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 site, you say,
well, you know, is it a sin not to have Baptists on the
site?
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 Baptist--
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 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's 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 called 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 calling themselves Christians.
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 turns.
Why do you stack up all those turns?
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.
Look, I don't want to go to a church that doesn't believe
in the eternal security of the believer.
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 Baptists?
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 Igor.
I'm not trying to get on you about all your kids being
named Chris, 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 that, hey, it's wrong to name
all your kids George.
It's just that George, George, George,
George, George, lunch is ready.
And of course, Chris, he calls his kids different names, so
I'm not getting on him.
But I'm saying, 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 Ward Baptist Church.
You 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.