Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
We will be in First Corinthians chapter #5 this evening.
I will let you know that there's a different kind of message.
It's a message that is heavy on my heart.
It is one of great seriousness. I know that as a pastor, I like
to incorporate humor into my sermons.
It's not because I believe that I'm a stand up comedian.
It's because I do think that there are times that humor does
help to drive home a point or just helps to reinforce what's
already been spoken of. I never want to be a comedian.
That's not my desire of a my desire is to be able to preach
the word of God in a way that can communicate to the heart.
And so there are times that humor does help with that, but
there are times that the gravity of the text, the gravity of the
message does require that it is such that there really is no
space for humor because it would take away from the very
seriousness of what's being spoken of.
And tonight is one of those nights.
And I'd also say that even as the message is being preached,
there are some types of messages that for you, maybe those kind
of ones were amens are very appropriate, that amens kind of
really spur the preacher on. But there are other times where
there's not a lot of amens to be heard because there's a lot of
thinking, there's a lot of chewing on what is being said.
And I would dare say that tonight would be one of those
messages that I'm not looking for a bunch of amens, but I am
looking that we would all really dial into that which the Lord
has for us tonight in this text because of the graveness of that
which I'm going to preach to you this evening.
Diane, I met at Heartland Baptist Bible College back in
2001. And I know that I talk about
Heartland Baptist Bible College a lot.
I'm thankful for the ministry of Heartland.
It is a Bible college, is not the only Bible college on earth
by any stretch of the imagination that's doing things
for the Lord. But yet it is where Diane and I
met and where we've received many blessings as well as our
training and of course for the day.
Miss Cassandra could say the same thing as well.
This evening during our time at Heartland, we were introduced to
a church called the Bible Baptist Church at Stillwater and
their pastor, Pastor Wayne Hardy.
That church was Diane's home church when she came to the
United States. She needed a place to be able to
go when she was on a break, when she didn't have another place to
be able to go to. And Stillwater, OK, became like
a second home tour in many ways to the point that when Diane and
I got engaged to be married and we talked about where we wanted
to get married, we knew that we didn't want to get married at
the Southwest Baptist Church where we normally attended
because it can hold about a couple 1000 people.
And believe it or not, we don't know a couple thousand people to
be able to fit into a church building.
But we did want to get married at the Bible Baptist Church.
It's Stillwater, where she had spent so much time.
And the pastor there was Wayne Hardy.
He's pastored there up until the last week for 26 years.
Pastor Hardy was very influential in many ways in my
wife's life, in my own life, and certainly in many other people's
lives as well. You might say, Pastor, why are
you talking about this tonight? It doesn't seem like it's very
relevant to us. I don't know, Wayne Hardy, you
might say, Well, the answer is that many of you do, whether you
realize it or not. If you've ever received one of
these magazines that we give away a couple, well, I think
about every two months here at the church, this is the Baptist
Times and he is the editor in chief of the Baptist Times as
well as being the pastor of that church.
And his DNA, if you will, is all over these magazines where the
ideas of what we are as Baptist, why we do what we do, these
types of things, articles, all of them are found and they've
been handed out to you. We've been giving them away at
least for the last 7 or 8 years. I came to the knowledge last
week that Brother Hardy resigned from his church where he had
pastored for about 26 years due to some indiscretions as the
pastor or during his pastor. Over time, it has become very
clear that those indiscretions were literally a double life
that has taken place for years and years and years.
I want to be careful what I say tonight for obvious reasons.
I want to be very careful in how I present this to you tonight.
What I'm saying to you is, is public knowledge, and I won't
say anything that's not public knowledge this evening.
And you might feel a little uncomfortable right now, and I
understand why you would feel uncomfortable.
In many ways, I'm uncomfortable talking to you about this.
But I do think there is an important discussion that needs
to be had. Brother Hardy, over the course
of many, many years made many, many bad decisions.
Gross immorality took place in ways that I cannot explain to
you here tonight, but in ways that have hurt my spirit more
than I can tell you here this evening.
Why? Why would I?
Why would it hurt? So much well, because of the
influence. Of truth that has been placed in
my life, preaching messages, lessons, lectures.
I I traveled last year to New York City.
To be able to hear him speak for two.
Days about the importance of biblical preaching.
I've read almost every single one of these magazines that has
come through. I've heard preaching and lessons
and on and on. Of course in our personal ties
as well. And it hurts when someone you
know that you believed was going a certain way.
And stood for truth. Not only departed from the
truth, but had been departed for the truth.
From a very long time in their personal life and was really
portraying one thing publicly and was living in a completely
different way all the rest of the week.
Say, pastor, why are you? Preaching this tonight, is it
because you want to dance on the grave of a man who is
spiritually dead on arrival this evening?
And the answer is no, that's not my desire.
He doesn't have to answer to me for his actions.
There's one he has to answer to. And that's the same one that
every one of us have to. Answer to for actions, certainly
he has to answer to the church itself and the leadership there
and the members that are there. He is not without
accountability. Just because you're a pastor
does not mean you're without accountability.
Let me say that again. Just because you are a pastor,
I'm one of them, does not mean you are without accountability.
We are not kings of our own kingdoms.
We are not czars of our own empires.
No, we are biblical preachers that are under the command of
Jesus Christ because it's his church.
But also understanding that there's a membership of the
Church of which we are a part of, that we must live in a way
that is good and pure and right and above board.
And if you're not sure about that, the book of first Timothy
in the book of Titus makes it very clear that there's some
things that a pastor must be and there are some things a pastor
must not be. And these have been violated in
a way that. Boggles my mind in his case, but
here's why I want to preach on this tonight.
This is what I have been wrestling with for the last
several days in this instance, and I do think it's important
that I publicly. Mention him by name because of
the fact that he has had influence in this church through
this magazine that he no longer will have and that this.
Magazine does not exist. As of now, it has been
cancelled, it has been cut. It is no more.
We will not receive them anymore.
So I do think it's. Important that I let you know
that we're not going to have it and why we don't have it without
giving any type of salacious details this evening, but just
mentioning the bare minimum. Of what I can publicly tonight.
But here's what I've been wrestling with.
How can someone know so much about the Bible, but get so far
away from what the Bible says in their personal life?
How can someone know so much about this?
Book but yet live in complete opposition of this book and
everything that they teach and they preach to get up and to
preach hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of messages knowing
that you don't live. The very things you're telling
everybody else to live, how is that even possible?
It really comes down to this and it's the title of my message.
This this. Evening.
Knowing the truth is not enough. Knowing the truth.
Is not enough. My message tonight is not to
Wayne Hardy. He is not here.
He is not under my authority, nor do I desire to have a
platform to speak to him. But I do know that God wants to
speak to us. And God wants to speak to me
about this very serious issue. Is the truth important?
Of course it is. But the truth in and of itself
is not enough in the life of the believer.
And I'll explain what that means in just a moment.
Why don't you remain seated? We'll read all First Corinthians
chapter 5. And again, I do recognize we're
backtracking this evening, but I think it's important that we do.
It says it's commonly, or it's reported commonly, that there is
fornication among you, and such fornication as is not as much so
named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's
wife. And you're puffed up, and if not
rather mourned, that he that have done this deed might be
taken away from among you. For I verily as absent the body
but President Spirit have judged already as though I were present
concerning him that hath so done this deed in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. When ye are gathered together
and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver
such an one and to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that
the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus without re
preaching this you understand this evening.
This is talking about the process of which we call church
discipline. Someone who is a part of the
body, who is flagrantly living in a way that is opposition
without repentance whatsoever. This is not excommunication.
That is an invention of the Catholic Church.
This is Church discipline. It should be used rarely.
It should be used specifically, but there are places where it
does need to be used. And here Paul is saying when
there is someone who refuses to repent of their sexual misdeeds,
this is what needs to happen. There is church discipline.
Your glory verse 6 is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out there for the old
leaven, that you may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened for
even Christ, our Passover sacrifice for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither
with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the
unleavened brand of sincerity and truth.
I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators,
not all together with the fornicators of this world, or
with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters.
For then must he needs to go out of the world.
But now I have written unto you not to keep company.
If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or
covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an
extortioner with such, and one know not to eat.
For what have I to do to judge them also that are without?
Do not ye judge them that are within, but them that are
without? God judgeth.
Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
You might ask yourselves, pastor, why would you choose to
go back to chapter #5 this evening?
And perhaps your first thought is because of the sexual
misdeeds of this pastor. And perhaps I'm trying to make a
connection with that which is taking place here in chapter #5
and ironically, that is not the case.
Although I do think tonight we can just very quickly make an
application that God takes sexual sin very seriously.
When you look throughout the Word of God that God takes
sexual sin very seriously, be sure about this.
The idea of there being something called casual sex is a
myth. The idea that sex can be
utilized outside of a God honoring marriage is exactly
opposite to what the word of God says.
God has ordained a sexual relations inside marriage to be
beautiful and God ordained but yet outside of those boundaries
it. Is destructive.
In reference to adultery, Proverbs 627 says this.
Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?
And of course we know the answer.
Practically speaking to that is no, it's impossible.
But yet the same. When the fire of sexuality is
taken outside the confines of marriage and is placed in some
other arena, you find that every single time, while there may be
pleasure in sin for a season, it only lasts for a season.
Be sure your sins will find you out, the Bible says, but that's
not why I've addressed. This text here this evening.
It's certainly very obvious that there is some connection here,
but I really want to draw a connection more for us this
evening. And in the midst of this
chapter, Paul puts 3 verses that I want to focus on more than the
others that are there above it and beneath it.
Go back to verse number six. It says this, Your glorying is
not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out there for the old
leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened for
even Christ, our Passover sacrifice for for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither
with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity or truth.
Now when Paul was writing the epistle of first Corinthians,
it's very likely that he was writing it somewhere around the
general time of the Passover. Because if you get to the end of
the book in chapter 16 verse 8, he says, but I will tarry at
Ephesus, excuse the Ephesus until Pentecost.
The day of Pentecost would have been 50 days after the Passover
penty meaning 50. And so if Paul is writing this
and it's being delivered, of course this wasn't delivered by
e-mail. This wasn't delivered by the
United States Postal Service. This would have been slow moving
to be able to get from Paul's location to the people of
Corinth. It's very likely that he was
sometime writing this at a time when he assumed they will be
reading this around the time of the Passover.
And so Paul uses the upcoming Passover feast and their
familiarity with it to drive home a message about leaven.
Look again, it says, your glory is not good.
Know ye not that a little leaven, leaven at the whole
lump. Almost every single time we find
leaven in the Word of God, what do we find?
It is a picture of sin. Now, why is that?
Because leaven or yeast as we would use it today, as it's
added into a little bit of bread, what do you find?
You can put it in dough. You can put it off to the side
and you might have a little bit of dough.
But that leaven, given enough time and enough darkness,
ironically enough, ends up what happening.
It ends up growing exponentially from that which it was.
A little leaven in the dough can make a little bit of dough turn
into, well, a lot of dough. And so he says this, don't you
understand that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
But then he continues and he, he, he says that purge out there
for the old leaven. Now stop right there.
You might remember when we took the Lord's Supper with our
membership a few weeks ago, we talked about the Haggadah.
We talked about the order of service that they would have
used for the Passover and before the Passover takes place.
And this still happens even today for the Jews.
They have what's called the Beticott Hamats, and that is a
purposeful time where they go through the house and they purge
it of every little bit of leaven.
They make sure that anything that could have leaven in it is
purged from the home. And at the very last moment,
right before the Passover, the father goes through and
basically conducts a white glove inspection.
And he goes through and he checks all the different places
in the home to make sure leaven has been removed.
And the mother typically leaves one small piece of cracker, one
small piece of bread, something that would have leaven in it,
and she leaves it behind for him to be able to find it and
ceremoniously scoop it up and take it out of the house, dump
it out and show that every last bit 11 has been, well, what's
the word purged from the home that there is no more leaven
that is left. Now, the church at Corinth is a
Gentile church, but yet there are Jews who are in the church.
And because it was a very metropolitan area, I believe
that they would have had some level of understanding of the
Passover just because of it being part of the Christian
heritage and because of the Jews who are part of the church, and
because of the fact that there were many nations and many
cultures that all lodged themselves there in Corinth.
And so he says when it comes to sinfulness, you need to purge
the whole lump. And he goes beyond just the
things of the Passover. And he makes it clear in verse
#7 when he says that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened
for even Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us.
So he's making a connection that for us, we do not have the
Passover today. We are not required to follow
the Jewish feast. Why?
Because all the Jewish feasts point to Jesus Christ, and we
have Jesus Christ. You are not required to follow
the Passover. You are not required to follow
the Feast of Booths. Aren't you glad we don't have to
go out and build our own huts and live out in them for a few
days? Praise the Lord, we don't have
to worry about that. But yet he says that Christ is
our Passover, meaning that Christ is is who we follow
today. And yet there is this idea of
the Passover and that this is not something that we celebrate
just once a year as the Jews did.
But Christ being our Passover means this, that we wouldn't
just purge the leaven out of out of our homes or out of our
souls, if you will. Once a year, we're to be.
Purged all the time that our homes and more importantly, our
hearts are all constantly purged.
In a way that's similar to the Passover, but that we would do
365 days a year. But Paul says in verse #7 he
says something about the character of the believers in
Corinth, but also saying something about the character of
believers today, including you and I.
He says purge out there for the old leaven, that you may be a
new lump as ye are unleavened. What does that mean?
Could I maybe give us the idea that is being spoken of here?
The day you got saved, you became unleavened.
What does that mean? You were forgiven of your sin as
ye are unleavened. He says that you are unleavened,
but yet there's a problem. They have reincorporated leaven
into their lives. It's almost as if they were
saved from sin, but now they're sinning some more.
Can anyone maybe understand what that's like?
Like maybe all of us that we were saved from our sin, but yet
we still live. In our sins, because we deal
with this rotten, stinky old flesh every day of the week.
And I don't know about you, but the thing that I'm looking
forward to perhaps the most in heaven is not necessarily that,
you know, I won't have to deal with the aches and pains of this
life. Although certainly I imagine
there's many of you that would feel even more greatly about
that. But even more than that, that I
won't have to deal with old rotten flesh anymore.
I'll tell you that's. Something I look forward to even
more than the aches and the pains and the no sorrow and then
or crying. Then I have to deal with the
temptation. And the flesh is something
that's just wonderful. But it says there that ye are
unleavened. That's the character of who we
are when we got saved. But the problem.
Is is that we return to the leaven after we get saved.
We still struggle with sin. That's why I went to mortify our
flesh. But the name was so right just a
few days ago when he preached and said, you know, go back to
Romans 6. Go back to Romans 7 and find out
what it says about this flesh and mortifying the flesh and,
and, and, and not being the servant of sin.
Remember I preached a few weeks ago, You will serve someone.
Either you will serve Jesus Christ or you will serve your
own flesh. You will serve somebody.
But we were unleavened. But then it says in verse #8
Therefore, Now I've taught you this before, and I'll say this
again tonight, Whenever you see therefore in the Bible, you want
to see what it's there for. I know, smart, huh?
That's as close as I get to. Being funny tonight, all right.
But that's what it is when it says therefore that means
there's a transitional statement, there's a connection
statement. It's saying here's the truth
over here. Therefore, because this is.
True. Then there's something else that
needs to be true over here. So where do we start with here
tonight? Verse 7, Verse 7, it says this.
It says ye are unleavened. Therefore, what are we to do?
Let us keep the feast. Now he's continuing this
connection with the Passover. So let us keep the feast, if you
will. With what?
Not with old leaven. What's old leaven?
Could I submit to you tonight? The old leaven is the very
things that you got saved from. And if we're not careful, we go
right back to like a dog to its vomit, like the pig to the slop.
See, God saved you from your sin.
But if we're not careful, some of those pets sins we can run
right back to not long after we get saved.
That doesn't mean somebody's not saved, but it does mean this.
They need to purge themselves, the old leaven, because there's
some things in their life that they're going back to that they
ought not go back to. That we were saved from them.
We have no desire. We shouldn't have a desire to be
able to go back to those things. Don't let your old sinful
lifestyle creep back in again. When God saved you, He saved you
all the way. But yet we can let the flesh
take us back to some of those things we got saved from.
So he says this in your life, you know what you need to do
because you're unleavened. Purge out any old leaven that
starts to sneak back in. But then not only that, he says
neither the leaven of malice. What is malice?
The definition is to a disposition to injure others
without 'cause you know when you start getting away from the Lord
and you put yourself first, you don't care who you run over.
If they're in your way, then you're going to get them out of
the way. And he says here, don't add
malice. What else?
It says in wickedness. What is that?
Everything else? That's pretty much a catch all
there, isn't it? I think we know what wickedness
is. Anything that is against the
very holiness of God, anything that is sin, He says you are
unleavened, therefore don't. Let in the old leaven, and don't
let in malice, and don't let in wickedness, and.
Basically, that's the end of the sermon, isn't it?
No. I mean, that's the thought
process, OK, This is who I am in Christ.
I am without leaven because I am that in Christ.
What do I need to do? Make sure in my day-to-day life
I keep the leaven out. Here's the problem.
And and you're thinking of the answer.
You're thinking of this already. We know.
This. But how do we do it?
It's not a surprise for me to preach to you tonight.
Christians don't sin. That's not a surprise.
You would be surprised if I came up here tonight and said, once
you're saved, listen, you're going to heaven, so do whatever
you feel like doing. You all would be really shocked
if I preached that because you know, it's not biblical.
So the opposite is true. You know that we are called to
live a life of holiness. Be holy for I am holy, that we
are called to live a life that glorifies God.
Love God, love others. Upon this hang all.
The Law on the Prophets. This is what we are called to
do. If you love me, Jesus said, keep
my commandments. So we understand this
progression. We're unleavened.
Therefore live in a way that's unleavened.
But how? But how?
And this is where I want us to focus for the next few minutes.
And this is where I've struggled.
Therefore, verse 8, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
How are we to live in an unleavened way?
Paul gives us 2 components, sincerity and truth.
Sincerity and truth, you know, when you think about it,
sincerity and truth are really the two guardrails of the
Christian life. You can't have one without the
other. You got to have sincerity, but
you got to have truth. There's a lot of people out
there that are very sincere. A man's field, quite often out
in there near where Joe lives, there's a Muslim school that's
there, and there's a lot of people who dress in Muslim garb
and are very faithful to the Muslim called a prayer, and
they're very sincere. Some are more sincere than some
Christians, but because their sincerity has no truth, they're
lost. Unless they call upon Jesus
Christ to save them, which is not found in Muslim doctrine,
then they will die and go straight to a devil's hell.
Sincere but not truthful. Even in some Christian circles
you can find there's a lot of sincerity but not a lot of
truth. Being preached.
I remember someone that I knew growing up, I told the story
several years ago that she went to a church where there really
wasn't a whole lot of preaching. It was a lot of feeling and
there's a lot of emotions and it was all services to to pull the
heartstrings. And I remember her telling me
that, that, that, that she told me the story.
I don't know why on earth she would tell me the story, but
she, she told on herself, if you will, And she said, Adam, I, I
went to a a service. And I remember we had our
worship time and their worship time didn't have a.
Lot to do with biblical worship from what she was saying and the
fog machine was going and she said and it was amazing she said
the. Pastor started to preach and she
says. And, and it was like, she says
it, it was like I saw the presence of God in a cloud.
And she said it was unbelievable.
And she said to one of the pastors at the church after
service, she goes, I want you to know is that I, I saw, I saw the
Lord in the cloud. Remember, she's telling me the
story and. The pastor says oh.
He called her by name. Actually, I don't know if you
know that, but in the middle of the message, the fog machine
turned back on and what you saw was the fog machine and not
necessarily a vision. She was so sincere, but what she
thought she saw and the truth of what she saw was not the same.
That's why we have to stick to the Bible and not trust our
emotions. Because we're not just looking
to have an emotional experience here at Liberty Baptist Church.
I I don't just want to move your, your emotions.
You know why? Because when you go home and the
emotions are gone and the feels are gone, what's left?
It's got to be truth, but. We go to Baptist Church.
Hey, we got the truth. Aren't you glad that we have
truth this evening? Aren't you glad that we uplift
the truth of the Word of God here at Liberty Baptist Church
and other churches that are like us?
We're not unique. I'm not here to tell you that
we're the only people who are preaching truth.
That's not the case. I'm very aware and I'm very
confident that we are in a place where the truth is exalted.
I'm very confident that you understand what the truth is
here this evening. But here's where the rubber
meets the road. The guardrails are real, you
have truth, but you have to have sincerity.
And this is where so many go wrong.
And this is important for us particularly who go to places
that preach the Bible and that have great confidence that our
doctrinal statements are good and right and Bible based, that
we can think that we are immune from difficulties and trials and
temptations because we are in the truth.
But the problem is that if you have truth and you don't have
sincerity, then you are very easily going to allow Levin to
come back into your life. He said it right here.
You want you want the unleavened bread.
You want to remain unleavened, then you must have sincerity and
truth. What is sincerity?
Well, the 1828 dictionary says it's honesty of mind or
intention, freedom from hypocrisy, disguise or false
pretense. That's what sincerity is the the
Greek definition. If you go deeper, it literally
means this sincerity purity tested.
By sunlight meaning this, what is it like when it's in the
light? I worked in the jewelry store,
both Kay's and Gordon's Jewelers for several years in Bible
college, and I didn't realize how important lighting was until
I worked for jewelry in a jewelry store.
We had. Our Kay Jeweler store just had
opened a couple years ago, but then there had been advances in
lighting and LED lights and all those things that were still
very new back then. The different types of bulbs,
the CFL bulbs, all that stuff. I don't know why I understand it
all. All I know is our bulbs are a
lot more expensive than they used to be.
But, you know, our bulbs used to be pretty yellow.
And one of the things that really was troublesome for a Kay
Jewelers, if you will, was that because the light wasn't right,
a diamond that could be colorless could actually look
like it had a yellow tint when it was held in the light because
the light was off. There were some diamonds that we
sold. I was hoping that nobody would
take out into the light because in that case it looked really
good. But once you took it out, you'd
see all the imperfections that were on it.
But what did Kays want? That they wanted to try to have
the best light possible because they.
Believed that their diamonds were the best and they wanted to
show them off in the best life. They wanted to show that what
they were selling was. Sincere that it could be held
out to the light and turned this way and that.
You know, you can have a personal belief in the Lord, A
doctrinal statement of your own if you will, that is right on
the money. But can your faith be held out
into the light, the light of the sun, SOM, and be gone this way
and that way, and to be inspected?
I know none of us are perfect. We all struggle with sin every
day. But there's a difference between
struggling with our sins on a daily basis and trying to get
right with the Lord at every chance we get, and living in a
way that is insincere from that which God has told us to do.
Sincerity says I am unleavened now, therefore I am going to do
whatever I can do with sincerity and truth to live in a way that
is also unleavened. We can put it this way.
Our life for Christ must reflect who we are in Christ.
Remember that for you one more time.
Our life for Christ must reflect who we are in Christ.
You know your walk ought to match your talk.
That who we say we are on our doctrinal statement ought to be
who we are. Who I tell people on Sunday I am
ought to be who I am the rest of the week.
We shouldn't be singing holy, holy, holy on Sunday and living
like an alley cat Monday through Saturday.
Now I imagine there's not many people who are living that way
to that extreme. But when we allow even the hint
of insincerity in our Christian life, we can go to dangerous
places, places that you never thought.
Is the truth important? It's one of the guardrails.
All sincerity. No truth is just as bad.
But I'm afraid in our good churches, or we're confident
what we believe and why we believe it, we can think then
therefore we are immune from struggling with certain things
or that we're above certain things because we go to a church
that believes the right thing. And you can believe the right
thing, but that doesn't mean that sincerity puts it into
practice. This issue of sincerity is found
all throughout the Word of God. It's not just in this chapter.
Joshua 2414 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in
sincerity and truth, and put away.
The gods that your father served on the other side of the flood
and in Egypt serve you, the Lord.
Paul talks about sincerity more than anyone else in Scripture.
Second. Corinthians 88 I speak not by
commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others to
prove the sincerity of your love.
He's talking about giving. He says don't just tell people
you love them, give to them in a way that shows that you love
them. He was talking really about
giving to what we would call missions today and saying don't
just say you believe in it, give like you believe.
In it. Sincerity Ephesians 624 Grace be
with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, Amen.
Philippians 110 That you may approve all things that are
excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till
the day of Christ. Titus 27 And all things showing
thyself a. Pattern of good works and
doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity or sincerity.
Sincerity, or a lack thereof, causes believers to live
differently at home than they do at church.
It causes believers to live differently in private that they
do in public. It causes.
Believers to refuse. To admit they even have any
problem with sin and it pushes unbelievers and weak believers
away from the church when they see insincerity.
I don't know about you, but sometimes I look at some of the
things that comes across the news and people who are doing
awful things and what's 1 of the things that I see across on
their neck? What does that say?
Insincerity. I'm not there to be there judge,
jury or executioner, but what I'm saying is that there's some
things that are being done and being said, all with having a
cross on it, as if that is to deflect from the issues at hand.
There is an issue that we all have to deal with with this
problem of sincerity. Is truth important?
Yes it is. This is truth, this is truth,
this is truth, this has truth, this has truth, and on and on
and on it goes. But without sincerity, there's
not much left. You may feel uncomfortable and I
feel uncomfortable about this, but I think sometimes we have to
sit in some of these things that are uncomfortable and really
think about them in our own life because it's so easy to be in
the truth, but to lack the sincerity of doing that which
God has wanted us to do. 1st Corinthians 1012 says this.
Wherefore let him that thinketh, he standeth.
Take heed lest default. Who is he saying that?
I just said? He's saying that the people
Corinth, we just went over that couple weeks ago.
Those people Corinth were so sure because they were in a
biblical church that they were doing well.
He says you better take heed because this could happen to
you. Am I saying that you will have
the same indiscretion as your life as what we have said here
tonight about this man? No, that's not what I'm saying
at all. But what we're saying is it's
something much more broad and much more important than that.
It's not don't be like this person.
It's more that of the lines that the Word of God is saying, don't
have leaven in your life. Don't tolerate it.
Don't allow it in. Because it allows us to be
insincere. So what do we need to do to be
in? We don't need to do anything to
be insincere. We just need to live.
Yeah, the way I was to be funny. I just had to say the wrong
thing, I guess. What do we need to do to be
sincere? Can I Can I give?
You some help with this tonight. First of all, we need to
regularly confess our sins before the Lord.
Keep short accounts with your Savior.
We confess our sins. He is faithful and just to
forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
first. John 19.
By the way, if you've messed up in the past, this is true for
you too, you know. Again, I'm not dancing on
anyone's grave here tonight. Aren't you glad that even with
some of the back stories that some of us have this evening,
that first John 19 is still true for the believer that you could
be insincere, you could be doing wrong, but yet you can go back
in sincerity to the Lord with with godly sorrow that worketh
repentance and God will forgive you.
That's what the Bible says proves 2813 He that cover the
sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh
them shall have mercy. This issue of sincerity is even
the idea of I see sin within me, so I need to confess it.
Instead of doing this and pretending like it's not there
to regularly confess our sin before the Lord, what else do we
need to do? We need to read the word of God.
I know I mentioned this on Sunday, but we could mention
this. Every service have a daily walk
with God that includes Bible reading and prayer every day.
A walk with God will keep you walking in the right direction.
Galatians 516 This I say then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Now this shouldn't sound controversial.
Maybe you think that it is, but it shouldn't sound like that.
If you walk in the Spirit, you cannot do those things which the
Bible calls unseemly. That's really just what
Galatians 516 says. If you allow the Spirit to lead
in your life through the Word of God, then you will make the
right decisions when they come. And when we don't make those
right decisions, it's because we're not heeding the Spirit who
lives within us and the Word of God.
Proverbs 620 through 24. My son, keep thy father's
commandment. Forsake not the law of thy
mother. Bind them continually upon thy
heart, and tie them about thy neck.
When thou goest, it shall lead thee.
When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee.
When thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
For the commandment is a lamp, the law is light, and reproofs
of instruction are the way of life.
To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the
tongue of a strange woman. The Bible says if you want to do
right, read what's right. Don't just read it so you can
check off a box, but take time to allow the Word of God to come
into your heart and to affect your life regularly.
Confess our sins. Read the Word of God.
If you want to be sincere regularly, or rather reassess
yourself every time you're confronted with the Word.
This is so important. When are we confronted with the
Word? When we read our Bible.
When are we confronted with the word?
When we hear a sermon, when are we confronted with the Word?
When we have a biblical conversation with someone, when
the Word of God confronts us? Be willing to allow the Word to
do its work in your life. That's where sincerity comes in.
Psalms 139 verse 23 and 24 Search me, oh God, know my
heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be
any wicked way of me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Hosea 14 verse nine. Who is wise?
And he shall understand these things prudent, and he shall
know them. The ways of the Lord are right,
and the. Just shall walk in them, but
transgressors shall fall therein.
To me, This is why the invitation is so important.
And it's such a shame that churches are getting away from
the invitation. Because when we're confronted
with the Word of God, we need time to be able to reflect on
what the Word is telling us. To be able to allow the Holy
Spirit to identify places in our life where we need to be right
with him. That there shouldn't be a time
when we come to this church that we're not willing to say, Lord,
if I'm confronted with something in your word, I'll do what I
need to do to make it right. There should never be a time
that we open our Bible and if we read a verse and we see that it
has to do with us and the Spirit makes application that we're not
willing to do what we need to do to be right with God.
When was the last time you came to church and, and had that hard
attitude as you're walking in? You know, Lord, whatever you say
to me tonight through Your Spirit in conjunction with the
Word, I'll make it right because I want to be right with you.
You know what that sounds like? Sincerity.
Sincerity isn't being perfect. Sincerity is saying when the
leaven is identified, I'm willing to take it out.
That's a big difference. Because if you're thinking that
I'm preaching perfection here tonight, well then I've already
failed. We all have.
But sincerity is when the leaven is identified.
I see it for what it is. I scoop it up.
I take it out. How?
By confessing it to the Lord, by giving it to Him.
And that brings us to the 4th and final thing, which is this.
Remember humility. Remember humility.
There's one thing in common. Anytime we deal with habitual
sin or sin that is hidden, it always comes down to 5 letters.
PRIDE. I've heard it said the pride is
the summation of all sins, that the root of every sin is pride.
Why is that? Because even at its basis level,
we get to the place where we think in our pride that we know
better than God and His Word. I know God said not to do it,
but I can do it anyway. You want to talk about the
ultimate of pride, that you and I think that we know better than
God. I mean, that's foolishness.
You take an expert in a field that you know nothing about and
they tell you what to do and lecture.
You want it and you say, you know, I don't think I want to do
that, I'll do something else. We would call you foolish in
that area. Now magnify that times Infinity
to an all knowing God who's an all loving God.
Who tells us these things because he loves us.
And then we turn around and say, no, I think I'll do it my own
way. That's the height of arrogance
and pride. What would we need to have?
We need to have humility. Acts 20 verse 18 and 19 When
they were come to him, he said unto them, you know, this is
Paul saying to the men of Ephesus from the first day that
I came to Asia after what manner I have been with you all
seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind.
Paul says the MO of my ministry is humility of mind, a man who
saw more than we could imagine, who God revealed more than we
can conjure up in our minds. The Bible gives us some glimpses
of it, but we can't fully understand that which God
revealed himself in the ways he revealed himself to Paul.
And he said this despite all those things I've seen, but all
those things I've experienced. Getting caught up in the 3rd
heaven, I'm going to come to you in humility.
If Paul saw the need for humility, who are we?
We're people that need to be humble.
When we're not humble, we are not living a life that can be
sincere because we can't be corrected.
We can't be corrected. Let's be cool.
Nobody likes to be corrected here.
If you, if you said pastor, I enjoy correction, I'd say
there's probably something wrong with you.
Because in our flesh, we don't like being corrected.
That's why when the pastor preaches on something that might
be personal, and I'm not trying to be personal in the sense I'm
looking around the room taking a straw poll of who I can offend
and how I can offend. Looking up on everyone's
Facebook and on your ex and on your on your Instagram to find
out what people are doing to preach on it.
You know, I don't want to see anything on those things.
I want to preach with a heart that has nothing to do with what
anybody's doing. Just preach the word as it's
there. I have no desire to do that any
other way but to us to have the. Heart of humility that just as
the words preached as as the word is read, and it hits me
right between the eyes, I won't be humble enough to say Lord
it's me as David did and was a man after God's own heart.
Not because he was perfect, but you can't argue that David was
sincere. He was sincere down to his very
core. And when he was confronted by
God every single time he said, yes, Lord, I was wrong.
I'll tell you this story and I'll be done.
I was an ordination a few weeks ago and I was talking with a
pastor friend of mine and we were encouraging this gentleman
that was getting ordained. In fact, I could tell you is
Denwood Ross. He's preached here several times
and I remember being at the ordination and, and, and part of
it was questioning and part of it was just sharing practical
ministry helps with this young man.
And at a pastor to my left who said something along these
lines. He says you need to make sure
that you are being sincere in your walk with God.
And he went on to tell a story that he'd gone to Bible college,
not Heartland Baptist Bible College, but he'd gone to Bible
college with a friend of his that after Bible college
graduation, that they went their separate ways but kept in touch.
He's a pastor up here in New England.
The other gentleman became a pastor in the Middle Atlantic
states. And it seemed like for years,
everything this pastor did, it turned to gold.
The church was small, but then it exploded.
Ministry after ministry is opened.
Anything that he did it seemingly was amazing until one
day he had to stand up in front of a church and because of gross
marital infidelity had to resign from his position.
My pastor friend takes a few months and calls his friend.
They talk for a little bit and he says calls him by name.
He said, I need to ask you a question.
We've been friends for a long time.
And if you don't feel like you can answer then, then just tell
me that you won't. He says, how did you get to a
place where you could do this? Have a wonderful wife, have an
incredible ministry, God kept blessing.
How did you get to a place where this was OK and is my pastor
friend is relaying this to Denwood Ross.
He says that the answer to that question was this.
I got to a place where I thought the rules didn't apply to me
anymore. He had become so successful that
he thought the rules didn't apply to him anymore.
That story has rattled around in my brain for the last 2 1/2
months since I heard it. Because maybe we can't
necessarily say that we think we're so successful that the
rules don't apply to us. But when you live insincerely,
you don't really think about the rules.
You think about yourself. And why are those rules there?
Because God wants to put a damper on your style.
Because God doesn't love you. Because God wants to make you
miserable. You know, he has those things in
place because he loves you and he knows the damage that sin
will do. The blast radius of this is so
hard to calculate. I don't know that I can.
There's a Church of hundreds. There's hundreds of churches
that receive this. They host a men's retreat.
They had to cancel last week. Over 1000 men were supposed to
be there. I wonder how many of those men
were maybe on the brink in their marriage, needed help and now
they don't get it. People have gone that church
30-40 years. He taught at the Bible college.
You know, you could choose your sin.
You can't choose your consequences.
And for us, what do we need to do as believers?
What's the take home truth for us tonight again?
Is it? Is it to take someone who has
done so badly and to just point at him and say look at him, look
at him and a mock and make fun? No, it's to say when there is a
lack of sincerity, even when there's great truth, one of
those guard rails are gone and you don't know where you'll end
up. Let's don't just think, because
we go to a good church and that we read the right Bible, that
we're immune from the issues of life.
Truth is everything, but sincerity is everything too.
And if we're so about truth here, and we are that, we ought
to be equally about living that which we know is true.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.