♪ The family of God ♪ ♪ I've been lost here without Him ♪ ♪ Let dryers flow ♪ ♪ Join us, O Jesus, as we travel this time ♪ ♪ For our part of the family ♪ ♪ The family of God ♪ Yes, we say brother and sister around here. It's because we love you. In this family so dear I'm so glad I'm a part Of the family of God I've been washed in the fountain Which I explore of the family, the family of God. From the door of the mortuaries to the house of the King, no longer an outcast. ♪ Of the family of God ♪ I've been washed in the fountain ♪ With fire's blood ♪ Joy is with Jesus as we travel this far ♪ For I'm part of the family ♪ The family of God Well, good morning. Let's all stand and turn to page 227, 227 this morning, and let's sing Saved by the Blood. We'll sing the first, second, and the last verse of 227. Saved by the blood of the crucified one Now ransom from sin and new work begun Sing praise to the Father and praise to the Son Saved by the blood of the crucified one Saved, my sins are all parted, my guilt is all gone. Saved, saved, I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. ♪ Saved by the blood of the crucified one ♪ The angels rejoicing because it is done ♪ A child of the Father joining with the Son ♪ Saved by the blood of the crucified one My sins are all parted, my guilt is all gone. Saved, saved, I'm saved by the blood of the Saved by the blood of the crucified one. All hail to the Father. All hail to the Son. All hail to the Spirit, the great, free and one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. ♪ My sins are all parted, my guilt is all gone ♪ Save, save, I am saved by the blood of the crucified one. Well, praise the Lord. Good to see everybody in the Lord's house this morning. Good to have you here on this first Sunday. And if you're glad to be here, say amen. How many are glad to be anywhere, say amen. So good to see you. Let's ask Lord's blessing this morning and a lot of burdens and needs. I shared one thing in Sunday school. I'm not sure if I should share it on Facebook, but got some folks really hurting. And let's pray this morning. God knows all about it. God knows every need. Aren't you glad God hears and answers prayer? How many of you this morning would say, preacher, I got a burden or need upon my heart. And let's pray for these today. Brother Paul Mead, would you pray for us and ask God's blessing today? I thank you for your love, your grace, and your mercy. I thank you for God's little bloom. I thank you for your private blessing. In the eternity of your peace, may God's miracles Yes. Yes. Hey, hey. Yeah. Yeah. if you'll look in your bulletin with me. The drawing of the names may not happen today, but Miss Cindy would like to meet with all the Secret Sisters after the church service this morning. So if you wanna be interested, or if you wanna be involved in that, you can do that. The post office is still out there, so check. You may not think you have a card, but you probably do out there, so make sure you check that. And then if you look at Panther News, there's several games going in. We're going back to school tomorrow, praise the Lord. And... You'll notice January 7th. We're going two different directions. That's not normal The varsity boys will be going to Tate's Valley and then the middle school boys and varsity girls will be going to Lewisburg But you know, we're working through all that. There is also no children's church today so just stay where you're at and listen to our pastor preach and That's all I have as far as announcements. Now the choir's gonna sing he set me free. I Once like a bird imprisoned at hell, the freedom from my sorrow I held. But Jesus came and He said to me, then fully to God He set me free, He set me free. I am. He set me free. He broke the bonds of prison for me. I'm glory now by Jesus to sing. For glory to God. He set me free. Through lies and sin and praise I was found. I'm going. Well, amen, let's all stand one more time, 413, 413, and let's sing, stand up, stand up for Jesus. 413, we'll sing the first two verses, and then we'll fellowship this morning. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory, his army shall he lead. ♪ To every foe is vanquished ♪ And Christ is Lord indeed ♪ Stand up, stand up for Jesus ♪ The trumpet call obey ♪ For to the mighty conflict ♪ In this his glorious day ♪ He had a man now serve him ♪ Against the numbered foes ♪ Let courage rise with danger ♪ And strength to strengthen all Let's fellowship today. Yeah. Yeah. so so All right, let's sing that last verse Stand up stand up for Jesus Stand in his strength alone ♪ The arm of flesh will fail you ♪ He dare not trust your own ♪ But on the gospel armor ♪ And watching unto prayer ♪ Where duty calls or danger ♪ Be never wanting there this morning I see. world filled with doubts I am every tear will be Praise the Lord. Did you hear that say, Amen? Amen. All right. Let's take our Bibles this morning, and let's look at Echo up here, Brother Lambert, if you can get that out of there. Can everybody hear me okay? I don't want to blow your doors off here. But isn't it good to be in God's house? And I would like you to take your Bible, if you can hear me all right, and turn over to the book of Jude in the New Testament. Go to Revelation and go back. And this morning we are going to read here on Sunday morning a whole book of the Bible. How many of y'all would like to read a whole book of the Bible? I don't read it, don't get too concerned, it's not the book of Psalms, or Ezekiel, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah. But it's the little book of Jude, and I want to read a few verses here. I'm going to draw your attention to one verse in particular, and we're going to begin a series this morning. And as you're turning there, I want to just mention a couple of things. One, it's not in the bulletin, but mark on your calendar is March the 13th and 14th. That is when the couples retreat, our annual couples retreat. I know it's a few months away. It gets here very quickly. If you want to go to that, we'll have a sign up thing out in the vestibule. I don't have it out there this morning, but just kind of put that on your calendar. Many of you go to that every year. It's a little bit different time this year. We've tried to get it to where it wasn't conflicting with so many other things here in the state. So that'll be on that Thursday evening and Friday. If you have any questions about that, if you've never been, I'd encourage you to come. And you say, well, we can't really afford to go. That's been an outreach of our church. If you come to me, we want to help you with that. It'd be a great encouragement. We've been doing that for several years. And I personally love to go, but I also want it for our couples and for our homes and our families. I really believe Satan's attacking the home like never before. And I want you to try to be there, and it's a great time of fellowship. I hope that you'll mark that down. All right? All right. Jude, the book of Jude. Let's read it together. If you have it, say amen. I'm going to read all of it. I'm going to draw your attention to one verse. I'm not going to preach this whole thing, but I wanted to read it this morning to kind of set the stage for this month. And let me say this. uh... as far as this series i want to put uh... a couple of disclaimers as i would say uh... if you've ever watched a tv show or a movie sometimes i'll put a disclaimer at the beginning i want to say this because in this next month sunday morning and sunday night i am going to as pastor and as preacher i am going to come with my barrels loaded with information I am going to preach this week, this month, Sunday morning and even Sunday nights. Now tonight, by the way, I know we have this storm coming. We will probably, it sounds as if, we'll have to cancel this evening's service or may do a Facebook Live only. I'm not sure. If it hits the way they say it's going to hit about one or two o'clock this afternoon, that'll kind of take care of itself. But I want to say this at the beginning of this series because I don't want anybody to say, well, he's preaching at a family or he's preaching at a person or a situation or that, you know, he's, you know, he's offending my family, my loved ones. That is not what this series is about. I don't have anybody in mind. I don't have a situation in mind. I don't have a person in mind, but yet I have them all in mind. And it could be that your family or your friend or my family or my friends or our co-workers may be in something that I'm going to preach on in these next several weeks. In particular, as we get into Sunday night, I have my books out. I've been studying and restudying and brushing up on things that I had studied several years ago. And I am going to, and I'm going to tell you why in just a moment, but I am going to address many things as a pastor in this next month. I'm going to preach the gospel. We're going to preach salvation and all those things, of course. But I'm in particular going to go after the false teaching and the cults and the isms and the schisms and the false religion that our young people are being confronted with. And I didn't, this is not on my mind, it's not by myself, but we see it in the word of God and we see it in the book of Jude. God put this little book in here, I believe, for a reason. And I want you to notice this, but I want to just put that disclaimer out so I don't have anybody in mind as far as an in particular situation, but I am going to be sharing a lot of things. And when you hear them, I just read, I've been reading this morning, for example, the 1865 statements by the Pope about Protestantism. When you read that alone, it'll shock you. It shocked me. When you read what some of the belief system like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons believe about our Savior, when you read about people that believe things about Jesus that are absolutely wicked and from the pits of hell, then you as a creature preach on. When we see what God's word says compared to what this world is saying, I think it'll be something that we need. And many of you already know it, but we need it. I'm gonna give you some things these next several weeks I think will be a great encouragement or a great help to you. And I hope it will be. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you. And we ask you to be with us in these next moments. I pray that you'd bless. And Lord, I pray that you would speak to hearts. And Lord, you know every need of every heart today. And we'll give you the praise and honor in Jesus' name, amen. That's all God's people said. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Now imagine this, imagine if your name was Judas. You would not really want everybody to know that that was your name necessarily. But that is believed that it was his name and he was the brother of James so that makes him the brother of Jesus. Bible says Jude the servant of Jesus Christ. He calls himself a servant here. He does not play on his name But verse 2 and I won't get into all that and I've been studying that all week But I want you to watch this now. Let's read these verses mercy unto you in peace and love be multiplied Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation I It was an evil for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Now the series this month is going to be on earnestly contending for the faith. Did y'all notice that in verse three? Let's say that out loud. Would you just say that with me in case you fall asleep in this warm church on a cold morning? earnestly contend for the faith. Let's say it again, earnestly contend for the faith. Now it goes on, of course, and we're going to look at all of this, which was once delivered unto the saints. This is the common salvation. This is basic fundamental, what we would say fundamental, Christianity. Why is that? Look at what verse four says. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God unto lasciviousness. And we would say that today as Americans, it's more detailed than this, but evil people or wicked people that live wicked and debauched lives. and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance. Though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed them that believe not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under the darkness, under the judgment of the great day. Now if you remember, that is in reference to the angels, what we would call today demons, the fallen angels that followed Lucifer. And Jude is bringing that out. Even he goes on and talks about Sodom and Gomorrah and says, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also, these filthy dreamers defy the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a reeling accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not. But what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them, verse 11 said, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Chord. These are spots in your feast of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water. carried about of winds, trees whose fruits withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch also, verse 14, the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying, behold, excuse me, the Lord come with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their, watch verse 15, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Here we see the term that they are ungodly. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lust, and their mouths speak of great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. Verse 20 says, But ye, beloved, bidding up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some, have a compassion, making a difference. And others, say with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you Faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy To the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty dominion and power both now and ever amen and all of God's people said Y'all can just tell everybody this week. You read a whole book of the Bible on Sunday That's powerful words, isn't it? I'm preaching this this morning because this earnestly contending for the faith and what I'm going to do is I'm going to take that statement earnestly contending for the faith and I'm going to take those words and each week I'm going to have a sermon on those words. Now there's a reason why I'm doing this and that is because I like you have now we are living in an age of the internet. How many of y'all have heard of the internet before? Y'all think I'm being silly but It is everywhere. Many of us, our jobs are connected to it. Most of you all have a phone with you this morning or a tablet. I literally have some of this on a tablet. We are going Facebook Live. We will record this and put it out. We use the internet for our ministry as outreach. In fact, it's a big part of what we do here at church. If we have a service tonight, it may be just on the internet. And so we're not here to bash that. But I will say this, because of that and because of apps and social media, how many of y'all know what social media is? Some of y'all may know a couple of them, but social media is more than just Facebook. It is all over the place. And we are living in a time now that, and it's like never before. Now, some of us that are a little bit older, I'm kind of in the middle. I can get some of it, but some of it, I kind of get left behind. And some of it, I understand, and some of it, I'm just kind of in the dark. I'm like, what in the world are they talking about? So I'm trying to catch up. Some of y'all that are a little bit older are like, I don't have anything to do with it. And some of y'all that are a little bit younger, I mean, you can't get off your phone to hear a preacher preach a sermon for 30 minutes. And we're all over that place and we're living in that world. And one of the things that I've noticed is in the last couple of years in particular, that there is more and more sermon content, biblical content, things that are getting said and spread and preached and taught that are just, just to be honest with you as a pastor, that are just biblically inaccurate. They're just simply not true. I even hear church members sometimes say things about certain questions or certain ministries or certain people. I'm like, man, that's just not what the Bible teaches. that is not basic, common salvation. In fact, it has given rise to many people that, and many ministries, and many, I guess, not even ministries, but outreaches that are preaching and teaching things that are just not in the Bible. Now, that's not to say that we have a corner on the market or that everything that I'm preaching is, we'll get to heaven and find out and make sure that we're doing it, but as best we know how, we are holding to the word of God and the word of God alone. In fact, it is our, as we say, our final rule of faith and practice. But did you know, church, this morning, that not every church, not every preacher, not everybody that puts sermons and teaching and preaching and content, and we've got podcasts and blogs and you name it, did you know that not every one of them, or even every denomination behind them, believes that the Bible is the inerrant word of God? I did not realize that for the longest time. I just assumed that everybody was like the churches I grew up in, that everybody just said that the Bible, that it's the final rule of faith and practice, that's settled, and we have that as our biblical foundation, that it is our fixed frame of reference. Whenever we talk about anything about Christianity, we're gonna always go back to the Bible. In fact, if we talk about anything about this world, we call it a biblical worldview. But even this morning, I saw someone and they posted this statement. They said, the Bible is not the only rule of faith and practice. Prove me wrong. In an arrogant way, saying, hey, we're not going to hold that. We're going to hold the traditions of men equal with what the Bible says. Well, I have a problem with that. And not only do I have a problem with that, God's Word has a problem with that. And it isn't just the Bible, but it's other things, it's other teaching, it's other doctrines, it's sometimes the basic, simple things. Now I'm gonna really tackle that and break that down on Sunday nights a little bit more, because I'm actually gonna get into some of the details of the doctrines that people believe, that I remember reading about and studying about as a young Christian, as a young preacher, and I was shocked, I couldn't believe it. I could not believe that people actually held to those things. It shocked me, and let me say something to you. You say, well, that don't really apply to me. That don't really affect me. You'd be surprised at the people that have been raised up in church and in Bible-believing church that believe every wind of doctrine. The Bible talks about them being tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. And they will end up in a place that you could never imagine. And part of our churches are suffering because we want to come in, preacher, you just give us a little spiritual pep talk and let us get on about our lives. And that is not what God's house ought to be about. We ought to get rooted and grounded in the word. And by the way, when that happens, we can have folks that don't necessarily like us and like that. And it could be, I've been praying, Lord, I want our church to grow. I'm a pastor. I'm worried about people leaving church all the time. It bothers me. But I do realize that if I preach and teach the word of God, that there may be some that say, wait a minute, that's not what I really want. I want something else. I was watching a guy on the internet and I want to follow what he says. I was watching this person. He teaches better than that preacher. And I want to do this. And if we're not careful, we will be, we will hip ourselves, teachers having itching ears, and we will follow a man, a group, a movement, something that is cool instead of the word of God. And so this morning, I want to begin this, this series on earnestly contending for the faith. See, my grandson is here today, my granddaughter, your children and grandchildren. There's kids and young people and families that maybe we don't know this morning. Maybe there'll be somebody that'll hear this later. And I want them to know, wait a minute, somebody tell me the truth. I grew up myself. Many of you know my testimony. I have a mixed denomination background. I know a little bit about all kinds of denominations. I walked by a Jehovah's Witness hall to go to my school my whole life. I had friends that I was very close to, that I played ball with, that had married into different families. And I'm not going to say all of them. I don't want to offend anybody or hurt anybody. But let me say this to you. I was thoroughly confused. In fact, I would say, well, wait a minute. Aren't we all going to heaven? We're just going different ways. That's what I would hear. That's kind of a mountain way of saying, don't offend anybody. But the truth of the matter is that Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. That's the truth. Well, if that's the truth and we hold it to be true, then we have to look and say, well, what does that mean? We say that in church, but what does it really mean? To say that Jesus is the only way to heaven, isn't that kind of rude? What about somebody that believes that if you lick the back of a toad frog and meditate and have transcendental meditation, what if they think that they're going to heaven? What if they achieve the eightfold path of enlightenment? What about the people in Hollywood, our favorite TV stars and movie stars that believe in scientism and on and on and on it goes? What about folks that hold to all kinds of different beliefs? Aren't they going to heaven, preacher? Not according to God's word. Now, I think there's more going to heaven than we think, and there may be more going to heaven despite what their denomination or their religion teaches. Only God's the judge. And by the way, as I said in the disclaimer, I'm not judging anybody, but we're gonna look at what God's word says. Now, I want you to notice in our text this morning, as we begin this, I want you to notice the word that we see the very first one. earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered for the saints, earnestly. The message this morning is just going to be on that one little word, earnestly. Earnestly. Now it's interesting, this word, I want to dwell on this word. See, I believe that every single word in God's word is important. That's why I have people ask me, what about all these new verses? I say, man, you better be careful. Because if they start missing with the words, especially when they miss with a different Greek or Hebrew text, look out. So let's look at this word earnestly. This word earnestly is case in point. In fact, when we see this word here, many times we think of somebody being earnest, we think of them being serious or somebody taking something serious or giving it all they've got, which is the English definition. There's no doubt about that. In fact, we see in scripture, in Joshua chapter 24, Joshua says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He is in earnest. He has an earnest commitment to leading his family. If you remember, it was Ruth. She had earnest, committed, serious loyalty to Naomi in Ruth chapter one. In Daniel chapter six, we know that Daniel was earnestly continuing his practice of prayer. Daniel was a warrior for God. We see all of these, we see the Mary of Bethany, we see the Bereans in Acts chapter 17. They were earnest, they were serious. But can I say to you this morning, there's an interesting thing that is happening in this passage. In fact, there's a big word for it in Greek, but it actually is the one of the few place, the only place in all the New Testament where these words are put together. In fact, I wanna read to you just a little bit about that. this earnestly contend. It has a little prefix here at church this morning, and this prefix matters. This prefix is used to intensify, to convey the meaning of striving. And it goes with an already strong word. It's where we get the word agony, the English word. Suggesting in this passage pain that is too intense to be born. This describes Jude's turmoil. and consternation upon hearing of the creepers. In verse 4, for there are certain men crept in unawares. And Jude, according to God's word here, biblically speaking, he's livid about this. In fact, this picture agonizes. It's a picture of a devoted athlete competing in the Greek games and stretching his nerves and muscles to do his very best to win. You'd never find the Lord's battles from a rocking chair or a soft bed. The unique compound verb pictures a person taking his or her stand on top of something an adversary desires to take away and fighting to defend it and retain it with everything they have. This is, when you say earnestly contending, it has the idea that we are going to be in agony. We are going to agonize and defend the faith once delivered to the saints with everything that we have, even it means unto death. And if you study church history, you'll find that many of our ancestors that believed exactly like we do this morning, literally were drowned. We're martyred. We're burnt at the stake. We're beaten because they said no. We believe that there's only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ. It's not a church. It's not a country. It's not a leader. It's one man and he died on the cross. And that one basic belief has caused consternation all over this world. See, we live in America. We have, right now at least, the freedom of religion. In the UK, once that used to promote so many preachers, they recently having a big controversy because while they're letting Muslims rape girls and not prosecuting them. And by the way, if you don't believe that, just look that up. But yet somebody prayed in their heart and he got 20 month prison sentence. That happened in the UK. Shocking, unreal. You think, oh, no, everybody's got freedom. Not true. We ought to hold our freedoms strongly in this country. And the reason that we have those freedoms is because our ancestors believed that this was the faith once delivered to the saints. They come to this nation looking for freedom. In fact, it was a battle even here. You can look up Roger Williams and how he was cast out of the Massachusetts colony, and he went and found just a little old place called Rhode Island, and a place of religious tolerance and freedom where Baptists thrived. where Bible-believing people thrived. And the reason is because he took a stand on those once-delivered-for-the-saints that did not want to have a state church. And by the way, we as Baptists have always stood against a state church that you have the freedom, if you want to stay home, you can stay home. And we will not come. The preacher may call you, and I may aggravate you, but we're not going to come with a tank and a gun and say, look, you better get there or else. And thank God for that this morning. But this work earnestly. It has the idea, and I'm gonna share this real quickly and we'll go home. It has the idea, number one, of being uncomfortable. I didn't really necessarily want to preach this, because it can be uncomfortable. If somebody comes and says, well, Brother Downs, you have to be baptized to go to heaven, I realize that I'm gonna offend the Millerites and the Kabbalites and maybe even the Lutherans, depending on where you're at. I may offend somebody that thinks that their baptism merits their salvation. If somebody comes and says, it's taking the Lord's Supper, does that merit our salvation? It could be that I'm gonna be uncomfortable to say, no, it's not in your baptism, it's not in your communion, it's not in the fact that you went forward and vacationed Bible school, even at Cook's Chapel and made some profession of faith, but did not have it in your heart. It is going to be uncomfortable if we earnestly contend for the faith. It's gonna be uncomfortable. How many of you have ever, some of y'all may have started working out here in the new year, trying to lose some weight, you don't have to raise your hand because we don't want to hold you accountable. But if you've ever ran or you've ever stretched or you've ever done anything physically, how many of you know this, one of the first things you run into is, this ain't fun. It is uncomfortable. In fact, some of you have memories of high school coaches or teachers and they made you do something that made you uncomfortable. I remember when they introduced letters into math. Y'all remember that? I got very uncomfortable. I was like, wait a minute, I just now got the math, now you're putting letters in it. I was doing pretty good. I can do pretty good to walk this and now we're going to run. Now I'm going to pick up the pace. Now we're going to do it twice. I remember they used to have two a days. We're going to do it in the morning and in the afternoon. Then we're going to have shoot arounds before that. Then we're going to do it again. And then we're going to tell you to eat a certain way. Hey, guess what? If you do anything physically, it can be uncomfortable. How many of you remember the first time you ever got a job and they wanted you to be there like at five o'clock in the morning? Or maybe stay up and you had to work till three o'clock in the morning in the evening shift. And you realize to make a living or to do something, it was going to make you uncomfortable. I remember when I got called to preach, like, well, man, I'll be called to preach and preach sermons and everybody would pat you on the back and, man, these preachers have it made. Wow. Somebody should have got me in the corner and said, don't listen to that. You know, I used to, you'd hear, well, all they do is they just work on Sunday mornings. I must be an easy, you still hear that sometimes. Usually it's somebody has no idea what they're talking about. But the truth of the matter is, is that to preach, and to teach, and to work, and to study, and to do anything for, really, in this world, is gonna make you uncomfortable. And the idea here of agonizing. See here, there's part of me, I'm like, you know what, if they wanna believe that, there's a part, we as preachers, and some of us full-time Christian workers, we battle, like, you know what, if they wanna believe that, just let them die and go to hell, that's on them. And Satan will whisper in your ear, well, you can't catch a poor before swine, just let them go. Now there is some truth to that. But there's an uncomfortableness sometimes of saying, if you think your mom and dad, if you think your parents, if you think your family, if you think your child is in heaven and they've never put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and Him alone, hey, it's uncomfortable for a preacher or for a church to say, no, wait a minute, that is not what God's Word says. God's word says you must put your faith and trust in Him. I've shared this story a few times here. This actually happened at Darlene Phillips's funeral. The funeral director came up to me and he said, I said, we're up on the side of the hill, you know, we were kind of all tore up, of course. And he said, well, he said, I feel sorry for a guy I talked to this week. I said, what's that? He said, he's a pastor and they called him to do the funeral. And then they told him to not say anything about Jesus. I was sitting there, my mind was thinking about Miss Darlene and her family, and he told me that story, and I was like, I said, well, what did he do? He said, he didn't know what to do. Because here's the thing, church, they did not want to be at their funeral service uncomfortable. They did not want to be faced with the fact, the Bible says, that the point of the man wants to die, and after this, the judgment. And that God had committed all judgment to the Son. You see, we've got this pie-in-the-sky type thing. Well, let's not get too political. Let's not get too radical. Let's not get too strange and get too weird. Let me say something to you. If you read the Word of God, it is offensive and it will make you uncomfortable. I remember coming to church and being uncomfortable because I wasn't living the way I should live. I remember being a backslidden teenager and everything that preacher said, I said, he's a jerk. I thought he was rude. I said, who's he been talking to, my mom and dad? Did my mom put him up to this? We were convinced that my mom was making the preacher preach on everything the teenagers were doing. The truth of the matter was, it had nothing to do with any of them. It was the Word of God pricking my heart. And many of you know exactly what I'm talking about. And many times we get upset, and it is number one, if we're gonna be earned, and by the way, if you're gonna earn us a contempt, and don't sit back and think, well, preacher, that's what you do, and that's what somebody else does. No, that's what you do, too. You see, this isn't just to preachers. This isn't just to a few missionaries. This isn't just to the, well, the deacons need to lead the way. No, this is for everybody. You can earnestly contend for the faith. You can agonize for the faith everywhere you go. In fact, moms and dads, you need to do it. Grandparents, you need to do it. I'm thankful this morning that many of you have been grandparents and parents and said, hey, I'm going to contend for the faith. If my kids go a different way, that's on them. But it ain't going to be because I've not prayed and I've not agonized and I've not tried my very best to defend the faith. It is uncomfortable. How about number two real quickly? This word also has the idea of being uncompromising. You know, I'm glad I love the Olympics. In fact, the picture here, some of the definitions I read, it's like an Olympian standing up on that podium. Now, you can call me patriotic or sappy, but I still like it when they play the national anthem. Hey, I like it when I watch a Mountaineer game and they play the state song. If y'all don't like it, tough. I'm like, play it. We go across the state line, my kids used to start singing it when we come across the state line. I mean, I'm pro-American, I love that. In fact, when I watched that, I hope they don't get up there during that time getting that gold medal and start singing the Russian National Anthem. I was like, whoa, wait a minute. I remember crying like a baby. I don't know nothing about hockey. And in 1980, I sat as a boy and cried because we beat the Russians. And I was like, and I can watch that movie and still cry. Because, hey, that's right. We're America. We don't compromise. Stand up there. Don't compromise. Hey, let me say this to you. We need to make sure, this word earnest has the idea of like we're not giving in. Don't compromise that. Don't give in. Don't let something else in. We think about physically getting in shape. Don't let something in your body. Don't sleep in. Do everything that you can. It needs to be uncompromising. And there's verses about this all the way through Scripture. We see this again and again. And by the way, you know in your heart, that's why when you go back and you listen to or read like I do, these old time preachers, you know the ones that stay on the shelf? You know the ones that people still read? You know the ones that still are out there? You know the sermons and the ministries that we still listen to even though they're gone? It's the ones who would not compromise. Now they were hated. They voted Jonathan Edwards out of his church after he preached sinners in the hands of an angry God. But I couldn't tell you who voted him out, but I've read that sermon. You see, when you are uncompromising for the truth and for right, it may not even be in your lifetime, but even your children and grandchildren. I share this story all the time. My mom tells me about a grandmother who I never met, who was uncompromising in her faith. And I believe in my heart that I'm standing here this morning because of a grandparent that I never met that was uncompromising in her faith. And her granddaughter saw it and was raised me up in that same way. A grandmother who I never met because she was uncompromising in her faith. And sometimes we're like, well, man, you know, let's give in a little bit here. And by the way, I'm tempted with that all the time. Preachers call, I see churches growing. I remember being a youth pastor, I was in South Carolina, and the church right down the road from us, they were taking in all the new stuff. Let's do anything we can to reach teenagers. I remember. I had some teenagers that were in a mess, and they were into sin and wickedness, and I knew they were, and I wasn't wanting to tell them I'm getting in trouble. And those parents and families said, well, we need to do this so we can reach more teenagers. I said, you got the wrong person. I'm never going to compromise the truth of this book so that we can have a big crowd. You don't have anything if that's all you've got. Man, it was hard. But I wanted to be able to look at those young people and say, look, we're not going to compromise. I remember during that time a young man had a drive-by shooting in one of the communities down there. And I went and I watched teenagers laughing about it. And I thought to myself, we don't need to compromise. These people are literally getting shot in the streets. We need the unvarnished truth of the gospel. The only thing that can change their life is the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must earnestly contend for that. We cannot give up on that. It is uncompromising. Let me say this, though. It is unstoppable. You see, there's something about it. It keeps marching along. See, the truth is the truth. When you read this, hey, you read this, sometimes, hey, I hope you don't run everybody off. I hope I don't make people mad. I hope I don't get somebody upset. But the truth of the matter is, the Bible says that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. It's the same gospel that Johnny Atkinson preached in this bullpen for years. It's the same gospel that was preached in America before this church was ever even founded. You see, this area had the gospel witness before 1895 when this church came to be. And if a church gets planted that's doing right, it'll be a church planted on this unstoppable gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it is unstoppable. Because there's something in people's hearts and minds. They want the truth. Interesting statistic going on right now. Church attendance is down across America. The percentages are very alarming. Bible sales in 2023, or 2024, above 2023, went up 20-some percent. Now what that tells me, in my opinion, I don't know what the scholars and the brilliant minds are thinking, is that people are still, they may not really like certain churches or certain denominations, but they still are thirsty for the truth. And it could be that somebody here this morning, or somebody that'll hear this, or maybe you just need to be rooted and grounded, or maybe you just need a little encouragement to stand by the stuff and to keep on earnestly contending. Let me say this to you, it is unstoppable. It is an unstoppable truth. This faith, which was once deliberate. Now, there's certain men, verse 4 says, crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained. They'll come and they'll try. They'll do everything they can. And sometimes they get a little foothold. Sometimes they can even destroy the denomination. Sometimes they can come in, but the truth of the matter is, it gets unstoppable. You see, I read of the founders of other denominations. Some of my heroes, for example, are the Wesley brothers. You may have heard of Methodism or Methodist Church. I read of what they wrote. And those men, the gospel that they preached and the truth that they held to, we would hold the exact same truth. The unfettered gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we would disagree in certain areas, but we would hold to that. The Princeton Seminary, which was Presbyterian. Ian Paisley, the old war horse from Northern Ireland. I would like arm in arm with Ian Paisley today despite our differences on Calvinism because he believed and presented the uncompromised gospel of the truth. I was on the campus of Bob Jones University and I saw where they had dedicated part of that school and I was in tears thinking, I'm standing right here where these giants of the faith stood because it was unstoppable. Here I had teenagers, and I remember years ago having teenagers that were 35 years older than these teenagers, and I'm saying right here, they are still standing for the uncompromised gospel because it's unstoppable. Let me say something to you, Cooke's Chapel. If I die today, get you a preacher in here that stands without apology on the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mom and dad, hey, despite what the world says, despite what TikTok is saying, or YouTube videos that's come out, or somebody who's really slick, or really handsome, or really pretty, they say, oh, this is the way you ought to do it. Hey, this is the unstoppable gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I saw a female pastor this week. She had vestments on. She was making a big speech. People were clapping. I thought, I've never been clapped when I preached. I was a little jealous of that. And then I heard her speak. And I thought to myself, that's not the Jesus I know. That ain't even Jesus that she's speaking about. That's as wicked as the pits of hell. And somebody somewhere ought to stand up and say, no, that's wrong. Yep, today we don't want to offend people. Let them be offended. Let them go if it's just a few of us left. Let them go. Hey, listen, I would rather stand with Jude. I would rather stand with D.L. Moody and Spurgeon. I'd rather stand with Ian Paisley and the Wesley's. I'd rather stand with these people that stood without apology, earnestly contending for the faith. It is unstoppable. But then let me say this, the last thing this morning, not only is it uncomfortable, uncompromising, unstoppable, but it also is uncaring. You say, what do you mean preacher? Now, when I say I'm caring, we're supposed to be kind. I don't want to be cruel. Somebody told me the other day, he's talking to me, he said, man, you've always just shot me straight about stuff. And I said, yeah, but I hope I've done it in a kind way. But let me say this to you, church. So listen to me this morning. The 11th commandment is not thou shalt be nice. That is a weapon that Satan uses. That preacher, he was awful hard. Was he though? I preached too many funerals. I've been to too many second floor situations at Princeton Hospital. I got a text this morning of a broken hearted family. I've been around it too much. I've talked to too many young people. I've been to, I've canceled too many marriages and homes. Let me say something to you. We need the gospel and we don't need to care in that sense. See the gospel, the truth. Hey, it's once we, well, we don't want to hurt these people that are crept in unawares. Let them be hurt. In fact, it goes on, it says, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. Let the lasciviousness, the evil speakers, the wicked, hey, we should not, what we've done in our church, this church, listen to me now, is we've cared more about what the enemy thinks than what the truth is. Our culture is inundated with, well, you know, we don't really care about the victim, let's make sure we take care of the criminal. That's going on politically. We know this. We see this all the time. But we don't really want to offend. We call it wokeness or political correct. It stems from the same exact teaching. We have to claim that without apology. And if it makes somebody mad, we're not here to make somebody mad or to be mean or cruel. That is not what we want to do. We want to do it. I believe you can do both. I believe you can be loving and kind and compassionate. But how loving, kind, and compassionate am I if I have the cure and I don't give them the cure? Because sometimes the cure is not always comfortable. I remember when I was sick as a kid, they'd give us, some of y'all remember, was it castor oil? Well, that's delicious, isn't it? Remember that? I couldn't breathe real good. I remember they'd put mustard on my chest. Castor oil, mustard. I thought, I ain't gonna tell them I'm sick again. That cured me. I ain't ever complain. But sometimes the cure can be disgusting. And sometimes we don't always care for that. But let me say something to you. My aunt contracted polio. I'd watch my World War II vet grandpa sit with tears down his face. He said, I don't walk across this country to got something to help my baby girl. He said, I'd done anything for her. In other words, he didn't care what the cost. He wanted that cure. Well, let me say something to you. I've got a cure right here in this book for Somers County and Mercer County and even Raleigh County. And maybe even Monroe. How about this? All 55 West Virginia counties, and even those Virginia counties. And some of you folks come up here from Carolina, hey, God loves y'all too. And I'm mad at Florida, but God loves Florida. How about this? God loves Europe. How about this? We know this. He loves the whole world. This morning, church, we should not care. Hey, this gospel, this earnest, hey, you can't care. You can't care. Sometimes I can imagine those hockey players on the 1980 team got up at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning and went and worked out. And I'm sure they got made fun of. I'm sure somebody said, look at them guys. They ain't going to beat the Russians. I am no doubt sure that that coach was off. Matter of fact, that's pretty well documented. But somewhere, somebody said, I don't care what they do. I'm going to keep doing it anyway. I'm going to keep on fighting. I'm going to keep on going. There's no doubt in my mind. If you go back and look at this church and the history of this church and the history of Baptists, many of them were drowned, beaten, hung in cages outside of churches to die. Some of them that hold the same doctrines that we hold too were absolutely despised, so much so that they fled. But let me say something to you, they earnestly contended for the faith. But they did not care about the concerns of this world. They did not care. Can I say this? I think most preachers today are a little bit concerned like, hey, man, if I preach this very hard, I'm not going to have preacher friends. I might get voted out. I'm not going to have an income, I'm not going to be able to make it. Missionaries today, I ask them all the time, I say, tell me what you really believe. I mean, tell me what you really believe. I don't really care about what anybody thinks you can believe so you can get support. What is it that you really hold to? When you go to that country, what is it that you're really going to lift up? What is it that we really believe here at Cook's Chapel and 5th Street Christian Academy? We don't believe baptism's the way to heaven. We don't believe if you're in a cult, you're going to heaven. We don't believe that if you pray to Mary. We believe in the faith once delivered to the saints, the common salvation, and we need to be earnest in it and never compromise and never give up on the basic simple thing. Now we do this all the time, but we're going to have a re-emphasis. And I hope this morning, church, in your life and in your home and your family and in your mind, that you'll say, you know, Lord, I want to be earnestly contending for the faith. Cause we're not guaranteed another moment. We're not guaranteed. This is as we celebrate the end of 2024, end of 2025, this could be the year that you witnessed a friend. This could be the time like, hey man, I need to get right. I need to get close. I need to be that one. Hey, I remember hearing sermons like this and God started preaching, speaking in my heart about being a preacher. God could call you to be a preacher. God could call you to be a missionary, whatever it might be. Hey, I'm going to be earnest. May we as a church this morning, Let's all stand with our head bowed and our eyes closed. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for this opportunity. Lord, it's not in my intent to be cruel or mean, but I do want to preach what your word says. It would help us as a church, as believers, as individuals, as a pastor, as families, as couples, to be earnest, to be agonizing and standing for the truth of the gospel. Help us to be a church in a world that seems to be tossed to and fro, to stand uncompromisingly, not on what we think, not on our opinions, not on some legalistic dogma, but what your word simply says. And Lord, I don't know every heart, but I know this, Lord, you wanna speak to hearts and draw people. It could be one person that just says, Lord, I wanna be that man, that woman, I wanna be that person. that's gonna earnestly contend for the faith. Help us, Lord, to be serious in our walk with you. Help us this morning to set out that this will be the year that we stand like we've never stood before, that we serve like we've never stood before. Help us to be earnest in our kindness and our love and our compassion and in our forgiveness. Absolutely, but help us, Lord, to contend for the faith. With every head bowed and with every eye closed, if God spoke to your heart this morning and wants you to come, It could be that I didn't preach on what God spoke to you about in a crowd this size. Maybe God's been speaking to you when you're here this morning. Maybe let some things go in 2024, and you're ready to just give them over to the Lord in 2025. Yes, man, I'm gonna start anew. Hey, today's a good day. Pray, ask him to forgive you. Come. Why don't you come this morning? God knows your heart. God knows every need. Let's sing a verse for the day. 308. Let's surrender to him this morning. I surrender all. All right, now Miss Cindy, you need to, you need to meet with the ladies for just a second. Secret Sister ladies. If anybody wants to be in Secret Sisters, if you're here and you'd like to be involved, I know we've got some folks out and sick. And just kind of pass the word around that you need to be with him right up here somewhere. All right, we'll close out with a word of prayer. If you've been glad to be in God's house, say amen. Amen. Now listen, as far as right now, unless it just totally misses us, we're going to have just online this evening. It hasn't started yet, but so I might just say, hey, let's come on out if you can. But if it hits the way we think, and especially if it's ice, we want you to be careful. And by the way, always use your judgment. I don't know where everybody lives all the time. Your road may be bad. We don't want you to be unsafe. But don't look out and say, oh, one little drop of rain, I don't think I'll go. So we've got to have some balance in our outlook on that, amen? But we want you to be very, very careful, of course. But as of right now, if this hits any way remote like we think, we will have just online this evening at 6 o'clock. They say it could get really, really bad. Be careful. And I love you. If you've been glad to be in God's house, say amen. Amen. Let's ask God's blessing as we dismiss today. Brother Panaconian, would you pray for us?