this day. It's time that we can come to your house and hear the preaching of your word and we ask
that you please bless our service this morning Lord. Every aspect of it please bless the singing
that we'd be pleasing to your ears. Please bless the preaching as well. Fill a pass from me here
with your spirit as you preach it unto us Lord and give us ready ears in the congregation to
hear Lord that we may leave here changed. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
Please turn your song books to song number 29
Song number 29 at the cross
Song number 29 all together nice and strong on that first verse
That's safe with head or such a worm as I
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light
And the burden of my heart rolled away
It was thereby faith I received my sight
And now I am happy all the day
He groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity, grace, unknown, and love beyond decree.
At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away.
the day. Mind the sun in darkness hight, and shut his glories in. When Christ, the mighty
Maker, died for man, the creature sinned. At the cross, at the cross, where I first
It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day
The drops of grief can never repay The debt of love I owe
Here, Lord, I give myself, a weight is all
It was there by fate, I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day.
All right, great singing.
Welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song,
which will be 281,
Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior, 281,
if you wanna get that ready.
In your song books, 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 we have our Thursday night Bible study
at seven o'clock.
I'm currently going through the book of John
and we will be in John chapter five this coming Thursday,
so we hope to see you then.
We have the soul winning times
and teens listed there in the middle
and the list of expecting mothers
if you can keep them in prayer.
And then the stats for salvations and baptisms
there at the bottom left hand corner
from the month of July, great month there
on the right hand side is the upcoming church events.
We have a TJ missions trip coming up on August 30th.
That'll be on a Saturday of course,
leaving the building at 915 AM.
Make sure you bring your passports
Coordinate with brother Hernandez for more details about that men's prayer
night's coming up on Friday September 5th meeting at 7 p.m. Of course dinner is
always provided for the prayer meetings and then we have a church anniversary on
Sunday September 14th we'll give you details as far as what we're gonna do for
that celebration we're looking forward to that and then I don't know if you
notice
But the building of the walls down now and now we've expanded and I was thinking I was like oh man
It's gonna be feel nice and empty here for a while, but it looks pretty full right now actually
So that's a good problem to have we can fit up to 300 chairs in here
There's not 300 chairs right now, but we can fit up to 300 chairs
And I was hoping that once those walls would come down that that would suffice for the next five years
But I don't know now because it's pretty full, but hey, we'll see what happens
Maybe these walls are gonna come down in the coming years
But praise god for that we're able to get that done and now we can we have a little bit elbow room
You guys don't have to sit next to the people you don't like and you know all that stuff and so that works out
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 281 pass me not a gentle savior
Song number 281, Pass Me Not Oh Gentle Saviour.
All together, nice and strong on that first verse.
Pass Me Not Oh Gentle Saviour.
Say
Fuck
Say
pump
wonderful singing. At this time the ushers will come forward to receive the
offering. You can turn your bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter
number 6.
Deuteronomy chapter 6, the Bible reads,
Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments,
which the Lord your God commanded to teach you.
You might do them in the land whether you go to possess it.
That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God,
to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee,
thou and thy son and thy sons son, all the days of thy life,
and that thy days may be prolonged.
Here therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that
ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, and the
land that floweth with milk and honey.
Here O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and I shall love the Lord thy God with all
thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might, and these words, which I command
thee this day, shall be in thine heart.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
and shalt talk of them when thou sitest in thine house,
and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou lieest down,
and when thou riseest up.
Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand,
and they shall be as frontless between thine eyes.
Thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house
and on thy gates.
And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, which he
swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly
cities which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things which thou fillest
not, and wells digged, which thou digest not, vineyards and olive trees which thou plantest
not, when thou shalt have eaten them be full.
Then beware, lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt
from the house of bondage.
You shall not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are round about you, for
the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled
against thee and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.
You shall not tempt the Lord your God as he tempted in the NASA, you shall diligently
keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes which
he hath commanded thee.
And I shall do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that may be well
with thee, that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord swear unto thy
fathers, to cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the Lord hath spoken.
And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies and the
statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you?
Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bond men in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes.
And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in to give us the land which he swore unto our fathers.
And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as it is this day.
And it shall be our righteousness we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as the earth commanded us
Let's pray to the Lord God. Thank you again for this opportunity to be in your house
Just us that you would meet with us here now this morning
Please bless pass from here with your Holy Spirit and in Jesus name we pray
Amen, okay, we're in Deuteronomy chapter 6 this morning and the time I sermon today is the purpose of separation
the purpose of
separation here in Deuteronomy chapter 6
Moses is of course writing to the children of Israel and he is rehashing some of the great wonders
and miracles that he's performed for Israel. And he specifically says in verse 22,
the Lord showed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt and upon Pharaoh
and upon all his household before our eyes. And of course we know that he's referring to
all the great supernatural miracles that he performed in order to deliver the children of
of Egypt and Pharaoh and he says why in verse 23 it says,
and he brought us out from thence referring to Egypt.
He brought us out from Egypt.
Why?
That he might bring us in, the Bible says,
to give us the land which he swear.
unto our fathers.
And what is Moses saying?
He's saying, you know, the reason God delivered you from Egypt,
the reason he took you out of bondage,
the reason he even performed all these miracles,
it's not because you're special,
it's not because he just wanted to flex on you guys.
It was for the purpose of bringing you into the Promised Land
and of course ultimately to display the glory of God to all nations.
There was a purpose behind bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt
the promised land. There was a purpose for the separation, right, and he was separating
the children of Israel from Egypt so they can be a peculiar people unto him to do great
works for him and to proclaim the word of God. And this is what I want to preach on
this morning.
I want to talk about separation, but I also want to talk about what's the purpose of separation.
We know that God wants us to be separate from Egypt.
He wants us to be separated from the world, but why?
Well, it's to bring us in, okay?
And we're going to talk about that this morning.
The Bible talks about in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9,
but ye, referring to believers, are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
and a holy nation of peculiar people, why?
That you should show forth the praises of him
who have called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light.
So the Bible specifically saying that God separated us
from the darkness, but he's separating us
unto the light, the glorious light of Jesus Christ.
He's called us to holiness.
He's called us to righteousness.
He's called us to be a godly people unto himself.
He took us out that he may bring us in.
And we never want to get this misconception that,
oh man, yeah, I'm saved now.
So let me just live however I want.
I'm saved now so I can just kind of live my own agenda.
Yeah, it's true.
You won't lose your salvation if that happens.
And praise God for that, right?
To him that worketh not, but believe it on him
that justified the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness,
but I'm here to remind you this morning
that he brought you out that he may bring you in though.
He took you out of Egypt so he can bring you into the promised land.
He brought you out of bondage so he can bring you into servitude of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He brought you out from the bondage of Egypt so you can serve the Lord Jesus Christ
and be a person that's pleasing unto him.
Now obviously there's plenty of Christians out there that are brought out of Egypt
and they just kind of live like Egypt still.
Right, they still want the lemons and the leeks and the garlic and all the stuff that Egypt has to offer
They're still pinching pitching their tent towards Sodom. They're still entertaining going back to Sodom
They're still entertaining going back to Egypt in their hearts
But at the end of the day folks
I'm here to tell you that he brought us out to bring us in to do works for him to be a peculiar people
To be a testimony into this world where to live separated lives from Egypt
And of course, we know that Egypt and the Bible is a picture of the world, right?
And we want to be a people distinct from the Egyptians, distinct from Egypt,
distinct from Babylon.
Go to 2 Corinthians, if you would, chapter 6, 2 Corinthians, chapter 6.
The title of the sermon is The Purpose of Separation and I want to talk about coming out of Egypt and coming into the Promised Land,
bringing us out from fence that we may be brought in to the Promised Land.
And I'm going to give you just four points this morning regarding the sermon, The Purpose of Separation.
I'm going to talk about four different types of separation.
Number one, point number one is this, Ecclesiastical Separation.
And this point right here is really important because of the fact that today, you know, you have Christians or Christians so-called
that think that we should just kumbaya with every form of Christianity, right?
If it calls itself a Christian, if it claims to believe in the Bible, if it proclaims the name of Jesus Christ automatically they're in.
No, they're still in Egypt. We're going into the Promised Land, but many of them are still in Egypt.
And the Bible commands us to be separated from other churches that don't believe like the Bible.
that deviate from the doctrines of Christ,
regardless if they claim the name of Christ.
The Bible tells us we should be separated from them,
because why?
Because if not, they're gonna infiltrate our doctrine,
influence God's people into believing heresy.
And I'll get into that just a bit,
but look at 2nd Corinthians chapter six.
Here's the justification for this particular point.
Verse 14 says, be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers.
Now, this could be applied in a variety of different ways but the main interpretation of this verse is that we should not yoke up with labor with people who are unbelievers and this is specifically in regards to worshiping God.
Because when it says yoked, it's referring to that instrument of burden
that was placed on a beast of burden in order to do labor in the field.
And God is saying, you should not be yoked together with an unbeliever to serve God.
Okay?
And of course we have elsewhere in Matthew chapter 12 that says that we should take the yoke of Christ upon us, right?
We should labor with Christ and those who are saved those who are believers
But here it says that we shouldn't be yoked up with we shouldn't have fellowship with those whom yeah may claim the name of Christ
But they're actually unbelievers. They're not saved is what it's referring to. He says for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness
What is this telling us? It's telling us that according to biblical definition an unbeliever is unrighteous in the eyes of God
He says in what communion hath light with darkness and what concord hath Christ with Belial
You know that tells me that God views every other religion as having Satan as its head
Because Belial Satan right?
There's no like oh, there's Christianity then there's Hinduism then there's Buddhism then there's actually Christianity than everything else
Christ is the head of this religion and
Belial is the head of every other religion
Okay, because the Bible says that he is the God of this world who has blinded the minds of them
Which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine into them
So it says what Concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel
Infidel is just another way of saying unbeliever
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols, it says.
For here the temple of the living God is God that said I would dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God
and they shall be my people.
This is called ecclesiastical separation, meaning that our church should be distinctly different and separated from
Other churches, because of their beliefs.
This doesn't mean that every church that's not called Baptist,
we should be separated from, because, quite frankly,
there are churches out there that have Baptistic beliefs.
They believe right on salvation.
They believe right on the Bible.
They believe right on the Trinity, for example, right?
That's OK to have fellowship with people like that.
However, if there's a church out there,
I don't know, like the Catholic Church.
Well, I just think that they're Christian, though.
Let me ask you this. What agreement have the temple of God with idols?
What agreement has God's temple with the den of idols known as the Roman Catholic Church?
And you know what? We need to be careful today in 2025, spending too much time on social media.
Why? Because it dilutes our perception, our worldview, and it really aids us into believing, well, maybe they are Christian.
You know and by the way nowadays Catholics call themselves Christians, but I'm gonna tell you right now 50 years ago
They would not call themselves Christian
And even nowadays when we go out door knocking this happened like two weeks ago for me
I was out door knocking and I asked the person do you go to church and they said yes
I said well kind of you know what what church do you go to they said some name in Spanish and I was like oh
Is that a Christian church? They're like no, it's a Catholic church
And I'll are you Christian? No, I'm Catholic so even they make the distinction that they're not Christian
Now the online Catholics are like no, we're the first Christians
Then why do you have your members out in public denying that they're Christians and proclaiming that they're Catholic instead?
I'll tell you why because there's a distinction between the two and you know
There's a problem Egypt wants to separate from from the promised land the people of the promised land
But the prep people the promise that don't want to separate from Egypt you have Catholics are willing to say no
We're not you know, we're not Christian we're Catholic, but then there's Christians like all know the Christians
I think they're gonna they're saved and you know, I think they're right and
Wrong, my friends, we need to make sure that we draw a strict line between Catholics and Christians.
And there's no such thing as a Catholic Christian.
There's no such thing as being 80% Christian, 20% Catholic.
There's no such thing as just being a small percentage of Christian and the rest is just Catholic, it doesn't exist.
There is no agreement with the temple of God with idols.
Now again, Catholics are very easy to win to Christ.
You know, there's some of the lowest hanging fruit that I've ever experienced just out in public
I'm not referring to the online Catholics because that's a different animal
Okay, I'm talking about you're running the mill Catholics do you run into out?
So many a lot of them are receptive to the gospel and quite frankly based upon
You know the survey that I've taken over the last 18 years
Many of them don't even agree with everything that's going on in the Catholic Church
You know and so they get they readily get saved, but here's the thing folks
We need to make sure we keep the labels the way they are we recognize that we're Christians, and they are not
Orthodox Christians not Christians
Okay, Catholic Christians not Christians Jehovah Witnesses not Christians Mormons for sure not Christians
And look we the Bible makes it even more strict because even if you
Say that you're a Christian, but you believe in the wrong salvation according to the Bible, not a Christian.
You're a false apostle, you're false prophets, what the Bible says.
And so God wants us to be distinct from that.
That's why we have in the name first works Baptist Church
to kind of narrow down who we are as a church
and what we believe.
And obviously this church is out there
to call themselves Baptists that are not Baptists.
You know, they're only Baptists in name
and quite frankly many of them
want to take the name down from their church.
They want to just like not be associated
with being a Baptist.
And I think they should take the name down
from the church if that's the case.
but we need to understand that God promotes separation from churches, especially if they're
of Belial, they're a temple of idols, if they are darkness, if they are unrighteous, if they are
unbelievers, the Bible says we should have no fellowship with them. Okay, look at verse 17,
and touch not the unclean thing and here's the result and I will receive you.
So in order for us to be in right standings with the Lord
in order for God to be pleased with our church we need to practice Ecclesiastical separation
because then he will receive us the Bible says and it says here in verse 18
and I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and my daughters
save the Lord almighty. So obviously
the relationship between us and our God
is you know increased greatly
It's made deeper, there's a far greater form of fellowship with the Lord when we practice ecclesiastical separation from other churches, okay?
And so that's important.
Go with me if you want to 1 Timothy chapter 4.
1 Timothy chapter 4.
As you're turning, I'm going to read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 19.
It says,
So according to the Bible, it doesn't matter if that statute that they're worshiping looks like Mary.
Or if it looks like a saint, it looks like a Jew,
it looks like an Israelite of the time of times past,
the Bible says that that's actually a devil.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord
and the cup of devils.
You can't go to a Catholic mass
and also attend a church service like this
and be acceptable in the eyes of God.
He says you cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils
Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than him? All things are lawful for me
But all things are not expedient all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not
So what is the purpose of ecclesiastical separation?
Why should we be distinctly different or separated from other churches that believe wrong on salvation?
They believe wrong on Jesus Christ. They believe wrong in the Bible. Oh, they're just a little off
We should be merciful to them not according to the Bible
And look folks, it's better to obey God and not be merciful but obey God than suffer the consequences of disobeying God in separation and not have him as a father, not have him as we being his sons and daughters in that relationship aspect.
Look at 1st Timothy chapter 4. Here's the purpose of ecclesiastical separation.
And that is that it keeps us doctrinally sound and prevents heresy from spreading in our church.
Look at 1st Timothy 4 verse 1.
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times,
some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
Now what does this tell us?
It tells us that Satan is working full time
to seduce believers, seduce unbelievers.
through these doctrines of devils, deception, right?
Essentially trying to erase the lines
that separates us from everyone else.
And what happens is that people begin to depart
from the faith, they begin to believe damnable heresy,
or Christians that are saved just begin to believe heresy.
They're just carried about with every wind of doctrine.
And they end up disobeying the Lord, getting off Doctrine and Aleem, getting involved in heresy.
And look folks, heresy is a work of the flesh according to the Bible.
So Christians can get involved in heresy.
Okay, look at verse 7.
He says, but refuse, profane.
What's another word for profane?
Unholy.
Profane and old wives' fables.
and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
So he's specifically saying here,
hey, people are departing from the faith.
They're giving heed to seducing spirits, doctrines, the devils.
So make sure you refuse profane, old wives' fables.
Make sure you're reading the Word of God.
Exercise yourself rather unto godliness.
Go to church, read the Bible, listen to godly preaching.
Give attendance to reading to excertation to doctrine.
Why? Well, look at verse 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 thee.
Save yourself from what? From seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
Why, because when you begin to intermingle with people of other faiths, when you begin
to intermingle with Christians of other beliefs, then you begin to give heed to seducing spirits,
doctrines of devils, you believe heresy, and you justify heresy.
Now this is important in our church, my friends.
You have churches out there, for example, that may believe like we believe as far as
salvation is concerned, but they don't really take the trinity serious, right?
And the Trinity is a very serious doctrine in the Christian faith and let me just tell
you right now you can't get saved if you don't believe in the Trinity.
Now let me clarify something, okay?
Because you know...
Obviously, when we say that, we're referring to the fact that people need to have a basic
understanding of the Trinity.
They don't even necessarily need to know that term, Trinity, but they need to know the basics
of the Trinity.
And if you have a good gospel presentation, you have a way of introducing the basics of
the Trinity.
How?
Well, how about this?
You explained that Jesus Christ is the what?
The Son of God, right?
And who sent them?
God the Father.
And what do they seal with when they get saved?
The Holy Spirit.
That's it.
But if you come to me and you say well, I don't mention any of that and that number one you have a horrible gospel presentation number two
You're probably not getting anybody saved
How do you give a gospel presentation and not mention that Jesus Christ is the son of God?
Doesn't exist. Who are you getting your gospel presentation from? Oh?
I know who you're getting from the the temple of idols the unbelievers
The belials of this world. That's where you're getting it from
Why because I'm telling you right now seducing spirits doctrines of devils take people off doctrinally
And let me just say let me make another point real quick while I'm on while I'm on the subject
You know if you've only been soul-winning for a year. Don't try to school me
On whether you should introduce the Trinity or not
You know, it's always funny when these newer soul winners these newer Christians because they've watched a hundred hours of soul-winning or something
Somehow think that they are experts in how to present the gospel yet they forget to mention the fact that Jesus Christ is a son of God
You're a babe in Christ. You're off doctrinally take the correction
Introduce the Trinity while you're out preaching the gospel
Okay
Well, how do you know you're right?
Well, I'll tell you why because I've given heat to myself and unto the doctrine I've continued in them and in doing so
I've saved myself and those that hear me
from seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
Well, I think you're just kind of making a big point about that.
Well, you know, the Trinity is kind of like a big point, though.
And let me say this, you know, if someone claims to get saved,
but they don't believe the Bible's the word of God,
let me let you in a little secret, they're not saved, right?
How do you say you believe in salvation
and just don't believe the Bible's the word of God, not saved?
Hey, let me give you another one.
Hey, if someone claims to be saved,
but they don't believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin,
not saved.
Why? Because believing in the virgin birth is necessary for salvation because it means that Jesus Christ was sinless.
Plain and simple. Now again, this is not to say that we have to go down deep in every single doctrine.
Because I don't believe that. I don't believe you have to like give this systematic,
you know, explanation of every theological belief that we have, but a basic understanding. Can you be thorough though?
Thorough enough to help people believe and understand these things, right?
I'll give you an example, you know obviously you have to teach that Jesus Christ his death presents for us the forgiveness of sins
But here's the thing when you're out there preaching the gospel you don't have to talk about imputation and in fact most of you
Probably don't even know what I just said
You're like imp you what?
Imputation is just a far greater deeper understanding of the forgiveness of sins
Just a fancy way of saying it. It's far more thorough in Romans chapter 4
But you're gonna talk about the forgiveness of sins, but you probably were not gonna mention imputation
Why because obviously when you get saved thereafter you have to grow in the Lord
You start learning deeper things just like you learn deeper things about the Trinity just like you learn deeper things about salvation
You know once we're saved we're saved, but you know there's more to learn about salvation thereafter though
It's a very extensive
Subject that you don't have to know everything about to be saved
You just need to know believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and they shall be saved
But hold on folks to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe that he's the Son of God though
And the God had raised them from the dead and he was you know, he was born of a virgin because he's perfect
And then he was sent by the father and that they're two separate people
And I don't think you have to say oh, you know just but the Bible just let you know they're two separate people
Most people with common sense know that
It's only heretics that have trouble with that
Most people know just that oh God the father sent the son. Oh, that means that's two different people. Okay, but I digress
2 John 9 says who serve a transgressive and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God the Bible says he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son it says here if there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed this is why you should not you should never have Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons come into your house.
He says, receive him not into your house.
I just think I could win them though.
If I just go back and forth with them,
I can checkmate them.
God doesn't care if you could checkmate them.
You know what he cares for?
For you to be separated.
Separation is important to God.
And he's just saying, don't receive him into your house.
Oh, but God, I'm so eloquent though.
I got these verses memorized.
I know how to get them saved.
I know how to checkmate them.
I know how to correct them.
I know how to just completely cook them
if I'm just debating with them.
God doesn't care.
He just says, don't receive him into your house.
Be separate and don't bid him God's speed.
The modern way of saying this is don't say, God bless you.
Well, I just hope that he finds the truth.
God doesn't care if that's how you feel.
If he tells you, don't bid him God's speed.
He's saying, be separate, just listen.
It's like sometimes like my kids, you know
My kids like I'll give a command and I have a really logical kid one of my kids is just very logical
And he's like well dad if I just do that. I'm like it doesn't matter. Just do what I told you to do. I
Don't care what's more reasonable. What's more logical if dad said it you need to obey that
And you know it's the same thing with God the Father.
It doesn't matter if you have five verses to just completely destroy the Mormon or the Jehovah's Witness.
The Bible says don't receive them into your house.
Swallow your pride, close the door and go on with your day.
He's not interested in you getting a win under your belt
that you completely moded the Mormon
or the Jehovah's Witness.
He's more interested in you not receiving him
into your house because what agreement
at the temple of God with idols?
Well, fellowship is there with righteousness
with unrighteousness.
He wants you to be separate.
I don't know.
Verse 11, for he that bid at them God's speed
is a partaker of his evil deeds.
So God says if you don't obey this I just view you as an advocate of that heretics ministry
Those are from that's from God
Why should we practice ecclesiastical separation? I'll tell you why because we are not to be advocates of other ministries that teach heresy
That's why
Well, I'm not gonna sit here and make excuses as to oh, here's a better way of doing it
It doesn't matter if we think there's a better way of doing it at the end of the day if God commanded separation
We need to practice separation
From congregations and churches that teach dandable heresy go to Titus chapter 3 Titus chapter 3
Well, let's just be honest if to come if it was allowed for us to argue with people many of us would bury many people
Because we studied the Bible, we know what the Word of God says.
But let me tell you something, the Bible forbids us to debate though.
That's a fact.
And in fact, it specifically labels debating as an attribute of reprobates.
Because they love to debate. They're full of debate.
All they want to do is argue and debate.
But let me tell you what the Bible says.
and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law for they are
unprofitable and vain. Let me tell you some debates are vain and unprofitable.
There's two guys arguing and none of them are gonna concede. You're not gonna win
each other over and it's an audience that simply wants to see people argue.
That's exactly what it is. That's been my position about debates from the
beginning and I still hold to this because that's what literally what the
And, in fact, look what it goes on to say in verse 10.
A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition,
keep debating.
Keep trying to win him over.
Pull out your other card.
No, it says reject.
Knowing that he did such a subverted sin and sin is being condemned of himself now. I'll be honest with you
I'm a sinner. I'm not perfect, and I probably give him four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen forty fifty-nine munitions
Before I quit the conversation, especially on the internet because you run into people who are just like
You're just you know tearing them up and they're just you know
They're coming back with something else and you're just going back and forth with them
But I've learned especially over the last year. I give like two admonitions and I just move on and
He's like I just can't go past or just eating away at me. Well. This is what you could do
Just don't look at the comment section
That's what I do
You know I respond maybe two maybe three times probably not even then and then I just leave the comment section and
They're just like fighting there. You know just like
And you know, a lot of times it's just like,
oh, that's what I thought.
Oh, this is embarrassing, you're not responding.
But you know what?
I'm not gonna let my pride get in the way
and go back in there and argue with people.
Why?
Because the Bible commands me to be separated
from stupid people.
That's what it says.
The Bible commands me to be separated from heretics.
You understand?
So practice this, my friends.
Here's a great way to practice ecclesiastical separation.
Two admonitions and move on with your life.
Cast not your pearls before swine, the Bible says.
You have valuable resources, the knowledge of the Bible being one of them,
and God says, don't just throw that to the dogs, don't throw that to the swine.
Make sure you practice a separation from foolish people who want to argue and debate who are heretics.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
Ecclesiastical separation.
Don't make excuses for Catholics, don't make excuses for Orthodox,
don't make excuses for your non-denom church that teaches repent of your sins.
We're going to practice ecclesiastical separation because we don't want to get off doctrinally,
we don't want to make excuses for heresy, we don't want heresy to creep into our church.
But let me talk about another separation and that is, I would call it brotherly separation,
meaning that sometimes obviously we have to separate from people who are unsaved, churches
that are not right with God, who are heretical in their teachings, who have a wrong view
of salvation, wrong view of the Bible, wrong view of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, wrong view
of just foundational doctrines of the faith, but then sometimes we actually have to separate
from other Christians who are saved.
And this is probably the hardest thing for Christians to do, right?
Because it's not like they're off-doctrinally.
Sometimes it's just because of sin, okay?
Now, look at 1 Corinthians 5.
This is a very familiar portion of Scripture in the Bible for us as a church.
This is obviously talking about, this is our text passage for church discipline, okay?
What is church discipline?
It's not bringing people up here and spanking them or anything like that.
It's, it's, although, no, I'm just kidding.
Maybe that would help.
No, I'm just kidding.
You know, this is referring to the fact
that we excommunicate people from our congregation
for unrepentant sin.
Not just for sin, but for unrepentant sin.
When someone's just not willing
to get a particular sin right.
Now, let me just help you to understand,
because there's a lot of new people in our church.
I'm not referring to just any sin,
because we sin every single day, right?
you know, in our thoughts, what we say,
you know, things that we do, we sin every single day.
But there's specific sins that the Bible highlights
as being so grievous that according to God,
the person who's committing those particular sins
and is unrepentant of them,
cannot be a part of the congregation of God.
Well, I just think, ah, we don't care.
It's what God said.
This is his church.
This is what he said.
Now look at verse seven.
It says purge out, therefore, the old leaven.
Purge means to remove, old leaven is referring to,
is just another way of signifying or symbolizing sin.
He says that you may be a new lump as you are unleaven
for even Christ our Passover sacrifice for us.
Therefore, let us keep the feast.
Now the feast that can be referring to the Lord's Supper,
but it's also just referring to the congregation of believers.
Let us observe congregating one with another.
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness against sin,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
So the Bible is saying here,
if you have a congregation and there's leaven in the church
which picks your sin, malice, wickedness, unrepentance and sin,
the Bible commands a church to remove that leaven,
purge out that leaven,
if we're gonna observe the congregation of God's people
worshiping the Lord together.
And he says, therefore, you know, let us be unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, right?
Now, the reason he's saying this is because of the fact that in the Corinthian church,
there was a man who was committing fornication with what I believe to be his stepmother.
Weird, bro, just like weird.
Now, the reason it says fornication and not adultery is because I believe it's possible that his father had already passed away.
And of course if a person passes away and they were married the Bible says in Romans chapter 7 that they're lose from the law of their husband
Right, they're no longer an adulterer if they go out and marry someone
But the problem is here is that apparently the stepmom is committing fornication
It's weird enough that she's just going after her her you know previous
What am I looking for? What's the word?
stepson
See how he's so weird I can't even like you know her stuff some but but it's even worse the fact that you know
They're committing fornication
Okay, so they're doing this and the Corinthian church knows about it
So is because he says earlier it is commonly reported meaning. It's on Instagram. They're posting on their stories
They're just kind of publicizing it to everyone. It's commonly reported the problem is that the Corinthian church knows about it
They're not doing anything about it
So they're just kind of turning a blind eye to it.
And I personally believe that the Corinthian church,
the reason they weren't doing anything about it
is because they were glorying
in not removing these people from the congregation
because they were being holier than else,
hyper spiritual holier than else.
Because he says, you know, your glorying is not good.
And you say, how is that?
Well, you can see that today in churches
where they refuse to remove members
who are involved in particular sin.
Because you know, there's so much more loving
than we would be, right?
Oh, we actually love people here, you know, they just need discipleship, they need, you know, all this stuff or whatever.
So we just let them kind of do whatever and they'll come along eventually.
This is what the Corinthian church is doing.
So he says in verse 9, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to accompany with fornicators.
So apparently there was a previous epistle the apostle Paul had written to the Corinthian church that's not in the Bible.
It was a letter where he commanded him and said, hey, you need to make sure that you separate from fornicators, right?
Like, don't just hang around a bunch of fornicators.
But then here, he kind of clarifies the command.
Because obviously, you know, our best friends shouldn't be a bunch of adulterers and fornicators. That's obvious, right?
However, that's kind of impossible to do to its fullest extent in the world in which we live
because the vast majority of people in this world are not saved and we're gonna be work our
Co-workers are gonna be fornicators our neighbors are gonna be fornicators
So it's not like we can separate from there to the extent where it's just like we're just not
dealing with anybody
You understand what I'm saying?
You have to deal with fornicators, adulterers, idolatrous of this world.
So he clarifies, and he makes the command more specific in verse 10, yet not all together
with the fornicators of this world.
Or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters,
for then must he needs to go out of the world.
He's like, obviously you can't escape
the fornicators of this world.
Your neighbor's gonna live next to you.
You're gonna end up working with someone who's involved
in who's an idolater, they're a hardcore Catholic.
You can't really do anything about that.
You know, if we're to be so separated from the world,
you know, he's basically saying like,
you would have to be like Amish.
Just go off-grid live in the forest somewhere just to wait from everyone and that's not God's will
Okay, that is not the will of God for Christians
He says at verse 11, but now I have written unto you not to keep company very important
Not to keep company if any man that is called a brother
So this is essentially saying that if a person is committing these particular sins and they say they are Christian
Because when it says a brother, it's referring to a Christian, right?
That's why at church, we say brother Adrian, you know, brother Cody, you know, brother
Philip.
It's because they're brothers in Christ, right?
The only difference is we don't really say that to the ladies because, I don't know,
I don't know why we don't do that, you know, sister so and so, sometimes we do.
But in general, brother, sister and Christ is referring to the fact that we are saved
people.
We're part of the family of God.
So it says here, if there's a person who's called a brother, a Christian, if they are
If they're covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner,
and I want you to notice this, with such in one, know not to eat.
So when it says don't keep company, it says don't eat with them,
it basically means be separated from them completely.
Now that's the first command, because he's saying like individuals in the church
should not keep company with brothers and sisters in Christ
who are involved in these particular sins.
But then it says in verse 12 for what I have to do to judge them that are without do not ye judge them that are within
But them that are without God judges therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person
So there's two commands here
The first command is that individual Christians should not keep company with people who are involved in unrepentant sin
The list that we just showed the second command is that the church should remove people like that from their congregation
Okay
Meaning that if a person is removed from our membership away from our church because of these particular sins
The command still applies to you outside of these walls not to keep company with them either
You understand what I'm saying. Oh, that's cultish. Well, you know, obviously it's the Bible
But if you truly actually believe that then there's other churches you could attend where they welcome fornicators and you guys can live happily ever after
I actually know you can't
But you can though if you if that's what you want to do
Colts keeping people inside this is about throwing people out
But it literally says like you individual should not keep company
Don't even eat with and look if it's saying don't eat with them
You know, there's an implication that you should have no contact with them because in 2025, you know, basically is like, you know
Don't talk to each other on Instagram
Right. Oh, it's kind of quiet here now. You know, don't fellowship with them on Instagram
Don't message them on Instagram.
Don't keep contact.
There's supposed to be a complete severing
of that relationship.
All right, I'm gonna spend some more time on this.
So when it says don't keep company means
that that person should be nowhere near contact with you
because, and I'm getting ahead of myself,
you're disrupting the disciplinary process
of God in that person's life.
Because here's the thing folks when people get excommunicated from the church
They want some from the church to keep in contact with them because they want to justify their actions
They want someone to be a bleeding heart towards them
Okay, and so that way they could alleviate their conscience of what they're doing and they can just you know
Go to a different church and stay friends with people in this church because there's people in this church
They still keep in contact with me. You're wicked if you do that
You're a wicked person and you're serpent the authority of God
You're serpent with the Bible says the Bible teaches us not to keep company not to even eat with them
And that they should be purged from the local New Testament church
Go to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3. I'm gonna spend more time on this point
And by the way, it even says that we should separate from the Semblers.
Those who are railers, those who are criticizing church authority, those who are just seeking
to disrupt the congregation and separate chief friends.
The Bible says you shouldn't have no fellowship with them either.
I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with the Semblers.
And so, you know, if people have been thrown out of other churches
for railing, for wickedness,
you should not be sympathizing
or fellowshiping with them.
You know, hey, if a pastor's children
have been thrown out of church,
regardless of where you stand on that,
respect the church authority and don't have fellowship with them.
I don't care if you sympathize with them or you want,
but you need to obey church authority.
And the justice that the authority has carried out
to remove those people from the congregation.
And look, if you really love those people,
then you would separate from them.
Because part of the separation process
is to restore them back into fellowship
because they're ashamed that everyone's separating themselves.
You know why people who get excommunicated
never get restored back?
I'll tell you why, because there's too many people
enabling them.
That's why.
Okay, before I get into it, I'm getting ahead of myself.
The Bible also says, obviously 1 Corinthians chapter 5 is the major list that we see in the Bible.
We have Matthew chapter 18, those who are guilty of offenses, who are unrepentant of that are removed from the congregation.
You know, let's say Christian for example just like, you know, offends me or something.
You know, he's just like, which it's not beyond the possibility of happening, you know.
Let's just say he just he just gravely offends me. He calls me like a fatso or something
And I'm like hey Christian. I've been cutting for so long that hurt my feelings, bro, and he's like well, it's true
What do you want me to do? I take nothing back
You know, and then he's and I'm giving a ridiculous illustration
But let's just say it's some grievous offense, and he's just not willing to get it right
You know, I have to go to him and say hey you offended me
You know, you owed me money or something like that or you did something and you've offended me. You have not gotten this right
You know, I want you to get it right. He refuses to get it right. He refuses to apologize
Refuses it. He's just like I'm not wrong. Then I have to bring another brother with me and say hey
Christian has offended me. He's not willing to get it get this right
And then the brother admonishes him and he's like no then at that point
We have to take it before the church and cast them out until he repents
That's that's a justification for removing someone from the congregation and let me just say this
I'm not going to preach on this today
But I believe there's other justifications that are not explicitly laid out in the Bible to remove someone from a congregation at the pastor's discretion
If I feel someone is dangerous in the church
If I feel like someone is just not conducive
and they can't function in our church,
if I feel like you're being an evil wicked person,
you know, and I have the evidence to substantiate that,
even if it's not necessarily laid on
1 Corinthians chapter five,
I have every right to remove you from the congregation,
just to let you know, okay?
Look at 2nd Thessalonians 3, verse six.
The Bible also says the Christians
should be separated from lazy, busy bodies.
It says in verse 6,
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you withdraw yourselves.
What does it mean to withdraw yourself?
Separate yourself.
From every brother that walketh disorderly
and not after the tradition which he received of us.
For yourselves know how that you ought to follow us,
for we behaved ourselves,
we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you.
Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught.
So it's obviously defining for us what it means to be disorderly.
It doesn't mean disorganized.
Is it that or the case a lot of people here would get thrown out
Okay, myself included probably you know when it says this orderly it's referring to the fact that this is a person who refuses to work
They're kind of leaching off of others. They're eating man's bread for not
He says, but wrought with labor and travail, not in day, that we might not be
chargeable to any of you, not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an
ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we command to
you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. So this is specifically
addressing a person who refuses to work and is leaching off of others, right?
They're taking advantage of others.
They're not laboring.
They are just kind of, you know, taking advantage of other brothers and sisters in Christ.
Because quite frankly, Christians are very sympathetic when people are going through a financial difficulty, right?
But this particular person is essentially leaching off of other believers' finances and is unwilling to get a job and, you know, work, basically.
And he says there in verse 11,
For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies.
Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread
But ye brethren be not weary and well-doing and if any man obeyed not our word by this epistle
Note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed
So, the Bible says that we should separate ourselves from lazy, busy body, leech type people in the church.
Now, I'm not quite sure what I preached on in times past in regards to this passage.
You know, I might contradict myself right now, but I don't think it's a major contradiction.
I would say that this is referring to the fact that we shouldn't associate with people like this,
but this isn't necessarily a justification to throw them out, because it says in verse 15,
So this is a person who's just like,
I'm not gonna hang out with this individual in church.
I'm not gonna go fellowship with this person.
And if we're gonna talk, I'm gonna admonish them,
bro, you need to get a job.
You're embarrassing yourself.
You're going from job to job to job.
You can't land a job.
You're leaching off of other people's money.
Every time we go sewing,
someone's forking the bill for you.
You're taking advantage of other people's finances
and you're unwilling to get a job.
You need to get a job.
That's called an admonishment.
Not treating them as an enemy, an enemy is just like, you know, we'll say something else
When no plans of restoration thereafter and in Monishment is just like let me just tell you something
I'm gonna buy your meal today, but let me just tell you something right now
You're a lazy busy body
You can't hold on down a job and you have a bad testimony in our church and how in the world
Are you gonna support a wife and child right a family if you're not willing to actually get your butt to work?
That's what it means to admonish them, right?
But the Bible says here that we shouldn't have company with them.
So look, you're out so many with someone who's just unemployed, who's constantly leaching
off you.
Say, you need to go bring a sandwich next time, because this is like a pattern with you.
What?
It's true.
I'm not talking about, look folks, I believe in generosity
and our church is a very generous church.
The team leaders are very generous.
They're willing to like, you know,
treat out their members a lot of the times.
Other people in their teams are always willing to do that.
But, you know, we don't want to enable them either.
And have them, you know, develop this spirit of expectation
to the point where they're not willing to get a job.
Go work for Little Caesars.
And a lot of times people aren't willing to work because every job is just shameful for them.
But you know what? Being a security guard is not shameful.
Being a pizza delivery guy is not shameful.
Working for Uber Eats is not shameful. Working any job is not shameful.
Not in our church.
In our church, it's an honorable thing to have any type of job where you're earning some money, some form of income.
Because it's God's will my friends, and you know what the alternative is being a busy body a toddler a lazy slothful sluggard
And that's not pleasing to God. We need to separate ourselves from people like that
Okay, and I don't think we have anybody like that in our church
But if we did it probably they're probably gonna look for a job tomorrow if not tonight or in between services today
And look don't tell me there's not a job good enough good enough out there for you
There's plenty of work out there and and there's people in our church
that will do backflips for you to try to get you a job.
I'm talking about, there's people in our church,
I'm not gonna say who it is
because the leeches might wanna leech off of them.
No, I'm just kidding.
You know, there's people in our church, my friends,
where they will literally help you get a license.
So you can drive yourself to church.
There's been people in our church
who have put people on their insurance
just so they can learn how to drive,
just so they can start working.
I mean, that's, what more do you want, right?
And so, the point is, you know,
we should not be associated with lazy people.
Busy bodies, lazy people, why?
Well, go with me for what to Isaiah.
Go to Isaiah, chapter 26.
Isaiah 26, I'm gonna read to you a couple passages
as you turn there, 1 Timothy chapter five,
verse 22 says, lay hand suddenly on no man,
neither be partakers of other men's sins,
keep thyself pure.
What does it say? Don't enable people.
Don't aid people in their vices, in their destruction, in their sin.
Jeremiah 23 verse 14 says,
I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing.
They commit adultery and walk in lies.
They strengthen also the hands of evil doers.
What does it mean to strengthen the hand of evil doers?
You enable them in their sin.
The Bible also says in Ezekiel 13, verse 22,
because with lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad,
whom I have not made sad,
and strengthened the hands of the wicked
that he should not return from his wicked way
by promising him life.
That's what it means to enable someone.
Look at Isaiah 26.
Like I don't know pastor. I just think like if someone gets thrown out
I think I should keep in contact with them. I can help them
You know I can I can like love them back to the Lord and show them comfort and grace and you know
They can see that someone in church still is just for them and
And what will happen is once I display my godliness and my love and my perfection and how nice I am, you know
When they realize that
When they see my glory then they're gonna be like I need to get right with God
Look at this love
I'm coming back
That's like in people's minds. That's an exaggerated form, but it probably isn't an exaggerated form
Just people who probably literally think that
But let me tell you what the Bible says
Look at Isaiah 26 verse 10. Let favor be showed to the wicked
Oh yeah, help the wicked, aid the wicked, enable the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness.
In the land of our brightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty
of the Lord.
He says, you favor the wicked, you aid the wicked, you enable them, you know what's going
to happen?
They're not going to learn.
They're going to remain in their wickedness.
This is why folks, this is a, you know,
I'm getting off topic here.
This is why we don't give money to panhandlers, okay?
Why?
Because all they're gonna do is go buy fentanyl.
All they're gonna do is purchase drugs and just continue.
They want to be in that position.
And look, and this is why I don't give money
to gypsies either.
And let me just say this, stop giving money to gypsies.
Why?
He already got a fade.
He's already got nice clothes gypsies are some of the worst when it comes to this
They have no shame that will literally be out in front of a store with brand new Air Force Nikes
Brand new clothes a fresh fade with their child there on their iPad asking for money
What in the world?
They're not gonna want righteousness
Now let me give you the exception to this this rule of separation, okay
Because for sure someone's going to ask me this after the service.
So I'm going to answer this question right now and therefore you don't have to come and ask me.
This does not apply to you if you live under your parent's roof and they're involved in any sense.
You have no power to do anything in that regard.
You can't separate from your parents.
It's not going to happen.
You literally have to tolerate it and keep your mouth shut because you live under the roof.
Like dad, I'm gonna separate from you
Dad you're wicked dad
By the way, can I get like 20 bucks because I don't want to be a leech I
Don't want to be a leech at church dad. Can I get like 50 bucks?
This doesn't apply to you now once you get married you move out then it applies right and it also doesn't apply to you if you're married
Okay, if you have a spouse that's involved in this nothing you can do about it. That's just you know
That's how it is. Those are the two exceptions there
So, you know, if you come don't come to me afterwards is like, oh, yeah, my mom or my dad is involved in it
So I need a separate. No, you live under the roof. They're paying your bills
You just need to you just need to be a good Christian there and obey them
Obviously, we're not referring to sin
But rarely if ever will a will a parent try to cause their child to sin or something like that
And let me just say this if your parent tells you you can't come to this church that means you can't come to this church
If they say, oh, I don't want you going to that church anymore, then you say, then what
church can I go to?
Which one would you allow me to go to?
But I'm going to tell you right now, because I'm in favor of your parents, they're probably
going to keep letting you come back to this church, as long as you're a good testimony
at your house.
Point that I'm making here is that those are those are the exceptions to this rule
You can't do anything about separation in that regard. Okay, but let me say this, you know
Uh, if you're not in this situation, yeah, you should separate from people like this who are your family members
You should separate people from like this. Where are your siblings? You should separate from people like this that are your friends
It doesn't matter how long you've known them
That's like, oh man, we go way back
Then why is it that they're influencing you and you can't influence them?
If you're so close to them, if you're so buddy buddies with them,
if you go back so far, why aren't they listening to you?
Why can't you influence them to righteousness?
Why are you allowing them to influence you to wickedness?
Where's your loyalty?
Your loyalty is to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what, more often than not, in my personal life, I've had to separate from
good friends, good family members, because my loyalty is to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did it disrupt relationships?
Of course it did, but you know what, at the end of the day, many of those relationships
were restored.
Why?
Because I made the right choice.
You need to make the right choice and stop enabling people who are involved in vice and
in sin.
If someone gets thrown out of our church for a particular sin, God help you if you enable
by keeping in contact with them,
telling them it's not so bad,
I love you, this, that and the other.
Folks, the Bible says that we should separate from them
and they know we love them
because they've been in our church for a long time.
They've heard that.
They know what we believe about the Bible.
Plain and simple.
You don't need to remind them of those things.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
First Corinthians chapter 3, why is this form of separation important?
Well, because of the fact that obviously the Lord loves people who get cast out of church and you know what?
Because he loves them, he wants them to be restored.
So when they get excommunicated from a church, the purpose of that removal, the purpose of that purging was that that person should be ashamed,
Satan would end up destroying that person's life and in turn would repent and come back to the fold.
Look at 1 Corinthians 3-16,
knowing not that ye are the temple of God
and the spirit of God dwelleth in you,
if any man defile the temple,
him shall God destroy.
For the temple of God is holy,
which temple ye are.
Now, I believe this is in conjunction
with 1 Corinthians 5,
because the Bible tells us
that the guy who's committing fornication
in 1 Corinthians 5,
the Apostle Paul says that he should be
given over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
Meaning that with someone who's cast out of church,
they have God's curse on their life.
However, when you keep contact with them,
you enable them, there's no cursing there.
Why? Because you're disrupting that process.
If a person is excommunicated, they feel shame.
They suffer the consequences.
So you gotta ask yourself,
do you really love that person?
By keeping in contact with them?
Or are you showing them some feigned love?
Maybe you're just trying to...
You know convince yourself that you're more loving than everyone else at church
Because at the end of the day we're trying to communicate the love of God and the only way that's done is by restoring that person
So that when they come back to church, we don't hang that over their heads
We let them move on with their life. That's that's actual love right there because love covers a multitude of sin
So when a person gets thrown out of church for a particular sin
They get thrown out
Satan destroys their lives and they come back to church
and they say like, I repent, I want to get right with God,
I want to come back to church.
You know what we do?
We give them a hug and we go eat in and out,
we go so many and we move on with their lives
and we never bring them back up ever again.
That's what we want to do.
But folks, we need to separate from people like this.
Separate from people like this
who have been thrown out of other churches.
Okay.
Go to 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1.
And we will continue to practice church discipline
in our church, because we want God's blessing
to be on our church.
We want God to be pleased with our church.
Look, our church is growing.
You're like, well, how can it grow
if you throw people out?
I don't know, I'm not the one, I don't really do.
That's a good question, I have no idea.
I just do what the Lord tells me to do
and we'll see what happens, you know?
But I do know this, is that God blesses
and he makes up the difference.
So even if I were to throw out half the church,
it's not gonna happen, but unless you're all heretics,
you know, half the church, God will bring more people.
I would say it's probably, no, I'm just kidding.
Prior to guess.
Separation is important, my friends.
He brought us out to bring us in.
But you know it's also important for us
to separate from the world.
Meaning we shouldn't be worldly Christians.
Now what do we mean by worldly Christians?
Well, a lot of times people kind of associate this with dress and obviously that's definitely
an application, but to be a worldly Christian means to pattern ourselves after the manner
of the heathen, meaning that we're adopting secular philosophies and applying them to
our marriages, family, work and personal life, right?
That's what it means to be a worldly Christian.
Call yourself a Christian you're saved, but every other thing the way you live your life is not patterned after the philosophy of the Bible
It's patterned after the philosophy of the world
Okay
Well, the Bible commands us to be separated from the ideologies of this world because they're inferior to the word of God
Okay, and you know a lot of times we'll get into the scriptures in just a bit a lot of times this just comes slowly
Sometimes Christians get saved to get into church and start reading the Bible, but then they hear about a podcast
Someone introduces this little thing this that and the other and just little by little they just start getting infiltrated with godless
secular
Ideologies ideas doctrines that are not Christian
And I've seen it time and time again in our church, my friends.
People who are on fire for God,
people who love the Lord Jesus Christ,
they love going soul-winning,
they love godly marriages,
they love serving God,
and all of a sudden it's just like
a complete secular perspective on life,
no Bible.
And you say, how do I know if I've adopted a secular mindset?
Well, here's a way.
Do you get offended when I talk about marriage?
If you get offended, you probably adopted a secular mindset
because I'm just giving you what the Bible says about marriage.
Hey, do you get offended when I say
that a wife should submit to her husband if you have?
Then you've adopted a secular mindset.
You've completely forsaken what the word of God says.
Does it make you mad when I say that the husband's in charge
and the woman's job is to get married,
bear children, guide the house?
If that's things used because you've
adopted a secular mindset.
Hey, does it offend you when I say your wife should make you a sandwich if that's the case?
You've adopted a secular mindset. Hey when brother Mori got up here last Sunday
What was the last Sunday night and he said you know something about Angela making them a sandwich and everything if you're just like
Oh, that's so demeaning. I'll tell you why it's because you've adopted a secular mindset
What would you prefer doing making a sandwich for your husband or having her work out in the world making a sandwich for a complete stranger?
Hmm, that's what happens when you have a secular mindset
Folks it's simple
If you get offended at what I'm literally showing you from the Bible
It's an indication that you've adopted a worldly mind view
Of the world right a perspective that it's not found in the word of God
You've been spoiled through philosophy and bane to see out of the traditions of men the rudiments of this world and not after Christ
And obviously it's probably influenced from your family. It's influenced from in-laws from sisters or brothers work
Podcasts. I mean we have the world constantly crying in our ears
Seeking to change what we believe
And that's, this is a great indicator to show you,
like, man, what kind of world do I have?
Well, how do you like my preaching?
Cause at the end of the day, look,
you can say, well, I just don't like that you scream.
Then listen to me on the lower,
listen to the same sermon and lower the volume
and tell me if you agree with the stuff,
what I said.
Cause you may not like my volume,
but what about what I'm saying though?
Not how I say it, what I say.
Don't take beef with how I say it I can't change how loud I get
But what okay, what if I just said it nicer though, what if I said my wife should make me a sandwich
She should fold my laundry iron my shirts and in fact she just taught my daughter this week how to iron my shirts
Because my daughter's goal in life is to be a godly wife and to bear children and guide the house
Like I don't like the way you said that how much how more more quiet do you want me to get?
The message doesn't change
We need to make sure that we are measuring
How our minds have changed
Because look folks it's just little by little little by little and right now the big thing right now is just wives leaving their husbands
Separating from their husbands, but there's no biblical justification for it
There's no people go and you know if you're in here like oh, no
He's gonna go over this again
It's probably because you've adopted a secular mindset
Because you know the the wives in our church who agree with this they probably have great marriages and they're like yes
I never want to leave my husband
You know husband's like yeah, I never want to leave my wife
You know, I want to live happily ever after
Right till death do us part
But if you don't agree with that it's probably because you've adopted a secular mindset
And look when I come up here folks church when I come up here, and I rant and rave about this
Don't think it's not because I don't have any content or something
It's because it's so easy
For Christians just to get off kilter in this area
You know one hour of podcasts a day will undo the one hour of preaching on Sunday
If you're not walking in the spirit
plain and simple
I need to skip some stuff here because I'm running out of time.
Let me just, where do I have to return?
1 Peter 1.
Look at verse 14.
It says, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the form of lust and your ignorance,
but as he which hath called you is holy, so be holy in all manner of conversation.
Because it is written, be holy, for I am holy.
The Bible says we should not fashion ourselves, mold ourselves according to the former lust
in our ignorance, meaning that we should not pattern our lives the way we used to be or
the way the world tells us to be, right?
We need to be separate. We need to be holy unto the Lord.
The Bible says love not the world, not the things that are in the world.
If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Let me skip some things here.
Go to 1 John 2 and I'm done.
Let me say this last point here regarding separation and that is,
you know, we need to keep practicing separating ourselves from sin.
Okay, and I'm preaching to the choir here. I'm not standing up here saying that I don't battle sin. We all do no one's perfect
Okay, we all have temptations. We all have weaknesses. We all have vulnerabilities
But does that mean we just kind of throw up our hands and just give up? No, we need to like keep fighting till the very end
Okay, and you know what if you failed yesterday, you need to work on separating yourself from sin today
Let's say you just failed the last month
Last month it was just trash, you just sinned.
Okay, well today's Sunday, you're in the house of God,
renew some commitments, get right with the Lord
and practice separation.
You know what, I'm not gonna get involved in this,
I repent of this, I wanna serve the Lord,
I love the Lord Jesus Christ, I love the Bible,
I'm so thankful, I'm saved, I love this church,
and I just wanna move on with my life.
And you know what, move on, you can move on.
Separate yourself from sin.
You know what that means? It means, you know, it means not putting yourself in a position to be tempted to sin.
It means separating, because when I say separate from sin, that's a very general phrase, right?
The specifics is this, you need to get away from people who are causing you to sin.
Right?
People who tempt you to commit sin, they need to get, you need to get away from people like that.
That's like common sense.
Take yourself away from
areas and places that tempt you to sin.
Don't entertain sin.
And let me just say this as the pastor of this church,
don't flaunt your sin either.
And the day and age in which we live because of Instagram,
a lot of stuff gets flaunted, you know?
And you know what?
Remove it from your Instagram.
Take it down from your stories.
I don't wanna see that.
You have church people who are following you.
You have God's people following you
in your flaunting sin.
This ought not to be!
Right.
You know, thank God that you're in a church that at least you have a pastor telling you this.
And even if you decide never to come back because I said this,
well, at least you know that a prophet was among you.
And whatever liberal church you decide to go through,
some nice preacher who doesn't care,
these words will always ring in your mind.
Don't flaunt your sin.
I'm not saying don't struggle with sin because everyone struggles,
but you know what?
The longer we're a Christian, the more we practice sanctification,
the more we sin less.
That's a fact.
But if you do sin,
because I'm not saying you won't,
because look what the Bible says in 1 John 2, verse 1,
my little children, these things right unto you, that ye sin not.
He's like, don't sin!
And then he says what?
And if any man sin.
We have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous so even God himself says look don't sin don't sin, but when you sin
Basically saying you probably will we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous meaning there's a solution to that
But the solution is not just to remain in it
The solution is not throwing the towel throw up your hands. Let's just go all in
Let's just go all in and see what happens. The solution is not let's just flaunt it because I've already done it
The solution is just get right with God.
Don't swim so far into the ocean
that the riptide of sin takes you out
and you never make it back.
And look, you may think you're like pretty far out there,
but if you're in church today, you're not that far.
You may think the riptide is taking you way out,
but the spiritual Alex Solis is out there, you know?
Alex Solis is a, he's a former lifeguard
and I think he's literally saved
like five people in our church from drowning.
at least five people, okay?
The man is amazing.
I almost want to just try drowning,
just to see what he does, you know?
But you know what, the spiritual solace is out there.
And you know what, if you're in church,
that means you're close enough to the shore still.
You're close enough.
You're not that far.
But you know what? If you decide to leave and continue, then you know what?
That reptile may take you farther than you want to go, cost you more than you want to pay, keep you longer than you want to stay.
And it can destroy your life. Why should we separate from sin?
I'll tell you why, because it'll destroy you. And you know what the thing that sucks about sin?
Everything sucks about sin, but you know what really sucks about sin and not only destroys your life,
it actually destroys the people that you love too. But you just never think about that.
You never think about the fact that your sin, the fallout of your sin,
It affects the people you love and you know you may think to yourself well if I sin you know
I'm willing to you know face the consequences
But what if you have to see the people you love suffer because of your actions, and you're just completely helpless to fix that
That's what sin does
It permeates families marriages members it affects everyone. You didn't think about that
This is why we should live as much as we can separated lives from sin
Put away the alcohol and look a drunkard according to biblical standards is when you drink alcohol
So no Christian in our church should be drinking alcohol
You know, oh, it's just on the weekends. That's called being a drunkard
Because you are literally putting alcohol in your mouth you're drinking it
And if you're not accustomed to drinking alcohol, then you will get drunk
And so drunkards are not allowed in our church
If you're a drunkard and you're not willing to get that right
because you want to keep partying on weekends,
you want to have your whatever on Saturdays
with your friends and family, there's the door.
Don't let the door hit you or the Lord will split you.
But also, you know, fornication, adultery
is a justification to get thrown out of church as well.
Keep yourself separate.
You know, God doesn't impose these rules.
because he's just mean
He just wants to just oh man, it's just he's so strict
You know he does it obviously because he wants a holy people, but he does also for your benefit
It's for your good and let me just say tell you right now sin
Sin blinds you from like the future
Sin only allows you to see like the immediate
Sin is very deceptive because like when you're committing sin
Because it's so pleasurable. You're only seeing like what the pleasure you have
This week or this day or whatever you only see the immediate effects. You never see
the horrific
Fallout that follows thereafter. You never see it
You pass on and you're punished because of it. This is how it works every single time
You know bread stolen in secret a seat, but afterwards a sweet, but afterwards that mouth shall be filled with gravel
It's like when you eat the bread of sin is just like wow. This is really good
And then you're just like oh this is disgusting. Why did I eat this?
Why did I do this to myself?
You regret it later on and please listen to me
I as one who's standing on the outside talking to you who's on the inside. I'm telling you right now
I'm trying to talk some sense into you
Repent just get it right, and here's the great thing about the Christian life
You could literally just repent right now and
Literally move on so you can make your way back to shore
We'll get you a towel
You'll dry off and we'll just move on with our lives and you never go back. I have to go back to that ocean ever again
That's just it. I try to stay as far away from the oceans of sin as possible
You know because I know the effects of the riptide
What's the point that I'm making the title the sermon is the purpose of separation. It's not so we can be like
Oh, yeah, we're so separated. We're such as zealous people
No, we understand the effects of not being separated the consequences of not living separated lives and their major
Ramifications to not following these biblical principles be separated. Let's pray follow me. Thank you so much for your word
Thank you for the admonitions of the Bible Lord
I pray, Father God, that the Word of God would have power in the hearts of your people.
And Lord, that you would help us to be a separated people, if for anything, it's because we
love you.
And obviously, the consequence of sin is a very motivating factor to keep us right with
God.
But sometimes people are blinded to that, they don't see it.
And I hope that they would listen to us who can see it, who have seen the casualties of
times past.
And I pray, Father God, that you bless us as we go on our way in Jesus, and we pray amen.
Please turn your songbooks to song number 316.
Song number 316, I have decided to follow Jesus.
Song number three hundred and sixteen all together nice and strong in that first verse
I have decided
To follow Jesus
I have decided
To follow Jesus
I have decided
To follow Jesus
No turning back
Though none go with me
Still I will follow
Though none go with me
Still I will follow
Though none go with me
Still I will follow
No turning back
before me the world behind me the cross before me no turning back no turning
back amen we have a baptism this morning please turn your song books to
Song number 148 altogether nice and strong in that first verse.
My sins are...
My sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on Jesus, my sins on
God's word I long reasoned.
for love unceasing, for blessings air increasing, for all my fears releasing, I praise as
All right, we have a baptism here, tell us your name.
Joshua.
Joshua, have you trusted Jesus as your savior?
Yes.
Okay, upon your public profession,
I'm gonna baptize you in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
go to cross your arms over your chest,
bear it in the laxness of his death,
raise to walk in units of life.
Woo!
Congratulations.
Don't worry about getting anything back.
Keep going.
We got one more.
Watch your step, congrats. Watch your step, okay?
Watch your step because it's kind of slippery.
There you go, sit down at your bottom here with your legs flat, okay?
Scoot up a little bit.
There you go. All right, tell us your name.
Adriana, have you trusted Jesus as your savior?
Okay, upon your public profession,
I'm gonna baptize you in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
going to cross your arms over your chest.
Barred in the lexicon of his death,
praise to walk in the midst of life.
Congratulations.
Let's go ahead and pray and we'll be to Smith's father.
We thank you again.
Thank you so much for our salvation.
Thank you for church and the word of God.
I pray, Father God, that you would be with us as we're to Smith's Lord.
Help us to remember all the things that we heard.
Thank you for the baptisms today.
We love you.
We thank you.
Pray the things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
You are to Smith's.
You okay?
Did she slip?
Are you okay?
Did you hit your toe?
You rolled your ankle?
you