There are four reasons why this precious apostolic truth matters. The first reason is because it matters to Jesus Christ. He is endeared to people that love His message—the truth that the apostles taught. These men wrote as they were moved on by the Spirit of God.

If you want the apostles’ truth, then you must go to the Bible and read the books that the apostles wrote. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are accounts of the birth, the life, the teachings, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the truth about His life, about what He spoke and what He did.

After the resurrection, Jesus met with the apostles and for the next 40 days, with many infallible proofs, showed them that He was indeed resurrected. He gave them the great commission—which is the essential saving doctrine that they were to preach beginning in Jerusalem—commencing on the Day of Pentecost. These things the apostles did, you can read about in the book of Acts which was written by Luke. He wrote the history of the church and wrote what it took to be saved.

Then, you have the epistles. These epistles are the truths of Jesus Christ—the truths of His doctrine. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” They are truths that need to be embraced, loved and adhered to.

The book of Revelation is a study of future things, about the second coming of Jesus, and about the world at the time of His coming. The book of Revelation is not easily understood because it is full of dynamic metaphors, analogies and symbolism. Because some of it is written in symbols, it is open to interpretation as to what the symbols mean. However, the bottom line is, “keep on your toes, and be ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.” That is the essential message of the book of Revelation.

These are the apostolic truths, which matter to Jesus. God did not come to this earth, robe Himself in flesh, face everything that He faced, go to Calvary and shed His precious blood, meet a horrid, ignominious death—so that we could pick and choose what we want to believe. This truth matters to Jesus. He sealed it with His blood!

This precious truth is that there is but One God. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4). That’s all there was and all there ever will be. It matters to Jesus because He is that one God. He was “God manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit.”
I repeat, like Jacob of old, when he said, “I am not worthy of the mercy and the truth which thou hast shown me.” We’re not worthy that God lowered the scepter and allowed us to repent of sins and be buried in His name. Don’t come to me with, “Aw, do I have to be baptized?” No, you get to be baptized. “Do I have to get the Holy Ghost?” No, you get to have the Holy Ghost. That God would come down and take up residence in us is a glorious thing. And all of these truths are precious to Jesus. And they need to be precious to us—because it really does matter.
Another reason this apostolic truth matters is, “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away” (Luke 21:33). One of these days the heavens are going to roll up like a scroll, and this earth is going to burn up with fervent heat, but I tell you one thing that’s going to last forever—God’s holy Word. Why is it going to last? Because it matters to Jesus, and it must deeply and powerfully matter to us.

I have a friend who was a speaker at a banquet for the top 100 religious leaders of all denominations in America. After he spoke and before he took his seat, a guy stood up. He is the son of an ex-UPC (United Pentecostal Church) preacher and has forsaken this truth. He mocks baptism in Jesus’ name, he makes fun of it. He stood up and called my friend’s name and said, “Hey, do you know what your problem is?” My friend was about to be seated, but stood back up and said, “No, what’s my problem?”

The guy said, “Your problem is that you think you’ve got the only game in town. All these people here—we don’t care if you baptize in Jesus’ name, we don’t care what you think about the Holy Ghost. We don’t care what you think about holiness.” My friend said you could have heard a pin drop, it was so quiet. Then my friend said, “Yes, that is my problem, thank you.” And he sat down.

I’m going to tell you something, they can smirk now, but when Jesus shows up, He’s going to say, “It mattered to Me.” Heaven will pass away, earth will pass away, but His Word will not pass away. Paul said, “Every man shall receive praise of God.” The ones that He’s going to praise will be those that love this truth, those that cling to this truth. It’s going be those who say, “If it mattered to Jesus—it matters to me!”

It matters because this truth is the source of our vitality and anointing. It’s the source and the reason. A good friend of mine, Mark Foster, when he was pastoring in North Carolina, met a lady who went around the city to visit churches. Once a month she would come by Bro. Foster’s church. She loved the services where she would bask in the Spirit of God. She told Bro. Foster that she came to his church for a “fill-up.” She told him that with the presence of God they had, if they would just let up on the standards of holiness and some doctrinal issues, they would have the biggest church in the city. He answered and said, “Ma’am, you don’t understand, the reason we have the glory and the blessing of God is because we hold to our standards and doctrines. We’re not letting down. If we let them go, we’ll be like everybody else, and you won’t be able to come here and get a ‘fill-up.’”

It is by His mercy we have this apostolic truth. John 8:31-32 says, “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.” The Message translation puts it like this, “then you will experience for yourselves, the Truth.” There is power in this precious apostolic truth.

The fourth reason why it matters is because, in a very real sense, we’re dealing with a new generation. Any time a new person comes in and gets the Holy Ghost we’re dealing with a new generation, and every generation needs this truth. All it takes is one generation to give up. It has to be preached and taught so that people can know its importance. If it is not taught and preached, then after a while it will be gone. We are only one generation away from extinction.

There is a story about a rich old man who died. All his money and goods he bequeathed to his children. But in the will, he bequeathed his house to the devil.

The children contested the will because it was a valuable house and they wanted to sell it and share the profit, but the judge backed up the will. He said the will of the deceased would stand. So how do you give a house to the devil?

The authorities put a chain-link fence around the house. They allowed no one to touch it. After a while the shingles began to fall off and the roof began to leak. The weeds took over and tree roots began to grow up through the foundation. And though it took many years the house finally fell down. So that is how you give something to the devil—you don’t take care of it. Neglect it, and it will deteriorate.

His Word is going to stand, this doctrine is going to stand, but we have to build on the Rock. That’s the reason we must bring out the paint brush now and then, that’s the reason we have to reinforce the rafters now and then. There are things you have to do called maintenance. In preaching and teaching the Word, we are doing maintenance work. This is necessary because things that are holy, things that are right, things that are precious have to be taken care of.

Some may say, “I don’t think I believe that.” Well, then you don’t know your history. What do you think happened to this church in the second and third century? People didn’t pay attention to the doctrine. They didn’t pay attention to apostolic truths. That’s how they ended up with the Council of Nicaea, where they were discussing whether there were three persons in the godhead and bizarre ideas. Out of the Council of Nicaea came false and erroneous doctrines.

My friend, Bro. O.C. Marler, told me something interesting, and he’s got the picture to prove it. Back when the Catholic Church formulated the doctrine of the Ascension of Mary, the members of the Southern Baptist convention in Texas were outraged. It got so bad that the Catholic Church put up a billboard in Dallas. In essence it said, “Dear Southern Baptists, why are you so upset with our doctrine on the Ascension of Mary? After all, we gave you the doctrine of the Trinity.”

Romans 3:4 says, “Let God be true, but every man a liar…” We need to understand that if anybody tries to infer anything contrary to this doctrine: “let God be true.” C.K. Chesterson said, “Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong about it being wrong.” The pre-Nicene doctrine was the apostles’ doctrine. We are pre-Nicene people. We must guard and uphold this apostolic truth. It matters to Jesus and it must matter to us.