Doctrine Matters (Hebrews 5:11-14- Jeff Kliewer)

All right, let's all stand, let's worship the Lord with a joyful heart this morning.

You lived, you died, you said in three days you would rise, you did, you're alive.

You rose, you reigned, you said you're coming back again,

I know that you will, and all the earth will sing your praises, all the earth will sing your praises.

You took, you take our sins away, oh

God, you give, you came down, you saved us through the cross.

Our hearts are changed because of your great love.

You lived, you died, you said in three days you would rise, you did, you're alive.

You said you're coming back again, I know that you will, and all the earth will sing your praises.

You lived, you died, you said in three days you would rise, you did, you're alive.

I know that you will, and all the earth will sing your praises, the earth will sing your praises, sing your praises.

I wanted to read Psalm 147. It says, praise the

Lord for it is good to sing praises to our God, for it is pleasant and praise is beautiful. The Lord builds up Jerusalem.

He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

He counts the numbers of the stars and he calls them all by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power.

His understanding is infinite. The Lord lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked down to the ground.

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. Give life, it's your breath, shout your praise.

Hearts will cry, shout your praise.

Hearts will cry, these bones will sing, it's your breath, it's your breath.

The man of sorrows, lamb of God, by his own betrayal.

The spirit of man and wrath of God has been

Jesus slain. Silent as he stood accused, beaten, mocked, and scorned.

Bowing to the Father's will, he took the crown of the

Lord. That rugged cross, my salvation, where your love poured out over me.

Now my soul cries out, hallelujah.

Praise and honor are set for God's own

Son to purchase and redeem.

And reconcile the very one, it's your breath, it's your breath.

Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation, where your love poured out over me.

Now my soul cries out, hallelujah. Praise and honor.

My debt is paid, it's been paid in full.

By the precious blood that my Jesus spilled.

Now the curse of sin has no hold on me.

When the sun sets free, oh, it's free indeed.

Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation, where your love poured out over me.

Now my soul cries out, hallelujah.

See the stone is rolled away.

Behold an empty tomb. Hallelujah, God be praised.

Cross, my salvation, where your love.

Praise and honor. Amen.

Let's pray. Dear God, you have sent your one and only

Son, Jesus, into the world. And he gave everything for us, his very life, his blood on the cross, the crown of thorns on his head to purchase our salvation.

And Lord, we could never return a gift like that. But we ask that today we would give a little more than ever before.

We ask that we would be conformed into the image of Christ, that we would grow to be mature men and women in the faith.

For Jesus is worthy. He's not worthy of a little bit of our affection and devotion.

He's worthy of all that we are and all that we have. Lord, we pray that we would go deeper with you today.

We would not be content to be little babies that drink milk only, but that we would grow through the good meat of your word to mature men and women who are not tossed to and fro by the wind and the waves of doctrine.

Lord God, we pray that we would go beyond standing as mature men, and we would take up the sword of the

Spirit, which is the Word of God. My mind goes to Eleazar as he stood holding a sword in the field, fighting off the enemy.

So hard did he fight that his hand froze to the handle of his sword. Let that be a picture of us,

God, our hands frozen to the Bible, gripping so tightly the sword of the

Spirit. Help us, Lord, to be soldiers, for we are in a war.

Give us victory in the truth war, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, there's some reason to be concerned, isn't there?

In the culture, a friend who goes here and I were texting about what's been happening, and both of us had the comment that we're concerned for our children.

It's like, you know, if the culture goes awry and everything completely spins out of control, bring it.

Greater is he who is in us, you know. We're not afraid of the devil and what's happening in the culture, but we think about these little children being raised up.

And what if one of them is lost or what if one of them is hurt or oppressed or persecuted?

You just can't fathom the thought of children being raised in a depraved culture. So one of the comments that I texted back with this friend was, listen, we don't raise dragon slayers in the hopes that they'll never have to face a dragon.

We raise children and teach them to take the sword in order that they would be able to fight, in order that they can be victors and conquerors, more than conquerors through him who loves us.

So let's not despair. Let's take it as a wake -up call to double down, to take the sword of the

Spirit, which is the Word of God, grip it more tightly, and continue to fight in the truth war. I'm going to begin this sermon this morning with a true story.

However, I will change the name of the person who told me this. And it's a person who's very far removed, so you don't have to be worried about privacy concerns or anything of that nature.

But just sharing some of the things that I thought were so just appropriate for the sermon that we have this morning.

We'll call her Susan. Susan told me about her life and what's going on with her children.

She has gotten to the point where she almost wishes that she never had kids. She said because her 11 -year -old, we'll call him

Kevin. I don't know, there's not a Kevin here. We'll just call him Kevin. He's 11 years old, and he started to hang out with a 12 -year -old boy.

And the kid is kind of like a bad influence. The 12 -year -old boy has a girlfriend, so now the young Kevin, he also has a girlfriend.

And he's trying to act like his older friend. And now Kevin won't talk to his mom.

So she asks questions, and she only found out that he has a boyfriend through somebody else.

Because whenever she asks questions, the poor guy won't answer.

Because mom asks too many questions, right? So she's very frustrated with that situation.

She also has an older boy, 15 years old. And he went on a trip to Europe. Not this year because of COVID, but a couple years ago.

And it was a music trip. When he was in Europe, she got a phone call from the leader of the trip from her school.

He's only 15 years old. And the person calling said, we would like for your child to room with a biological female.

Because she now identifies as a male. So it put this mom in the position that she can say no.

In which case, she would be the pariah. You know, hell hath no fury like the scorn that would be unleashed upon her if she said no.

But if she said yes, that puts her son possibly in sexual temptation. Or maybe could be accused of something in that situation.

So she capitulated. And she let him do that. And he came back saying everything was great.

And she feels like she dodged a bullet. And then her husband, who she had been married to for five years, said, do you really believe this

Christian stuff? And she said, yeah, don't you?

And he said, no, I never did. I just do this for the kids. Teach him some morality. And so five years into marriage, she learned from her husband that he never believed.

She goes to a United Methodist Church. And at the start of COVID, they closed and never opened. And now her kids are drifting from the faith.

They haven't been in the assembly. They haven't been singing praises of God, studying God's word. And she sees they're losing faith like her husband.

She feels like she's losing the truth war. She still posts on Facebook for her church.

And the other day, she posted a scripture that she just cut and paste. And she said she didn't even read the whole thing.

But when she cut it and pasted it into Facebook, hell hath no fury like what was unleashed on her from her own church.

Because it included a passage about a man shall not lie with another man as with a woman. And so her own church blasted her for posting such a thing.

Nothing but scripture. You see, this dear woman that I'm calling

Susan, she is in a truth war. And she doesn't know how fierce that war really is.

She's losing the war, or so she feels and probably is. Because even the ones who are supposed to be on her side, on the side of truth, are actually belonging to the enemy.

She's in a truth war. And so are we. I wonder if we recognize how intense this battle really is.

If we could see the spiritual world right now. Like Kahizi, open his eyes that he may see the bands of angels that encamp around those who fear

God. And the demonic forces in the heavenlies that are raging in warfare all the time.

If we could see for just a minute, I think we'd get it. But our eyes can't see that dimension. What we see is the battle of truth and lies.

A media that lies all the time to the point where, who even knows what's true anymore?

Fake news is just news. It's almost all fake. And yet we have the sword of the spirit.

We have the word of God. As we go into the passage today, let me just review quickly the point in the text where we find ourselves.

We just learned about Jesus as the great high priest. The author of Hebrews began to go there.

The idea is Jesus is better than angels. Jesus is better than mankind.

He's the new Adam. Jesus is better than Moses. As the builder of the house is better than the house he builds.

He's better than Aaron the priest because Jesus is a Melchizedekian forever priest.

Awesome teaching. And the author of Hebrews is ready to unleash that when all of a sudden he stops and slaps his audience in the face.

As a preacher, I'm just going strong here. I'm just, you know, trying to teach you the word of God.

And all of a sudden I come out of the pulpit and I slap somebody in the face. Would you guys be paying attention at that point? Well, that's what the author of Hebrews does to us.

And I need that slap. And you need that slap as we go to read this passage.

If you're thinking about your husband or your wife and saying, I'm glad he's here today because he needs this.

You're missing the point. This is for you. This is for me. Let's read it first and then we'll talk through it.

It's only four verses. Hebrews chapter 5. We pick up at verse 11. And out of the blue, a slap in the face.

He's about to teach about Melchizedek, but he stops short and has a rebuke for the listener.

About this, we have much to say. And it's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Ouch. That stings, doesn't it? You have become dull of hearing. The word from the

Greek means lethargic or apathetic, sleepy. A charge is leveled.

This is really the third warning. The first one came at the beginning of chapter 2. Be careful lest you drift away.

In chapter 3, we had the comparison to the Israelites for 40 years wandering in the wilderness and all of them fell dead except for Joshua and Caleb.

The warning, that's the second warning passage. This then is the third warning in the book of Hebrews.

About this, we have much to say. It's hard to explain. Since you have become dull of hearing.

The big idea this morning is that doctrine does not belong in the seclusion of the ivory tower of the learned theologian.

It's not just something that extraordinary Christians do. It's for every

Christian. Doctrine, going deeper with God. Here we're going to learn about the

Melchizedekian priesthood of Christ. Not today, but when we finish this rebuke and move on, we'll learn about Melchizedek.

And the reaction that many people have, especially in the American evangelicalism in which we kind of swim, is well, who really needs to know about Melchizedek?

After all, there's 33 ,000 denominations and all of them believe slightly different things.

It's all a matter of interpretation. So, it doesn't really matter what you believe doctrinally.

What matters is that you just do good things. Be kind, be loving, be a good person, and go about your day.

So, who has time to learn about Melchizedek? Why does Melchizedek matter? The priesthood of Christ? What's the big deal about that doctrine?

And the author of Hebrews just slaps us upside the head and says, no, pay attention. You need doctrine.

You need to go deeper than you're used to going. It's very important.

Go deeper. Don't be dull of hearing. So, that's kind of the big idea. Let's look at the verse -by -verse progression here.

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain.

Now, you could say about Melchizedek, it's hard to explain. And I would understand if the 10 -year -olds, 15 -year -olds have trouble understanding.

But I'll tell you this about 10 -year -olds. They know more about technology than I do.

They're more apt with my iPhone than I am. They show me how to do things when I can't figure out how to turn something on or off.

When you set your mind to something, you can do it. Even a child. How much more a mature man, an adult.

Now, it's hard to explain. Not because your minds are not capable of understanding it.

What does the text say? It's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

This is a rebuke to the energy that you bring to the table. This is a basketball player that goes in the game and they just look sleepy.

Like, what were you doing last night? Were you out drinking or are you ready to play? When you come into church, are you ready to learn the

Word of God and hear truth from God and be sharpened and get stronger? Or do you come lethargic?

Many of us were very passionate when we first got saved. And we would witness to everybody.

And we would read the Bible late into the night. But how long has it been since that passion described you?

Have you grown dull? Notice it says, since you have become dull.

You didn't start that way. What happened to your first love? You've become dull. This is a rebuke.

And the big issue here is that the apostle knows that Christians are in a truth war.

Many Christians are apostatizing to Judaism. They're going back to the religious system of animal sacrifices.

And the state religion of Judaism was acceptable to them. So many

Christians who have been now Christians, some of them for many years. This is written probably in the late 60s

AD. So you have some longstanding Christians, one generation, another generation now coming up behind them.

Many of them are leaving the faith. You're losing

Christians. They're falling in apostasy. So here's the problem.

They're not fighting. They don't realize that they are in a truth war. They're not getting strong. And so he stops and rebukes them for that.

Now, I want to underscore this point in a way I hope you never forget. Every book of the

New Testament calls us to fight in the truth war. Every book is concerned about doctrine.

We live in an American evangelicalism that thinks doctrine doesn't matter. But every book calls us to fight for truth.

Even minor doctrines, but especially the meat of the gospel.

This message of Jesus, crucified and risen, our Savior, what he has done for us is worth fighting for.

The doctrines of Christianity are not take it or leave it, choose what you want, and what really matters is how you live.

No, the truth of God's scripture is worth fighting for. So follow this review.

You have it in your notes. I'm just going to show you quickly from each book of the New Testament, a verse that underscores the importance of doctrinal truth.

You'll recognize many of them. But unless you feel the full weight of them, you might not understand how pressing this point is.

You can follow along in your notes or just listen. Matthew 7, verses 15 and following, beware of false prophets.

They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

You will know them by their fruits. Okay, Mark chapter 12, verse 24.

Before I read it, think of this. Our culture says no one is ever right and nobody's ever wrong.

Every person has their private truth. Jesus says, are you not wrong?

Wrong because you know not the scriptures or the power of God.

He offends them three times. First of all, he says you're wrong. Secondly, you don't know the scriptures. Thirdly, you don't know the power of God.

In Luke chapter 4, Jesus stands up and unrolls the scroll of Isaiah.

From reading from Isaiah 61, he exegetes that and applies it to himself. And then he tells them he won't do the miracles.

That they knew that he did in Capernaum. And teaching from that text, it says in Luke chapter 4, verse 28, when they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

So much so that they took Jesus out to the edge of town to throw him off a cliff.

For what? What did he do? Who did he murder? No, he spoke truth. This was a truth war.

They were ready to throw him off a cliff, but he escaped through the midst of them. In John, we remember the famous expression which is the most famous verse in the

Bible. Actually, the Matthew verse. Judge not, lest you may not be judged. Right?

That actually is the most quoted verse in the culture today. But if you read John chapter 7, verse 24, it says,

Stop judging. And the world said, Amen! Stop judging by mere appearances.

Make a right judgment. Jesus actually called believers to judge, to make a right judgment.

Don't make a judgment based on appearances or hypocrisy, but make right judgments.

Truth versus lies. In Acts chapter 17, verse 11, the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica.

Why? Because they received the word of God with eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

In Romans 16, 17, it says, Mark those who cause divisions and put up obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.

Avoid them. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and 6, we are to judge angels.

And we're told there will be differences or divisions among us to show which of you are approved of God. 2

Corinthians chapter 10, verse 4 and 5, the weapons of our warfare are mighty for tearing down strongholds.

We destroy arguments and we take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. But I am concerned for you that lest you be deceived like Eve was deceived by the serpent in the garden, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

Galatians chapter 1, verse 6 to 9. Kimberly's teaching Galatians. Women, if you want to come early for a service to learn the book of Galatians, Paul says,

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ for another gospel.

He goes on to say that even if an angel from heaven or Paul himself preaches another gospel, let him be accursed.

I'll say it again. Let him be accursed. That's how important this doctrine is.

In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 14, it talks about people who are like children. They're blown around by the wind and moved around by the waves of every doctrine in the deceitful cunning of men.

Philippians chapter 3, verse 2. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship in the spirit of God. He fights the

Judaizers of the gospel and calls them dogs. Colossians, see to it that no one takes you captive to philosophy or the traditions of men, the elemental spirits of the world.

Rather, you need to establish yourself on Christ. First Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 21, test everything.

Hold on to what is true. Second Thessalonians chapter 2, there's coming an apostasy where men will fall away before the coming of the

Lord Jesus and they are being caught up with him in the air. There will be a great falling away and the

Antichrist will be revealed. Pay attention. It says in 1

Timothy chapter 4, I'm going to read this one, 1 to 5. Now the spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart faith, from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.

Let that sink in. Paul is warning about these teachers who will come, but they're really teaching demonic doctrine.

Second Timothy chapter 2, he even names Hymenaeus and Philetus. They're teaching it's like gangrene, it spreads.

And in chapter 4, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, rebuke, exhort.

Over and over again, Titus chapter 1, verse 9, elders need to be able to teach, but what else?

To rebuke those who contradict Philemon.

Chapter 1, verse 8 and then 16, Paul asserts his authority as an apostle to tell them what to do, but then he appeals to them as brothers that Philemon would receive

Onesimus no longer as a bondservant, but as a brother. And so the doctrine that we are all one in Christ without hierarchy, priesthood of all believers.

After Philemon, Hebrews, and that's where I want you to turn if you've lost it. Hebrews chapter 5, and we're going to focus on verse 14.

We're about two -thirds of the way through the New Testament here. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

How do you practice discernment? It's by knowing the genuine so that when someone says something in the name of God, you can compare it to the

Word of God like a Berean and see if these things are so. Discernment.

It's not just to believe what people say, it's to discern the truth by God's Word.

After Hebrews comes James, and we know that someone will say, you have faith and I have works. James fights that doctrine and teaches salvation, justification by faith alone, with works connected to that faith as a fruit.

He throws out the false doctrine of the antinomians that faith means you can just do whatever you want.

Faith alone, but works that evidence that faith. That's the book of James.

1 Peter 1, 13 and 14, be sober minded. It says, prepare your minds for action.

2 Peter chapter 2, 1 to 3, but false prophets arose among them, even as there will be false teachers among you.

That's a sober warning. There will be false teachers among you, says

Peter. 1 John chapter 4, verses 1 to 6 says, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits.

And the end of that section, of that pericope, is a verse all of you know. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world.

Did you know that's about refuting false teachers? The one who is with us, who's given us his

Word, is greater than the false teachers who bring their deceitful lies. And then 2

John, 3 John and Jude, these are called the postcard epistles. You ever heard that title? Postcard epistles.

Each one of them is only one chapter long. Three of the last four books of the

Bible. All three of them, get this, all three of these postcard epistles are about defending the truth.

It's about holding on to the truth in a perverse and crooked generation. Holding fast the

Word of Life, in Philippians 2 language. How so? 2 John chapter, well there's only one chapter, so it's chapter 1, or you just say 2

John 7 to 11, many deceivers have gone out into the world. And we're told we're not even to welcome them into our house or give them a greeting.

In other words, we're at war with them. Not everything is just good. We're not all on the same team.

All religion is not the same. Doctrine matters. 3 John 1, 9 and 10,

I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, refuses to accept it.

And he also refuses missionaries and he doesn't really love the truth. Finally, Jude, well second to last,

Jude. This is an interesting one. Jude, verse 3. The apostle says,

I wanted to write to you about our common salvation. So pause there. Jude wants to just say positive things.

He doesn't want to go negative. He wants to focus on the glory of Christ. He wants to talk about the cross, the resurrection, salvation, the things that we rejoice in.

But I knew that it was necessary that I write to you to contend for the faith that was once and for all handed down to us.

And he goes on with amazing descriptive language about the battle we are in for the truth.

We are in a truth war. In Revelation 2, verse 14 and following, Jesus affirms the church for some things, but then he says to them, but you have some there who hold to the teachings they belong.

Balaam, who taught the Israelites to sin and all kinds of sexual immorality. And you have some who follow the teachings of the

Nicolaitans. Do you get the force of this? From Matthew to Revelation, we are not called to be passive.

We are not called to be limp -wristed. We are called to be soldiers in a war, to contend and to fight.

Not the way the world fights with weapons of physical destruction, but the weapon of our warfare is truth.

To wield that truth and be able to handle that truth with skill. So let's go back to Hebrews 5.

Here's the problem. A baby can't hold a sword. Remember Hebrews 4, 12?

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword. Very next chapter, a baby, he's unskilled.

He'd fumble that thing. He can't fight anybody off. Verse 12, for though by this time you ought to be teachers.

That's saying that everybody who's sitting here taking notes, learning, thinking about the scripture, you're a teacher.

You ought to be. That's what it says, right? Now, not everybody should be an elder. There's qualifications for elder.

Not everybody should be a teacher in the formal sense, James 3 .1. There's a higher accountability. But every person who names the name of Christ, every mom should be teaching her children.

Not passively like I hope they get it, but like their lives depend on it. It's a life or death matter that these children believe true things.

Every kid can be a teacher. Teenagers, you can help the younger ones know and believe the truth.

Men, women, all of us. This says, for though by this time you ought to be teachers. You need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

Now, as we get into the next chapter, we'll learn kind of what those things are. Faith, repentance, that's salvation.

Questions about baptism and laying on of hands, resurrection, eternal things.

Those are basic doctrines. But he wants to take them into the doctrine of the

Melchizedekian priesthood of Christ. That's what they need. So here's how I like to think about it.

We want to hold on to every person who ever comes into this church. That they would continue to name the name of Christ five years, ten years, until the day they die.

That none of them would fall away. Well, what's the best way to do that? It's by advancing in doctrine.

If you're in a war and there's two clashing armies face to face, the front line of that battle is fierce and many fall.

But if by the power of a stronger army, you push the other army ten miles that way, this position here, ten miles behind the front line, is very safe.

That's the idea here. Push forward in your doctrine. Grow, get stronger.

And that's a safe place to be. When the question that you're addressing is, should

I repent and believe? Is Judaism or Christianity better? That's where they're stuck at in the book of Hebrews.

Many of them are turning back. But the ones who are pressing on in the doctrine, they don't have those questions anymore.

Now they're asking, well, how is it that Jesus is a priest, though he descends from Levi?

I mean, though he doesn't descend from Levi. He comes from Judah. And then they find in Genesis 14, he's a

Melchizedekian priest in the promise of Psalm 110. He's from Melchizedek, and it's mind -blowing and it's delightful.

It's awesome. And you love the word more. And you're not in danger of falling away because you are going deeper and you're getting stronger.

Brothers and sisters, if you're not growing in your faith, you're in danger of losing it altogether. That's the idea.

You need milk, not solid food. Verse 13, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness.

Picture that baby with the sword, since he is a child. Or the metaphor here is eating. We were blessed to be invited over somewhere last night and the host had prepared prime rib.

It was a big plate of beautiful prime rib. Set that in front of a baby and see what happens.

That's not going to go well. A five -month -old can't do anything with that, can he? Moms, can a five -month -old do anything with a plate of meat?

They don't even have the teeth for it. What do they need? They need processed food through their mother, milk.

But a mature man, and I'm a mature man, can eat some meat. It was good, right?

So we shouldn't be living on milk only if you're a grown adult. We know that. How much more with the word of God?

We've got to get deeper. We've got to take this so much more seriously than we do. Last verse, 14. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Discernment is a spiritual gift. 1 Corinthians 12. Some people have that gift.

Others have other gifts. But this is not talking about the spiritual gift of discernment. This is talking about every mature man and woman and child in Christ must be training and growing in their discernment.

There are so many lies in the culture today, the news, the media.

They'll silence the voices of truth because they're opposed to the word of God. That's what this cancel culture is all about that's happening right now.

But the word of God remains, and this is how we know what's true. We take and compare what people are saying in the name of God to what the word of God actually says.

That's how we grow in discernment. So in closing, you know, the big idea here is that we've got to take this faith of ours seriously.

So decide right now that doctrine is worth fighting for.

When we consider Christ our Savior, what he did for us, is he not worthy of our time to be devoted to this, like you're devoted to the most, the thing you're most passionate about in your life.

It's a truth war. Listen to people who have a gift of discernment.

I gave you in my notes just five guys that I like to listen to. James White, Michael Foster, John Harris, Votie Bauckham, John MacArthur.

These are well -practiced men with gifts of discernment. But listen, any one of them could still err. We need to be a

Berean in listening even to those who have a gift of discernment. That's how important this truth war is.

No matter what people say, always compare it to the word like a Berean. Whether you're spiritually gifted or not, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

That 1 Corinthians 16, 13 passage, act like men, that also applies to women in the sense of be courageous.

That's the concept there. Be willing to stand up and fight, contend for the faith. Lovingly, speak the truth in love, but be willing to fight for what matters.

This concern for doctrine goes for all of us. So I close with another story.

I love these illustrations. But many of you know that America was founded in 1776,

Revolutionary War, and shortly thereafter there was another war. Just about the turn of the 1800s, there was a war called the

Barbary War. It was United States against pirates. Yeah, pirates, like with the eye patch.

These were pirates from Muslim lands, Algiers and Morocco and Tripoli.

And here was their thing. Because they believed the Quran, they believed that Christians owed to Muslims the jizya, which is a tribute payment.

So if a European ship or an American ship sailed through the

Mediterranean Sea, they would come and capture it and force you to pay a ransom.

And how did they justify that with their religion? Well, because these Christian nations weren't submitted.

Islam means submission. Here's the sad thing. European Christian nations were paying the tribute.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds in England, France, the Scandinavian countries, rather than stand up and fight, they paid off the king of Algiers and the guy from Tripoli.

Well, America is a new nation, and we needed to trade in the Mediterranean. And so we were sending merchant ships in that way, and the

Barbary pirates were taking captive our people, making them slaves. Many died.

So Thomas Jefferson had a choice to make. Do we pay the tribute like the other nations? Well, America didn't really have the money.

For a while, Jefferson did pay, kind of like John Adams had done, just appeasement with the culture.

However, it was never enough. Before long, Jefferson realized, no, it would be cheaper and it's better to fight.

And that is how the American Navy was born. They commissioned four ships. Here's where the story gets even more interesting.

The captain of this American ship and this fleet, there was actually four ships that crossed the

Atlantic Ocean, the captain was named Morris, Valentine Morris or something like that.

He was like a Valentine. He was a softy. He was so distractible that in his 19 -month assignment, he only spent 19 days blockading

Tripoli. He was sent to Tripoli to keep the pirate ships from coming and going out of the harbor, and he was only there in total 19 days.

Well, where was he? He was so lethargic, so dull, apathetic, that he spent years, almost two years, gallivanting across Europe.

He took his wife and his child on that warship. And why Congress let him do that,

I don't know. But when he got to Europe, he was just hobnobbing with the social classes in London and in Paris and Southern Italy.

His ship was at dock. And so the piracy continued until finally

Jefferson replaced him with a guy named Preble, and maybe you've heard of Preble's boys. One of them was

Stephen Decatur. Stephen Decatur took a pirate ship that they conquered and captured, and he sailed that pirate ship right into the

Tripoli Harbor. You see, in Tripoli, they had captured one of the American ships, and they were turning that into a giant pirate ship.

So under the cover of night, Stephen Decatur sailed into the Tripoli Harbor and with his men climbed aboard the

USS Philadelphia, tried to steal it back. When he was unable to, burned it to the bottom of the ocean.

And then he went back to the ship and they blockaded the harbor. Many wars ensued.

In fact, in one, James, his brother, was killed. And so Stephen pursued the pirate who killed his brother and outnumbered five to one.

Stephen Decatur jumped off of his ship. They climbed aboard the pirate ship and they fought hand to hand with pirates.

It's like something out of a movie, but it really happened. I don't tell this story to give glory to Stephen Decatur, although he was a great war hero.

I think he was an Episcopalian. And he died in a duel later, which was really foolish. I tell this story because men need to act like men.

And war requires passion and fortitude, bravery, and courage, and all the things that we get from the word of God, from going deeper in the truth.

I wonder if America could fight like that first generation fought.

I wonder if the church of Jesus Christ is willing to stand up and fight, not a battle of swords with pirates, but a truth war.

Do you realize that you are in a truth war? We are fighting for our children. We are fighting for those around us whom we love.

We're fighting for life and freedom in order to be skilled and trained in the word of righteousness.

You have got to be in the text. Melchizedek, as obscure as that seems,

Genesis 14, Psalm 110, Hebrews 7, as obscure as that seems, it's a life or death matter.

Doctrine matters. To know Christ as your priest, you can run to his throne. These things matter.

That's the big idea today. We're going to sing one more song. But you know what? Before we do that, I forgot to do this before, we have a new employee starting today.

So I'm going to call on Tim Robinson to come up. I want to just lay hands and pray over Tim. Is there any other elders that...

Oh, Eric's here. Thank you. So the reason we have Tim is because we are launching another church on the other side of Mount Laurel, and Ben Honeyford is going to be the pastor of that.

And the Lord has sent to us a fellow soldier. And Tim is a soldier in the gospel.

I know him well. We started by playing basketball together, but he's become a soldier for Christ.

And God's going to use this young man. I know, I just saw it on Friday, 30 teenagers showed up, which is crazy.

And just people getting saved. We had some of them in first service, some of the teens that have come to faith recently will do baptisms in the spring.

So we have, by God's grace, yeah, for the Lord, a hand clap to the Lord. God is doing amazing things.

But this now is Tim's first day with us on staff at Cornerstone. So we thought that we would pray over Tim.

Let's close with that. And then I'll close just in the sermon prayer. But Eric, would you mind praying for Tim? Dear Lord, we're just thankful for Tim.

We're thankful that you brought us to him many months and years ago. We thank you for the training that he's had under Pastor Ben.

Yes, Lord. Lord, we just ask that you would bless his ministry as he begins here at Cornerstone full -time with us.

That he would just be an inspiration to the kids, that he would study your word well, that you would just use him as a tool, that you would speak for him with your

Holy Spirit as he leads our kids. And we just thank you for Tim. Yeah, amen, amen.

Hallelujah. Amen, brother. All right, let me close this in prayer and worship team, come on up. So Father, we take your loving slap.

You love us enough to slap us across the cheek and say, wake up, don't be dull of hearing.

So we receive that rebuke because we know it's how you show us your love. You love us enough to not let us be lethargic, not let us fall in the wilderness, not let us drift.

So we receive this rebuke from you, God. And we ask that you would help us now to train the powers of our discernment.

And we do it all looking to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the

Father. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's stand and sing one more. I will see who we were meant to be.

It's all a gift from God that we receive. Brought to life, he opened up our eyes to see the majesty and glory of the

King. He has filled our hearts with wonder.

So that we always remember that you and I are made to worship.

You and I are called to love. You and I are forgiven and free.

You and I embrace surrender. You and I choose to believe that you and I will see who we were meant to be.

Believe when the rocks cry out. Believe when the heavens shout with the sound of his holy name.

So let every voice sing out. Let every knee bow down. He's worthy of all our praise.

You and I are made to worship. You and I are called to love.

You and I are forgiven and free. You and I embrace surrender.

You and I choose to believe that you and I will see.

You and I will see. You and I are made to worship. You and I are called to love.

You and I are forgiven and free. You and I.

You and I choose. Ray, that closing riff was sweet, man.

That was awesome. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.

So that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword.

Piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.