We believe in the autonomy of the local church.
We as Baptists are independent, autonomous churches,
whereas if you look at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America,
or the Anglicans, or the Episcopalians,
they all have these sort of denominational hierarchies.
In the Church of England, they have the Archbishop of Canterbury
that's sort of like their Pope,
or the King is sort of like their Pope in a way.
So they have these people in these positions of power
that form like a pyramid of cardinals, or archbishops, or bishops,
instead of just being independent, autonomous churches.
Look, we just lost anyone who is organized under a denomination.
I mean Roman Catholics, United Methodists, Church of Christ,
Lutherans, Assemblies of God, Presbyterians, Episcopalian,
Church of God, Church of Christ, even the Southern Baptists,
Calvary Chapel, anyone that's organized under some sort of hierarchy,
we just lost them.
Why? Because as Baptists, we believe in the autonomy of the local church.
What does that mean? That means independent churches.
So why do you guys call yourself independent fundamental Baptists?
Because we're independent.
Colossians 1 and verse 18, notice what it says.
And he, now you can go back and look at the context if you want,
the he there is referring to Jesus,
and he is the head of the body, what's the body?
The church.
Ephesians 5, 23 says this,
for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church,
and he is the savior of the body.
See, the Bible tells us that God created an institution on earth
called the local New Testament church.
Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against me.
The Lord adds to the church, he builds the church, he died for the church,
he loves the church.
Jesus created an institution called the local New Testament church.
And then the Bible tells us that he is the head of that church.
See, who is the head of Verity Baptist Church?
It's not pastor Jimenez, please don't.
I've had people say to me, like, oh, well, you're the head of this church.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no.
Don't give me that term.
The head of this church is the Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, well, how does Jesus lead this church?
Well, he leads it through his word.
See, as a pastor, I have to submit myself to the word of God.
Because as a Baptist, I believe in biblical authority,
which means I can't get up here and tell you to do something the Bible doesn't say to do.
Have you ever noticed everything we believe around here, we back it up with Scripture?
Have you ever noticed why most churches you go to, they read, like, three verses,
and they tell, like, four stories, they read a poem, and then they're done?
See, why do you guys have so much Bible?
I mean, you guys have so much Bible in comparison to other churches.
Because we believe in biblical authority,
because everything that we believe has to come from the word of God,
because the Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith,
not just faith, and practice.
Not just what we believe, but how we do it.
Now, when you have a church that has anyone giving it orders other than the Bible,
now you don't have an autonomous church.
And by the way, this is why those Anabaptists refused.
They refused to join themselves with the Roman Catholic Church.
Why? Because they understood the autonomy of the local church,
that Jesus is the head of the church, and that Jesus started local.
Look, by the way, because we believe in the autonomy of the local church,
let me just explain this to you, we do not believe in the universal church.
There's no such thing as a universal church.
The word church means assembly.
It is a congregation of believers.
You say, are we a church in Sacramento?
We are a church only because we are assembled together.
In a few minutes, when we all leave here, and we go our separate ways,
we won't be a church anymore.
And on Sunday night, when we come back together,
and we're united again in a congregation, now we're a church again.
And when we all go our separate ways, we're not a church anymore.
People call a building and say, oh, I'm going to go down to the church.
This building is not a church, my friend.
A church is a group of believers that comes together.
And unless you're united with every believer physically in a congregation,
in the entire universe, there's no such thing as a universal church.
The Bible is very clear that a church is a congregation.
In Psalm 22, 22, the Bible says,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation.
Will I praise thee? So the Bible uses the word congregation there.
And if you flip over to Hebrews chapter 2, in verse number 12, it says,
saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church,
will I sing praise unto thee.
So the Bible uses those two words interchangeably.
And in the New Testament, you know, most people call it the church,
not necessarily the congregation, but that means the same thing.
And basically what a church or congregation would be
is a group of believers that are baptized and they come together.
And when they come together, they form the church in a local assembly.