Sardis Baptist Church

06/06/2026

Luke 4:34
Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.

We are sometimes confused by false doctrines. Here in this context we find the devils having no problem whatsoever declaring the position and anointing of Jesus. Judas declared he had betrayed an innocent man. Two demon possessed girls rightly identified Paul and his mission. A Pharisee declaring it was necessary that one man die for the sins of the nation. The lost admitting certain truths about Jesus, yet what Peter declared was you are the Christ, the son of the Living God. Jesus made it clear to Peter that this understanding could have only come from God Himself. To this day this is how we know the difference between that which is of God and that which is the spirit of the antichrist. What the antichrist will deny is that Christ is come in the flesh and that those of us who are in Christ are anointed with the same Spirit that Jesus was anointed with. The Spirit of Christ that spoke to the Old Testament prophets which is the very Spirit of God Himself manifested as His word to us. As it is written it is the glory of God to put His Spirit in earthen vessels. God will not give His glory to another. This is something the devil doesn't want us to really understand. That we are a temple of God not made by man's hands. The Holy Spirit has been poured out and made available to all who will believe and this is our power from on high. We are not and cannot be God but we can be one with the Father even as Jesus and we know not yet what we will be but we know that when he appears we will be like him for we shall see him as he is. Now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face we will know even as we are known. Jesus was as we are in this world and he prayed five times that we would become one with the Father even as he was. Jesus is the first of many brethren. He consistently referred to himself as the son of man so we could know that he could be followed as he was tempted in every manner as we are yet without sin. Our high priest fully acquainted with the feelings of our infirmities. As the Forerunner he was the first man to be filled with God in the sense that we are now filled since Pentecost. Christ in us the hope of glory. Because of sin man was separated from God in Adam but when the second Adam came and he did what the first Adam would not. The cycle was broken, the debt paid, and now we can be in Christ and enjoy his position with God as a perfect man. There is one God and one mediator between God and man the man Jesus Christ. For God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of Christ in him.

06/06/2026

06/06/2026

" Acts 20:31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears."

In the previous verses Paul warned about false teachers coming in after he left and leading the church astray. We know this happened and we live in the results of it. False doctrines that keep us from laboring to enter into that rest. Belief systems that diminish the effect of sin in our lives and hold us in bo***ge to some idea of continuing sanctification. There is a big difference between what we continue to struggle with and what we just do not do anymore because of who we are. There are doctrines that allow us to stay bound in our sin without being grieved and this grieves the Holy Spirit. We are to put away those things that are offensive to God and we are to embrace and understand the warnings to believers about being drawn away with the cares and desires of this world. God did not call us into a system where nothing matters. He called us into a life where we care even more about the things that matter and therefore have a greater need of the peace and comfort that only He brings. The world teaches a belief system that doesn't trouble us while God brings to us relief even as our troubles increase. Though our outward man perish the inner man is renewed day by day. He that suffers In the flesh has ceased from sin. Sin is in the world killing everything it touches and whatsoever a man sows that will he also reap. We are servants to whomever we yield ourselves to obey whether it be sin unto death or the Spirit into life.

06/06/2026

" Deuteronomy 28:46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.47 Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;"

Here we see just how dangerous it is to murmur and complain. Many times we look at the promises God made to His people and the guarantee that His promise is forever and we forget the promise goes both ways. In Jeremiah 18 God says that whenever he promises to build up a nation and plant it if they turn on him he will turn on them. God will not change and if a people repent God will spare them but if they refuse to repent they will perish. The blessings belong to the faithful remnant and the rest are cast off. Except we repent we will likewise perish. Our loving God offers us eternal life for free and that life is in Jesus Christ. Jesus said his sheep hear his voice and they follow him and that if there are those who are not following him then they are not his sheep. Jesus tells us to be content with what we have because he will never leave us nor forsake us. God will never fail to provide what He promised if we abide in him.

06/06/2026

" Luke 17:32 Remember Lot's wife"

Jesus speaking to us of forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are before us. He spoke of the judgment in the days of Noah, and then Lot, because the world as they knew it was about to end and the only way they would survive would be to leave behind everything and flee to the wilderness. This is a picture of salvation for everyone who once considered this world their home and only source of comfort. We do not want to be like those who after they were delivered from Egypt looked back murmuring and complaining about what they had left behind. To yearn for what God has called us out of is to grieve the very Spirit that sealed and delivered us. Sometimes we receive the word with joy and put our hands to the plow but then we turn back to what we consider an easier or more familiar time. Even when we plead with God for change we still hesitate take one step forward into an uncertain wilderness where are flesh will not be satisfied untill we reach that Promised Land of only wanting that which God wants for us. Even if we lived an entire life of misery in this body the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. Not all are called to suffer greatly but everyone must die and as it is written he that suffers in the flesh has ceased from sin. The more we thought to please ourselves the harder it will be to reach the holy place where we are content and free. It will be okay because Jesus promised to never leave us or forsake us as we abide in him resisting sin.

06/01/2026

"Psalm 107:4They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.6 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses."

Wherein we greatly rejoice, though now for a season if need we are in heaviness through manifold temptations. There seems to be a wide and desolate desert between deliverance from bo***ge and entering into the rest of the Holy Land. Not long after God sets us free by a mighty hand we begin to look back with fondness on certain aspects of our past condition in our minds and forget that the pain and darkness was absolutely intertwined with what we considered fun. In our freedom we seem to forget the desperation of bo***ge as we go through a time where the body receives no relief and we long for the pleasures of Egypt. Our example is Moses who gave up the pleasures of sin for a season and considered the reproach of Christ a greater reward than anything this world had to offer. Remember he died before entering into any earthly rest. Consider Jesus who endured such contradiction of sinners. Sometimes sorrow and grief are so overwhelming we just want to just roll over and go back to sleep rather than labor to enter into that rest. A little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep and so spiritual poverty comes upon us like a thief and our want like an armed man. If our peace comes through anything this world has to offer we are denying a better way. We must come to a place in our heart where we are more concerned about what God says than how we feel. A place where even if He chose to slay us we would still worship Him. Either way it is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment. Without him we will face a second death. We must understand God is in control of what we are going through and it cannot make us something we are not but it can show what we really are in Christ if so be we are in him. We are saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope for why would we hope for that we see but if we hope for that we see not then we do with patience wait for it. Let us commend the keeping of our soul to God. This is the mind of Christ.

05/30/2026

Abby Smith will be with us tomorrow at 11:00!
Come support her mission!