[MÚSICA]
>> Let's start of our service with a word of prayer.
Dear God, Heavenly Father, we thank you so much,
O Lord, for allowing us to be here in your house this evening.
We do pray that you would please just bless every aspect of the service we got tonight.
We do pray that you would please just bless the singing unto you.
And most of all, O Lord, please be with the preaching of your word.
Please fill our pastor with your Holy Spirit, O Lord.
And I pray that you would please just guide him through the scriptures with God.
And I pray that you'd also just prepare our hearts for God even now.
To receive your word with gladness as it's preached unto us tonight.
And I pray that we would apply this sermon to our lives for God and leave here changed.
I pray now that he sees us in Jesus' name, amen.
You may be seated, song number 136, "Master, the Tempest is Raging."
Song number 136, song number 136, we'll sing it on that first verse.
Song number 136, on that first, sing it out.
Master, the tempest is raging, the bellows are tossing high.
The sky is o'ershadowed with goodness, nor shelter or help is the ship.
Just a few announcements before Brother Maury comes up.
Today we had a great Friend Day in the morning.
We had a total of 227 people in church.
Now, that is not a record for our church, but it did break the previous Friend Day record.
So the all-time record is from Easter and I don't think Friend Day will ever surpass Easter.
I think Easter will always be a very high attendance, but thank God for 227.
There are seven people that got saved.
Of course, we have three baptisms and I think, if I'm not mistaken, it's about 18 visitors.
So praise God for that.
It was a very exciting day.
I kind of breezed over this morning regarding how many salvations we've seen in our church
in the month of October, but it's nothing to breeze over.
It's 524 salvations in the month of October.
And that is an all record high number for us as a church.
I don't remember, the previous number was like two something, but we smashed that.
And so let's give the Lord a round of applause for that, amen.
Exciting days ahead.
So brother Mori, why don't you come on up.
Good evening everyone.
Just some announcements before we sing our next song, which would be song number 119.
To the storm passes by 119.
We'd like to welcome you back to our Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m.
We're going through the book of John.
So many times and teams are there below.
Continue to pray for the expected mothers and happy birthday to those who have their birthdays
in November.
As you said, the staffer for October 524, which is amazing.
And let's just keep trucking away to get as many salvations as we possibly can.
I know 2000 was the goal, but why stop at two, you know, why not three, you know.
Some announcements on the right here.
We have a pie baking contest Sunday, November 9th.
Details are at the guest center.
We have our apple cider fellowship on Sunday, November 16th.
And then we have our Thanksgiving banquet, Friday, November 21st.
And so there are two sign up sheets at the guest center.
One of them is for the RSVP and the other one's for the food sign up.
Please make sure that you sign up for the RSVP so that we can make arrangements to
have enough food and enough room for everyone to be there.
Please make sure you do that in a timely manner.
Science Meetup, September, November 23rd, after the PM service.
Please silence your phones to not be a disturbance to the service.
And with that, that's it for the announcements.
Please open up your hymnals to song number 119, "Till the Storm Passes By."
Song number 119, "Till the Storm Passes By," song number 119, sing it on that first verse.
In the dark of the midnight, have I hoarded my faith.
Tonight we're in Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, the Bible reads, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossi, grace be unto you in peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, of the love of which you have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, wherever you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come unto you, as it is in the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, as it is in the word of the Holy Spirit.
Which has come unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.
As ye have also learned in Ephrathus, our dear fellow servant, Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will, and all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Strengthens with all might according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in the earth.
Visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.
All things were created by him, and for him.
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.
That in all things he might have the preeminence.
For please the Father, that in him should all the fullness dwell.
And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say,
whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.
And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.
In the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unprovable in his sight,
be continuing the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard,
and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I, Paul, am made a minister,
who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for the body's sake, which is the church;
whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God.
Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints,
to whom God can make known what is the riches of the glory of his mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom,
that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working,
which worketh in me mightily.
Let's pray to God. Just thank you for this time we have, Lord, to hear the preaching of your word, Lord.
Just thank you for Pastor. Please bless him right now and give him boldness as he preaches your word unto us, Lord.
And bless the service in every aspect. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen. Okay, we're in Colossians chapter one this evening. We're going to look at different portions of scripture tonight.
Title of my sermon tonight is Church Authority. I want to preach on the subject of Church Authority.
It's important for us to realize, to understand what the Bible says regarding the authority that is involved in a church.
What are the authorities that God has established for a local New Testament church?
Well, let me start off by saying that some of the authorities that people claim are authorities in a church that are not.
For example, church fathers are not church authorities.
So if we want to know what God says about a specific subject, if we want to know how to administrate the church,
we don't ask church fathers of thousands of years, hundreds of years or whatever to see what their opinion is because they have no authority over this church.
Church fathers, quite frankly, at the end of the day, believe various things and they're not our standard as far as what we should believe,
how we should uphold churches, what the Bible teaches. We need to go to what the word of God says, not church fathers.
But let me give you another authority that people claim is an authority of a church and those are conventions.
Sometimes, for example, you have the Southern Baptist Convention where they have to check into a headquarters in order to determine how to administrate a local New Testament church.
That's not an authority, according to the Bible, of a local church.
So we have here church fathers, we have conventions, we have Bible colleges are often viewed as authorities in churches.
Now, obviously, churches are not going to outright say that this particular Bible college is an authority.
But what they preach and how they hold their services is obviously a reflection of those Bible colleges.
And quite frankly, sometimes churches will abstain from preaching certain doctrines
or they will abstain from, you know, saying certain controversial things
because of the Bible cause that they're tied to, right?
That essentially becomes an authority over the church.
And this evening, I just want to address some of the authorities that a church has and its boundaries.
Now, first and foremost, let me just point out the obvious when it comes to the church authority.
And that is that Jesus Christ is the head of this church, right?
Jesus Christ is the head of this church.
Look at Colossians chapter 1 and verse 17.
Let's look at a couple of verses here.
It says here, "And he," referring to Jesus, "is before all things, and by him all things consist."
And he is the head of the body.
What is the body?
The church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Go with me, if you would, to the book of Ephesians,
the book of Ephesians, if you would.
Go to chapter 3, Ephesians chapter 3.
I'm going to read you from Ephesians 1 and verse 21,
very similar wording in Ephesians 1.
It says, "Far above all principality and power and might and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this world,
but also in the world to come, and hath put all things under his feet,
and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all."
Now, this is important to know that when we talk about Jesus Christ being the head of the church,
we're referring to this particular church, right?
You say, "Why is that important to address?"
Well, because of the fact that there's no such thing as "the church."
That is a concept that's often proposed by a lot of churches out there.
They'll often address and paint churches with a broad brush,
and essentially assert that every body of believers is "the church."
But this is essentially a doctrine that was adopted from the Catholics,
because the Catholics teach somewhat of a universal church.
Protestants have essentially adopted that doctrine
and said, "Well, yeah, you know, we're not part of the Catholic Church,
but there is the invisible church,
where all believers are essentially part of that universal, invisible church.
They're just made up of, say, believers."
But that's actually not a biblical concept.
When we look at the biblical model of what a church is,
we see invisible New Testament churches.
Local, distinct, local New Testament churches,
not an invisible universal church as many propose.
And you'll hear this a lot in preaching or where people talk about
how disappointed they are with believers today.
They'll often say, "I'm really disappointed in the church."
"Church, we need to do better."
When they're addressing like everyone's like,
"Hey, we need to pray for the church."
"Church, we need to make sure that this is what we're doing."
"Who are you talking about, though?"
Because at the end of the day, we can look at
various churches that claim the name of Christ,
but they don't really believe in Christ now, do they?
They don't uphold the Bible as being the word of God.
They wouldn't fit the Biblical standard
of what the Bible says is a church.
You say, "Well, give me an example."
"How about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?"
Right?
The Mormon Church.
That's obviously not a Biblical church,
and therefore Jesus Christ is not the head of that church.
You say, "Well, yeah, that's an easy one to pick."
Now, churches that are Christian,
they do believe in the Bible,
they reject Mormonism, they reject Jehovah's Witnesses.
Well, let me just say this. If a church doesn't teach
the right gospel, it's not a real church.
And many of them still use that terminology
as "the church," but a
universal, invisible church does
not exist. It's not a thing
in the Bible. You'll never find
a teaching on the
church in the Bible. Now,
when you ask someone for Biblical proof of this,
they'll often point to a verse like this.
Look at Ephesians chapter 3 and verse
21. It says here,
"Unto him be glory in
the church by Christ Jesus
throughout all ages, world without end.
Amen." And there you go.
He's talking about the
church. So what do you
say to that, Pastor? You just
said the church doesn't exist, yet
we have an example here of the Apostle Paul
talking about the church.
Well, what church is he addressing?
It's called the church at Ephesus. So when
he's writing to the church at Ephesus
and the Ephesians are reading
the letter, when he says the church,
he's obviously referring to that congregation.
It's not referring to some universal church.
He never said anything about a universal church.
He's referring to a specific church
known as the church at Ephesus. And we cannot
paint all churches with a broad
brush and say, well, they're all part of one body
because it's not true. And in fact,
let me give you another example. You don't have to turn
there, but in Revelation 2 and 3,
you have Jesus Christ writing
letters to the seven churches
which are in Asia. And all
seven of these churches are distinctly
different one from another, right?
I mean, he's rebuking one.
He's uplifting the other. He's
saying this one is involved in sin. He's saying
this one is upright. He's saying, hey,
I know your works. He's saying
you got women preachers on this one. Well,
you can't say that all of these are the same church.
Why? Because he specifically says the seven
what? Churches
which are in Asia. If the concept
of the church exists then why don't you just say
let me address the church
and then talk about all the seven churches which are
in Asia. I'll tell you why because there's no such thing as a
universal invisible the
church. He's dealing with
them on an individual basis. Now this is
important because of the fact that
you know we can't
be lumped in with other churches.
Why? Because other churches are just bad sometimes.
Right? And I can't be held
responsible. Our church cannot be
held responsible for the sins that are
committed in other churches.
But you know what? If a church is out there
committing all types of sin,
permitting sin, and leaven
to enter into their church in false doctrine
and we're part of this universal invisible
church, that would mean that we're responsible for what's going
on over there. Right? But because
we're distinctly different, we're not held
responsible for it, as noted by the fact
that Jesus Christ addresses each
of the seven churches
separately, and he doesn't hold
one accountable for the other.
Now, obviously, when he writes
these letters to the seven churches, which are in Asia,
he essentially commands them, like
everyone else, to share these letters
one with another. Right? Why? Because we
want to learn from other churches' examples.
But you know what? When he's addressing the church
at Ephesus, he's not telling
the church at Smyrna, like, you're
going to pay for the things that are happening
in Ephesus. You know, what's going
on? Hey, church, what's going
on? I'm disappointed with the church today.
I can't believe they're allowing this. It's like, what are you
talking about? You know, a lot of times you'll see this
online where people will say things like, oh,
the church has become so lukewarm. Well,
speak for yourself. What do you mean the church
has become lukewarm? Your church
is lukewarm. My church is on fire.
Oh, the church has strayed away
from preaching the gospel. Is this a personal testimony?
Because we win souls to Christ every
single week. We're soul winning.
We're knocking on doors. Oh, the church
has become so lax in their preaching.
Speak for yourself, because this pulpit is
always on fire. It's always preaching
against sin. It's always calling out false doctrine.
You can't lump a sin with other churches
because according to the Bible, every church
is distinctly different. We're not held responsible
for other churches. Now, obviously, if
our church starts a satellite ministry, for
example, we are held responsible for that
church until the umbilical cord is cut,
right? But that's different
from an actual autonomous church
that's in a different state, in a different
city, that has no
affiliation with us, other than the fact they call
themselves a Christian church. And even if
they call themselves a fundamental Baptist church,
no affiliation. Why? Because the Bible
teaches independent
local New Testament churches
that are separate one from another. Jesus
Christ is the head of this
church, okay? That's important
to note. And you know, we are
an independent fundamental Baptist church.
I preach sermons describing
and defining what that means.
But that first part, independent,
simply means autonomous, meaning
we're self-governing, meaning Jesus Christ
is the head of this church, right?
That is what the Bible is teaching us here.
Now, you know, you'll talk to
people like this online
and they'll talk about the church or whatever.
And some of these people have been
grossly influenced by
Catholicism, okay?
And in fact, even Catholics will say something like this,
"Well, Jesus didn't leave us the Bible,
He left us the church." Right?
Real cute, but no, He left us the Bible.
You know? You know, I know like
all Catholics would just like love hearing that
stuff, and they're just like, "Oh, okay, yeah,
let me write that down and put it in the comment section
somewhere in some Protestant's post."
But no, He left us the Bible. And in fact,
the Bible existed prior to the
local New Testament church being established.
Okay? And so, you know,
when we talk about the authority of this church,
we're obviously referring to Jesus Christ,
but we're also talking about the Word of God.
The Word of God is the final
authority of First
Works Baptist Church. It is the standard
by which we address what is right
and what is wrong, what is proper church
administration and what is not, right?
We filter everything through the Word of God.
Now, the Catholic Church doesn't like that.
Why? Because they want all the authority.
And, you know, they'll say, well, how do you know
your interpretation is right then? You know,
you have all these denominations
that are out there. How do you know
that your denomination is the right one?
Well, I'm not going to speak for my denomination
because I'm not in a denomination.
I'm going to speak for my church
and in my church we are doctrinally
sound. How do we know? Because we actually
have the Bible to see if that's true or not.
Easy. You know, and it's just like, oh, how
do you know your interpretation of the Bible is correct?
And I just tell them, well, I have the
Holy Spirit dwelling within me who leads me
into all truths, okay, and
I can clearly defend what I believe according
to the Bible. And this is what they'll say, no,
you need the Church,
which is the Catholic Church,
to kind of lead you and tell you
what is right because that's what Jesus
Christ left. He left the authority of the
Church to determine what is right doctrine
and what is wrong doctrine. But then you
point to the fact that Pope, whatever,
whatever Pope's existing right now,
how he's permissible towards Muslims
and all the nonsense that he spews. And they're
just like, well, you know, no one's perfect.
And it makes mistakes or whatever. It's funny you don't have that same
standard with other Protestant churches, though.
Right? Funny how that works.
You know, when we point to another Church and say, well, yeah,
they're wrong on this, but, you know, no man is perfect.
You know, they're just like, no, this is
what happens when you have a bunch of denominations.
Well, what about you and your Pope that says
all kinds of weird stuff that you don't even
agree with? And he's just like, well, no man's
perfect. Well, that's funny how that works.
You know, at the end of the day, obviously, we,
as fundamental Baptists, as Christians,
should not uphold the Roman Catholic Church as
being a legitimate institution set forth
by God. And look, that's elementary
Bible doctrine right there.
I mean, one of the entry-level things
of Christianity is that you first just reject
the Roman Catholic Church.
It's just, you just recognize, like, the Roman Catholic Church is
not a Christian institution. I don't care
what church father you pull up that was
Catholic and worshiped Mary. Don't matter.
Like, yeah, but what's the oldest church?
Well, you know, Satan's pretty old.
Don't come to me with, "Oh, what's the oldest
one?" Let me just
tell you this. You know, Baal's pretty old.
Asteroth is pretty old.
Just because it's older doesn't mean
it's superior, and that goes for
your modern Bible versions as well.
Oh, well, what's older is often better.
Wrong, wrong. Ye have
God said, I was back in the Garden of Eden.
Jesus left us a
Bible to determine what
is the right and the wrong church to go to.
Because if you had an authority
said, well, we're the church, we're the authority.
How do we determine that without
having a particular standard, right?
That's not some human. We have the
word of God that told us what the Bible
says. And look, obviously
there's things in the Bible that are very difficult to decipher
sometimes, but the essentials
of the faith are not difficult at all.
Very simple. Salvation is very simple.
And look, here's my standard and here's
the standard of our church when it comes
to determining whether a church is good or not.
There's various things that we can look at, but number one is
just salvation. Because folks, let me just tell you
if you're off on salvation, you're off on everything
else. You can be right about the Jews
and off on salvation, you're off. Plain and
simple. You can be right about
prophecy, but if you're off on salvation, you're
just off. Because the most important
doctrine to even get
me to listen to who you are is what do you
believe about salvation? Because if you believe
right about salvation, you have the spirit of God dwelling within
you, the spirit of truth, and you're
probably going to tell me what's right about the Bible in regards
to salvation. The point
that I'm making here, look at Ephesians chapter 5,
is that Jesus
Christ is the head of this church.
Therefore, we
uphold the word of God as being the
final authority of
our church.
My church started in 2017.
And just in the small
amount of years that our church has been in existence,
we're still more right than the Roman Catholic Church.
You've been in existence for a little
couple thousand years and yet you still haven't gotten it right.
And you know, I know a lot of my followers
on Instagram don't like to hear that because
they like to worship Catholics
and they esteem Catholics or whatever.
But you know, you're just wrong. It's plain and simple.
And
you follow the Baptist so you might as well
have expected
Baptist preaching that includes preaching
against Catholics. Because the Roman Catholic
Church, everyone in the Roman Catholic Church isn't saved.
Now there might be some saved people who are
witnessed to, given the Gospel to, or whatever.
But in general, the Roman Catholic
members of the Roman Catholic Church are not saved.
Well they believe in Jesus. Yeah,
but hold on a second, they also believe in the Virgin Mary.
Let's just be realistic here, okay?
Can we be honest here? Look,
if you're upholding the sacraments and
the veneration of Mary and
the Eucharist, doesn't matter if you believe
in Jesus, you just added something to believing in Jesus,
therefore you cannot be saved. And look, again,
it only takes elementary understanding
in the Bible to recognize that the Roman Catholic Church
is a false church. Just looking at their
practice of the Eucharist, their belief in the Eucharist
that you literally are eating,
consuming the blood
and flesh of Jesus Christ,
that's all you need right there, like, okay, that's
a false church. The point that I'm making here
is that the authority of First Works Baptist
Church is Jesus Christ, it's the
Word of God, this is why the Bible says that
this is the pillar and ground of
truth. Look at Ephesians 5 22,
Verse 22 is every husband's
life verse. Wives
submit yourselves unto your own husbands
as unto the Lord, amen.
For the husband is the head of the wife
even as Christ is the head
of the church. And what church is he
talking about? The church at Ephesus.
And he is the savior of the body.
Therefore as the church is subject unto
Christ, so let the wives be
to their own husbands in
everything. We see here
the Bible is establishing the fact that
Jesus Christ is the authority
over a local New Testament church.
Now along with the point regarding
the final authority being the Bible,
the Bible tells us in 2 Peter
verse 19 that we have
a more sure word of prophecy, right?
So obviously when we talk about
Jesus Christ being the authority,
it's in tandem with the Bible being our authority.
Why? Because Jesus is the word of God.
I mean it literally calls him
the word. In the beginning was the
word and the word was with God, the word was
God. It's referring to Jesus Christ.
So there's nothing wrong with saying like this
is Jesus because biblically speaking it
is Jesus Christ.
So they can be used interchangeably.
Now this whole idea is like well
I still believe Jesus left us a
church. Now he did establish a
church that eventually started other
churches. And let me just say this,
just because a church
claims to be a Christian church and
just because it taught the right doctrine
at one point doesn't mean
it's still a legitimate church today.
Because, folks, we can go to the church at
Ephesus right now and it's a false church.
Even though at one time it was a good church.
Why? Because churches apostatize,
right? And that's why our loyalty
needs to be to that which is
unchanging, not to
that which shifts, right,
throughout the ages. Because sometimes people
think, well, the church at Ephesus, I mean, that's
like a really old church.
That's been around since the beginning. The church
at Smyrna, you know, the church at Thessalonica,
these are some of the original churches
from the first century AD. Yeah, but if they're
not teaching what the Bible says anymore, it's no
longer a legitimate church. Our loyalty
should not side with a fundamental
Baptist church today, just because it's
fundamental Baptist. We've got to see what they actually
believe. Now, you know,
Melia,
Polito, who's our faithful
word right now, you know, she
traced her, she was doing like her
genealogy, you know, she's
endless genealogies and stuff, you know.
And she was to kind of trace like where, you know,
where she's from, and she ended up finding
her grandma from like, not grandma, but like
great, great, great grandma, like early
on, and she found out that she was actually a fundamental
Baptist, which is pretty cool, right?
And then she found out the church that her great,
great, great grandmother went to,
it was a Baptist church that
taught the right doctrine. I'm talking about salvation
by grace through faith, it was like a really
old church from back, back, back in the day.
And she ended up looking up the church
to see like, I wonder if this church still exists.
Not only does it still exist, but it still
teaches the right doctrine. That is a rarity.
And the only reason we would say
that is a legitimate church is because it's still
upholding the doctrines of the faith.
We don't judge it based upon, well yeah, how old
is it though? How long has it been around?
Look folks, there's a lot of wicked old people out there.
Age doesn't make you more righteous
unless it's in the ways of the Lord.
Just because you're older doesn't make you godly,
doesn't make you right, right?
I mean, just look at the boomer generation.
We need to make sure that it's
found in the ways of the Lord.
We need to make sure that just because someone
is 50, 60, 70 years old,
80 years old, they need,
they are considered righteous
if they're living righteously.
We don't judge them based upon their age or something like that.
Like, oh, well, they're older, so we just,
they must be like, they've been around the block
a lot more than me, therefore they're
righteous people. Well, the fact that they've
been around the block longer should mean that they should be
more righteous than us. But you know, that's not always
the case. The point that I'm making is just because
they're older, just because an institution is older,
doesn't make it right. What makes it right
is if it lines up with the timeless
principles and doctrines of the Bible.
And so that's important. And look, when Jesus
Christ gave the Great Commission in
Matthew 28, what did he say? He says,
"Teach all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost." And then he says, what?
"Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever, I have commanded
you, and lo, I'm with you always, even into
the end of the world." So in order for us
to find the right church, we've got to see,
is this church teaching whatsoever
things Jesus Christ has commanded them?
Because that's part of the Great Commission. In order to start
churches, you've got to get people saved, you've got to get people
baptized, and they have to know what the Bible actually
says, okay? Well, this
church is called, you know, Jesus
Christ Smyrna, Ephesus,
New Testament Baptist Church,
you know, and it's been around
for this long, don't matter, what do they
believe? They meet where Jesus
Christ was baptized,
you know, there where Jesus Christ
was born. By the way, don't buy into that
whole false Israeli,
you know, when people go there, they're like,
oh man, this is the cave where Jesus
Christ was born. This is the manger.
This is a splinter from the cross.
Just hear that song.
They're probably just trying to make a
buck out of you. I'm not interested in relics.
I'm not interested in relics.
I'm not interested in the piece of wood.
Why? Because I have the Holy Spirit of God
dwelling within me. I don't need to go to some
geographical location to
be close to God or whatever.
I have the Spirit of God dwelling within me.
We have the local New Testament church.
We don't need to go to Israel.
Oh man, to go to Israel, that's like
the promised land. It's been there for so long.
Yeah, but God refers to it as spiritual
Sodom and Egypt.
So if God doesn't esteem it, neither should I.
But you know how old it is? Yeah, and it's so wicked.
Go to Matthew 16 if you would.
Age doesn't equate to godliness
or righteousness.
Older manuscripts doesn't mean it's right.
Older church doesn't mean it's correct.
We need to go to what the timeless word of God
says. And it's funny that
people always claim, well this version of the
Bible is better because it's older.
Then why do you keep making new editions of it then?
Why do you keep changing it then if it's
so perfect? Oh man, I just prefer
the ESV. Then why does it keep changing?
Why do new editions keep coming out? I'll tell you why.
Because it's shifting. It's the shifting sand.
And that's an unpopular message
today. You know, I put out a video
talking about find a church that's King James
only. Like, oh man, I
disagree with you on that. I love my NIV.
Oh, you like Bibles that are missing verses?
Oh, you like Bibles that
question and cast doubt on the Word
of God? Get yourself a King James version.
Amen. Oh man, but it's just so
hard to read. Then you know what? Get
smart and start reading it and start
learning and improve your vocabulary
and say, Lord, open down
my eyes that I may behold wondrous things
out of thy law, increase my knowledge,
my understanding, give me some smarts
to understand the Bible. You shouldn't choose
a Bible based upon how easy
it is to read. Cause false doctrine
is easy to read. Heresy is easy
to read. Alright, Matthew 16.
So Jesus Christ is the authority
of this church. But let me also
say this. This church is an authority
in and of itself. Because although Jesus
Christ said, you know, he established
a church in the beginning, those
churches started churches, he also
extended authority for those
congregations to exercise authority in.
Look at Matthew 16 verse 15,
"He saith unto him, but whom say ye
that I am? And Simon Peter answered
and said, Thou art the Christ, the son of the
living God. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona,
for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. And I say also unto
thee that thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. Now, you know, obviously we know
that the Roman Catholics will often use
verse 18 as a proof text that
Peter was the first Pope, because obviously you see
Pope right there, right? I mean, it's just
laid out right there. The word Pope is found there.
But they'll say, well, you know, he gave
the first church to Peter.
And I feel like Christians, Baptists,
Protestants, or whatever, have had
such a knee-jerk reaction to that teaching
that they'll say, well, you know,
the rock is not necessarily Peter.
You know, the rock is just referring
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But I submit to you that the rock in verse 18
is referring to Peter. And this isn't to teach
what the Roman Catholic Church teaches
because what the Roman Catholic Church is saying
is that Peter is the authority,
the first pope over the Roman
Catholic Church. The Church.
What I submit to you is that when he says
upon this rock I will build my church,
he is referring to Peter because Peter is like
a rock. That's what Peter means.
And he's saying that the church will be
built upon believers.
Because later on we see that the
apostle Peter says that ye also
as lively stones
are built up a spiritual
house, right? And in fact
what does John the Baptist say to the Pharisees?
He says think not to say within yourselves
we have Abraham to our father for God
is able of these stones
to raise up children unto Abraham. Why?
Because the local New Testament church is built upon
what? Believers.
Saved people. So what he's saying is like
thou art Peter and upon this
rock I will build my church. And what is the profession
that Peter made? Thou art the Christ.
So how is the church built? It's built upon
people who make a profession of faith
in Jesus Christ.
No, this is
the church.
This is referring to Catholicism.
Peter is the first Pope.
And they'll often point to verse 19
to substantiate that claim. Look at verse 19.
And I will give unto thee the keys
of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
And they'll say, "Aha!" See?
He's given Peter the keys,
huh? What do you say to that?
Prodi! Well, go to chapter 18
if you would. Parasy detected,
Prodi rejected.
You Prodis out there.
He gave Peter the keys
to the kingdom. Well,
it's interesting because look at Matthew 18, verse 15.
He says, "Moreover, if thy brother trespass
against thee, go and tell him his
fault between thee and him alone. If
he shall hear thee, that was gained thy
brother. But if he will not hear thee,
then take with thee one
or two more, then in the mouth of two or
three witnesses every word may be established." This is
essentially showing us how to resolve conflict in
church, right? You know, instead of
gossiping, instead of division in church,
what is the Bible saying? Hey, you got a problem with a brother
or sister in Christ, just go tell them to their face.
Say, hey, you offended me.
I want you to apologize. I'm sorry, dude.
All right, can we hang out?
Can we be friends again? Yes, and then you restore it and
everything is all good. Instead of like
going around causing division,
like a lot of churches have,
where they create these cliques within the
church where this group is against
this group, or even this group is against the
pastor or something like that, because of
unresolved conflict. Jesus is just saying, look,
just go confront the person.
Tell them that you're offended and
go get it right and move on with your life.
That's how it should be. Verse 17 says,
"And if he shall neglect to
hear them, tell it unto the
church; but if he neglect to hear
the church, let him be unto thee as a
heathen man and as a publican." Now I'll get into this
later on, but what Jesus is saying is
that if a person remains unrepentant
in an offense,
the church has the authority to excommunicate
that individual to the point where
we should treat them as a heathen man and as
a publican. In other words, we should have nothing to do
with that person until they repent
and then it can be reinstated back into the fold.
Make sense? Look at verse 18.
"Verily I say unto you,
whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
So just as he gave the commission to Peter
in Matthew 16
to bind and loose, well, he gave
the church that authority as well.
No, it's only designated
for Peter. No, it says ye.
Ye's plural. The in Matthew
16, yeah, that's to Peter
because Peter's part of a church.
But then he also clarifies in Matthew 18
ye shall bind, ye shall lose
referring to the church
that they're involved in. That means
we as a church actually have the
authority to do so. Okay. So this
isn't some special key that's given
to a pope or something like that to
bind and lose at their discretion.
This is actually an authority that Jesus
Christ gave to local New Testament congregations.
And in fact, look at verse 19.
Again, I say to you that if two of you
shall agree on earth as touching anything
that they shall ask, it shall be done
for them of my father, which is in heaven.
And in a practical manner how this looks like
is if a person is unrepentant
of an offense,
let's just talk about offense because that's what it's
being addressed here, we can
collectively agree together
that this person needs to be excommunicated
and essentially be punished by God
outside of the walls of this church.
And when it says that when we bind that
on earth, that it's also
bound in heaven, meaning that God
backs that up. God's like, I agree
with you on that. It shall be bound.
And if we loose that person
from that punishment of being excommunicated,
it's also loosed in heaven. Meaning that
once they're reinstated, God's hand can
once again bless them.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
So the authority of the church
obviously is Jesus Christ in the Bible,
but the Bible also tells us that the church
in and of itself has the authority
to solve matters,
conflicts, and yes,
even remove people from a congregation.
Now, you know,
churches today don't like this
because the concept of excommunicating people
from a church is just foreign to them,
because to them, every sin should
just be permissible, and oh,
you're so unloving, and I can't
believe you would do something like that,
and we need to be patient with people.
Well, you've just gone outside of the parameters of the Bible.
And you know what? You're doing people
a disservice by not
instituting church discipline. Why?
Because the Bible says that a little leaven, leaven at the whole lump.
And if things aren't, you know, sins
are not punished, they're not
disciplined, it can destroy the entire church.
So although you claim to
masquerade as a loving leader,
as a loving person, your
neglect of church discipline actually
says the opposite. It actually says that you
don't like your church members because of the fact that
you're not willing to protect them
from the leaven of sin that might spread in the church
because of your leniency. Does that make sense
to everyone? And so a loving church
actually executes church discipline.
And I'm not saying on a weekly basis or anything like
"Who can I throw out today?" You know what I mean?
But look what it says in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 1
"Dare any of you having a matter against another
go to law before the unjust and not before
the saints? Do you not know that the
saints shall judge the world? And if the world
shall be judged by you, are you unworthy
to judge the smallest matters?
Knowing not that we shall judge angels
how much more the things that pertain to this life?
If then you have judgments of things pertaining
to this life, set them to judge
who are least esteemed in the
church. Now, what is the same?
When it says go to law, the implication
here is that a member of this particular
church, the church of Corinth, was
suing another brother. So they might have had
some financial dealings,
maybe one of the members here
didn't keep his end of the bargain,
didn't make payment, whatever it is, right?
Some sort of financial dealing here.
And, you know, he's
from a legal standpoint,
he has the right to just go to the law
and bring this person to judgment,
suing this individual,
to pay them back. What the Apostle Paul
is saying is like, why are you going to go before
unjust people to judge this matter?
You should be able to judge it in house.
Now, this isn't referring to
criminal activities, such as
murder, molestations,
capital crimes,
that's not what it's referring to, okay?
You say, what would you do if a murderer came here?
Turn him over to the authorities, what do you mean?
Easy. What would you do to a
pedophile? Do you want to know really?
I'll tell you after the service
when the cameras are off.
We'll escort him out, but it's a long way from
here to the door. What this is saying
is just, you know, essentially
for lack of a better way of saying it, trivial matters.
Right? You know,
if you have some financial dealings with people
in our church, they defraud you,
they do you wrong, you should be able to deal with that in
house. Don't go to some unsaved
judge who does not have the
spirit of God. He's not a principled
person. You should be,
we should be able to select, it says here,
the least esteemed in the church, meaning
the people who maybe have the least amount
of biblical knowledge, they're still more qualified
than the unrighteous judge
who's been a judge for 20 years to
judge that matter. And look folks, judges
today are unrighteous people. And the court
systems are super unrighteous.
They're ungodly, unrighteous people,
and one of the reasons why is because they're often guilty
of the same crimes that they're judging.
And so we see here
that the Apostle Paul is
very clearly stating that
we have the authority to judge those matters
in church. Not capital crimes,
but, you know, conflicts
between brethren, maybe what others would consider
to be legal issues,
we can judge those in-house.
You don't need to go to the unjust
to resolve those issues. Look at verse 5.
It says, "I speak to your shame. Is it so
that there is not a wise man among you?
No, not one that shall be able to judge
between his brethren? But brother
goeth to law with brother,
and that before unbelievers.
Now therefore there is utterly a fault
among you, because you go to law
one with another. Why do you not
rather take wrong? Why do you not
rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?"
What is he saying? You know, another way to
solve some conflict like that
is just to allow yourself to be wronged.
Right? You know, instead of going to law,
obviously that should be forbidden.
In other words, no brother in Christ should ever
sue another brother in Christ. That's an
ungodly thing to do. It's unrighteous,
it's wicked, it's not right to do,
it's contrary to the Bible.
But if you feel like you need to resolve it, then resolve it in
house. But the Bible also says maybe
you should just take the high road and just be defrauded.
So you know what? It's a loss. I'd rather just gain my
brother, not have this weird
tension between us when I come to church.
I'd rather just forgive him and move on
and never lend money ever again or
whatever. You know? Whatever it may be.
The point that I'm making here is that the Bible
teaches that Jesus Christ
and the Bible are the authority, but even
the church itself is an authority
in church matters. Okay?
Go with me if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 5.
1 Timothy chapter 5. Point number
three regarding church authority
is that pastors are
the authority in the church.
Pastors also
refer to in the Bible as elders,
bishops, not reverend,
reverend is, I don't even know where that came from,
you know? I've had people say, hey, reverend,
I'm like, that's kind of like it. That's not even in the Bible.
You know, we're supposed to be reverend towards the Lord,
not towards the pastor. But it's, you know,
bishop, we have pastors,
we have elders. These are all
used interchangeably to describe
the office of a pastor.
Okay? And according to the Bible,
the pastor has the authority of the church,
not a deacon board.
Now that is a tradition that's often
found in fundamental Baptist churches or even in non-denom
churches, where you will have
a board of deacons that essentially
usurp the authority of the pastor.
And that's wrong. Why? Because then the
pastor does not have the liberty
to administrate or preach as
God puts in his heart. His
hands are tied. He can't take certain
stances. And at the end of the
day, God has selected for one man to lead
a church. You're like, well, I don't think
that's right. I think that's too
much power for one person. Then just go somewhere else.
If you don't like the
way the administration is run in the church, there's
plenty of other churches where they have that type of administration.
Go join them.
It's just like, no, I don't think
you should be the ruler
in this church.
Well, go ahead and look up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
in the Bible and see how that turned out
for them. And I won't belabor that
point. The point that I'm making here is that according to the
Bible, pastors are the authority in the church.
Now, look, there's churches out there
that have pastors that surpass their boundaries
of authority, right? Where it's just like,
alright, you know, you're getting involved in
business that's not pertaining to you.
And I'm going to get into what are the authority,
what are the boundaries of a pastor
in a church and what he's allowed
to do and what not. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 5,
let's just read a couple of verses here.
Verse 17 says, "Let the elders
that rule well be counted worthy
of double honor, especially they that labor in the word
and doctrine." He says in verse
19, "Against an elder, receive
not an accusation, but before
two or three witnesses." So he says elder,
and the reason he's referring to a pastor as an elder
is because an elder is
someone who is spiritually older than you.
Doesn't necessarily refer to someone who's
older in age. Obviously,
that's kind of implied to a certain degree
because you don't want some 17 year old
leading a church, right? Some
19 year old, you know, these people don't have
the experience just in
life in general, and quite frankly,
there's qualifications that a person has to meet.
But when it says elder,
it's more often referring to someone who's
older in the Lord, who's mature
in the Lord, okay? It's not referring to the dudes
on 10 speeders with short sleeves,
you know, wanting to talk to you about the
church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He says an elder here, and he says one that rules.
So obviously one of the jobs
of a pastor is to rule, okay?
Now look at, you're in 1 Timothy
5, go to chapter 4 if you would.
So what are the authorities that pastors have?
Well, first and foremost, the authority
to teach doctrine and to correct
false teachings. We not only have
the obligation to do so,
we have the authority to do so.
Now look what it says in 1 Timothy 4:16,
"Take heed unto thyself, and unto
the doctrine, continue in them,
for in doing this thou shalt both save
thyself and them that hear."
This is the Apostle Paul instructing
Timothy, giving him the authority
to teach doctrine
but also correct false teachings.
Now obviously I got to get up here
and preach against a lot of the false
teachings that are out there on the internet, right?
But you know what? I also have the authority
to correct your false teaching as well.
So if I hear about weird teachings
going on in the church, I have every
authority to get behind the pulpit and rebuke it
and just shame it before everyone else.
Why? Because that's my job.
And you know what? Obviously
everyone has the right to believe whatever they want,
but they don't necessarily have the right to just spread
whatever they want. You understand?
So it's my job as a pastor to get up and say
this isn't correct, this is correct.
And you're just like, well isn't that
embarrassing to
the person who's teaching that?
Yeah, for sure.
Shame is actually a really good thing.
It's not like shame is really bad, but shame is super important.
It's very important to talk about, right?
It's important to shame people because it prevents
people from teaching
false doctrine, behaving in an
ill-mannered way, and the pastor has the authority
to get up and say this is a wrong way to behave,
this is a wrong way to teach, this is a wrong
belief system. Let's get back to
what the Bible actually says, right?
And even if the entire church may not
agree with my assessment
of that particular doctrine, they do have to fall
in line and recognize this is what we agree
totally. This is the doctrine that we're
going to uphold, and I'm not necessarily allowed to preach
whatever or teach this in the
house of God or whatever. And I'm not even talking behind
the pulpit, because people preach
and teach doctrine behind the pulpit, but I'm just talking
about in person, right? You know, someone
comes in our church and starts saying, well, we don't have to really
call upon the name of the Lord to be saved
as long as you believe. That has to be corrected, right?
And I've had instances where I've had to
correct someone in person
regarding that doctrine,
and they resisted it, they resisted it, and I was
being kind and gracious, it's like
they're not getting it, and then they end up conceding
kind of just like "leave me alone" type of thing.
It's like, okay, but then I have to correct it from the pulpit.
And everyone is just like, "Oh, I know what you're talking about."
Yeah, because the pastor has the authority
to do so. Now, a lot of pastors would not
agree with that. They would think, "Oh, man, that's kind of
like, you know, you're not being a really
good leader." Well, a good leader, according
to the Bible, is one who corrects false teachings.
So what standard are you going according to?
Where is that in the Bible?
Where is that? Because according to the Bible, this is our
job. And you know what? If pastors actually
did what the Bible said
and rebuked false teachings, there wouldn't be so many
false teachings in the church. If they just
nipped it at the butt and wouldn't allow it to
permeate throughout churches, we wouldn't have all
these problems. The pastor has the authority
to do so. And let me just say this. If there's a
pastor out there who refuses to exercise their
authority to preach against false teachings,
sit down, shut up, go do something else
then. It's an uncomfortable job.
Yes, it is. It's uncomfortable to get
up and have to correct doctrines,
correct behavior. Of course it is.
And you know what? If you can't do it, that's fine.
Don't be a pastor. Go do
something else. Go be a counselor or something like that.
You know, go try to get on TED
Talks or something or, you know,
be a motivational speaker or something where you're
just, you know, constantly motivating
people or whatever. That's perfectly fine.
But you know the pastorate has the
job to correct false teachings
and shame people for false doctrine.
Okay? It's an uncomfortable job if someone
has to do it. And so, you know, pastorate
I just don't think that's right.
That's not very loving. Okay, I get it.
Sit down, go do something else
and let a real man get up and actually preach what the word
of God says, because we have a job
to do. Oh, that's kind of rough.
Well, I have the authority to do it though.
Though I be rude in speech,
yet not in knowledge.
The Bible says in 1st Timothy 1, verse
3, "As I besought thee to a bystander
at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia,
that thou mightest charge some, that they
teach no other doctrine." So the
Apostle Paul is telling Timothy, "Charge them
not to teach that." Right?
Tell them not to talk about those things.
The Bible says, go to Titus chapter 1.
Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter number 1.
And I'm not a Baptist police.
I'm not going around wondering what people are talking
about, what they're teaching. But you know
when I catch wind of stuff I have to talk about it. And I'm not
preaching this because someone was teaching something weird in our church.
Because that's probably what everyone's thinking right now like,
"Oh, who's
in trouble?"
No, it's not TJ. Okay?
No, it's not Cody. Okay?
I know he just preached last week
or something like that or a couple of weeks ago.
You know? This is a lot of this is
prevented because everyone's just like,
"You want me name drop?"
You know, sometimes people say stuff and you know, it has to be corrected.
And quite frankly, you know,
I feel like I'm gracious enough where I don't
call out the name because since
when I preach about it,
most people know who I'm talking about. And you know
why most people know who I'm talking about when I address
her in doctrines is because apparently that person's been talking
a lot about it. Look at Titus one nine
holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught
that he may be able by sound
doctrine both to exhort and to convince
the gainsayers. And of course
he gets into the unruly vain
talkers, the Jews, etc.
The point that I'm making here is that there's a
command, a clear command given here
that the pastor has the authority
to correct false doctrine.
Turn with me if you would to
are you in Titus? Stay there in
Titus actually. I mean I'll say this is the
pastor has the authority to teach
doctrine, rebuke false teaching
but he also has the authority
to exercise church discipline. And
obviously we can go through 1 Corinthians 5
you can read that on your own, it gives the list of
people, sins that
if a person remains unrepentant in
is qualified
for excommunication. Fornication,
drunkenness, extortion,
idolatry,
things of that nature, railing, those
are qualifications for someone to
be excommunicated from a local New Testament church.
But I also do believe that a pastor
has the authority to kind of remove people
just at his discretion if he feels
as though this person is a danger to the
congregation. If they're causing trouble,
if they're not dwelling together
in unity, if they are just
constantly, you know,
just causing all types of trouble
and being misfits in the church, the pastor
has the authority to say you need to go somewhere else.
Right? You're not, you know,
dwelling in unity, and you say well
I just think that's cultish.
Yeah, but cults keep people in though.
This church removes people. A cult will tell you you can't
go no matter what. This church is like
no leave. Go somewhere else.
But let me also say this is that
a pastor also has the authority
to judge bad behavior.
Whether in person or from the preaching.
Now this is important because this is something
that I personally do do a lot.
Not a lot, but you know, I'll do
it often where I
take it upon myself to correct bad behavior
in the church. Whether in person, sometimes
I have to confront someone and say, hey,
this is not a way to behave. You need to correct
this, you know, or I'll tell someone, hey,
you know, you don't have a job
and you need to get a job, okay? And
you're like, well, that's not your place. No, actually it is
according to the Bible. It actually is.
And in fact, not working is
something that the Bible says is a sin in the
Bible. In a congregation, the Apostle
Paul actually addressed this
in his letter to the Thessalonians.
And he commands people to address
that. Why? Because, you know, God
has created man to work, and when you
are a person who's not working, you become
lazy, you become a person who's
susceptible to sin, and you just become a
busybody, you know? And you know what?
Hopefully, you are encouraged
over these last, whatever, this last week to start
working because EBT ain't going to be there for you.
I'm not saying anybody's on EBT
here, but maybe someone is, I don't know.
I'm against EBT.
I'm against welfare. Obviously,
maybe there might be people out there who actually legitimately
need it, but let me just say this.
I grew up in a single parent home.
My mom never got one. She was always working.
And so look, if my mom,
by the way, my mom who's 80 years old
still puts in work. Don't let my 80
year old mother outdo you, son.
If you are an able-bodied
young man without a job,
you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Go work for Pizza Hut. Go work
for McDonald's. Go work for Chick-fil-A.
I don't care what kind of job you get.
Get a job. It's shameful
for a man not to have a job.
Just sitting all day playing video games,
scrolling through Instagram or scrolling
through social media, being a
complete busybody, it's not right.
Go collect cans.
Why are the gypsies out there
working harder than you?
At least they get up and go to the 710 freeway.
Hey, you know what? Lately I've been seeing gypsies
actually sell things.
I don't know where they got it from.
At least they're selling them. I have the authority
to judge. And you know what? Not having a job
is bad behavior. It's not becoming to Christ.
It's not becoming to a Christian.
You're a lazy individual.
You need to get right with God.
Especially if you are a husband and if you have
children. Now obviously young men, you know
for sure that you need to get a job. We had a guy
one time who was just like, "I can't come to the church
until I get a job." Because he knew what we preached
against us so hard. And I'm all for that.
I think young men should work. I think you should work
twice as hard as some people because you have
vitality in you. But if you are a married man
with children and you have a wife,
get to work! No job
is shameful for you unless it's something
sinful. You know, don't be this person
with a lion and without. A lion's industry,
you know. I just can't because
why, why, why, why, why?
This is inappropriate. I don't like this kind of preaching.
I know. No.
And if you don't like it's probably because you don't have a job.
But let me just say this. I have the
authority and I have the responsibility
to preach against you. And let me just
tell you this, folks. You don't like me preaching
against you. There's all kinds of churches you could go
to or the pastor will just tell you
exactly what you want to hear. He'll let you
just get involved in any type of sin.
He'll never judge you and you can live happily
ever after.
But you know what? This is not that church.
You know, I'm not, you know,
you guys don't have to twist my arm.
You guys have no influence over this preaching.
I'm preaching what the Bible says.
And you know what? Sometimes it includes preaching
against your sin. And if you come
here, obviously you know
that it's likely that I'm going to preach
against you. So you come here knowing like, you
know what? Pastor Mejia might preach against my sin today,
or he might preach against me. But you
know what? It's because open rebuke is better than
secret love. That's the fact.
You know why I'm telling you this? It's because I love
you. You know why I tell you to stop being a lazy,
busy body, good for nothing,
just lazy individual. It's
because I love you and I want you to get right with God.
And being right with God is having a job.
You're a Christian. You're a believer.
You're a fundamental Baptist. How is it
that you have all these right doctrines,
but you don't have the right behavior?
God is interested in the right doctrine,
but he's also interested in the right behavior.
And let me say this. Hold down a job.
Don't just get a job. Hold it down.
Don't be this person who flip-flops from job to job
because, "Oh, my boss is not a Christian.
I just have to leave that job because my boss,
I think he's a fag or something like that.
I just can't do it or something."
Just nonsensical, you know, just excuses.
Stick to a job!
"Oh, man, they made me use tools. Yeah!
That's what you're supposed to do!"
"Oh, man, I'm just so tired!"
"That's the point of working!"
"Oh, man, I'm so stressed!"
"Yeah, a working man is always stressed!"
"Stress is part of life!"
"Oh, man, I just feel like I just can't lift."
Then get in the gym right here, behind these walls.
Get strong enough to go get a job so you can lift yourself off your lazy, blessed assurance.
And go get a job.
You know, we criticize the old IFB a lot.
And rightly so.
We've got a lot of things wrong.
But you know, one thing about old IFB is they just knew how to work.
They knew how to have jobs.
They knew how to hold it down.
They knew that they had to provide for their families.
And they knew if they didn't, they were worse than an infidel.
Because that's what the Bible literally says.
Don't let old IFB or anybody else for that matter outdo you in Christian behavior.
Be an example to the believers.
Tomorrow, get up.
Go get a job application to McDonald's or whatever.
And go get a job by the end of the week.
Oh, but the holidays are coming up though.
Even more reason to get a job.
You could get a seasonal job.
Oh man, this is kind of rough.
Titus 2.15 says, "These things speak, exhort, and rebuke with all authority."
"Let no man despise thee."
In other words, don't let anybody hate on your preaching.
Because what you're saying is facts.
Okay?
"Preach the word, be instant, end season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine."
And you know what? I have the authority to even come to you.
You know, there's a guy one time who was at our church who just had bad behavior in our church towards the women in our church.
And you know, guys, let me just say this.
You know, don't talk to the women in our church the way you talk to your boys, okay?
You know, there's this guy who's just like, "Oh, so how much do you weigh?"
It's like, bro, it's just basic math.
You don't ask a woman how old they are and how much they weigh, right?
Unless they want to divulge that information to you or something.
We're just like, "How old are you? How much do you weigh?"
It's just like, that's kind of inappropriate to say.
And you know what? We corrected him on that. Why?
Because bad behavior needs to be corrected. It needs to be judged.
Go to 1 Peter chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5.
You're like, "I don't really like this." You know, it's kind of, you know, it's a little too rough.
I just don't think, I don't agree. You know, you should love authority.
Love the Bible's authority, love biblical authority, love your husband's authority,
love your father's authority, your parental authority, your mother's authority.
I was going to say your wife's authority, you know.
You know, love your authority because it's biblical, amen.
And you know, only wicked people despise magistrates and governments.
Only wicked people do.
Righteous people love governments and magistrates and authority.
They love it because it's built into what the Bible says.
And in fact, you know, in the book of Judges, there was a group of people,
and I can't think of their name right now, maybe some of you Bible scholars out there can remind me,
they were away from everyone else and they basically didn't have any magistrate to put them to shame.
Who was it? The Zidonians, thank you.
The Zidonians were people who were so far removed from society,
they had no magistrate, and the Bible literally says to put them to shame.
So they're just kind of dwelling carelessly, they're just kind of doing their own thing,
you know, this is this utopian hippie society where everyone's the pastor,
there's no one ruler, you know, but what happened to them?
They ended up getting taken over by the tribe of Dan and no one was there to deliver them.
But previous that says that they had no magistrate, listen to this, to put them to shame.
And look, folks, you know, let me just get on this for a little bit.
Yes, the pastor is here to put you to shame sometimes, you know,
and I don't do it because I don't like you.
I don't do it because I have something against you.
I'm doing it for your benefit.
And let me just say this, you know, our church is growing,
but our church is also losing people, too, though.
Now, luckily, we're growing more than we're losing.
And every church is like that.
People come and people go.
That's just how it is.
But let me tell you some of the reasons why people leave church,
not just this church, any church.
And one of the main reasons is because they get offended.
They just get offended.
You know, they get offended at the preaching.
They get offended at the standard of the Bible.
And, you know, obviously, I run the risk.
And this is how you know that I'm not doing this.
You know, that I have the right motive when I preach like this.
Because I do run the risk at running you off, for sure.
I run the risk at offending you and having you leave and never come back.
So that should show you that I'm doing it because I'm doing it for your benefit.
And look, when I preach against pants on women, that offends people.
That has offended people. People have left because of that.
Why? Because it's just an offensive thing in 2025.
But you know what? I have to preach things whether I think it offends you or not though.
And I would not be a righteous pastor if I didn't.
And look folks, people leave because they don't like the standard of the church.
They don't like the biblical standard of what it teaches regarding dress standards.
What it teaches about masculinity. What it teaches about marriage.
And look, this is why it's important folks that you don't, you know, sometimes people are like, "Oh man, he's getting on feminism again."
Yeah, yep, I am.
I get on feminism like almost like every other week or something.
And it's not because I'm running out of material or something like that.
Keeping it in check.
And you know how I know that it works is because sometimes people leave.
And you know why? Because they have feminist tendencies.
And they can't adhere to the biblical standard of what God expects for a woman.
And they don't like it. And you know what?
I would hope that every person in our church just submits to the authority of the Bible.
Just says like, that's different from what I believe, but that's what the Bible says.
Therefore, I'm going to submit to it. And I just need time to grow. Right?
But if it's just like, well, I just don't see it that way.
Oh, show me how you see it then.
Then go ahead and show me from the Bible how and why I'm wrong.
You know, don't give me your understanding.
Just show me clear scriptures of why we should do it your way. Right?
And look folks, you know, people who leave our church because they don't like the biblical standard of dress or doctrine or whatever it may be,
they can't point to a scripture.
They can't tell you like, oh, you know, it's because, well, the Bible says this because there is no verse like that.
There is no verse like that.
And you know what?
I have the responsibility to uphold a certain standard at this church because you know what?
The world is just wicked.
And you know what?
Because the world is wicked, we have to make sure we tighten up the screws and preach against pants,
preach against immodesty, preach against all the filth and perversion that the world is promoting.
And if you don't like it, then you can go somewhere where they're actually permissible in those areas
and you can live happily ever after with them.
Now, I would think that it's best for you to just grow in that area.
And don't tell me like, "Oh man, it's just so hard."
That's funny because so many ladies in our church do it.
"Oh, it's just, I just don't think it's fair."
That's funny because there's ladies in our church that don't think that.
How does that work?
It's just so hard to submit to a man, "Well, how do the wives in the church do it?"
"Oh, it's just so hard to dress modestly."
Then how do the women in our church do it?
That's an excuse is what it is.
Don't give me that, okay?
The point that I'm making here is that just because I preach against your sin doesn't mean I have something against you, personally.
I have something against your ideology.
I have something against your doctrine.
I have something against your behavior.
But you as a person, I have nothing against.
And I would be a very bad pastor if I didn't preach against it.
I would be.
Why? Because you know, these limp-wristed pastors out there,
these soft-soaked, limp-wristed, sissy pastors out there,
they don't want to say anything to offend you because they want you to keep tithing.
They want the numbers to keep rolling in.
And you know what? I do too, but I'm just not going to sacrifice good preaching for it.
I'm just going to pray it down.
Say, "Lord, I'm just going to preach whatever you tell me to preach,
and if someone gets offended and leaves, then so be it."
Because you know what? I'm not motivated by money.
So what motivates you is the love of Christ that constrains me, and a love for you.
I want you to turn out for Christ.
I want you to adhere to what the Word of God says.
And so I have that authority to rule, to govern, to judge, and sometimes, yes, even judge harshly.
Stick it out. Stick it out.
And look, I challenge you.
If you ever hear something you don't agree with me on that I just rebuked harshly,
then come tell me and say, "Hey, does the Bible actually teach that?"
Now, most of the time when I preach that way, I show you what the Bible says about it.
You're just going to have to convince me of the opposite, okay?
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
I mean, we've had people leave our church
because they just didn't like that it was such a masculine church.
Guilty as charged!
They're just like, "Oh, it's just so male-oriented."
And all you're talking about is women submitting to their husbands.
Well, if you read your Bible every single year, that's all you're going to read, too.
Ephesians 5 doesn't change. It's like always there.
I mean, how many times are you reading through the Bible?
Let's just say you read the book of Ephesians over and over again for the rest of the year.
You would see that phrase over and over. It doesn't change.
You know, sometimes you watch a movie and you hope that like, you know, the guy who dies in a movie who's a good guy,
maybe he'll make a different decision. He actually lived.
And it just never happens. You're like, "No!"
That's how it is when you read the Bible. It's just like, "Man, I hope the command changes this time."
It doesn't change. It remains the same.
It still says, "Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord."
It'll never change.
And so because it never changes, we need to keep talking about it.
And look, I hope you're not weary of my preaching against feminism,
because more is coming in 2026.
This is not just like a theme of 2025.
This is just going to carry over a little bit.
And yeah, maybe I might not have anything to preach on.
I'm like, "Man, what should I preach on?"
Feminism is always a good topic to preach on.
I went to Texas and I preached against feminism.
It's always in season.
You know why? Because so much feminism is being promoted behind the pulpits.
So many pastors who are making, who are just permissible towards feminism
enabling rebellious women to leave their husbands,
to rebel against their husbands, to divorce their husbands.
It's wicked.
And until that stuff disappears, I need to keep preaching against it
and keep it in check in this local New Testament church.
Alright, let's see if I want to say anything else.
This is all for that one little point there.
I have the authority to do so.
Obviously I have the authority to ordain people, you know that.
And in order of things that are wanting, Titus 1.5.
So anyways, the last point is that we have the authority also to delegate authority too, right?
Because obviously I'm the pastor of this church, but I have the authority to delegate even authority to others in our church.
For example, the team leaders, right?
Team leader is not a biblical role, it's not something you find in the Bible.
But the Bible does talk about different administrations that churches have.
There's nothing wrong with a pastor gaining help from the members of his church
to help with the oversight of people in our church.
Why? Because we don't want to let anybody slip through the cracks.
We want to make sure that everyone's doing well, that they're not struggling.
And if they are struggling, that we're helping them, that we're loving them,
that we're missing them when they miss, you know what I mean?
That they feel like they're a part of the family, right?
And so I would want to be just fully involved in your life,
but our church is growing so much that I just can't be involved in everyone's life.
So it's important for our church leaders, the team leaders,
to kind of aid in that area, right?
And you know what? You should show those team leaders respect.
Yeah, they're not pastors, yes or not, they're not evangelists,
no, they're not deacons, they're not even necessarily assistant pastors,
they assist the pastor for sure, but you should show them their due respect,
because you know what? They pray for you, they invest in you,
they love you, they care for you, they think about you, they're overseeing you,
don't despise them, don't be like, well, you know, I only respect the pastor,
bless God, you know, but everyone, no, no, no, you should show respect to the people
that even the pastor gives authority to as well, because you know what?
They're not there as a reproach unto you, they're not there to make your life miserable,
they're actually there to help you and aid you, and I'm not just going to put
just anybody in a position of authority just to put a warm body there,
these men in my eyes are qualified to kind of aid in that area,
and so just trust me, trust me that I put the right guys in position
to kind of aid you in your spiritual walk.
Respect them, love them, pray for them, respect their wives,
love their wives, love their families because they're there to just help you,
and let me say this, they're volunteers too,
so they're not necessarily doing it because they're getting paid or anything like that,
don't get any ideas because you're not going to get paid,
they're doing it to help you, so obviously they gain nothing from it,
like any monetary wealth, what they get out of it is your success, think about that.
You know what they gain from leading you is you succeeding in the Christian life.
You know what, my greatest joy as a pastor is just seeing Christians succeed and grow
and win souls to Christ, I love it, and you know what, I know that these men love it as well,
because they tell me, man, my team just got their first soul saved, they're doing so good,
they went through their introductions, I mean they have genuine joy over the success of the people on their teams.
So love them, you know, don't despise them, don't despise that position, it's part of this administration,
it's there to help you to grow. What's the point that I'm making in the sermon?
You know, church authority, that's the title of the sermon.
It's kind of showing you the various authorities in church and what they're for, what are the guidelines.
Let me say one last thing because I forgot regarding pastoral authority.
Okay, let me say this. Obviously, you know, the boundary for a pastor stops here, right?
Meaning that I can't determine what you're doing at home, right?
Like I'm not going to run your home. I have no authority to do that. I can't tell you what to do at home.
That's your sphere of judgment and influence, right? That's your area.
However, if you are posting sinful things that you do at home or anyone else, then it becomes our business, right?
That's common sense, but I just got to say that.
So obviously, I'm not looking like, hey, how do you run your home, you know?
Hey, what are you doing when you're outside of these doors? You know, that's your business.
Unless you post it on social media, then you have officially made it everyone else's business.
Because you're flaunting what it is that you're doing. You understand?
So now I do have to get involved. You know, if you're out there posting that you're drinking alcohol, you're partying,
you are involved in an inappropriate relationship, you are doing things that are contrary to the Bible,
yeah, you have the choice to do anything you want.
But folks, once it goes on social media, you've just invited everyone to see what you're doing. You understand?
So don't be surprised if we judge you for that.
Don't get mad when people in our church judge you for things that you post.
Is that weird or what? It's just like, "Why don't you mind your own business?"
Because you just made up my business. We follow each other.
You post it on your stories. And when you post something it's because you want everyone to see it.
Unless you have the green tab where it's only like a select few.
But if you're posting stuff, you know, just know it's for the public to see.
And be careful what you post online because it's forever.
All the cuss words, all the godlessness you post on there, it's forever.
And don't get mad when people judge you based upon what you post.
You should have thought about that before you hit post.
I'm not here looking to see like, all right, let's see what everyone is doing or whatever.
Let's see who I can get in trouble.
I'm just expecting to click on your stories and see just godly stuff, random stuff, you know, just nothing sinful.
But just remember, if you're mad at me, yeah, cats, Gio, little baby Gio walking and, you know,
Papa Gio doing something with plumbing or something like that.
Miss Ashley in her photo.
We all have something that we just grilling over here, smoking meat, you know.
Brother Carey's once a year post on his stories or something.
You know, we just expect to see the usual, right?
Michael Kassimov's weird, poetic, dark side, you guys don't know about that.
You know, there's certain things that we expect to see.
But look, folks, you know, if you're doing sinful stuff, don't get mad when we judge you,
because you wanted us to see it.
I can't believe people are judging me on my dress.
You posted it.
Woman, you're the one who put it on there.
What did you expect for us to do?
You intentionally put it on your stories,
put it on your grid for the world to see.
So expect judgment.
And you know what?
I don't try to surpass my boundaries of authority
unless you invite me into it.
And at that point now I have to say something.
If it's something sinful, right?
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for the authorities that you've given to us,
the church, the Bible,
pastors that you've given to us, Lord.
I pray, Father God, that you help us to respect
and love authority,
magistrates that put us to shame.
Obviamente sabemos que nos exorciban, nos construyen, nos enseñan, nos lead de la forma correcta, pero un buen líder también tiene que rechazar, tiene que reafirmar, corregir y poner a la vergüenza, Señor, para que nos mantengan en el camino correcto.
Y le bendigo, Señor, que te bendiga mientras nos vamos por el camino, te amamos, te agradezco, que te bendigas en el nombre de Dios, Amén.
en la primera versita.