(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Good morning, we're in 2 Corinthians chapter number 3, and the Bible reads, Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to Godward. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. But the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. And not is Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded, for unto this day remaineth the same veil, untaken away, in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, we just thank you for this church, and for our pastor, just ask that she would bless them with your Holy Spirit now, as he preaches your word unto us. And please just give us ears to hear it, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Okay, we're in 2 Corinthians chapter number 3, and the title of my sermon this morning is The Epistles of Christ. The Epistles of Christ. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse number 1, it says, Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistles written in our hearts, known in red of all men. For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. Here the Apostle Paul is essentially explaining what it is that exactly qualifies him to preach the word of God, to teach the Bible, to be an authority here, especially at the church at Corinth, and he's basically saying in verse number 1 that he doesn't need any type of commendation from any institution or person outside of the local New Testament church. And this thought is carried from the last verse of chapter 2 in verse number 17 where it says, For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. And he's implying that there's obviously people during Paul's day that are obviously corrupting the word of God, they're perverting the scriptures, and they're claiming to have some sort of authority, whereas the Apostle Paul says you don't need to know whether I'm sent from God or not based upon some letter of commendation, some sort of plaque, some sort of certificate. You are my certificate. You are my epistle. You essentially are the proof that I am from God. And of course, what he's implying here is the fact that many of the people at the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul went to the Lord, right? And in fact, he says, though you have many instructors in Christ, yet you have not many fathers, for I have begotten you through the gospel, meaning that he led a lot of those at Corinth to the Lord. But even then, you know, there's other churches that existed during Paul's day that weren't necessarily won to Christ by the Apostle Paul, but obviously the Apostle Paul did participate in their perfection, right? In other words, you think of the church at Colossae, who he didn't see face to face. He wasn't there when the church was started, but his letter is obviously perfecting them in the faith. You know, they're essentially proof that the Apostle Paul is sent from God because they were helped by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Colossians. He's obviously perfecting them in the Lord, essentially giving them that which is deficient in their faith, and he's helping them to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Therefore he doesn't need necessarily a plaque. He doesn't need a letter of commendation, which is what he says in verse one. He says, do we begin again to commend ourselves or need we ask some others, referring to those who corrupt the word of God, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? Now, this isn't the sermon, but I'm gonna spend some time talking about this in my introduction that, you know, this is really important, especially today because of the fact that, you know, today people esteem these institutions and seminaries and schools and Bible colleges so much that in order to be qualified to preach the word of God, you need some sort of certificate of divinity. You need your master's in theology. You need a doctorate in, you know, the Bible in order to be qualified to teach the Bible. But you know, the Bible doesn't talk about any of those degrees, and in fact, when it comes to the office of a deacon, for example, it says that they will purchase to themselves a good degree, referring to the fact that the work that they put in. Now obviously we know that the biblical model to qualify someone is that a church, a pastor who's already ordained has to send out a pastor, right? This isn't an excuse for someone to just go out and just start a church on their own without the authority of another local New Testament church or a pastor. This is essentially saying that the Apostle Paul, the proof that he is from God is in the doctrine that he's teaching, okay? Because obviously false prophets and false teachers can't teach accurate doctrine for very long, eventually they're going to be found out. They will proceed no further, the Bible says, and they'll be exposed for who they are. Whereas the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the fruit of the righteous are saved people. The fruit of the righteous are people who know the word of God. And so you can go into a local New Testament church that has a saved pastor. And if the pastor is saved, you're going to not only find saved people, but you're going to find mature Christians as well, right? You can come into First Works Baptist Church and virtually everyone in here for the most part is saved, okay? But not only that, you'll find saved people, but you'll also find people who know the Bible. You'll find people who have learned the word of God, who have built spiritual disciplines. This is the epistle of Christ right here. And obviously, like for example myself, don't throw tomatoes at me, I went to Bible college, and you know, that's a blotch on my record, you know? But I was part of the old IFB and that was a major thing in the old IFB, and in fact, if you wanted to even be a part of the ministry, if you wanted to be a pastor or a missionary or participate in some sort of ministry at all, you had to go to Bible college, okay? And you know, after you're done with Bible college, you get your bachelor's degree and pastoral theology. Let me just say this, is the vast majority of people, men who get that bachelor's degree in pastoral theology, know diddly squat about the Bible, okay? So how did they get it? They paid for that certificate, that's how they got it. They went through four years of Bible college, five years, six years, whatever it may be, and they got good grades, okay? They answered the questions, but at the end of the day, I've met people who graduated from Bible college who didn't really know much about the Bible. But here's the thing, is that in order for that person to be able to work at another local New Testament church, the church that wants to hire that individual is going to require some proof, some commendation from a biblical institution known as a Bible college, they call a biblical institution, of whether that person is qualified to teach the Bible or not. In other words, where's your Bible college certificate? What college did you graduate from is what they're going to require of that individual, and if they have that certificate, they're in. But here's the problem, is that they most of the time don't know any Bible whatsoever. Or let's just say they know a little bit of Bible, okay, how many people have you won to Christ, though? Or what about the people who are already saved, have you perfected them in the faith? Do you know how to duplicate yourself and someone else and teach them the word of God and teach them doctrine? Where are your epistles of Christ, in other words, right? And what the Apostle Paul is doing here is he's making a distinction between those who corrupt God's word and those who do not, and he's saying, at the end of the day, you know that I can't corrupt God's word, aside from the fact that he's saved, but he has an entire church as proof that he is a man of God sent from the Lord because of those epistles that are in his church there at Corinth. He says in verse 2, ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. The proof is in the pudding, is what he's saying there. The proof is in the convert. The proof is in the convert that has grown in the Lord, right? And so it's important for us to realize and understand that going to Bible college is not something that I would recommend for anybody to do, because first of all, number one, it's a waste of money. Number two, it's a waste of money. But also number three, it's a waste of, no I'm just kidding, number three is you're going to learn a lot of false doctrine, and you shouldn't be paying to learn the Bible anyways. And you actually get more from more training and more knowledge of the Bible going to a local New Testament church under a pastor than you would from a Bible college. Now obviously the exception proves the rule, because there might be a Bible college out there that even though you have to pay to be there, they actually teach the Bible, they train their people, but the exception proves the rule. And in fact, I know of one exception of a Bible college where they don't charge to learn the Bible there. You can go to a Bible college there for free, as it should be, and they have many students there. I don't know if the Bible college still exists, but when I was in college, a teacher from that college came to our college to teach, and he's like, yeah, we don't charge, and I'm thinking to myself, why don't we do that here? And I remember one of the leaders getting up saying, like, don't get any ideas. But obviously the exception proves the rule, right? And so you don't need to go to a Bible college to get a letter of recommendation, to get a certificate, some sort of degree. You know, what you should be doing as someone who's preparing for the ministry is building up epistles of Christ, winning people to Christ, winning people to the Lord, and then perfecting people who you've won to the Lord, right? We don't need an epistle from a Bible college, we need an epistle of Christ, an individual that we've won to the Lord, that we've influenced for Christ, that we have perfected in the faith via our discipleship, via your preaching, et cetera. That's what he's referring to there in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. But I'm going to take the sermon actually in a complete different direction, okay? It has to do with this chapter here, and I want to talk about the fact that he likens believers to an epistle of Christ. Because if you think about it, when he says epistle of Christ, he's referring to like the Word of God, right? And he's making that distinction there and he's saying that believers can be likened unto an epistle of Christ, the Word of God. And this morning I'm going to give some similarities between the Christian and the Word of God and some of the qualities that they actually share, okay? Now you're there in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, hold your place there and go to 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5, if you would. Let's talk about the Word of God for a minute here. Number 1, regarding the similarities between the Christian and the Word of God, the epistle of Christ and the Word of God is this. You know, when you think about the Bible, the internal evidence of the Bible proves the Bible. The testimony within the Bible is what validates it as being the Word of God. You know, the Bible says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And so, when we approach the Word of God, we have to approach it with faith, not with the commentary, not with some sort of archeological discovery, not with, you know, Catholic church history. What do we approach it with? The Bible. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit is all that we need to validate if the Bible is true, right? God doesn't need some sort of outside source to confirm that it's God's Word. It is the proof. Amen? Look at 1 John chapter 5 verse 7, it says, For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. And these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, listen to this, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. If we were to just surmise what the Word of God is, we would say it is the witness of God. The reason it's called God's Word is because it's God witnessing of the truth of Jesus Christ. It's the testimony of God. And in fact, when you read the Bible in, for example, the book of Psalms, it often likens the Bible. It describes it as being the precepts of God, the statutes of God, the commandments of God, and also what? The testimonies of the Lord. Because these are the things that He's testifying of the Bible. And the reason this point is very important is because of the fact that people are always trying to point to evidence outside of the Bible to try to prove the Bible, right? But the reality is that they need to be looking at the internal evidence more than anything else. They should be looking at the testimony of God. And it always bothers me when someone feels like the outside evidence is more important than the internal evidence. So I know obviously it's the Word of God, but you know, we found this rock somewhere that has like Hebrew writing or something, and that proves that the Bible, no it doesn't, it's a rock. Let me give you an example. You know, something that's really big right now is the Merneptah Stelle. I think I pronounced that right. If I didn't, who cares? And it's an engraved stone slab that is essentially describing the victory of a Pharaoh, and it's a piece of rock, it's a stone slab with hieroglyphics on there. And this is really big on social media because they always point to it like, here's something that's very unique about this slab of stone. You see this hieroglyphics talk about Israel. It's like, Israel's right here, and it matches up with the history of what took place in the Bible, and it just reaffirms that the Bible is true. And it's just like, no it doesn't, because when you actually do a little more research on that stone, no one has confirmed whether the hieroglyphic that he's pointing to is actually referring to Israel, because it doesn't say Israel. It just says like a nomadic tribe with no king, which the Israelites were not the only ones who were like that. There's plenty of people in the ancient world who were without a king, okay. But you know, thousands of likes, hundreds of thousands of comments, and oh man the Word of God is true. But I guarantee you, the vast majority of people who believe in that don't really believe a lot of what the Bible teaches. They are placing their faith in an outside source. They need outside evidence to prove the Bible when even that outside evidence is faulty. But you know, no one fact checks this stuff. They're not looking to see if this slab of stone is actually telling the truth, because it says, you know, the Pharaoh conquered this land and this land, and these are the symbols to describe a nation with a king, and this one had a king, oh this one doesn't have a king, that must be Israel. And obviously people don't even know the chronology of the Bible. And so a lot, you know, what he's referring to is what took place in Egypt, but the scripture that he uses to confirm that it's true is the fact that the book of Judges says that the children of Israel didn't have a king in those days. Well that took place long after their stay in Egypt. And at the end of the day, Israelites always had a king, other than of course a physical king. I'm referring to the fact that God was their king, they were under a theocracy. But people are always looking for, and they love this stuff. Oh I just want to see the archaeological evidence of the fact that, you know, what's the newest archaeological find to confirm and prove that the Bible is true. Another example would be that people always want to point to church history to prove the Bible and to prove Christianity. And people who are very notorious for this are Catholics. Catholics are notorious for this, and in fact I've had conversations with Catholics this week regarding church history, and one person in particular was telling me, show me proof that there were believers, like you said, Christians, Baptists, who believed like you in 200, 300 BC, or excuse me, AD. Because what he wants to point out is the fact that if the Catholic church is from the Bible, that the Bible was teaching Catholicism, you know obviously Catholicism keeps good records, but it only keeps good records of what their history is, right? Because they're the victors, so they're obviously going to put forth the history. And when you look at Catholic history, you have all of these people saying whatever, who are claiming to be Christians and whatnot. And so he's like, give me an example, and I said, well, I don't know of any. But I just know that they existed. Now that answer did not suffice because he wants something outside of the Bible to prove that what I'm saying is true about the Bible. And I said, well, you know, he's like, name me like some people historically that were known to believe like you. I said, well, there's Paul, I said, there's Timothy, there's Epaphras, there is Titus, there's James, and I'm just going through the list. He's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, I want someone else outside. I'm like, but isn't that enough? I mean, they're from the first, I mean, it's older than what you're asking for me. Because he wants 200, 300 AD, I'll give it to you from the first century AD. He said, no, I want something after. But here's the thing, if these people existed in the first century AD, it'd be safe to say that they continue to exist thereafter. Now here's the hypocrisy in that argument, okay, that he's giving. Because of the fact that he wants a name. He's like, give me a name of a Baptist church. Give me a name of someone who believed just like you. Give me a name. He just wants the name. I'm like, well, I didn't live that long ago, so I don't know of any names. I said, but I got a question for you based upon your own standard. Give me Catholicism in the Bible. Show me where it says Catholic in the Bible. Show me the seven sacraments in the Bible. Show me where it says Pope in the Bible. Oh, no, but the Catholic's Bible, oh, so it's funny, you know, you want to hold me to that standard to look for a Baptist church in 200, 300 AD, but yet when I give you the example of the Bible itself that you claim to have put together, and I said, give me an example of Catholicism, where does it say Catholicism in the Bible? You can't show it to me. And it was like, you know, for a group of people that claims to have written the Bible, you guys did a horrible job, since you guys didn't think through putting Catholicism in the Bible, because everything in the Bible goes against Catholicism, everything. And so, but here's the thing is, I kept telling him, why don't we just use the Bible to discuss what we're talking about here? But he wanted to go outside of the Bible. He wanted history and everything. You know, he wants all this evidence outside of the Word of God to prove the Bible, but folks, the internal evidence is the proof, okay? Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, if you would, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. So the evidence that the Bible is true is within the Bible itself, and this is why we don't need to show any external evidence, because folks, if people reject the Word of God, they're not even going to believe whatever evidence you're providing for them anyways. It says in 1 Corinthians 2, 1, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the archaeological discoveries, no, the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save the Merneptah Stele, no, what? It says, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man and archaeological discoveries and whatever findings they find in 2024, what? Not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. Because the Word of God is the power, and if they reject that, then they're not going to believe whatever evidence you provide thereafter. Now how does this apply to a Christian being an epistle of Christ? Well think about this, you know, just as people require evidence outside the Bible to prove that it's the Bible, you know, there's people out there that want to see some sort of external evidence to prove that you're a Christian. And what do they do? They reject the testimony of that individual. You know, because we believe, what the Bible says, you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Making that profession of faith the testimony of the believer is the evidence. Like how do you know if this person is saved? Well, because they said they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, but you know, faith without works is dead, being alone. Well apparently he just has alone faith. Faith alone then. But according to the Bible, that's enough. Right? And so you have churches today that want to see some sort of external evidence to prove the testimony of the individual when the Bible is teaching us that what is sufficient is the testimony of the person. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, the Bible says. The Bible tells us, go to Matthew chapter 12 if you would, Matthew chapter 12, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, you're going to Matthew 12, I'm going to read to you from 1 Thessalonians verse 6 says, And he became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that ye were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad, so that we need not to speak any thing. Sometimes churches look to the outside expressions to say that they are saved, but the evidence is based upon the profession of faith, that which is the internal evidence. And here's the thing folks, we can't expect an automatic, you know when someone gets saved, we can't expect an automatic change in that person on the outside. And I'll give you an example, in Belize we got a lot of people saved, but a lot of those people didn't just go gun ho for the Lord thereafter. Now it was great that they got baptized, but even people who got baptized were still struggling with sin. I mean we had individuals who were just like, they're struggling about divorce and remarriage, you think we, it wouldn't be right for us to be like, well you know, is this person really saved then, you know? Well they made a profession of faith, the testimony that they gave was that they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, but the reality is this is that there's still babes in Christ, they need to learn the word of God, they need to get right with the Lord, and so just because they're involved in sin thereafter doesn't mean they're not saved. It doesn't mean that they're not saved, they still gotta grow in the Lord. And so it's important for us to realize that because of the fact, and let me just say this is that, because we're getting around the holidays, and sometimes during the holidays, you know, we sometimes spend time with our families who are not saved, right? And you may have an opportunity to witness to one of your unsaved family members, and if you're not careful, you might treat your family member not necessarily the way you would treat a person at the door. Now what do I mean by that? You know, at the door you witness to someone, they make a profession of faith, you have full faith that that person got saved, right? Like that person for sure got saved, how do you know the testimony? They called upon the name of the Lord, and you're satisfied with that, but you know for some reason when it comes to our own family members, we want more than that. It's like, yeah, but do you believe the reparative doctrine though? Yes, but are you post-trip though? Oh, I don't know about this person. It's like we have a higher standard for our family members than we do for any other convert, and I understand why we want them to be saved, we want them, we want to be assured that they are saved, but at the end of the day folks, the testimony is sufficient. The testimony is sufficient. And I've been there where someone's witness to my family members or something, and I'm just like, man, but I just don't know because they don't really have a desire. But you know what we're looking for is external evidence when we should be looking at the internal evidence, basically what is it that they say they believe? And so when you go have Thanksgiving, you go to do your Christmas dinner, and you have a chance to witness to your family members, if they make that profession of faith, be satisfied with that. Yeah, but how can I know beyond a shadow of a doubt? Well, I guess you won't. You have to place your faith in the Bible that the Bible tells us that if they call upon the name of the Lord, they're saved. And just pray and hope that if they're not, if they believe in vain, then you would have another opportunity to witness to them in the future, but at the end of the day, we should be satisfied with the fact that if they made that testimony, they've called upon the name of the Lord in faith that they're saved. Why? Because external evidence is the most important thing. We don't need some archaeological discovery for a Christian to know that they're a Christian. We don't need them to change their lives or anything like that to validate. Now it's important for them to change their lives for their sake, so they can be blessed of God and avoid the punishments of the Lord and the consequences of sin. But when it comes to salvation, all that's required is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? Let me just say this regarding baptism too, okay? You know, if you haven't been baptized, you need to be baptized. Baptism comes after salvation, and I don't keep track of everyone who's gotten baptized, but I'm sure a lot of people in here have, but I'm sure there's people in here who haven't. And let me say this, you don't need to change your life in order to be baptized. We had a convert in Belize, and it's a lady who I got saved, and she was just struggling with getting baptized because she's like, I don't know if I'm ready to commit my life to the Lord. And I was just like, and I was kind of like baffled, like baptism is committing your life to the Lord. Baptism is getting wet. Baptism is just going under and out, you know? But the church that she was going to had these commandments of men that required this person to just repent of their sins and clean up their life and be willing to follow Christ and be willing to make all these changes in that person's life before they got baptized. Sorry, that's not in the Bible. You know, the Ethiopian eunuch didn't really change much after he got saved. And Philip was just like, here's water, let's do it. He's like, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes, all right, let's do it. Why? Because a changed life is not required for baptism. Stop adding to the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible does it take. Yeah, but you should. Yeah, but you know, there's a lot of things that we should do that we just don't. And we got to look at the Bible for what the Bible says we should do. And the Bible says in order to be baptized, we should be saved first. That's the only requirement that the Bible gives. So if you're in here, you haven't been baptized, you know, follow the Lord in the first step of obedience and get baptized. Stop being proud. Stop being shy. You know, it's just water. Water's warm sometimes. And do it. Well, I need a way for my family to show up. No, you don't. The Bible says you just do it right afterwards, and that's it, after salvation. Look at Matthew 12 and verse 35 says, a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. It's saying to you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an encounter of in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned, the Bible says. You don't have to turn there, Luke chapter 6 and verse 45 says, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. This is essentially how we determine if someone is saved or not. We go to a door, we knock on it, and we say 100% sure if you die today you go to heaven, they say yes, we ask them, what would you say someone has to do to be saved, they're like repent of your sins. It's like okay, this person's not saved. The testimony that this individual gave has confirmed that they are still an unregenerate person. However, if a person says, I believe, and they say they believe in God or they believe in Jesus Christ, and you follow up with, well can you ever lose your salvation, they're like no, okay then it's confirmed that this person is saved. And in fact, in Belize, there's a parking attendant of this little area that we would go and park our van, and he would always just kind of ask us like, how's the work going? And we didn't know, but later on we found out that he was a pastor. And we had gone to the surrounding cities and we came back and he's like, how did it go? And we're like, we got this many saved. He's like, man, that's great because that place is hard, a lot of Catholics. He was just a really kind person and he even let us be in the parking lot for free one time because of the salvation that we got. But then he kept talking to us and then he said, I think it was Brother Huyck who asked them like, what would you say someone has to do to be saved? And he was just like, trust in Jesus Christ. And then I think Brother Huyck followed up with like, if someone trusts in Jesus but they don't do the works, are they still saved? And the guy was just like, hey, once saved, always saved, brother. And we're just like, hey, we believe the same thing. He was getting on the offense, like who are these guys? But he was like, once saved, always saved, you can never lose your salvation. And he started using all the Baptist terms, these workspace people, see those guys walking right there? They're from the Nazarene church. That's a workspace church. His testimony confirmed that he's an epistle of Christ. And in fact, he's like, yeah, sometimes I preach and this lady wanted to preach in my church and I said, no, and you know, she ended up leaving our church. But you know what I told my people, if there's only a few people of us in my family, then so be it. This guy's a Baptist and he ended up being a Baptist like, now he was like an independent missionary Baptist, which I don't think I've ever heard. It's like, I don't know, I've never heard of something like that. But I mean, whoever won this guy to Christ though, and whoever taught him must have been a fundamental Baptist though. Because that's fundamental Baptist Christianese that he was using there. You know, when you think about once saved, always saved, that's, you know, a Baptist thing. Okay. And that's something we take like pride in of saying, whereas heretics like hate that, you know, they think it's heresy or whatever. But he was he was open about it. He was just like, yeah, you know, that's what I believe. And so could he be off doctrinally in some other areas? Maybe. But based upon the testimony that he gave, based upon the internal evidence, we looked at we read the epistle and said, this is an epistle of Christ. This isn't some fraudulent document. This is the legitimate epistle of Christ, known and read of all men. Right. The Bible says you don't have to turn to first Timothy 612, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life where unto thou are also called, and has professed a good profession before many witnesses. Hebrews 10 23 says, Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful. That promise, go to Romans chapter two, if you would, Romans chapter number two. So you see the similarity there between the Word of God and the epistle of Christ, meaning the convert. When it comes to the Bible, don't look to outward evidences to prove that the Bible is true. What is the testimony of the Bible say? Well, in like manner for a convert, look at the testimony of that convert. And here's the thing is that you have some people out there, they claim to be an epistle of Christ. But when you look at the testimony, you look at the content, you're like, this person's not only they're not saved, they're twofold more, a child of hell. What's another similarity that we can draw between the Christian and the Word of God? Well, you know, the Bible is comprised of both Old and New Testament, right? But to say we have a complete Bible, we would say it's both Old and New Testament. And if someone only has the Old Testament, they have essentially an incomplete Bible. Because you need both Old and New Testament in your Bible to compile the Word of God. Well, you know, in like manner, Christian is made up of two natures, both Old and New. You have the old man, and you have the new man. And what's interesting is that the Old Testament represents the what? The law that brings forth death. And the old man also represents death. But what's also interesting is that prior to you getting saved, prior to me getting saved, before we became epistles of Christ, the Bible says we have the law of God written in our hearts. Look at Romans two, verse 14, for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness in their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one another, the Bible says. So even prior to getting saved, we have the law of God in our hearts, we were like an Old Testament, right? An unsaved person is just like a walking Old Testament, because they have the law of God written in their hearts. Now when it says the law of God, it's referring to what? The moral law. It's not referring to the meats, drinks, and diverse washings, you know, it's referring to the fact that people know that they're committing a moral sin by murder, by lying, you know, by adultery, things of that nature. This isn't referring to like the Sabbath. No one in the world is just like, there's someone deep down in my heart that I know I need to keep the Sabbath. They're out there partying on Saturday and they're like, I know I shouldn't be doing this, I should be keeping the Sabbath, I should be resting on this day. That's not the law that's written in their hearts, the law that's written in their hearts is obviously the moral law that came before the command to observe the Sabbath at Mount Sinai. And it transcends the Mosaic law, which is why even people today have the law of God written in their hearts. But here's the thing is that the law of God written in the heart of man is insufficient to save an individual. They need the epistle of Christ. They need that new covenant to be instituted, whereby Christ died on the cross, paid for their sins, and in their belief in Jesus Christ, they essentially become an epistle of Christ. You don't have to turn there, but in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 3, it says, Now think about this, what it's stating here is that once the New Testament was instituted, that old covenant was ready to vanish away. Well, the Bible says if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. And the Bible often describes the person who is saved as having that old nature crucified with Christ. You say, well, what's the point to make in that regard? Well, think about this, you know, there are people out there who think they're an epistle of Christ, but they're still in Old Testament. And what's funny about that is that these are the people who only want to focus on the literal New Testament, when figuratively, they still represent the old. I mean, think about that. So you have people out there that are just like, we're not under the law, brother. They're just like, well, you are, because you're not even saved. Brother, we're not, we're under grace. No, I'm under grace, because I'm saved. You are still under the law. So they want to disregard the law, even though they're a walking old covenant. They are walking Old Testament, because they're still unregenerated. They still have not, the veil hasn't been taken away in the reading of the Old Testament, because their hearts have not turned unto Christ. Whereas us, we preach both. We preach both Old and New Testament, but we are New Testament Christians. We have been saved. We have that new man. Because you have these liberal, fund-centered, denominational churches, filled with old covenant people, because they're still not saved. And they want to condemn the Old Testament, when literally they are an epistle of the Old Testament, because they're not saved yet. And so you see how the similarities there are strong in the sense of, you have Old and New Testament. Well, essentially, the Old, because what is a testament? It's a testimony. Well, the testimony of the old man is that he's unregenerated, and that he has violated the word of God, right? The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. But the testimony of the new is the fact that we've believed on Jesus Christ. And so when you have these people who want to only focus on the New Testament, and reject the old, well, let's look at the testimony that they're giving though. Because the testimony that they're giving is like, oh no, you have to keep the commandments though. It's like, I thought you don't want to focus on the Old Testament. Well, if you're really saved, you'll keep God's commandments. You know, you'll love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It's like you hate the Old Testament, but you're only quoting the Old Testament in your profession of faith. You'll do the work. Whereas we recognize we're not under the law, we're under grace because we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to 1 Peter chapter 1, if you would, 1 Peter chapter 1. Which leads me to my next point. The Word of God is not a modern day fraud. Right? There's a lot of fraudulent Bibles out there. When I'm talking about the Word of God, I'm talking about the King James Bible. But there's a lot of fraudulent documents out there today, right? You have the NIV, the ESV, you have the NLT, and the list goes on and on and on. Of Bibles that claim to be the Word of God, but they're actually not. They're phonies. But the Bible says that the Word of God is precious. It's pure. It's sincere. It is complete. And in Paul's day, as we read, there were people who were trying to corrupt the Bible. And he says that many were trying to corrupt the Word of God. Well, what's the point you're trying to make here, Pastor? Well here's the point. Just don't be a modern version. Hey, you're an epistle of Christ, just don't be a modern version of the Bible, though. Some liberal, limp-wristed Word of God, deficient of the Bible, adding to the Bible. Don't be a liberal is what I'm saying. Obviously don't be a liberal politically, but don't be a liberal spiritually either. And we're not talking about being a generous person either. We're talking about a person who is deficient of God's Word. And you know, there's plenty of saved people out there who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, but they're just straight living like a modern version of the Bible. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1.18, Look at verse 23. The point that I'm trying to make here is don't be a fake. And sometimes Christians, if they're not careful, because they care too much about what other people think, they become little fakes and phonies. Be a legitimate epistle of Christ, not some new King James version of the Bible. Be a legitimate epistle of Christ where you're actually standing on the Word of God, you're not being a phony, you're being as sincere as possible, you're being perfected in your faith, and you're not just this, hey brother, how's it going, type of a person. Something wrong with saying, hey brother, how's it going? But some people, that's all they can say, because they have no depth to their Christianity. And so don't be a fake, don't be a phony. The Bible says, be therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven perfect, meaning complete. And it's important that today in 2023, as we finish off 2023, that we finish off strong being sincere Christians. And this is one thing that I love about our church and the churches that we associate with, they're just filled with real people. Sometimes they're a little too real. Sometimes they're just a little too sincere. Sometimes they just don't have discretion. But you know what, I think I'd rather take the really sincere person over the fake and the phony though. You know, I'd rather take a blunt King James Bible over a new King James any day. Because when you're dealing with the new King James Bible, even though it sounds like the real deal, because it kind of uses some of the words, you know, there's a lot of false doctrine in it. It has an underlying tone of heresy and false doctrine that you don't want to get deceived by. And here's the thing, these modern versions of the Bible can be likened unto flattery, because that's exactly what they do. They flatter the reader. They flatter the person who's using it, because it's just filled with lies. Flattery means lies. Whereas the King James, as coarse as it can be, at least it's the truth. And so it's important for us as Christians to be sincere, not to be fakes, not to be phonies. And you know what, our church is a perfect place to learn that. I remember someone told me a while back, they said, Pastor Mejia, you know what our church does? All it does is expose people for who they really are. You can't be a fake in our church for long, they said. That's what they said. They said, who you really are is going to come out eventually, because it's true. Because a person can only be fake for so long. They can only put up a front for so long when you're dealing with real people. You can only be a fake for so long, which is probably why a lot of people, sometimes they just don't cut it, because they're like, man, I'm tired of being fake, I got to go somewhere else to be fake. I've used up all my fake cards. Whereas if you're just a sincere person, you're not a fake, you're not a phony, you can just be yourself here. You're not exhausted from being a fake all day long. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. Be sincere, be pure, be complete, be perfect, don't be a fake. The epistles of Christ should be Christians who are sincere in their doctrines, sincere in their relationships with others, sincere in their intentions, and just be sincere Christians. You know, you don't have to overcompensate in our church. Just be who you are, grow at your pace. And don't be someone who's constantly trying to overcompensate with hyper-spirituality because you want the respect of others. If you want the respect of others, go at your own pace and be humble. You don't have to try to overcompensate and be hyper-spiritual and have this holier than now attitude. And when you see that, red flags, this person is turning to a modern version of the Bible. When a person begins to flatter and become insincere, it's like, oh man, this guy's turning into an NIV. He's turning into an ESV, thank you, apparently he has a pastor, an ESV, yeah, he's turning into a new King James. We want all King James epistles here, amen. You say, man, that's a high standard. No, it actually just requires for you to be yourself, right? Actually being a King James Bible is a lot easier. It's hard, I'm sure, for people who go to liberal churches to bring their modern version of the Bible because you just don't know what version they're going to use that day. You got an HIV in front of you, they got an STD up there, it's just like... And then you just say it doesn't match. At least you know here when you bring your King James, it's going to match up with what I'm saying here, it's going to match the lingo. It's easier, it takes the weight off because we're all in unity regarding the Word of God. Don't be a fake, don't be a phony, don't be someone who's corrupting the Word of God by misrepresenting Christianity. Be someone who's legitimate, okay? Go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, I'm going to breeze through some of these points here because I want to get to the last point. Similarities between the Word of God and Christianity is that the Word of God has power, right? Now I was talking to my wife about this and this is very true. When you look at the external Bible itself, people in our church and I'm sure people in other churches just have a range of different types of Bibles. Like I think about my wife, she always carries around this little, cute, little pink King James... Like girls always like to carry these little, small, tiny, pink, girly Bibles. You guys know what I'm talking about? Hopefully no dude has that, but I'm just saying... I mean, if that's you, I can't say anything because it's still a King James, you know? But my wife will have this cute little King James with stickers on it and girls are just really girly. And then, you know, you have guys in the church who have just like some rare skinned Bible. Like this is anaconda. This is Amazonian anaconda skinned Bible or something like that, you know what I mean? They have like some rare animal that was butchered to make the skin. Water buffalo. They got a beast of burden over there. You know, it's just like, I really want to stick it to the, what do you call the... The Judaizers. So this is made out of pig. This is like... This is pig skin. So you have like a... And then you have people who just don't care. They got the 99 cent Bible. It's like paperback. It's all ripped. The letters are just like micro. You know what I'm talking about? You open it, it's just like you could fit five chapters on one page. You know what I'm saying? So I'm sure you could go throughout our church and just find some of the most beautiful looking Bibles and some of the ugliest looking Bibles too. As it came out of my mouth, I realized the parallel I was making there. Here's the thing is that what actually matters though, what we all agree on is the content. Because the power is not in the cover. The power is in the word. That's the word of God. So yeah, my wife has this pink little Bible with stickers and it's all girly. And even when they highlight in there, they use the sparkly pens to highlight and they put hearts over something. Whereas guys, I don't know if you're right, I don't really write in my Bible, but when I used to, it was just really messy in there. But at the end of the day, my wife's Bible has power though. As pink as the covers are, the content of that Bible is powerful. Because it's not the cover that matters, it's the content. The Bible says in verse 4, and such trust have we through Christ at Godward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. Let me read to you from 2 Corinthians 4-5, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, you can go over a chapter if you want to read it, verse 5, and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Verse 7, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us, the Bible says. Referring to the preaching, the power of the preaching, the power of the Gospel, isn't necessarily in this particular flesh, it's within the flesh, right? It's the Spirit that dwells within us. So just like there could be a variety of Bibles, some big, some small, some thin line, some very big, some big font, some beautiful, some very ugly, at the end of the day it's the content in that epistle that matters. So it doesn't matter what that epistle of Christ is wrapped in, at the end of the day the power is within that individual. So you can see the similarities between the word of God and a Christian, is the fact that ultimately the power comes from God himself, it's the content of the individual that counts. Now obviously, you know, if you want your Bible to last, you should probably get a Bible that will last you a long time. And the 99 cent Bible is probably not going to last you long, and it's going to have Romans spelled backwards or something, you guys know what I'm talking about, sometimes there's like misspellings and it's like what in the world, you know, it'll have some defective things about it, but, you know, if you want it to last, get yourself a nice Bible. Well, you know, in like manner, obviously the content is important, but if you want it to last, you know, get some exercise in, okay? But at the end of the day, the content is what matters, that's what matters, is the power within the vessel that matters. Go back to chapter 3, I'm going to skip over just this fifth point here, that when you look at the Bible, you know, the Bible obviously is centered around Jesus Christ, but it has a variety of topics to offer, salvation, child-rearing, marriage, how to overcome sin, laws for societies, I mean it has a variety of different, an array of different topics to cover and to perfect people with. Well, you know, in like manner, the Christian should not just be a one-trick pony too. You shouldn't be just heavily on one doctrine, you should be evenly balanced on all doctrines and practices. Be a balanced Christian that is able to perfect another individual, be a blessing not only in church but at your job, not only at your job but with your parents, not only with your parents but with your children, not only with your children but just other individuals and strangers, you can bring out both old and new, don't be a one-trick pony in the Christian life, seek to be a balanced individual. And here's my last point regarding the similarities between the Word of God and a believer is that you know the Word of God is meant to be used and in fact it's only valuable when it's used. It's not meant to be a collector's item. Now I have a few Bibles in my office on my shelf but all of them have been used and the reason I shelf them is number one, I keep them just because they have like sentimental meaning to me because they've helped me grow in the Lord throughout my years of being a Christian but you know the pages are falling out, I can't really use them, I just keep them there but at the end of the day the Bible should be used. You know what I mean, not placed on your coffee table as a superstitious item, not to just carry to church because you want to show off your nice Bible, it's meant to be actually opened, read, preached from and used. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3 verse 3, for as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart, you are meant to be used. Epistles of Christ? So you have this knowledge in earthen vessels, you have this power in earthen vessels, you have the knowledge of God's Word and the discipline to be a Christian and all of the treasures of the excellency of Jesus Christ will use it. Go sowing, go preach the gospel, teach your children, teach your family, teach someone, go on a mission trip, do something with that epistle of Christ. And some of you might have multiple epistles in your home, you guys are all saved in your household, well those epistles should be going out and doing something for God as well because the Word of God is meant to be used, understand? And I could go over a list of things that you need, if you need to know what to do I got a lot of things that you can do. But at the end of the day the principle stands is that you should not be some sort of shelved Christian sitting on a shelf just kind of collecting dust, some sort of collector's item because you don't want to be dirtied or whatever, there should be some stains on those pages, amen? I've had certain soul-winding Bibles where I've used consistently for so long, there's stains on the edges of the paper from Romans 3, Romans 6, and all those pertinent scriptures there to the point where after a while when you open the Bible it just opens up to the Gospels, or not to the Gospels, to the book of Romans. But even to the point where if I open it and then I grab it, that piece right there that I grab is really thin and it begins to tear. Why? Because it's being used. That is the purpose of the Bible is to be used. And you know what? We need to wear away serving God. We need to wear away serving God. You know if you are serving the Lord and you're serving God and you feel like, man, I just, like my knees hurt from going soul-winding, hey that's good. If you're using your knees, you're wearing out your knees serving God. Like, man, I'm just sweating so much, that's good. You're sweating serving God out soul-winding. If you're using your body and it's wearing away serving the Lord, that's the best way to use the body. Because the body, like the word of God, is meant to be used. There's a lot of Christians out there who will live like this and die like this. They'll just live nice and they'll just die, no stains, no nothing, just completely put together. They were just never used. You know, I would hope that, you know, the Bibles that I use, someone heard from them out of my mouth. This is my preaching Bible, this is the one I use to preach. I preach many sermons from this. And so the Bible that you have, you know, obviously it feeds you, but you should also use it to feed someone else as well. What's the sermon this morning? Be a legitimate epistle of Christ. Take those six points if you wrote them down, if not, you know, remember at least one of them. But if you get nothing from the sermon, get this, be used. Because the word of God is meant to be used. Let's pray. Thank you so much for your word and we're so thankful for those who ministered unto us the word of God and have perfected us in the faith. Lord, I pray that we take the responsibility as being epistles of Christ, being, you know, someone has once said that we might be the only Bible that someone sees. And obviously that's not necessarily true. We can preach the word of God into them as well, Lord. But I pray that you'd help us to take heed to the fact that we are an epistle of Christ and with that comes responsibilities. And I pray that you would bless us as we go on our way. Thank you so much for giving us a great year, a great missions trip with many salvations. Thank you for all the epistles of Christ that went on the missions trip. Thank you for the epistles of Christ that go on a week by week basis, preaching the word of God. And I pray that you bless us as we go on our way. Lord, we love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.