What Factor is Essential in Young Adults Becoming Pillars in the Church?

Certainly want to thank our choir for a very lovely selection. We certainly appreciate the fact that a number of our young adults were also part of the choir. We also had, I think, one that was a little older than a young adult that I saw there on the end, but we're very happy to have him as well. Some of us in the room remember when we were young adults, right?

Not all of us can be young adults. Some of us remember when we were. But anyhow, I did want to, again, just express our appreciation for being able to host this weekend, for being able to host all of you young adults. And again, we just hope very much that we are providing an atmosphere for you to enjoy warm fellowship, great social interaction, and stimulating spiritual fun.

For the rest of us who have not been a part of this weekend who are not young adults, I just want to give you a little bit of a background as to what we're trying to accomplish this weekend. If you turn to 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15, once again, the young adults have heard this. We heard it today a couple of times. We'll hear it again right now. But there is a keynote scripture that we are taking a good, long look at and emphasizing during this weekend.

1 Timothy 3 and verse 15. And you know what's interesting? Who is Timothy? Timothy was a young adult. He was a young adult who had his grandmother in a church, his mother in a church. He's in a church. Now, I'm kind of curious, as I was putting my thoughts together, for our young adults who are here, I'm betting the great majority of you are second gen, third gen, fourth gen.

I'm curious how many of you are at least second generation Christians or more of our young adults. Look at the numbers. Interesting. Interesting the way God does that. 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15, breaking into the thought, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. Now, as you're looking at that scripture, there are a couple of phrases there. There's a linkage there that I want to take a good long look at, and we're going to see as we go through the material today, my material today, that we're going to see this linkage over and over again in scripture.

Notice it says how you were to conduct yourself, and then at the end of the verse it says, in the pillar and the ground of the truth. So we see two items there. We see something regarding doctrine, the ground of the truth, but it's got to be connected to how we live our lives, how we live our lives, our spiritual purpose for the weekend, as stated in the literature that was sent out to our young adults, to encourage our young adults into developing as faithful pillars built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in order that the truth and faith that was once delivered is upheld for the next generation.

Of course, we heard a wonderful Bible study earlier today by Mr. May discussing that, the idea of developing as pillars. We just heard that message. But again, we see linkage between what we learn, what we're taught, and how we live our lives. We've got to have both. Got to have both. Last evening, Mr. Bradford talked about why the church will prevail until the end of the age.

He discussed those two points. Mr. May, as he went through the wonderful Bible study earlier today, talked about the faith was once delivered for all. We need to keep at it with our young adults. You know, I just turned 68 here last month. I'm one of the younger old guys. I'm one of the younger old guys. We very much need our young adults to do what you have been doing and step up even more.

You've been a great example in so many ways in terms of what you've been able to accomplish. I've always been impressed by what you've been able to accomplish in terms of the social interaction between different Church of God communities. You've been a wonderful example. You've been done very good with that. But we don't want to just stay there. Of course, you know you don't want to stay there. Many of you have done so well in what I'm about to discuss with you today. That is talking about the need for being strong doctrinally. Being strong doctrinally. Again, if you don't feel you've been as strong there, no reason why we can't become stronger there. Now today, I'm going to take a focus to some degree on the book of Titus. As Timothy was a young adult, Titus was a young adult. Now it's interesting, the two different men, one was a third-generation Christian. Titus wasn't. Titus was first gen. Either way, God used young adults in the scripture for some very powerful things. And again, there's no reason why no matter where you live, what you're doing, what your occupation or educational level is, there's no reason why you, as young adults, can't have a tremendous impact in the society around you. Where you work, your neighborhood, your family, and so forth. Now, to give a little bit of context to the book of Titus, just a little bit of background. The book of Titus was written by Paul. Of course, Paul was a champion of God's truth. He was a champion of God's doctrine. If you turn to Titus chapter 1, Titus chapter 1, I'm going to read this from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Titus chapter 1, from the Holman Christian Standard, Paul, Titus 1-1, Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to build up the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness. Again, that linkage, truth, doctrine, that leads to godliness.

So Paul's writing the book. That's part of his philosophy of why he's writing the book.

The audience, the setting in the audience, is the island of Crete. It's the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean, just south of the Aegean Sea, southeast of Greece in the Mediterranean. It's an island, a long skinny island, 160 miles long, 35 miles wide. The society of Crete was much like our society. Crete had a dubious reputation in the Mediterranean world. Epimeneides called them liars, evil beasts, and slow bellies. Paul wasn't concerned about, you know, some of these fellas like Epimeneides and Paul weren't concerned about being politically correct. Leonidas said that Crete are always brigands and piratical and unjust. Paul quoted some of this in the first chapter, verse 12. They're not going to go there. But Paul also realized that that church, the Church of God, had God's Spirit. And when they knew the doctrine and understood the beauty and the meaning of the doctrine, that their lives could change and their conduct would follow as they understood the doctrine. Expositor's Bible commentary in talking about the book of Titus says this, In Titus, Paul stresses worthy Christian conduct and insists that Christian conduct must be based and regulated by Christian truth. Conduct regulated by truth, by doctrine. They go hand in glove. Continuing with expositors, nowhere else has Paul more forcefully urged the essential connection between evangelical truth and the purest morality than in this brief letter.

So, Titus, a young adult, was a Greek convert. You know if you want to put this down in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 3. He had a very special relationship with the Apostle Paul. Paul referred to him as a true son, referred to him as my brother, referred to him as my partner and fellow worker.

As a young adult church leader, Paul sent Titus to Corinth to an undisciplined and struggling body of believers in a pagan environment. Titus's first assignment was to resolve the tensions between Paul and the Corinthians. So this is a man-sized job. This is a tremendous job that this young adult has been given. Titus was so successful there that Paul sent him back to collect money for from the Corinthians for the church in Jerusalem. In the letter to Titus, we find Paul had sent Titus to Crete, an area known for its violence and immorality. His task was to straighten out that which was unfinished. You know, Paul was able to do some things, but he wasn't able to finish all the tasks he wanted to do. There was a need for the appointment of elders in the area. And Paul asked Titus, our young adult church leader, our young adult elder, to take care of that task.

The book is probably written around 64 AD. You know, we believe that Paul probably died somewhere around 67 AD. So this is toward the very end of the apostle Paul's life. He's writing to Timothy. He's writing to Titus. He's writing to two young adults. He's saying, these are things that need to be done in a church, and here's what you can do to help along with that. Sound theology and church discipline were imperative in Paul's mind, and he made sure he kept on hammering that thought over and over, both to Timothy and Titus, right living through the careful attention to biblical truth. Again, over and over again in those books.

So let's turn—I've not done it yet, but you've probably done it—let's go to Titus.

Titus chapter 1. Let's take a look, and I'm going to do more of a survey here because I want to get to something after we've looked at Titus. Titus chapter 1.

Again, reading this in the whole and Christian Standard Bible. Paul, the slave of God and the apostle of Jesus Christ, to build up the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to Godliness. How do we build faith, young adults? How do we build faith to all of us in the room? We build faith through a knowledge of the truth. We build faith through a knowledge of God's doctrine. I'll talk more about that as we continue to work our way through the material here, especially toward the second half of the sermon. Dropping down to chapter 1, verse 5, Paul says, For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things which are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I have commanded you. There was a need for unified teaching of the doctrines of God, of Jesus Christ, of the Scriptures, so that the people would be faithful, so that people would be strong.

So here are some qualifications. If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. For a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God, not self-will, not quick-tempered, not given to wine or violence, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled. Now, notice verse 9. Holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught. Essential for a pillar to know the truth, to live the truth as he has been taught.

You know, there's all sorts of doctrines in the world. The Bible talks about different kinds of doctrines. There's the doctrines of demons. There's the doctrines of the scribes and Pharisees.

Politically, we've got the Monroe Doctrine. Some people talk about Trump's doctrine. All kinds of doctrine in the world. But we want the doctrine that comes from God. The doctrine that comes from Scripture. And Paul wanted Titus, a young adult, to make sure there was proper leadership in the local churches so the people would know what was expected of them, how to behave in the household of God, as we read there in Timothy, and how they can grow. Hold, verse 9. Holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught. That he might be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

The people there, in Crete, had come out of society. Their society was a corrupt society. You and I can relate to that. Our society is a corrupt society.

There was a need for sound doctrine to combat that society. Nothing has changed for us today. There's a need, young adults, there's a need for all of us to understand sound doctrine. So we can be a pillar. So we can be a help.

Chapter 2. Titus chapter 2, verse 1.

But as for you, Titus, speak to things which are proper for sound doctrine.

Now what we're going to read in some of this chapter here, chapter 2, is how people can be mature as Christians, no matter the age. We're going to talk about older men, older ladies, younger men, younger ladies. But what does Paul say is a basis for growth? Paul says, as he's writing to Titus here, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. Again, the linkage over and over, sound doctrine must combine itself with our actions. Sound doctrine teaches us how to act. Verse 2. That the older men may be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, sound in the faith, in love and in patience. So here we see a number of qualities here that we all would like to have, we all desire to have and work toward having, being sober, being reverent, being temperate, loving people, patient people. But what does it say here? How do we get there? We get there through being sound in faith, sound in the faith, sound in doctrine. Verse 3. The older women likewise that they may be reverent in behavior, not slanders, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. So we're looking at wonderful character here, that they may admonish the younger women. Now notice the younger women.

What are they to do to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands? Notice why. That the Word of God may not be blasphemed. As we are looking toward the doctrine, as we're looking toward the Scriptures, we look at those Scriptures, we understand those, we employ those in our life, and we have these wonderful character traits that come along as a result of properly understanding the doctrines of the Bible, the doctrines of Scripture. Verse 6. Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded. Young men to be sober-minded. In all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works. In doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned. The one who is a poet may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. So again, young men, older men, younger women, older women, bottom line statement, know the truth, know the doctrine. And as you know those doctrines, as you practice those doctrines, then you will be leaders in the church. And not everybody needs to be ordained to some capacity, brethren. Young adults. We're not saying here that we're wanting all of you to be deacons, deaconesses, elders. We are saying we do want you to be solid Christians. You know, in my experience in the church, and I'm kind of like Titus, I wasn't born into this, but in my experience in a church, I've had plenty of help, plenty of good encouragement and counsel from God, first and foremost, but also from my peers in the ministry. But probably most of the encouragement and help I've had in my life, regardless of what stage I was in in terms of ordination, has been from rank and file members of God's church. Why that? Well, because there's more people who aren't ordained. But over the course of the time, when I think about the various issues that a church has been going through in my 50 years of coming to church, when I think about my personal issues that I've wrestled with, so many times it's been somebody who is unordained to any capacity, but just a solid Christian who's come up to me and said, you know, Randy, I see you're struggling with something. Can I offer a word of advice? Absolutely. A word of advice is given. And thankfully, I heeded most of that. And I learned and I grew because we had people in church, many times young adults, who saw some things. God's Spirit is working through you.

And as it works powerfully through you, you've got things you can accomplish. You've got things you can say. You can make a contribution in this church. You know, if you are ordained sometime, fine. Fine. That's not what we're trying to get at here with this series of sermons and lectures.

I don't know where—okay, I think maybe I didn't read 9 and 10, verses 9 and 10 of chapter 2. Exord bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. So verses 9 and 10 for today—you know, back then they were talking about slaves, but today we're talking about as a worker. You know, your conduct—you should have the proper conduct so that the doctrine of God could be properly adorn, properly viewed, properly looked at. As I made mention earlier, I have been very happy as I've looked at our young adults over the years. And of course, young adult is a moving group of people. You know, once upon a time I was a young adult. But you know, we've got Psalm 133 verse 1. I'll just read it for you. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

And you folks in front of me—this group right here—now we've got some young adults scattered through the group, but we've got a large group right here, a chunk, very good at the social interaction. I would want you to be just as good. And I'm not saying you're not, but if you feel that you can improve great in terms of having a stronger understanding of doctrine, the various doctrines of the Bible—and there are so many of them. Let's look at Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. I think Mr. Bradford may have quoted this last evening.

You know, he gave a wonderful study as well. Acts chapter 2 verse 37. You know, here we've got Peter. He's giving this inspired sermon, and he's giving this inspired sermon. People were—they were being inspired. And we cut to the chase here in verse 37. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? What shall we do? You know what's interesting to me?

Two thousand years ago, the way God worked with his kids, they were convicted. They realized they needed to do something in their lives. They went to the ministry, and they said, what shall we do?

Chances are, when poor you were baptized, you went to a minister somewhere, wherever you were living, and you said, I've come as far as I can go with God working with me. I need to have God working in me. What must I do? Two thousand years later, God's still working the same way. What must I do?

And it says here, then Peter said to them, repent. Repentance is a doctrine of the church.

Repentance talks about how we live our lives, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Baptism is symbolic of our faith. Faith is a doctrine.

What I'm getting at is doctrines relate to our conduct. It relates to our salvation.

And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promises to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God, will call a doctrine. Who's being called? How are they being called? When are they being called? Verse 14, with many other words, he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be safe from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received the word were baptized, and that they, three thousand souls, were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. They were good at the social thing, but they also continued in the apostles' doctrine.

And the church grew powerfully. The church grew wonderfully.

You know, when you take a look—and I'm not going to do it here—but when you take a look at the phrase sound doctrine, and you go through and you look at the Greek there, sound doctrine implies something that's healthy, something that's complete.

Our beliefs, our doctrine, a doctrine of the Scriptures, should make our lives better.

Doctrine should not be a black cloud that hangs over us. Ideally, we can't wait to have somebody ask us a question so we can do the 1 Peter 3.15 thing, so they can ask us the reason of the hope that's within us. I've always enjoyed that. I've not always been in the ministry. I've had plenty when I was in sales, and I was a warehouse manager for a couple of years. I've had any number of people ask me over the years. Family members—I've done any number of family funerals over the years.

What do we believe? Why do we believe? Why are you different? Why do you—why, you know, when I was 15 years old, God called me. I remember standing up in front of my—on Christmas Eve, which, you know, family would gather together. All these Italians and Randy Delisandro, a 15-year-old evangelist, had to tell all my family why I wasn't going to participate in Christmas. That was a daunting task. You did it as well. You may be a second gen, third gen, fourth gen, but you have made a decision. You have made a decision to go this way of life. You made a decision to study and to evaluate. You've made a decision to count the cost. You made a decision to repent. You made a decision to be baptized and have hands laid on you. You're making a decision right now when you go to your employer, when you go to the professors, and you say, I can't work on these days or go to school on these days. You may be second, third, or fourth gen, but you—this is your church. The Christian lives to support the truth. The Christian isn't perfect, but he has a standard. The standard is found in the Word of God.

Now, in the balance of the sermon, I want to talk about why doctrine is critically important for us as Christians, for us as young adults. Why do we study doctrine? It is critically important. Number one, doctrine is critically important because it forms the basis for what we believe.

Over the course of history, our brothers and sisters in the faith have given their lives rather than give up on what they believe. They had such strong belief in the doctrines of the Scriptures that even the threat of death would not deter them. Let's take a look at Hebrews 6.

Hebrews 6, verse 1. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, some of the foundational doctrines, let us go on to perfection. Notice where the doctrines are leading us. They lead us to perfection, not just in understanding, but in the way we live our lives. Now, we're not going to be perfect in the splash. We understand that. But that doesn't stop us from trying every day to be the best Christian we can be. Leading the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. These are all doctrines. Faith toward God, the doctrine of baptisms, of the laying out of hands, of the resurrection of the dead, of eternal judgment. Now, this is not a exhaustive listing of doctrine. It's just a few of some of the basics. As I said, the Bible talks about doctrines of demons. We want nothing to do with that. It talks about the doctrines of the scribes and Pharisees. We want nothing to do with that. But as articulated in Scripture, doctrine forms a basis for what we believe. In Scripture, God tells us what we are to believe. And we understand that doctrine has a unique relationship with God. It's His teaching. It's not the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees. It's not the teaching of the demons. It's His teaching. It's His God and Christ-inspired teaching. It's teaching that as we understand it and as we live it, it produces eternal, fruitful results. The doctrines of the world don't do that.

God doctrine does do that. It produces fruit that will last for all eternity. It empowers the Christian. It makes us wise. It's comprehensive.

The doctrines we see in the church, the principles that we see in the Scriptures, are principles that affect every area of our life. Bible is not a book of a lot of do's and don'ts. It is a book of principle in these doctrines. It's the Christian's guide for everyday living. So firstly, doctrine is critically important because it forms a basis for what we believe. Secondly, doctrine is critically important because it forms a basis for our worship.

It forms the basis for our worship. Let's look at John 4.

Of course, this is all so that you and I can grow to be pillars in the church. John 4. And whatever pillar, in whatever way God has called you to be a pillar, whether you be an elder, a deacon, a deaconess, or just a really solid member in a church whose prayers are answered, whose fastings are heard by God, whose words are encouraging to one another. We have a real need in God's church for encouragement.

Verse 21. John 4. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we worship for salvation as of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. Spirit and truth. So what does that mean? Well, when you walked in today, somebody hands you a snake. Today we're going to do some snake handling.

No. If you had to sell a property recently, did you do what my wife, where she worked in Michigan, her boss came there and said, Now Mary, I understand you're moving to Illinois, and if you want to sell that house quickly, then you take a statue of Mary, and in front of the yard, you bury that upside down, and that house is going to sell. We did not take that advice. Now, we asked God to help the house sell. You prayed that the house would sell. People in Michigan prayed that the house would sell. We put our house on a market on Monday at four o'clock in the afternoon.

The next day on Tuesday, it was sold, and we got our full price. God did that. But in terms of we worship God in spirit and truth, we don't use statues. I mean, when I was young, I don't see it so much anymore, but when you're driving down the road and you looked at other people's car, you saw statues on that dashboard. We don't do that. Do we pray to the saints? No. Do we venerate relics? No. Do we serve a pantheon of gods like the ancient Greeks and Romans? No. Do we do something with Halloween or Valentine's Day or Christmas or Easter? No. Doctrine is critically important because it tells us how we are to worship God. How we are to worship God. And if we don't do that right, we can't be pillars in the Church of the Living God. We can't help anybody. Number three.

Doctrine is critically important because it forms the basis for how we live our lives and for how we think. How we live our lives and how we think. Let's look at Matthew 16. We were there a little earlier. Matthew 16.

Matthew 16, verse 6. Then Jesus said to them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Yes, doctrine forms the basis for how we live our lives. We don't want to be Pharisees. We don't want to be hypocrites. We want to do what it says over here in Romans. Let's turn to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. Verse 17 and 18. Romans chapter 6 verse 17. But God be thankful you were slaves of sin.

There was a time when we just didn't know right from wrong up from down. Yet you obeyed from the heart that form of what? That form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, why set free? How set free? Because you know what doctrine is.

You know what you're supposed to do and not supposed to do. Doctrine tells you that. And you became slaves of righteousness.

Doctrine determines our life's practices. We're here on Saturday because we understand the truth of the Sabbath.

We don't do anything with Christmas and Easter and Halloween and Valentine's Day, but we do come to Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread in all of the annual Holy Days.

You know, after our Bible study this morning, we were told there were snacks out there. Mr. May with his nice dry sense of humor said, if you don't know where to go, just follow the plates and that will lead you to where the food is. Well, doctrine tells us what we should eat and what we shouldn't eat. What's good for the body? What's not good for the body? Doctrine tells us how we are to handle our money.

Doctrine tells us how we are to live our lives. What are the rules? What are the parameters? What does God want us to do? Fourthly, doctrine is critically important because it's the basis for our fellowship.

It's the basis for our fellowship. Let's go back to Acts chapter.

I've already read that.

The brethren were inspired, they were encouraged, they asked what they should do.

They were baptized, thousands were added to the church, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship.

Doctrine forms a basis for our fellowship, for our community, for our participation, for our association, for our fellowship, for how we share our lives with one another.

We come into this room and there's a commonality here because of what we believe. We believe. You can sit down, I've done this, you've done this, at the Feast of Tabernacles with somebody you've never met before. You can go out to dinner with them and sit down and talk about things of substance because doctrinally you are on the same page. You are on the same page.

I may mention that I've had a great deal of respect for our young adults in terms of the ability for you to cross the lines that some people draw between the different church of God organizations. You burst right through that and that's a really good thing. But our spiritual fellowship is first and foremost with God the Father, Jesus Christ. If we've got fellowship there, everything else is going to follow.

We want a deeper bond than just social interaction. We want spiritual interaction with God the Father, Jesus Christ, and one another. We want to come to services.

As we have done last evening in the Bible study, before and after the Bible study, as we're going to be doing this evening and tomorrow at Pinstripes, there's going to be a lot of fellowship. And yeah, there's nothing wrong with talking about where you come from and what you do for a living and all those sorts of things. But one of the things we want to do, one of the things we want to see is you as young adults sharing your lives, the stories of your conversion, how God worked with you, interesting stories of people that have come into your life and asked questions and how you've handled those questions and the successes you've had and the results that have taken place. Probably some of you could tell the story about how some people have come into the church because of their interaction with you. That's a powerful thing.

That's a powerful thing.

Fifth and lastly, and I'm not saying this is an exhaustive list either, but fifth and lastly, doctrine is critically important because it forms a basis for preaching the gospel.

We're not here just for our own personal salvation. We are here on a mission.

We are here on a mission to get the Word of God out. We send in our tithes and offerings to a home office so they can do what they do. But there are times, as we see in 1 Peter 3.15, and I think that was the wasn't that the theme last year? 1 Peter 3.15 people come to us, they ask questions because they see you're different. There's something about you. Now after you've told them what you are and why you are, they may not buy it. You understand that. But on the other hand, they continue to watch you. They continue to observe you. And as one man's boss said to a member of the church in another state, he said, you know, I'm not a Christian, but if I was a Christian, I would want to go to your church. That's the kind of thing we want. Let's take a look at Acts chapter 13 for a moment.

Acts chapter 13. Interesting story here. We don't give this too much space in our preaching, but we're going to do it now. Here in Acts chapter 13, you see that a fellow by the name of Barnabas and a fellow by the name of Saul, whose name becomes Paul, are commissioned. Hands are laid on them. They're sent to do the work. There in verse 3 of Acts chapter 13. Verse 4, So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in a synagogue of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant. Now, when they gone through the island to Thaphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the pro-counsel, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. He wanted to know doctrine.

But Salamis, the sorcerer for so his name was translated, withstood them.

It's not always easy to go God's way, is it? As you go through the scriptures, you see, many times in the scriptures where people are doing God's will, Paul and Silas as an example, doing God's will, going where God sent them, they get beat up for it. You ever felt you've been beat up for doing what's right? Well, join the club. So he regat this fall as the sorcerer, withstood them, seeking to turn the pro-counsel away from the faith, from the doctrine. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him, and said, O, full of all deceit and all fraud. Very politically correct here. You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord. And now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately a dark mist fell on him, so he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Powerful stuff! Tremendous witness here, but notice what was even more powerful here. Verse 12. Then the pro-counsel believed, when he saw what had been done, believing, astonished, at the teaching of the Lord. Yeah, the man going blind was something to behold.

But something even more profound than that was the fact of the words this intelligent man heard.

And God apparently opened his mind to at least understand this at this time. Not saying he became converted, but he understood what was seeming said to him. And he was impressed by what was being said. The teaching of the Lord.

Doctrine is critically important for the preaching of the Gospel. When you think about the Gospel being preached, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. There are so many elements of doctrine there. Who's God? That's the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Who's God? Who's this Jesus? What's this Holy Spirit? What's the law? What is sin? What's repentance? What's faith? What's water baptism? What's the laying out of hands? Young adults, doctrine forms the basis for what we believe. It forms the basis for why we do what we do, how we live our lives. It forms the basis for how we worship, when we worship, how we fellowship, with whom we fellowship. It's the basis for preaching the Gospel. It's the basis for doing what we have been called to do.

One last example I want to give, and we'll call it quits here. As you go through the Scriptures, you go through especially the New Testament, the Gospels, you see some of the scenarios early in the church when the disciples were preaching, they're teaching, they're giving the message that Christ gave them, preaching vociferously with great passion and zeal. But oftentimes they got picked up by the authorities, they were mistreated, they were beaten, they were imprisoned.

Now with that in mind, let's turn to Acts chapter 8.

Acts chapter 8.

The very end of chapter 7, we've got Stephen, a man full of God's Holy Spirit, great servant of God. He was stoned. First chapter 8 of Acts verse 1, Now Saul, the one who became the apostle Paul, his name was changed, now Saul was consending to his death. At the time a great persecution arose against the church, which was in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Pause for a second. Here we've got people that believe just what you believe. They were strong in the doctrine of the church, and yet persecution arose, and they had to leave.

No social net here. When they left, they lost homes, they lost everything. Basically, they were looking at financial ruin, but they would accept that because of what they believed, because of the doctrines that they held dear. They left.

Verse 2, And development carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Let's not think that when I was in Ambassador College in Pasadena, we had a wonderful library there. Mr. Armstrong had assembled. I remember doing a study paper, term paper, something of that nature, about Paul prior to his conversion. And there in that library, I was able to pull several volumes off the shelves. The books were over 100 years old. You almost hated to handle them for fear they would fall apart. But in reading one of the books, I'll never forget the one man was saying, don't think that the Apostle Paul, after his conversion, learned how to be all things to all people. He probably was a great student of that prior to his conversion. Paul, the guy that would get to know you and ask you over to his home, or come into your home, or come into the place where you're gathering, and just be such a nice guy. All the while he's taking names, finding out who's who, what's what, so that he can come and persecute you. He was all things to all people before his conversion. All things to all people. Now, I'm not going to turn to all these. I'm going to read you some scriptures here from the book of Acts, Acts 22, verses 19 and 20. Paul, writing about himself, says, I persecuted this way to death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. So I said, Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe on you. And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death, and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.

You know, Paul used to say that he was a chief of sinners. He was insane, that for some sort of spiritual effect. He might have been standing in front of a group of people just like this, looking at people and realizing, I put this, I beat that person's mother. I had that person's brother thrown in jail. They're still in jail, by the way. And I'm out free. How do these people relate to me when I've done that to their family? Tough being a Christian back in those days.

Acts, chapter 26, verses 9 through 11. Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they are put to death, I cast my vote against them. Pretty bad guy.

In verse 11 of Acts, chapter 26, and I punish them often in every synagogue and compel them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. What would it take for somebody to put the hurts to you so bad, you blaspheme?

Paul did that. Saul did that.

But we go back to Acts, chapter 8. We see the kinds of persecution that was taking place. We see God's people scattering, financial ruin. You would think they would go out and just shut up about their beliefs. They didn't. After the worst days of their lives, notice what was said in Acts, chapter 8, verse 4.

Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. They went everywhere talking about the doctrines of the church. Now, am I saying everyone did that? Of course not. I'm sure not everyone did it, but some did.

Some simply would not be silenced because the doctrines of the church meant that much to them. It meant that much to them. So to our young adults who are here this weekend, again, very happy to have you, happy to give you social opportunity. We look forward to that. Those are wonderful things. I don't mean to in any way slight that, but you and I want to be strong doctrinally. When you have the ability to do all the social interaction, then when we're socially interacting, what are we going to talk about? What are we going to say? Hopefully we'll be talking about the things that mean the most to us.

And so I look forward to spending some more time with you this evening. And again, just welcome to the whole group of you.