you
All right, good morning everyone. Let's all find our seats as you find your seat grab a songbook turn to song number
288
Song number 288 I am resolved and let's all stand together for this first song if you're able
Song number 288 all together nice and strong on that first verse
To linger charred by the world's delight.
Things that are higher, things that are nobler,
These have all worn my sight.
I will hasten to him, hasten so glad,
HAD THE WOR-
since so glad and free.
He's the greatest, highest, I will come to thee.
Amen.
Wonderful scene.
Let's start off our service with a word of prayer.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for giving us another day
that we can come here to your house and hear the preaching of your word and we
ask that you please bless our service this morning, bless each and every aspect
of it, please bless the singing that it would be pleasing to your ears and
prepare our hearts for the preaching. Most importantly Lord, please feel past
me here with your spirit as he preaches unto us and give us your spirit in the
congregation as well that we may leave here changed. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
You may be seated.
Please turn your song books to song number 23
Song number 23
There's power in the blood
Song number 23 all together nice and strong on that first verse
Would you be free from your burden of sin?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood
Would you all be full of victory when
There's wonderful power in the blood
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb
Precious flood of the Lamb
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There's power in the blood
Power in the blood
For a cleansing to Calvary's time
There's wonderful power in the blood
There is power
There's power in the blood, power in the blood.
Sin stains are lost in its life giving flow.
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power in the blood.
For Jesus, your King, there's power in the blood.
Would you live daily, His praise is to sing, there's wonderful power in the blood.
Great singing, welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Just a few announcements here.
Before we sing our next song, which will be 238,
if you want to get that ready,
in your song books, Christ, Liveth and Me 238.
If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hands.
One of the ushers can get one for you.
some important information on there.
Of course, we welcome you to come back tonight
for our Sunday evening service at 5 p.m.
and then we have our Thursday night Bible study
at seven o'clock.
We are currently going through the book of Isaiah
and we will be in chapter 54 this coming week,
so hope to see you then.
We are a family integrated church
and so infants and children
stay with their parents in the service.
but for your convenience there is a mother-baby room located in the back of the building
should your child need some diversion changing tables are available there as well as well
as speakers and screens so you can still tune in to the preaching and then you see the soul
winning times and teams there in the middle if you are interested in learning how to preach
the gospel how to go soul winning uh you can see me after the service to be placed on a team
you see the list of expecting mothers please please continue to pray for them and congratulations
the stats with me but maybe we can get that tonight and so congratulations to
them. Let's give them a round of applause. I'm sure they're watching live
right now. Pray for her continued recovery. We have the stats for
Salvation and Baptisms there for the month of February. On the right hand side
is the upcoming church events. This coming Saturday, April 5th is the
At 10 a.m. Mr. Nuggan's always heads that up. And so if you have any questions about that,
you can see here for more details. And then the big thing we got coming up is our Easter service.
And that'll be on Sunday, April 20th. If you have some visitors, family, friends that you're
bringing to church on that day, make sure you come at 9.45 for the breakfast and then just remind
them about the Easter egg hunt that we're going to have for all the kiddos after the morning service.
and also we hope to break record attendance and so that's exciting we're
looking forward to celebrating the resurrection of Christ and then we have
the TJ missions trip coming up on Saturday April 26th the team went out
there yesterday and they got 15 salvations for about a total of two
hours for soul winners and so very fruitful day there meeting at the
building at 9.15 if you're interested in going just make sure you see brother
on Sunday, April 27th, and that'll be after the evening service.
Parents, bring your kiddos to that so they can participate,
and we'll give you more details on that as we approach that date.
Lastly, please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching,
so as to not be a distraction during the service.
And that is it for our announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song.
238, Christ, Live It Than Me.
Song number 238, all together nice and strong in that first verse.
Christ live within me
Oh, what a salvation this
That Christ live within me
As rays of light
Son, the flowers of earth set free, so life and
Love
Amen. Wonderful. Sing it. At this time, the ushers will come forward to receive the offering.
You can turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter number 23, Matthew chapter 23.
Morning, we're in Matthew chapter number 23.
Matthew chapter 23, the Bible reads.
Then spake Jesus to the multitude into his disciples,
saying, the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat,
all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,
that observe and do.
We do not ye after their works, but they say and do not.
For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born,
and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves
will not move them with one of their fingers.
But all their works they do for to be seen of men.
They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the
uppermost rooms at feast, and the chief seats in synagogues, and greetings in the markets,
and to be called of men rabbi rabbi.
But be not ye called rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.
And call not men your father upon the earth, for one is your father, which is in heaven.
Neither be ye called masters, for one is your master, even Christ.
But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
But woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men.
For ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, for you devour widows houses, and for a pretense make long prayer, therefore you shall receive the greater damnation.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, for you can pass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Woe unto you ye blind guides, which say, whosoever shall swear by the temple it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple he is a debtor.
ye fools and blind, for whether is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifyeth the gold.
And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing, but whosoever sworeeth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
Ye fools and blind, but whether is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifyeth the gift.
Whosoever therefore shall swear by the altar, sworeeth by it and by all things thereon,
and whoso shall swear by the temple, sworeeth by it and by him that dwelleth therein.
He that shall swear by heaven, sworeeth by the throne of God, by him that sitteth thereon.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.
These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Ye blind guides which strain at an at and swallow a camel.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
If you are likened to whiteed suppocrates, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but
within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, because ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepicals of the righteous,
and say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers. How can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them
ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues and persecute
them from city to city.
That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous
Abel, unto the blood of Zechariah, Son of Barakaius, whom ye slew between the temple
and the altar.
Barely I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation."
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee.
How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth.
To you shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Let's pray to the Lord God. Thank you for this church. Thank you for our pastor. Just ask that you would bless him with your Holy Spirit now as he preaches your word.
In the Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Okay, we're in Matthew chapter 23 this morning and the title of my sermon today is Why We're
Not a Liberal Church.
Why We're Not a Liberal Church.
Another title can be Why We Are a Non-Denominational Church, okay?
So Why We're Not a Liberal Church, Why We're Non-Denominational and I want to make a distinction
between churches this morning and of course we are an IFB church meaning that we're an
And when we use the phrase liberal churches, we're not referring to churches who are liberal in their theology on paper.
You know, this is often referring to the Lutherans, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterians.
These are people who would actually deny the Bible, okay?
They're actually questioning the Word of God.
They don't necessarily believe in the Bible. They ordain homosexuals.
They're way off the path. They're very much apostate.
in their beliefs. That is literally a liberal church.
But when we talk about a liberal church, we often have the connotation
that they're very loose in their convictions and practices, right?
We're referring to churches that lean towards doctrinal and practical
leniency. These are basically your rock style, rock concert type
style churches, and they typically fall under the category of being like mega
churches, right? Although, of course, many smaller churches can be this way too.
And these are essentially the churches that intentionally veer off the path of a traditional style of worship,
a traditional ministry framework that we would expect for churches to have.
That's what we're talking about when we say liberal churches.
Now, unfortunately, you know, a lot of fundamental Baptist churches are actually following suit with these types of liberal churches.
They're becoming less baptistic in their beliefs and in their practices and more like these non-denom type churches.
Now, most non-Dhanam churches believe it or not are Baptists, okay?
They're actually Baptists in their doctrine and in meaning that they believe in the fundamentals of the faith.
If you were to look at their statement of faith, they believe a lot of the fundamentals that we do,
but you wouldn't know it because of the fact that they don't talk about it, nor does their ministry reflect it.
And if you were to talk to maybe the pastor or maybe some of the church leaders, they would agree with you on the fundamentals of the faith.
However, the same can't be said regarding the congregation.
If you were to talk to many of the members of these churches, they would have various beliefs that don't line up with their doctrinal statement.
And the reason for that is because the leadership is not emphasizing...
the fundamentals of the faith. It's not important to them and so that is an issue there of course.
Now you may have come from a non-denom church or maybe you visited one. I've actually never stepped foot
in a non-denominational church, a liberal church. The only reason I know it is by proxy because
fundamental Baptists, my spiritual forefathers so to speak, have combated against the liberal
the wrong things regarding these churches,
but if you visited these churches,
you're gonna know for a fact
that what I'm saying in this sermon is true.
Okay, even though I've never stepped foot,
you're gonna be like, oh yeah,
that's pretty much like that, okay?
And so you may have visited one,
you may have been a part of one,
and let me just say this is that this morning,
I wanna show you the differences
between our church and churches like that,
because you may have come to our church,
if you're new to our church, you think to yourself,
you know, this church is a little different.
than the churches that I visited before.
Where is the purple lights?
Where is the smoking mirrors?
Where is the rock concert?
Where is, you know, something different about this style of church
than other churches?
Well, I'm going to explain to you this morning
what are the major differences between the two.
Now, the reason I had you start in Matthew 23
is because of the fact that non-denominational churches
can be compared to the Pharisees in Jesus' day.
You say, well, how so?
Well, look at verse number 23, verse 25.
It says here, won't you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites?
I want you to notice this, for ye may clean
the outside of the cup and platter,
but within, they're a full of extortion and excess.
He goes on to say, thou blind Pharisee,
cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter,
that the outside of them may be clean also.
woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are likened to whited sepulchers,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness,
even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy
and iniquity." What is Jesus Christ condemning the Pharisees for?
He's saying, look, on the outside, everything seems to be on point.
On the outside, everything's beautiful.
Everything's ornate, but you're like a whiteed coffin,
a whiteed sepulcher, because when you open it up,
you find out there's not really any safe people there.
You find out it's full of dead men's bones.
You find out that it's full of excess and iniquity.
The outside does not reflect truly what's on the inside.
And so, non-denominational churches like this,
because quite frankly, let me just be honest with you,
they're very beautiful outwardly.
They're very ornate on the outside.
They have all the bells and whistles and the lights and the, you know, portrayal that they
are a Christian church.
But when you actually get down to the nitty and gritty, when you actually listen to the
preaching, you look at the doctrine, you look at the fruit, you look at the ministry, you
find out, hey, wait a second, this is not what I thought it was going to be.
It's very superficial leading me into my first point why we're not a liberal church and I'm not gonna say non-denom this whole entire
Sermon because it's just too long. I'm just gonna say liberal church
You just know that I mean non-denom church why we're not a liberal church reason number one because of the fact that what you see
Is what you get
Here, what you see is what you get, okay?
You don't have to worry about coming into our church
and wondering, hey, is the pastor being fake?
Hey, are these people just being fake?
Are they insincere?
No, what you see is literally what you get.
Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2,
if you would, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.
Liberal churches have a tendency
to have a fake and superficial atmosphere.
meaning that they are extremely insincere.
The preaching is very insincere.
The fellowship is very insincere.
It's very fake, very superficial,
and in fact flattery is commonplace within these churches.
Now what is flattery?
Well flattery is insincere and excessive praise
that is given with an ulterior motive.
Meaning that the pastor, the leaders, the people there,
they will be very excessive in their compliments towards you
and their praise about you.
But there's this underlying tone of just kind of thinking,
this sounds insincere.
It doesn't sound like they really mean it.
It just sounds kind of fake, right?
Whereas here what you see is what you get. Okay, you might get a compliment here and there
But you're not gonna get flattery
You see here whether face-to-face or from the pulpit what you see is what you're gonna get now
I believe that it's important to be kind and gracious and loving and all these things and to compliment people when they do a great job
But I believe it has to be sincere
Okay?
And often, if you know anything about psychology, if you know anything about this type of subject,
you know that when you talk to people, you know that when you talk to people, you know
And they are complimenting you excessively.
you talk to people, you know that when you talk to people, you know that when you talk
You can't really pinpoint it, but you know,
there's something wrong with this picture here.
I feel like this person wants something from me.
Or they have an ulterior motive, or they have an agenda.
This doesn't sound very sincere.
And then five seconds down the road,
they're like, by the way, can I borrow 20 bucks or something?
Well, I need you to do me a really big favor.
They're like, hey, brother, looking good.
How's it going?
Hey, by the way.
I think you should do me a favor real quick.
You know, this is flattery.
And it's important for us as Christians not to be fake,
right?
And it's okay to have an outward appearance of beauty
and ornation if it also reflects
what's on the inside as well.
Flattery, according to the Bible,
is often an attribute of a false prophet.
False prophets like to flatter their congregation church leaders who are false prophets like to flatter their people
Because they want to deceive their people they want something from their people
So they have to excessively praise them in order to essentially put a net under the feet as the Bible says
Now you are in first-estelonings. I'm gonna read to you from Proverbs 29 verse 5 listen to this
It says a man that flattereth his neighbor remember flattering is that excessive praise
Spread of the net for his feet
What does that mean?
Well, a net is referring to a trap.
So if someone excessively praises you and you get the indication that this is flattery,
just know that he's trying to spread a net below your feet because he's trying to trap
you in something.
He wants something from you.
So the Bible is telling us to beware of the flatterer.
Beware of the person who excessively complements and praises because they are trying to set a trap for you
They have an ulterior motive the Bible tells us in Romans 12. Let love be without listen to this dissimulation
What is the simulation without being fake?
We should have genuine love not fake love, right?
Genuine praise not fake praise and I think people here at first works about the church are really real
Sometimes, just a little too real, right?
You know, you got a lot of babes in Christ in our church
and newer Christians and that's great.
But you know what, at least what you see
is what you get though.
You know, when you talk to me, when you talk to my staff,
when you talk to the church members,
you know for a fact, okay,
this person does not have an ulterior motive.
Whatever this person says to me is genuine, is sincere.
There's no flattery behind it.
Now look at 1st Thessalonians chapter two, if you wouldn't.
And verse number three, it says,
for our exhortation was not a deceit.
Now, aren't these liberal, non-denom churches
known for their exhortations, right?
What is exhortation?
It's just another way of saying encouraging message, right?
A message that edifies.
A message that makes you feel good.
I mean, exhortations are biblical.
Bible talks about exhorting the brethren,
building up the brethren, edifying the brethren, right?
What the Apostle Paul is saying here is that his exhortation was not of deceit,
implying that there are exhortations out there that are deceitful,
meaning that it's, you might think it's an exhortation, but it's actually flattery, okay?
Now, a great example of this is Joel Sting.
Joel Sting is the king of exhortations apparently right his Ted talks his encouraging sermons
But let me just say this it's an exhortation of deceit and I'll explain later on why that is
But he says for our exhortation was not of deceit nor of uncleanness
nor in guile
But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel even so we speak not as pleasing men
But God which triath our heart so he says that his preaching his exhortation was not deceitful
It's not unclean. There's nothing impure about it, but he also said is it's not in guile meaning there's no
Deceitful intention behind it and then he says in verse number four
That the reason we know that his exhortation was not at the seat is because he's not trying to please men
You see, when people flatter their congregation,
when pastors flatter their congregation,
it's because they want to please them.
Because they want to tell the people what they want to hear.
But folks, we come to church to get to hear what we need,
not what we want to hear.
We come to church to hear the word of God,
and sometimes the word of God goes against what we believe.
It goes against our ideologies.
It rubs us the wrong way,
and that's what we need to hear sometimes.
But here we see that the person who exhorts with deceit is often a man-pleaser.
They just want to tell people what they want to hear so they don't leave their church,
so they don't get offended, so that, you know, they can keep them tithing, they can keep
the numbers up.
Folks, our exhortation is not a deceit.
He says in verse 5, for neither at any time use we flattering words.
As he know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness,
nor of men saw we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others,
when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ.
It sounds to me like the apostle Paul
is not a liberal Christian, right?
He is exhorting them to continue in the faith. He's correcting them. He's rebuking them. He's teaching them doctrine. It's not a deceit
It's not a guile. He's not trying to please men. He's not using flattering words
He's not using a cloak of covetousness meaning that his ulterior motive is not to make more money
His ulterior motive is their spiritual growth. His ulterior motives is for people to get saved
His ulterior motive is for people to be turned to righteousness
to serve the living God. That is his motive.
It's not a cloak of covetousness. He's not trying to make money off of the people.
And he's not seeking glory from the congregation either. He says in verse 6,
Norve men sought we glory, neither of you.
He's not doing it to be praised of men.
Obviously, we see that the apostle Paul is serving God, preaching the word of God
because he wants to glorify God. He wants to please God.
And the type of church that we should be a part of as a church where the leadership and the churches,
the members of the churches, are seeking to please God.
Not one another because when people try to be man pleasers, they will lie, they will be deceitful,
they will flatter because they have that ulterior motive.
And let me just say this, liberal churches are like that.
You know, and I don't need to attend a liberal church to know what it's like because I studied the real thing.
But I will say this is that I'm on social media a lot
You know I make a lot of content on social media and so the reels come up
And you know what there's a lot of reels out there from liberal churches, and it just kind of makes me sick to my stomach
It just sounds fake
God loves you. He loves you. He loves you
You don't have to be stuck in that situation you divorce that guy divorce that woman. You don't need to be tied down to that
You know God is for you
And it riles up the emotions, but when you sift through all that sewage you realize there's nothing biblical about this
It's very insincere and this is why they need to smoke in mirrors
This is why they need the lighting, because they want to invoke an emotion from you, not a biblical response.
It's very insincere, very fake, very superficial. It's not what we want here, okay?
You know as a local New Testament church who believes the Bible, you know God expects us to be very sincere and
Quite frankly, you know, I think sometimes as I mentioned before we're a little too sincere sometimes, you know
People would just kind of tell you what they believe they give you their opinion
Sometimes at a fault, but I'll just be honest with you
I rather take a legitimate opinion from a person and risk them offending me than to talk to someone who's completely fake
Tell me what I want to hear or what they think I want to hear, you know
I prefer the person who would offend me why because open rebuke is better than secret love the Bible says
So we're not a liberal church because what you see is what you get
You're like, what am I gonna expect when I come to this church?
Well, we're not trying to hide what kind of church we are we have fundamental Baptist right outside the door
When you come to the church you have the pastor yelling at you at 10 30 in the morning
You know just being completely sincere with you opening his heart to you talking to the people and look
I'm not the only one people in this congregation will do the same
Why because we're to be a sincere church not a fake church not a superficial church and quite frankly the reason the next generation
Is going the Catholic route they're going the Orthodox route is because they're sick and tired of the superficial atmosphere of these liberal churches
That's why
They're the generation whose parents went to these liberal churches.
They went to the funds centers.
They went to the megachurches.
And you know what?
They're sick and tired of it.
They want to know what the Bible actually has to say.
And unfortunately, a lot of times, they end up getting carried away with Catholicism.
They get carried away with Orthodoxy or whatever, and they don't make it all the way to biblical
Christianity.
Because they want something that's real.
They want some sobriety to the services, right?
We're not a liberal church because what you see is what you get.
Do you talk like that when you're outside of the pulpit?
Of course, if we're talking about liberal churches,
I'm gonna talk to you just like this.
Now, don't mistake this for saying that you should be rude
because I don't believe that's a good thing to do.
Obviously, if you interpret preaching as rude,
that's on you.
The apostle Paul said,
though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge.
And so sometimes biblical knowledge seems rude to you,
but that's because you need to bring yourself
into alignment with what the Bible says
and not allow it to offend you, okay?
Which leads me to my next point.
We're not a liberal church because what you see
is what you get, but we're also not a liberal church
because our church will periodically offend you.
Our church will offend you.
And just know that right off the bat, okay?
Go to Luke 11.
Just know if you keep coming to our church, you're gonna get offended. I'm going to offend you. The preaching is going to offend you
Why because a
Local New Testament church should offend its members every once in a while
You know, the Bible says to preach the word,
be instant in season, out of season.
And I want you to notice this.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
So it says that we should exhort and be longsuffering,
but not at the exclusion of rebuking and reproving.
What does it mean to rebuke?
Rebuke, it means to correct someone strongly
and tell them that they're wrong.
So if the pastor is getting up and he's rebuking the congregation,
telling them that they're wrong in their ideology,
trying to fix their life, that's going to affect you.
That's going to offend you.
Now the proper response to biblical preaching is that you just get right with God.
You bring your ideologies and your way of thinking into alignment with the Bible,
and you fix it.
Not get offended, you leave, and it's just like,
well I'm never coming back there because that pastor offended me.
That sermon offended me.
Well, that's what it's supposed to do.
You know, this is often what we would call hard preaching.
You know, you've heard the phrase, that's a hard pill to swallow.
Well, here we can say that's a hard sermon to swallow.
Meaning it's a hard truth.
It goes against the grain.
It rubs you the wrong way.
It corrects your way of living.
It corrects your way of thinking.
That's exactly what preaching should do.
Now, you're in Luke 11.
I'm going to read to you from Jeremiah chapter 23.
It says here in Jeremiah chapter 23 and verse 28,
the prophet that hath a dream, let him tell his dream.
And he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat, sayeth the Lord?
Is not my word like as a fire, sayeth the Lord,
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
So here, God, through the prophet Jeremiah saying that
preaching, biblical preaching,
should feel like a hammer sometimes.
It should feel like fire sometimes,
meaning it burns you a little bit.
And you know what, if you've been in this church
for any length of time, you've felt that fire.
Where it's just like, oh man, he's talking about me.
You felt that hammer where I kind of stepped
on your toes a little bit, and you're like,
oh yeah, that's what I do.
You know, and then you feel like a sense of shame.
And people are like, you shouldn't go to church
to be shamed.
Yes, you should go to church.
What are you talking about, what?
Where's that in the Bible, I don't know.
Book chapter and verse on that?
Shame is a good thing.
Shame helps us to get right with God.
You know, we live in a shameless society,
so it should be that we come to the house of God
to be shamed when we're doing wrong.
It's like a hammer, it's like a rock.
It is like a fire.
Verse 30 says,
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophet,
saith the Lord,
that steal my words, everyone, from his neighbor.
Behold, I am against the prophet, saith the Lord,
that use their tongues,
and I want you to notice this,
and say, he saith.
Now, this is a very common thing in liberal churches.
Or he's like, well, God told me this.
He saith.
And then they come up with the most wild-eyed idea
that just does not line up with the Bible at all.
He saith, no, he didn't say.
You're stealing the words of God.
You're speaking in his stead
when he had not spoken such a thing.
Look, folks, here we can say he saith
that we're recording the scriptures, though.
If we're saying what the Bible says, we can say the Lord,
thus saith the Lord, this is what the Bible says,
and it will be accurate.
But if you're saying, well, you know what?
I don't agree with that because God told me,
well, you know what?
That God must have been a lower case G,
because what you're saying contradicts
what the Bible says, and if it contradicts the Bible,
then it's heresy, it's false doctrine.
He goes on to say behold I am against them that prophesy false dreams say at the Lord and do tell them and cause my people to air
By their lies and I want you to notice this and by their lightness
you see
The kind of preaching you'll find at liberal churches is only
Exertation only encouraging and it's very light
How to dream
the Lord loves you, the devil loves you.
And it's just kind of like these
TED Talk theatrical type of sermons,
they really just have no substance whatsoever.
It's very light.
So what's the opposite of that which is light,
that which is heavy, that which is hard?
So we should strive to listen to preaching that is hard and heavy
Biblical like a hammer and like a fire and again fire. What does fire do it purges?
When you hear a fiery sermon that preaches against your particular sin, it's purging you
It's causing you to get right with God to repent of that sin and to live a life
That's pleasing unto the Lord. That's what fire does
And what does a hammer do?
It breaks the rock in pieces.
It breaks the ideologies that you've picked up from the world.
It breaks the false doctrines that you've
learned at other churches.
That's what biblical preaching is supposed to do.
So when you come to a church like this,
you're going to get offended.
And in fact, I'm sure today, someone's
getting offended by what I'm saying.
Because you might have gone to a liberal church
that you personally like.
You might have attended some non-denominational church
that you actually esteem, and you're like, well,
I don't agree with that.
And it's offending you well good. This is the period. This is the time period right here
Where you're gonna be offended by that and you know what that's what you should expect when you come to a church like this
Okay
Where'd I have you turn?
Luke 11 let me read to you a couple more verses here before we move on
Actually, we'll just read from Luke 11, you know a lot of times people will say this well yeah pastor, you know, I get that
But what would Jesus do?
It's not very Christ like though
That's not my Jesus, I know.
I know it's not.
The Bible talks about another Jesus.
So let's just look though at what Jesus would do.
Shall we?
Because we don't wanna just make up what Jesus would do.
You know, I know you saying what would Jesus do
sounds great and all, but here's the problem
you don't really understand that we have an entire Bible
that shows us what Jesus would do.
Look at Luke 11, verse 44.
Now in Matthew 23 the Lord spends an entire chapter just rebuke the religious leaders
I mean calling them children of the devil they make their converts two-fold more a child have held in themselves
He calls them false prophets white at sepulchres, and he's just going off on them, right?
Well, Luke 11 says the same exact thing, but let me just tell you it's a different instance though
So he preached
Matthew 23 at a different time and then he comes in runs into the same people again, and he preaches that same sermon against them again
So he says won't you scribes and Pharisees?
hypocrites for ye are as graves which appear not and the men that walk over them are not aware of them
So it's very similar to what we see in Matthew 23, right?
The difference is he's saying, you know, you guys are like the graves that people walk over and they don't realize that they are in the presence of a dead person
a spiritually dead person, someone who's dead
in their trespasses and sin, and even worse,
someone who is twice dead plucked up by the roots.
He goes on to say in verse 45,
then answer one of the lawyers, and said to him,
Master, the same, that approach is thus also.
So, you know, the lawyer's just like,
hey, I feel like you're talking about me, you know?
And, you know, a lot of Christians,
part of liberal churches would probably think
that Jesus would do is like,
oh, you know, don't take this to heart.
I'm talking to these people.
You're different.
You know, I'm sorry if you got offended by this.
I wasn't really talking about you.
Oh, no, verse 46.
And he said, won't you also lawyers?
So he's preaching against the scribes and Pharisees
and then the lawyer butts in the conversation.
And he's like, hey, you sound like you're talking about me too.
He's like, yeah, woe unto you too, lawyers.
And he starts preaching against them.
For ye laid men with burdens, grievous to be born,
and ye yourselves touched not the burdens
with one of your fingers.
What is he saying?
You guys are lazy.
Woe unto you, for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets,
and your fathers killed them.
I mean, these are some very strong accusations
that the Lord is giving towards the Pharisees, lawyers,
and scribes.
And people say, yeah, but that's Jesus though.
You know, that's one of the most common things.
Anytime Jesus does something negative,
this is what people say, yeah, but that's Jesus though.
Yeah, but you, we can do that, that's Jesus.
No, sorry, what the Bible tells us to do
is exactly what Jesus did.
We should preach like Jesus.
And in fact, if we say that we know the Lord
but we're not walking according to His commandments,
if we're not walking as Jesus walked,
then we're not really following the Lord.
That's what the Bible says.
So, it's either, oh, only Jesus can do these things and not us, or it just might mean that
you need to start behaving more like Jesus.
Because the Jesus of the liberal churches doesn't want to offend anyone.
They want to preach encouraging sermons, exhortative sermons, and quite frankly, much
of their exhortations are probably correct.
You know, they're probably trying to help people
how to overcome depression and being discouraged,
and exhortations are great.
Encouragements are great.
But if it's only exhortations, though,
then it actually becomes bad.
Because we need a balance of positive and negative in the preaching you need to hear that hey, don't quit
You need to hear. Hey, don't be discouraged. You need to hear. Hey, don't quit
Don't fall stay in the will of God. You need to hear those things, but you also need to hear
Hey, but by the way get that sin out of your life, too
And what you're doing is evil is wicked it doesn't please God you need to be rebuked and reproved
That's what the Bible teaches that we need to do and look
When the Bible instructs preachers to preach,
he says, reprove or buke, exhort,
but then he says, with all long suffering.
Meaning that we exhort people to continue
in the grace of God,
but then we rebuke people for not continuing
in the grace of God,
but then we're patient with them.
It's just with long suffering, right?
Meaning like, you know, I get it, not everyone moves at the same pace.
Not everyone grows at the same rate.
We need to be long suffering, but not at the exclusion of rebuking and reproving them still.
And it says with doctrine, meaning that we show you from the Bible what the Bible says about that.
So what would Jesus do? Well, apparently he would call them hypocrites.
He would say that they're like white at sepulchres
He will call out their laziness and he specifically says in verse 47 that they're building the sepulchres of the prophets that their fathers killed
I mean he is laying it thick on them and by the way
This is also shown as if you really want to get specific that it's biblical to preach against false prophets
Because here's two entire chapters where he's just calling them out. He's spending an entire sermon on them
calling them out
rebuking them, reproving them, and he's not afraid to just say,
yeah, I'm talking to you.
And you know what?
Liberal churches will not call out false prophets at all.
And in fact, the only people that they'll even remotely speak
negative about are the Democrats and the liberals.
Apparently, the hardest preaching at a liberal church is
preaching against the Democratic Party.
And we'll get into that later on.
But folks, churches need to call out the names.
We need to warn the flock regarding false prophets.
And you know what, expect to be offended periodically
when you come to our church.
So the Bible teaches, you know,
open rebuke is better than secret love.
The Bible says faithful, listen to this,
are the wounds of a friend.
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
So it's saying like a wound is like, you know,
a spiritual wound is like when the pastor wounds you, right?
And it says there that those are faithful,
meaning the man's trying to help you.
The deceitful gesture is the kiss.
You know, like Judas, hell, hell rabbi,
as he kisses Jesus on the cheek
and then he's like turning him in to the authorities.
Give me a wound.
I take the wound over the kiss any day.
Why? Because a kiss is flattery, a wound is actually comes from someone who actually loves me, therefore it's corrected me and wants me to serve God.
The Bible says in Proverbs 28 verse 23,
He that rebuketh the men afterwards shall find more favor than he that flattereth with his tongue.
Why are we not a liberal church? I'll tell you why. What you see is what you get.
You know, the passion that I have for preaching behind the pulpit is the same passion you're going to get when I'm talking to you face to face when we're talking about the same subject.
Not only that, but you will be periodically offended if you come to our church and you should seek to be periodically offended
Because if we're not offended, we're not growing if we're not being corrected. We're not growing
We need our ideas and our beliefs to be challenged
They need to be challenged. They need to be corrected. They need to be refined
So we go to the local New Testament church in order to get that. Why are we not a liberal church number three?
Go to second John if you would second John
I'll tell you why we're not a liberal church.
We promote doctrinal unity.
You know one thing that's important here at our church
is the music.
It is, but it's not that important to us.
I love the music here.
I think the music is great.
I think Brother Alex Berea does a great job playing the piano.
I think the orchestra does a fantastic job playing.
I always love hearing hymns and spiritual songs,
but let me just be honest with you,
that is not the pinnacle of our service and never will be.
Why?
Because the pinnacle of any local New Testament church
should be doctrine.
the Bible. We go to church to hear the Word of God to exalt doctrine, whereas a
lot of these liberal churches strive for unity outside of the walls of the
church. You know we want unity one with another,
doctrinally speaking, right? We want to make sure that we are in lockstep with
one another in this church. Liberal churches on the other hand want to be
in lockstep, want to be in unity with people outside of this church.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
Do we want to win people outside of this church?
Absolutely, and bring into alignment with what the Bible says.
But non-denom churches are all about what?
Not being divisive.
You know, oh, you talk to a person who goes to the liberal church about doctrine,
they're like, oh, you're just being divisive.
Yes, I am.
Of course I am.
Doctrine divides, for sure.
We're supposed to divide when it comes to doctrine.
Yeah, but what would Jesus say pastor? Well, I'll tell you I'll tell you what he said
I came not to bring peace, but a sword
How about that?
Matthew chapter 10 Jesus said I know this is probably like you know
Astounding to you if you've never heard this, but Jesus literally said I came not to bring peace
So stop saying you know, oh, you know, Jesus is super peaceful. Well, according to him. He says he didn't come to bring peace
Now if you want true peace, you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be eternally reconciled unto the Father through him
But even then that's divisive because he's saying I am the way the truth of the life
No man comes into the Father, but by me meaning you have to reject Hinduism
Buddhism you have to reject Catholicism you have to reject Mormonism
Jehovah's Witnesses all other religions are false in the eyes of God and Jesus is the only way
That's a divisive thing to say
Whereas non-denom church is like, well, you know, we don't want to really split hairs over those things
You know, we just don't we don't want to fight and be divisive about that. You know, I
Just think if you know they if they love God
If they love Jesus
No
The Bible teaches that we are to be divisive the Bible teaches that we should have unity at the church
There should be no division in the church.
There should be no schism in the church.
This should be a place where believers congregate
who are of like faith.
Meaning that we all believe in the right salvation.
And let me just repeat that.
The right salvation.
Meaning that there is a wrong salvation.
The right salvation is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
exclusively to be saved.
That it's not of works that standing man should boast.
The right salvation is that it's not
by repenting of your sins.
is by believing, trusting, placing your faith in Jesus Christ
plus nothing, minus nothing, you can never lose your salvation.
That's the kind of unity we want in our church.
Whereas a lot of these non-Denom churches,
the pastor might believe that, might believe that.
It's possible that he might believe that.
Let's pretend that he does believe that.
But you know what, you talk to the congregation,
you'll get 10 different answers.
You'll get people to say oh you have to trust in Jesus Christ and the other one will say no
You have to repent of your sins and other ones that would know you have to keep God's commandments
Another one said no you have to have a relationship with Jesus and I don't say well you just have to know God
It's like all these answers and then people leave more confused than ever that's not doctrinal unity oh
But when it comes to the world that's just like oh we want to be able to reach the world
Which is why liberal churches you can't really tell them apart
From a rock concert like a secular rock concert the only difference between a rock concert
And a liberal church is the quality of the music
And no, I don't mean that the liberal church does does it better
The liberal church is often lower in quality than Metallica or whatever
And that's a fact, but if you were to look at some pop concert, secular concert, and
compare it to a liberal church, and just put mute, and say, which one is the church?
You wouldn't be able to tell which one.
Like, what church?
There's no church here.
I just see a rock concert.
Folks, there should be a difference between a church and the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.
What does it mean to sanctify them?
It means separate them from the Bible,
or excuse me, separate them because of the Bible.
The Bible should separate us from the world,
make us distinct from the world,
but there's a problem when the church services
look like the world.
Like, well, we're trying to reach the world.
Well, I'll tell you, let me show you
how to reach the world, preach the gospel.
The gospel is the power of God and salvation
to everyone that believe it.
And yeah, the Bible does teach to the Jew,
I became as a Jew and we are obviously supposed
to condescend to men of low estate,
but the Bible also teaches the first Corinthians chapter nine,
but not being without a law unto Christ.
Meaning that we reach the world,
we try to be like the people we're speaking to
without compromising though.
That's important my friends.
We're gonna go to second John
and then we're gonna go to Galatians.
Liberal churches don't want to be divisive about anything and it's almost taboo to talk about biblical doctrines in churches like that
I mean the only offense is that it will ever take place in a liberal church is when a Christian wants to talk about doctrine
That's offensive to them. Oh God forbid that you should go there and say are you 100% sure that if you die today
You go to heaven. That's probably the most offensive thing you could ever ask someone at those churches
Super offensive and it's just like why would that offend you if it's a church?
The church is the epicenter of where salvation is being preached from
That should be the most not offensive thing to ask you can ask me after the service. I won't get offended at that
Like a pastor, you know, are you 100%? I'll be like I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you 100% sure?
And then let me just say this,
if you're visiting with us today,
let me just prepare you,
someone's gonna talk to you after the service
and say, are you 100% sure
that if you die today, you go to heaven?
Why?
Because we care about the souls of the people
and the congregation.
We want people to be saved.
Whereas a lot of these liberal churches are just like,
well, we don't wanna impose,
we don't wanna be confrontational like that.
That seems like a little much.
Then stop calling yourself a church.
Cause that's exactly what a church is supposed to do.
And let me just say this,
we don't respect all religions.
Liberal churches are notorious for just like,
well, you know, we just want to respect everyone,
respect all religions, false.
Not what the Bible teaches.
We are not to respect all religions.
To respect all religions means
that we hold them in high regard.
We believe every religion other than Christianity is false.
It's radical, it's false, and let me just say this.
There's churches that call themselves Christians
that are also false.
How about that?
We'll go a little further.
But we're not supposed to respect Buddhism.
We're not to respect Hinduism.
We're not to respect Islam.
We're not to respect Mormonism.
Anything that is contrary to the word of God, we're not to respect,
well, I just don't think that's very Christ-like.
Well, God told Cain, or the Bible says about Cain,
that God had not respect into his offering.
He didn't respect him.
Cain brought forth an offering of the ground,
and the Bible says that God didn't respect it.
Didn't regard it, doesn't respect it.
Why because God draws a line my friends and we're not to respect other religions whereas liberal churches have a tendency
Because they don't want to offend that they just think they we should just hold hands with everyone wrong look at second John 10
Second John 10 says if there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine
The Bible the doctrines of Christ receive them not into your house neither bid him Godspeed now. This is a very strict command
Because he says if someone comes to you preaching something that's not the doctrines of Christ something that's contrary to the doctrines of Christ
You should even tell them God bless you
Godspeed means God bless you. That's what that means
You know, you run into a Mormon and you're like, oh, I disagree with you, but hey God bless. Oh, you just
That's a no-no
Well, you know, I'm just I just want them to
Neither bid him Godspeed
Why? Well, if you do verse 11 for he that bit of them God speed is a partaker of his evil deeds
What does that mean so if you say God bless you to Jehovah's Witness after you rebuke him after you know
You've had a little Bible study with him
Try to win and you say God bless you. Hey
May God prosper your way
according to God
Even if this is not your intention. This is how God views it and may I remind you?
We need to view the Bible the way God views it and not the way we think we should be viewed of God
It's how God views it
God says if that's what you do, you're just as bad as him
You're a partaker of his evil ministry by wanting him to prosper in his way. God is strict about that
Kind of shows me that God doesn't respect all religions
That's why you know we in here obviously if a Hindu comes to our church a Buddhist comes to our church
An atheist comes to our church. We're not going to rebuke them and reprove them
Unless of course they're trying to start trouble or something like that. We want to win him to Christ
But we're not gonna be like hey, you know just he has his different set of beliefs and you know and I know he's trying to go around
And convert people to Buddhism or whatever, but you know, I just don't want to offend him
This is the house of God, this is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth.
And so, don't bid God's feet to false religions, whereas the liberal church is,
oh, they want to get along with all religions. The Bible also says in Titus 3.10, a man that is in heretic.
After the first and second admonition reject knowing he that is such a subverted and sin at the get being condemned of
Himself go to Proverbs 28 if you would Proverbs 28. I'm going to read to you from Jude
Did I have eternal relations?
All right, just go to Proverbs 28
Jude verse 3 says beloved when I gave all diligence to write into you of the common salvation
It was needful for me to write into you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith
Which was once delivered into the saints so according to the Bible God wants us to split hairs over salvation
He says you need to earnestly contend for the faith
fight over the faith
Well, I just don't think we should be contentious with people and split hairs
Well, then you're not reading the Bible because the Bible says we should contend for it
And in fact check out this condemnation
look at Proverbs 28 verse 4
They that forsake the law
praise the wicked
So if you're not reading the Bible, you're backslidden, you are susceptible to being buddy buddies with and praising evil wicked people.
That's what the Bible is saying there.
I want you to know the second half, but such as keep the law contend with them.
What does it mean to contend? It means fight.
So according to this verse if you're keeping the words of God if you're keeping the Bible if you're believed by you're preaching the Bible
The natural byproduct of that is that you're contending with the wicked
So if you find the church is getting along with the wicked if you find the church with the rainbow flag out
If you find the church with BLM out there
If you find the church with all these liberal ideologies, then just I'm gonna show you a church that has forsaken the law of God
It doesn't believe in the Bible.
Because the Bible teaches us that when we hold to the word of God, when we read the Bible,
we earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints.
Say, Pastor, I don't agree with you.
Well, you just got to say you don't agree with the Bible a lot.
Because I'm just showing you what the Bible says.
The Bible says in Galatians 1-10, for do I now persuade men or God?
Or do I seek to please men?
For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ
What is my I was saying that if you find a church is filled with man pleasers is just the church is not serving the Lord
It's basically like a church full of politicians
Right politicians just want to please both sides. They just want to please everyone so they'll say anything
To be in alignment with those who are going to vote for them whereas what the Bible teaches is that we should just seek to please God
And guess what? You're that means you're gonna offend some people
Some people are gonna like you some people will agree with you some people will be in alignment with the Bible says
But other people are just not gonna like you at all
But who cares the Bible says that we should please God be a servant of Christ and not seek to please
men and serve men
We're not a liberal church go to James chapter 3
Let me just briefly review why we're a non-non-denominational church.
Reason number one is because what you see is what you get.
It's a sincere church.
It's not filled with flattery.
And don't misinterpret a compliment, alright?
Someone compliments you after the service, oh man, is this person flattering me or something
like that?
Compliments are good, you know?
Obviously, you should not seek compliments and let another man praise thee in that thine
own lips, that thine own mouth.
But what we're talking about when it comes to flattery is just this excessive praise
that after a while just seems insincere, there's an ulterior motive there, there is an agenda
behind that flattery.
So what you see is what you get.
We're not a liberal church because we will periodically offend you.
You will be encouraged, you will be exhorted, you will be edified,
but you'll also be broken down every once in a while too.
We're not a liberal church because we promote doctrinal unity.
We're also not a liberal church, and I've mentioned this already,
but this is very important to re-emphasize,
is that we take a strong stance on the Bible.
Like we call ourselves a Bible-believing church, right?
And when you come to our church,
you'll hear this phrase often, King James only.
That's the Bible that we use.
And unless you're like a new person in our church,
the vast majority of our church,
99% of our church uses the King James Bible.
And most people who come with a different version
of the Bible will be educated on the issue of the Bible
and they will eventually get a King James Bible.
Whereas a lot of these liberal churches,
they don't really care what Bible you use.
And in fact, you don't even have to bring a Bible to church.
They don't promote reading the Bible.
They don't promote bringing a Bible.
And if you just want to be radical and actually have a Bible,
if you want to be just like a Bible thumper apparently,
just get whatever one you want from Barnes and Noble.
You could have an ESV, an NIV, an STD, whatever type
of Bible version you want.
And they're fine with that and let me explain something to you is that
One of the reasons liberal churches are not very strict on the Bible version
It's because of the fact that when you have a plethora of Bibles to choose from you can pretty much teach anything you want
Because all Bibles say something different so they just have to find a Bible that lines up with what they believe
Whereas if you stick to one version the King James version of the Bible, you know, there's not a whole lot of wiggle room
You got to preach what it says, right?
So we're a Bible-believing church. We believe in using the King James version of the Bible. We're very open about that
And in fact, we're the church that if you need a Bible, we'll just give you one for free
Like I don't have a Bible that will give you one because we want everyone to have a Bible in their lap
Opening it up going to the passages of scripture. Sorry. There's no screens up here or the verses are just shown or something like that
It's not gonna happen. You need to be you know be able to navigate through the scriptures yourself
So this is a church that teaches you how to navigate through your Bible through the sermons
Non-denom churches are not like that use a variety of Bibles and quite frankly the Bible for non-denom churches is not Bible
It's actually the music
See we worship the Bible here, right?
Like we exalt the Bible not like the physical Bible is not like oh, man
You know holy is this and I can put this on the floor so we're talking about the content of the Bible, right?
Whereas with liberal churches, they worship not the Bible,
they worship music.
Contemporary Christian, so-called music.
And you know what?
As influential as the Bible is in our church,
that's exactly how CCM, how influential CCM is in those churches.
And I dare even say that there might be people in our church
They have strong ties to CCM as well, you know, they struggle a little bit with CCM
Okay
And then they won't be open about it
It's not something that they're gonna they're gonna post on social media
But I'm telling you right now. That's how strong the influence is of CCM in these churches
And think about this, you know, they will take more offense over criticisms of their music
Then they will of someone preaching false doctrine in their church like the most offensive thing that you can do in our church
Is criticize what the Bible says?
Like I'd be greatly if you want to offend me tell me that the Bible is not true
You want to offend me criticize the doctrines of the Bible you want to get me riled up?
Then start contradicting what the Bible says. That's extremely offensive
You know you want to offend people in our church start criticizing and talking down on the doctrines of the Bible
You got a fight on your hands
Fact that will rile up any member in our church more than anything else is the criticism of the word of God
And that's how it should be
Why because this is God in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God
So the word of God is what we believe to be the final authority for all matters of faith and practice
So when you criticize this this is this this is the foundation of our church
This is the staple of our church. This is the meat. This is the fabric of our church
Not the music
Now well, what is our philosophy when it comes to music? I'll tell you what it is. It's to prepare the heart for preaching
Okay
You know, you listen to the hymns that reinforce doctrine,
it reinforces verses of the Bible,
it gets your heart ready to receive the word of God
with meekness, right?
But let me just say this, that's all it does.
And obviously we can sing hymns to ourselves at home
and in our homes that we should,
but at the end of the day, it is not the apex,
it is not the pinnacle of our church services,
whereas in liberal churches it is.
You criticize the music at a liberal church,
you might as well just criticize the Bible.
To them obviously they don't necessarily hold to the same offense, but it's like the Bible to them
They worship CCM. They don't worship the Bible and
The Bible tells the second Corinthians 2 17 for we are not as many which corrupt the word of God
But as of sincerity, but as of God and the sight of God speak we in
Christ and look our church services here even with them with the music is
geared to feed the spirit not the flesh
And you know, I, again, I've never been to a non-denom church,
but I've seen enough pictures and videos.
What are you doing?
What's going on?
What are you reaching for?
Well, doesn't the Bible say lifting up holy hands?
Not about worship.
It's not about a song service.
When it talks about lifting up holy hands,
it's basically talking about being innocent from crime, from sin.
It's a symbolic representation of just being right before the Lord.
Like, holy hands means like, hey, my hands are clean, right?
It's free from crime, sin.
I'm right with God.
That's what it means.
Not this.
And you know, a lot of these liver, that's what it is.
Okay, and you know if a person from a non-dedom church just step foot into our church right now
They would be greatly offended what I'm saying because it's important to them
It is almost like doctrine, but let me just say this you know
We walk by faith and not by sight faith come with by hearing and hearing by the word of God we
Commune with the Lord through the word of God not through necessary a worship service
music
You know the band plan or whatever they try to integrate the world into their services
Look at James chapter 3 and is it any surprise that because they're like that. They're very sensitive
Very emotional
You know, they're very just kind of
effeminate
Very sensitive regarding these topics and look the Bible promotes being tender hearted
The Bible promotes being kind, gracious, tender-hearted,
condescending to men of low estate.
This is a Christian virtue.
But, not being tender-hearted when someone gives you the truth.
You know, someone rebukes you and you're just...
...tuffing up a little bit.
Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.
You know you should be offended over souls going to hell. How about that?
You should be offended over false Gospels that are being preached that are sending people to hell
Not about your Christian worship music or whatever
Here I am to worship. That's the only one that I know
Brother Cody, what's another one? I'm just kidding
What's another worship song
What who knows a worship title of a worship song
What is it?
Open the eyes of my heart
Was that love song I
Just says open the eyes of my heart over and over and over again. Oh, that's another thing by the way
You know when it comes to the distinction between the music we sing here and the music at liberal church is our our music is very doctrinal
There's a lot of substance to it. I mean you think about the Christmas songs that we sing
They're just saturated with doctrine whereas a lot of these liberal churches that sing these contemporary Christian
music songs, they're very repetitive
You know open the eyes of my heart open the eyes of my heart
And it's just like a mantra or something and it's meant to kind of send you in a trance
So that the pastor can just get up and say whatever he wants and you just feel like it's of God
So it's meant to put you in an emotional state
is what it's supposed to do, right?
It's meant to pull out the heart strings,
whereas when it comes to the word of God,
you know, the word of God doesn't always
pull out our heart strings.
Sometimes it's just information that we gotta accept
as being true because it's the Bible.
Well, if I don't feel, well, I'm sorry,
we walk by faith and not by sight.
I just don't feel like that's right.
Well, hold on a second, forget your feelings though.
What does the Bible say?
Because the heart is deceitful,
but all things desperately wicked, who can know it?
Sometimes our emotions deceive us.
You know, sometimes I feel like eating a whole pizza.
Sometimes I feel like eating a whole box of pizza.
Does that make it right?
Sometimes, but not all the time.
Sometimes I just feel like feeding the flesh.
What you feel isn't always what's right.
We need to bring our feelings into alignment with the word of God. This is why the Bible says walk in the spirit
You should not fulfill the lust of the flesh
Because the flesh lusts against the spirit and the purpose a lot of the major purpose of these liberal churches with their music
Is to put you in a fleshly state of mind
To be emotional and you know what here's the red flag is that when you talk to a person like that you show them from the Bible
Hey, go ahead and quote Psalm 139 to them
Quote Psalm 139 to be like, well, you know, I just don't feel up. I don't want to hear it
You brought your feelings into this conversation. I
Ain't trying to hear it. That's what that's my responses
Now look, tell me what you feel if you're going through a hard time
But don't use your feelings to interpret the Bible though
Let me repeat that again. Tell me your feelings if you're going through a hard time
Tell me your feelings if you're discouraged
Tell me your feelings if you're feeling confused, but don't give me your feelings when you try to interpret the Bible
Just give me the pipe
Because the hardest to see above all things desperately wicked who can't know look at James chapter 3 verse 13
Who was a wise man and in dude with knowledge among you let him shot of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom
But if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
This wisdom descended not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish, the Bible says.
For where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
You say, well, aren't you striving right now?
Well, yeah, because I'm earnestly contending for the faith.
But when you look at how we fellowship, we're in unity.
There's no striving among us and in fact, I dare say when it comes to doctrine in our church
No one fights about doctrine in our church. I'm gonna tell you what people fight about in our church food
I'm just fat. I mean last night. I don't know if it was last night
I know it was the last night brother Adam. Is that what it was?
There's like a all-out brawl for food. Just some people like Taco Bell other people like
You know deltox or something some people like waffles and that's like the strongest contentions in our church. I
Rather have contentions about pancakes than about the Bible though
You know, you know, oh is our pancakes and waffle aren't they the same thing no, they're not okay
They're not the same thing
What am I saying? I'm saying that our church is geared towards making you spiritually-minded, not fleshly-minded.
Not being a carnal, fleshly, always-offended, sensitive Christian.
Look, we need to have a tender heart towards the loss.
We need to have a tender heart towards the Word of God.
But at the end of the day, you can't be weak and tenderhearted when you're given the truth, though.
Why are we not a liberal church? I'll tell you why because our church takes a strong stance in the Bible
We believe the word of God that is the
Authority for all matters of faith and practice. Let me move on here
Go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 2nd Corinthians chapter 6
Let me just mention this point
Briefly because I think it is important is that we have respect for the assembling of ourselves
There's obviously high regard when we come to the house of God
It's not a lax, relaxed atmosphere when you come to our church
because we're coming to the house of God, right?
But also, we're not sacrilegious regarding things.
You know, non-denom churches have a tendency
to be a little sacrilegious,
and that's one of the reasons why
I stopped following the Babylon Bee.
Babylon Bee puts out some funny memes,
but sometimes they can be outright disrespectful
towards the things of God.
A little too lax there.
A little too sacrilegious there, speaking in God's stead.
But you know, liberal churches are like that.
But here's here's a major thing that's a major difference between our church and liberal churches
And that is listen to me. We reject Judaism and
Catholicism
We are in contrast to opposition to Judaism also known as Zionism
basically the same thing and
Catholicism
Whereas liberal churches they bow to both of those
Now it should come as a surprise that they bow to the Zionist because that's a thing and a lot of churches unfortunately even fundamental Baptist churches
But a newer thing is the whole Catholic thing
Where a lot of these Protestants are now becoming more Catholic in their practices and beliefs. They're embracing the Eucharist
They're embracing the presence of God in the Eucharist and now they're like well
That's one thing that we do agree. No, we don't agree on that. Catholics aren't saved
Let me just draw a really hard line here that if you've never heard you're hearing it today. Catholics are not saved
They don't believe the right gospel. They teach a workspace salvation and they worship Mary
No, we venerate her you venerate Mary
Whatever you want to call it is the same exact thing
Ketchup cats up
Gay homo, you know, it's all the same. It's all the same thing
Catholicism is not a biblical religion. It never was a biblical religion. It's a bastardization of Christianity
It teaches a workspace salvation. The Eucharist is a mystical practice that they have it's not found in scripture
They're not the first Christians. They didn't give us the Bible
They don't worship the God of the Bible all those things are non-existent those are gaslighting statements of the Roman Catholic Church
And in fact, what is it called Roman Catholic Church?
It is a pagan religion that is hijacked the term Christianity and quite frankly within the last
I mean about 50 years ago you wouldn't catch a Catholic call themselves Christian
But now they're like, oh no, we are Christian.
That's funny, 50 years ago you wouldn't have said that.
You wanted a distinction between Catholics and Christians.
But now it's just like, oh no, we're Christian.
Wrong, you're not a Christian.
You worship Mary, and you know what?
Mary don't even know who you are.
Sorry, all those letters that went to Santa Claus
didn't go anywhere.
All the prayers that you sent to Mary
didn't make it anywhere, she's in heaven right now,
worshiping Jesus Christ, not the other way around.
And if she found out what 1.3 billion Catholics
were doing all around the world,
she'd be facepalming the entire time.
You know, I saw this video recently
of this Catholic dude online,
because they're really popular on social media.
And he's being interviewed,
and you know, he's making ways
in the Roman Catholic community.
And he's like crying, he's just like,
I just hope that if I get to heaven, yeah, if.
Yeah, that's it.
Big if they're buddy, huh?
You're not really sure, are you?
He's just like he's like if I get to heaven. I just want Jesus to say you know my mom talked a lot about you
Corny bro, that's corny. It's not gonna happen
Not gonna happen, you know Jesus said depart from me either work iniquity
I never knew you but it's possible to that guy. He might even say by the way my mom don't even know you
Catholicism is a false religion
And you know what, they have fine-tuned their description
and their beliefs in such a way that they've deceived
a lot of these non-denom churches
that believe that they are Christian.
There's a lot of people that believe about salvation.
Oh, you have to believe on Jesus Christ.
And the non-denoms are like,
oh man, maybe, you know, you gave the right answer.
Yeah, but hold on a second, he's lying to you.
I mean, I had a priest contact me on social media
and he's like, why are you against Catholicism?
I'm like, is this a false religion?
He's like I believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. I said no, you don't I
Said because you believe I have to take the Eucharist in order to be saved
And that's what he said. Well, that's what the Bible teaches. Well, that's funny that you just lied to me didn't you?
It's called deceit
You believe you have to take it. That's literally what they believe that you have to consume the alcohol and the bread
in order to be saved.
You have to participate in the mass and the Eucharist
in order to be saved, which is why they say
there's no salvation outside of the Catholic Church
because the Catholic Church is the only institution
that practices that.
So if you don't participate in the Eucharist
or in the mass, you can't be saved.
That's what they teach.
And by the way, this same guy, they're like,
well, what about someone who's really sincerely
looking for Christ, but they're not a Catholic,
and is that person gonna go to heaven?
And he's like, yeah, they will
because of Catholicism, though.
It's like we were able to still like bring him in kind of thing
Because he doesn't want to draw a hard line
Because that's a baptistic thing to do
You know to call the pope of the vicar of hell. That's a Baptist thing to do
And oh, yeah, but you know we have like 1.3 billion Catholics. How many Baptist are there?
Well, that's funny
You know the Jesus said broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be which go in their app. Good job
Yeah, let's just go ahead and pick out the largest religion and according to the Bible
That's a religion that's going straight to help because the more people the more converts they have the Bible tells us more people are joining false religions
Whereas the narrow way the straight way are those who barely find the truth
Christians who actually believe in Jesus Christ by faith alone
And look the Eucharist is not only not the only thing they say you have to keep the sacraments
You have to keep the sacraments you have to go to confession and even if you do all those things when you die
You still got to go to purgatory
To be absolved of all your sins. It's just crazy ridiculousness
And you know there's billions of Catholics who are in hell right now wondering that's funny
Purgatory feels a lot like hell
That's because it is hell
But you know what you will not hear this kind of preaching at a non-denom church never
You will never hear preaching like this at a non-denom church because they don't want to offend
What they call their brothers in Christ because thought Catholics are not brothers in Christ and let me make myself very clear
I don't hate Catholics. I was a former Catholic. Some of you are former Catholics. We win Catholics to the Lord every single week
Every single week we're winning Catholics to the Lord 15 Catholics got saved yesterday. I
love Catholics
And you know what?
I appreciate the fact that the Catholic Church
doesn't teach them the Bible.
Like I condemn them for it,
but it kind of works to our advantage.
Cause we go to the door, we preach the gospel to them,
and then they're like, yeah, I want to get saved for sure.
Cause they're not trained in their doctrine or whatever.
So they're like low hanging fruits sometimes.
But you know what?
The reason we're not a liberal church
is because we reject Catholicism.
They're not our brothers in Christ.
They're not a legitimate institution of Christianity.
They're a false religion.
And this is a hard line that we need to draw continuously.
Baptists have done it for thousands of years,
for at least the last 2,000 years,
where they have staunchly said,
no, they didn't veer off the path.
They've already been off the path.
You know, some pagan turned it into what it is,
and essentially integrated the term Christianity with it.
Because that's why they worship all kinds of saints.
It's basically what the Roman Empire did,
with their paganism.
They just switched the names.
Mars, now, Joseph.
You know, Venus, Mary.
They just switched the names around.
You know, they take over much of the Roman Empire.
They don't want to get rid of the ornate designs
and the statues, so they say,
well, this isn't Mars, this is actually Saint,
fill in the blank.
All right, I'll move on from that
Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 14 and don't even get me started on Judaism
You know Catholicism is wicked, but Judaism good night in the morning
Yeah, I mean Catholics are actually easier to win to Christ
Adherence to Judaism. Hey Jesus
Verbally, they're open about that
And you know what, it's wicked for any church
who claims to be Christian to support, love,
and show any type of friendliness
to an organization that openly hates the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's evil, it's wicked.
Catholics don't show hatred towards Jesus Christ.
They're just deceived about what they believe.
Judaism, on the other hand.
They actually do hate the Lord Jesus Christ and in fact, they'll even say, you know
You shouldn't be worshiping worshiping one Jew. You should worship all of us because we're all died for your sins
It's the most blasphemous thing you ever hear from Jews
Are you anti-Semitic? No, I'm anti-Judaism. I'm anti Zionism
Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14. Why do you feel that way?
That's just yelling verse 14 be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness and what?
Concord hath Christ with Belial Belial is just another way of saying the devil or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel
And what agreement at the temple of God with idols?
For here at the temple of the living God, as God has said,
I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people, wherefore come out from among them,
and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you.
Bible says we should be separate from false religions,
separate from Catholicism, separate from Judaism.
You know, thanks to a lot of people online are kind of waking up to this concept of not supporting Israel,
not supporting the religion of Judaism, recognizing that that's not...
There's nothing biblical about Judaism, there's nothing biblical about Israel.
It's an apostate state.
It's an apostate religion that is essentially parading as being biblical, but there's nothing biblical about it.
And I preach a lot of other sermons on that,
but you know, non-denom churches,
they're big on Judaism, they're big on Zionism.
They got the star rem fan flag right behind them.
All right, here's my last point and I'm done.
And you're like, thank goodness.
Why we're not a liberal church?
By the way, let me just say this, you know,
I'll come with this, look.
After church, if you want to talk about this,
I'll bring the same energy like in that,
because what you see is what you get.
And anybody who knows me, who's talked to me,
they know that I get like this
when I start talking about it.
Because what you see is what you get.
It's not a show.
This is literally how I feel.
And in fact, I have to restrain myself sometimes.
Here's the last point, and that is,
we're not a liberal church
because our religion is Christianity,
and you're like, duh.
But non-denom churches are religiously Republican and conservative
Non-denom churches will preach harder about political issues than they will about the Bible
They're just like a bunch of Republican conservatives who are just meeting together taking a soft stance on biblical issues
But a hard stance on on political issues
This is not a political party here. Isn't this a Republican church? Nope
Isn't this a conservative church?
You know, the values are conservative,
but I just prefer biblical.
How about that?
Non-denom churches are often radical Republican conservatives
who take a stronger stance on political issues
than the Bible itself,
and that's why we're not a liberal church.
Because you know what?
I'm not interested in political issues
or political views in our church.
And look, we have,
there's probably Republicans in our church right now.
Probably people right now
that I'm stepping on your toes a little bit.
But you know what the people who I who are Republican conservative in our church?
They know they came to church to hear a biblical message not a Republican message
Why because Jesus had run into Caesar the things which be Caesar but rendering to God the things with two gods and
At the end of the day we should be preaching the kingdom of God, but what am I saying?
I'm just trying to help you find a distinction and maybe some of you are like well. Thank you for making that difference
I will never come back to this church ever again
You know, I'm gonna go find the nearest liberal church as long as you know the difference though
As long as I got you for this one hour to show you
The major distinctions between the two and you cannot say that what I just showed you was not biblical
Because we literally went through a ton of scriptures to prove these points
And if you're offended by what I said
You know periodically that will happen
But let me just say this you better make sure that your views come from the Bible
Plain and simple and you can't really get mad at me. You got to get mad at the Bible and
Look, we're in the same boat. I've heard sermons that offend me
I've heard messages that have greatly offended me have shamed me or it's just like I feel like oh man
This is for sure for me, but you know it made me a better person
Spiritual spankings make us better people
But if it's only timeouts don't do that, you know all positive it's not going to benefit you at all in the Christian life
This is why we are not a liberal church. Let's pray father. We thank you so much for your word
Thank you for the clear teachings of the Bible Lord the explicit verses that lead us in doctrine and in practices
Help us as a church to continue in the grace of God
and continue to win souls to Christ
and draw the line where other churches refuse to do so.
And I pray you continue to help us reach people, Lord.
And thankfully there's a lot of people out there
that want the truth.
They want to know what the Bible actually says.
They've grown weary and tired of the messages
of these mega liberal, non-denominational type churches
and they're looking for something of substance.
And I pray they find it here.
We love you, we thank you,
pray this things in Jesus' name, amen.
At least in your song books is song number 135.
Song number 135, I know I am saved. This is a very short song so we'll sing it twice over.
Song number 135, all together nice and strong on that first verse.
I know I am safe, for Christ set me free.
He ransomed my poor soul on the cross of Calvary.
And now I can sing, for Christ is my King.
by and by. I know I am safe, for Christ set me free. He ransomed my poor soul on the
This is my king, I'll see his face in glory by and by.
Amen. Wonderful singing, you are dismissed.