welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all find our seats. Find a seat, grab a song book, turn to song number 255.
Song number 255.
Come and dine. Let's all stand together for this first song if you're able. Alright, song number
255. All together nice and strong on that first verse.
Jesus has a table spread where the saints of God are fed. He invites his chosen people. Come and dine.
With his man a heat of feed and supplies are every need. Oh, 'tis sweet to suck with Jesus all the time.
And dine the master, call it, come and dine.
Jesus' table all the time to whine the heart's desire. Bread and fish upon fire, thus he satisfies the hungry.
Every taster, come and dine.
The war and doubtfuls of him assemble beside all the saints as one this white.
And with Jesus, they will feast eternally.
Taster, come and dine. Jesus' table all the time.
Well, singing, let's start off our service with a word of prayer.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, we just thank you for giving us another day that we can come here to your house and hear the preaching of your word.
We ask that you bless our service this morning. Bless every aspect of it. Please bless the singing.
Let us prepare our hearts for the preaching Lord.
Most importantly, please fill Pasadena with your spirit as he preaches unto us.
And give us your spirit in the congregation as well, that we may leave here changed.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated.
Please turn your songbooks to song number 205.
Song number 205.
He keeps me singing.
Song number 205.
Altogether nice and strong in that first verse.
There's within my heart a melody.
Jesus whispers sweet and low.
That I am with thee, peace be still, in all of life's ebb and flows.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know.
Singing style, my life was wrecked by sin and strife.
Discord filled my heart with pain.
Just swept across the broken strings, served the slumbering chords again.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know.
Singing as I go, I sing on the riches of His grace.
Resting 'neath His sheltering wings, looking on His smiling face.
That is why I shout and sing.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, my singing as I go.
Sometimes He leans through waters deep, trials fall across the waves.
Sometimes the path seems rough and steep, see His footprints all the way.
Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know.
Singing as I's coming back to welcome me.
Far beyond the starry sky, shall we my flight to worlds unknown.
I shall reign with Him on high.
Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know.
Smiles me singing as I go.
Great singing, welcome to First Works Baptist Church, just a few announcements here.
Before we sing our next song, which will be 121, Like a River Glorious, if you want to get that
ready in your song books, 121. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand,
one of the ushers can get one for you. Some important information on there. Of course,
we welcome you to come back to our Sunday evening service at 5 p.m. and then our midweek Bible study.
We are a family integrated church, and so infants and children are always welcome in the service,
but for your convenience, we do have mother baby rooms located throughout the building.
Should your child need some diversion, changing tables, screens, and speakers are available there,
so you can still tune into the preaching and come back in at your discretion. You have the
soulening times and teams listed there in the middle and the list of expecting mothers. Continue
to pray for them. The stats for salvations and baptisms for the month of June. Great month there
on the bottom left-hand corner. On the right-hand side is the upcoming church events. Tonight is
our watermelon watermelon sunday and that'll be after the pm service. We're going to serve watermelon
for everyone who comes and so stick around for a little bit. And then the big thing we got going
on this week is our youth rally. Now there's a slight change that we made to the youth rally
and so please please pay attention to this announcement and that is that obviously the
youth rally is on friday at 7 pm so that has not changed at all and the schedule is still the same
meaning that there's going to be preaching at 10 30 in the morning uh and then there's going to be
lunch we'll head to camelot after camelot there'll be quiet time here at the building and then we'll
have the friday night preaching at seven and then pizza thereafter so the schedule for friday has
not changed at all and i just want to remind you that if you want to participate in the uh activity
the camelot activity you got to make sure you come to the preaching services both so the 10 30
and the seven o'clock one so keep that in mind the only change that we're making is that instead of
having our thursday service that friday will be our thursday service so that way you know those of
you who are coming on thursday you don't have to come back on friday it'll our friday will be our
midweek service so don't come here on thursday this week because if you do you might be converted
to the preacher of rapture or something i don't know but just make sure that you're here on friday
that will be our midweek service that we can get some preaching in and pizza as well after the
service and so we're looking forward to our youth rally it's going to be exciting and the
activities as well if you have any questions about that you can talk to myself or brother
hernandez for more details we have a mini soul winning marathon coming up on sunday july 20th
tj missus trip is coming up on saturday july 26th leaving the building at 9 15 a.m if you need a
ride there just make sure you bring your passport the expenses are paid for and you can communicate
with brother hernandez about that if you have any other questions please make sure you silence your
phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service and that is
it for our announcements let's go ahead and sing our next song 121 like a river glorious song number
121 like a river glorious. Altogether nice and strong on that first verse. Like a river glorious. God's perfect peace. Singing. This time the ushers will come forth to receive the offering. Turn your Bibles to 2nd Timothy chapter number 3. 2nd Timothy chapter 3. 2nd Timothy chapter number 3. 2nd Timothy chapter number 3 and the Bible reads. This know also that in the last days perilous time shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own self.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive, silly women, laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
So do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.
For that was fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured. But out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
And that from a child that was known the holy scriptures which were able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works.
Pray to the Lord God. Thank you again for this opportunity to meet in your house. Just ask that you would meet with us here now this morning. Please bless the customer here with your Holy Spirit, and in Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Amen. Okay, we are in 2nd Timothy chapter 3. Look down at your Bibles at verse number 10.
The Apostle Paul here is saying, "But thou has fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience."
He goes on to say, "Persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me."
And the title of my sermon this morning is "Distinctives of Being in IFB Church."
We've got a lot of new people in our church, and quite frankly, a lot of times people don't know what type of church we are.
They don't necessarily know how to verbalize it. They don't really know what independent, fundamental, Baptist means.
And even if they know that's the kind of church that they go to, that's the kind of church we are, they don't really know what it means, right?
They don't know what independent means. They don't know what it means to be a fundamentalist. And sometimes they just don't even know what it means to be a Baptist.
To them it's just, well, it's a Christian church where they preach the Bible, they believe the Bible.
And so this morning, I want you to know fully what the doctrine is. I want you to know our manner of life, our purpose, faith, etc.
And I like what the Apostle Paul is doing here because he's telling Timothy, "I'm not keeping anything from you. I'm not hiding who I am.
I'm not hiding my doctrine, my manner of life. Everything's out in the open for you to know exactly who I am."
Whereas the alternative to that is the false prophet who seeks to keep things in obscurity because he doesn't want you to know the truth.
Or maybe it's a watered down church, a watered down pastor that avoids labels because he doesn't want to scare anybody away, right?
But you know, the way I see that is you're just being deceitful.
You know, it's just like, well, we don't really like to use Baptist. We believe like Baptist.
But we don't like to use the term Baptist because we don't want to scare people away.
So basically what you're saying is that you're lying to people, right?
Basically what you're saying, you're being deceitful, you're lying to people because it's what you really believe.
But you don't want to communicate that to the congregation, number one, because you're ashamed of it.
Or number two, because of the fact that, you know, you want to utilize the fact that people know that you are a Bible believing church.
But, you know, you don't want that type of label because of what it's associated with.
Who knows what people, why people do those things.
But at the end of the day, we as a church should be out in the open about what we believe.
And we should seek to educate the congregation so that they fully understand what these labels mean.
And make no mistake about it, labels are important.
You know, no one goes to a grocery store and, you know, picks things just out of whim.
And, you know, you go to a restaurant and you're just like, "Just give me anything that's on the menu."
You're like, "I want to know."
I don't know about you, when I was a kid and the ice cream truck came, I want to see the pictures, right?
You guys know what I'm talking about?
The paletero would come by or the ice cream truck.
It's just like, I can't make a decision without the pictures, you know?
Where is the Ninja Turtle ice cream with the bubblegum eyes or the WWF ice cream or whatever?
I want to know what I'm getting into, you know?
If there's no picture, I'm not interested. Why?
Because I want to know what I'm eating, right?
Same thing with a menu.
You go to a restaurant, you go to a grocery store.
Labels matter because it lets you know what you're actually getting into.
And this is why when you come to our church, one thing that you see there,
it's called First Works Baptist Church.
And right under that, it says Independent Fundamental, okay?
And obviously, it's your job to research what that means.
But if not, don't worry. You have the sermon.
And now, I'm going to tell you what all three of those labels actually mean.
Now, let me read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 14 in that regard.
In verse number 7, it says, "And even things without life giving sound,
whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sound.
How shall it be known what is piped or harp?"
The Bible is telling us here that everything has a significance in its sound.
You know, our doctrine makes us distinct for, you know,
as far as amongst other churches is concerned.
What we believe.
And so it's important that when we sound forth the truth,
the preaching of God's word, when we talk about who we are,
we are distinct about it.
We're very specific regarding who we are, what we believe,
what type of church this is.
So let's get started here.
Go to Revelation chapter 2.
Revelation chapter 2.
The first thing I want to mention is that we are an independent church.
Now, what does that mean?
Well, another way of saying this is that we are autonomous,
meaning that we are self-governing.
We are not a part of a larger denomination.
There are a lot of Baptist churches, i.e. the Southern Baptist Church,
that essentially has a denomination or a headquarters
that determines what they preach, how they run their ministries,
and the pastor really has no liberty to choose what type of doctrine is to believe,
what type of doctrine is to preach.
And in fact, a lot of these churches have gone apostate
because of the fact that they are now ordaining women pastors,
something that is clearly against the Bible.
But hold on a second, if you're part of a denomination
and you're a pastor in that denomination, you have no say so in that, right?
Because you are not an independent, autonomous, self-governing church.
Well, the idea here of being an autonomous church
is that everything is taken care of in-house, right?
It's self-governing, it is self-sustaining, it is self-replicating.
This is what it means to be an independent church.
Now, another way to describe this is the fact that Jesus Christ is over this church.
He's over many churches, but he's specifically over this church,
meaning that he's the head of First Works Baptist Church, right?
Let me read to you from Colossians chapter 1, you're in Revelation chapter 2.
Colossians 1, 17 says, "And he," referring to Jesus, "is before all things,
and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church,
who is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence."
Ephesians chapter 5, verse 22 says this, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
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."
Now, sometimes people read this and think to themselves, well, isn't this a verse that proves the universal church?
Because he's saying that Christ is the head of the church.
Therefore, that would imply that it's referring to all churches and that all churches collectively refer to as the church.
Well, one thing you have to understand here is that he's writing to the Ephesian church, though.
And so this letter is specifically written to the believers at Ephesus.
So when the believers at Ephesus are reading this, they're like, oh, the church is referring to our church.
You know, when I talk about the church, I'm not talking about Faithful Word Baptist Church.
I'm not talking about Verity Baptist Church.
I'm not talking about, you know, whatever other churches are out there.
I'm talking about what? First Words Baptist Church.
Because I'm addressing the members of First Works Baptist Church.
So when this letter is being written and it's being read out loud,
the Ephesians know, always referring to the fact that Jesus is the head of this church.
What is the teaching here?
The teaching is that Jesus Christ is the one who heads over this church.
Okay, so we have a governing body you obviously have the earthly leader
Which is the pastor but above the pastor is the Lord Jesus Christ whom I am accountable to now you may think to yourself
Well, that's too much power for one man. You may think to yourself. Well, I don't think that you should be the only leader here
Well, here's the great thing about an independent church. You don't have to stay here, right?
If you don't agree with the administration, you don't agree with the doctrine. You don't agree with how things are being carried out
Everyone has the freedom and the liberty to leave any time they want which is why we are not a cult
Because cults try to keep people in
Independent churches give people the liberty to just leave whenever they want so people come at their own on their own volition
They choose to be here
And if you choose to be here you're choosing to submit yourself to the administration of this
Local congregation that has Christ as the head of the church now
Let's give another example of this because sometimes people think no I believe in a universal church
I think we are all the church and obviously that is a false doctrine
It's a catholic doctrine, but let me just explain to you
Why the the autonomous independent church is a biblical concept look at the revelation 2 verse number one
He says unto the angel of the church at Ephesus, right?
These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand
Who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks?
I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil
And thou has tried them which say they are apostles or not has found them liars and is born as have patience
And for my namesake has labored and is not fainted. So he is bragging at the church at Ephesus, right?
He's talking about the fact that they are doctrinally sound
They are proving all things holding fast that which is good. They're not allowing false prophets to infiltrate the church
These are some of the strong qualities of the church at Ephesus. He goes on to say in verse number four
Nevertheless, I have someone against thee because thou has left thy first love
Remember therefore once thou art fallen repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly
And will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent
So, you know, he's kind of doing an evaluation of the churches which are in asia and he tells him look you got a lot
Of strong qualities, but here's your weakness and that is that you don't preach the gospel anymore
You're not emphasizing this matter of soul winning. You've left your first love
And therefore you need to repent do the first works
Unless I come to you and basically take away your franchise. So he's rebuking them
He's correcting them and he's talking to the right. He says there I have somewhat against
The who is he talking to the church at ethesus, right now skip down to verse 18 if you would
Verse 18 says and unto the angel the church at thayatira, right these things say at the son of god
Who hath his eyes like into a flame of fire and his feet like into fine brass
I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the last to be more than the first
Notwithstanding. I have a few things against thee
Addressing the church at thayatira because thou suffers that woman jezebel which called calls herself a prophetess
To teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eating sacrifice and titles now
What's the point that i'm trying to get out here?
You have two different churches
With two different sets of problems and both of them have strong points
They have strong qualities, but they also have weaknesses and I want you to notice that christ is heading over each of them
Separately you see when he addresses the church at ephesus. He's not saying hey all you guys have these issues
Right thou referring to all churches has have left thy first love
No, he's saying no the church at ephesus left the first love
You know the church of thier is the one who's allowing jezebel to come and preach, you know, what's the point here?
The point is god doesn't view all churches as a unison
one single universal church
He addresses each church individually meaning that he heads over every specific church
distinctly one from another and this is a perfect example over here right revelation two and three
Jesus christ is writing to the seven churches which are in asia and he addresses them
Separate one from another some of them have strengths some of them have weaknesses
And he specifically points out both in every single church, right?
And in fact, you know, you have the church at smirna who essentially is a great church
Nothing negative is said about the church at smirna and you know what today you have churches like that
Okay, so christ is the head of this church
And so, you know if if we if the pastor here is rebuking the church for a specific sin
For a specific ideology, it doesn't mean that the church is down the street
That's a fundamental baptist church is guilty of that same ideology and practice, right?
So you can't lump us in with that church. Why not because we're independent
So obviously the church at smirna was doing a great job here fulfilling the work of god and therefore there were praise of the lord
Jesus christ
Whereas you have the church of thayatira that was ordaining joyce meyers or whatever to come and preach at their church
God isn't happy with that church. Then you have the church at laodicea who's a lukewarm church
God's not happy with that church
But the rebuke that lay the delay the seans receive isn't necessary designated for the church at effesus because he's dealing with them
What independently this is a strong point very strong evidence to point to the fact that god deals with churches
independently, that's why we're called
independent churches because of the fact that we are self-governing and look
We're dealing with weaknesses here. We are accentuating the strengths here as well
And yeah, do we preach against the sins of other churches? Of course we do and in fact when they're reading these letters
What are they doing? They're also sharing them. So the church at effesus is just like oh man, you know
Yeah, we're doing pretty bad, but you guys hear about latency, you know
Their their year end evaluation was really bad
You know their luke god said he's going to spew them out of his mouth and then ty tar has got a woman preacher
So yeah, you know, we just got to get back to soulening
But man, at least we don't have women preachers here or something, you know
Now why would god do that because of the fact that you know
He wants one church to view the weaknesses of others and say stay away from doing that
So he's kind of airing out the dirty laundry of other churches
With the intent that the churches that are receiving those letters that are not necessarily designated for them
Look at that and say, okay
We got to make sure that we keep women preachers out of the pulpit
We got to make sure that we stay hot for god not be lukewarm
But then also, you know, they look at the strengths of the churches and say oh man, we got to be like the church at ephesus
Don't we have a false apostle in our church?
I thought you know, I heard you're trying to be patient with a false prophet here and you know
You're trying to win them over to christ. Apparently they don't even let them in the church
We got to be more strict because they're strict over there. And so it works as an example
But at the end of the day, he is addressing them specifically because they're independent
So, you know we could look at another church down the street or in another state
And maybe they might be a independent fundamental baptist church and they have some strengths and we can say you know
What we need to like adopt some of their practices
You know adopt some of their work ethic. We need to adopt some of their administration because they have a strong
Quality in this specific area or we could look at another independent fundamental baptist church and say
Man, that church is very weak in this particular area
We need to make sure we abstain from being like that
But at the end of the day the punishment that god institutes upon that church for their weaknesses
We don't get that punishment because we're separate churches. We're independent
Okay now go with me if you would to uh, first peter chapter five first peter chapter five
So if someone ever asks you where's the concept of independent churches in the bible?
Well, first of all, you can tell them how about the fact that there is the church at corinth
There is the church at ethesis the church at colossi the church at philipi, which is proof that there's
Separate churches that are being addressed separately
But you can say go go read revelation two two and three and it'll show you the concept of independent churches the fact that
Jesus christ who's the head of all churches
Is dealing with each church independently one from another. Okay, that is proof
And so, you know, it's important for us to remain independent and it's important for us to as I mentioned sometime last year
That we are gathered together as a congregation
Because of beliefs because of convictions not because we hate a particular church hate a particular pastor
Or because we love a particular church or love a particular pastor
We need to be unified around the truth, right?
And stay independent because of the fact that sometimes churches outside of our church can go awry
They can be led astray
They can have weaknesses and if that happens, it doesn't affect us because of the fact that we're independent and look there was a temptation
There was somewhat of a of a inclination, you know a couple months ago for people to think
Denominationally, right? It's just like oh man, you know something's going on in a different state with another pastor
I'm gonna leave this church. Just like what is that? You obviously are not an independent
Baptist if that's you why because of the fact that if that's taking place over there
You know if that's taking place at pergamos, it doesn't affect emphasis
Now can we read the letter to pergamos and learn from it? Of course, but it shouldn't affect your membership at emphasis
You understand why because we're independent and so that's important for us to not adopt a denominational way of thinking
Okay, and that is the danger, you know, obviously we want to associate with be friends
Be friends with churches that are like-minded and when we say like-minded we don't mean churches that are just exactly like us
Or that we are exactly like them because god does like a sense of diversity within churches
Which is why the bible teaches that the spirit, you know, there's differences of administration
There's differences of offices, but it's the same spirit to profit with all so god works in each church individually
He's doing a great work in each church individually
But we never want to adopt a denominational think way of thinking where it's just like well
If we deviate from a particular practice or if we have a different interpretation somehow, you know
We're just not
Baptist anymore or something like that. Now, obviously if a church gets involved in damnable heresy, then you have an issue, right?
You know even within the last I want to say six months or something
There's independent fundamental baptist churches that I know
That we would consider to be new ifb churches and man they've gone off the they've gone off the cliff doctrinally teaching some weird stuff
And they've deviated from the distinctives of being an ifb even an ifb church
It's like they haven't even it's not just deviated from being a new independent fundamental baptist
They're deviating even from being just a fundamental baptist
Okay, and so thankfully because we're not a denomination. It doesn't mean we go apostate, right?
Because we can separate from those churches separate from those pastors
separate from that tip of that little movement or whatever they got going
And not have any association with that because of their damnable heresy and so that's important now
Jesus christ is the head of this church, but from an earthly perspective the pastor is the leader of this church
Okay, i'll read to you from first timothy. You are in first peter first timothy 3 1 says
This is a true saint if a man desired the office of a bishop
He desired a good work and let me just explain to you that bishop in the bible is synonymous with pastor
so terms like bishop elder
pastor the presbytery
These are all
Terms used to describe a pastor. Okay
So you might have seen that term when you're reading the bible the presbytery
It's referring to the elders of the church the pastors of the church
Okay
So it's saying here that if a person desires to be a pastor a bishop and you say well, why don't you call yourself bishop?
Well because of the fact that you know over the years, you know certain terms become tainted, right?
it's the same reason why I don't call myself an elder because you have something called the Mormon tabernacle that has hijacked that term unfortunately and
Turned it into what it is now these 10 speeders with short sleeves, you know kind of thing
And so the same thing with bishop, right? Bishop often can have a connotation with
Catholicism but also with these like southern
Baptist black type churches like Reverend Bishop whatever, you know, and that's not our
Persuasion either okay, I think a good middle ground is just pastor
That's something that everyone's familiar with and it says here a bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife
Vigilant sober of good behavior given to hospitality apt to teach
He goes on to say in verse 4 one that ruleeth well his own house having his children in subjection with all gravity
For if a man do not have to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?
so it's obviously telling us here that the pastor the bishop who's pastoring the church has the responsibility of
caring for the house of God he is taking the oversight the
Leadership over the house of God. Okay. Look at first Peter chapter 5 verse number 1
So in first Timothy chapter 3 that he's called the bishop Peter here uses the term elder
He says the elders which are among you I exhort who am also an elder
So Peter is a pastor as well and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed
Feed the flock of God, which is among you taking the oversight thereof. What does that mean?
It means the pastor oversees the affairs of the church not just the preaching but even
Individual people he helps them with their issues
He admonishes them. He disciples them. He trains them. He meets with them. He counsels them
He is overseeing the spiritual matters of the individuals of the church
He says not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind
Mean that the pastor is to oversee the church and not be like, oh, yeah, I got a pastor today
I gotta help you. I gotta preach
And saying you should do it willingly not by constraint. I just have to do no
You know, there's times, you know, I'll just be honest with you
Well, you know, I'm a man. I'm a man. I got I'm flesh. Sometimes it is by constraint
Okay, not all the time but sometimes but I would say the vast majority of the time
90% of the time I'm being generous 90% it is willingly. I love I love doing what I do. I love to preach
I love being around God's people. I love being around you. I love helping you. I love discipling you. I love counseling you
I love seeing you make strides spiritually in your life
I love seeing you succeed as a Christian to win souls to Christ to you know
Repent of your sins to get right with God. I love it. Therefore I do it willingly, right?
And it says not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind meaning no prosperity gospel preachers
You know doing it because you want to make money off of the ministry
That is a sign and indicator a distinctive of a false prophet
He says neither as being lords over God's heritage
But being examples to the flock and when the chief shepherds shall appear you shall receive a crown of glory
that fadeth not away the point that I'm making here is the Apostle Peter is obviously addressing the fact that the earthly leader of a
Local church is the pastor himself now
I'm not I don't have time to develop this but obviously as the church grows other pastors can be ordained for this particular church
But it would have to be a very large congregation, you know at that point you would we would have deacons
we would have ordained pastors in order to essentially kind of
Help with the work that's being that's being done help other people with their problems counseling discipling
That is something that takes place as the church continues to grow in size and in number go to Acts chapter 20
Acts chapter 20 if you would as you're turning to Acts 20
I'm gonna reach you from Acts chapter 14 in verse 23. This is referring to the Apostle Paul and
Barnabas it says and when they had ordained them elders in every church meaning that they are ordaining
pastors to take over the churches that are in this particular region in
Antioch it says and I prayed with fasting they
Commended them to the Lord on whom they believe. This is another way of saying
This is another way of communicating the fact that now they are independent
When you commend someone unto the Lord a pastor or a church it means
Your the umbilical cord is completely cut. You are officially your own person who is under the Lord
It's basically saying Lord I trust you with this person and I'm trusting you with the work of the Lord
That's what it means to and commend them unto the Lord. You're exalting them unto God. You're commending them unto God
You're saying now if God's gonna do a work in that church
It's because you had a hold of God not because I got a hold of God because now we are completely separate independent
That's what it means to commend them Acts 20 verse 28
Says take heed therefore unto yourselves into all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost had made you overseers
To feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood for I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves
referring to false prophets
Entering among you not sparing the flock the flock is referring to the members
He says also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them
Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years
I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears and now brethren
I commend you to God and to the word of his grace
Which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified
So the Apostle Peter's meeting with these elders. We don't know how many there are
Let's just say there's about ten and this is gonna be the last time he counsels them
He disciples them because there are congregations that are in need of a pastor and so he's giving them the last, you know
Set of instructions make sure you're feeding the flock. There's gonna be false prophets that are gonna arise
And then once he's done, he says alright, I'm committing you to God. I'm just leaving you in God's hands now, right?
And and I'm leaving you in the hands of the Word of God as well. That's what it means to become independent
He's like now you're officially independent
So initially when these churches started they were not independent because they had one overseer, which is the Apostle Paul
They have one overseer, which is the Apostle Peter. They're the ones who essentially started his churches, but like anything else
Eventually those churches need to go independent. They need to be separated
Okay, and you know, I want to start churches one day and I think in the early years of our church
I was a little premature in my desire to start churches and I feel like God
prevented me from starting churches because if you've been here since the old building you guys remember I'm like hey
We're starting church in Ohio
It's gonna happen and everyone's like and then you know
Some deacons wife at that church is just like we cannot have him be our pastor
No way, you know who that guy is and you know, and then they're like, oh you can't come anymore
It's just like just kidding. We're not starting church anymore
You know and this happened like multiple times and I'm kind of thankful for that though
It was a headache
But I'm thankful because of the fact that it would have been a huge mess
It had the potential to be a huge mess
You know, we've seen in times past churches that were started and then really bad people came out of those, you know
There are leaders of those churches and they ended up, you know creating more problems for not that not just that church
But even our church even though we're independent, right?
I mean some some major false prophets came out of that and so there can be some some major issues when this happens and so my
My desire would be to start churches
But not for a really long time because of the fact that you know
I'm I'm sure that some of the men in this church will end up, you know
Taking over the churches that we start one day
But at least I'll get about ten years out of you to see how solid you are in your doctrine with your family
You know and who you are and then at that point I'll commend you unto the Lord, but we're not there yet
So the point that I'm making here is the fact that a distinctive of being an independent Baptist Church is the fact that we are
Autonomous separated do not adopt a
Denominational way of thinking and here's a way you can practically not do that and that is don't compare us to other churches
Just because something is done at a different church doesn't mean it has to be done at this church
Now that is a temptation for babes in Christ often who may have been reached through other pastors and other churches to often think
Well, that's how they do it over there. So that's how it should be done here wrong
If this is an independent church that has its own office in administration now
This is not I'm not being a hater towards the administrations of other churches
Because if it works for them, praise God and and I encourage people to go to churches like that
However, you need to make sure that you understand that this church is first works Baptist Church
You know, yeah, do we adopt the practices and beliefs of other churches? Of course, but it doesn't mean that we have to adopt everything
Okay, so, you know never have this mentality or you have to preach like this. You have to
You know have the ministry like this
You have to be able to do this because if you're associated with these groups of churches you have to be just like this wrong
We're independent. Okay. All right, let's move on here
So distinctives of an IFB church is that we're independent meaning that God is the head
Jesus Christ is the head of this church and he deals with different churches distinctively one from another
Secondly, I want to mention is that we are fundamentalists. Okay, what does that mean?
Here's the simplest way to describe that to define this we're Bible believing Christians. Now, where does the term fundamentalist come from?
Okay. Well, this actually arose towards that like the 19th century
And let me just start off by saying that all churches and all Christians were fundamentalists throughout history since the New Testament
Right. They've always been Bible believing Christians. Okay, the term itself had to be made as a
response to liberalism, infiltrating churches. So every church is a fundamentalist church. They believe in the fundamentals of the
faith. But then, you know, men started arising out of those churches, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after
them. They started teaching that Jesus Christ is not God. The bodily resurrection is false. Jesus Christ is not
returning. The word of God is not perfect, yet they're still holding to these labels of being a Christian, of being, you
know, believing in God. So now you have a division towards the 19th century of Christians saying, wait, hold on a
second. Yes, we do believe in the virgin birth. What are you talking about? Jesus Christ did resurrect bodily. That
is an essential faith doctrine of the faith to believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. And yes, the word
of God is inerrant. It is infallible. So now you have this division of Christians who are denying those
things. And they're like, no modern discoveries, archaeological discoveries have shown that, you know,
blah, blah, this and that about the Bible. And, you know, the whole belief about Jesus Christ resurrect
and bodily, that is not true. This is what this manuscript says. This is what this scholar stated. And
so they start questioning key doctrines of the faith. So now you have two groups of those who
are liberals, these modernists, who are believing these doctrines. And then you have fundamentalists
that say, no, I'm going to hold to the fundamentals of the faith. So now a label has to be made,
because when someone goes to that church, they need to know, is this a liberal church? Now,
when we think of liberal church, we think of like the purple lights, rock music or whatever, right?
That's how we view a liberal church, the CCM, the gay pastor, whatever, all that. But liberal
churches, what it actually is, is when they're liberal in their theology, is when they question
key doctrines of the faith. Because the quote unquote liberal church that we think of actually
does believe in the fundamentals of the faith. They just, they're just weak on it, right? Like
their doctrinal statement has that they believe in the virgin birth. And if you were to talk to the
pastor and say, do you believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ? Of course. Do you believe
in salvation by grace through faith alone? Yes. Whereas liberalism is referring to the denial
of those key doctrines of salvation by grace through faith alone. And so then arose this
movement of various churches, not just Baptist, but Protestant churches that became known as the
fundamentalists. And it was a fundamentalist movement in order to defend the doctrines of
the faith to say, we believe in these foundational truths of the Bible. It's not going to change
because if the foundation would be destroyed, what can the righteous do? So this is why I say that
another way of saying fundamentalist is Bible believing. In other words, if the Bible says it,
we believe it. If the Bible says that Jesus Christ is going to bodily return, we believe it. It's a
visible return of Christ. We believe it. The Bible says that salvation is by grace through faith
alone. We believe it. The Bible says that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. We believe it.
We reject liberalism and modernism. Now today, the liberalism, how does it look? It's the
Methodist Church, the Lutheran Church, okay? I can't think of another one, the Episcopalian Church,
right? These are churches that have bought into liberalism or liberal theology, which is why they
don't just have women pastors, they have homo pastors, okay? They're basically apostates is
what they are, okay? Grievous wolves who have entered in, not sparing the flock, teaching
perverse things to draw away disciples after them. So this is why there's a need for the term
fundamentalist. So when you go to a church, you want to know, does this church believe in the
fundamentals of the faith, right? It's important. So in general, people would say there's only five
fundamentals, but quite frankly, every, you know, there's, there's, you can go to Hebrew six and
it gives you a slew of fundamental doctrines of the faith. And so the inerrancy of scripture,
salvation by grace through faith alone, things of that nature. Go to Colossians chapter two,
if you would Colossians two Colossians chapter two. So we're independent and we're also
fundamental. We're fundamentalist Baptists, fundamentalist Christians. We hold to the
fundamentals of the faith. And we would actually, this church would actually be a little more
extreme than your general fundamentalist groups because of the fact that you have Presbyterians,
you have reformers, Protestant churches that would associate with or claim to be fundamentalist. But
then they use like an ESV or something. We're so strict on our fundamentalism is like, no,
we actually believe that there's only one good translation in English and that's the King James
Bible. Okay. Now look at Colossians two. This is a great passage to describe the distinction
between the liberalism and the fundamentalism of Christianity. Colossians two, six says,
"As he have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord so walking in him, rooted and built up in
him, established in the faith as he had been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving."
And I want you to notice verse eight, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and
vain deceit after the tradition of men and after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ."
Now, what is a rudiment? Rudiment is that which is foundational. So he's saying here that there's
going to be people who are trying to trick you, spoil you through the foundations of Christ. No,
the foundations of the world, the foundational teachings of what the world teaches like evolution,
right? Philosophy, vain deceit, that which is not rooted in God's word, Christians can become
spoiled through that, deceived through that, which is why he says you need to make sure that you're
rooted and built up in Christ, which is our foundation. Okay. This is essentially referring
to the fundamentalist mentality, the fundamentalist philosophy in our church. Now, let me also say
this because this is important. And I think this is important only because it's really popular
right now. And I'm not saying that this is a fundamental of the faith, but it's strongly
associated with who we are as fundamentalist Christians, Baptists. Okay. And that is
what we believe about end times. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, if you want to describe
what our position is in general, as far as end times prophecy is concerned, here's a great way
to describe it. Describe it. We are pre-millennial. Notice I didn't say pre-trib though. Okay. Because
you know, you hear pre and you're just like, whoa, hold on. I was like, what? What do you mean pre?
No, no, no. We're not pre-trib, but we are pre-millennial in Christendom. And I'm using
that term loosely. There's essentially three positions when it comes to end times prophecy.
Okay. You have pre-millennials, post-millennials and all millennials. All right. Pre-millennial is
essentially referring to the fact that we believe that Jesus Christ bodily returns before the
millennial reign. So why do you believe that? Because that's what the Bible teaches. Post-millennial
is the belief that Jesus Christ returns after the thousand-year reign. You say where do they get
that from? The devil. Who else? Because it's absolutely absurd to think that the Bible teaches
or to interpret the Bible as to say that Jesus Christ returns after the thousand-year reign of
Christ. Like he's just late to the party. Okay. Now I'll get on that in just a bit, but the third
position is all-millennial, which means they don't even believe in that. They just don't believe in
it. In the millennial reign of Christ, they don't believe he's going to bodily return.
They're just all-millennialists. Okay. And that is a very small group. Not small group, but that is
a group that we wouldn't even consider to be necessarily Christian because they're Catholics.
Catholics believe they're all-millennialists. Whereas you have Christians in Protestant churches
and possibly some in Baptist churches that are post-millennialists. Now this is a dangerous
doctrine. Let me explain to you why it's dangerous. And it's catching a lot of momentum right now
because of the internet. And one thing that I've noticed is that you know a lot of people are just
educated in false doctrine. Not in the Bible. They're educated in false doctrine. So there's
enough false doctrine, enough information on false doctrine permeating the internet that can just
spoil people and cause them to believe a lie. And this is one of them. And you know this is largely
because of the this is largely due in part to people's rejection to the Jews in Israel.
Okay, I'm not doing a major leap here. I'm explaining something here. You know, because
people are so against the Jews, they're so against Israel, then naturally they would be against the
pre-tribulation rapture because it's so closely associated to Zionism. Because Zionism and the
pre-tribulation rapture go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other, right? These are the
staple doctrines of dispensationalism is Zionism and the pre-tribulation rapture. Well people,
because of the internet and there's a lot of information out there, they're starting to
realize hey the Jews are not God's chosen people. Zionism has infiltrated churches. It's a political
agenda that has infiltrated churches and you know they're misusing scripture and so they see that
and they're like okay well let's just reject everything associated with Zionism, the pre-tribulation
rapture and Israel. And what it does is it moves them to the opposite extreme which is called
post-millennialism. Because of the fact that the pre-tribulation rapture, though erroneous, is still
pre-millennial. You understand what I'm saying? Because here's the thing, folks. We get on our
pre-trib cousins a lot. We just do not let them live it down. And we're not going to let them live
it down, right? We're just constantly getting on our fundamental Baptist brethren about the timing
of the rapture. We tell them it's after the tribulation. It's clearly what the Bible teaches.
I mean, there's just no mistake about that. But at the end of the day, let me just be real honest
with you. They are more right though than the post-millennialists. Because at least they got the timing of
somewhat when he comes back. At least they believe like us that it's before the millennium.
Whereas because there's such a knee-jerk reaction to Zionism and Jews, they're like, oh, let's just
reject anything pre-millennial. Let's just believe that everything already happened. This is known as
preterism. Let's just believe that, you know, the beginning of the New Testament, listen to me, the
beginning of the New Testament began in 70 AD with the destruction of the temple, which is just
absolutely absurd as well. Let's just believe that the Antichrist already came, Antiochus epiphanies,
or in other cases, you have Titus, the Roman emperor Titus, depending on what level of
preterism you're in. Let's just believe these things already happened because the Jews are
just that bad. And here's the danger, folks, is that, you know, one thing can be wrong without
another thing being wrong, you know? And we just need to make sure we got our screws on straight
and we go with what the Bible says, okay? Because look, on social media, my content is really
popular against Israel and the Jews right now. But, oh man, when I mentioned the rapture though,
there's like, oh, no rapture, there's no such thing as a rapture. I agree with you on everything
else except for the rapture. It's just like, whoa, whoa, Nellie, whoa, hold on a second.
The rapture's real. Show me where it says rapture in the Bible. Well, show me where it says Trinity
in the Bible doesn't say Trinity, but the Trinity is biblical. The term Bible's not even used in the
Bible. Okay. And she's like, no, no, no, this thing is rapture. And, and so they, they reject
premillennialism because of the Jews and because of Israel. When the biblical position of fundamental
Baptist is that we all believe in premillennialism. The only thing we disagree on is where exactly
does it take place? Now let me explain to you why post-millennialism is dangerous because what is
the belief of post-millennialists? They believe that Jesus Christ will return after the millennium
once we have Christianized the world. So like once Christians have permeated all of society,
political realms, and offices, churches, the gospel spread, everyone becomes a Christian,
then Jesus Christ returns. Well let me just give you a little hint here that's never going to
happen, okay? It's just never going to happen. Just like they're never going to bring the Epstein
files out, it's just never going to happen, okay? It's just never going to happen. Let me explain
to you why. Because narrow is the way. The Bible talks about broad is the way that leads to
destruction and many there be which go in there at. The Bible never teaches that this world will
become Christianized before the millennium or even in the millennial reign. Because in the millennial
reign you have bad people there too. How do you know? Well where do you think all the people
come from with the battle of Gog and Magog who are turning against God? You understand? The only
time everyone becomes Christian is once the new heaven and the new earth take place and sin is
completely removed. Satan is removed. Hell is cast into the lake of fire after the white throne
judgment. Then you have the new heaven and new earth. The unregenerated aspect of this world is
completely removed and now you only have saved people. You have Jesus Christ, God the Father,
the new Jerusalem. That's long into the future but before that's just not going to happen.
This is why I don't put my faith in politics. Oh if we could just bring Christian reform to this
world and you know if we could just elect the right person in the office and I know you Trumpsters
out there you're mad at me go ahead tune me out. Glad you little post-millennial. You know at the
end of the day they believe that. They believe through you know political uh efforts through
christianization that you know we're gonna have christ return but that that's just not how it
works okay and in fact the only time the entire world listen to me will be in lockstep one with
another worshiping the same god is when the antichrist takes over it's called the new world
order okay so this is the danger of ushering in the kingdom it's just not going to happen okay
and the bible consistently teaches that you know a remnant shall be saved okay and so you know part
of being a fundamentalist baptist is what we're pre-millennial now we're post-trip pre-wrath but
still it's in that segment of time known as before the millennium okay and the millennium is a thousand
years and this is by the way this is one thing that post-millennials millennialists can't answer
because they'll say like we're in the millennium like hold on a second how is that so how's that
possible if more than a thousand years has passed since christ came and they're like well it's
symbolic symbolic how is that how is a thousand years symbolic a thousand years is symbolic of
two thousand years nonsense my friends i wanted to chase that rabbit obviously and i'm not saying
that is a fundamental of the faith but it is associated with fundamentalist christians to
believe in premillennialism we need to make sure that post-millennialism does not infiltrate our
church you know and if it does peep its head here we need to shame it debunk it refute it and not
i'm not allow people to just you know recruit others to their preterist view of the bible claiming
that these things have passed already and let me just remind you that preterism is in the bible
there's people that were thrown out of the church because they were teaching that the resurrection
was passed already and overthrow the faith of some and so that already existed and guess what
it was a false doctrine and didn't the apostle paul when he's writing to the church at thessalonica
he's saying like you know he's trying to tell him like hey christ is not returned yet let no man
deceive you you know that it's at hand and he's telling about all the things that have to take
place first why because there's there's predators back then as well who are teaching this nonsense
okay we're pre-millennialists in this church all right and so let's move on here go to act chapter
eight if you would act chapter eight so we covered the independent aspect of our beliefs the distinctive
of being independent meaning that we're autonomous churches christ is the head of this church deals
with us distinctly different from other churches has the same standard for our church as he has
for other churches but deals with us completely different because we're independent autonomous
self-governing we are also fundamentalists meaning that we're bible believing christians
we hold to the fundamentals of the faith we hold to what the bible teaches about salvation the
return of jesus christ the bodily resurrection the virgin birth things of that nature but we
are also baptist so this would make us uniquely different from other fundamentalists such as the
non-denom churches right because we are independent fundamental baptist now why are we called
baptist well pastors because of john the baptist no that's not the reason why we call ourselves
baptist no that's just that's a really good uh name right john the baptist is great you know and
and notice he's not his name is not john the catholic john the presbyterian john the uh the
the episcopalian and you know one more loss for the catholic who claims to have given us the
bible you know why didn't you name him john the catholic okay if you if you guys gave it to us
why do we call ourselves baptist well because we baptize believers by immersion after salvation
so baptist is associated with the act of physically baptizing someone but it carries
with it the connotation that those who immerse the body completely in water believe that this
person was saved prior to that so anytime you hear about a baptist automatically you have this
association oh this person believes in salvation by grace to faith and that you should baptize
believers right meaning that they reject we reject baptismal regeneration furthermore because we're
baptists we believe that people should be fully immersed in water not sprinkled okay we're not we
don't have a cup and we're just pouring water over your head or whatever and it also means that we
don't believe in baptizing babies now believe it or not there are protestants who do this who claim
to be fundamentalists and you don't you believe it's speaking for their salvation like no no it's
not for salvation it's just a covenant that we're that the parents are making oh i'm sorry then
you're not a fundamentalist because you can't point to a verse in the bible in in the word of
god that actually teaches that no verse in the bible number one that commands for us to baptize
babies but number two that even has an example or an inkling that anybody was baptized as a baby
doesn't exist the only baptism that any child has ever received is when they're exiting their
mother's matrix to come into this world but other than that doesn't exist my friends it's not real
but yet you have these protestants trying to justify baptizing babies and all it is is
catholic light because catholics believe that you could wash away the sins of the child or whatever
the original sin at baptizing them does not exist in the bible this is why we call ourselves
baptists and you're like well you know we shouldn't use all these labels well i want to use the label
because i don't want to be associated with the protestant who baptizes babies i don't want to
be associated with the congregation list that baptizes babies i don't want to be associated
with the lutheran or the the protestant the the the presbyterian that believes in baptizing babies
doesn't exist i don't want to be associated with the protestant who still wears the bandaid over
his neck and looks like a catholic so therefore i'm not just an independent christian i'm not
just a fundamentalist christian i'm an independent fundamental baptist meaning i only baptize those
who have publicly made a profession of faith they've called upon the name of the lord and
therefore they want to identify with the death prayer and resurrection of jesus christ by being
fully immersed in water and being fully taken out no sprinkling and look baptism literally means
immersion by the way doesn't mean sprinkling i'm studying greek i see it it's not there it's not
sprinkling it literally means to completely go in the water and look baptism is done to symbolize
what the death of jesus christ was it only the head of christ that went into the grave or something
or what did they only sprinkle a little bit of dirt on his head when they buried him no he fully
went into the grave and he fully came out buried in the likeness of his death because he fully
went in raised to walk in newness of life because he fully came out so how do you justify sprinkling
babies sprinkling people you know if baptism literally means to be fully immersed into the
water just as christ was fully immersed into the grave it's nonsense i'll tell you why i'll tell
you why people believe it because it's the rudiments of this world that's why they didn't
get it from jesus christ now let me just do a commercial break here and say that if you've
been saving you've not been baptized you need to get baptized today and baptism does not save you
okay it cannot save you it will not save you it could barely clean the dirt off your skin it's
simply symbolic and here's the proof that it can't save you the bible says that the gospel is the
power of god into salvation to everyone that believe it to the jews first and also to the
greek and the apostle paul stated in first corinthians chapter one that christ sent them
not to baptize well that would be a contradictory statement if baptism can save you since he's
clearly saying in romans one that the gospel is the power god into salvation but then he says well
but i'm not being sent to baptize it's clear showing us that there's a distinction between
baptism and the gospel the gospel saves baptism comes afterwards let's look at an example here
acts chapter 8 and verse 35 says then philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture
and preached unto him jesus and as they went on their way they came into certain water and the
eunuch said see here's water what does it mean to be baptized and philip said if thou believest
with all thine heart thou mayest and he answered and said i believe that jesus christ is the son
of god by the way verse 37 is removed from most modern versions of the bible okay verse 38 says
and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water both philip
and the eunuch and he baptized him and when they were come up out of the water how do you come up
out of the water if you're being sprinkled the spirit of the lord caught away philip and the
eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing so we see that the prerequisite to
getting baptized is you have to believe on the lord jesus christ you said what if i don't believe
what if i don't get baptized after i believe on jesus christ you're just being disobedient there's
no easier way of saying it you're just being disobedient you're just not obeying the word of
the lord well i love god well if you love me keep my commandments well that's just you know that's
just what that's just bible and so you know uh you can you can verbally say you love the lord
jesus christ but if you've been saved you've not been baptized you know they're just vain words
because the bible command god commands you to be baptized okay and so uh the water is ready for
you after the service and it's ready to to for your first step of obedience go to philippians
chapter one philippians chapter one so to be baptist is essentially associated with what we
believe about salvation right i thought it was associated with baptism it is because of the
fact of what we believe about salvation you know we baptize converts those who have uh called upon
the name of the lord they believed on the lord jesus christ and they they identify with christ
in believers baptism here's the fourth thing i want to mention here and that is when it comes
to ifb churches we proactively win souls to christ meaning that we believe in the ministry
of soul winning okay now churches will call it outreach they'll call it evangelism they'll
call it uh what else do they call it cody what do they call it door knocking what is it visitation
and these things aren't necessarily inherently wrong or bad but it kind of takes away from what
what it actually is and that is winning souls to christ because the bible talks about that the fruit
of the righteous is the tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise and that's exactly what
we're doing when we're preaching the gospel we're going out there and we're winning that soul
to the lord jesus christ look at philippians chapter one and verse number six this is something that
is associated with being a baptist in ifb church it says in verse number six being confident of
this very thing that he which has begun a good work and you will perform it until the day of christ
day excuse me day of jesus christ even as it is me for me to think this of you all
because i have you in my heart in as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel ye are all partakers of my grace skip down to verse 12 but i would you should
understand brethren that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather
until the furtherance of the gospel so in verse six he talks about the confirmation of the gospel
verse 12 he talks about the furtherance of the gospel look at verse 16 he says the one preach
christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds but the other of love
knowing that i am set for the defense of the gospel we have the confirmation of the gospel
the furtherance of the gospel the defense of the gospel look at verse 27 he says only let your
conversation conversation is another way of saying your conduct your behavior the way you act in
church only let your conversation be as it becomeeth the gospel of christ that whether i come and see
you or else be absent i may hear of your affairs they stand fast in one spirit and i want you to
notice this reading in your bibles with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel
sounds to me like the apostle paul is just telling them hey you guys need to be preaching the gospel
defend the gospel confirm the gospel the furtherance of the gospel and he says strive together for the
of the faith of the gospel.
What is he saying?
Be a soul winning church.
You see a lot of churches,
the evangelism ministry is only for like a select few.
So like the pastor or something.
It's for the full-time Christian leaders
or something like that.
Whereas the Bible teaches that soul winning is for everyone.
It is for you and your wife and your husband
and your children.
It is for the evangelists.
It is for the pastor.
It is for the pastor's wife.
It is for every single person who attends our church.
Their responsibility, God's will for their life
is to go out and win souls to Christ.
You're like, well, I'm not really gifted in that area.
That's okay, you don't have to be.
Preaching the gospel does not require being gifted.
It just requires willingness.
It requires the discipline to learn the Roman's road,
the gospel message, and the boldness
to actually go out there and do it.
Well, that's good for everyone else.
It's easy for you to say, you speak every single week,
you're behind the pulpit, you're teaching the Bible,
but hold on a second, there was a time when I was not
doing this and I was preaching the gospel,
only preaching the gospel.
This is something that is designated
for every single Christian, and one distinctive
of fundamental Baptist churches is this,
we're soul-winning churches.
We have an objective as a congregation
to win souls to Christ every single week,
every single month throughout the year,
we wanna see people saved, which is why we tally up
how many people we get saved.
Well, I don't think that's right, you know,
I think we should be humble about this
and not talk about the numbers.
You give me a person who says that,
I give you a person who doesn't go preach the gospel.
That's typically the case.
The person who's critical of preaching the gospel
and going out sewing is the person who doesn't do it.
That's a fact, okay?
And the person who wants to correct you and say,
well, that's not the right way to preach the gospel,
you just give me a person who says that,
you're giving me a person who doesn't know
how to preach the gospel at all.
They don't do it, okay?
Here's my last point, go to Ephesians 5 and we're done.
Actually, there's two points,
but I'm just gonna breeze through both of them.
IFB Churches is associated with being conservative
in its dress and music, okay?
Now, what do I mean by that?
I mean that, you know, obviously when we,
again, when we talk about liberal churches,
now we're not talking about
the theologically liberal churches,
we're talking about the purple lights,
the very, you know, the liberal atmosphere
of not necessarily the opposite
of what conservative churches would be like.
These are churches that often promote CCM,
where the convictions are more strongly associated
towards the music they listen to,
rather than the Bible and the preaching of God's word, okay?
And so our church will always sing the hymns,
old hymns and new hymns.
So it's not like, oh, you're just old fashioned.
I'm fine with being old fashioned,
but the Bible also says to sing a new song,
which is why we have people writing hymns all the time.
Okay, got a lot of former M&Ms in our church apparently,
and they just, you know, they're like, you know,
they're just writing hymns.
They're really good at writing hymns.
There's people in our church that are really good at it.
And then when you ask them, like, huh, you know how,
you find out, you know,
they're like former MCs or whatever,
but now they're using it for the Lord.
So, you know, we got hymns, we got tradition,
you know, we have the piano, we have instruments,
we want our music to remain conservative,
and that is typically what IFB is associated with,
is the conservative aspect of the services.
It shows that basically,
we take the service of God in church seriously.
This is why we dress in shirt and ties and suits.
Now, this is not a dress code
that is imposed upon the congregation.
We never say to you like, if you don't dress like this,
you can't come to church.
Wear your Sunday's best, amen.
But obviously, if you were to go to the White House,
you'd probably put on a shirt and tie and a suit.
And if you didn't have one
if you were going to the White House,
you'd probably go buy one.
Fact, why?
Because you know that that is an important place to go to.
I mean, not anymore, but I'm just saying like in general.
You know it's an important location.
Well, we as fundamental Baptists believe
that the house of God is an important place to be.
And so we wanna wear our best and put our best foot forward
when we're coming here to congregate with God's people
and serve the Lord and worship God.
So we're conservative in our dress and our music,
but we're also conservative in our dress.
Now let me read to you from Deuteronomy 22 verse five.
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth into a man,
neither shall a man put on a woman's garment,
for all that do so are an abomination to the Lord thy God.
So part of being in an IFB church,
it's also strongly associated with rejecting
women wearing pants.
I thought this was Sunday morning.
Why?
Because according to the Bible,
according to Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse number five,
that's considered cross-dressing, okay?
Here's another way of saying that.
Being a transvestite, transvestite is cross-dressing, okay?
Well I think you're misinterpreting that verse.
Then first of all, when it says that a woman shall not wear
that which pertaineth unto a man, what is that?
Everyone knows, collectively, that's referring to,
oh I'm sorry, when it says,
neither shall a man put on a woman's garment,
what is that referring to?
We all know that's referring to a dress.
There's no if, ands, or buts about that, okay?
And so the first verse is referring to pants
because collectively, when you look at the entire Bible,
you see that although pants is not mentioned,
breeches are.
Written in 1611, this is the term that was used
to describe pants on men.
And so this is pants, or breeches,
is something associated with a man, masculine attire,
the garments of a male.
Whereas a dress, of course, is associated
with that which a woman wears.
And so in general, fundamental Baptists
have always held to that.
Women should not wear a man's garment,
which is referring to pants.
Now, you say, well, when at all times?
What do you mean?
Oh, I thought you just meant when you come to church.
No, I'm talking about when God sees you everywhere.
It's just like, well, when no one's watching, though,
then I pull out the 501 jeans or whatever.
Well, then you really got to ask yourself this then, OK?
Let's get to the heart of the matter here, all right?
Because if you believe that this is what you should not
be doing in a public setting such as church,
is this really your biblical conviction then?
Are you not doing it because the Bible says it,
or are you not doing it because you're embarrassed that people
might think that you don't believe what the Bible says?
Because once something is a conviction,
you just do it all the time.
I read my Bible here.
I read the Bible when I'm preaching.
But I don't know if you know this,
I read the Bible when no one's watching, too.
Even when no one is checking up on me.
Do you know why?
I'll tell you why.
Because it's my biblical conviction to do so.
So a biblical conviction is something
that you have that you do regardless
of if someone is watching or not.
Because it's right to do because it's in the Bible.
And look, I'm going to tell you right now,
I don't know a single person.
I've never had one single woman, man or woman,
but especially woman, ever try to explain
what Deuteronomy 22 verse five means
and how that's not referring to pants on women.
I just never had that.
No one's been able to explain that.
Why, because that's exactly what it means.
And so IFB churches are conservative
in their dress and in their music.
And look, I'm not the Baptist police,
so I'm not going to be asking you like,
hey, you know, so what do you wear
when you go home or something?
I don't care, okay?
I'm just here to preach to you the Bible.
I'm here to give you the word of God
and you let that be between you and the Lord.
But let me just say this though, you know,
don't be the kind of person that just flaunts it
when you come here though.
You have to be nice, you know what I mean?
I like to be kind and gracious.
I don't want to be all awkward and weird.
And there's times when I have to like lay down the hammer
and I have to bring subjects up like this
and get really uncomfortable with our church.
So don't do that, okay?
But why don't you just make it your biblical conviction?
How about that?
You don't have to worry about it.
And you think to yourself, well,
how can I live like that, though?
How is it that I can just wear a dress all the time?
Well, I don't know, 'cause I've never worn a dress before.
But I do know someone who's worn a dress all their life,
and that's my wife.
And you know, she's just done it
every single day of her life.
She's performed various tasks.
She got five kids.
She does gardening.
Hey, she mows the lawn.
Yes, you heard right.
My wife mows the lawn.
She likes to do yard work and stuff,
and she does it in a skirt.
She doesn't do it in a church dress or something,
but like a skirt.
She weed-waxes in that thing.
And you know what?
My wife's never come to me and say,
hey, I know you just preached that,
but this is really hard work.
I think I'm gonna get some sweats.
I'm gonna get some pants to go with this,
'cause it's just really hard to do this work.
She just never brought that up.
And no, I'm not forcing my wife
to do yard work, by the way, okay?
But if I did, who cares?
Yeah, you know what, I did force her, okay?
I take it back.
She does all types of work like that.
She does gardening like that.
She does yard work like that.
She takes the care, she changes diapers like that.
She goes to church like that.
She goes to sleep like that.
So I can't tell you how to do it
because I'm not a girl, I'm not a woman.
But I do know women who have done it all their lives though.
And they've never complained about it once.
Not once at all.
They've been able to function like that
all the days of their life, okay?
And so this is not the sermon,
but it's much needed due to Irony 22.5.
Go in and read that and interpret it for me
if I'm mistaken on that.
But I'm telling you right now, it's Bible.
And lastly, where IFB churches are King James only.
And that's what IFB churches are associated with.
See, fundamentalist churches will use
various versions of the Bible.
But fundamental Baptist churches are known for being
very strict on the King James version of the Bible.
They do not change on that at all.
And I'm not gonna belabor that point
because I preach all the sermons and I'm out of time.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for the clarity of the Bible.
And I know some truths this morning were very difficult
probably to listen to and to accept.
But Lord, if we're fundamentalists,
then we have to go with what the Bible says.
Part of being a fundamentalist is recognizing
that sometimes the Bible rubs us the wrong way.
It goes against what's ingrained in us,
our previous ideologies.
But at the end of the day, the truth fears no investigation.
And so if I'm wrong in an area,
I want to know that I'm wrong.
I want the Bible to correct me.
I want to change what I believe.
And sometimes it's pride that gets in the way,
that causes us to not want to accept the truth.
And I pray that you'd help us as your people
to recognize the importance of being independent,
autonomous churches,
that you deal with each church distinctively different,
one from another, but that we're fundamentalists.
And we need to have the biblical convictions
of having the Bible as our foundational rock
of our doctrine, of our faith, of our practices,
and that we're Baptists, that we hold true.
And we're strong on the doctrine of salvation
and the fundamentals of the faith.
Help us as your people to recognize this,
recognize this, and also to be prepared to answer this
when someone asks them, possibly this week, this year,
what kind of church they go to, they can verbalize this
in a way that the recipient would understand clearly
who they are.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
- Please turn your songbooks to song number 175.
- Song number 175, Just Like His Great Love.
Song 175, altogether nice and strong on that first verse.
♪ A friend calls us ♪
♪ Just like us to roll the clouds away ♪
♪ It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day ♪
♪ It's just like Jesus all along the way ♪
♪ Just like us to roll the clouds away ♪
♪ It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day ♪
♪ It's just like Jesus all along the way ♪
♪ It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day ♪
♪ Just like us to roll the clouds away ♪
♪ It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day ♪
♪ It's just like Jesus all along the way ♪
♪ Just like us to roll the clouds away ♪
♪ It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day ♪
♪ It's just like Jesus all along the way ♪
- Songbook's song number 148.
Song number 148.
Song number 148, all together on that first verse.
♪ I walk the ♪
- We have a baptism here.
Scoot a little bit forward.
Okay, tell us your name.
Kevin, have you trusted Jesus as your savior?
Upon your public profession, I'm gonna now baptize you
in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Gonna cross your arms over your chest.
Bear it in the likeness of his death.
Praise to walking into some light.
Congratulations.
(congregation applauds)
Don't worry about getting anything.
Let's pray that we'll be dismissed.
Father, we thank you again for a great day,
and thank you for the baptism today.
I'm thankful that Kevin got saved on Friday,
and decided to follow the Lord and believers' baptism today.
I pray, Father God, that you bless us as we go on our way.
Help us not soon forget the truths of your word
that we heard this morning,
and bring us back safely tonight for the evening service.
We love you, we thank you, pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen, you are dismissed.