Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Podcast.

We'll be right back. I want you to realize that where God's going, heaven, I cannot go. And you will be heading to hell if you do not know Christ as your savior. I know that's not real popular preaching nowadays, but that's biblical preaching. That's what the Bible teaches.

How sad. Look at verse 22. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself?

Because he saith, Whether I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath. I am from above. Ye are of this world.

I am not of this world. And it's still the case, by the way. We Christians are seemingly trying to become more and more like the world.

It is still true. God is not of this world. Notice if you would, verse 24, I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins. For if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. Then said they unto them, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.

They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, speaking of the coming crucifixion of him, when ye have lifted up on a cross the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me, the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him. And as he spake these words, notice this, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered, We be Abraham's seed, and we were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the Son abideth forever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham's seed, but ye seek to kill me.

Why? Because my word hath no place in you. He begins to continue to speak, just look at verse 43 if you would.

Why do ye not understand my speech? Jesus says to them, even because ye cannot hear my word. Lord as you've laid this on my heart, and Lord I certainly need this, needed this, will need this, and Lord I really do want to make a change.

I really do. Lord I pray somehow you would lay on the hearts of our people the desire to make the same change and improvement in their life. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Let me give you a couple things, just a little bit of ground work and then we'll get right to the meat of it and we'll be done this morning. I want you to notice if you have a piece of paper and a pen and you enjoy writing these things down so you can understand God's word a little bit better, I always did, but that certainly doesn't mean that you need to.

Number one, I want you to see this. These are principles that are through this passage. Number one, we must know Christ before we can know the word. There's a whole lot of people that you'll see on TV that'll get up and start telling news agencies what God's word says. And dear friend, I'm here to tell you they do not understand what God's word says because they don't know God.

Do we all understand that? We have Christians that know Christ that are listening to people that don't know Christ explaining the Bible and what the Bible really means about certain subjects and dear friend, I'm here to tell you, you can't know the word until you know Christ. You might as well just look at the dictionary and lay that out but dear friend, you don't know the real meaning of God's word until you know Christ.

You say preach or prove that. Look at verse 21 through 25. Jesus continues to explain. Look at verse 24. He said, Therefore I said, Ye shall die in your sins if ye believe not that I am he. Ye shall die in your sins. Then they said in him, Who art thou?

In other words, they didn't even know who he was. And he said, Even the same that I said to you from the beginning. Notice if you would, verse 30.

And as he spake these words, many believed on him. Look at verse 27. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. They just had so many questions they didn't understand.

Why? Because they were not yet believers. Dear friend, I'm here to tell you, you have to know Christ before you can know His word. Please understand that.

Don't listen to people. You know they'll have, what just irks me is that you'll watch some news program and they're talking about some controversial subject and they'll bring some religious professor from Princeton onto the news and we are supposed to sit and people like us that know the truth believe that junk. Dear friend, they don't know Christ. And if you don't know Christ, you don't know God's word.

It's a book to them. And they're going to look at things without faith and they're going to try to explain things that don't make any sense to you and then you're going to come back to church, hear a preacher preach and say, well the professor at Princeton didn't say that. Well they don't know Christ. Dear friend, you don't know the word until you know Christ. And that's what the Bible, here he is, he's trying to explain it and understand it.

Why? Because they didn't know him. And then in verse 30 it says that many of those Jews then believed on him. Now notice what he says immediately after. Once these Jews believed on him, look at verse 30, many believed on him then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him if ye what? Continue in my word. Do you understand? So you can't know the word until you know Christ. Number two, we must be willing to hear the word to understand the word. Now notice if you would, look at verse 43, later on the ones that did not believe, notice what Jesus says, why do ye not understand my speech? It's not just hearing it, you can't understand what I'm saying. And Jesus explains the reason you can't understand it, notice, because you cannot hear my word. That word hear in the Greek means to give audience, to be willing to be heard.

It means this, it's not that they didn't have the ability, they didn't have the desire to hear what he had to say. And so listen dear friend, I want you to understand that you and I have to be willing to hear God's word before we're ever going to have an understanding of it. I worry about people that don't want to come to church.

I worry about people that don't want to hear preaching. Because as a Christian you should long to understand God's word more. You know why a lot, look at me, I'm going somewhere, you know why a lot of people don't really listen to preaching because they think they know it already. So you cannot understand God's word until you're willing to hear it.

Principle number three, notice this, we must abide in the word in order to follow Christ. Look if you would at verse 31, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if ye continue in my word. That word continue, isn't this interesting. If you'll look down at verse 43, notice it says why do ye not understand my speech.

That word understand. If you go right back up to verse 31, the Bible says if ye continue. What's interesting, that word continue and the word understand is the exact same Greek word. It's two different words in our English translation, but they both mean they come from the exact same word which means this, when God says if ye continue in my word, it means this, you've got to understand it, you've got to abide in it, you've got to dwell in it, you've got to spend time in it. So what he told those Jews that just believed, you've got to get into my word and you can't just read it, you can't just listen to it, you've got to continue. That word means to abide, to dwell.

He said that's what you have to do. Now notice if you would, the next phrase he says this in verse 32, and ye shall know the truth. That word know the truth. Here again, now we go down to verse 43, that word understand in verse 43, that word understand is the same word as know in verse 32. What does it mean preacher?

I have always heard, somebody's going through something in their life that has a hold on them, a habit, an addiction, whatever the case might be. This is the verse I've always used, the verse you always use, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. You all agree with that? Say amen. But that is not entirely what God said. God said this, it's not just know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Before he even said that, he said you've got to continue in my word to be able to know the truth and then for that truth to be able to make you free. We have people that want to sit down and be told how to be free from their addictions and be free from these sins that have a hold on their life.

But dear friend, I'm here to tell you, it doesn't do you any good to be told how to get rid of that until you continue or dwell or abide in God's word. Now notice this in verse 31 and 32. What's our principles? We must, number three, we must abide in the word to follow Christ. Look at verse 31. He says if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. In other words, you're not really my disciples. If you're not dwelling and abiding in my word. You can do all you want to do, you can say all you want to say, you can look wonderful, perfect, you can look like the greatest Christian, but Christ said you are really not my follower unless you are dwelling and abiding and continuing in my word.

What's interesting here, nobody really knows if you are or are you or not. When you and I abide in God's word, it's not something that the public can see. If I'm reading God's word or if I'm not reading God's word, you wouldn't really know. You just assume as members of this church that I'm your pastor.

You assume and you should assume right. You should expect that this man preaching to us has been in God's word. But you're not going to know, hey, there's been a whole lot of preachers that got up and acted like they did. Boy, they could take a passage and explain it and wow, that's great, but I'm going to tell you something, eventually we found the truth out about them.

Why? Because they were teaching God's word or preaching God's word, but they were not abiding in God's word. You all know where I'm going this morning. So I'm here to tell you, you're really not a follower of Christ because you work in the bus ministry. And you are really not a follower of Christ because you work in the Awana ministry. In fact, if you work in any of these ministries, you should be the ones that are here more faithful to anything in this church.

Because you're leaders. I have a problem with people in leadership that don't want to be in church. There's something missing there.

And I'll tell you what's missing. You're not abiding in God's word. You're really not a follower of Christ. And I'm really not a follower of Christ unless we are abiding in God's word.

Notice principle number four here. We must abide in the word to understand the truth. What's interesting, he told the Jews, he says, if you continue in my word, then I'll know you're my disciple. Second, you will know the truth. That word know means to understand, to comprehend, to have studied, to really be able to explain is what that word know means.

It means I know something well enough that I can now explain it. God says this, you are not going to understand God's word until you spend time in it. We've got a lot of people that want to hear everybody explain God's word, but they don't want to simply spend time in it. And Kerwin Baptist Church, I am encouraging you today, quit worrying about trying to understand everything.

Just get in it. God says if you abide in it, if you continue in it, if you dwell in it, you'll begin to understand it. You'll know the truth. We have people that want to sit down and they want the pastor to be able to explain, and he should, what this means, what that means, what that means, what that means, and that's part of the studying process. But dear friend, I want you to understand that is still no substitute for you every day getting in God's word. You'll be shocked at how much you understand.

If you just get in it. So that means this, that I have to abide in God's word to be a follower of Christ. Second, I have to abide in God's word to even be able to understand it. By the way, if you're not in God's word, you can listen to David Jeremiah, you can listen to even Daniel Hartree.

I know many of you have been listening to my podcast and I don't have one, I'm just joking. But really, what? I mean, listen, you can listen to Charles Swindoll, you can listen to any Bible teacher you want to, listen, they can explain everything to you, but you still won't get it. It still won't have root in your life or even make an impact if you're not in God's word yourself. We have produced a generation of people that have a lot of knowledge but they have no wisdom.

Why? Because they've heard everybody explain God's word but they're just not in it every day. Notice this next principle, I love this, number five, we must abide in the word to experience freedom from bondage. In other words, freedom from bondage doesn't even come to the end here. What we always tell people, hey, if you know the truth, it's going to make you free. No, it won't. Are you looking at me?

No, it won't. There's a whole lot of people that could quote verses left and right that are hooked on pornography right now. Let me tell you something, I know preachers that got up, pastored some of the largest churches in America that had affairs and did horrible things are sitting in jail right now. Boy, they know the truth. Dear friend, I'm here to tell you, the truth doesn't make you free. It's the fact that you've been in God's word and daily and continuing and dwelling and abiding in it and as you begin to understand that truth, then you begin to experience freedom from bondage in your life. Not just because you've been told the truth, but because you're living in it.

That's good. Amen. I tell you what, in our generation, I wish we had more people that didn't understand everything but read it. But in our generation, we have people that understand more and read it less. And they wonder why it's not making a difference in their life.

Some of you sitting here, all of a sudden this light bulb is going off in your life. Because you keep seeking for knowledge on things and that's wonderful that you do. But I'm here to tell you, nothing's ever going to click until you discipline yourself to get into God's word.

Not only every day, but as much during the day as you can. Until we abide in it, we're not going to understand it. And until we abide in God's word, you're not going to explicit. I can tell you four biblical principles why what should be able to free you from any bondage, a sin, whatever the case, I could give you four biblical principles.

You could hear it, know it, understand it, walk right out of this building and still continue in it. But dear friend, if I don't tell you any principles and you walk out of this building and you start getting in your Bible faithfully every day, something's going to have to give. You cannot read your Bible every day, get in it, study it, learn it, and sin stay there. Before long, something's going to have to give. Either you're going to stop reading or you're going to stop sinning.

It's amazing how that works. You've shown me somebody that has a besetting sin in their life, I guarantee you I'm showing you somebody that has not been faithfully reading their word. They've not been in the Bible, they've not been disciplined, they read it three days and don't for another week, and then they wonder why I can't get victory. They get to an altar, they cry, they feel guilty, they feel convicted, they want to change, but they don't know how they can change.

And dear friend, I'm here to tell you, there's no magical principle. You have got to get in God's word and you've got to stay there. To abide means you don't ever leave it. Last principle is this, we must abide in God's word to be close to Christ.

Dear friend, you cannot be close to Christ and not in God's word. Look if you would at verse 37. What's interesting, Jesus looks at these fellows and he says, I know that you're Abraham's seed, but ye seek to kill me. Why? Why would anybody want to kill Jesus?

What would he ever have done to anybody except good? Notice. Because my word hath no place in you. If the word is not there, neither will the love for Christ. Why do people get in, get out of church, get into ministry, get out of ministry, why do people serve, then they quit serving, I tell you why. Because God's word found no place there. And so that loyalty, that service to Christ begins to fade. It's not that we don't love the Lord and that we're not that we're still thankful to be saved.

It's the fact that that love for Christ never took off because God's word never found a place in their life. Are you getting help yet this morning? Because I'm going to tell you I sure have. Maybe I'm the only one that needed it.

Now, notice this. If the Bible says that we have to continue, God says if you continue in my word, Christ says, then you're my disciples, then you'll know the truth, and then that truth will make you free. What does it mean, preacher, to continue?

We hear preachers all the time say, alright, you say, continue in God's word, continue, dwell in God's word. Okay, what does that mean? Best explanation we can all get, well, you just got to read it and stay in it.

What does that mean? I want to answer that for you today the best way I can. This is a whole week of pain pills study. Who knows what we're going to end up with, right? I'm just picking.

I didn't take one today either, so don't give it. Notice, I want to give you this. Verse 32. If you continue in my word, the word continue, remember abide, dwell. Listen to me. The way for you to abide in the word is literally for the word to abide in you.

Now, listen to me. For me to dwell with my wife, Julie. It doesn't just mean I live with her. It means she lives with me. It means that we live with each other. Listen, look at me. I want you to get this. I can take any of you to nursing homes right now and you have people that are living with each other in the same building that don't talk to each other.

And they don't even understand each other. Abiding doesn't just mean that I read it every day. Abiding means that I have chosen to live with God's word and God's word has chosen to live with me. So, what does that mean preaching? Let me read you these two verses and I'm going to give you step by step and we'll let you go this morning. Colossians 3 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

That means once the word of Christ gets in you, wisdom comes out. For, listen to this, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. That means this, that psalms, hymns, spiritual songs are only a result of an individual that is abiding in God's word. Hey, there are people that might not ever crack open a Bible that could write a beautiful song in a real catchy tune. But spiritual songs only come from people that are abiding in God's word. And I'm afraid that over the years we at church, we've decided to just go ahead and take the catchy tunes instead of loving and honoring spiritual songs.

The ones that came from individuals that lived in God's word. Now I'm not trying to say anything above what that means. I'm not implying anything, I'm simply saying.

I'm not talking about types of music or anything like that. I am talking about that often times we take talent over truth. And we should never do that. Now notice this, listen to this verse. John 15 verse 7. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you. Ye abide in me and my words, notice the relationship. I'm living with the word, the word's living with me. What does it mean to abide or continue or to dwell in God's word? Best way I can equate it is like a marriage. And remember our salvation is a picture, our marriage is a picture of God's relationship with the church.

So get this, if you've got a piece of paper you need to write these things down. This will make great conversation with you and fellow Christians that you're trying to reach. Number one, what does it mean to abide? It means to cohabitate with each other. It means to live with each other. When you abide in God's word, it means that you now have made the choice to live with each other.

There's no getting away from it. Unfortunately, many times folks come to this altar and say, I want to get in God's word and by the time they get home in two days they're already away from it. Let me give you this verse, Psalm 119 verse 57. Thou art my portion, O Lord, I have said that I would keep thy words.

I'm going to live with God's word. Number two, it means that we commit to each other. I have chosen to live with my wife because we're married.

We cohabitate, we live with each other. But you know what that also means for us to abide with each other? By the way, for a marriage to end up right, for a marriage to stay together it takes these principles.

And I guarantee you that when a marriage breaks up somewhere along these lines, these principles were not applied to their marriage. Number two, you commit to each other. I have committed to my wife. Let me read you this verse, Psalm 119 verse 16. I will delight myself in thy statutes.

I will not forget thy word. That means I'm going to commit to God's word. When you abide in God's word it means you've made a commitment.

I'm going to read it. Just like I have made a commitment to my wife, I'm going to love you and I'm going to be faithful. Dear friend, I break my commitment to my wife, my marriage is in trouble.

And if you break your commitment to God's word, your relationship with God is in trouble. To dwell means that we cohabitate, we commit to each other. Number three, we communicate with each other. You know a marriage didn't do anything if a husband and wife don't communicate. They don't talk.

They don't spend time with each other. Communicate doesn't mean listen. Communicate means listening and responding. Some husbands need that, don't they? A wife says listen, we just need to talk.

The husband says okay. And he just listens. Well that's only half of it, men. You say yeah, but if I try to say one word back, HA! Communication is like tennis.

If you're standing on the other side of the net and I'm standing on this side and I serve the ball to you, if you just stand there and let the ball go, we're not going to play very long. Communication means we hit the ball back and forth. That's what communication is. Let me read you this verse, obviously, Psalm 119, 103. How sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Communicate with God's word means this, I read God's word, what is it trying to say to me?

What do I need to say to God? That's how we dwell. That's how we abide.

It isn't just hey, I get out and read my chapter every day. It means that I choose to live with God's word. I choose to commit to God's word. I choose to communicate with God's word. Notice number four, we comfort each other.

My wife and I, we've spent many a time in a waiting room, in a hospital room, over a bed with surgery and different things. You know what we just try to do? We just try to comfort each other.

That's what we do. Do you know, listen to this verse, Psalm 119, 15. This is my comfort and my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me. He said, God, your word is my comfort. And dear friend, I'm here to tell you, when you start abiding in God's word, that's where you're going to get your comfort.

You're not going to have to call every person and their brother and talk to this person and that person and try to get them to make you feel better and make you, listen, you get comfort in God's word because you're abiding in it. We don't just go there every once in a while when we need help. Let me tell you something, every once in a while if I need help, I'm building something at my house or whatever the case might be, and I know I can't do it on my own.

This has happened a number of times. Something I want to do, I go to my father-in-law. I go to his house.

I say, hey, can you help me do such and such? We needed this stage. We built a stage down there in our civilian. Had these services coming up and in the future, and I talked to him. I said, hey, we need a stage out there.

He built the stage. I'll go to his house. Look at me. I don't dwell with my father-in-law. Thank God for him.

That would drive him nuts. Listen, I don't dwell with him. I go to him every once in a while if I need something. Unfortunately, that's what God is to many of us. God's not where we live.

He's just where we go when we need something. You all understand? Now hold on. I'm almost done. I know our time, but listen, God laid this on my heart for an entire week.

I'm going to get it out one way or the other. Listen, number next, we cheer for each other. You know what it means to abide with my wife?

We're our biggest fans. I cheer her on. We recently had a basketball tournament that went well and all that stuff, and I played in it, unfortunately.

I'm going to tell you something. My wife was cheering for me, and obviously it wasn't a full-time job, but she had every once in a while something to cheer for, and it got to the point where I'd make a shot. I'd turn around. I made one three-pointer turn around. My wife wasn't even looking.

And I literally saw, I think it was my father-in-law and my mother-in-law sitting behind her, and they went, hey, Daniel just turned around. She never even saw it. Never even saw it.

Nobody else in that building was cheering for every time I did something. Oh, preacher! Nope. My wife. Why? Because we dwell with each other.

So we cheer for each other. Listen to this verse. I want you to get this. Psalm 119, 28. My soul melteth for heaviness. Strengthen thou me according to thy word. God, I need your help. I need you to strengthen me.

You've got somebody cheering for you. That strengthens you. Next it means when you dwell with somebody, you care about each other. Listen to this verse. Psalm 119, 76.

Let I pray thee thy merciful kindness be for my comfort according to thy word. Let me tell you something about dwelling with God's word. The more you get into God's word, the more you begin to see and understand that God really cares about you.

He really cares. And dear friend, you know why a lot of times we think, I heard people say, I just don't even know God cares about me anymore. I just don't, maybe God's against me. Maybe God's just mad at me. I don't even know if God still loves me anymore. Dear friend, that is a sign that you have not been in God's word. Be careful who you go tell that and listen, you need to be able to come to me as a preacher, anybody that's ever counseled with me. You know, it's non-judgment zone.

That's for sure. I've got my own problems. But I'm going to tell you something. When you go tell, maybe God's mad at me. I don't even think God loves me anymore. That's just a sign you have not been in God's word faithfully. Because when you go in God's word, you find out He cares for you. Notice next when my wife and I, we dwell with each other, it means we contend for each other.

We stand up for each other. Psalm 119, 170 Let my supplication come before thee, deliver me according to thy word. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.