And, frankly, the reason that that sign says Baptist is so that people will know what we
believe.
And if we were to take Baptist off that sign, then basically people aren't going to know
what kind of church we are.
And then what's going to happen?
A whole bunch of unsaved people, a whole bunch of people with goofed up doctrine are going
to come in here and our church is going to completely change because it's just, oh, just
bring everybody in.
No.
And you say, well, don't you want everyone to be saved?
The Bible teaches to go out and get people saved.
He said, go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He didn't say bring the whole world into your church that they might be saved.
He said go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
And he says he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come
again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
The sheaf is the already harvested finished product that you then bring in.
Bringing in the sheaves.
Not bringing in the seeds and the seedlings, but bringing in the sheaves, my friend.
So the point of putting Baptists on the sign, you say, well, you know, is it a sin not to
have Baptists on the sign?
Of course not because sin is the transgression of the law and there's no law in the Bible
that says, hey, call yourself Baptist.
But the term Baptist is a biblical term and it's been chosen for a specific reason to
set us apart from the false teachers and the false churches of this world because at least
if we put up Baptists, you know what Baptist represents in people's mind?
The final authority of scripture, baptism by immersion of people that are already saved.
See Baptists don't baptize babies.
Baptists don't baptize by sprinkling.
Baptists believe in the eternal security of the believer.
And even if there's a great diversity amongst Baptists and all kinds of, you know, different
types of Baptists that are more conservative or liberal, that are more fundamentalist or
more progressive, at the end of the day, at least there are certain things that you know
about a Baptist church.
Just when you see the term Baptist, you say, okay, at least I know that they're baptizing
by immersion after people are saved.
At least I know they're going to believe in the eternal security of the believer and at
least give lip service to the fact that salvation is by faith.
Now there are churches that are better than others that have the name Baptist, but at
least it gets you into the ballpark of what you're looking for.
Whereas if we just called it Christian, that pretty much tells people nothing.
I mean, think about it.
If we just call our church Christian church, that tells people nothing about what we believe
because who calls themselves a Christian Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Methodists,
they're all called Christian.
It's too broad of a term.
Even Baptists is broad.
That's why we always make a point, Hey, we're independent Baptists.
We're fundamental Baptists.
We're King James only independent fundamental Baptists.
We're King James only independent fundamental soul winning Baptists and you start stacking
up these terms.
Why do you stack up all those terms?
Because we want people to know who we are.
Because when I go out looking for a church, I don't want to go to some church that's preaching
the NIV.
I don't want to go to some baby baptizing church.
I don't want to go to some church that doesn't believe that the scripture is the final authority
and doesn't take the word of God as the literal truth and verbal inspired word of God.
I don't want to go to a church that doesn't believe in the eternal security to believe
it.
It believes you lose your salvation.
That's why I'm going to look for a Baptist church.
Now you say, well, are there churches out there that are good churches that are not
called Baptist?
Yes, but guess what?
The exception proves the rule.
Most of the time when you go outside of that label Baptist, it's a jungle out there and
you'd have to go through so many messed up.
If you start doing the Christian church, Bible church, you'll find good ones, but you'll
also have to go through a lot of junk to get there.
So it just makes it easier.
I mean, why even put faithful word in front of it?
Why not just call it Baptist church?
Why?
We're identifying it.
This isn't just a Baptist church.
This is a certain Baptist church that has a unique name.
There's only one faithful word, Baptist church in Tempe, Arizona, and that's an identifier.
It'd be like, well, why don't I just name all my kids George Foreman, right?
George, George, these are my kids, George, sorry about this, Chris, or I'm not trying
to get on you about all your kids being named Chris, but, or at least several of them.
But you know, George, George, George, George, and George.
Now look, was George Foreman violating scripture when he named all of his kids George?
Was he in sin?
But who thinks that was a dumb thing to do to name all his kids the same name?
Who thinks that's not very practical?
So again, it's not saying, you know, that, that, you know, hey, it's wrong to name all
your kids George.
It's just that George, George, George, George, George, George, lunch is ready, you know.
And of course, Chris, he calls his kids different names, so I'm not getting on him.
But I'm saying what I'm, you know, if we just call everything just church, hey, we're not
generic this morning.
This isn't just church.
Oh, who cares where you go to church, right?
You just go to the one that's near you.
Now you go to Faithful Word Baptist Church to go to any old church.
And if you're living in some other city, you go looking for a Baptist Church and you find
one that's independent and you find one that's King James and soul winning.
Why?
Because all churches are not created equal, that's why.