"You know that ye were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth
Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost.
Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are diversities of
administrations but the same Lord, and there are diversities of operations but as the same
God which worketh all in all.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, for to one
is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same
Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same
Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning
of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
But all these worketh that one in the self same Spirit, dividing to every man severally
as he will.
For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being
many, are one body, so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or free, and have been made all to drink into one Spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore
not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore
not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?
If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
But now, if God set the members, every one of them, in the body, as it hath pleased them.
And if there were all one member, where were the body?
But now, are they many members, yet one body?
Now I cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet,
I have no need of you.
Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.
Those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, by means we bestow more
abundant honor.
And our uncommely parts have more abundant comeliness.
For our comely parts have no need, but God hath tempered the body together, having given
more abundant honor to that part which lacked.
That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same
care one for another.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored,
all the members rejoice with it.
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers,
after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
Are all apostles?
Are all prophets?
Are all teachers?
Are all workers of miracles?
Have all the gifts of healing?
Do all speak with tongues?
Do all interpret?
We cover earnestly the best gifts, and yet, show I unto you a more excellent way.
Let's pray.
I deliver God.
We just thank you for this church.
Thank you for our pastor.
I just ask that you would be with him now.
Please strengthen him.
Please fill him with your Holy Spirit.
And please bless the preaching.
And do you see me pray?
Amen.
Okay.
We are in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 this morning, and the time of my sermon today is what kind
of church is this?
What kind of church is this?
We're in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
Obviously, we know that there's no such thing as a one true church, okay?
There's not one centralized power where that particular church just tells everyone what
the standard is.
There's a lot of good churches out there.
Even if they don't fall within the realm of being a Baptist church as we are, there's
churches out there that believe right about salvation, about the Bible, and have various
maybe even views on end times Bible prophecy, but there's still good churches.
But obviously, you know, we have to understand that we need to pick and choose what church
we go to based upon how close they are to the Bible.
And the Bible tells us here in first Corinthians chapter 12, that when it comes to churches,
there are diversities of gifts, there are differences of administration, there are diversities
of operation, meaning that even within good churches, you have various ways that people
do things.
But the Bible tells us here that they're of the same spirit, the same Lord, and it
is the same God which worketh all and all.
But let me just be honest with you, you know, obviously we know that there's a lot of good
churches in there, but I personally believe that this is the best church.
If I did not believe that, I wouldn't be pastoring here, okay?
And I wouldn't be a member of a fundamental Baptist church if I didn't think it was the
best church.
I'm just letting you know that within the scope of Christianity, the spectrum of Christianity,
there are a lot of good churches.
And even within fundamental Baptist churches, of course, there's a lot of good churches.
But I want to explain to you this morning what kind of church we are.
And the reason I want to do that is because, you know, churches should be honest about
who they are, right?
They should be honest about who they are.
The Bible tells us that we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking
in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully.
In other words, we should be very open about what we believe, who we are, and not try to
obscure it from the public, not try to obscure it from the members.
You should know what you're getting yourself into, right?
The apostle Paul said, "Thou has fully known my doctrine and manner of life, purpose, faith,
long-suffering, charity."
What is he saying?
You know who I am.
You know what we believe.
You know what kind of church we have, and so that's not something that should ever be
in question.
You know, the same can't be said of every church, even of good churches.
Go to a church and it's called church, and it's just like, "Okay, I get it.
It's church, but what kind of church is it?"
Okay?
Go to a church that says, "Jesus Followers," oh, it says Jesus, but what kind of church
is that?
You see, when you come to our church, you can look at the sign, "First Works Baptist
Church, Independent Fundamental," and you know, "Okay, these people are crazy."
No, I'm just kidding.
You know?
These people are extremists.
These people believe the Bible.
These people are associated with a certain, you know, certain doctrine, certain practices,
and so it's important for us to know why that is.
So this morning, it's going to be a refresher for a lot of our members, but maybe someone's
new here and you want to know what kind of church this is.
Well, I'm going to be 100% honest with you this morning of what type of church we have
here.
Now you're in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
Go to chapter 14, if you would, 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
Number one, let me start off by saying is that this is an independent, fundamental Baptist
church.
You can see it when you walk in through the doors.
We have it in our signs.
We have it in our invites.
We have it on our church sign out front.
It's an independent, fundamental Baptist church.
Now when you say something like that, a lot of Christians will often have this attitude,
this disposition that says, "Well, you know, I don't really like that because I don't
really like labels.
We should just call it a church of Christ, or it's a Bible church, or it's a congregation,
or it's a fellowship of some sort.
Labels aren't good.
It just kind of scares people away, but labels are super important.
Because if they weren't, then why don't we all just go to the Kingdom Hall down the street
since they call themselves Christians?
Or why don't we all just attend the Mormon Tabernacle since they also claim to be Christians?
You see, if you were to ever stumble into a building and you find out that they ... You
don't know what the sign says, it just says church, but then you start realizing that
they believe Mormonism, then you're like, "Oh, no.
This is not the type of church for me.
This is a cult.
This is not what I want to be a part of.
I wish they were honest on the sign and would have told me that they're Mormons or something."
You see labels are important, and it lets you know what you're getting into, and a lot
of times people will think, "Yeah, but you'll scare people away."
Scare people away with what?
It's almost implying when people make that statement that you have to be a little deceitful
or something.
"Oh, don't tell them what you really believe.
Don't tell them that you're really a Baptist church."
And that's another thing.
A lot of churches, believe it or not, non-denom, for example, are Baptists in their beliefs,
but they remove Baptists from their name.
You know why?
Because they're ashamed of it and they don't want to scare you away.
And here's the thing is that if the Bible scares people away, then so be it.
I mean, that's on them, right?
I want you to know what you're getting yourself into when you attend our church.
Labels matter.
Look at 1 Corinthians 14, verse 8, "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall
prepare himself to the battle?
So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood.
How shall it be known what is spoken?
For ye shall speak into the air."
What is the apostle Paul talking about here?
Clarity, clarification, words easy to be understood.
Not wondering, okay, I still don't know what kind of church this is.
I don't know what they really believe about salvation.
I don't know what they believe about congregating together, about evangelism, about the deity
of Jesus Christ.
I'm just kind of left in obscurity.
No, we're supposed to sound the trumpet in such a way that you know exactly what you're
getting into.
You know exactly what the sound is.
You know exactly what the church believes.
So let me break down for you what it means to be an independent, fundamental, Baptist
church.
Okay?
We're going to get real practical this morning, and let me just say before I get into this
particular point, tonight I'm going to preach a sermon on old IFB versus new IFB, and I'm
going to highlight the differences between those two for those of you who are interested
in that sermon.
So, we're an independent, fundamental, Baptist church.
Number one, what does independent mean?
Okay?
You say, "Man, that's a long name for you guys to put on your church.
Why put that name there?"
Well, what does independent mean?
Well, independent simply means that we're autonomous.
We have no convention.
We are self-governing, meaning that we don't have a headquarters other than heaven that
we are accountable to, okay?
Now why is that important, okay?
Because some people think, "Well, I think you need accountability.
You need that church.
Your church needs accountability.
You should be a part of some sort of convention, some sort of headquarters, some sort of place
that can keep tabs on what's going on there."
Well, let me explain to you why that's a really bad idea, okay?
Number one, if we are a part of a convention, that means that other churches that are associated
with us in that convention, if they go apostate, because we're a part of the same convention,
means that we go apostate, right?
Because we're a part of the same convention.
We teach and preach the same exact things.
We are under one ruler, and so it's more likely that churches who go apostate can attach themselves
to us.
Whereas, if we're independent, if the church down the street that's a fundamental Baptist
church goes apostate, it doesn't affect us in any way, okay?
Not only that, but it actually forces, if you're a part of a convention of sorts, it
forces the pastor to preach something that may be heretical or unbiblical.
Because a lot of these conventions like tell the pastors what they should preach, okay?
This is what you're allowed to say, this is what you're not allowed to say, this is what
you, these are the boundaries here or whatever.
And so, what if the guy on top, the guy, the head honcho of the convention believes in
something heretical?
Like, you know, women pastors.
And the pastor who's actually pastoring the church does not agree with that because he
sees what the Bible says about it in First Timothy chapter two.
He sees what the Bible says about it.
He has no choice but to preach whatever it is that the head honcho wants because he's
a part of that organization.
He's a part of that convention.
He's a part of that denomination, okay?
But it also prevents eliminating one man from having too much power.
If you have a guy on top and he's ruling over all these churches, that's too much power
for one man to have.
The Bible, the biblical model in the book of Acts is that these churches were independent
one from one for another.
Go to Ephesians chapter five, if you would, Ephesians chapter number five, Ephesians chapter
number five.
And you say, well, what about, what if this church though, what if you start going heretical
and apostate?
Well, here's the great thing about our church.
You can leave at any time, right?
Now I don't believe I'm going to go heretical or apostate.
I'm a safe person and you know, I believe the Bible, but let's just say, for example,
you don't agree with something that I preach, right?
Maybe it's not necessarily something doctrinal, maybe it's something that's preference.
It's a standard.
You don't like the way I yell.
You don't like the stances I take.
You know, the great thing about that is you could always leave and you could leave and
still stay right with God.
Whereas a lot of these cults, they kind of tell you like, you can't leave.
And if you leave, you know what I mean?
You're not right with God and all these things.
No, you could always leave.
You know, we don't lock the doors when you come through the church, you know, lock them
after church because we don't want weirdos coming into our building.
But during the service, it's not like we locked the doors, it's not like we force you to tithe,
it's not like we force you to be here.
No, it's on your own accord, right?
And so it's important for us to realize that as a church, we're supposed to be independent
autonomous because of the fact that Jesus Christ is the head of our church.
And in fact, look what it says in Ephesians 5 22 wives submit yourselves into 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 a lot of people interpret this to mean, well, he's the head of the universal church,
but the Bible doesn't teach a universal church.
And that's a sermon for another day, but if you had a universal church or if the Bible
taught a universal church, there would be a major issue because the Bible also teaches
excommunication from the church.
Well how can you be excommunicated from a universal church?
You can't, right?
Universal churches is what the Bible teaches and what this is saying is that Christ is
the head of that church, the church at Ephesus.
Who's he writing to?
The Ephesians.
So when he says Christ is the head of the church, the church that he's addressing is
the church at Ephesus.
So whenever you find that statement, the church, it's obviously addressing the particular group
of people that the letter is being written to.
But it's also applicable to us as well.
Christ is the head of this church, okay?
He is the savior of the body.
Look at what it goes on to say in verse 24, "Therefore, as the church is subject unto
a denomination, subject to a convention," no, it says subject unto Christ, "so let the
wise be to their own husbands in everything."
And obviously that's not, we're not preaching on marriage.
I'm just showing you what the Bible is correlating marriage to is the relationship between the
church, a local New Testament church, and Jesus Christ, not a denomination, not a convention,
not the Roman Catholic church, not whatever organization is out there that feel like they
can lord over churches, you understand?
Now go to 1 Peter chapter 5 if you would, 1 Peter chapter 5, I'm going to read to you
from Colossians chapter 1 and verse 18 it says, "And he is," referring to Jesus, "the
head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he might have the preeminence."
Now here's pretty strong proof that God deals with churches individually and that he is
the head of churches individually.
In the book of Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 you have the letters that are written to
the seven churches which are in Asia and he's addressing the strengths as well as the weaknesses
that every one of those congregations have.
Well if we believe in the universal church, why doesn't he just address just one, all
of them as just being one church?
But no, that's not what we see.
We see that he addresses the church of Ephesus, the church of Smyrna, the church of Pergamos,
the church of Thyatira, the church of Laodicea, and in fact some of those churches in Revelation
chapter 2 are great churches.
There's like no problem with them, but then there's other churches like the church of
Thyatira, they had a bunch of problems.
So you can't hold one church responsible for the issues that another church has.
Why?
Because they're independent.
They are autonomous, which is why Jesus Christ is addressing them separately.
He's not saying here's the letter for the church, send this to all the churches.
No, he has seven letters that are written to seven different churches, proving, confirming,
showing us the importance of having an autonomous church.
None of that, but we see that the pastor is the earthly overseer of a independent church.
Look what it says in first Peter chapter five, verse one.
The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ and also partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, feed the flock of God which
is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for
filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being
examples to the flock.
Now in the Bible here in verse one, he dresses the elders and elder is not the guy on the
10 speed bike with short sleeves from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Elder in the Bible is just someone who is spiritually mature and these are the only
ones who are actually qualified, this is part of the qualification of being a pastor is
that it says, not a novice, less being lifted up with pride, he falls into condemnation
of the devil.
Well, another way of saying not a novice is that you're supposed to be an elder, spiritually
older than everyone else, so to speak.
And so this is addressing the pastors and he's saying, you're supposed to feed the
flock.
Take the oversight thereof.
Don't lord over them.
Make sure that you're not doing it for filthy lucre sake, like a lot of prosperity preachers
do.
Make sure you have a ready mind.
Take the oversight.
Be an example to the flock, et cetera.
Look at verse five.
It says, "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.
Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility.
For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble."
I'm going to read to you from 1 Timothy chapter three, verse four.
This is addressing the qualifications of a pastor.
It says here that it has to be one that "ruleth well his own house, having his children in
subjection with all gravity.
For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church
of God?"
So it's showing us here conclusively that according to the Bible, an earthly pastor
is to take the oversight of a local congregation, of the house of God.
This is the way that God instituted it, and this is why we're independent churches.
We're not attached to a denomination, an organization, a convention, a church.
This is a church.
Now, obviously, if our church starts under the church and it's called First Works Baptist
Church, a satellite plant, so to speak, that's biblical, but eventually the umbilical cord
needs to be cut off, someone needs to be ordained for that particular ministry, and then they
just do their own thing.
They need to be commended unto the Lord.
Go to Colossians chapter 2, Colossians chapter 2, the scorcher this morning.
So the point that I'm making here is that we're independent, fundamental Baptist church.
Now, independent means we're autonomous, what does it mean that we're fundamental?
Well, fundamental simply means that we hold to the foundational truths of the Bible.
Now let's read Colossians chapter 2 before I expound on that, look at verse 16.
It says, "As he hath therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord so walking in him, rooted
and built up in him, and established in the faith as he hath been taught, abounding therein
with thanksgiving."
I want you to notice this, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.
Now what are rudiments?
Well, rudiments, another way of saying rudiments is foundation, okay?
The foundational truths of whatever organization.
And the Bible says here, you got to be careful that you don't get involved in churches that
are utilizing the rudiments of the world rather than the rudiments of Christ, the foundational
principles or doctrines that the Bible shows.
And he says, beware of that.
Why?
Because there's a lot of churches out there that only want to philosophy, right?
They only want to philosophy, they have a lot of vain deceit, they're not using the
Word of God, they're not showing you what the Bible says, and God says you need to be
aware of that.
This is one of the reasons why we are fundamentalists.
It's because of the fact that our faith is based upon the foundational truths of the
Word of God.
Christians often associate fundamentalism with extremism, and that's correct.
You got it.
Hit the nail right on the head, okay?
Because Christianity, by nature, is extreme.
I mean, have you read the Bible?
Have you read Genesis to Revelation?
Have you read the book of Leviticus?
Have you read, you know, the book of Revelation?
It's extreme.
Now, churches that don't like to talk about it, well, I guess they're just not very fundamental.
And I guess they don't really like to talk about the things that are actually in the
Bible.
Why don't you say that there's a lot of people out there that are kind of scared, maybe ashamed
about talking about certain controversial things in the Bible.
They're afraid that it might scare people away.
They're afraid that, you know, oh, so-and-so might get offended.
But folks, at the end of the day, the Bible's command is to preach the entire council of
God.
We're not supposed to be ashamed of the Bible.
We're not supposed to uphold the Bible and say, make excuses for it.
Well, this is why Leviticus 20 13 says this is just a cultural context.
Wrong.
We uphold it and say this is what it fundamentally means.
We back the Bible.
This is what the Bible says.
We hold to these truths.
And if people don't like it, then so be it.
You know, why on God's green earth wouldn't Christians not want to attend a church that
majors on the fundamentals, you know, is beyond me.
Because the fundamentals of the faith essentially is referring to salvation by grace to faith
alone.
That's a good fundamental.
That's the most important fundamental of the faith is salvation.
So if a church does not teach the right way of salvation, it's no longer a fundamental
church.
Hey, one of the fundamentals of the faith is eternal damnation, also known as hell,
lake of fire.
If a church scurries away from talking about the doctrine of hell and eternal damnation,
it's not a fundamental church.
If they make excuses for it, if they say it's only separation from God, it's soul sleep,
it's annihilationism, it's this, that, and the other, it's called apostasy.
They have veered off the fundamentals of the faith.
Fundamentals of the faith, salvation, eternal damnation.
How about the inerrancy of scripture?
The fact that the word of God, the King James Bible, is the inspired, preserved word of
God for the English speaking people.
That's an important fundamental of the faith.
You say, "Why so?"
Well, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
If we can't place our faith in the Bible being God's word, then why are we even here?
What's the point of even meeting?
Let's go to the beach.
That's the case.
But because we know the word of God is the word of God.
We know the Bible is inspired and preserved and it is the foundation of our faith.
Well, then that's why we're here suffering in this heat.
Okay.
Fundamentals of the faith, salvation, eternal damnation and narrancy of scripture.
The deity of Jesus Christ, you know, emphasizing his deity, his sonship, realizing that Jesus
Christ is God, but he is the son of God, an autonomous person separated from God, the
father and God, the Holy Spirit.
We are Trinitarians, right?
Another fundamental of the faith would be the bodily resurrection.
We don't believe as the Jehovah's Witnesses do that Jesus Christ only resurrected in spirit.
We believe he bodily resurrected, which means that we are also going to bodily resurrect
one day as well in the end of the world.
And we can go on and on and on, go to second John if you would, second John.
Because quite frankly, you know, many will say there's only five fundamentals of the
faith.
Folks, there's a lot of fundamentals in the Bible, and you can look up Hebrews chapter
six and view a lot of those primary fundamentals of the faith.
But these are probably the most important ones that we just talked about right now.
Now, if a church says, well, you know, we believe in the fundamentals of the faith,
but we just don't like to really talk about it, then why would you want to go to a church
like that?
That is ashamed of the foundational truths of their faith.
You know, it's like, well, we believe in it, but we just don't really like to put it on
anything on our literature on it.
We don't really like to talk about those things.
We like to talk about things that are more relevant.
Well, I don't know about you, but salvation is pretty relevant, pretty relevant for people
in 2024, people need to know how to be saved because there's so many churches out there
that teach different ways of salvation that are constantly confusing people using terminology
that's confusing, causing people to doubt their salvation, wonder if they're even saved.
It's great to go to a church where the pastor just tells you plainly how to be saved and
not just the pastor, but the members as well.
You say, why is this church like that where they're just, people are just able to just
clearly, you know, concisely, distinctively explain what salvation is because it's a
fundamental church that emphasizes the fundamentals of the faith.
And so when you're constantly, you know, uh, hammering that thing in spiritually to the
people, it gets ingrained in their spiritual lives.
They understand what it is.
They're able to convey it.
Look at second John nine, second John nine.
It says here, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ.
Now, what is the doctrine of Christ?
Another way of saying that is the fundamentals have not God.
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the father and the son.
If there come any unto you and bringeth not this doctrine, receive him not into your house.
Neither bid him Godspeed, for he that bideth him Godspeed is a partaker of his evil deeds.
So the Bible's telling us here that if a person transgresses, they trespass, they deny the
fundamentals of the faith, he's going to apostate, okay?
They don't have God.
They are participants of evil deeds, et cetera.
So we are an independent, fundamental, and here's the last one, Baptist, okay?
Now what is Baptist?
What does it mean to be a Baptist?
It's not because of John the Baptist, let me just let you know, okay?
But being a Baptist simply means that we baptize believers by immersion.
What is immersion?
It means you fully go in the water and then you fully come out, okay?
We don't sprinkle anybody here.
We don't sprinkle anybody like the Catholics nor do we sprinkle people like some of the
Protestants do.
Or it's just, you know, the last time I checked, Jesus Christ went fully in the grave and
came fully out.
So how can you be buried with them by baptism into death if Jesus Christ went fully in?
But yet it's just your head or something like that?
Wrong.
Okay.
So meaning, so Baptist is that we baptize believers by immersion and though Baptist
is associated with the ordinance of baptism, it actually corresponds to what we believe
about salvation.
Let me explain to you what I mean by that.
When you run into a Baptist, you realize, oh, these people immerse believers who have
already gotten saved.
Salvation precedes baptism.
When you run into a Baptist, you can rest assured most of the time that person believes
you're to be baptized after salvation, not for salvation.
Okay.
All right.
Which means that babies can't be baptized.
We don't baptize babies here.
We don't sprinkle babies.
Why?
Because babies don't know how to believe on Jesus Christ because they're babies.
Someone has to call upon the name of the Lord out of their own volition that if thou
shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has raised
them from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For what the hard man believeth unto righteousness, but what the mouth confession is made into
salvation at which point when they get saved God commands them to be baptized.
Earlier this week we were on our way soul winning and I ran into a guy and he got saved
and immediately I told him like hey you got to be baptized.
And he didn't mix that up with salvation because the message was clear.
And so we're baptized because we baptize converts, we baptize believers and let me just say this,
you say well I already got baptized earlier before I got saved, well at that point you
just got wet and it actually means nothing according to the Bible because salvation comes
before baptism.
So if baptism came before salvation, well according to the Bible, it doesn't count.
You got to get baptized again, okay?
The Bible tells us in Matthew 28, you don't have to turn there, turn with me if you went
to Acts chapter 8.
Matthew 28 as you're going to Acts chapter 8, Matthew 28 verse 19 says, "Go ye therefore,
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost."
Now, another thing I want to mention about baptism is that according to the Bible, and
should I say more specifically according to Jesus, we're supposed to baptize in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, not in the name of Jesus.
And you have a movement out there, it's called the Jesus Only Baptism.
And anytime I baptize someone and I upload it, people tell me, "You're doing it wrong.
You should be baptizing in the name of Jesus."
Well, are you telling me to disobey Jesus Christ?
Because Jesus Christ literally said, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost."
Okay?
So anytime someone gets baptized, we baptize them exactly the way Matthew 28 verse 19 told
us to.
Look at Acts chapter 8 verse 35.
Let's look at a practical way of how this is carried out.
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 a certain water.
And the eunuch said, 'See, here's water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?'"
Now what's another way of saying that?
What's keeping me from getting baptized?
Can I get baptized is what he wants to know, right?
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."
And he commanded the chariots to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both
Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him, the Bible says.
This is a perfect example, go to chapter 17, perfect example of someone who gets saved
because they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the result of that is that he gets baptized
thereafter.
Now, are there people who get saved and don't get baptized?
Absolutely.
They're still saved.
They're not very obedient to what Jesus Christ is saying.
It doesn't affect their salvation at all whatsoever, because nothing can affect their salvation.
I will in no wise cast you out, the Bible says, for by grace are you saved through
faith in that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works that any man should
boast, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us.
And on and on and on and on, the Bible teaches eternal security of the believer, right?
But here's the thing, let's obey the Lord Jesus Christ and just get baptized after we
get saved.
That's what the Bible commands, okay?
And you say, well, what if I don't?
Then you're just disobeying the Lord.
Well, I still love the Lord.
Yeah, but the Bible says, if you love me, keep my commandments.
And like the first commandment he gives you is to get baptized, okay?
If the heater's not on right now, then you know, today would actually be a perfect day
to get baptized, because the water is nice and cool, okay?
Look at Acts chapter 17, verse 7, it says, "He departed thence and entered into a certain
man's house, named Justice, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.
And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and
many of the Corinthians' hearing believed and were baptized," the Bible says.
So again, the biblical model that we see is that people get saved and they get baptized
thereafter.
So number one, what kind of church is this?
It's an independent, fundamental, Baptist church.
Independent why?
We're autonomous.
We're not connected to a convention, a denomination of any sorts.
We are fundamental because we highlight, emphasize, and drive in the fundamentals of the faith.
This is what our faith is based off of.
And we're Baptist, meaning that we believe that people should be baptized after they
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
Okay?
Very important.
Now, go to Revelation chapter two, if you would.
Revelation chapter two.
What kind of church is this?
It's an independent fundamental Baptist church, but it's also a soul-winning church.
And if you're ever looking for a church, just look at what they believe about evangelism.
If they have evangelism at their church and they use that term evangelism, that's good.
But let me just say this.
If they ever use the term "soul-winning" though, then you're definitely in the right
spot.
Okay?
Why is that?
The churches that use the phrase "soul-winning" are typically churches that schedule times
when the church actually goes out to evangelize the public.
Okay?
Now, we believe in and practice "confrontational evangelization," not just casual witnessing
either.
Okay?
Now, we believe in casual witnessing.
You're at the gas station.
Someone talks to you.
You talk to someone and you have the opportunity to get them saved.
Amen.
Right?
You're at some gathering.
You're with family.
It's always good to do those things, but like I mentioned last week, typically you're more
aware of opportunities when you already have a scheduled time to go and preach the gospel,
period.
You're more conscious of the fact that people around you are opportunities to get saved
if you have a consistent time that you go out and preach the gospel every single week.
And our church has a scheduled time every single week, various times throughout the
week as a convenience to our members so that they can go out and preach the gospel and
get people saved.
So it's not just when the opportunity presents itself.
We as a church are constantly engaging with the public, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And I mentioned the example from Tuesday, but we're literally on our way soul winning.
I was heading out the door and we're getting ready to go preach the gospel and this guy
just rides up on his bike and he starts asking about the church and what kind of church are
we and that's actually where I got the idea for the sermon.
And I didn't say, "Well, we're a community."
It's a Bible church.
I was like, "We're a Baptist church."
He's like, "Okay."
And he kind of told me about his church history, what he did.
And immediately I was just like, "Well, are you 100% sure that if you die today you go
to heaven?"
And he was not.
He said he thought he was, but he said, "You never know."
And obviously if someone says, "You never know," then that probably means that they
don't know because they don't have the assurance that they're saved.
So then I just asked them, "Can I show you from the verses from the Bible?"
And he was like, "Yeah."
And I showed him the verses.
He was very open, very receptive.
He had been going through a very difficult time in his life.
And so obviously he was very tender-hearted towards the gospel, and he called upon the
name of the Lord.
And then I ended up telling him, I gave him a Gatorade, and I said, "You've got to be
baptized."
And he ended up getting baptized.
The point that I'm making here is that we have an atmosphere at church, and people saw
that video, and they're like, "Wow, that's cool."
But let me just be honest with you, people in our church do this all the time, though.
There's no security cameras to capture them doing it.
This is always happening.
It happens in church, it happens out of church, people are constantly getting people saved
in our church.
Okay?
Why?
Because we are a soul winning church.
Now let me just say this is that according to the Bible, listen to this, it's very important.
This is actually a marker that determines if we are a legitimate church or not.
This which is soul winning, evangelism, is actually a marker that determines if we are
legitimately an actual church of Jesus Christ or not, it's soul winning.
Not if we're 501(c)(3) because you know you have a lot of people that are like are you
501(c)(3) though?
And let me just say this, we're not 501(c)(3), we pay taxes, you know that's just how I operate
the church, we pay our taxes and that's it.
But you know there's churches out there that are 501(c)(3) and you know what?
They're great churches and they do soul winning.
But you know you shouldn't determine what church you go to based upon if they're 501(c)(3)
or not.
And let me just say this.
Taxes are horrible but you know what?
Jesus actually commanded to pay taxes.
"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's" the Bible says, okay?
He doesn't want us to be these tax evasive people that just don't give tribute to whom
tribute, custom to whom custom.
He actually wants us to be subject to certain ordinances of the government.
Obviously if they end up delving into the realm of Christian commandments then we're
to abstain from that.
But paying taxes, you know, whatever.
And you know, some people have told me this, they said, "Yeah, but what if the government's
using those taxes for like really evil purposes though?"
And here's the typical way I tell them, "They probably are."
What do you mean what if?
What if?
They probably are using it for wicked means.
He goes, "Well then, you know, you shouldn't pay them."
No, because Jesus said to pay them.
And in fact, Jesus paid taxes.
And let me just let you in on a little secret about Jesus paying taxes.
He paid it to the Roman Empire.
Now, do you think the Roman Empire was using that tax money for righteous purposes?
Absolutely not.
They were probably one of the most wicked empires.
So did Jesus sin because he paid those taxes?
Absolutely not, because he fulfilled his responsibility as a law abiding citizen.
I mean, the money you pay because you got a parking ticket probably goes to wicked means
too.
We don't know.
It's not your fault.
The point that I'm making here is that we should not determine if we go to church based
upon whether it's 501(c)(3) or not.
What is it based upon?
According to the Bible, it's based upon whether that church is an evangelistic, soul winning
church.
In verse number one, it says, "Unto the angel of the church at Ephesus right, these things
say he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the
seven golden candlesticks."
And this is Jesus' assessment of the church at Ephesus.
He says, "I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear
them which are evil, and has tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and has
found them liars, and has borne, has had patience, and for my name's sake has labored, and has
not fainted."
So far so good.
He's like commanding them.
He's just like, "Man, you don't like false prophets, false apostles.
You can't stand them which are evil."
I mean, this is a very doctrinally sound.
They hate every false way, right?
And they have a lot of endurance.
They don't faint.
Look at verse four, "Nevertheless," that's the negative part, "I have someone against
thee, because thou hast left thy first love, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,
and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and I will
remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent."
Now, what are the first works?
Well, when you actually study the gospels, you see the very first thing that he commands
his disciples to do is to go and fish for men, be fishers of men, go and preach the
gospel, open your mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel, preach that the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.
That is evangelizing, that's soul winning.
So he's telling them, look, you got all these things right, but there's one thing that you
don't have, and that is that you no longer do the first works.
You're not soul winning, you're not preaching the gospel.
And he tells them, you better get this right, because if you don't, I'm going to remove
your candlestick.
In other words, I'm going to remove your right to be a church.
Now there's churches out there, like the church at Ephesus, that have everything right doctrinally,
they have everything right in holiness, a poor false doctrine, but they don't do any
soul-winning whatsoever.
And you know what?
In the eyes of the public, and even in their eyes, they are still a legitimate church.
But you know what?
In the eyes of God, they have relinquished their right to actually be a legitimate church
in the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That candlestick's been removed.
Why?
Because the purpose of a local New Testament church, one of the purposes, is to go and
reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ to get them saved.
And you know what?
It's not just the pastor's job, it's not just the evangelist's job, it's all your
guy's job.
It's your responsibility too.
When he said, "Go ye therefore," "ye" is referring to just everyone who's a believer.
The responsibility to preach the gospel, to fish for men, to open your mouths boldly,
to evangelize.
And that's why we believe in scheduled evangelizing and believe and practice systematic evangelization.
So what do you mean by that?
Well, you know, we don't encourage people to just go out and just give their testimony
or something and just talk about coming to our church.
No, we actually have a systematic way in which we approach the message of salvation.
We use what's called the Romans road.
And this is not original.
It was actually coined by another fundamental Baptist of years past who was obviously a
great soul owner.
And it's just a very systematic approach to the gospel presentation where you can use
the book of Romans to address the fact that someone is a sinner before God, that they
deserve hell according to the Bible and that Jesus Christ died on the cross, that he was
buried and that he resurrected.
And that if you just believe on him for salvation, you can have eternal life and that it can
never be lost.
And so we have a very systematic way of doing that.
I believe that's important.
And here's the thing is that we're also a church when it comes to evangelization, where
we don't just talk to people.
We actually show them what the Bible says.
We actually bring our Bibles with us, New Testaments of sorts, and we actually show
them what the Bible says.
It's like, don't take our word for it.
It's right here.
We'll have them read the verses, show them.
We essentially try to convince people, showing from the Scriptures, that Jesus is the Christ.
So that's important.
What kind of church are we?
Well, we're not just a church that teaches doctrine, because that's important.
We're also a church that actually goes out and seeks to win the lost as well.
We want to keep the first thing the first thing, and the first thing is soul-winning.
Okay?
The main thing is soul-winning, preaching the gospel, and that's why we have teams
in our church that will train you, disciple you, show you how to effectively win people
to Christ, the strangers abroad, and even your friends and family.
Okay?
Let's move on here.
What kind of church are we?
Go to Ephesians chapter five.
Ephesians chapter five.
We are an independent fundamental Baptist church.
We are a soul-winning church, but we are also traditional in our music, if you haven't
noticed already.
Okay?
You're like, "That's corny.
I'll take it.
I'll take it."
Now, what does it mean to be traditional in our music?
It means that we use the hymns, okay, we sing the hymns, and we reject contemporary
Christian music.
This is not a CCM church.
Now, this might step on some toes in people in our church, but you probably need your
toes to get stepped on because you need to learn about this.
And just as a reminder, you stepped into a fundamental Baptist church, and in a fundamental
Baptist church, in general, reject contemporary Christian worship.
It's not proper music to be used in a church.
You say, why is that?
Well, CCM actually uses Hindu mystic guru methods to produce a pseudo spiritual experience.
And I preached a sermon about a year ago about this.
The fact that you have these ashram cults in India, where these gurus will seek to put
people in an altered state of consciousness through chants and repetition in order to
make them feel as though they're having a spiritual experience.
And what CCM does is basically the same exact thing.
They'll sing a song and they'll repeat it five times over and it's like a chant.
And they determine if the church service was a great worship, not based upon the preaching,
not based upon the word of God, but based upon that little tingly feeling that they
get when they sing the songs.
It's more sensual than it is spiritual.
And let me say this, you know, some spiritual experiences may, you might feel like butterflies
in your stomach every once in a while, but the vast majority of them are felt spiritually.
We walk by faith and not by sight.
Did you know that every time you read the Bible, you don't have to burst into tears
and just like have a creative, sometimes you could just read the Bible and consume the
content and the information and rejoice in spirit.
You know, you could come to a church service and you don't have to lift up your hands.
You don't have to feel the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes it's something that is spiritually discerned, but you know what?
A lot of churches out there don't like this because of the fact that they want the physical
feeling rather than the spiritual feeling.
And when that happens, they end up emphasizing the physical, sensual experiences over what
the Bible actually says.
They'll say, "Well, you know, I don't like it.
I feel..."
That's like one of the first things that they say.
You tell them, "Well, this is what the Bible says."
Yeah.
"Yeah, but you know what?
I feel though..."
Well, there's your problem.
Stop right there.
There's your number one problem.
You're a feely person.
Emotions are great.
Feelings are great.
But not when it comes to the Bible, because you know what?
The Bible rubs us the wrong way sometimes.
And the Bible doesn't always give a tingly feeling.
Sometimes it judges us.
It condemns us.
It gets on our sin.
And you know what?
That doesn't feel really good.
Sometimes it embarrasses us.
You get preaching that embarrasses you, and you're just sitting there just like, "Man,
that is what the Bible says."
Yeah, that's not really tingly now, is it?
To me, churches out there, they're more interested in getting people to this altered state of
consciousness to give them this pseudo-spiritual experience so that they can preach their 15-minute
sermon, get their money, and hightail it out of there every single week.
That's just how it works.
Yeah.
They don't care about people's salvations.
They don't care if people are growing spiritually.
They don't care about fixing marriages.
They don't care about getting sin out of people's lives.
They emphasize things that are just not biblical.
And they will use the method of CCM to do so.
And I know, I know there's probably people in here that are probably still listening to CCM.
Okay?
And this isn't a, I'm not the Baptist police.
I'm just telling you by experience, you know, I know that's the case.
Because you know, sometimes Christians just can't get away from that stuff.
It's like more addicting than crack in some instances.
But what does the Bible tell us?
Ephesians 5 or 17 says, "Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of
the Lord is."
Be not drunk with wine.
What does wine do to you?
It gives you a physical feeling.
Physical emotion.
So be not drunk with wine wearing as excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to
yourselves in Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts into
the Lord.
And so what kind of church is this?
Well, aside from the fact that we preach doctrine, we're a fundamental Baptist church, we are
a soul-wanting church, we actually put a big emphasis on the right kind of music as
well.
And in fact, you know, our church is currently working on a hymn book, okay?
I know we've got a hymn book already, but you know, the Bible talks about singing a
new song.
So that song that we just sang earlier with the sheet, someone in our church, Brother
Connor wrote that, along with our peonies, you know, put that together.
And so we have men in our church that are writing hymns, these former rappers, you
know, they're writing hymns or whatever, you know, they get into a little mode or whatever,
you know?
The little Eminem mode or something, you know, put the beanie with the headphones on.
And they're writing hymns, doctrinally sound hymns for Christians to sing.
Why?
Because it's what's appropriate in the eyes of God, okay?
And CCM does not, CCM is shallow in its doctrine.
It repeats the same line like seven times over, okay?
And why is it, you know, I remember a long time ago, I had this Pentecostal aunt, because
you know, we all have a Pentecostal aunt for some reason, I don't know why that is.
But you know, I remember she came to hear me preach a long time ago.
And she asked me, she's like, how long is your worship service?
And I was like, I didn't grow up in a Pentecostal church, like when I got saved I was in a fundamental
Baptist church.
And it kind of confused me because I was thinking to myself like worship, like I worshiped the
Lord when I woke up in the morning and I read my Bible and stuff.
You know, I was thinking like, what do you mean?
She's like, the worship service.
How long is your worship service for?
I don't know, like 15 minutes or something.
We've seen like three hymns and you know, first and last verse and you know, but we
do.
She's like, oh, that's not enough.
That's not enough.
And I was like, why?
She's like, I have to worship for at least an hour and I don't really need.
She said, I don't really need the preaching because I could go read my Bible at home.
It's like the church is literally the reason why we preaching is literally the reason why
we go to church.
She was more interested in coming and getting the feeling singing and getting that emotion,
that emotion rather than actually getting the content of the word of God, which is why
we congregate in the first place.
The Bible says to give attendance to doctrine, to exhortation, to reading, not to CCM, not
to repeating seven lines over again, okay?
And so it's important for us to realize that, that, you know, and here's the thing, you
know, a lot of times Christians will come from different types of churches.
They'll come from these non-Danaam type churches.
And I get this a lot where it's just like, you know, we really like the preaching, it's
just the music, you know?
And I think to myself, like, what's wrong with the music?
You know, the hymns are doctrinally sound.
They have doctrine, it feeds the spirit, but really what they're talking about is they're
not getting that tingling emotion.
Hey, you want tingling emotions, go eat Taco Bell after service.
You'll get a tingling emotion if that's what you're looking for.
I just want to feel that, you know, then go get a puppy.
That could be easily substituted with something else.
Let me say this, learn how to feed your spirit.
Build an appetite for feeding the spirit.
And the Bible says that the inward man rejoices in the law of God.
We rejoice in the law of God after the inward man.
Your inward man, the new man within you, longs for biblical worship.
It longs for the hymns.
It longs for Bible preaching because that's what it's looking for.
That's what it wants.
Your flesh is what actually wants that other stuff, which is why people get upset when
I talk about it.
It's an emotional reaction to it.
And so I got half the church mad at me.
I don't think half the church listens to CCM, but I'm sure there's a sprinkling of sorts.
Go to Matthew 19, Matthew chapter 19, talking about what kind of church is this?
Because it's an independent fundamental Baptist church.
It is a soul winning church.
It is a church that uses the traditional hymns, not CCM, not praise and worship, whereas
the music tends to take precedence over the preaching of God's word.
We don't have a worship pastor here.
Okay.
You know, brother Ron, brother John and brother Mark goes, they're not worship pastors or
worship leaders.
What do you call them?
Song leaders.
That's it.
Okay.
What I want to say this is that when it comes to what kind of church this is, we are a family
integrated church.
I don't know if you noticed that.
Okay.
We do not segregate the family in various Sunday school classes or nurseries.
Now look at Matthew 19 verse 13, it says, then were there brought unto him little children
that he should put his hands on them and pray and the disciples rebuked them.
But Jesus said, suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such
is the kingdom of heaven.
And he laid his hands on them and departed thence.
What does this teaching us?
It's teaching us that children have every right to have a service experience, right?
To hear the preaching of God's word, to be a part of and participants of a church service,
we should not forbid them by sending them off to a Sunday school class, a nursery, a
teen service.
Why?
Well, because of the fact that God wants them to hear the word of God too.
For of such is the kingdom of God, the Bible says.
Modern day churches often will have nurseries, but they're actually not really nurseries
at all.
They're actually like daycare centers for the members of the church, because what's
a nursery?
Well, technically what we got are actually nurseries, and I'm actually even thinking
about just switching to calling it a nursery, because you know what a nursery actually is?
It's where mommies go to take care of their babies, where they go and nurse their babies.
The nurseries of other churches are where other people take care of your babies.
That's called a daycare center.
We have mother-baby rooms, but they're technically nurseries, where women, they'll go into the
room, the back room's here, and it's made for them, and they have rocking chairs, and
they can nurse their children, they can take care of their children, train them to get
back into the service.
We believe church services are for the entire family unit.
Now, I know, it's a little inconvenient sometimes.
I get it, right?
You have babies, and they start losing their minds in the service, and then I'm competing
with them, you know what I mean, as far as volume is concerned.
But you know what, it is what it is, and we want our children to hear the preaching of
God's word.
I'm going to say this, sometimes children pay better attention than some adults.
They soak in a lot more.
They take in a lot more.
They're learning a lot when they sit in a church service.
And let them be a part of the singing.
Let them sing the hymns.
Let them sing "And Can It Be?"
Let them sing "Amazing Grace."
Let them sing those songs.
We don't have to teach them these dumbed down kiddie songs of the nursery just because
we want to entertain them, okay?
Let them get the doctrinally sound hymns.
We don't have to separate the children from their parents to be placed in a separate room
with the dumbed down message talking about David and Goliath for the 100th time or something.
They can hear about everything with everyone else in the main church service.
We believe that the biblical model is for the entire family to participate in the services.
The Bible tells us, go to Nehemiah chapter 8, I'm going to read to you from Ezra 10.
Go to Nehemiah chapter 8, if you would, and I'm going to read to you from Ezra 10.
Verse 1 says, "Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting
himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great
congregation of men and women and children, for the people wept very sore."
Look at Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse number 1, it says, "And all the people gathered
themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate, and they spake
unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded
to Israel.
And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and
all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month."
Now, if the men and women are there, who's taking care of the kids?
The men and the women are.
There's no daycare center during this time, no nurseries, no back rooms, everyone's just
kind of joining together.
Okay?
It says in verse 3, "And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate,
from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand
and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.
And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose,"
and so on and so forth.
The point that I'm making here is that the example that we see from Old Testament to
New Testament was that all families integrated together to hear the preaching of God's Word,
whether it was in the wilderness.
I mean, when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, there was no other tents for
like nurseries and stuff.
When Moses would teach the people, when the priest would teach the people, everyone gathered
together to hear the preaching of God's Word, not just the adults.
Now, a lot of times, one of the reasons pastors want nurseries and teen services and all this
is because they try to create some sort of experience in the service.
It's like a movie, right?
And they will often deliver the message in such a way that they just cannot have any
type of disturbances.
Now, I'm not saying that we should have a circus here, which is why we tell people,
"Hey, if your kid's getting a little crazy, take them to the back."
But in general, you're going to hear a kid scream over here, one say, "Mama" over here,
one say whatever over here.
You just kind of have to deal with the distractions because that's just how it is.
The point that I'm making here is that in the Old Testament, families congregated together
to hear the preaching of God's word, but also in the New Testament.
So how do you know?
Well, because in the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul, when addressing the Ephesian
church, he said this, "Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right."
Does it say, "Parents, tell your children to obey your parents in the Lord for this
is right?"
No, he's addressing the children, meaning that when the letter was read in the church,
the children were present to hear that.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
And so you're like, "Well, I don't really know how much they're really going to get
though from that."
You would be surprised.
Don't underestimate how much your children can actually understand of the word of God.
And you know what?
You're missing out.
And obviously you're not, because you're in a church that is family integrated.
A lot of churches out there are just missing out on some of the deep conversations that
you can have with your little ones because of what they hear.
I've had wonderful, wonderful conversations with my son and with my daughter on the ride
home.
They ask me questions about doctrine.
And it kind of surprises me, you know, that the gears are not only turning, but they're
putting pieces together to try to understand the word of God.
And you know what?
That ends up helping them to build in convictions as well, make it of their own.
They'll remind me of things that I've said behind the pulpit, they'll talk about sermons,
they'll talk about doctrine.
Because here's the thing, folks, is that he's not just my God, he's their God as well.
This is their church too.
This is their Bible too.
They deserve this.
Whereas a lot of churches out there, they have the teen service and everyone's all wild.
Everyone's getting wild in the teen service, throwing candy and singing dumbed down songs
and a 10 minute lesson and all this.
And then these kids grow up and what do they do?
They end up going either away from God or they end up joining churches that are very
shallow in their doctrine because that's what they grew up with.
So it's important for us to create an environment in our church conducive to spiritual growth.
Not just for us as adults, but for the children as well.
Well, I just feel it's just a little too deep, you know, for the kids.
Well, here's how you can offset that.
Here's how you can help with that.
Talk about deep stuff when you're home, you know, turn off YouTube, turn off Instagram,
turn off social media, turn off the movies.
And why don't you actually, I know it's crazy, why don't you actually talk about the Bible,
you know?
Why don't you talk about salvation?
Why don't you talk about Jesus Christ?
Why don't you talk about what the word of God says?
You know, have these biblical conversations with your children and develop with them,
within them, an appetite for the things of God.
That way when they come to church, it's like, wow, what the pastor's preaching is what my
dad already showed me, what mom already talked to me about.
It's like, hey, we were just talking about that.
It's a real thing, my friends.
And so, you know, we're not just family integrated just because, you know, we ran out of a room
or something like that.
It's just like, we got no room for Sunday school classes or whatever.
It's because of the fact that, you know, families should not be segregated, okay?
You know, you come to church, it's a family, it's a family function.
And then it's just like, all right, and you don't see each other for the next hour and
a half or something.
By the way, I mean, think about this, folks.
How dangerous is that, too, to just like give your children to some stranger that you may
not even know for an hour and a half?
Maybe nothing immoral will happen.
I mean, there's a possibility that it might, but what about just like, what are they listening
to?
Who are they associating with?
What kind of doctrine are they listening to?
We have the responsibility as parents to oversee the spiritual well-being of our children.
And so it's not just like, all right, go with the Sunday school teacher.
You know, there's churches out there that there's a lot of molestations that take place
like that.
There's a lot of inappropriate ungodly relationships that are established in churches because of
Sunday school classes, teen services, and yes, even bus ministries as well.
Okay.
Now look, I'm not downplaying a lot of Sunday school classes because the reality is this
is that there are Sunday school classes.
There are good out there.
I'm sure they teach good doctrine to the kids.
They actually love the children.
They try to help the children spiritually.
You know, I was a Sunday school teacher at one time.
My wife was a Sunday school teacher at one time.
We taught the little ones and you know what?
I love those kids and I did my best to help them turn out for the Lord.
I did my best to teach them doctrine and I fulfilled my responsibility.
But unfortunately that is the exception to the rule because the vast majority of the
time it's not like that at all.
Keep your kids in the service amen and be a part of a family integrated church.
Lastly as far as what kind of church we are, we are a King James only church.
I'm just being honest with you, just letting you know who we are and you're like well good
because I'm never coming back.
Well at least you could say though like that pastor was honest.
At least you could say you know I don't really like that kind of, I don't like the flavor
of that church but at least the pastor was not trying to be dishonest about who they
were what they believed and all this.
You know we are a King James only church meaning we reject all modern versions of the Bible
in English.
And not all translations in various languages obviously because people often accuse us of
that because we use the brain of Valera Gomez in Spanish there's various other Bibles that
people use in different languages but when we were talking about in English we reject
all the modern versions of the Bible and when it comes to English we accept no substitute.
Now why is that?
Well go with me if you would to 2nd Corinthians chapter 2, 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 many
modern versions of the Bible if not all of them veer off from the original text specifically
in the New Testament they veer off doctrinally they teach heresy they remove verses they
add verses and so how can we say that we have the perfect and inspired word of God when
it contradicts itself or when it says something completely different than the underlying Greek
text that it was supposedly translated from and how can we use the Bible the question
is the deity of Jesus Christ how can we use the Bible that teaches a wrong way of salvation
you know many modern versions of the Bible will say in 1st Corinthians 1 18 for the
preaching of the crosses to them that perish foolishness but into us which are being saved
it is the power of God I'm not being saved I'm already saved that happened like 17 years
ago but you know if a person reads that they're gonna think that salvation is a process rather
than something that takes place in a moment when you call upon the name of the Lord that's
a false gospel many modern versions of the Bible say as newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word that you may grow into salvation that's not only is that heretical and doctrinally
unsound but it's also not something that's found in the underlying Greek text they just
added that they saw you know grow they're like salvation but that's not what the Greek
says it's just like doesn't matter salvation a lot of them do this so many modern versions
of the Bible aside from the fact that they're doctrinally unsound they teach a perverse
manner of salvation they pervert the deity of Jesus Christ by removing the blood some
of them even remove entire verses from the Bible and if they don't remove entire passages
they will put footnotes at the bottom of the page that make you question whether that passage
should actually be there and then many of them are just literally geographically historically
inaccurate they just talk about king Saul being one years old when he began to reign
it's like that never happened how can someone read that and think it's a legitimate Bible
that's a major error and it's not like one of them has it was like they have they all
have that so either whoever translated this just did not know what they were doing or
it was intentional it was intentional they purposely put that in there to confuse the
masses whereas the King James Bible has no errors and anytime someone tells me no the
king James passed for me the King James Bible has plenty of errors okay show me let me
go ahead and put the Bible in your hand and you go ahead and pull out all of the discrepancies
and errors that are found within the King James Bible you're simply parroting what
someone else has said and here's the thing folks is that when you take a survey and people
have done this of all the churches in America and what Bible do Christians consistently
read not just by but read it's the King James Bible the other modern versions of the Bible
they look great you know they always look nice but you know what do they do they just
bring them to church and that's it people who actually own a King James Bible are actually
people who actually read the King James Bible okay the Bible says in second Corinthians
2 17 for we are not as many which corrupt the word of God but as of sincerity but as
of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ so even from Paul's day people were corrupting
the Bible they were seeking to pass off fraudulent documents as being divine and authoritative
but the Bible tells us here that they were corrupt and we were born again of incorruptible
seed by the word of God the Bible says okay the Bible tells us man should not live by
bread alone but by every word that proceed out of the mouth of God well you have a problem
if you have modern versions who are removing verses that's not an everywhere Bible you
know we read the passage in Acts chapter 8 what does hinder me to be baptized modern
versions of the Bible remove if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest they remove
that verse and then the next verse just says they both went down into the water and were
baptized you don't tell me that's not going to teach a baptismal regeneration salvation
the Bible tells us in Psalm 12 verse 6 the words of the Lord are pure words as silver
tried in the furnace of earth purified seven times thou shall keep them O Lord thou shall
preserve them from this generation forever the point that I'm making here what's saying
that we're King James only is that we do not accept modern versions of the Bible we preach
from utilize read from evangelize with the King James version of the Bible okay and you
know people say yeah but you just don't understand modern scholars have discovered had made new
discoveries of manuscripts and so now we know more of the Bible so let me ask you this you
know you think God just hid his word for like hundreds and thousands of years and just you
know in some cave somewhere when the Bible says that the word of God has been preserved
it means it's been preserved in the hands of people to be used preached used from read
from not preserved in some cave somewhere you know the Dead Sea amongst these scrolls
or whatever oh it's preserved and now we have the word so what do we have before so when
you brought up the NIV last year you said it was the God's word now you're bringing
out a new one because now it's like other modern discoveries so how do you know which
one is the complete word of God if you're just constantly adding to it you don't really
know what the word of God is because they're constantly adding things to it and obviously
they have an agenda because they want to remove things from there and they make money off
of this which is why the King James Bible is not copyrighted you can literally just
transcribe it yourself and just have your own copy but a lot of modern versions of the
Bible cha-ching people make money off of them which is why an edition has to come out every
single year a new edition okay well those are easier to read you know here's the thing
is that that might be true in certain instances but you know I rather struggle to read something
that is right than to easily read something that is completely wrong.
And the fact is is that when it comes to matters of salvation the King James Bible is explicit
very easy to understand obviously certain parts are hard to understand you know why
because God wrote it it wasn't a child who wrote the Bible you know God allowed this
translation to be coming to existence so obviously it's gonna be a little difficult to read
because God wrote it it's something of substance it has content and you know what it's a challenge
you don't want the Bible to just be completely 100% easy to read you want it to read the
way God intended it for it to be read okay and so the point that I'm making here is
that hey this is the kind of church we are we're a fundamental Baptist church we're a
soul-winning church we use the old-fashioned hymns we are a family integrated church and
we're King James only any questions now tonight I'm gonna explain the differences between
old IFB and new IFB because maybe that's the term that you've heard maybe you got saved
in the new IFB church because we are a new IFB church and the reason I didn't explain
what new IFB means is because of the fact that that has more so to do between the differences
between old and new IFB fundamental Baptist churches so I'll cover that tonight let's
pray Father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the Bible that just
is explicit about the important doctrines of the faith I pray Lord that you would help
us to recognize the importance of labels I want to know what I'm getting myself into
when I go out to eat at a restaurant I don't want to see a blank sign I want to know what
kind of food it is Lord labels are important and especially when it comes to churches a
lot of churches out there claim to be Christian but then they deviate from the doctrines of
Christ from salvation I pray Lord that you'd help us to aspire to understand the importance
of being explicit in our beliefs and not to be dishonest not walk in craftiness handling
the word of God deceitfully and may you bless us and continue to use this as a church to
get more people saved baptized and living righteously we love you we thank you pray
greatest things in Jesus name. Amen.