.

And in this day and age, He does call the people, and we are set apart by truth. We are different than people around us. We are different than other churches around us.

But you know, He entered into the same covenant relationship with Israel. And when we read the Old Testament, and I had planned the sermon before we even got into the book of Jeremiah, but it struck me last night that the book of Jeremiah is so much about how Israel and Judah just disappointed God, disappointed Him so very, very thoroughly. When He entered into a covenant relationship with Israel, He took them out of Egypt. They were going nowhere. They had no future. There was no prospects at all for them. And He took them out of Egypt, and He said, Israel, I will give you the Promised Land. I'll take you to a land flowing with milk and honey. No more slavery, no more bondage. He said, all you have to do, I'm faithful. I will give you this. All you have to do, Israel, is obey Me. Follow these principles, and all these things will happen. Guaranteed. And God guarantees He can make them happen. He's got the power to do it. Remember what Israel said in Exodus 19? Everything you say, we will do. We will do it all. They were there. Yes. How could we say no to this? But what was the history of Israel? What was the history of Israel and then Judah as the two kingdoms split? They betrayed God over and over and over.

They disappointed Him in every way, shape, and form. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 12.

He made it very clear.

Deuteronomy 12, verse 29. What could happen in this covenant relationship that God would never break because He's faithful. We can trust in Him that what He says He will do. In verse 29, Deuteronomy 12 says, I think the words are pretty clear. God says, if you love Me, that's what you will do. Israel didn't.

Throughout Jeremiah, as you're reading it, really throughout the history of Israel, and Judah, you see the term spiritual adultery. God is pretty graphic when He talks about Israel. Let's go back to Jeremiah 3 and just look at one of the many, many places you'll read and that you have read, and we'll read many more as you go through the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 3, verse 6.

Jeremiah, writing here, it says in verse 6, The Eternal said to me, in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what backsliding Israel's done? She'd gone up at every halmite high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. Pretty strong language. And I said, after she had done all these things, return to Me. But she didn't return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I put her away, and it gave her a certificate of divorce. You know, there's one thing that can break the bonds of marriage, maybe more than anything and as quickly as anything else. So what is that? In a physical marriage? It's adultery.

I haven't committed adultery. But I read, and I listen, and I've known people who have, and I've heard it said, and those of you who watch Dr. Phil, I'm sure he says it a lot. So when a man commits adultery, immediately his wife looks totally different to him than she did before. The bond is broken. The closeness is gone. He's done something to absolutely destroy that bond.

And he doesn't look at her the same way. And when she finds out, she doesn't look at him the same way. There's a bond in marriage. Text is a tremendous bond in marriage and should be. Reserved as that, acknowledged as that, and young people, when you get married, absolutely honor it and honor it before marriage as well.

When that bond is broken, it's very difficult to rebuild it. It can be. It takes patience and forgiveness for both parties. But that's what God says Israel has done to him. And Judah did the same thing. And God issued her a certificate of divorce. Broke the covenant. He didn't break the covenant. They did. How did they do that? Because they didn't keep themselves only to God. He gave them all these promises, all this knowledge, all this of the Bible. They didn't have the New Testament, but they had the Old. He said, if you just follow and obey, it will be well with you. But what did they do? It wasn't good enough for them. When they looked at other nations, they said, ah, you know what? I'd like to do that. I'd like to have that part of our ritual. God said, don't do it. Be satisfied with me. Don't be looking somewhere else. Ladies, can you imagine if your husband was always looking somewhere else and you weren't enough for him, it would be kind of depressing, right? Guys the same way. If your wife was always looking and thinking, oh, he's a better catch than my husband was, it'd be kind of depressing. It'd be a little disheartening and it would cause a problem in the marriage. Be happy and be true to the covenant. Israel wasn't. God said they committed spiritual adultery. And there is a big, big, big problem or a big possibility for all of us. Because, you know, we talked about the gospel that Jesus Christ preached. We saw a synopsis of it up there. He preached it. The disciples after him preached it. We preach it. You preach it. You know it. You believe it. You read it in the Bible. It should motivate us, inspire us, and keep us going. But along with that gospel that has all the hope and all the possibilities of the world, if you look in Matthew 13, I want to turn back there. You look at Matthew 13. We read about how if others, others that wanted to see what you want to see, and he talks about the Pearl of Great Price at the end of the chapter. You know what he talks about in the intervening verses there? He talks about Satan. I've given you all this. Look what your eyes can see. And then he immediately goes into the parable of the sower and the seed. Some people hear this, and they receive it with joy. It might last a few seconds, might last a few days, might last a few weeks, but something comes along because Satan is always there. He is the adversary. He doesn't want this truth out, and he's done a pretty good job of keeping it under wraps. The world has no idea of most of the world what you just saw on that slide and what you know. It has been well veiled, but you would think, given the beauty of it, the majesty of it, and the impossibility that it's anything of man, that it should be out there for the whole world to see. But Satan has kept it under avail. Satan will snatch away anything he can whenever he can in whatever way he has to. And Christ was saying, that some will hear it, they will be immediately glad, but then a care of the world will come up. And what will they do?

They'll commit spiritual adultery with Christ. They will choose to do their will rather than God's will. And when they do that, when they break a cycle, it's difficult to get back into that cycle.

Others will last a longer time. They'll begin to grow. They may be around for five years, ten years, twenty years, fifty years. Satan never stops trying. Satan never gives up. Not until he is bound will he give up trying to take you out of God's church. Not until he's bound will he give up trying to take your crown away from you. That's why God said, as so many verses you've already heard, hold fast to it. Know what's going on, pay attention to it, and don't let it be snatched from you. Because a real part of the gospel is, be aware of what Jesus Christ, or what Satan will do.

Now, we saw those slides up there.

And it's the truth, and I hope every single one in this room knows that's true. That's in the Bible. Can't deny it. That's exactly what it says in a paraphrased form.

How many churches on earth teach that gospel today? How many? One. Only the true Church of God preaches that gospel today.

A lot of churches will call themselves Christian. A lot of churches will say they follow Jesus Christ. Only the true Church of God preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. Only if you know of another one, well, you can't know another one. There isn't another one. Only one. Let's go back to Matthew 16.

Matthew 16. This chapter, Jesus Christ is beginning His Church. In verse 16, God the Father reveals to Peter who Jesus Christ is. When Christ asked Him, He said, You're the Christ, the Son, and the Living God. In verse 17, Jesus answered and said to Him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Peter didn't hear it from any man. He heard it from God the Father, and Christ knew He was working with him. How did you and I come to understand what we know? Because God the Father revealed it to us. It's Him who calls. It's Him. You may have heard the words of a man, but it was God the Father who unlocked the keys to your mind and unlocked the keys to the mystery of the kingdom of God. You heard it from God the Father as He called, as He opened your mind, as He revealed. Over in Galatians 1, Paul even talks about the gospel that he preaches. It wasn't revealed to him by man. It was revealed to him by Jesus Christ. Quite a calling. Quite a truth. Quite something that the rest of the world may wish they understood it, but they don't. So Christ goes on and says, because it sets the pattern for His Church who will be in His Church, those who God opens their minds. In verse 18, He says, "'I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.'" On this rock, referring to Himself, on this rock, bedrock, I will build my church. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul says, "'There is no other foundation one can lay but Jesus Christ.'" That's the foundation of the church He's building.

And interesting when you think about it, because Jesus Christ there was in the midst of a whole nation of people that would have said, "'They're God's people.' They're God's people, the Jews, a Judea of that day. They kept the Sabbath. They kept the Holy Days. They had the temple and they tended to it. They had the priests. They had, you name it, they had it.

Why didn't Jesus Christ say, "'I will build my church based on Judaism,' for instance?" Why didn't He say that?

Sometimes I hear people talk about Hebrew roots, but Jesus Christ didn't say, "'I will build my church on what's going on here today on this religion.'" He said, "'I will build my church on this rock,' referring to Himself." What was the church in Judea like at that time? Was it the true, if we want to use the that word, that term, was it the true church of God? Was it doing things the way that God's dead to do?

I think we see the church in Judea at that time wasn't the church. That's why Jesus Christ and the people of that day clashed so often. He was obeying God implicitly. He was doing exactly what God had said to do, yet the people of that day were doing something differently. It looked similar. They were keeping the same days. They said they worshiped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had the same Old Testament they were going from. It looked very similar, but Jesus Christ was in conflict with the people, the religious leaders of His day.

Let's go back to Matthew 12.

Matthew 12, verse 1. A verse that some use says, "'That time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath,' you remember this incident, "'and as disciples were hungry, they began to pluck heads of grain into eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, the people of His day, they said to Him, "'Look, your disciples are doing what's not lawful to do on the Sabbath.' "'Don't you think that if they were really doing what was unlawful to do on the Sabbath, "'Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life, who was establishing His church,' or a few chapters here in terms of chapters going to building His church, wouldn't He have said, "'I rebuked you whoever it was who was picking those grains?' "'But you know, you can go through the Old Testament. Nowhere do you find written in the law of God that it is unlawful to pluck a grain on the Sabbath. Nowhere is there command that specifically says that. It was something that the Jews had added to the law. As they tried to explain Sabbath-keeping, they added precept after precept after precept after precept after law after law after law. They had a whole system of oral laws. You can't do this. You can't do that. If you do more than this, you're breaking the Sabbath. God said, Keep the Sabbath holy. It's a delight. It should be a delight if we are communicating with God, if we're with Him, if we're doing what He wants. Jesus Christ didn't break the law here, but He was not going to honor the tradition of men." Over a few chapters in chapter 15, verse 1, we find a similar situation among many that went on in the Gospels. The scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? Why are they disobeying what we have set up? They weren't sinning. They weren't sinning against God. They weren't breaking God's law, but they were not following specifically the tradition of the elders.

And yet, in Judah in that day, those traditions were actually trumping the law of God. They held them more important than the law of God. Jesus Christ, in verse 3 here, says, He answered and said to them, Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? And then He goes through to give them the example of how they were breaking a law, honoring, putting their traditions, their ideas above what God's law was.

Now, to the Jews of that day, did the Jews of that day, were they honoring Deuteronomy 1232? Were they obeying the whole law and nothing but the law? Were they not adding to it or not taking away from it? No, they did a pretty good job of adding to it and binding people to it.

So there was some truth in what the Jews did. They kept the Holy Days. They did some other things. But there was also some error in it because they began to espouse their own ideas more highly than Christ. So Christ said, upon this rock, referring to Himself, I will build my church. Notice the future tense. I will build my church. From that time forward until the time of His return, I will build my church. And His church is sanctified by truth, built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

And when they enter into a covenant relationship with Him, they do things exactly the way that Jesus Christ said to do. Do it His way, not our way, not adding to it and not taking away from it.

Now let me go back to the truth. How many churches teach the truth that we talked about earlier today?

One, right? One church. The true church of God around the world. The people who are repented, baptized, follow Jesus Christ implicitly, preach the same gospel that you should here preach in this place, every Sabbath. If you ever don't, let me know or let someone else know something's not being said right, because that's what we espouse to do. One church teaches it.

How many churches in the world say that Jesus Christ is their Savior?

A lot, right? A billion, more than a billion people will tell you that Jesus Christ is the Savior, the Messiah, that He paid for our sins with His life. Let's go back to Acts 11.

Acts 11, as the gospel was spreading into the Gentile areas, Barnabas was one of them who, who, along with Paul later, were the apostles, or Paul was later the apostle to the Gentiles, Barnabas was there early on, and as he went out to Antioch and they began to see that God was opening minds of the people to the truth of God, a term came up here. Let's pick it up in verse 25 of Acts 11. Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. What were they teaching them? They were teaching them the gospel of Christ. They were teaching them how to love God and to obey Him. They were teaching Him the principles that you and I live by as well. For a whole year they were there, and the disciples—you and I are disciples today—disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Christians. So Christians were those who believed in Jesus Christ, who were taught the truth of Jesus Christ, the gospel that you and I talked about. We're taught to obey Him and follow Him exactly as Jesus Christ did to follow Him. And Peter said, Jesus Christ left us an example that we should follow. It says in Acts 4, 12, it is only by His name that salvation comes. So we follow Him if we really want what God has offered and if we really believe what God has offered to us is real. So that was the group called Christians. It wasn't a sect of the Jews, as some people think, and as the Jews sometimes like to think back then. It was a group started by Jesus Christ that called out people that He that would follow Him and that would give their lives, yield their lives to Him. How many churches in the world call themselves Christian?

A lot, right? A lot of churches call themselves Christian.

One church, only one church, the church that Jesus Christ started, preaches the true gospel of Jesus Christ, but there's a whole lot of churches out there and a whole lot of people that will call themselves Christian. Now, Satan is pretty clever. Satan is pretty clever, and he can deceive us in all sorts of ways. And here he's taken the name of Christ, the name of God, a group of the name of a group, Christians, and he's applied that to a whole bunch of people.

But do all those churches teach what you and I talked about earlier today?

No, they don't. I hate to say it, but if you came into this building tomorrow morning, you wouldn't hear. Preaching this building tomorrow morning what you heard preach today. If you go down the street to whatever church is there, next, you're not going to hear it.

If a church that calls itself Christian teaches anything other than the truth of Jesus Christ, that you know that is found in the Bible, it is not the church of God. It is not the church that Jesus Christ taught. Some will have some of the truth, just like the Jews of Jesus time had some of the truth, only the church of God. And that's not saying we or the church of God knows everything. God continually reveals things to us, but strives to live by every word of God. So if you go to a church and they preach that, for instance, the holy days are not necessary to keep, what would you know? You would know that's not the church of God.

If you went to a church and they said, oh, no, no, no, the Sabbath is too hard to keep, Jesus Christ did away with that, you would know that's not the church of God, no matter what they call themselves.

If you went to a church and they said, Jesus Christ will accept you just the way you are, just say this simple prayer and everything will be okay. If you would know that's not true, that's not what Jesus Christ said. He will call us in our faith, but he says, turn away from our ways into his way, truly repent and let him live in you and change you working toward perfection. If you would know, it's not the church of God. They might agree with the true church of God on several principles. You know, as we look at the aftermath of the recent Supreme Court ruling, there's a number of churches out there that would say the same thing we are. It's against the Bible, it's against nature, it cannot be, it should have never been happen, it should never happen in the United States. And we can find ourselves thinking, oh, look, they think the same thing we do on one point or maybe a couple points, but that's not what we look at. God has called us into his true and he's called us into a covenant relationship with him over in 2 Corinthians 11.

2 Corinthians 11 verse 2.

Paul says something that I would hopefully would all say about each other, and certainly I know that God says it. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2, I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. Godly jealousy. Not the worldly jealousy, whatever that is, but with godly jealousy. You know what? God is jealous. Remember he says that in Deuteronomy. I am a jealous God. I called you and I want you for myself. I want you to have everything that I've given you. I want to keep in that covenant. Paul says I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy. I want you to be in the kingdom. I want you to continue in the walk that you have. I want you to be what you can become. I don't want you to get distracted. I don't want you to get deceived. I don't want you to walk away. I don't want you to leave and lose hold or lose grasp of the crown that you have. I want you to hold fast to it right until the end. Don't let go of the most precious thing in your life. Because I'm jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as the chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, he says, lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, Paul's saying, you know what the truth is? You know who we preach. If someone comes and says something different than him, don't believe him. Even though he might have the right word, even though he might have the right name, you know, don't believe him. Or if you have received a different spirit which you have not received or a different gospel which you have not accepted. Paul says, I'm afraid you'll put up with it. It's the kiss of death. He didn't want people to leave. He wanted them to be there, just like all of us want each other to be there and not to lose hold. But Satan, as he says, is very, very crafty, very, very crafty, very cunning. He knows how to get our minds working, and if we don't watch out, we can fall into one of his traps and find the grasp we have on that crown just loosening a little more with each day, week, year. One of the ways—and there are many ways that we've talked about them—one of the ways is what we do or how we understand who we are. We are the church of God. We are God's people. I don't say that to be brazen. I don't say it to be arrogant in any way. It's simply the fact of who we are. God has called us and He has given us a tremendous opportunity. And we are different. We are Christians the way the Bible defines the word Christian. We believe in Jesus Christ and follow Him the way the Bible says to follow Him. And we can be tricked, maybe, if we think, oh, they follow Jesus Christ too. Why don't I just see what they've done? Would God really care? It's kind of neat what they do. Yes, He does care. Yes, He does care. He wants us to do things the way He wants.

Christ Himself said in Matthew 24 verse 23, I think it is, that if it were possible at the end of time, at the end time, even the very elect would be deceived by the false prophet. Remember that verse? That what He would say, the way He would say it, the wonders that He would do, the miracles He would work, that even if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived. You know what that means for you and me? We better know the truth. We better not dabble around and see how other churches are doing things and think that it is okay to just kind of, and that we're the same as them, because they call themselves Christians, we call themselves Christians, they call themselves the Church of God, we call ourselves Church of God, they believe in Jesus Christ and we believe in Jesus Christ. It is two different things, and God called you to be loyal to Him and to stay in a relationship with Him, and not to be running around, running around and seeing how other nations do things. Let's go back to these seconds, 2 John. I think 2 John captures it very well. One chapter in 2 John. Of course, John is the Apostle that walked with Jesus Christ until the very end of his life. He clung to the truth that he had. He taught many people, and in 2 John, here, the epistle, he is disappointed in people who have left, who have let go of the truth, that they were taught from the beginning. In the first verses here, he goes through that. Let's pick it up in verse 9. Whoever transgresses and doesn't abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. If they teach something different than the Bible teaches, they are not the Church of God. Plain and simple. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and doesn't bring this doctrine, don't receive him into your house. Now, we've talked about this before. Don't even receive him into your house. Don't dabble with him. Don't play with fire. My mom would use...don't play with fire. Don't receive him into your house. Little, many ways we've talked about we can receive him into our house. We can listen on the Internet to anything we want to hear anytime, day or night. We can turn on. We have dedicated TV channels that will just listen, that will just play church sermons for you forever and ever and ever if you want to listen to him. Don't even allow him into your house. For he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

If you have God, if you have the truth, why do you need anything else?

What does that say to God if you're not satisfied with what he has given you?

And you know, for everyone sitting here today, you're probably thinking, oh, we know all this. But you know, there are people who aren't sitting here today and who aren't sitting in a few of the other churches who didn't heed. And who thought it would be okay? It would be okay, right? They're friends. If I just kind of listen, if I just kind of go and visit, if I just listen to these things and then find all these things working up in my mind, that's different than what God said. That you can't say in the Bible. And you know what? It's spiritual adultery. And when that happens, minds shut. The truth doesn't look the same anymore. Don't play with fire. Don't play with your eternal life. Don't play with what God has given you. When you find the truth, as you've heard earlier today, as you hear it again now, cling to it. Go into the Bible. When you hear things, you go into the Bible, you look at it, and when you prove it's true and you ask God to show you what His truth is, cling to it. Hold fast to it. Count it the most precious thing that you could ever have in your life, because indeed it is.

Over in 2 Corinthians 6, Paul addresses this issue again.

So while you're turning to 2 Corinthians 6, I remind you of Luke 6 46. Remember the verse? That many in the world will say, with Christ's returns, Lord, didn't we call on Your name? Or no, I guess He said, Why do You call me Lord, and not do the things I say? Matthew 7, verse 23, many will say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do these things in Your name? He's going to say, I never knew You. I didn't know You. You didn't follow what I said. You were worshipping someone else and doing something else. Paul talks about this beginning in verse 11. He says, O Corinthians, we've spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open. You're not restricted by us, but you're restricted by your own affections. You are really enticed by that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, in return for the same, I speak to you as children who say, You be open. Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For You are the temple of the living God. You are. We are. Not because we're so great or we're so wonderful, but because God opened our minds to see us and for some reason called us. As God has said, I will dwell in them, and He dwells in us, and I will walk among them. I will be their God. They will be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Don't touch what is unclean. What is unclean? And I will receive you. Don't be enticed. Don't even touch it. You've got the whole truth. What more could you want? And if there's something you're missing or something you don't understand, please, please ask. Please, please ask. And I don't know. Or if I'm not giving you the answers, call someone else and say, Help me. I want to know. But don't let go of what God has called you to. And don't speak answers from someone else who isn't teaching the truth. What we read, or what we saw earlier today, was a beautiful, beautiful plan that God has made. The history of man and for time eternity, when we look back on the history of the earth and what God has done, will still be in awe of what God was working out below. We're all part of that. He wants us to be part of it now, and He wants us to be part of it for eternity.

Just cling to it. Cling to it. And don't let any, don't let Satan steal your crown by any deception things. There is just one true Church of God, and we are all called to do everything the Bible says and only what the Bible says.