Baptist Church, if you could, go ahead and please stand with me. Go ahead and come on in.
Song number 194. Since Jesus came into my heart. Song 194.
Since Jesus came into my heart. Song number 194 on the first verse.
What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart.
I have lied in my soul for which long I have saw since Jesus came into my heart.
Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart.
Bloods of joy o'er my soul like a sweet billows roll.
Since Jesus came into my heart. I have ceased from my wandering and going astray.
Since Jesus came into my heart. And my sins which were many are all washed away.
Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart.
Since Jesus came into my heart. Bloods of joy o'er my soul like a sweet billows roll.
Since Jesus came into my heart. I possessed of a whole that is steadfast and sure.
Since Jesus came into my heart. And the dark clouds of doubt now my pathway obscured.
Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart.
Since Jesus came into my heart. Bloods of joy o'er my soul like a sweet billows roll.
Since Jesus came into my heart. There's a light in the valley of death now for me.
Since Jesus came into my heart. And the gates of the city beyond I can see.
Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart.
Since Jesus came into my heart. Bloods of joy o'er my soul like a sweet billows roll.
Since Jesus came into my heart. On the last I shall go there to dwell in that city.
Since Jesus came into my heart. And I'm happy so happy as the word I go.
Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart.
Since Jesus came into my heart. Bloods of joy o'er my soul like a sweet billows roll.
Since Jesus came into my heart.
Great singing. Let us pray. Father, thank you for this wonderful and beautiful night you've given us.
Father, I ask your Holy Spirit for the preacher to come and that you please bless the singing as we sing unto you, Lord.
We love you in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and please be seated. Turn to song number 192, Ring the Bells of Heaven.
Song number 192. Song number 192, Ring the Bells of Heaven. On the first verse.
Ring the bells of heaven. There is joy today. For a soul returning from the wild.
See the Father meet Him out upon the way. Welcoming His weary, wondering child.
Glory, glory, how the angels sing. Glory, glory, how the loud harps ring.
Disturrent some army like a mighty sea. Feeling forth the anthem of the free.
Ring the bells of heaven. There is joy today. For the wonder now is reconciled.
Yes, the soul is rescued from his sinful way. And a new and handsome child.
Glory, glory, how the angels sing. Glory, glory, how the loud harps ring.
Disturrent some army like a mighty sea. Feeling forth the anthem of the free.
And last, ring the bells of heaven. Spread the feast today. Angels swell, fly, triumph is trained.
Tell the joyful tidings, very far away. For a precious soul is born again. Amen.
Glory, glory, how the angels sing. Glory, glory, how the loud harps ring.
Disturrent some army like a mighty sea. Feeling forth the anthem of the free.
Great singing.
All right, great singing. Thank you for being here this evening. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Just a few announcements before we sing our next song, which will be 216, Surely Goodness and Mercy.
Song number 216 if you want to get that ready. In your song books, a few announcements here before we sing our next song.
Our Sunday morning service, of course, is at 1030 Sunday evening at 5 p.m.
And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. You see the soul winning times and teams.
We had a great turnout for the Fontana Soul Winning Marathon yesterday and many saved.
And so thank you for those of you who participated.
If you want to go soul winning, but you can't go on a Sunday and there's, you know,
maybe your schedule doesn't work out for you to go on Sunday or whatever, maybe there's different soul winning times that we have.
You can participate in. Just look there on the soul winning times and teams and many different people that run those specific times throughout the week.
And so you can see me or brother Ulysses for more details about that. And then you see the list of expecting mothers.
Please continue to pray for them. The important reminders are at the bottom.
Of course, today is our six year anniversary and hope you enjoy those tacos slash burgers this afternoon.
Tonight we're going to have cake. Is it Costco cake? Mm hmm.
Can't be discontent, though. Can't be discontent. It's cake. All right.
We're going to have a good time with cake. So that'll be. I'm just joking. This cake after the service.
You guys can have that if you want. I'm just kidding. It'll be in the fellowship hall.
And so there are there will already be cut and ready to go in the fellowship hall.
So enjoy that after the service. Stick around and fellowship and happy anniversary to you all.
We have the homeschool field trip coming up on Friday, September twenty ninth. That'll be a kids based children museum.
The activity is free. You can see my wife for more details about that if you're interested in participating.
And then we have the ladies prayer breakfast on Saturday, October 7th meeting at the building at 10 a.m.
And Miss Janelle Gonzalez is the one who heads that up. And then the homeschool park day is on Friday, October 27th.
That's coming down on the next month there. And so we'll give you more details about that.
And then you see just the regular reminders there at the bottom. Please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching.
So as to not be a distraction during the service. Let's take some Sony numbers from this past week.
Salvations from Monday to Thursday. Salvations from Monday to 17. Three. Seventeen's from Mexico, by the way.
And Ulysses did not get all those people saved. Just so you don't think he's inflating the numbers or something like that.
Okay. Seventeen. Three. Anybody else? How about from third Friday and Saturday?
Salvations for Friday and Saturday. The Fontana soul winning. We had twenty two.
Anybody else from Friday and Saturday? How about this afternoon? Salvations for this afternoon.
One right here for brother Cody's team. Five for brother Morrie's team. Seven for brother Glenn's team. Did I miss anybody?
Going once, twice, thrice. Okay. Keep up the great work. Let's go to see our next song. Two hundred and sixteen.
Surely goodness and mercy. Number 216.
Surely goodness and mercy. You see there on the chorus, on the second page, you'll see the DC.
We're going to sing that after the last verse. I'll lead you through that and then we'll follow through to the end.
Okay. On the first verse. A pilgrim was I and a wandering. In the cold night of sin I did roam.
When Jesus the kind shepherd found me. And now I am on my way home.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life.
He restoreth my soul when I'm weary. He giveth me strength day by day.
He leads me beside the still waters. He guards me each step of the way.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life.
When I look to the dark lonesome valley. My savior will walk with me there.
And safely his grey hand will lead me to the mansions he's gone.
Prepare him. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And I shall see at the table spread for me.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life.
All the days, all the days of my life.
Amen. As y'all should prepare for the offering, please turn your Bibles to Psalm 44.
Psalm 44.
Thank you.
Good evening. So now we're in Psalm 44.
Psalm 44 in the Bible reads,
Through thee will I push down our enemies. Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.
And God, we boast all the day long and praise thy name forever, Selah.
But thou hast cast off and put us to shame, and goest not forth with our armies.
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy, and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat, and hath scattered us among the heathen.
Thou sellest thy people for naught, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
Thou makest us our approach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me.
For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth by reason of the enemy and avenger.
All this has come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way.
Though thou hast swordbroken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death,
if we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange God,
shall not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever.
Wherefore hideest thou thy face, and forget is our affliction and our oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercy's sake.
Let's pray, dear Lord God. Thank you for every soul here, Lord.
Thank you for this church you've given us for six great years.
We just pray that you bless Pastor right now as he preaches unto us, Lord,
and that we're edified by the preaching. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Okay, we're in Psalm 44, and the title of my sermon this evening is
What the Old IFB Did Right. What the Old IFB Did Right.
Look at verse number one of Psalm 44. It says, We have heard with our ears, O God,
our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days in the times of old.
And of course, this is David speaking. And you think about David.
He is a pretty prominent character in the Old Testament, especially during the reign of the kings and historical books.
And I think David could say amongst other kings that there is a lot of revival going on in his day.
You know, they're conquering land. They're doing great things for God.
But you know, one thing that David didn't do is he didn't look necessarily to the past
and begin to criticize or talk down on some of the great men of the past, right?
I mean, he could look back at Moses, who obviously had some mistakes about him
and maybe did some things that weren't right. But he can obviously glorify God
about the works that God did in Moses' day, right?
He could even go back a little more closer to his timeline, to the time of the judges, for example,
where every man did that which was right in their own eyes.
And obviously, a lot of wicked stuff that happened during the time of the judges,
but there's a lot of great men of God that existed during that time,
where God used them in a mighty way.
And he heard of the works that God did in the midst of those people.
What am I saying here? What I'm saying is that every generation has a remnant, right,
of believers that do something great for God in spite of many obstacles, in spite of opposition,
in spite of the fact that maybe within the nation of Israel, even though it's in bad condition,
it's in bad shape, and they're going in the wrong direction,
you know, they did still do some great works for God because God was working in and through them.
And this evening, I want to talk about the old IFP and some of the things that they did right.
Now, I'm going to first talk about some of the things that did wrong, okay?
And I was thinking to myself, I was like, well, that's going to be introduction.
But then I made the list, and it's pretty much part of the sermon now, okay?
So I don't know how long it's going to take, you know what I mean?
But hey, I got to tell the truth, amen?
And then we're going to finish off with some of the things that they did right.
Now, some people, you know, they listen to a sermon like this,
especially if they're part of an old IFP church,
and think to themselves, you know, why, if you don't like the old IFP,
you know, then why are you, you know, trying to honor them or speak good about what they've done
if you don't really are for the old IFP?
Well, let me just say this is that I'm a fundamental Baptist because of the old IFP.
You see, if I hated the old IFP, when I left the old IFP, I would have joined some other denomination.
But I didn't because I am a fundamental Baptist.
I'm an independent, fundamental, leather-lung preacher of the gospel Baptist.
And I believed a lot of the things that the old IFP taught.
Now, let me just say this by way of introduction is that in case you don't know what the difference is
between old IFP and new IFP, we're referring to the independent fundamental Baptist movement of yesteryear.
And quite honestly, I don't know where the term came from as far as like old IFP.
I know that when it comes to the new IFP, that was a name that our enemies gave us,
people who did not like the new independent fundamental Baptist.
But the differences between old and new IFP is that the old IFP is that generation of fundamental Baptists of yesteryear.
The new IFP is essentially the old IFP with some doctrinal differences,
practices that are very much the same in certain instances, for example, in church services,
what we believe about the family and things of that nature.
But at its most basic level, we're pretty much the same because we believe in the right salvation.
We believe in the inspired, preserved Word of God, which is the King James Bible.
And things that matter, we're still the same.
The new IFP is essentially the old IFP renewed.
It's the same exact thing, the difference being is that we've tightened up some doctrinal screws.
We've improved the practices of the services, and we just take a stronger stance in certain areas.
And obviously there's doctrinal differences, but nothing at a level of, for example, salvation.
We don't have a different stance of salvation.
It's the same salvation that they preached, even though many of them don't preach that salvation anymore.
We carry the baton of salvation by grace through faith, and things of that nature.
Now, here's a good way to explain it, because people, again, will look at a sermon like this,
or listen to a sermon like this, and think to themselves,
if you don't like the old IFP, then stop being a fundamental Baptist or something.
Why do you talk about them? Why criticize them?
But here's a good way to explain it. Here's a good illustration to show how this works.
Because if you think of the Apostle Paul, he was a Jew, but the Apostle Paul preached hard against the Jews.
Right? The Apostle Peter was a Jew, but he preached hard against the Jews as well.
Jesus Christ was a Jew, but he preached hard against the Jews as well.
Now, he didn't preach hard against believing Jews, and those who were in line with the word of God.
He preached hard against those who strayed from the old paths, those who deviated from the Bible,
those who deviated from biblical doctrine and the ways of the Lord.
Those were the ones that they were against, and those were the ones that we were against too.
And so we're going to make a comparison here. We love the old IFP,
we just don't like the ones who deviated from the path of salvation, of soul winning, of the Bible.
And even if they consider themselves to be independent fundamental Baptists,
folks, if they deviated from the word of God, you're not a fundamental Baptist.
I don't care how long you've had that name on your church,
if you think you're a fundamental Baptist, if you claim to be independent, which most of them don't,
if you don't use the King James Bible, you're not a fundamental Baptist anymore.
If you don't practice soul winning, you're not a fundamental Baptist.
There are certain things that are innate to fundamental Baptists,
and the old IFP can criticize us all they want,
but if they deviated from those specific doctrines and practices that are akin to being a fundamental Baptist,
they cease being one.
And so if you have a problem with me criticizing the old IFP, just keep in mind,
I'm criticizing those who have deviated from the paths of the word of God,
and I'm still in line with those who held to those doctrines.
I love those people. I love the preachers of yesteryear who stood on the word of God,
who fought the doctrinal wars, the doctrinal wars and cultural wars of their time and their generation.
They were the remnant of that time, and that is the baton that I've taken up.
And so that's a good comparison. The saved Jews versus old covenant Jews who just didn't want to change,
with the transition of the New Testament, and reach out to Gentiles and believe the right doctrines.
That's what we're talking about.
So I want to talk about the works that God did in the days of our spiritual fathers.
And one of the reasons I want to do this is because I never want our church to turn into some old IFP hating church.
And I'm not talking about the heretical old IFP church either.
I'm talking about old IFP churches who would be considered new IFP if they were still in existence today.
Or old IFP preachers that preach like new IFP preachers.
You know, just going out there, Jack Hyles, great man of God who did great works.
I don't think it's right to criticize someone like that. You're like, why? Is that like your idol or something?
No, but he is like a spiritual forefather of ours.
You know, when you look at our invites, we pretty much copied his manner of sowing.
You know, we use something called the Roman's Road.
That wasn't coined in the first century AD by Roman believers or something.
Jack Hyles actually came up with that.
He came up with the Roman's Road, essentially consolidating all these verses, leading someone to Christ only using the Book of Romans.
Fantastic structure to use when you're out sowing.
And since we're on the topic, the term sowing was coined and popularized by Jack Hyles.
Hard preaching. I don't want to get ahead of myself here.
Hey, I'm passionate about those old IFP preachers.
Because we, yes, you know, someone made a video about me like, oh, Pastor, he says he's coming in the spirit of Hyles.
Yeah, I do come in the spirit of Hyles because Brother Hyles had the spirit of God, which is the same spirit that I have.
And so go to Jeremiah Chapter 6, if you would.
Jeremiah Chapter 6. You know, obviously, there's a lot of wrong things about the old IFP.
And even those who have deviated doctrinally, they've gone apostate.
You know, we don't want nothing to do with those churches.
But churches who were on the right path and did great things for God and won people to Christ and turned people to righteousness,
we should honor them and speak kindly of them.
Because at the end of the day, you know, we are their legacy.
You understand? I don't know if you know this, but the new IFP just didn't pop out of thin air.
We just didn't come out of nowhere.
We were trained by old IFP pastors in churches.
And obviously, there's a major difference between the two.
And even the man who trained me, there's major differences between us.
But at the end of the day, I'm essentially his spiritual son.
We are spiritual offspring of the old IFP.
We learned a lot of things from them. They were really good things.
And let me just say this before I get into the actual sermon.
Is that one major thing that the old IFP taught me and taught others, churches like ours,
is that the Word of God is our final authority.
Now, why is that important?
Well, because of the fact that because they ingrained in us and grilled us to believe that the Word of God is the final authority,
they didn't make themselves the final authority.
Which means that if they deviated doctrinally in any way, they taught us to go with what the Word of God says, not with what they say.
So as much as they disagree with us doctrinally and don't like us,
hey, they're the ones who taught us not to side with them, but to side with the Bible.
So we're the result and the byproduct of their teaching to stick with the Word of God.
And they say, well, you're wrong on that doctrine. You're wrong on this teaching.
And I've studied it out for myself.
Folks, I've never had an old IFP person who believes that actually sit down with me at a table with open Bibles to prove me wrong.
Because they wouldn't last around.
So they can say that all they want, but at the end of the day, we're very much open about what we believe.
And in fact, we're willing to sit down with anybody because the truth, fear is no investigation.
And just sit down, open the Bible and say, all right, let's compare notes and see who's right and who's wrong.
Because there is one truth.
And so what I'm saying is that, you know what, we picked up the baton of having the Word of God as our final authority,
which is why we're not respect our people.
We're not just going to side with the old IFP, all old IFP churches, just because by virtue of the fact that they're fundamental Baptists,
we learned that we stick with the final authority, which is the Word of God.
And if a church lines up with that, with the final authority, then we're with that church.
If they don't, let it be anathema.
You know, if they don't, you know, people don't love the Lord Jesus Christ, let it be anathema.
They don't believe what the Word of God says, let it be anathema.
I don't care if they are fundamental Baptists.
Look what the Bible says in Jeremiah 6 in verse 15.
Were they ashamed when they have committed abomination?
Nay, they were not at all ashamed.
Neither could they blush.
Therefore, they shall fall among them that fall.
At the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down, saith the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths.
Where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.
So, basic instruction.
God says, if you want to know how to do it, look at the old paths, that's the way you should walk.
And obviously we're referring to the Word of God.
That's the way you should walk, and you'll find rest for your souls.
That's the good way.
That is the way you should seek.
That's where you should stand.
That's the way you should go.
And this is a command to all believers, right?
He says, at the latter end of the verse, but they said, we will not walk therein.
So there's people in the old A.F.B. who just chose not to walk in the old paths.
So they can say they're fundamental Baptists all they want,
but if they deviated from that path of righteousness, from the path of the Word of God,
they cease being a fundamental Baptist.
Let me talk about the things that the old A.F.B. did wrong first, okay?
And let me just say this by way of introduction for that,
is that one of the problems with modern day old A.F.B. churches
is that there's another generation which knows not the Lord that has risen in these churches.
So even though they claim to be independent fundamental Baptists,
they part their hair using King James,
they have all of the Christianese of a fundamental Baptist,
they're not even saved.
Why? Because they preach a repent of your sins gospel, false gospel.
You have to add works to your faith.
They're just a false fundamental Baptist.
And so that's not all old A.F.B. churches,
but this is an issue with modern day A.F.B. churches
is that it's a generation that has risen up that doesn't know the Lord, okay?
All right, let's get into the sermon here.
What the old A.F.B. did wrong.
And I laid out, I think it's about 10 things.
And it's not subject to only these 10 things.
I could probably point out a lot more, okay?
But I'm not trying to put them under a microscope.
These are just things in my experience.
And let me just say this.
I pretty much grew up spiritually in old A.F.B. church,
so this is something by experience that I know was wrong in these churches.
First and foremost, deep inspiration and shallow doctrine.
So one thing that was wrong with the old A.F.B.
is they had deep inspiration, but they had shallow doctrine.
What am I talking about?
Well, they would often tell you, read the Bible for inspiration, not information.
Now, that first half is really good, right?
Because you're supposed to read the Bible for inspiration.
Read the word of God.
You like what the Bible says.
It inspires you.
But hold on a second.
You're supposed to learn doctrine, too.
And so if they're not putting an emphasis on doctrine,
the people in that church are going to remain spiritual children,
tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine,
because the emphasis on doctrine is taken away.
And that's why a lot of the pulpits of the old A.F.B. church, the pastors,
they preach great sermons, hard preaching,
but it's really shallow on doctrine.
They don't do expository sermons.
And if they were to preach an expository sermon, it's just very shallow.
They don't teach you.
They don't go through systematic doctrine of the word of God regarding salvation.
They're not teaching their congregants how to learn systematic theology.
They think that that's only for the Bible college student who wants to be a pastor,
not understanding that all Christians are to learn doctrine.
OK.
Now, how do I know that?
Well, because of their use of commentaries by dead false prophets.
Commentaries were a big thing in the old I.F.B. church.
Oh, you want to learn about a doctrine?
Oh, I got this book that you can read.
Oh, you want to learn about this?
Here's a book that you can read.
And people would always do this to me when I was in my old I.F.B. church,
and they'd say, you know, why don't you use commentaries?
And I would tell them all the time, I used commentaries the whole time.
In fact, I used 66 commentaries.
This is what I would tell them.
And they're like, which ones?
I'm like, right here.
The 66 books of the Bible are my commentaries.
I compare spiritual things with spiritual.
And at the end of the day, why do I want some old, dead, false prophet
to teach me what the Bible says when he's in hell?
Because I'm talking about Charles Spurgeon.
Priest, a false repent of your sins gospel.
And the old I.F.B. just loved Charles Spurgeon because he's so inspirational
and has so many good quotes about the Bible.
Well, let's go ahead and see what he believes about salvation.
You know, how about the fact that he's just a flaming Calvinist
who believed in predestination and election?
How about that?
And so, you know, that's one thing that I was majorly against
when it came to old I.F.B. churches is their push for commentaries
and their shallow doctrine.
And they always forfeited their right to teach doctrine
and relinquish that right to a book written by some old false prophet.
You know, I'm trying to think of, what's that false prophet's name?
J. Vernon McGee.
That's a man right there who knows my mind right now.
J. Vernon McGee, who had like a series of commentaries
that old I.F.B. pastors love to use,
even though J. Vernon McGee denied the inspiration and preservation
of the King James Bible and said that tithing isn't biblical.
You know, just things like that.
But, oh, you know, just go ahead and use these commentaries.
You'll learn the Bible.
How am I supposed to learn the Bible from an unnatural person,
a natural man that receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God?
So we don't do commentaries here.
You want commentaries?
This is a commentary right here.
I'm giving commentary on the Bible.
But at least you have the Bible in front of you to test what I'm saying,
if it's true or not, to prove all things, hold fast to that which is good.
So it's deep inspiration but shallow doctrine
because they give you a commentary.
They give you a book about this.
I remember when the whole situation arose regarding the posture
of Pre-Rapture with me.
Someone said, you have to read, what's the book called?
What Things May Come.
Something stupid like that.
What?
Dwight Pentecost.
And it's a book about this.
It's like bigger than the Bible.
It's bigger than the Bible about the book of Revelation and the book of Daniel.
You're like, you really understand, you know, end times prophecy
if you just read this book.
It's just like, why don't you point me to the book of Revelation instead?
Why don't you put me to the book of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?
Why don't you point me to 1 and 2 Thessalonians?
Why don't you point me to the book of Daniel?
You're pointing me to some thick book that's super boring
from some guy who probably doesn't even know what he's talking about.
And so their use of commentaries is a reason for their shallow doctrine.
And here's a common thing that the old IB would say regarding these false prophets.
They're like, he's a little off on this area.
That's what they'll say.
That's like their favorite thing to say.
Well, he's just a little off.
But folks, what if you're a little off on salvation?
A little off will get you into hell real quick.
Deep inspiration, shallow doctrine because of the use of commentaries.
Here's another reason.
Because of focusing on evangelistic services rather than doctrinally sound sermons.
Many old IB churches major on trying to get people saved in the main service,
the Sunday morning service by preaching an evangelistic sermon rather than teaching doctrine.
And this is why their people are so shallow in regards to doctrine.
A lot of people can't articulate salvation well.
They can't articulate the basic doctrines of the Bible,
the first principles of the doctrines of Christ.
They can't articulate them because every Sunday morning is a salvation message.
So deep inspiration, shallow doctrine, that was wrong.
Second one is, they weren't keen on heretical and predatorial infiltration.
That was something that they were wrong on.
They just kind of, you know, they just weren't keen on it.
Some guy comes in and he's like spewing out all kinds of false doctrine.
And the old IB world is like, well, he's a warm body, so let's just keep him.
Maybe he's just a little off on repentance.
Or you got some dude who's like a pedophile.
He's a known pedophile.
Don't make exceptions for that person because they're not really keen on infiltration.
That's something that was wrong in the old IB.
And in fact, I didn't really know much about the doctrine of false prophets and infiltration until I became new IB.
And then obviously when I became a pastor, my senses were exercised even more
because as a pastor, I need to make sure that I'm aware of the potential threat of infiltrators because it does happen.
Whereas in the old IB, they didn't really care about those things.
In their minds, people are just always just a little off or something like that.
There we go.
People always go through the middle door.
So they're not keen on that.
And that's an important doctrine.
It's important for us, not only as a pastor, but also as church members that we are keen on infiltration.
And this is why a lot of old IB churches were infiltrated by false prophets.
This is what I want to say about that.
That's why Ruckmanism infiltrated churches.
That's why dispensationalism infiltrated churches.
That's why Calvinism has infiltrated a lot of fundamental Baptist churches.
Why? Because they're not keen on that.
They say one little biblical phrase there and all of a sudden they're good to go.
Whereas a lot of these people, they're not even saved.
They don't believe right.
And they essentially poisoned a lot of good churches because of their doctrines.
Here's another thing that's wrong with the old IB.
They often gave the what without the why.
I was talking to my wife about this.
And I was explaining how, you know, the old IB was really good at knowing what the right beliefs were or the right standards were.
But they were never good at explaining from the Bible why.
But they were right on it though.
So they had like the right standards.
They had the right beliefs.
But they didn't have the right way to explain as to why we believe these things.
He said, was that by accident? Like they just kind of found, they just, they being in the way, they just kind of knew what was right?
No. What it means is that there's someone in the old IB church who actually studied out in the Word of God and they knew why.
And they taught someone else but that person never learned the why.
And it just becomes a tradition.
And this is why a lot of people in old IB churches, they live right but they don't necessarily know how to articulate or explain why the Bible says it's right for you to do.
And it's sad because we have all the answers.
Like fundamental Baptists have the answers right here and it's really easy to find.
You just got to read it.
But they majored on the what and never really explained the why.
Why women should not wear pants.
Why, you know, men should not be effeminate.
Why men should not have long hair.
You know, why anything you could think of, they understood it, they just didn't understand how to explain why.
Okay.
Here's another problem with the old IFB is that they segregated the family unit in the local church.
And here's a major thing.
So what do you mean?
Nurseries and Sunday school classes and bus ministry.
A major segregation of the family.
And this is a major problem in the old IFB and in fact old IFB preachers and pastors don't think you're really truly old IFB if you don't have these things in your church.
Like in order to be a fundamental Baptist according to their standard you got to have a bus ministry.
That's just a part of who it is to be a fundamental Baptist.
You know I missed that verse in the Bible.
According to the Bible, families should be together in church.
Okay.
You say well how do you know? Well because of the Bible, for example in Ephesians chapter 5 addresses children.
You know children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.
Which would imply that the children are in the service listening to the reading of the book of Ephesians.
So the example that we see throughout the word of God is that children are always in the services.
That's why we believe in having a family integrated church.
Kids stay in the services and I know it gets a little wild sometimes.
You know you have someone screaming their head off in the service and then a parent is grabbing and running out as fast as they can before I call them out.
It is what it is. That's just how our church is.
It helps you to be disciplined to listen.
You have to block it out as they're running out or something.
But you know it's better to have them in the service than to have them in some Sunday school class.
In a nursery where you're having some babysitter service.
The old IFP was big on that.
And this didn't necessarily happen in my old IFP church but I've heard horror stories.
Of people being in an old IFP church with their baby and they're just coming up to them like,
Can you take your baby to the nursery? Can you put your baby in the nursery or something?
And they're just like, This is my baby. The baby stays with mama.
And they're just like, We need you to go take that baby to the nursery.
We should go to the Sunday school classes or something.
And that's a big thing.
Because they just don't like kids in the service or something.
I don't know. I just don't really understand it.
Okay.
Now I remember my father-in-law who's a pastor.
He was definitely, he practiced this family segregation thing.
But towards the end, before he got sick, he started leaning towards a more family integrated view.
Because he understood the importance of just having kids in the service and listening to the preaching of God's word.
But of course that vision never really came to fruition.
But that's a major problem.
And this is why a lot of molestations take place in churches.
Because you put your kids in a Sunday school class or in some room with some adult that you don't even really know.
And they're there with that child for an hour and you don't know what takes place there.
Look, we have a great church, but don't ever leave your children with some person in our church.
Just because they go to First Works Baptist Church.
Don't just leave them alone with your kids.
This is a great church. I love First Works Baptist Church.
But at the end of the day, you're in charge of your kids. Watch your kids.
Keep an eye on your kids.
If you can fellowship, keep one eye on the fellowship. Keep another eye on your kid.
Pay attention to where your kids are at. Don't let them go wandering off your rooms alone.
Plain or whatever.
It's a church, but you know what? We live in a sin-filled world where things can happen.
And so don't be negligent.
But you know what? This is how the old IFP is run.
And obviously I was a part of an old IFP church where bus ministry took place.
And looking back, I'm like, how did parents allow me to take all their kids from Sunday morning to Sunday night?
Like I could even imagine doing that with my kids.
Like allowing someone to take my kids for that amount of time.
But you know what? It happens hundreds of thousands of times every Sunday.
And so segregated family, whereas the biblical model is to stay together.
And really, they don't have a verse for that.
For segregating the family, they don't have a verse for Sunday school class.
What's the purpose of Sunday school class?
The reason they have Sunday school classes is because of the fact that they have this philosophy that if people are to remain in church,
they have to develop relationships that can only happen through small groups such as Sunday school class.
But folks, the cons weigh away the pros when it comes to Sunday school class.
Because you're risking the spiritual well-being and the innocence of your child just so they can develop a relationship.
And let me just say this, most Sunday school classes in fundamental Baptist churches, they don't learn anything.
They learn the most basic of stories in there.
They get them all sugared up with candy.
They sing a bunch of stupid songs.
And this takes place for about 20-25 minutes and then they send them along to the junior church or whatever where they repeat the same exact thing.
And so major problem with the old IFB, segregated family unit in the local church.
Here's another problem.
This might be a part one, part two.
They relied on unbiblical institutions to teach their kids and train their members.
What am I talking about?
Christian school.
They're huge on Christian schools.
And in fact, it's every pastor's dream to one day have a Christian school.
To have just like another source of income coming in or something.
It's every pastor's dream to have like their own Bible college so they can train their members or whatever.
But here's the thing is that pastors need to be teaching their congregation the Bible.
They need to be teaching the men who are capable of being a pastor to be a pastor.
And parents are responsible for teaching their own kids.
This is why you said you don't have a Christian school here. No, we don't have a Christian school here.
Oh, I'll take that back. I have a Christian school. It's called the Mejia school.
But enrollment is very limited.
I'm very much biased and only my kids can join that school.
And I don't teach. My wife teaches.
We believe in homeschooling in our church.
And you know, we're not for the public schools obviously, but I'm definitely for sure not for Christian schools either.
Because it's just a Christianized version of the public school.
And you know, your kids are still influenced in a bad way.
And I preached an entire sermon against the Christian school last year that Treiber's wife got a hold of and was not happy about.
Thanks to brother Ron sharing that on Facebook.
But they rely on that. They rely on the Christian school to teach them.
They rely on Sunday School classes to teach their kids.
They rely on the Bible callers to prepare their young people to get into the ministry.
They relinquish their responsibility to teach their kids to these institutions that are completely unbiblical.
Along with that is that they charge money to learn basic doctrine and train for the ministry.
So if you want to be a pastor, you want to learn the book of Matthew, you got to pay some good money for that.
A lot of money.
And here's the sucky thing about it. You didn't even learn it that good.
I remember I took a class on the book of Psalms.
And I remember thinking to myself, I was so excited to learn about the book of Psalms.
We barely got past the fifth chapter in the entire semester.
Because most of the time the teacher was just preaching to us.
Which I'm not against preaching, but I'm there to learn the book of Psalms.
And it's just like, it was kind of like a let down.
And then I took another class called, it was called Hermeneutics.
Very fancy, right? Which is how to study the Bible.
And I was just like, oh, this is going to be awesome.
I'm so looking forward to this class because it's going to teach me how to study the Bible, in my mind, using the Bible.
Day one, here's all the books you got to buy to understand the Bible.
You know, Charles Spurgeon, Treasury Scripture of Knowledge.
It's like the first book. It's a book about this big.
It costs like 50 bucks in those days.
And here is your commentaries that you have to buy.
Here are all the lexicons that you need.
And I'm like, I can't even afford these books.
Can't I just use the Bible?
But they charge people to learn the Bible.
Folks, learning the Bible should be free.
Always free.
Learning deep systematic theology should be free.
Can't charge people to learn the Bible.
Hey, training for the ministry should be free.
But, you know, they create these Bible colleges where you pay an inordinate amount of money just to get a piece of paper at the end of four years that says you're now a pastoral theology.
You have a bachelor's in pastoral theology, meaning you paid this much money.
I paid a lot of money for that certificate.
That's basically what you pay for.
Because even then that isn't guaranteed you're going to be a pastor because then you have to go through other rings of fire to get to that position.
Here's another problem with the Old IFP.
They're inconsistent on their teaching of biblical roles.
What do I mean by that?
Old IFP are big on, you know, the man's in charge.
The man's in charge.
He's the breadwinner.
He's, you know, the head of the household.
You know, he's the man.
He's the one with the pants and the house.
Oh, but your wife can go work though.
It's inconsistent.
Oh, but it's different though because she's working in the Christian school though.
That's different.
Oh, she's working in the Bible college.
That's different.
No, it's not different.
So you're inconsistent in your teaching.
Okay.
Here's another problem is that they're unwilling to admit they are wrong.
Old IFP have a hard time admitting when they're wrong on doctrine, on certain practices.
And lastly, let me say this, is that Old IFP are too much into politics.
They're just like Republicans.
They're all Republicans.
They're more passionate about Donald Trump, their personal lord and savior, than about Jesus Christ.
And that, more than anything, pisses me off a lot.
Because they will, I remember when Trump was being elected the first time,
you had these guys making videos on how you can make a spiritual difference by voting for Trump.
Like, I thought, you know, being in Bible college, they used to tell us there's no hope in the White House,
the hope is in the church house.
You know, this is a spiritual battle, not a political battle,
but they've relinquished their right to save America spiritually,
hoping that their savior, Donald Trump, can do it for them.
That the Republican party can do it for them.
And they'll preach hard on the Democrats as Republicans,
but you know, I just don't see them preaching hard against the sodomites, though.
That's interesting.
You know, why don't you turn a little bit of that energy
about talking about Biden, which I'm all for, ripping on him,
you know, and Kamala, and Obama,
why don't you take some of that energy and invest it into preaching against the sodomites and the pitos of this world.
I know why, it's because you have them in your church!
Too much into politics.
And I remember being in Bible college,
and we had a teacher who was really passionate about voting,
like really passionate,
and like every class just turned into like,
why you should vote Republican and all those things,
and then he really wanted to say this,
but then he caught himself and he knew he couldn't say it.
He's like, if you don't vote, you're just not right with,
he's like, I can't say that.
He wanted to say you're not right with God.
He said, why do you want to say that?
Because that's actually what he believes.
Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speak it.
And I remember listening to him,
and he said, in no way is he going to say that.
And he said, I can't say that,
but you're a bad American if you don't.
And I'm thinking to myself, this is what I'm paying money for?
I'm paying money so this guy can tell me who to vote for.
Too much into politics.
All right, let's talk about what the old IFP did, right?
Let's get this over with. No, I'm just kidding.
Now, within these points,
I'm obviously going to share some even negative aspects of these.
Because obviously, they had all these things,
a lot of these things were just wrong, okay?
But let me say this, is the old IFP is not an apostate movement.
It's not.
And there's still, mark my words,
there's still good old IFP churches in existence right now.
Now, let me say this, is that I love the old IFP
that if this church did not exist,
if new IFP churches didn't exist,
I would go to an old IFP.
Gladly.
And in fact, listen to me what I'm about to tell you right now.
If no new IFP churches exist,
I would join a Zionist-loving, pre-trib old IFP church like that.
You're like, what? Yeah.
Why? Because I'm a fundamental Baptist, that's why.
And here's the best way,
this is the way I can illustrate it, okay?
Because people make a big deal about those things.
And I preach against those things, but here's the thing.
Let me illustrate it to you in this manner.
I love California.
California's the best state.
Fact.
There's no argument now.
All other states suck, okay?
West Coast is the best coast.
There's no comparison.
It's all about the West Side.
Okay?
But let's just say, and when I say that,
I mean like I don't like any other state.
Like I'm not for any other state.
We have good friends in other states,
but you know what?
I would never want to be in any of those states.
It's true, it's just true.
I'm just being honest with you.
But let's say I had to move.
For whatever reason, I can't be in California anymore.
And I just had to uproot my family
and just go somewhere else.
I wouldn't go to Mexico.
I wouldn't go to Guatemala.
I definitely wouldn't go to Canada.
I wouldn't go to the UK.
He said, where would you go?
Anywhere.
He said, where would you go?
Anywhere in the United States.
I wouldn't even go to Texas.
I'm just kidding.
I would gladly, listen to me,
I would gladly move to Texas.
Why?
Because Texas is still part of the United States.
I would gladly move to Missouri.
I know.
But you know why?
Because Missouri is still in the United States.
And at the end of the day, I'm an American
and I want to stay in America.
You understand?
And here's the thing is that Missouri,
even though Missouri is Missouri
and Texas is Texas,
it's still better than Mexico.
It's still better than Central America.
It's still better than South America.
Sorry, I think we got some people here
from different countries,
so no offense over here, you know what I mean?
It's just an illustration, don't take it too far.
You know, it's still better
than a lot of places in the world.
I would rather go to the worst state
but stay in America
than go anywhere else.
And let me say this,
let's just pick the worst state, okay?
Let's just pick Texas.
If I move to Texas,
let's say I was forced to move to Texas.
Okay?
You know what I would do?
I would fall in love with Texas
and I would look for every good thing
that I can find about Texas,
not that there's much.
And I would absolutely love Texas.
And I would look for all the good things
about Texas because you know what?
Texas is still in America
and I prefer that over anywhere else
in the world to be in.
And that's just a silly illustration
to explain that, you know,
I'm a fundamental Baptist
and if I had a new IAP church,
I would join an old IAP church
that's straight Texas,
Missouri-type fundamental Baptist church
that even though it's not necessarily
my first choice per se,
it's still a lot better
than what you got going on out there.
And it's still within fundamental Baptist.
And let me say this,
if I were to go to that old IAP church,
I would pick and look at all the good things
about that church.
I'd be like, there's a pastor
that uses King James.
They're friendly.
They preach from the word of God.
They preach Bible.
They believe in the right salvation.
Yeah, okay, he talks about Jews.
Oh, man.
You know, Texas, you know,
it's just like, it's desert.
You know what I mean?
It's just like, desert is everywhere.
Jews are everywhere at this church or whatever.
Doctrine about the Jews, they're pre-trib.
But you know what?
I would ignore all that
and just say in that old IAP church
and be happy there
because it's still within
a fundamental Baptist realm.
And I never want to leave
being a fundamental Baptist.
Just like I never want to leave
being an American
because this is where I was born.
I love the United States of America.
And so that's what I mean there, okay?
Now, luckily, we have California.
So that nightmare never has
to come to fruition
and we'll leave that to Pastor Shelley.
That's the only thing I like in Texas
is Pastor Shelley's churches, amen?
Because even our barbecue is better.
Someone's going to get a hold of that
and they're just going to be like, whoa, whoa.
All right, I got to be careful
because I'm going to be there in October.
And so, love you guys.
So let's talk about some of the right things
that the old IAP did.
Let me say this is that number one,
they taught their members to read the Bible.
And you know what?
If it wasn't for the old IAP,
I wouldn't be reading my Bible cover
to cover every single year
because they taught me the discipline
to read the Bible every single year
and even multiple times a year.
Our old IAP church taught us
the discipline and the importance
of walking with God.
That's what they would always talk about.
And in fact, my old IAP pastor
at the beginning of the year,
he would go through the Bible reading
and he would talk about from the pulpit
the things that he read on January 1st,
January 2nd, all the way through
because that imprinted upon us
like reading the Bible is really important.
Read the word of God.
Read it every day.
And you know, they emphasize the fact
that this book of the law
shall not depart out of thy mouth
but thou shalt meditate therein
that thou mayest observe to do
according to all that is written therein
for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous
in the scripture.
Did they really?
I mean, if you're gonna go soul-winding,
you have to memorize scripture.
And then once you memorize scripture for soul-winding,
you're gonna end up memorizing scripture
for a lot of different subjects.
And so a great emphasis was placed
in the old IAP about reading the Bible.
You won't find that emphasis
at liberal churches.
They don't emphasize reading the Bible
and if they do, they point you to a devotional.
Whereas as much as the old IAP
was for commentaries,
they never said substitute your devotionals
for a commentary.
They would always tell you
you need to read the Bible yourself.
You need to read it over and over
and over and over again.
Okay?
And so I'm thankful for that
because if it wasn't for the old IAP,
you know, I wouldn't have known
the importance of reading the word of God
every single day.
And every pastor friend that I had
who went to an old IAP church,
they could tell you the same exact thing.
Yeah, were they shallow in their doctrine?
Yeah.
But you know one thing that we're not shallow in
is they're disciplined to read the Bible.
And you know what?
It does take discipline
because I guarantee there's people in our church
who still struggle to read the Bible every single day.
That's just fact.
It's probably there.
But you know what?
That's a discipline that they taught
that I embrace and I'm very much thankful for
and that's just the bottom line.
They taught me that man should not live
by bread alone but by every word
that proceed out of the mouth of God.
They would keep us accountable.
I remember them having groups
where they would literally keep you accountable
and say, did you read your Bible today?
Because it was that important.
I remember them having teen groups
where they would have accountability partners
and leaders would keep teenagers accountable
about reading the word of God.
I was in one of those groups
and I was in charge of about five young men
in the audience and said,
did Joshua read the Bible today?
And after a while, he's like,
let me just pass you to Joshua.
And Joshua said, I read the word of God.
I said, what did you read?
Tell me what he would read.
I mean, it was important.
Accountability was important about reading the word of God.
He said, wow, that really, yeah, it really happened
because walking with God was of the utmost importance
and that's why I believe one of the reasons
God used the old IP in a great way
because you know what?
As shallow as they were in their doctrine,
they gave attendance to reading,
to exhortation, to doctrine.
And I specifically remember my pastor,
I went on vacation with him one time
and I remember waking up in the morning
and seeing him read the word of God.
Just reading the Bible, walking with God,
taking his prayer walks, walking with God
was important to him.
And so that's why it's important to me.
Another good thing about the old IFB
is that they were persecuted.
So say what you want about the old IFB.
They did have their generation
of persecution from the Sodomites too.
Not all of them, but there are,
just like not all of churches today
who are fundamental Baptists would get persecuted.
We get persecuted.
But they were definitely persecuted in their day.
I mean, let's just talk about Jack House, for example.
How many death threats he received
even to the point where he had to make
a bulletproof pulpit.
He even had like a little cutting at the bottom
because so many people threatened his life.
You know, the cool little button
that just takes him, you know, under.
And he could escape, yeah.
Because people just hated him.
Why? Because he preached the truth.
My father-in-law was persecuted by the Sodomites
because he lived in Long Beach
and there's a lot of Sodomites in Long Beach.
People tried to run over my brother-in-law,
the dykes tried to run over my brother-in-law.
People would go in front of,
Sodomites would go in front of my father-in-law's house
and break glass bottles in his front door.
They knew where he lived.
He received persecution.
And many of them,
many old IFP pastors received a lot of persecution
because of what they preached.
The Bible tells us, go to Matthew chapter 5,
Matthew chapter number 5.
This is good about the old IFP.
The fact that they were persecuted,
the fact that they were criticized.
There used to be a show
back in the day, 80s and 90s,
called Current Affair.
How many of you old-timers know what I'm talking about?
Current Affair, okay.
You know, that little current affair.
There was a big deal back then about news and stuff.
Jack House was on there.
Being criticized over controversies in his church
and he stood firm on the word of God.
He didn't waver.
I mean, he was legit.
Look at Matthew 5 verse 10, it says,
Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men shall revile you
and persecute you and shall say
all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Listen to this, rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven
for so persecuted are they the prophets
which were before you.
Don't ever get discouraged if you get persecuted
because you're in good company
and don't ever think that we're the only generation
that has received persecution.
Because every generation,
God has worked within every generation
and every generation has a fight
that they have to be involved in
and let me just say this,
the fundamental Baptists of yesteryear
had their fights and they fought it,
they were persecuted and you know what,
I will gladly associate with those Baptists.
Now obviously, there's fundamental Baptists today
that have never seen any persecution.
Bunch of wusses.
So why do you call them that?
Because they don't preach anything controversial
because they don't want to be persecuted
because they're scared,
they're afraid of what might happen.
Go to chapter 23
and here is what makes me mad
about these fundamental Baptists
is that they criticize us
for the sermons that we preach
because we're unloving
and we're so hateful and all these things
but they want to honor the Jack Hiles of yesteryear.
They want to honor J. Frank Nolley,
or Curtis Hudson
and all these great prophets of yesteryear
but here's the thing is that
they don't preach like them.
Look at Matthew 23 verse 29.
Won't you scribes and Pharisees
and these hypocrites
because he built the tombs of the prophets
and garnished the sepulchers of the righteous
and say if we had been in the days of our fathers
we would have not been partakers with them
in the blood of the prophets.
So you know they'd like to beautify
the coffins and the sepulchers
and they're like you know
if we were in the days of those prophets
we wouldn't have partaken in killing them.
Verse 31,
Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves
that ye are the children of them
He's like by your own admission
you're saying that you're the descendants
of those who put the prophets to death
and what I find funny is that
people criticize us and they honor Jack Hiles
but the reality is this is that
if Jack Hiles was around today
they would be criticizing him too.
Next one is that
about the old IFP that was really good
it's my favorite parts about the old IFP
hard preaching.
Old IFP preachers preached so hard
spit flung everywhere
and I'm not joking either.
They preach hard against sin.
They weren't super deep on doctrine
but man they hated sin.
You say well how do you know?
Because I was under that preaching
and it kept me right with God.
Listen to this,
they put the fear of God in my heart
and it was Bible preaching
hard preaching from the old IFP
that kept me right with God.
It kept me on the straight and narrow
because it made me fear God
they had hard preaching
and they fought the cultural wars.
Look at Matthew 15.
They preach hard.
Now this is a story
Now this is really interesting
and I brought this up a little bit
on Thursday.
But people who honor Jack Hiles now
but hated him back then
and people like him
you know Jack Hiles basically
preached against them.
They preached against them
and it makes me think of this verse
right here in verse number seven
well the desires prophesy of you
and so when people criticize
our movement and our preaching
I think to myself
well did Jack Hiles prophesy
against you?
Because even though he didn't know
that these people were going to go
off the rails and become all liberal
and all compromising and weak
Jack Hiles preached against people
like that when they would turn weak.
Because there's pastors
that I admired and I loved
of the old IFP
but it seems that now
in their older age they become
the kowtow to the sodomites
they are they're kind of going
liberal a little bit
they're not really hard on preaching anymore
they criticize us
they criticize hard preaching
they say we're not loving
and it's just like well did his eyes prophesy of you
you hypocrites
but they were hard preachers
and you know what
obviously they didn't have deep doctrine
you know I can't remember learning
a whole lot of deep theology
at my old IFP church
I'll just be honest with you
my wife could attest to that too
I don't remember hearing systematic doctrine
or expository preaching
but you know one thing I did hear a lot
it's like divorce is wicked
fornication is wicked
adultery is wicked
and pretty much preaching
against every sin
under the sun
which made me want to live a holy life
and so I'm thankful
and so I'm thankful for that hard preaching
go to 1 Thessalonians 4
or excuse me 1 Thessalonians chapter 1
and verse number 7
here's another great thing about the old IFP
is that they basically spearheaded
the sowing movement in America
and around the world
and their generation
they spearheaded the sowing movement in America
and around the world
in their generation
the old IFP did some great exploits
when it came to sowing
and in fact
if we were to say just by numbers sheer numbers
I would say that they probably had
more sowing in their day
than we have in ours
you know
and we're not done yet obviously
because we're in the beginning stages of our movement
and we've seen a lot of people save
but man they have a lot of sowing
and they did marathons too
I specifically remember old IFP churches
having conferences
and sowing in it
just like our conferences of today
because you know old IFP kind of strayed from that
they would have conferences and not have sowing
they used to have sowing at their conferences
back in the day
but they did a lot of great works
you know teen sowing
training sowners
even bus ministry
and don't misunderstand me
I'm not for bus ministry
nor will we ever have a bus ministry here
but I understand the reason
why they did bus ministry
okay
because in the minds of the leaders
it's just another way to get more people saved
just go to the ghettos
and the projects
and you reach these kids
with the gospel
get them saved
say well how do you know that
because I was a bus captain and that's what I did
go to the inner city
and you go preach the gospel to a bunch of kids
and bring them to church
teach them how to live righteously
I mean that was the deal
that was the plan
and so you know obviously
bus ministry is not necessarily
something that we would want to partake of
because I don't believe it's a good investment
of our resources
but let me say this there's people in our church
here today that were reached by bus ministry
faithful godly members of our church
excellent members of our church
who were reached through the bus ministry
and in fact I'm thankful for bus ministry
only because when I first got involved in ministry
it gave me a heart for the ministry
it taught me how to have a broken heart
it taught me the pains of ministry
it taught me how to weep
when someone would stray away from the paths of god
I remember having bus kids that I would invest in
and I got them saved
got them baptized
teach them the bible
they would be faithful to church
for months on end
and then boom they're out of church
and it would break my heart
you know what I think that's a good thing
to learn tender heartedness
by feeling the pain of someone straying from the paths
and bus ministry taught me that
I don't think you need bus ministry to learn that
but bus ministry put me in a situation
in a position where my heart became tender for souls
because of those kids
I mean I had bus kids that died
I had bus kids that burned in a fire
you know and that devastated me
because these were a group of sisters
that I picked up for two years
went to church
and one day I came to visit them on a Saturday
and there's a bunch of people outside
and they say I'm sorry to let you know this
but they died last night in a fire
and I'm just like
I didn't know how to handle that
I was young I never had something like that
happen to me before
or lose someone like that
and it devastated me
and I remember like bringing more kids to church
on that Sunday
and I preached to those kids about the fire
and a ton of kids got saved
so these kids died
and I was thankful that I got them saved
so it gave me a great heart for the ministry
now obviously nowadays
bus ministry is just simply another way
for fundamental Baptist churches
to increase their numbers
so if you have a church that's running
let's say 900
more than likely 300 of those
are bus kids being bused in
and sometimes they don't even really care
about whether they're saved or not
they just see them as a number
which is obviously wicked
but what I'm saying is that initially
it started off as spearheading a movement
to get people saved
it says in verse number seven
so that you were in samples
to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia
for from you standing out the word of the Lord
not only Macedonia and Achaia
but also in every place your faith to God
were to spread abroad
so that we need not to speak any thing
you say yeah but there's so many pedophiles there
yeah obviously just like in any institution
infiltrators were trying to get into it
but hey folks let me say this
I was in bus ministry
my wife was in bus ministry
Brother Marcos was in bus ministry
we went into that ministry
with the intent to save souls
to get people saved
to reach families
we had no ill intent
we literally went there saying
this is how we're gonna get people saved
this is how we're gonna get people into church
we want to succeed in this
because we love people
obviously there's gonna be people
but you know what
there's a lot of people out there
who are involved in bus ministry
who don't have that ill intent
and so good for them
amen
you say then why don't you have a bus ministry
because I'm not buying a bus
forget that
all the regulations they got and everything
and here's my philosophy
just reach the family and they'll bring their own kids
I gotta pick up your kids for you
you go get them
you bring them
you bring Mexican dad Samuel
you bring all 10 of his kids
that's what I learned being in bus ministry
I cracked the code
because I remember having a
I had a route and I literally had
like 10 kids
that I ended up finding out
that they're all brothers and sisters
who just lived in different places
because they had different moms, same dad
and they're like hey that's my brother
here's my sister
I'm like you guys are all related
like yeah we're all related
you know what I mean
because he's the golden egg
hey if you get the dad saved
they're more likely
that you're going to get the whole family saved
you know
and so you know
we are more productive
just going out as a church getting people saved
than using a bus ministry
and then you have that whole ordeal
here's another thing
is that they spearheaded holy living
I'm going to breeze through some of these
because I'm almost out of time
they were preaching
they were for right living, holy living
not being worldly
they were against ecumenicism
they opposed contemporary Christian music
and they held to godly songs and hymns
they preached hard against CCM
and they talked about how gay it was
my father-in-law had every year
a time where he would show his staff
why CCM was just garbage
and he would say look at
this song play it for us
just let us know what it was
and you know he taught us
like let me show you what's wrong with this song
and what's wrong with the lyrics of this song
and why it's trash
and it's not godly
and this is why we use hymns
and this is why we use the spiritual songs
you know and you know
one of the main things that he taught us
is just the fruit of CCM
no pun intended either
and the fact that pretty much
CCM musicians often are sodomites
and if they're not sodomites
they're always involved in some wicked relationship
committing adultery, fornicating
opposed contemporary
so they're responsible for giving me a hatred for CCM
you know I'm really thankful for that
not only that but they majored on the basics of doctrines
the basics of doctrines
salvation, heaven and hell, the trinity
so even though they didn't major on like deep doctrine
they didn't major on the basic doctrines
which is why fundamental baptists can articulate
salvation by grace through faith
and let me say this
here's one good thing that the old IFP did amongst many
is that they cared for the salvation of my soul
you know I'm thankful for the old IFP
because they actually cared for my soul
because when I went to that church
someone actually came to me and asked me
are you 100% sure that if you die today you go to heaven
and they cared for me
and in fact I remember my father-in-law printing out
a bunch of verses on eternal security
to show me what the Bible says
on how why you can't lose your salvation
they cared for my soul
and so that will always be important to me
and I know it's not like that anymore in a lot of places
but when I was in a fundamental Baptist church
that's what it was like
and so that made me think
when people come to church
I got to ask them about salvation
because someone cared for my soul
to ask me about salvation
tenth reason I'm almost done
is that they had strong leaders
fundamental old IFP pastors had strong leaders
who were not pushovers
and then lastly
here's a great thing about old IFP churches
is that they majored on church attendance
they were really big on church attendance
and the importance of being in the house of God
in other words they didn't really take that lightly
like I remember missing church was just like a big no-no
any service
they taught us if you're gonna thrive in the Christian life
if you're gonna flourish in the Christian life
your schedule should be based upon your church attendance
because church is important
I mean they grilled that within us
and you know what? Amen to that!
being in church as much as possible
and not making excuses as to why you can't come to church
because whatever's important to you, you will do
I mean churches have three to thrive
we have four to flourish
they're like go to Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Thursday night
and they would even add a fifth one, Tuesday night soul-winning
I mean they would have the whole shebang
when I got saved I was a Sunday morning only Christian
because I didn't even know they had other services
so I would go to the main service
and listen to the preaching
and someone came up to me and they're just like
why don't you come tonight? I'm like tonight for what?
they're like for church? I was like you guys got church tonight?
they're like yeah, five o'clock
I'm like oh you guys go to church twice today?
they're like yeah, I'm like why?
they're like because we're not supposed to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the matter of some is
and so much the more as you see the day approaching
you should go to church as much as possible Bruce
and I'm like dang, I'll be there
so then I went to Sunday night service
the next week I didn't know about Thursday night
the next week I came Sunday morning
I decided to come a little earlier
and they're just like you need to go to Sunday school class
I'm like what do you mean? there's a class?
he's like there's a Sunday school before church
and they pulled me aside and of course I was part of that for a while
I did Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night
and then they're like have you been to a Thursday night service?
I'm like you guys got Thursday in the middle of the week?
they're like yeah, I'm like for what? to learn more Bible
I'm like what time? they're like seven?
I was like man you guys are crazy
so much the more as you see the day approaching Bruce
and I was like I'll be there
got off of work headed straight to church
I was like dang people do come
I saw people in the church service
I was like there's a lot of people here
I'm like all these people come every single week to church?
I was shocked because I've never been in a Baptist church
I've barely been in church period
and I was just like wow this is incredible
and I remember them teaching me
they got up and preached Florida Florist
and they said if you want to succeed in the Christian life
be in church as much as you possibly can
when the church doors are open
and they're like because church is important
and I took that with me
and I said I'm gonna be in church
as much as possible
when I can and I don't want to miss services
you know what? it endeared me to church
and it created within me a conviction
of the importance of always being in the house of God
when the doors are open
and it taught me this is what I want to teach my kids
hey I'm thankful for the old IFB for that
now obviously as soon as church ended
the old IFB was out before the prayer was even finished
but I'm still glad that they taught me
the importance of church attendance
and I would go home and my mom was like you're a fanatic
my brothers and sisters were just like
you're spending too much time at that church
because I was going like three times a week
but you know what? here I am 16 years later
and I don't regret one single service
I'm thankful for every service I have
there's never been a time like oh man
I regret going to Sunday night
what a waste
there's never a time like that
there's never a time where it's just like I regret going to Thursday
it was always a blessing
even if deep doctrine wasn't taught
I got something from the preacher
every single time
the preacher preached this
you know I'm preaching this because
as many things as the old IFB did wrong
they did some right things too
now we will never be an old IFB church
because that era is over
and in my opinion
a new IFB member should never regress
going back to an old IFB church
if they have a new IFB church to go to
you should never regress to go to an old IFB church
if you have a new IFB church to go to
because why go to Texas when you have California?
right?
why go to Missouri when you have California?
if California is available, amen?
but you know if all that existed was old IFB churches
I would love to go to an old IFB church
I would go to an old IFB church over a liberal church any day
I would take some old IFB pastor
some dude who's just ready to meet the Lord in the coming days
who preaches the right salvation
yeah he thinks the Jews are the apple of God's eye
he thinks that Christ might come back even at the end of the service
I'd rather be under that guy's preaching
even though he's old and he's preaching with white socks on and a suit
but he's got a King James Bible and he's ripping face
I'll take that over some skinny jean wearing
faggoty looking pastor any day of the week
give me the old paths
but you don't think I don't have to choose that
I got a new IFB church to go to
so we get the best of both worlds
but you know what? honor the old IFB where they deserve the honor
honor Jack Hiles because yeah did he have some bad things in his life?
who doesn't? and you know what?
another generation is going to rise up after us
who's going to come from us
and they might even perfect some things that we were deficient in
because that's how it is in every generation
and they're going to be our legacy
and some guy's going to get up and preach about me
and say you know there's some things that Bruce Mejia did wrong
but you know what we love? Pastor Mejia
and these are the things he did right and these are the things he did wrong
I mean there might be a generation when that happens
so be it
this is the era that I live in right now though
and I'm going to honor the era of yesteryear and everything they did right
I'm not going to be a respecter of people
I understand they did some things wrong
but I'm not going to throw out the baby with the bathwater
and just paint the old IFP with a broad brush and say they're all wicked
they're all pedophiles
dude you came from the old IFP
if you're in this church right now
you have some stakes in the old IFP as well
that's just how it is
so give honor where honors do
let's pray
Father we thank you so much for your word
thank you for the old IFP Lord
thank you for the pastors of yesteryear
who are in heaven today
I'm thankful for J. Frank Norris and Brother Hiles
and my pastor Pastor Esposito
who made a great impact in my life
he taught me how to be a husband
how to be a father
how to raise children
how to have vision
how to work hard
how to love souls
and I'm so thankful for all those things Lord
and I carry that baton
and Lord willing I'll be a fundamental Baptist until I die
until the day that I die
and I pray that you'd help us as your people
to be grateful for the past
but we don't want to live in the past either
and this time
today and tomorrow
and in the years to come Lord
and I pray that Lord you'd help us as your people
to be grateful
but not live in the past
help us to recognize that
the same God who worked in the heart of Jack Hiles
is the same God that we have today in 2023
and may you bless us as we go on our way
we love you we thank you
we pray these things in Jesus name Amen
To a song number 230, Heavenly Sunlights
Song number 230, Heavenly Sunlights
Song number 230
On the first verse
Walking in sunlight
All of my journey
Over the mountains
Through the deveil
Jesus has said
I'll never forsake thee
Promise divine
That never can fail
Heavenly Sunlight
Flooding my soul
With glory divine
Hallelujah
I am rejoicing
Singing his praises
Jesus is mine
Shadows around me
Shadows above me
Never conceal my
Savior and guide
He is the light
In Him is the darkness
Ever I'm walking
Close to His side
Heavenly Sunlight
Flooding my soul
With glory divine
Hallelujah
I am rejoicing
Singing His praises
Jesus is mine
Alas in the bright sunlight
I am rejoicing
Ever rejoicing
Pressing my way
To mansions above
Singing His praises
Gladly I'm walking
Walking in sunlight
Sunlight of love
Heavenly Sunlight
Flooding my soul
With glory divine
Hallelujah
I am rejoicing
Singing His praises
Jesus is mine
Great singing. You're dismissed.