Knowing the Truth Is Not Enough | April 29, 2026

Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

We will be in First Corinthians chapter #5 this evening.

I will let you know that there's a different kind of message.

It's a message that is heavy on my heart.

It is one of great seriousness. I know that as a pastor, I like

to incorporate humor into my sermons.

It's not because I believe that I'm a stand up comedian.

It's because I do think that there are times that humor does

help to drive home a point or just helps to reinforce what's

already been spoken of. I never want to be a comedian.

That's not my desire of a my desire is to be able to preach

the word of God in a way that can communicate to the heart.

And so there are times that humor does help with that, but

there are times that the gravity of the text, the gravity of the

message does require that it is such that there really is no

space for humor because it would take away from the very

seriousness of what's being spoken of.

And tonight is one of those nights.

And I'd also say that even as the message is being preached,

there are some types of messages that for you, maybe those kind

of ones were amens are very appropriate, that amens kind of

really spur the preacher on. But there are other times where

there's not a lot of amens to be heard because there's a lot of

thinking, there's a lot of chewing on what is being said.

And I would dare say that tonight would be one of those

messages that I'm not looking for a bunch of amens, but I am

looking that we would all really dial into that which the Lord

has for us tonight in this text because of the graveness of that

which I'm going to preach to you this evening.

Diane, I met at Heartland Baptist Bible College back in

2001. And I know that I talk about

Heartland Baptist Bible College a lot.

I'm thankful for the ministry of Heartland.

It is a Bible college, is not the only Bible college on earth

by any stretch of the imagination that's doing things

for the Lord. But yet it is where Diane and I

met and where we've received many blessings as well as our

training and of course for the day.

Miss Cassandra could say the same thing as well.

This evening during our time at Heartland, we were introduced to

a church called the Bible Baptist Church at Stillwater and

their pastor, Pastor Wayne Hardy.

That church was Diane's home church when she came to the

United States. She needed a place to be able to

go when she was on a break, when she didn't have another place to

be able to go to. And Stillwater, OK, became like

a second home tour in many ways to the point that when Diane and

I got engaged to be married and we talked about where we wanted

to get married, we knew that we didn't want to get married at

the Southwest Baptist Church where we normally attended

because it can hold about a couple 1000 people.

And believe it or not, we don't know a couple thousand people to

be able to fit into a church building.

But we did want to get married at the Bible Baptist Church.

It's Stillwater, where she had spent so much time.

And the pastor there was Wayne Hardy.

He's pastored there up until the last week for 26 years.

Pastor Hardy was very influential in many ways in my

wife's life, in my own life, and certainly in many other people's

lives as well. You might say, Pastor, why are

you talking about this tonight? It doesn't seem like it's very

relevant to us. I don't know, Wayne Hardy, you

might say, Well, the answer is that many of you do, whether you

realize it or not. If you've ever received one of

these magazines that we give away a couple, well, I think

about every two months here at the church, this is the Baptist

Times and he is the editor in chief of the Baptist Times as

well as being the pastor of that church.

And his DNA, if you will, is all over these magazines where the

ideas of what we are as Baptist, why we do what we do, these

types of things, articles, all of them are found and they've

been handed out to you. We've been giving them away at

least for the last 7 or 8 years. I came to the knowledge last

week that Brother Hardy resigned from his church where he had

pastored for about 26 years due to some indiscretions as the

pastor or during his pastor. Over time, it has become very

clear that those indiscretions were literally a double life

that has taken place for years and years and years.

I want to be careful what I say tonight for obvious reasons.

I want to be very careful in how I present this to you tonight.

What I'm saying to you is, is public knowledge, and I won't

say anything that's not public knowledge this evening.

And you might feel a little uncomfortable right now, and I

understand why you would feel uncomfortable.

In many ways, I'm uncomfortable talking to you about this.

But I do think there is an important discussion that needs

to be had. Brother Hardy, over the course

of many, many years made many, many bad decisions.

Gross immorality took place in ways that I cannot explain to

you here tonight, but in ways that have hurt my spirit more

than I can tell you here this evening.

Why? Why would I?

Why would it hurt? So much well, because of the

influence. Of truth that has been placed in

my life, preaching messages, lessons, lectures.

I I traveled last year to New York City.

To be able to hear him speak for two.

Days about the importance of biblical preaching.

I've read almost every single one of these magazines that has

come through. I've heard preaching and lessons

and on and on. Of course in our personal ties

as well. And it hurts when someone you

know that you believed was going a certain way.

And stood for truth. Not only departed from the

truth, but had been departed for the truth.

From a very long time in their personal life and was really

portraying one thing publicly and was living in a completely

different way all the rest of the week.

Say, pastor, why are you? Preaching this tonight, is it

because you want to dance on the grave of a man who is

spiritually dead on arrival this evening?

And the answer is no, that's not my desire.

He doesn't have to answer to me for his actions.

There's one he has to answer to. And that's the same one that

every one of us have to. Answer to for actions, certainly

he has to answer to the church itself and the leadership there

and the members that are there. He is not without

accountability. Just because you're a pastor

does not mean you're without accountability.

Let me say that again. Just because you are a pastor,

I'm one of them, does not mean you are without accountability.

We are not kings of our own kingdoms.

We are not czars of our own empires.

No, we are biblical preachers that are under the command of

Jesus Christ because it's his church.

But also understanding that there's a membership of the

Church of which we are a part of, that we must live in a way

that is good and pure and right and above board.

And if you're not sure about that, the book of first Timothy

in the book of Titus makes it very clear that there's some

things that a pastor must be and there are some things a pastor

must not be. And these have been violated in

a way that. Boggles my mind in his case, but

here's why I want to preach on this tonight.

This is what I have been wrestling with for the last

several days in this instance, and I do think it's important

that I publicly. Mention him by name because of

the fact that he has had influence in this church through

this magazine that he no longer will have and that this.

Magazine does not exist. As of now, it has been

cancelled, it has been cut. It is no more.

We will not receive them anymore.

So I do think it's. Important that I let you know

that we're not going to have it and why we don't have it without

giving any type of salacious details this evening, but just

mentioning the bare minimum. Of what I can publicly tonight.

But here's what I've been wrestling with.

How can someone know so much about the Bible, but get so far

away from what the Bible says in their personal life?

How can someone know so much about this?

Book but yet live in complete opposition of this book and

everything that they teach and they preach to get up and to

preach hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of messages knowing

that you don't live. The very things you're telling

everybody else to live, how is that even possible?

It really comes down to this and it's the title of my message.

This this. Evening.

Knowing the truth is not enough. Knowing the truth.

Is not enough. My message tonight is not to

Wayne Hardy. He is not here.

He is not under my authority, nor do I desire to have a

platform to speak to him. But I do know that God wants to

speak to us. And God wants to speak to me

about this very serious issue. Is the truth important?

Of course it is. But the truth in and of itself

is not enough in the life of the believer.

And I'll explain what that means in just a moment.

Why don't you remain seated? We'll read all First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5. And again, I do recognize we're

backtracking this evening, but I think it's important that we do.

It says it's commonly, or it's reported commonly, that there is

fornication among you, and such fornication as is not as much so

named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's

wife. And you're puffed up, and if not

rather mourned, that he that have done this deed might be

taken away from among you. For I verily as absent the body

but President Spirit have judged already as though I were present

concerning him that hath so done this deed in the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ. When ye are gathered together

and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver

such an one and to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that

the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus without re

preaching this you understand this evening.

This is talking about the process of which we call church

discipline. Someone who is a part of the

body, who is flagrantly living in a way that is opposition

without repentance whatsoever. This is not excommunication.

That is an invention of the Catholic Church.

This is Church discipline. It should be used rarely.

It should be used specifically, but there are places where it

does need to be used. And here Paul is saying when

there is someone who refuses to repent of their sexual misdeeds,

this is what needs to happen. There is church discipline.

Your glory verse 6 is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven

leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out there for the old

leaven, that you may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened for

even Christ, our Passover sacrifice for us.

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither

with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the

unleavened brand of sincerity and truth.

I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators,

not all together with the fornicators of this world, or

with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters.

For then must he needs to go out of the world.

But now I have written unto you not to keep company.

If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or

covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an

extortioner with such, and one know not to eat.

For what have I to do to judge them also that are without?

Do not ye judge them that are within, but them that are

without? God judgeth.

Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

You might ask yourselves, pastor, why would you choose to

go back to chapter #5 this evening?

And perhaps your first thought is because of the sexual

misdeeds of this pastor. And perhaps I'm trying to make a

connection with that which is taking place here in chapter #5

and ironically, that is not the case.

Although I do think tonight we can just very quickly make an

application that God takes sexual sin very seriously.

When you look throughout the Word of God that God takes

sexual sin very seriously, be sure about this.

The idea of there being something called casual sex is a

myth. The idea that sex can be

utilized outside of a God honoring marriage is exactly

opposite to what the word of God says.

God has ordained a sexual relations inside marriage to be

beautiful and God ordained but yet outside of those boundaries

it. Is destructive.

In reference to adultery, Proverbs 627 says this.

Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?

And of course we know the answer.

Practically speaking to that is no, it's impossible.

But yet the same. When the fire of sexuality is

taken outside the confines of marriage and is placed in some

other arena, you find that every single time, while there may be

pleasure in sin for a season, it only lasts for a season.

Be sure your sins will find you out, the Bible says, but that's

not why I've addressed. This text here this evening.

It's certainly very obvious that there is some connection here,

but I really want to draw a connection more for us this

evening. And in the midst of this

chapter, Paul puts 3 verses that I want to focus on more than the

others that are there above it and beneath it.

Go back to verse number six. It says this, Your glorying is

not good. Know ye not that a little leaven

leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out there for the old

leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened for

even Christ, our Passover sacrifice for for us.

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither

with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the

unleavened bread of sincerity or truth.

Now when Paul was writing the epistle of first Corinthians,

it's very likely that he was writing it somewhere around the

general time of the Passover. Because if you get to the end of

the book in chapter 16 verse 8, he says, but I will tarry at

Ephesus, excuse the Ephesus until Pentecost.

The day of Pentecost would have been 50 days after the Passover

penty meaning 50. And so if Paul is writing this

and it's being delivered, of course this wasn't delivered by

e-mail. This wasn't delivered by the

United States Postal Service. This would have been slow moving

to be able to get from Paul's location to the people of

Corinth. It's very likely that he was

sometime writing this at a time when he assumed they will be

reading this around the time of the Passover.

And so Paul uses the upcoming Passover feast and their

familiarity with it to drive home a message about leaven.

Look again, it says, your glory is not good.

Know ye not that a little leaven, leaven at the whole

lump. Almost every single time we find

leaven in the Word of God, what do we find?

It is a picture of sin. Now, why is that?

Because leaven or yeast as we would use it today, as it's

added into a little bit of bread, what do you find?

You can put it in dough. You can put it off to the side

and you might have a little bit of dough.

But that leaven, given enough time and enough darkness,

ironically enough, ends up what happening.

It ends up growing exponentially from that which it was.

A little leaven in the dough can make a little bit of dough turn

into, well, a lot of dough. And so he says this, don't you

understand that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

But then he continues and he, he, he says that purge out there

for the old leaven. Now stop right there.

You might remember when we took the Lord's Supper with our

membership a few weeks ago, we talked about the Haggadah.

We talked about the order of service that they would have

used for the Passover and before the Passover takes place.

And this still happens even today for the Jews.

They have what's called the Beticott Hamats, and that is a

purposeful time where they go through the house and they purge

it of every little bit of leaven.

They make sure that anything that could have leaven in it is

purged from the home. And at the very last moment,

right before the Passover, the father goes through and

basically conducts a white glove inspection.

And he goes through and he checks all the different places

in the home to make sure leaven has been removed.

And the mother typically leaves one small piece of cracker, one

small piece of bread, something that would have leaven in it,

and she leaves it behind for him to be able to find it and

ceremoniously scoop it up and take it out of the house, dump

it out and show that every last bit 11 has been, well, what's

the word purged from the home that there is no more leaven

that is left. Now, the church at Corinth is a

Gentile church, but yet there are Jews who are in the church.

And because it was a very metropolitan area, I believe

that they would have had some level of understanding of the

Passover just because of it being part of the Christian

heritage and because of the Jews who are part of the church, and

because of the fact that there were many nations and many

cultures that all lodged themselves there in Corinth.

And so he says when it comes to sinfulness, you need to purge

the whole lump. And he goes beyond just the

things of the Passover. And he makes it clear in verse

#7 when he says that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened

for even Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us.

So he's making a connection that for us, we do not have the

Passover today. We are not required to follow

the Jewish feast. Why?

Because all the Jewish feasts point to Jesus Christ, and we

have Jesus Christ. You are not required to follow

the Passover. You are not required to follow

the Feast of Booths. Aren't you glad we don't have to

go out and build our own huts and live out in them for a few

days? Praise the Lord, we don't have

to worry about that. But yet he says that Christ is

our Passover, meaning that Christ is is who we follow

today. And yet there is this idea of

the Passover and that this is not something that we celebrate

just once a year as the Jews did.

But Christ being our Passover means this, that we wouldn't

just purge the leaven out of out of our homes or out of our

souls, if you will. Once a year, we're to be.

Purged all the time that our homes and more importantly, our

hearts are all constantly purged.

In a way that's similar to the Passover, but that we would do

365 days a year. But Paul says in verse #7 he

says something about the character of the believers in

Corinth, but also saying something about the character of

believers today, including you and I.

He says purge out there for the old leaven, that you may be a

new lump as ye are unleavened. What does that mean?

Could I maybe give us the idea that is being spoken of here?

The day you got saved, you became unleavened.

What does that mean? You were forgiven of your sin as

ye are unleavened. He says that you are unleavened,

but yet there's a problem. They have reincorporated leaven

into their lives. It's almost as if they were

saved from sin, but now they're sinning some more.

Can anyone maybe understand what that's like?

Like maybe all of us that we were saved from our sin, but yet

we still live. In our sins, because we deal

with this rotten, stinky old flesh every day of the week.

And I don't know about you, but the thing that I'm looking

forward to perhaps the most in heaven is not necessarily that,

you know, I won't have to deal with the aches and pains of this

life. Although certainly I imagine

there's many of you that would feel even more greatly about

that. But even more than that, that I

won't have to deal with old rotten flesh anymore.

I'll tell you that's. Something I look forward to even

more than the aches and the pains and the no sorrow and then

or crying. Then I have to deal with the

temptation. And the flesh is something

that's just wonderful. But it says there that ye are

unleavened. That's the character of who we

are when we got saved. But the problem.

Is is that we return to the leaven after we get saved.

We still struggle with sin. That's why I went to mortify our

flesh. But the name was so right just a

few days ago when he preached and said, you know, go back to

Romans 6. Go back to Romans 7 and find out

what it says about this flesh and mortifying the flesh and,

and, and, and not being the servant of sin.

Remember I preached a few weeks ago, You will serve someone.

Either you will serve Jesus Christ or you will serve your

own flesh. You will serve somebody.

But we were unleavened. But then it says in verse #8

Therefore, Now I've taught you this before, and I'll say this

again tonight, Whenever you see therefore in the Bible, you want

to see what it's there for. I know, smart, huh?

That's as close as I get to. Being funny tonight, all right.

But that's what it is when it says therefore that means

there's a transitional statement, there's a connection

statement. It's saying here's the truth

over here. Therefore, because this is.

True. Then there's something else that

needs to be true over here. So where do we start with here

tonight? Verse 7, Verse 7, it says this.

It says ye are unleavened. Therefore, what are we to do?

Let us keep the feast. Now he's continuing this

connection with the Passover. So let us keep the feast, if you

will. With what?

Not with old leaven. What's old leaven?

Could I submit to you tonight? The old leaven is the very

things that you got saved from. And if we're not careful, we go

right back to like a dog to its vomit, like the pig to the slop.

See, God saved you from your sin.

But if we're not careful, some of those pets sins we can run

right back to not long after we get saved.

That doesn't mean somebody's not saved, but it does mean this.

They need to purge themselves, the old leaven, because there's

some things in their life that they're going back to that they

ought not go back to. That we were saved from them.

We have no desire. We shouldn't have a desire to be

able to go back to those things. Don't let your old sinful

lifestyle creep back in again. When God saved you, He saved you

all the way. But yet we can let the flesh

take us back to some of those things we got saved from.

So he says this in your life, you know what you need to do

because you're unleavened. Purge out any old leaven that

starts to sneak back in. But then not only that, he says

neither the leaven of malice. What is malice?

The definition is to a disposition to injure others

without 'cause you know when you start getting away from the Lord

and you put yourself first, you don't care who you run over.

If they're in your way, then you're going to get them out of

the way. And he says here, don't add

malice. What else?

It says in wickedness. What is that?

Everything else? That's pretty much a catch all

there, isn't it? I think we know what wickedness

is. Anything that is against the

very holiness of God, anything that is sin, He says you are

unleavened, therefore don't. Let in the old leaven, and don't

let in malice, and don't let in wickedness, and.

Basically, that's the end of the sermon, isn't it?

No. I mean, that's the thought

process, OK, This is who I am in Christ.

I am without leaven because I am that in Christ.

What do I need to do? Make sure in my day-to-day life

I keep the leaven out. Here's the problem.

And and you're thinking of the answer.

You're thinking of this already. We know.

This. But how do we do it?

It's not a surprise for me to preach to you tonight.

Christians don't sin. That's not a surprise.

You would be surprised if I came up here tonight and said, once

you're saved, listen, you're going to heaven, so do whatever

you feel like doing. You all would be really shocked

if I preached that because you know, it's not biblical.

So the opposite is true. You know that we are called to

live a life of holiness. Be holy for I am holy, that we

are called to live a life that glorifies God.

Love God, love others. Upon this hang all.

The Law on the Prophets. This is what we are called to

do. If you love me, Jesus said, keep

my commandments. So we understand this

progression. We're unleavened.

Therefore live in a way that's unleavened.

But how? But how?

And this is where I want us to focus for the next few minutes.

And this is where I've struggled.

Therefore, verse 8, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven,

neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with

the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

How are we to live in an unleavened way?

Paul gives us 2 components, sincerity and truth.

Sincerity and truth, you know, when you think about it,

sincerity and truth are really the two guardrails of the

Christian life. You can't have one without the

other. You got to have sincerity, but

you got to have truth. There's a lot of people out

there that are very sincere. A man's field, quite often out

in there near where Joe lives, there's a Muslim school that's

there, and there's a lot of people who dress in Muslim garb

and are very faithful to the Muslim called a prayer, and

they're very sincere. Some are more sincere than some

Christians, but because their sincerity has no truth, they're

lost. Unless they call upon Jesus

Christ to save them, which is not found in Muslim doctrine,

then they will die and go straight to a devil's hell.

Sincere but not truthful. Even in some Christian circles

you can find there's a lot of sincerity but not a lot of

truth. Being preached.

I remember someone that I knew growing up, I told the story

several years ago that she went to a church where there really

wasn't a whole lot of preaching. It was a lot of feeling and

there's a lot of emotions and it was all services to to pull the

heartstrings. And I remember her telling me

that, that, that, that she told me the story.

I don't know why on earth she would tell me the story, but

she, she told on herself, if you will, And she said, Adam, I, I

went to a a service. And I remember we had our

worship time and their worship time didn't have a.

Lot to do with biblical worship from what she was saying and the

fog machine was going and she said and it was amazing she said

the. Pastor started to preach and she

says. And, and it was like, she says

it, it was like I saw the presence of God in a cloud.

And she said it was unbelievable.

And she said to one of the pastors at the church after

service, she goes, I want you to know is that I, I saw, I saw the

Lord in the cloud. Remember, she's telling me the

story and. The pastor says oh.

He called her by name. Actually, I don't know if you

know that, but in the middle of the message, the fog machine

turned back on and what you saw was the fog machine and not

necessarily a vision. She was so sincere, but what she

thought she saw and the truth of what she saw was not the same.

That's why we have to stick to the Bible and not trust our

emotions. Because we're not just looking

to have an emotional experience here at Liberty Baptist Church.

I I don't just want to move your, your emotions.

You know why? Because when you go home and the

emotions are gone and the feels are gone, what's left?

It's got to be truth, but. We go to Baptist Church.

Hey, we got the truth. Aren't you glad that we have

truth this evening? Aren't you glad that we uplift

the truth of the Word of God here at Liberty Baptist Church

and other churches that are like us?

We're not unique. I'm not here to tell you that

we're the only people who are preaching truth.

That's not the case. I'm very aware and I'm very

confident that we are in a place where the truth is exalted.

I'm very confident that you understand what the truth is

here this evening. But here's where the rubber

meets the road. The guardrails are real, you

have truth, but you have to have sincerity.

And this is where so many go wrong.

And this is important for us particularly who go to places

that preach the Bible and that have great confidence that our

doctrinal statements are good and right and Bible based, that

we can think that we are immune from difficulties and trials and

temptations because we are in the truth.

But the problem is that if you have truth and you don't have

sincerity, then you are very easily going to allow Levin to

come back into your life. He said it right here.

You want you want the unleavened bread.

You want to remain unleavened, then you must have sincerity and

truth. What is sincerity?

Well, the 1828 dictionary says it's honesty of mind or

intention, freedom from hypocrisy, disguise or false

pretense. That's what sincerity is the the

Greek definition. If you go deeper, it literally

means this sincerity purity tested.

By sunlight meaning this, what is it like when it's in the

light? I worked in the jewelry store,

both Kay's and Gordon's Jewelers for several years in Bible

college, and I didn't realize how important lighting was until

I worked for jewelry in a jewelry store.

We had. Our Kay Jeweler store just had

opened a couple years ago, but then there had been advances in

lighting and LED lights and all those things that were still

very new back then. The different types of bulbs,

the CFL bulbs, all that stuff. I don't know why I understand it

all. All I know is our bulbs are a

lot more expensive than they used to be.

But, you know, our bulbs used to be pretty yellow.

And one of the things that really was troublesome for a Kay

Jewelers, if you will, was that because the light wasn't right,

a diamond that could be colorless could actually look

like it had a yellow tint when it was held in the light because

the light was off. There were some diamonds that we

sold. I was hoping that nobody would

take out into the light because in that case it looked really

good. But once you took it out, you'd

see all the imperfections that were on it.

But what did Kays want? That they wanted to try to have

the best light possible because they.

Believed that their diamonds were the best and they wanted to

show them off in the best life. They wanted to show that what

they were selling was. Sincere that it could be held

out to the light and turned this way and that.

You know, you can have a personal belief in the Lord, A

doctrinal statement of your own if you will, that is right on

the money. But can your faith be held out

into the light, the light of the sun, SOM, and be gone this way

and that way, and to be inspected?

I know none of us are perfect. We all struggle with sin every

day. But there's a difference between

struggling with our sins on a daily basis and trying to get

right with the Lord at every chance we get, and living in a

way that is insincere from that which God has told us to do.

Sincerity says I am unleavened now, therefore I am going to do

whatever I can do with sincerity and truth to live in a way that

is also unleavened. We can put it this way.

Our life for Christ must reflect who we are in Christ.

Remember that for you one more time.

Our life for Christ must reflect who we are in Christ.

You know your walk ought to match your talk.

That who we say we are on our doctrinal statement ought to be

who we are. Who I tell people on Sunday I am

ought to be who I am the rest of the week.

We shouldn't be singing holy, holy, holy on Sunday and living

like an alley cat Monday through Saturday.

Now I imagine there's not many people who are living that way

to that extreme. But when we allow even the hint

of insincerity in our Christian life, we can go to dangerous

places, places that you never thought.

Is the truth important? It's one of the guardrails.

All sincerity. No truth is just as bad.

But I'm afraid in our good churches, or we're confident

what we believe and why we believe it, we can think then

therefore we are immune from struggling with certain things

or that we're above certain things because we go to a church

that believes the right thing. And you can believe the right

thing, but that doesn't mean that sincerity puts it into

practice. This issue of sincerity is found

all throughout the Word of God. It's not just in this chapter.

Joshua 2414 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in

sincerity and truth, and put away.

The gods that your father served on the other side of the flood

and in Egypt serve you, the Lord.

Paul talks about sincerity more than anyone else in Scripture.

Second. Corinthians 88 I speak not by

commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others to

prove the sincerity of your love.

He's talking about giving. He says don't just tell people

you love them, give to them in a way that shows that you love

them. He was talking really about

giving to what we would call missions today and saying don't

just say you believe in it, give like you believe.

In it. Sincerity Ephesians 624 Grace be

with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, Amen.

Philippians 110 That you may approve all things that are

excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till

the day of Christ. Titus 27 And all things showing

thyself a. Pattern of good works and

doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity or sincerity.

Sincerity, or a lack thereof, causes believers to live

differently at home than they do at church.

It causes believers to live differently in private that they

do in public. It causes.

Believers to refuse. To admit they even have any

problem with sin and it pushes unbelievers and weak believers

away from the church when they see insincerity.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I look at some of the

things that comes across the news and people who are doing

awful things and what's 1 of the things that I see across on

their neck? What does that say?

Insincerity. I'm not there to be there judge,

jury or executioner, but what I'm saying is that there's some

things that are being done and being said, all with having a

cross on it, as if that is to deflect from the issues at hand.

There is an issue that we all have to deal with with this

problem of sincerity. Is truth important?

Yes it is. This is truth, this is truth,

this is truth, this has truth, this has truth, and on and on

and on it goes. But without sincerity, there's

not much left. You may feel uncomfortable and I

feel uncomfortable about this, but I think sometimes we have to

sit in some of these things that are uncomfortable and really

think about them in our own life because it's so easy to be in

the truth, but to lack the sincerity of doing that which

God has wanted us to do. 1st Corinthians 1012 says this.

Wherefore let him that thinketh, he standeth.

Take heed lest default. Who is he saying that?

I just said? He's saying that the people

Corinth, we just went over that couple weeks ago.

Those people Corinth were so sure because they were in a

biblical church that they were doing well.

He says you better take heed because this could happen to

you. Am I saying that you will have

the same indiscretion as your life as what we have said here

tonight about this man? No, that's not what I'm saying

at all. But what we're saying is it's

something much more broad and much more important than that.

It's not don't be like this person.

It's more that of the lines that the Word of God is saying, don't

have leaven in your life. Don't tolerate it.

Don't allow it in. Because it allows us to be

insincere. So what do we need to do to be

in? We don't need to do anything to

be insincere. We just need to live.

Yeah, the way I was to be funny. I just had to say the wrong

thing, I guess. What do we need to do to be

sincere? Can I Can I give?

You some help with this tonight. First of all, we need to

regularly confess our sins before the Lord.

Keep short accounts with your Savior.

We confess our sins. He is faithful and just to

forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

first. John 19.

By the way, if you've messed up in the past, this is true for

you too, you know. Again, I'm not dancing on

anyone's grave here tonight. Aren't you glad that even with

some of the back stories that some of us have this evening,

that first John 19 is still true for the believer that you could

be insincere, you could be doing wrong, but yet you can go back

in sincerity to the Lord with with godly sorrow that worketh

repentance and God will forgive you.

That's what the Bible says proves 2813 He that cover the

sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh

them shall have mercy. This issue of sincerity is even

the idea of I see sin within me, so I need to confess it.

Instead of doing this and pretending like it's not there

to regularly confess our sin before the Lord, what else do we

need to do? We need to read the word of God.

I know I mentioned this on Sunday, but we could mention

this. Every service have a daily walk

with God that includes Bible reading and prayer every day.

A walk with God will keep you walking in the right direction.

Galatians 516 This I say then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall

not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Now this shouldn't sound controversial.

Maybe you think that it is, but it shouldn't sound like that.

If you walk in the Spirit, you cannot do those things which the

Bible calls unseemly. That's really just what

Galatians 516 says. If you allow the Spirit to lead

in your life through the Word of God, then you will make the

right decisions when they come. And when we don't make those

right decisions, it's because we're not heeding the Spirit who

lives within us and the Word of God.

Proverbs 620 through 24. My son, keep thy father's

commandment. Forsake not the law of thy

mother. Bind them continually upon thy

heart, and tie them about thy neck.

When thou goest, it shall lead thee.

When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee.

When thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

For the commandment is a lamp, the law is light, and reproofs

of instruction are the way of life.

To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the

tongue of a strange woman. The Bible says if you want to do

right, read what's right. Don't just read it so you can

check off a box, but take time to allow the Word of God to come

into your heart and to affect your life regularly.

Confess our sins. Read the Word of God.

If you want to be sincere regularly, or rather reassess

yourself every time you're confronted with the Word.

This is so important. When are we confronted with the

Word? When we read our Bible.

When are we confronted with the word?

When we hear a sermon, when are we confronted with the Word?

When we have a biblical conversation with someone, when

the Word of God confronts us? Be willing to allow the Word to

do its work in your life. That's where sincerity comes in.

Psalms 139 verse 23 and 24 Search me, oh God, know my

Psalms 139:23

heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be

any wicked way of me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Hosea 14 verse nine. Who is wise?

And he shall understand these things prudent, and he shall

know them. The ways of the Lord are right,

and the. Just shall walk in them, but

transgressors shall fall therein.

To me, This is why the invitation is so important.

And it's such a shame that churches are getting away from

the invitation. Because when we're confronted

with the Word of God, we need time to be able to reflect on

what the Word is telling us. To be able to allow the Holy

Spirit to identify places in our life where we need to be right

with him. That there shouldn't be a time

when we come to this church that we're not willing to say, Lord,

if I'm confronted with something in your word, I'll do what I

need to do to make it right. There should never be a time

that we open our Bible and if we read a verse and we see that it

has to do with us and the Spirit makes application that we're not

willing to do what we need to do to be right with God.

When was the last time you came to church and, and had that hard

attitude as you're walking in? You know, Lord, whatever you say

to me tonight through Your Spirit in conjunction with the

Word, I'll make it right because I want to be right with you.

You know what that sounds like? Sincerity.

Sincerity isn't being perfect. Sincerity is saying when the

leaven is identified, I'm willing to take it out.

That's a big difference. Because if you're thinking that

I'm preaching perfection here tonight, well then I've already

failed. We all have.

But sincerity is when the leaven is identified.

I see it for what it is. I scoop it up.

I take it out. How?

By confessing it to the Lord, by giving it to Him.

And that brings us to the 4th and final thing, which is this.

Remember humility. Remember humility.

There's one thing in common. Anytime we deal with habitual

sin or sin that is hidden, it always comes down to 5 letters.

PRIDE. I've heard it said the pride is

the summation of all sins, that the root of every sin is pride.

Why is that? Because even at its basis level,

we get to the place where we think in our pride that we know

better than God and His Word. I know God said not to do it,

but I can do it anyway. You want to talk about the

ultimate of pride, that you and I think that we know better than

God. I mean, that's foolishness.

You take an expert in a field that you know nothing about and

they tell you what to do and lecture.

You want it and you say, you know, I don't think I want to do

that, I'll do something else. We would call you foolish in

that area. Now magnify that times Infinity

to an all knowing God who's an all loving God.

Who tells us these things because he loves us.

And then we turn around and say, no, I think I'll do it my own

way. That's the height of arrogance

and pride. What would we need to have?

We need to have humility. Acts 20 verse 18 and 19 When

Acts 20:18

they were come to him, he said unto them, you know, this is

Paul saying to the men of Ephesus from the first day that

I came to Asia after what manner I have been with you all

seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind.

Paul says the MO of my ministry is humility of mind, a man who

saw more than we could imagine, who God revealed more than we

can conjure up in our minds. The Bible gives us some glimpses

of it, but we can't fully understand that which God

revealed himself in the ways he revealed himself to Paul.

And he said this despite all those things I've seen, but all

those things I've experienced. Getting caught up in the 3rd

heaven, I'm going to come to you in humility.

If Paul saw the need for humility, who are we?

We're people that need to be humble.

When we're not humble, we are not living a life that can be

sincere because we can't be corrected.

We can't be corrected. Let's be cool.

Nobody likes to be corrected here.

If you, if you said pastor, I enjoy correction, I'd say

there's probably something wrong with you.

Because in our flesh, we don't like being corrected.

That's why when the pastor preaches on something that might

be personal, and I'm not trying to be personal in the sense I'm

looking around the room taking a straw poll of who I can offend

and how I can offend. Looking up on everyone's

Facebook and on your ex and on your on your Instagram to find

out what people are doing to preach on it.

You know, I don't want to see anything on those things.

I want to preach with a heart that has nothing to do with what

anybody's doing. Just preach the word as it's

there. I have no desire to do that any

other way but to us to have the. Heart of humility that just as

the words preached as as the word is read, and it hits me

right between the eyes, I won't be humble enough to say Lord

it's me as David did and was a man after God's own heart.

Not because he was perfect, but you can't argue that David was

sincere. He was sincere down to his very

core. And when he was confronted by

God every single time he said, yes, Lord, I was wrong.

I'll tell you this story and I'll be done.

I was an ordination a few weeks ago and I was talking with a

pastor friend of mine and we were encouraging this gentleman

that was getting ordained. In fact, I could tell you is

Denwood Ross. He's preached here several times

and I remember being at the ordination and, and, and part of

it was questioning and part of it was just sharing practical

ministry helps with this young man.

And at a pastor to my left who said something along these

lines. He says you need to make sure

that you are being sincere in your walk with God.

And he went on to tell a story that he'd gone to Bible college,

not Heartland Baptist Bible College, but he'd gone to Bible

college with a friend of his that after Bible college

graduation, that they went their separate ways but kept in touch.

He's a pastor up here in New England.

The other gentleman became a pastor in the Middle Atlantic

states. And it seemed like for years,

everything this pastor did, it turned to gold.

The church was small, but then it exploded.

Ministry after ministry is opened.

Anything that he did it seemingly was amazing until one

day he had to stand up in front of a church and because of gross

marital infidelity had to resign from his position.

My pastor friend takes a few months and calls his friend.

They talk for a little bit and he says calls him by name.

He said, I need to ask you a question.

We've been friends for a long time.

And if you don't feel like you can answer then, then just tell

me that you won't. He says, how did you get to a

place where you could do this? Have a wonderful wife, have an

incredible ministry, God kept blessing.

How did you get to a place where this was OK and is my pastor

friend is relaying this to Denwood Ross.

He says that the answer to that question was this.

I got to a place where I thought the rules didn't apply to me

anymore. He had become so successful that

he thought the rules didn't apply to him anymore.

That story has rattled around in my brain for the last 2 1/2

months since I heard it. Because maybe we can't

necessarily say that we think we're so successful that the

rules don't apply to us. But when you live insincerely,

you don't really think about the rules.

You think about yourself. And why are those rules there?

Because God wants to put a damper on your style.

Because God doesn't love you. Because God wants to make you

miserable. You know, he has those things in

place because he loves you and he knows the damage that sin

will do. The blast radius of this is so

hard to calculate. I don't know that I can.

There's a Church of hundreds. There's hundreds of churches

that receive this. They host a men's retreat.

They had to cancel last week. Over 1000 men were supposed to

be there. I wonder how many of those men

were maybe on the brink in their marriage, needed help and now

they don't get it. People have gone that church

30-40 years. He taught at the Bible college.

You know, you could choose your sin.

You can't choose your consequences.

And for us, what do we need to do as believers?

What's the take home truth for us tonight again?

Is it? Is it to take someone who has

done so badly and to just point at him and say look at him, look

at him and a mock and make fun? No, it's to say when there is a

lack of sincerity, even when there's great truth, one of

those guard rails are gone and you don't know where you'll end

up. Let's don't just think, because

we go to a good church and that we read the right Bible, that

we're immune from the issues of life.

Truth is everything, but sincerity is everything too.

And if we're so about truth here, and we are that, we ought

to be equally about living that which we know is true.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.