Alright, so beginning there in Acts chapter 8, the title of the sermon is We are a Baptist
Church.
We are a Baptist Church.
Now I've already preached that we are an independent church, I've already preached
that we are a fundamental church, today I'm preaching that we are a Baptist Church.
When you look at our church name, the church in Caloundra, in our logo underneath that
it says independent fundamental Baptist.
And I didn't just put those words because I'm part of some denomination called the
independent fundamental Baptist.
Each of those words represents some truth that I want this church to represent.
So today we're talking about the Baptist Church.
Why are we a Baptist Church?
Now I can give you many reasons, and this could have gone on forever, but I'll try
to keep it as brief as possible.
But when you first look up the definition, just of any standard dictionary out there,
anything that you want to define what a Baptist is, if you just say what is a Baptist, the
number one definition found across the board is this, those who practice believer's baptism
by immersion.
Those who practice believer's baptism by immersion.
Now that should say a couple of things to you straight away.
First of all, the baptism we practice is not sprinkling, the baptism we practice is not
pouring, the baptism we practice is taking someone and dunking them under the water by
immersion or submersion.
That's what we teach, we teach that baptism is by immersion.
But the other thing is, it's believer's baptism.
So before someone is baptized, they have to be a believer, they have to be someone that's
trusted on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's put their belief, their faith solely upon Jesus
Christ, and these people are allowed to be baptized.
And by implication, what does that mean?
That means we don't practice infant baptism, we don't practice baby baptism, why?
Because a baby cannot believe, a baby cannot put their faith on Jesus Christ because they're
not old enough to comprehend the Gospel.
So that's a couple of things, just by its definition, it already eliminates many of
the denominations out there.
It's baptism by immersion, it's baptism for a believer, that means that the baptism they're
doing that we do is nothing but a symbol, because the person is already a believer,
the person's already saved, meaning that the baptism they do is not required for their
salvation.
There are many denominations out there, there are many churches out there that will teach
you that baptism is a necessary part of their salvation.
Whereas we say, no, it's not part of your salvation, your salvation is purely based
upon putting your faith on Jesus Christ, and baptism is just symbolic, it's just symbolic
of what's already taken place in your heart, that you've put your faith on Jesus Christ.
The same way as my wedding ring is a symbol that I'm married, whether that wedding ring
is on my finger or whether it's off my finger, it doesn't change the fact that I'm married.
If we lose our marriage certificate, that doesn't change anything, we're still married,
my wife and I, we're still married.
So whether that's on my finger or not, in fact, usually when I'm home, I don't wear
my wedding ring because I don't like having jewellery on my hands, but usually when I'm
out and about, I will put on my wedding ring.
It doesn't mean that I'm married and then I'm not married when I take it on and off,
it's just a symbol of what's already taken place.
And so baptism is just a symbol of what's already taking place when you put your faith
on Jesus Christ.
So just a definition of what a Baptist is, we are a Baptist church, okay?
We are a Baptist church.
Now when we look at Acts chapter 8, if you're still there, look at verse number 12, Acts
8 verse 12, it says, And when they believed, Philip preached in the things concerning the
kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
So we see immediately that someone that believes is then baptized.
Once they believed on Jesus Christ, they are baptized.
And then look at verse number 36, the story of the eunuch from Ethiopia, verse 36, And
when they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See,
here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized?
What do I need before I can baptize?
Is there anything stopping me from being baptized?
Verse 37, And Philip said, If thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
So the condition was believing on Jesus Christ, and then you're allowed, right?
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
So there he's expressing, he's confessing his faith on Jesus Christ.
So just to reinforce the fact that baptism is required after you believe on Jesus Christ,
not before, it's not part of your salvation.
Verse 36, And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch
said, See, here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, If thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
And he answered that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And he commanded the chariot to stand still.
And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
And when they were come out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip,
and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
So just to show you that it was a baptism, not by sprinkling or pouring, but by immersion,
they went into the water, and they came out of the water, okay?
And again, I've taught on baptism before, I don't want to rehash my sermon, I only preached
on that a couple of weeks ago, but just to reinforce those facts that baptism is by immersion
for believers.
Romans chapter 6 verse 3 to 4, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus
Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried by him, with him, by baptism into death, that we as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of God, even so we also should walk in units of life.
So again, baptism represents the death, the burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
which is why we practice baptism by immersion, right?
Again, I don't want to rehash the sermon that I've already preached, but just to reinforce
those basic truths, that's what makes us a Baptist.
We're Baptists by definition, because we carry out baptism the way the Scriptures teach,
by immersion for a believer, and it's not part of your salvation, it's just a symbol
of what you've already believed in your heart, okay?
Now the question is, well why Baptists?
What about some other name?
Can this church go by some other label, like a Methodist or a Presbyterian church, things
like that?
Well, I've got a list off the internet, a list of all different types of denominations,
it includes some cults as well, and just basically what they teach about baptism, okay?
And why we're not like them, why we're not some of these churches, okay?
First of all, there are many churches out there that teach that baptism is a requirement
for your salvation, okay?
You need to get baptized, and if you're not baptized, you're not saved.
Some of those churches, obviously the Roman Catholic Church, okay, the Eastern Orthodox
Church or the Greek Orthodox Church, very similar to the Roman Catholic Church, that's
why they baptize babies, right?
Just in case the baby dies prematurely, they say, well at least he got baptized, he might
make it to heaven, or you know, he won't go to hell, he'll go to purgatory or something
like this.
There's the Christadelphians, they believe in baptismal regeneration, the Mormons believe
you need to be baptized, and that's why the Mormons even baptized for the dead, right?
They baptized for the dead relatives that didn't get baptized, they get baptized on
their behalf because they think that's going to get them to heaven.
There's the community churches, I'm not that familiar with them, Disciples of Christ, the
Four Square Gospel Church, I had friends that went to that church, I didn't know they believed
this, Grace Communion International, the Jehovah Witnesses believe you need to be baptized
for salvation, well the Jehovah Witnesses believe that that's part of your salvation,
you've got to just keep going, that doesn't seal the deal but you need to do that otherwise
you won't make it.
The Lutherans believe in baptismal regeneration, the Methodists and the Wesleyans, the Metropolitan
Community Churches, the Nazarenes, the Oneness Pentecostals, the standard Pentecostals, it
varies from church to church, some do, some don't believe that baptism, what about baptism
is required for salvation, and the vineyard churches, the vineyard churches.
Some of the other churches that believe in baptismal regeneration that were on this list,
but I'm not sure if these are accurate because I know some people from this, first of all
is the Church of England or Anglican, right?
The list said most of them believe that, okay?
That could be true maybe in England, I don't know, but my experience with Church of England,
my experience with Anglican is that many of them do not believe you need to be baptised,
in fact if I go back to Sydney in all the soul winning that I was doing door to door,
most of the people that I was saved, already saved, were actually Anglicans, so I'm not
sure if maybe there's a bit of a difference here in Australia, I mean they knew it was
by faith alone, they knew it wasn't by baptism, they knew it was eternal security, they could
never lose it, many of them actually, so I'm not sure, I even grew up going in my public
school, my primary school, I grew up going to an Anglican scripture class, and I remember
that very clearly being taught salvation by faith alone and nothing else, just very clearly
being taught that as a child, but the ladies that were doing the class, they were also
involved in my local Baptist union church, so I'm not sure if maybe they had a bit of
Baptist stuff rubbed into them as well, so I don't know.
The other church were the brethren church, on this list they said they believe in baptismal
regeneration, but again, the few brethren that I do know, or ex brethren that I do know,
didn't believe that, they believed it was by faith alone, and churches of Christ, many
of them, and again, churches of Christ, it depends on the church, some of them do, some
of them don't believe in baptismal regeneration, but I think most of them do.
So that's why we're not part of those churches, alright, that's why I would not fellowship
with those churches, because they add works to salvation, we're not part of that group.
Then if we move away from there, and we say well, these are other churches that don't
believe in baptismal regeneration, they don't believe you need to be baptised to be saved,
but what they do is they baptise infants instead, right, they baptise infants, and we don't
baptise infants because we believe in believers' baptism, you have to believe before you get
baptised.
Some of these other churches are the United Church of Christ, and the Presbyterian Church,
okay, they don't believe that it gets you saved, but they believe in child baptism,
because they link it somehow to circumcision, you know, child circumcision.
And then you've got your modern day Anabaptists, your modern day Anabaptists, they do sprinkling,
okay, they do immersion as well, but they also do sprinkling, so we're not a modern
day Anabaptists.
And then we're left with a few churches, right, we're left with the Baptists, so now these
are churches that believe it's not for your salvation, they believe it's for believers
only, and they believe it's by immersion, okay.
So we're left with Baptists, which is what we are, Calvary Chapel, but I reject Calvary
Chapel because they basically, they hold on to the charismatic teachings of the tongues
movement and, you know, speaking in tongues and the different Holy Spirit gifts and things
like that, so I mean I reject that.
There's the Christian Missionary Alliance, never heard of them, Evangelical Free Church,
never heard of them, you've got the Seventh-day Adventists, but again I don't know if this
is true because the Seventh-day Adventists that I've met did say they believed baptism
was for salvation, so I'm not sure if this list is 100% accurate or not.
And then the United Church of God, now the reason why we're not a United Church of God
is because they believe in binitarianism, instead of being a Trinitarian church, they
believe only the Father and Jesus Christ are persons, right, and that the Holy Spirit
is just this power, right, it's this impersonal power, this impersonal force, so we're not
them either.
So you can see, once you break it down just on how people practice baptism, there's very
few churches left, and we're Baptists, okay, we're Baptists because we baptize the way
we do, but there's more to it than just that, there's more to it than just how we baptize.
There are some hallmarks to a Baptist church, okay, so let me just go through the hallmarks
of a Baptist church.
Number one, churches are organized by other churches, okay, so a church begets another
church, okay, you can't just get a group of buddies together and say, hey, let's just
have a Baptist church, that's not how Baptists do it, right, Baptists ordain, send out, you
know, they organize a church, churches beget churches, and the idea of that comes from
Genesis chapter 1 verse 25, I'll just read it to you, and God made the beast of the earth
after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth
after his kind, and God saw that it was good.
So it's all about creation, right, when God created the animals, when God created the
grass and the trees, and God created human beings, he made sure that they could reproduce
after their kind.
That's a basic Bible principle, right, and so we take that same approach, and God saw
that it was good, so it's a good thing for a type of something to reproduce after its
kind, Christians reproduce Christians, we go soul winning, we get people saved, that's
the fruit of the Christians getting people saved, the fruit of the church is starting
other churches, starting other churches, so that's hallmark number one, churches are organized
by other churches, hallmark number two is that there are, the churches hold to two offices,
the office of the deacon, and the office of a bishop.
So 1 Timothy 3 verse 1 says, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop,
he desire for good work, so I'm a bishop, I have the office of a bishop, the pastor
of this church, and then 1 Timothy 3 verse 10 says, and let these also first be proved,
then let them also use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.
So in the Bible there are two offices, the office of a bishop, boys, boys stop it, office
of a bishop, and the office of a deacon, two offices held in the church, local church.
The third hallmark is there's two ordinances, the first ordinance is water baptism, which
we've done, the second one being the Lord's table, which is the breaking of bread and
the drinking of the wine or the grape juice, we haven't done that just yet, but I do plan
on doing that in the near future, so there's two ordinances the church believes in, the
water baptism and the breaking of bread, and both of those ordinances have to do with the
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, right, the baptism, and then the breaking
of bread that represents his broken body, and the grape juice representing the blood
that was shed for us on Calvary.
Number four, the fourth hallmark is that they're independent churches, self-governing churches,
you know there's not one church above another church, we've spoken about this already, why
we're an independent church, right, I won't recover that, but basically we have Christ
as our head, and we're not governed by some other organization or some other church.
Number five, churches made for saved believers, okay, saved members, churches are made up
of saved members, it's not a free-for-all church for everybody, anyone's welcome, all
visitors are welcome, but we don't tailor the church for the world, okay, we tailor
the church for the believers so we can grow immaturity, we can grow in knowledge of the
Lord, it's for saved members, I'll just read Acts chapter 2 verse 41, and they that gladly
received his word were baptized, we know that, and the same day they were added unto
them about 3,000 souls, so after believers are saved, they're baptized, they're added
to the church, verse 47 says, praising God, and have in favor with all the people, and
the Lord added to the church daily, so the Lord added to the church daily, such as should
be saved, okay, it's the Lord's job, it's God's work to build the church, it's God's
job to add to the church, okay, so church is for saved members, number six, the Bible
is the final authority of faith and practice, the final authority, again, I've preached
on that, why we're a fundamental church, our foundation is the Bible, that's why we're
fundamentalists, last week's sermon, if you want to go, you can listen to that again
to be repeated, but the Bible is the final authority of all faith and practice, hallmark
number seven, Jesus is the foundation and the head of the church, okay, so first Corinthians
chapter three, verse 11 says, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is
Jesus Christ, so Christ is the foundation of our church, and then Ephesians 5, 23, for
the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he
is the savior of the body, so whether the foundation or whether the head, that's what,
and in between, we're in between that, right, Christ is our foundation and Christ is our
head, the eighth hallmark of the Baptist church is the priesthood of the believer, the priesthood
of the believer, also known as individual soul liberty, maybe you've heard of that
instead, individual soul liberty, in other words, there's no intermediate between you
and God, okay, I'm not an intermediate with you and God, the priesthood that we hold as
believers is the same, it's equal across the board, whether that's me or whether that's
you, it's the same for all believers, first Peter chapter two, verse nine, first Peter
chapter two, verse nine says, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a royal
priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him
who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, okay, and Revelation chapter
one, verse six says, and have made us kings and priests, okay, and have made us kings
and priests unto God and his Father to be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen,
so the Bible's very clear, not only are we saved, but we're a priest, we have the priesthood
of the believers, there's no intermediate, right, between us and God, we can go directly
to God, right, meaning that you're responsible for yourself, you have to answer to God directly
for yourself, you know, when God judges you by the works, it's not an excuse to say, well,
you know, the pastor said this, well I heard this, no, you're responsible for what you
believe, you're responsible for what you practice, because there's no intermediary between you
and God, the priesthood of the believer, individual soul of the believer, that means you're free
to disagree with what I preach, okay, you're free to disagree with what I preach, of course
if you disagree on salvation, then get out of here, all right, but hallmark number nine,
practice separation, these churches practice separation, okay, that's separation from
denominational ties, okay, not being lumped into one denomination, we have some pope or
some president as your head, you know, we separate from that, we're independent churches,
okay, but that's not the only separation, you can separate from churches that teach
conflicting positions on primary doctrines, okay, now if we one day fellowship with a
church, but we find that they're teaching heresy on primary doctrines, right, things
that matter like on salvation, on the deity of Christ, I start preaching some other heresy
like that, we ought to separate ourselves from those churches, okay, we need to make
sure that the doctrine in this church remains as pure, as humanely possible at least, you
know, with the power of God, so Romans chapter 16 verse 17, Romans chapter 16 verse 17 says,
now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause division and offenses contrary to the
doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them, okay, so that's a Bible doctrine, to mark
and avoid people that cause division and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned,
okay, now some people misapply this, some people misapply and they say, well, you know,
I'm marking people that are contrary to the things that were taught in church, no, it's
contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, where do we learn our doctrine, from the pastor?
No, it's from the book, okay, it's from the book, so the separation ought to come from
the Bible, if they're teaching heresy, we ought to separate ourselves, mark and avoid
preachers that preach heresy, okay, but also, we ought to also separate ourselves from believers
that are in serious sin, believers that are in serious sin, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse
11, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 11, I'll get you to turn there, 1 Corinthians chapter
5, I'll get you to turn there, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 11, says, but now ye have
written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother, okay, so this
is a believer, someone that's been in the church faithfully for a long time, someone
that's mature, that we say, hey, that's a brother in Christ, if they be a fornicator
or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner, six things I
counted there, with such and one know not to eat, okay, so if there are believers in
this church that are doing these gross sins, right, these are things that you might think,
oh, they're not that serious, but in God's eyes they're serious, in God's eyes they
hurt a church and if there's believers like this, it's my job to kick them out, okay,
it's my job to kick them out, now I'll be kind as possible, I'll bring up that thing
to their attention and see, you know, whether they can be repentant and turn from those
things and then they'll be accepted in the church, but if they're not repentant, they
continue in the same sins, hey, we need to separate from those believers, why, because
we hate them, no, just so they can get right, so they can be disciplined, right, and realize,
hey, I'm doing wrong and they need to get themselves right with the Lord, so we practice
separation, that's point number nine, and the tenth hallmark of a Baptist church is
the separation of church and state, the separation of church and state, what that means is that
the government is a separate institution to the church, okay, the government is a separate
institution from the church, okay, we don't want to cause our government, we don't want
to control the government as a church, right, we don't want to cause the government to
force people to choose Christianity, and that's a problem in the past with the Roman Catholic
Church, they had authority over kings and they would kill believers, they'd kill people
that were trying to translate the word of God into the common tongue, right, but it's
not just the Roman Catholic Church that made this error, it was Protestants, certain Protestants
took power in government, and again, they persecuted and killed Baptists, Protestants
in the past killed Baptists, right, that's the problem when you mix these institutions
which don't belong together, churches are not to have authority in government, okay,
number one, I mean, why would you want to force people into Christianity anyway, you're
going to get false converts, and salvation is a personal choice, people have the free
will whether to accept or reject Jesus Christ, okay, so government should not be run by a
church, but a government should uphold the laws of God, so it's still right for us
to preach the laws of God and expect our government to uphold the laws of God, but it's not
the church's responsibility to become the government, right, that's where you get
into problems, so these are ten hallmarks of a Baptist Church, okay, not just baptism,
so these are other things that identify a Baptist Church, okay, now moving on to a bit
of history, okay, a bit of history, look, I'm not that big on church history, I don't
really spend a lot of time studying it, but I did obviously want to get a good feel of
the Baptist history, if I'm going to take that name, I'm going to take that label
for the church, I obviously want to know what that means historically as well, okay, now
just to give you some ideas, Acts 11 verse 26, if you can turn there, Acts 11 26, Acts
11 26, I'll give you a moment to turn there, Acts 11 26, Acts 11 26 says, and when he had
found them, sorry, and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch, and it came to
pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people, and
the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch, okay, and the disciples were called
Christians first in Antioch, I just want to show you that Christ did not call his disciples
Christians, okay, we're not called Christians because that's what God said we need to
call ourselves, okay, now these believers, they were called Christians later, once Christ
had resurrected, once the churches had spread out and started, the preaching of the word
of God was going out throughout the whole world, others called them Christians, prior
to this they were just called believers, they were just called disciples, they were just
called the church, some people called them the Nazarenes, some people called them the
Galileans, but this was the first time people started calling these believers, calling us,
believers like us, Christians, okay, so a lot of these labels come from other people,
not labels that came up within the church themselves, right, these are labels given
by other people, they were called Christians first in Antioch.
Now these Christians, the first and second centuries, they were known as Christians,
so a bit of history, then they were persecuted, they went out throughout the world, they were
being murdered, they were being, you know, killed by the Roman, by the Roman Caesars
and you know, they were, you know, you've heard the stories of the Colosseums, they
were killed by lions and just different ways of torturing these Christians, then in the
third and fourth centuries as they went out throughout Europe, many of them were known
as Montanists and other groups that had spread in other areas were called Novations, Novations
and Montanists in the third and fourth centuries, approximately, okay, and then in the fifth
and sixth centuries, they were known as Donatists and Anabaptists, okay, Anabaptists, this is
the first time that label Baptist really starts to pop up in history, and by Anabaptists,
the reason they were called Anabaptists is because they were known as Re-baptizers because
of course the Roman Catholic Church were baptizing babies, the Orthodox Church were baptizing
babies and these believers would come along and say, well no, that's an invalid baptism,
you know, you need to be baptized by immersion, you need to be a believer first and then be
baptized, and so they were called by others the Anabaptists, the Re-baptizers, right,
and throughout this time, many of these Anabaptists were killed, some of them were drowned, they
were like, well if you want to be baptized by immersion, you know, they were drowned
in water because that's, you know, the Anabaptists, that's what they want to do, and you know,
Christians throughout this time period were persecuted, not just by the Roman Catholic
Church but also by Protestants, okay, and then in the seventh to the twelfth centuries,
they were known as Paulicians, right, because they were teaching from the New Testament
and much of the New Testament was written by Paul, the term Anabaptists continued, then
the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, they were known as the Albigenzis, the Waldenzas,
I think the Waldenzas were in Germany from memory, and again, the name Anabaptists remained
till that time, and then in the sixth century, that's where Baptists, the name Baptists really
started to take root, okay, they dropped that word Anna and they were called just the Baptists,
the sixth century till today, okay, so the thought is that throughout church history,
there were always believers like us, there were always churches that were independent,
there were always churches that believed salvation by faith alone, there were always churches that
believed baptism by immersion as a sign of what you had believed, and you know, the idea is that,
you know, to this day Baptists, that's what Baptists is supposed to represent, Baptists
are not Protestants, Baptists are not Protestants, the Protestant movement started also in the
sixteenth century and they were churches that protested against Roman Catholicism,
churches that protested against Roman Catholicism, so like, you know, the Presbyterians,
the Methodists, you know, churches like that, they're Protestants, okay, so Baptists are not
Protestants, but often in these days Baptists will be lumped in as Protestants by many people,
okay, but I just want you to know, it did not follow that line, it did not follow the lineage
of the Protestant movement, they were always independent churches, which is why we remain
independent today, okay, now, the name of a church, the name of a church, most Baptist churches are
named something Baptist Church, okay, now a lot of the first Baptist churches in Australia, you know,
they took on the name of the suburb or the city they lived in, so they might be like the Baptist
Union Church that I grew up in was Cabramatta Baptist Church, because the suburb was Cabramatta,
a lot of the Union churches are named by the suburb and then many of the independent Baptists,
they came out of the southern Baptists in the United States, they start to separate because
of, you know, being relaxed on the Bible, being very liberal in their teachings, not taking the
Bible seriously, the independent Baptist churches are often named by some type of word in the Bible,
like Faith Baptist Church or Victory Baptist Church or something like that, you know, for a
while I thought of Blessed Assurance Baptist Church for the name of this church, Blessed
Assurance, because, you know, people are so confused about eternal security and that's
something I wanted to reinforce, but, you know, there are, you know, we're called the Church in
Caloundra and that might sound like really new and unique, but really it's not, you know, there are
independent Baptist churches in Australia that don't have the name Baptist in it already, you
know, I looked them up, you know, you might have such-and-such Bible Church, instead of Baptist
Church there's such-and-such Bible Church or such-and-such community church or such-and-such
people's church or such-and-such fellowship, even in Adelaide, I don't know if you know this, but in
Adelaide there's an independent Baptist Church called Church for You, like literally church and
then the number four and then the letter U, Church for You, it's very radical in the way they name
their church, but the reason why I went with the Church in Caloundra and not such-and-such Baptist
Church, number one, obviously I was sent by the Church in Punchbowl, okay, well maybe that's not
number one reason, but that's one of the reasons, okay, and when I heard about it I liked it, I love
the fact that, hey, you know, the churches in the New Testament are known like that, you know, that's
the naming convention, I'm not saying that was their registered government name or their charity
name, right, but that's what they were labeled, that's what they were known as, you know, let me
give you some examples, you know, obviously the seven churches in Revelation, right, the Church
in Ephesus, the Church in Smyrna, the Church in Pegamos, the Church in Thyatira, the Church in
Sardis, the Church in Philadelphia, the Church of the Laodiceans, okay, the seven churches in the
Book of Revelation, but also throughout your Bible you're going to find other ones, the Church which
is in Jerusalem, the Church which was at Antioch, the Church of the Thessalonians, the Church
of the Cretans, the Church at Centria, just some other labels, names that you'll see in the Bible,
okay, some other interesting things, Israel in the Old Testament, what were they called in the New
Testament, the Church in the Wilderness, right, the Church in the Wilderness, and the future
Church to come, believers when they gathered up in heaven, the Bible refers to that as the Church
of the Firstborn, Church of the Firstborn, so I like the idea, hey, you know what, yes, we're a
Baptist Church, you know, and yes, I do, in a way, honor the history, alright, and, you know,
somewhat the tradition of the Baptist, you know, not all tradition is bad as long as it's not wrong
and sinful or anti-biblical, right, I do honor the past, right, but more importantly than looking at
the history, I wanted to look at the New Testament and say, hey, we want to be a church that's
patterned after the New Testament churches, and I love the idea of having the Church in Caloundra,
because that just puts our focus back on the New Testament Church, okay, because I'll tell you
what, there are people out there, there are people out there that are so Baptist, I think they're
more Baptist than their believers, right, they're so taken with the history, taken with past Baptist
preachers, you know, instead of, you know, they might get behind a pulpit, instead of preaching
the Bible, they'll preach comments from their favorite Baptist preacher in the past and stories
of their famous Baptists, they're just like the Protestants, the Protestants love to go back to
their John Calvins and back to their, you know, I don't know, John Loxers and their, who's the guy
that hammered the thesis on the Luther, they love to go back to their, you know, Luther, in fact,
just, you know, when I was with Michael, we went, so I mentioned this pastor that we, you know,
that we preached to, and Michael asked the question, do you believe in eternal security,
do you believe that we can never lose our salvation, and you know what his response was,
he didn't go back to the Bible, he said, well Wesley believed in once saved always saved,
but Calvin believed in eternal security, or something, I don't know if I mixed them up,
something like that, I'm like, what, is that how you base your doctrine, is that, you know,
going back to these men of old, but you know, independent Baptists do the same thing, they
love to go back to their Spurgeons, the Charles Spurgeons, or their, I don't know, even good men,
like John R. Rice, is it John Rice, I can't remember, and the Jack Hyles, they love to go
back, what these men said, and what they preached, right, hey, okay, you know, they might have done
good works, but they're gone now, it's up to you now, you need to get back into the Bible,
and preach, and try to better than them, you know, try to be better, try to do more for the
Lord than what these people did in the past, so, you know, I wanted to move away from that idea,
you know, I didn't want to be like the Protestants, going back and holding these traditions,
you know, and, you know, if the word of God is contrary to those traditions, then fine,
you know, we'll go with the word of God, that was important for me.
And you know, one thing that surprises me, Matthew gave us his testimony on Sunday,
I thought all Baptists baptised by immersion, but his testimony said he went to a Baptist church,
and he was sprinkled as a baby, is that right? I mean, I didn't even know Baptists did that, so
the label Baptist just seems to be losing its, you know, losing its importance anyway, but I do
believe, you know, we do stand for what traditional baptism stood for, why? Because
it's biblical, the biblical practice of baptism. So yeah, we're the church in Caloundra,
now that's pretty much all I had for you guys today, we are a Baptist church, okay,
we're an independent church, we're a fundamental church, we're a Baptist church, we're not an
independent fundamental Baptist denomination, okay, I didn't just take those words for no reason,
they mean something to me, they mean something to me. When I first wanted to get serious in the
Lord, when I wanted to find a church that I could learn from and grow from, I wanted to find a
church, I wanted to find churches that were teaching the Bible, I wanted to find churches
that were teaching without compromise, that stood on the truth of the word of God, and in my journey
I actually did not want to attend a Baptist church, why? Because I grew up in a Baptist
union church and I knew they were watered down, I knew they were teaching just stuff that didn't
help you grow spiritually, right, and I thought they were all the same, so I thought I didn't want
to be part of a Baptist church when I got serious, okay, in the Bible, but in my research it led me
to the independent fundamental Baptists, okay, I believe that movement of churches is the closest
that you're going to get in the scriptures. Again, no church is perfect, okay, there's no such
thing as a perfect preacher, there's no such thing as a perfect church, but I do believe this movement
of churches are the closest that you're going to find that pattern themselves after the New
Testament churches. So we're an independent fundamental Baptist church, let's pray.