Truth and Doctrine

praise the lord church it's so good to see each and every one of you here tonight i don't know about you guys and i know i'm not i have thoroughly enjoyed teaching this series on truth i'm not gonna lie like pastor pastor uh he asked me about it who's all you teaching on truth i was like all right um what about truth he was like yeah so in case you couldn't tell i got to make up the topic for each week and so i tried to vary it as much as possible because it was it's been a lot of study it's been very uh it's really helped me to study and i really appreciate your attentiveness to it and you you can go ahead and be seated uh i want to give honor to pastor sister sloan thank you guys so much for allowing me this opportunity to teach but i want to thank you guys for your participation i know the first week we we looked at why is god real or truth in god we went into a little bit of uh apologetics of understanding and studying of is there a god uh the second week we went into does anyone remember what we went into does anyone culture are you sure man all right sure we looked at truth and culture how does our culture how does different cultures affect have affected truth and and how it's looked at today and then we looked at truth and self uh how do we perceive truth how do we receive truth how do we uh react to truth and and those mode and those motivations how does that come out in us and those motives and and we were able to uh to look up and see that we're all vastly different as as much as we seem the same sometimes we're all motivated by different things in different points in life and then tonight we're going to talk a little bit about truth and doctrine but before we start lauren has an object lesson for us maybe i know she's gonna need somebody's help with this so no no i'm talking about you're gonna need volunteers hi everybody how's everybody tonight i'm moving so i can see you everybody's good okay hold up your hand and on a scale of one to five five being the best that you've ever been and one being the worst that you've ever been i want you to give me like how you're feeling today one through five okay okay we got how seth this is the best you've ever been wow that's amazing sister cam you too all right i got some threes and a halfs fours four three no twos that's a good thing that's a good thing no once all right all right so everybody's feeling average or better than average that's a good thing okay so tonight i need three volunteers three volunteers or i'll volunteer you three volunteers it's gonna be really fun really exciting it's not truth or dare so all right here we go brother daniel do you mind to help brother daniel whoo huh omari's done it several times okay come on amari come on amari all right and i need one more hmm come on sister kathy you've been called out all right i need you all to step up on the platform it's all right step up on the platform all right i'm gonna turn this around give me just a second so you can see all of all of everything that's in this okay here we go what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna set the box up here on this podium okay the first person i'm going to have amari go first i'm going to place something in this box okay you can't look at it you have to close your eyes you're going to reach your hand in you're going to try to uh you're going to feel of it you're gonna describe it to us and you're gonna try to guess what it is okay can you do that all right come up to the box can we get a round of applause for amari please all right how many people think that he's going to get it right how many people think he's going to get it wrong all right hey it's like 50 50. okay i'm gonna open this you guys are gonna be able to see it okay don't say anything don't give him any hints this might take me a minute can you hold the microphone thank you do you have any allergies do you have any allergies or any like really really big fears that like you'll freak out if you run out the room cotton okay don't worry about it okay here we go hang on i gotta make sure it doesn't run out hang on all right so keep your eyes closed step up to the box please you can place your hand in either hole there's a hole on the other side and i need you to describe it okay okay i need you to describe it to us all right and try to guess what it is it's hard it's like it's glass um it's very rigid is that a word rigid it feels like a seashell like a magic no am i supposed to guess what it is or just describe it like magic conch from spongebob it is it's a seashell yeah that's what it is great job that's not a prize you don't get to take it home all right you can go sit down yeah all right for this next one it's for your office for this next one i need someone to volunteer to stick their hand in and then i need someone to guess what it is the person who sticks their hand in the box can only describe it to the next person you cannot guess what it is you have to describe it to them and they're going to guess what it is off of your description sister kathy sister kathy you're going to describe so you're sticking your hand in the box all right come on up to the box sister kathy how many people think sister kathy and brother daniel gonna get it here you can stand right here keep your eyes closed okay no peeking you either no peeking i'm going to hand my mic actually kathy you can hold it it fits like we're out of here all right sister kathy can i get one more round of applause for sister kathy all right you can only stick your hand in and you have to hang on whoa you're going wait you're going away fast okay i'm scared and you have to describe it to him okay you have to get as much correct as you possibly can it's mushy a little mushy not it's got some texture to it i believe um green i could say green that's a description word okay oh it's an animal that's an animal okay um it's yellow no what what's it's what it's what it's sitting in is green the animal is probably yellow and white striped it's a toy it's a toy though it's a toy it has big teeth it's in the jungle what is it i have no clue tiger a tiger lion okay we got half of it we got half of it everyone give them a round of applause all right we're going into the live animal round no i'm just kidding all right thank you guys so much how hard is that how scary is that sticking your hand into something and then leaving lettuce behind does anyone need a snack just we'll save this for sunday uh save this lettuce in case you get faint there's a story it's an ancient story uh from uh from india and it deals with six blind men and these six blind men they had heard all about elephants they had heard that the princess rode to an elephant but they had never seen an elephant before and so they decided to go on a trip together and to go see what an elephant was so the first one reached out and he touched the side of the huge animal it was smooth and solid like a wall he declared it must be very powerful the second blind man put on put his hand on the elephant's trunk he said an elephant's like a giant snake the third man he felt the elephant's pointed tusk he goes i was right this creature is as sharp and deadly as a spear the fourth man touched the elephant one of the elephant's legs he said what we have here is an extremely large cow it seems a little silly right the fifth elephant he felt he felt of the elephant's giant ear he said believe the elephant is like a huge fan or maybe a magic carpet that can fly over mountains and tree tops the sixth man the six blind man he gave the a tug on the elephant's tail and said why this is nothing more than a piece of old rope and all these guys were right and wrong at the same time weren't they they could only see part of the elephant and it wasn't until that someone that could see the whole elephant sat down with him and was like all right guys let's take this whole thing and let's everyone see the full picture let's see the full elephant because the elephant's legs are like tree trunks the side's like a wall that the the tusk is like a like a spear in the the nose is like a snake it's all these things but it's one elephant when we look at the bible we've we we are in our present day we're 2 000 years removed from christ we're 2000 years removed from the new testament the writing of the new testament and in that we've we've got 2 000 years of church history that man has added to that man has interpreted and put their own take on that has put their own ideas on that has put their own opinions on i'm not i'm not knocking these guys because some of them were very great men very well studied very well learned very dedicated men of god and women of god but they each had their own take and so when we look at this when we look at the bible when we look at tradition when we look at teachings of the bible we have to say and we have to look we have to understand that some things are just tradition our around 1900 around uh 1900 to 1916 there was a there was a change in thought process it was it wasn't the reformation but it was a change that established the apostolic movement you see in in this time up until this time there was just a there was tradition man we got some got some issues here tonight huh thank you thank you sir sorry about them guys uh just excuse him we lock him in a closet normally so he doesn't really have a lot of manners sometimes that's why we usually lock the door when church starts but in 1900 there was a movement all of a sudden people started realizing that there was the holy ghost was real they read and studied the bible and up until this time there was not a huge moment or a huge moment of where the holy ghost was given out sure there were recorded instances over history of people speaking in tongues praying in tongues but it wasn't until 1900 charles barham he had he he had a i think it was in kansas he had a bible school and he had some bible school students and he challenged them to study the scriptures to pray and to dive into this was this holy ghost real and if if i remember correctly i didn't go into this exact point go back to this book for this uh lesson tonight but around midnight at the turn of the century there was a lady who spoke in tongues and from that point on people realized that this was something that could happen and more people started getting the holy ghost and more people started getting the holy ghost and more people started getting the holy ghost and it went on it went on and then all of a sudden uh they realized that in this revelation of the holy ghost they they realized that maybe they started studying the scripture a little differently god started revealing some things to them and they realized that baptism in jesus name was actually necessary for salvation it was the way the apostles had done it there is a there is a really good book on this uh written by uh brother false in it the uh i have it my backpack and i forgot to bring it out with me tonight but it it takes place and he was actually into quincy louisiana which i know uh you guys are from sister kathy and there was back in 1907 1914 time frame they had camp meetings there where they hammered out baptism in jesus name at these places they weren't it was a it was a gradual thing where they were they would get together and they would hammer it out and somebody else would see it and they were like all right let's go back and study this and what came from this was an apostolic way of interpreting the bible or if on your handout tonight you'll have something called apostolic hermeneutics and what that does is it does its best to portray how the apostolics or how the apostles wrote and understood and interpreted the scripture and the revelations that god had given them they these these guys these apostles were the first generation of after christ these guys were personally taught by christ himself when when we read them we are seeing firsthand knowledge of the teachings of jesus this is a primary source of information anything after that is a secondary source anything after that is kind of like this lesson looking at this lesson and somebody reaching in and trying to feel but they can't actually see they're just they're guessing at they've got an idea around it but man he's been playing baseball have y'all got to go to one of his games because y'all need to because i hear he's hitting homers already but the apostolic perspective or the apostolic lens it allows it it puts us in the mindset it tears down all tradition it tears down all all thoughts of what someone else has taught us but it puts us in the mindset of the apostles and how they interpreted the old testament and how jesus interpreted the old testament for you see that these guys they were they were jewish most every one of them except for maybe luke we're not for sure they were jewish in their upbringing so they had a very specific way an understanding of the old testament of understanding who god was and when apostolics in this turn the turn of the 20th century they started studying started hammering out what the doctrine actually was people such as frank ewer and gt haygood haywood and andrew ershon they kind of they set this establishment of guys it doesn't matter what spurgeon said about who god was don't don't get me wrong charles spurgeon was a a masterful bible teacher he was a masterful a wizard of the word but he he he missed something somewhere and it doesn't matter what these early church fathers said or these creeds because these creeds were just man-made ideas these were things implemented after the apostles and so in in looking at this tearing away of tradition we can we can for example if your parents told you to do as i say just do it and they didn't give you a reason you could do that you had a relationship with your parent you understood that just do it but it's really hard to teach your child to just do it if you don't know the reason why it's really hard to get that to go past yourself that that's the idea behind apostolic hermeneutics is tearing away of all these just do it and going back and understanding what the word says understanding how it says it and why it says it we see that the foundation are the two main focuses of the old testament two ideas that the apostles would look at would be the monotheistic stance of one almighty god and the use of covenants these two themes are essentially an understanding the way jesus and the apostles studied taught and instructed in the new testament how many know what deuteronomy 6 and 4 is deuteronomy 6 and 4 deuteronomy 6 and 4. all right all right we're going to teach you all things we'll learn you a thing or two tonight the shema or the is spelled s-h-e-m-a in in uh in the old testament is a foundational scripture is the foundational cornerstone of the old testament it's hero israel y'all know it now the hero israel the lord our god is one lord he goes on he said thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy might and these words which i command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shall talk of them without citizen thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when they'll rise this up and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and there shall be frontlets between their eyes and thou shalt write them on the doorpost upon the post of thy house and on thy gates in fact jews actually do that they still do that today they bind them to their wrist or to their arms and to their foreheads here or israel the lord our god is one lord when jesus asked was asked in the book of mark he's what the greatest commandment was he referred back to deuteronomy 6. this is the foundation that that all of christianity is found upon if this is in if this doesn't work then nothing works but human nature does take over there i it's my personal opinion that there's something in our nature that helps that that we kind of want to fight that idea and i don't i don't know if it's our own pride our own self of wanting to and for example almost every culture and every religion has multiple gods for some for for different things i don't know i don't know why it does that uh and and you can look at uh the egyptians so the israelites were coming out of egypt the egyptians had a god for everything they had osiris who was maybe their chief god maybe not they had uh isis oops it's isis so i don't know how to say that um it was a goddess and the mother of another god they had seth well he was the god of chaos violence desert and storms they had raw the sun god and they had a god for everything these gods they just if if one god could do one thing and another god could do another thing but there was not this god that could do everything they i don't know in in that's throughout different cultures different religions our minds must not grow it must be some innate something in us that we just do not think that there's just one god for everything it must be really hard to imagine and and maybe so to imagine that the same god that that raises this or you know that spins the earth and the sun comes up can also be the one that sends the rain or the one that causes chaos and violence seth it must be in it must be something but god made sure that the hebrews that they knew there is one god in exodus 13 or 3 and 13 through 15 we find a very very very crucial part or piece of scripture and moses said unto god behold when i come unto the general israel and shall say unto them the god of your fathers you sent me unto you they shall say to me what is his name can everybody say what is his name i don't answer it yet it's a secret what shall i say unto them and god said unto moses i am that i am he said thus shalt thou say unto the children of israel i am has sent me unto you roar are you a dinosaur and god said in verse 15 and god said moreover unto moses thou shalt say unto the children of israel the lord god of your fathers the god of abraham the god of isaac and the god of jacob not three separate gods he was the god of each of these he has sent me unto you this is my name forever i am that i am or the i am and we find that when god said this he didn't immediately back it up he didn't just he didn't give moses a a whole theological discussion and be like this is how you explain it to him this is how you prove it out he just said i am that i am i am and he was like go on your way moses and moses is all right well and we find earlier he said that in that well god is talking to him out of the burning bush out of the flame there in exodus three and two so just a few verses earlier it says and the angel of the lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush so this talking bush this flames talking to him i am that i am and moses just takes and said all right well i mean he argued a couple other times but not on that point we see that this is a theophany uh it's a visible manifestation of of god manifestations humankind of god see we can't we can't see god he's a spirit so he takes on the form of different things you see in in that first example there he appeared as a flame and i think that's a that's a blank in your uh handout tonight i almost did not get that made i was getting ready tonight and i realized i'd forgotten one thing and that was a handout i was like oh no and apparently i forgot to mute the drums but anyway in exodus 17 and 6 we say behold i will stand before thee there upon the rock and horab and thou shalt smite the rock and there shall come water out of it and the people may drink and moses did so inside of the elders exodus and 20 in exodus 20 11 and moses lift up his hand with his rod and he smoked the rock twice first corinthians 10 and 4 said and all did drink of the same spiritual drink for they drink that spiritual rock that followed him that rock was christ so he appeared as a flame he appeared as a rock now in this did they worship the rocks did they all of a sudden go around and oh look at this rock this is our god now no dwayne johnson wasn't born till the 80s or something 70s okay i didn't know how old he was then in exodus 13 we find that god appeared to them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night he said in exodus 13 21 it says and the lord went before them by by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way and by not in a pillar of fire but did was he simply the god of the cloud or was he simply the god of the fire no because if he was just god of the cloud then whatever this cloud system is that we upload everything to he'd be god of right that was a terrible joke i apologize right now i you're dismissed and then we see god appeared as a man the fourth point god appeared as a man or an angel of god uh genesis 32 and 30 jacob called the name of the place pineal for i have seen god face to face and my life is preserved he's wrestling with the angel here and he says i've seen god face to face and then in job 38-1 god appeared to job as a whirlwind then the lord answered job out of the whirlwind and said but every tornado that come along wasn't god was it i hope not man hey man what'd you do that for and our sixth point god appeared as an angel of the lord and this the angel of the lord appeared several times throughout the old testament i just pulled out one example of in genesis 16 it's in verses 7 and 8 and then in 13 in verse 13 the angel of the lord found her and it was hagar it found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness by the by the fountain in the way to sure and then in verse 13 she called the name of the lord and spake unto her thou thou god seest me for she said have i also here looked after man that's some rough wording there have i also here looked after him that seeth me so she hagar is running from sarah and abraham she's fleeing into the wilderness and she passes out and the angel of the lord which slater that's god she calls him god but every piece of that doesn't mean that there's a different god there because we get to the new testament now i want i want you to bear with me here for just a minute because then we have uh a manifestation of christ of god unlike any other and that's in the man christ jesus that that the indwelling matthew said uh what did matthew say there shall call his name emmanuel for he shall be god with us in 1st timothy 3 and 16 it says without controversy great is a mystery of godliness god was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit scene of angels preached unto gentiles believed on in the world and received up into glory john 1 1 in the beginning was the word the word was with god and the word was god and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory is of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth you see all of these points all of these theophanies all these manifestations were just a pattern they were a type and a shadow showing the great i am he's not limited to just one role he's not as as man would have their gods to limit to this is the god of the son this is the god of the rock this is the god of the world when or this is the god of of the crops and this is who we got to worship at this time he said i am i i am all these things i like to in my mind i like to rationalize it by saying he is what i need when i need him he he works in he may not do this in yours i don't know i'm sorry but he works in my life in some weird ways that i don't even understand until way after i look back and that hindsight that's 20 20 it's like man god moved and i didn't even recognize it he made that way there was no way i could plan that his i am being is super it's super important because if we look at this logically speaking he's the almighty god right how many almighty gods can you have you can't logically you can have one almighty other than that there there you can't if he is the almighty god he is the only one to exist now i want to know when i do want to put this little caveat in there and please note this that in in comparing jesus and i'm not trying to to just say jesus is just a simply a theophany and it was unlike any other one okay it was slightly different books could be and have been and will still be written on the christiology of jesus all right there there's so much more to understanding the fully man and the fully god of jesus but this this pattern was set it was made it was it was understood that this is god in the flesh and it's not it's not strange to even think of when you think of it through this lens to this apostolic lens of seeing how god can be all these things and still be one he and and we notice that god is a spirit and when when excuse me wow we know that when god when god poured out the holy ghost on the day of pentecost that that we we go back jesus had told him in john he said i will not leave you comfortless but i'll but the father will send the holy ghost in my name and that was a in feeling of god that god had dwelled in he had chosen to dwell in the temples in the hearts of man when we look at it this way the the idea of the trinity the idea of three gods in existence in agreement just doesn't it doesn't flesh out it it doesn't stand up to the whole bible yes you can take you you can take one one verse one scripture you can take a piece and you can piecemeal things together and and make them look however you would like but when you look holistically at the scripture and from the lens that the new testament was written from especially the assumption that there is one god is already there it's it's it's it's in the hearts and the lives of men that wrote it it's it's ingrained in isaiah 43 and through 15. now there is there is something here dylan you got you got just a second you've been out here every every time i didn't need you uh where were you at all right well you know in isaiah 43 and 11. there he is so i did have him interrupt i'm sure as y'all figured out i had him interrupt every little bit and every single time he was doing something different he was dressed different i really seth you're gonna have to lock the drum cage though but he he was doing something different just as god does he he'll he'll show up different in our lives we won't always see it he'll be doing different things he'll interrupt us in different ways but he's still god dylan done all these different things than all these different roles he was a father to samuel he was helping him pray he was guiding him he's still dealing he's still the one person he's still the one being thank you man i appreciate it in isaiah 43 and 11 says i even i am the lord and beside thee beside me there is no savior so once it's just again reaffirming that i know i'm preaching to the choir tonight there is one god and his name is jesus jesus simply means yahweh our savior it when you break it down that it didn't when we dig into the words of i am it's yahweh and and when we look at uh the old testament yahweh is it's it's translated different ways it's either translated as the lord or jehovah it's translated as several different things just you have that that picture of the i am if you can throw that up for just a second there is immense amount of different words or ways that i am is translated or yahweh is translated and when we start to look at all these we could call each of these a different god but in fact they're just a different manifestation of how god works in in when we look at we can look at it all day long and we can go we're good to go and we'll be like all right i've studied this out i know what i'm talking about and we'll be talking to somebody and they'd be like why does it matter wait a minute what why does it matter like i believe i love the lord and that's good enough for me why does it matter what difference does it make how many y'all been asked that has anybody asked been asked that why does it matter if i believe there's one god or three gods why why does it matter and it's it's taken me a little bit of study to to get to this point of a covenant a covenant is it it is something more than it's i don't think there's an equivalent of it in our culture today honestly uh we don't we don't live on and thank god because i'm a commitment phobe anyway but like we do not live on a uh on a committed society or culture as deeply as a co as a covenant is a covenant it's a bonding promise a far-reaching importance in the relation between individuals groups and nations is social legal religious and other aspects it and this is primarily con concerned with especially special religious uses and especially in the role of judaism and christianity you see covenants were a thing in the middle east several centuries ago they're they're a very deep meaning to them the most most out uh extra biblical sources of it come from the hittites which as we know were were people that always wanted to fight israel they always want they were a warring nation and when they would conquer a people they would pro they would they had a they would set up a covenant with this people and they would have a very there was a very set standard of how this governance would go on of how this covenant would be enacted this and and when we look at it we look at their examples and then we look at genesis chapter 15 where god established a covenant with abraham or we looked at genesis genesis and nine or so where the noah's covenant was established in the rainbow that is still in effect some very interesting stuff if you read it you go back and you see all the things that god talked about that he never took that away that covenant is still in effect but when we look at uh exodus and where when the children of israel were giving or were entered into covenant with god at mount sinai they they got to this point and he laid it out and then they just immediately broke it but he laid it out again and one of the very very first points of a covenant is the preamble names the overlord who grants the treaty covenant to the vassal the titles and laudatory epithets of the great king are also given that's just a fancy way or a wordy way of saying the name of the king is pronounced over that people when god entered into a covenant with his people he pronounced his name over that people in exodus 20 and 1-2 this is at the sinai covenant is god spake these things are these words saying i am the lord thy god or i am yahweh thy god which have brought thee out of the land of egypt and out of the house of bondage in numbers we we see the blessings of god are directly tied to this name you so he starts his covenant with his name i am thy god i yahweh am thy god and he he ties it directly to him it cannot be mistaken for anyone else i yahweh and thy god i've done this and this and this for you i have brought you i have ransomed egypt for your good i have made a way for you these are my stipulations if you are going to enter into a covenant with me these are my stipulations he does and and then we find in numbers chapter six that his blessings are tied to his name uh the the song that i have really been hung up on the blessing uh kerry jobin and elevation wrote together is speak unto aaron and unto his son saying on this wise you shall bless the children of israel saying to them the lord bless thee or yahweh bless thee he's he's pronouncing his name over that's just in translation there the lord uh it's subbed in in different ways in different parts there but the lord blessing keep thee make his face shine upon them be gracious unto thee all these are tied unto his name the the his blessings his provision his guidance his direction are directly tied to his name now that was very all well and good if you were raised a jew and you were in your in jewish culture and you were just good to go you were tied you knew the name you were people of the name but in amos chapter 9 verse 12 and it says they may possess the remnant of edom and of all and of all the heathen which are called by my name saith the lord that doeth this in jeremiah 31-31 said behold the day come saith the lord that i will make a new covenant with the house of israel and with the house of judah these two prophecies were directly tied to the name of the almighty god when when when we start to realize that new covenant that god set up in the new testament he didn't just come to to be lovey-dovey he came to reform the world to change the world and he came to establish a new covenant not with a set group of people over in the middle east somewhere he didn't come to set up a new covenant with north america but he came up to set up a new covenant with the whole world with people that would be called by his name his purpose and it was a directly identifiable to his name and if this name was not used if this name was not signified with this covenant then there was no point it disannulled the covenant because i can have a covenant with a chair but what does that actually mean the name in covenant was beyond i can i do not have the words to to say how important that tying the name or the pro the proclamation of the name of the people and of the god in the covenant is in first corinthians 12 and 15 1 or first corinthians 1 verses 12 through 15 paul is writing here he's dealing with some things in the church about baptisms and he's saying now i say everyone to you now i say this to you that every one of you saith i am of paul and i am of apollos and i am of cephas and i of christ verse 13 is christ divided was paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of paul he's automatically rebuking this idea of entering into a covenant with anyone other than christ christ sacrificed for our sins he he died on the cross with us he he initiated this covenant we're not of pastor raymond sloan we're not of paul we are not of apollos but we are of christ he paid the price in romans three and four no or six verses three and four know you not that so many of us were baptized into jesus were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him by baptism in in death this is why it matters it doesn't all these these verses you can you can just string them together and someone else can string some more together but why does it matter is we're entering into when we choose to walk into a a church and when we choose to walk into a relationship we're entering into a covenant we're not just entering into we're not being baptized into this guys we're entering into a relationship with god there was an interesting take that i read on covenants it was talking about that in in the 12th century or so that for some reason all the governments in in the middle east had collapsed there was there was tribalism there was just feudalism it was everything had collapsed there was just this massive collapse around that time and there was not a good way to manage several million people in a wilderness moses couldn't do it he couldn't have enough bureaucracy he couldn't couldn't be a more powerful king to do he almost killed himself doing that but a covenant was between a god and an individual every individual had to live up to that covenant now there were laws those are different those were for cultural and for norms to for daily use but a covenant was between a person and that person's god that's the same way we are today if we're not in covenant with jesus it doesn't matter nothing nothing makes a difference here robert as as i'm closing as as i'm finishing up tonight robert stein surveys the act's narrative to determine the relationships of baptism and what he deems to be other components involved in becoming a christian he suggests an interrelation between five different components of conversion repentance faith confession by the individual regeneration or infilling of the holy ghost and baptism by representatives of the christian community stein demonstrates is that in this narrative of acts there is no set order for these to occur but each one of these components is identified with a whole experience of becoming a part of the christian community these things these things it takes to be saved got to believe you got to repent you got to confess confess your your sins and repentance and then you gotta be filled with the holy ghost and you gotta be baptized now all of that you can do except for baptism you can physically do you can go up to some or except to infill in the holy ghost i should say you can physically do these things you can go up to someone you tell them you're sorry i repent you can have faith in something you can have your confession but you you can even go swimming and get yourself wet but you can't receive the holy ghost just in and of yourself that's something god will give you but also all this can be done but the reason it is it matters most in truth and doctrine tonight doctrine's doctrine a man can can come up with almost anything but the truth of the matter is we all must know what the word of god says we can listen to you can listen to me teach or you can listen to pastor teaching it'll be about like him reaching through the box and trying to describe what's in the box but when we get down to it it works a lot better if we'll reach in there ourselves sometimes it might even help if we turn the box around and look in it too but i guess that's against the rules we we cannot do all these things without the name of jesus remember jesus is yahweh our savior it's it's how all power in heaven and earth is given unto that name it's it's not a changing of the name of god we're not uh hell in his eye we're not changing the name of god how about that trying instead of me trying to say that big ol long word we're not uh we're not twisting it we're just realizing who our savior is if you would would you stand with me there was an example given when i was when i was studying it was an example a exactly what point in a marriage ceremony is someone married when they say i do or is it when they sign the vow or sign the the whatever it is the marriage certificate or is it when they say with this ring i do they wed or when they kiss or you know when but it takes all those things oh calm down it takes all those things for and and it's not over till it's over right i'm not getting into all that tonight y'all all these steps it's kind of like the steps about salvation you can do all these things but if there's not someone else there to be married to you can be like that one very progressive individual that married themselves doesn't make any sense but who am i entering into a covenant with almighty god is a very serious thing it's a very it's the uh we don't we don't say it much but it is the fundamentals of who we are i want to thank you so much for your attention if we can let's bow our heads and pray jesus we love you we thank you so much for your goodness we thank you for your love for your kindness your word god i ask you lord that you would move on each one of us god help us to all connect each individually connect with you in a deeper uh level than we can even imagine god for we know that you are our god and we're your people lord i pray lord that you would let your hand be upon us this week god help us lord to be witnesses unto you and in in everything we do god help us to do it in your name jesus we love you and we thank you so much for your goodness in jesus name we pray amen