All right, well welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church. If you guys want to go ahead and take your hymnals
We're gonna turn to page number
416
It's page number
416 as a volunteer
Hey, man, all right, if you want to take your hymnals, we're gonna turn to page number three hundred and forty-three
Page number three hundred and forty-three
the week here is Romans 8 28 which reads and we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his
purpose. All right so of course our service times are Sunday morning at 10
30 a.m. Sunday evening at 3 30 p.m. then we have a Wednesday evening Bible study
at 6 30 p.m.
We have our two soul winning times Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
And then Sunday morning or excuse me Saturday morning at 10 30 a.m.
Typically we have church at 10 30 on Sunday morning, so
But let's see here. So we have our praise report salvations for July were seven
Salvation for August have been six and then year-to-date have been 65. So praise God for that
And then of course we have our attendances down there at the bottom.
And then we have our upcoming events.
So today we're going to be having our song leading class.
So any of the men are welcome to partake in the song leading class.
Just in case on the off chance that the song leader gets sick or something and sounds horrible,
we could have somebody to replace him.
Yeah, if you're a dude and you want to do the song clean class then you should do it and there's a I
Mean it's basically it's mandatory for some people, you know, it's actually mandatory for the one guy that's not here
That was supposed to be here, but anyways, we're gonna we're gonna we'll get him one way or another so alright
So August 23rd is gonna be miss Victoria's baby shower and that's gonna be at 1 p.m
And where is that going to be located?
At the church.
OK, I was thinking about telling everybody
it was going to be at your house.
But I thought maybe it would be better if I found out first
where it was going to be.
So it's going to be here at the church.
So yeah, 1 PM next Saturday.
And let Ms. Kiley know that you're going to be there
so that planning can be done.
Let's see here, so August 30th was going to be the Cheney Soul Winning.
So see, Brother Ryan for details on that.
One of the details is it will be in Cheney, I'm assuming.
And I think it's going to be at 11 o'clock, Cheney Soul Winning time.
And then August 31st is going to be the men's preaching night, so that's coming up here
and how many how many people do we have for that so we've got Ryan we've got
Jake we've got Alejandro and I think we have Paul and me if that's so that's
five so that's a good amount that's I think that's the most we've ever had
for men's preaching night so it's good all right and then of course we have our
kids memory verse if any child can recite proverbs 20 verse 11 to miss
who is not here making it virtually impossible they will receive candy so no
candy for any kids today sorry about that let's see here so those are all of
our upcoming events and we of course have our prayer requests and if anybody
Hey, man. All right. So we have our preaching schedule on the bulletin. Of course, there's
Changes pretty much Paul and Jason are going to be swapped since Paul decided to be sick today
And let's see here. Also. We have our August birthdays
We had Larissa on the second
Amanda on the 13th
Which was Wednesday
Was Larissa here on or excuse me was Amanda here on Wednesday. Yes, did we sing her happy birthday?
We sang it Sunday. Oh, okay. All right. Well
All right. Well, she gets away with this one. I guess all right, and then we have winter's birthday was
yesterday
The 15th was yesterday the 15th. No, what was yesterday?
Oh, so today is Shanika's birthday.
Yesterday.
Yesterday was Saturday.
So today's the 17th?
Yes.
Okay.
All right.
Well, yesterday was Shanika's birthday.
Friday was also...
Daniel's birthday, so Friday was Winter and Daniel's birthday yesterday
Shanika's birthday and on the 25th is James's birthday but we're definitely
gonna sing happy birthday to Shanika right now so all right we're gonna sing
happy birthday to Shanika on the first
is going to be a great year all right let's see here so we have our
anniversaries all listed out there you can see them all for August and then we
have our all the different rules that we have for all the children and the adults
you can read about we have money matters at the bottom and at this time we are
going to have a song
So if you want to go ahead and take your Bibles, we're going to turn to Psalm number 126.
Psalm number 126, when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion.
Correction we're actually going to sing Psalm 67 take your Bibles turn to Psalm
number 67
that's Psalm number 67
Thank you so much. Everybody that you brought today, I just pray that you would be able to sit right now and come to them and help them heal up.
And I just pray that you would be with the rest of the service.
Sure Foundation Baptist Church, if you could go ahead and take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews
chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13, and here at Sure Foundation Baptist Church, we read the entire
chapter before the preaching. Hebrews chapter 13, the Bible reads,
Let brotherly love continue.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers,
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them,
and them which suffer adversity
as being yourselves also in the body.
Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled,
but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as he have,
for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say,
the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Remember them, which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God,
Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever.
Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines,
for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,
not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp.
Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the
fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
But to do good, and to communicate, forget not.
For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased."
Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your
souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief,
for that is unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience
and all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather to do this, that
Now, the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd
of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing
in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory, for ever and ever, amen.
And I beseech you brethren, suffer the word of exhortation, for I have written a letter unto you in few words.
No ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you.
Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints, they of Italy salute you.
Grace be with you all. Amen.
Brother Jake, could you please pray for the preaching?
Amen. You guys are there in Hebrews chapter number 13.
We're going to look at verse number 17 where the Bible says,
Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves
for they watch for your souls as they that must give account.
that they may do it with joy and not with grief,
for that is unprofitable for you.
The title of my sermon this morning
is Why We Are Independent.
Let's pray.
Dear for the God, thank you so much for this wonderful day.
Thank you so much for everything you do for us, God.
Thank you so much again for everywhere
that came to church this morning, God.
I just pray that you would...
Be with the people again that are sick and that couldn't make it, God.
And I just pray that you would be with their prayer requests that we prayed over God.
And I just pray that you'd hear our requests and you'd answer them according to your will.
I pray that right now, God, you would fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me to preach
words that would be edifying God, and it would help people to have a better understanding
of our church and our beliefs after this sermon.
Just now pray.
Amen.
I'll tell you my sermon again, like I said, is why we are independent.
We're here in Hebrews chapter 13.
This morning I'm going to preach a sermon that's going to be a little bit shorter just
because we have the song leading class afterwards.
So this might be a little bit shorter than my typical sermon, which I'm sure you guys
are all heartbroken about because my sermon on Wednesday was just super short as well.
But I'll try to preach it probably like between 30 and 40 minutes for you guys.
Everybody that's a man is invited to the class and if you come to the class again
Just because you come to class that does not mean we're gonna throw you up here and make you a song leader
Okay full-time you might
go to the class and never song lead behind this pulpit if you don't want to, okay?
But it is a good skill to have and it's good especially like I thought about this like
if you're going over to other churches to visit them it's a really good skill to have as well
so you could be like a help to them because I was thinking about like when I was going to Yakima
the church plant that we have there to preach one of the times they didn't have a song leader
So I had to fill in for him for the service.
And here's the thing, because I was the preacher for that night,
they just kind of mandatory were like,
okay, well, you're the song leader now as well.
So it's a good thing that I had that skill of being able to song lead.
And really for anybody, if you want to be a pastor or any kind of leader in church,
those are some skills you're just going to have to learn in the first place
because you are probably going to be throwing that role from time to time.
but we're here in Hebrews chapter number 13 verse number 17 is what we're
gonna focus on. I picked a sermon topic because it's kind of easier to get to go
over and it's I don't have to dig into it as much.
But when I say, because I said the title of my sermon is why we're independent,
when I say that we're independent, what do I mean? Because at Church Foundation Baptist Church,
we're an independent fundamental Baptist Church. And I could probably preach a whole sermon on
the different letters that's independent fundamental Baptist Church. But for right now,
I'm just going to focus on that first part, independent. And what does it mean to be independent?
When we say that we're an independent Baptist Church, it means that we're independent of like a pope,
or a council or a confession or some kind of convention as a church.
We're not like bound by any of those things.
They don't tell us what we need to believe about the Bible.
At this church, the authority that we have is our ordained pastor,
our elder of this church, which is Pastor Aaron Thompson.
And above him, as far as authority goes, we have the Bible.
And that's pretty much the chain of command. That's it.
And so when you kind of think about this and how we set this up.
There's a lot of good like reasons why we do it this way
But you're gonna draw a parallel between like the president and the Constitution and a pastor and the Bible
When it comes to the authority that they have in the church because just like the president who rules over America per se
But is you know always
under the Constitution, like he's within the bounds of the Constitution, like he
can't step outside of that authority. The pastor's the same way of a church, like
the pastor runs the church but he cannot step outside of the bounds of the Bible.
And so that's kind of like the highest power that we have. So if some pastor,
even if he is ordained, comes up here and says something crazy like, hey, we need
to like sacrifice some kids to the Sun God or something crazy like that. It's
like, you don't have to be like, oh man, he's the pastor. We got to listen to him.
Like, no, he doesn't supersede the Bible though, yeah?
So we go with what the Bible says above all,
but the pastor rules within those bounds at this church.
And just a couple things around this topic.
Go if you would to Acts 21 verse eight, Acts 21 verse number eight.
I just kind of wanted to address some things
that are kind of adjacent to this,
even though it doesn't go with the whole kind of idea
at the sermon.
Last week on Wednesday, we talked about what a deacon is.
Because we have a pastor that's ordained to be the head of our church
And that's the only position of authority that we have outside of deacons and evangelists
And I talked about that on Wednesday like I said a deacon is basically someone that's ordained at a church that can baptize and
That he helps assist with a local church is what a deacon does and then the second position
We have is an evangelist which is someone who's also ordained and they can baptize people and a lot of times
like leading a congregation in hopes that a pastor would come or they're acting
like a missionary basically and going out into the world and they still have
the authority to baptize under the authority of a local church so they're
not just like going out there with nobody to be accountable to
And so at this church too, because I kind of thought it was funny as I was writing this sermon because I thought about like why we're independent.
But technically right now we are a church plant, okay?
And obviously we're attached to an independent Baptist church, but I'm not the pastor of this church.
Our pastor is, like I said earlier, is Pastor Aaron Thompson.
We are a church plant, which means that we're an extension of the church that is in Vancouver.
And right now we're basically...
waiting until because I'm in charge of the church right now the onsite leader
for the church plant that I until I would get the qualifications for either
being an evangelist or being a pastor and so
As long as I don't drop the ball on that, we should be good to go, okay?
But I wouldn't, I'm not even gonna say anything dumb.
Go ahead, you guys, where you guys are at?
And Acts 20, 28?
Where'd I have you guys go?
Acts 21, verse number eight.
I didn't put this in my notes.
Let me get there.
I was about to say something smart and then I was like, let's not do that, okay?
It's too early for that.
Acts 21, verse number eight.
Brother Jason, could you give me a cup of water, by the way?
I would appreciate that.
Acts 21, verse number eight.
Because something I heard recently, someone say,
was that there is no such thing as the position
of an evangelist in the Bible, which I think is really weird,
because we're there in Acts 21, verse number eight.
Look what it says right here.
It says, in the next day, we that were a Paul's company
departed and came unto Caesarea, and we entered
into the house of Philip the evangelist, which
was one of the seven, and abode with him.
So if there's no such thing as an evangelist according to the Bible someone was like that's just a made-up position
Why is the Bible calling Philip Philip the evangelist right doesn't make any sense
So we do believe in the positions of being ordained as an evangelist and being ordained as a deacon
And then obviously we have our pastor that is our elder that is ordained as well
And you guys I had to go is go back to
Go to go to first Peter 120 is actually where I'll have you guys go
Here's something that's interesting.
We read in that verse earlier about Hebrews obey them
that have the rule over you.
And I think we'll take this verse to say
that like a church needs to have like a multiple,
like plurality of elders basically, or it's not legit.
I just don't believe this from the Bible though.
I do think though that, you know,
it is a, it's a nothing wrong with having multiple elders
or having multiple ordained deacons or evangelists
at a church, but.
someone saying it's a requirement just doesn't make sense to me from what we see in the Bible.
Because if you even just think about this kind of like logically for a second,
like if we were talking about like on last Wednesday with a Priscilla and Aquila,
that they had a church that was in their house. So if you're having a church that's in someone's
Probably not that big, right? We're talking about like 20 people maybe and who knows how big their house was back then now
Nowadays we got bigger houses. Okay, so like why would you have like a church of like 20 people or like 25 people?
And then have like multiple elders running that church doesn't make any sense, right? That's really weird
But I only bring that up because when me and Kylie were in Lake Tahoe
We had these soul winners come up to us that were Calvinists. That's the ones I was telling you about from a story from a while back
But they came up to us and they were telling us all their beliefs.
They actually had the right gospel, at least as far as they had preached it to me.
So that was good at the very least.
But when I was telling them about my church, he was like,
oh, so you don't have like multiple people writing the church?
He's like, that's just way dangerous.
Because what if like the one pastor at the church goes bad?
I'm like, well, what if the plurality of the elders at your church goes bad?
Okay, like what does that even mean?
But anyway, he's a Calvinist anyway, so I'm like, he would have been preordained to go back from the foundation of the world anyway.
So what are you concerned about?
But yeah, I was all kind of side stuff a little bit.
I just kind of wanted to get some of that stuff just because it's a good time to talk about those definitions.
Port number one of this sermon though,
and again, the title is Why We're Independent.
Number one of this sermon is that the scripture
isn't given of private interpretation.
You guys are there in 1 Peter 120.
The Bible says this,
knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation.
The Bible is basically telling us right here
that if someone comes in and is like,
oh, you have to have my specific interpretation
of the Bible to be accurate.
that they're a liar because there is no private interpretation of the scripture
even though people will act like this nowadays because nowadays people kind of
change this up they don't do it the same way what they do is this as they'll say
they'll say you actually have to understand Greek and Hebrew
to understand what the Bible is saying and guess who happens to know
Greek and Hebrew
Me, right? The person who was talking to you, right?
Even though they don't actually know.
This blows me away and this has been ticking me off more as I've been like learning Greek.
That the people have the audacity to come up behind the pulpit and like tell you like
the King James actually translated this verse wrong right here.
It should be this because of this Greek word when they don't even speak any Greek at all.
That's embarrassing, okay?
Like the audacity that people have,
and they just bank on the fact that you don't know Greek.
And it's like, these people don't speak modern Greek,
let alone coin Greek, let alone Homeric Greek,
let alone any Greek at all.
It's like, what business do they have
in telling you what the Bible says
in the original language
if they don't even speak the original language?
It's ridiculous.
And what that is nowadays is someone trying to
have their own private interpretations on the Bible
that you can't answer against
because you don't know that language, okay?
You guys are there, go to Matthew 24, verse number 23, really quick, Matthew 24, verse number 23.
The Bible's very clear though that we don't need some man to teach us what the Bible says.
If you're a saved Christian, if you have the Holy Spirit in your heart, then you can interpret the Bible for yourself.
and so then there's no need for there to be an overarching person to tell you what the Bible
means. And obviously that could be a benefit to you as a Christian, but what I'm saying is that
like people like the Catholic Church or the Orthodox Church will actually say that if you
don't go to their institution specifically, you can't really know the deep secrets of the Bible.
Nonsense though. That doesn't line up with what the Bible actually says when you look at it, okay?
And this is funny too, because I had you guys turn into Matthew 24, verse number 23,
is that people, this kind of goes back to that Greek stuff I was saying,
people will say like, the King James is just way, way too hard to understand, okay?
It's like old English, basically.
They're like, so what you really need to do is go back to the coin Greek to understand what the Bible says.
What? That's so bizarre to me. It's like, here's the thing too, when I was in elementary school,
my dad was having me read the King James Bible. Like, I'm bringing that up because in my elementary
school, they basically had like a reading project where you had to go home and read for 20 minutes
and had your parents sign off on it. And my dad was like, hey, well, if he's gonna have to read
for 20 minutes, I'll have him read the Bible.
And he had me read the King James Bible, and he kind of picked the stories in the Bible that he kind of wanted me to read in.
So it was kind of entertaining more so.
He's not just like having me trudge through Leviticus or anything like that.
It's like usually like Noah's Ark, you know, the story about Moses and all that kind of stuff.
But even in elementary school, I was reading through the Bible fine, okay?
And the reason why is because I was saved when I was six years old.
So I had the Holy Spirit in my heart, which meant that I could understand what the Bible was saying.
And a lot of these people that will tell us like,
oh, I just can't read the King James
because of the these and the thou's, they throw me.
It's like, what it makes me really think
is that they probably just aren't saved, okay?
Like if you can like just look at,
like this is not that hard to understand.
If I'm reading this in elementary school,
a grown man has no excuse why they can't read this.
The these and the thou's just throw me.
I better go back to the Greek, then.
It's like, this is nonsense, OK?
But it's like, this is what you've
got to remember for the these and the those.
It's, thy before thee, except after thine, OK?
No.
But I think it was Josh told me that he was telling one of his co-workers that he was King James only and he was making fun of
No.
He gave that to him. He's like always remember Josh die before the accept after die
Which I was like, that's a pretty that's pretty funny. Okay, too funny to pass up on
But where are we at? Oh, you guys are going to Matthew 24 verse 23
The main point that I want you to understand from this verse, though, is that, again, if someone
comes to you and tells you that you need their specific interpretation to understand the Bible,
that person is a liar, that person is a charlatan, because no prophecy in the Scripture is of any
private interpretation is what it says clear as day. And like, I just want you to understand this
So hard to get people not to fall for cults and they still do and I don't about like Christianity based cults like the Bible's like
No prophecy of the scriptures of private interpretation. Then when you guys are right here
It says then if then if any man shall say into you low here is Christ or there believe it not
It's like if anybody tells you
that they are Christ on this earth.
The Bible's saying right here, they are a liar, right?
Because when the Son of Man comes,
the Bible teaches it's gonna be obvious.
It's gonna be like lightning that flashes across the sky.
It's not just gonna be like Jesus randomly shows up
in like Waco, Texas.
He's like, hey, what's up guys?
It's like, we're gonna know when Jesus Christ comes back.
It's not gonna just be like some kind of hidden thing.
But the Bible's saying there's no pride interpretation.
Don't believe anybody if they tell you that they're Jesus Christ that's come to the the earth early like secretly, okay?
And then what do people still do? They're like
I found Jesus Christ out in Waco, Texas.
And his name is David Koresh, isn't that crazy?
It's like, that is crazy.
And you're crazy for believing that.
And it's like, some of these people like,
I look at some of these things and I feel bad
for some of the kids that get wrapped up in that
because their parents are too dumb
to look at what the Bible actually says.
But you have no excuse for following
for that kind of nonsense.
In reality, like, come on.
Like, how much clearer could the Bible be?
And people, there's people still to this day
that believe that David Koresh was Jesus Christ.
unbelievable, unbelievable nonsense. Go to 1st John 227, 1st John 227, 1st John 227.
This is what we also should pull from this verse is this, is that if you come to the Bible and you find some kind of like just super
Crazy thing that nobody's ever taught before it's probably not a true doctrine in the first place
Okay, it's probably a false doctrine like and I'm not about because there's some doctrines that some people believe less than others
Like there's like more popular doctrines and less popular doctrines
But I'm saying like if you come to a passage of scripture and you have a teaching that nobody has ever heard of throughout all of history
You're probably wrong there again because again, there's no private interpretation when it comes to the Bible
What does all this have to do with being an independent though? Here's what it has to do with it
Here's the law to train for all of this.
This is that if we don't need a guru to teach us the Bible,
because people that are saved have the Holy Spirit
so we can interpret it,
and the Bible is the highest authority that's in our life,
then why would we appeal to some council,
to some convention, to some pope,
to some, you know, anything like that?
when we can just go to the Bible itself for all of our information.
You guys are there in 1 John 227, like when I have a question about the Bible,
I don't want it to be like, well, what does the confession of 1689 say?
Or like, what did the Southern Baptist Convention have to say about this passage of scripture?
Or like, and I sure as heck don't want to say this, what did the Pope have to say about this extra scripture?
Okay? It's like, this is what I want to say.
What does the Bible say about this issue?
That's what's important at the end of the day.
Look what the Bible says in 1 John 2, 27.
It says,
The Bible is saying here that we don't have any need that a man should teach us
All it takes is being saved and having the Holy Spirit in your heart to understand what the Bible is teaching
and again
I can show you in Corinthians how it's like
that we understand that the Bible is a spiritual book,
so it takes the Holy Spirit to understand
what the Bible is teaching.
And obviously an unsaved person can read the Bible
and get like surface level stuff,
but past the surface level stuff,
all the spiritual teachings they're never gonna get.
This is why like atheists like really fumble
on like the Old Testament like laws and stuff like that.
They're just like Christians are so hypocritical.
The Bible said not to eat pork in the Old Testament
and why do you eat pork nowadays?
It's because if you had the Holy Spirit inside you and you looked at the book of Hebrews,
you'd see this, that that's done away with in the New Testament.
All those pictures are fulfilled now in the New Testament.
And when it comes to kind of this, because we're talking about just like kind of basic
reasoning, like the Holy Spirit is going to out, you know, weigh any other thing on this
earth.
Like the Holy Spirit is more important for you in terms of the Bible than a confession,
than a pope, than a kind of convention or anything like that.
Why would I go to a secondhand source for information
when I can go to the primary source for information,
which is the Bible?
Does it just make sense logically in history too?
If you're trying to actually do a deep dive
on something in history,
you're not just gonna go read secondhand sources.
You're gonna go to the original sources.
Obviously, secondhand sources could be available in a pinch
if you're just trying to teach a thing real quick.
But if you're a professor of something,
if you're teaching a big old presentation,
you're not just gonna be like,
well, so and so said this.
quote, whoever you're talking about,
or whatever subject it is that you're talking about.
So when it comes to the Bible,
which is the most important thing
that we have on this earth,
why would we not do the same thing?
Why am I gonna go to the Baptist Convention of 1689,
or the Southern Baptist Convention's decrees
of whatever they have when I could just go
to what the Bible says for my doctrine?
I'm gonna go to the primary source every single time.
And again, that's not to say that we can't get help
from people, but here's what it seems like it happens,
what ends up happening with that kind of stuff,
And then just changing the confessions or changing, you know, some of the, uh, uh, like
convention rules or anything like that, people try to twist the Bible to match those.
But it should be the opposite.
You should be changing your confessions and your, you know, fancy councils and all this
to match the Bible instead.
Where you guys at?
Matthew 23, verse number one is where you guys are going.
Here's the thing as well that I put in my notes
that it's just like so true,
like with something as important as religion as well,
like we're talking about like serving God almighty properly.
Why would you trust someone else to tell you how to do that?
You know what I mean?
Like this is the most important foundational,
fundamental thing that we're supposed to live
our entire lives by.
And you're just comfortable with being like,
Well, Bishop so and so said to do it this way.
So that's good enough for me.
It's like, no, I want to hear it from the word of God itself
if I'm going to change my life to conform to some kind of faith
or some kind of religion.
And that's how we operate this church,
because this is the thing about us as well.
I don't expect anybody to come and just believe me blindly
for anything that I say behind the pulpit.
We encourage people all the time to read their own Bibles
and to fact check what you're hearing from behind the pulpit.
You know why we do that though?
It's because we're not scared of you investigating us
because the truth doesn't fear investigation, right?
It's like, I want you, when I teach you something
from the Bible, if you think anything about it
and be like, hey, that doesn't sound right,
or maybe he's wrong about this,
hey, go and find it out for yourself
and go with what the Bible says, not just what I said, right?
anybody too that's behind the pulpit. Whether they're a pastor, whether they're a deacon,
whether they're an evangelist, whether they're just a layman that's coming behind the pulpit,
go and fact check and make sure that what they're saying actually lines up with what
the Bible says. And we say that because we're not trying to just manipulate people,
we want people to follow the Bible.
and that's why these wicked institutions like the Roman Catholic Church and like the Orthodox Church,
they don't want you to check the Word of God. And truly, I've been on one about the Catholics lately
and here's the reason why. It's because when I was making these flashcards that I have for the
one of these Greek verbs that I was doing, the word like impale or something like that. So I was
like, I'm trying to get like a picture to put on this flashcard so I could be like, okay, so I'm like
like a painting kind of a thing of it or whatever you know to kind of get it to
trigger in my mind or whatever I do that with all the flashcards that I have for
any word that I have but one of the things that popped up was a girl that
was impaled but the title on it caught my interest it was and it wasn't a real
picture obviously but the title on it caught my interest it was
the Roman Catholic Church impaling the Waldensian women.
And if you don't know who the Waldensians were,
they believe the same thing that we did about salvation.
They believe that it was by grace, through faith.
And this picture just really may be mad
because it just made me think like,
the Roman Catholic Church has always been persecuting
and attacking people that have the real gospel.
And people like claim like,
there's some like good thing about them.
It's like,
I found that one and I just clicked on the article and it was like this reformed guy just talking about all the people
Not not not even all the people I should say a short list of people that have been tortured to death by the Catholic Church
And it was like I was reading like a modern-day horror movie. It was insane. It was or a modern-day horror
But it was like it really was insane. It was like people like
getting their guts taken out, people getting their fingers smashed,
people going through all these kinds of torches, which I won't try to file you with, okay?
But they, now I'm trying, I told you guys about the trauma dump on Wednesday,
now that's what I'm doing, okay?
I'm sorry.
but it was just like a grotesque reading of this and this is just like a short period of history
that it was talking about all the people being tortured to death by the catholic church it's like
i guess their pope just miss where the bible says that god hates violence right i guess they miss
in the bible where it says you're supposed to love your neighbor as yourself and not to just
torture them that's just because they don't believe like you right i just don't remember
It's like, I see Jesus preaching the gospel and when they reject him, he moves on.
But where is Jesus just torturing people to death while they're still alive on this earth?
Where do they get that from?
The Catholic church gets that from the devil because that's where they're from as well.
And the same thing with the orthodox church.
Again, I'm on one about that, but it's because they've been ticking me off lately.
You guys are in Matthew 23, verse number one.
Is somebody trying to become a Catholic in here?
That's what I want to know.
You guys are in Matthew 23, verse number one.
We're independent because we don't wanna have to justify
a wicked institution like the Catholic church.
I think it's funny too that the way that they'll like
try to justify some of the things that they did in history.
Like with the crusades and stuff like that,
they were like, well, in the Bible,
it says that we're supposed to compel people.
to come to the feast and that's what they were doing.
It's like, I think torturing someone to death
is a little bit more than just compelling them.
Don't you think?
What in the world?
Matthew 23 verse number one the first point my sermon is why we're independent number one is because the scripture is not of any private
Interpretation we don't have any need that a man should teach us the Bible
You can pick up the Bible if you're saved if you're faith alone if you believe on Jesus Christ and read it and understand it for yourself
And you always should fact check what you're hearing behind the pulpit, especially if it sounds weird to you
Okay
Number two though is this is why we're independent is because systems are easily corrupted look at Matthew 23 verse number one
Matthew 23 verse number one it says then spake Jesus to the multitude and his
disciples saying the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat all therefore
whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do you not after
their works for they say and do not one of the biggest advantages that we have
being independent Baptist church an independent Baptist church is that if one
pastor
out of Baptist church falls and like is a wicked person or they're a wolf in sheep's clothing or
something like that or they just get really backslidden and they have to give up the church.
It only takes down that specific church. It doesn't take out like thousands and thousands of
I put on my notes because this was reminding me,
like this is a good safety net that we have
because there's people like Tyler Doka
that were claiming that they're actually Jesus Christ
in the flesh and he's running like a Baptist church.
It's like, I'm glad though that he's not some like head
of like a Catholic church or some Orthodox church
where he would just like.
corrupt so many people by being in that position, okay?
So being independent is a safety net that we have.
And there was a lot of weird stuff that he did.
I was talking about the Jason Professor.
I just thought it was funny.
He was talking about like how time is like
the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
He's like, time is like a roll of toilet paper.
It's like, what?
It's like, that's a weird analogy to start off with,
but he's like.
He's like, it's like the first Shelby last and the last Shelby first.
He's like, so when you put the first sheet of paper on a like a roll,
he's like, that's the last one that's used.
And then the first one is the last one or the last one is the first one.
It's like, what in the world?
Okay, that's the teachings of modern fake Jesus.
Okay, but then he also, what else did he did too?
Oh, he was about like revelation.
He's like saying it's all like body parts.
This, what was the, was it the emerald throne?
He's like, this is the pineal gland of the brain.
It's like just the religious delusions of grandeur.
But again, it's good that when you have some weirdo like that,
that he only takes out that one specific part
of that church, right?
Not just like every single Baptist in America.
It's a good safety net that we have.
Where we got, we guys are there in Matthew 23,
verse number three.
Oh, I see what's going on. Okay. Yeah. And so the thing is about the the Baptist churches that like obviously like I said
Someone can come in and corrupt it
But it's not gonna affect just thousands and thousands of people when somebody inevitably does pop up because they will pop up
And it's unfortunate that like the weirdos that pop up are the ones that like the world will take and post all over the news
And be like this is all Baptist churches, right?
It's like, that's just wicked to do anyways,
because even amongst Jesus' disciple,
you had Judas Iscariot who didn't believe anything
that Jesus was actually preaching,
but that one person doesn't represent Jesus' whole ministry.
Sometimes wolves just come into churches.
It's kind of important to realize that
just because a wolf does pop up,
it doesn't mean that everybody at that church
is a bad person or that the pastor
that would have someone under him
that would be like that as a bad person either.
The reason I have you guys here in Matthew 23 though is because I just want to show you like
how easily systems can be corrupted and the scribes and Pharisees are a good example
of that. Because Jesus is telling them that they sit in Moses's seat.
And I think that people kind of miss this sometimes,
like the scribes and Pharisees had authority
when they were here on this earth.
They're under the Roman government, obviously,
but the Roman government gave them power.
And Jesus obviously acknowledges their authority right here
because he says, what sort of they do
or tell you to do, you should observe it and actually do it.
And obviously in context, that's talking about like,
Them when they're talking about the law of Jesus Christ right or the law of God
Because if you think about it like even if you went to like a Catholic church or an Orthodox church or like whatever church
It is if they're reading the Bible you can still get something from that
You know what I mean?
So that's kind of what Jesus is saying right here that when they're teaching these things that they should follow them just because a scribe
And Pharisee is quoting the law of Moses doesn't mean that you just neglect it, right?
Same thing for just any non-denominational church, okay?
But the reason I'm bringing this up is because this system was easily corrupted by the time that Jesus Christ got on the scene
But the but I want you to just think about this for a second if we see
That the scribes and Pharisees system was corrupted when Jesus gets on the scene
Why would then God replicate that same system when it comes to the New Testament like this is what I mean by that like
What was the issue with the scribes and Pharisees? Why did they air so much?
What was the thing that caused them to cause so many other people to fall and themselves?
It was them adding commandments to the Bible, adding
traditions to the Bible was what caused the scribes and Pharisees to fall and why their teaching was so off of what the Bible actually taught.
So this is what you'd have to believe that after Jesus Christ came to this earth and saw
how corrupt the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees were
and the traditions of the elders were.
God was like three years later.
Yep, Peter on this rock, I'm gonna build my church.
And he's like, and I'm gonna give you all these secret
traditions that only you're gonna know to pass down.
Good luck with that right doesn't make sense like why if Jesus Christ sees that the traditions of men are so wicked and evil with
Describes and Pharisees that it causes that whole system to fail then why would he then?
Replicate that same system in the New Testament and be like yeah
We're just gonna pass down all these traditions that aren't actually in the word of God
And just do that same thing over and over again doesn't make sense right good for a good of Titus 1 5 Titus 1 verse number 5
And again, we're talking about like,
this is an apostolic succession.
That's what brother Jason was kind of talking about
in his sermon where they're like,
we don't have a Bible verse for this.
We just have the teachings of the church fathers.
Listen, I don't care about none of the traditions
of the church fathers.
I care about what the word of God says
at the end of the day, okay?
Because that's what damned the scribes and Pharisees
to hell was their teachings and their doctrines
and their commandments of men, right?
So then I'm not gonna just turn around
after seeing how much Jesus hates the commandments
and the traditions of men in the New Testament
Well, I'm just going to go with the traditions of the Catholic Church now.
It's like, doesn't make sense.
Um, so we see that systems are easily corrupted.
And so, and this is not the system that we see in the Bible either.
Like, what do we see in the Bible?
We see that there's elders being ordained in every city.
Look at it says in Titus 1, 5, it says,
For this cause, I'd let thee and creed that thou shalt set in order the things that are
wanting and ordain elders in
every city as I had appointed thee.
So we see that he's ordaining elders in every city.
And then also we see in the New Testament
that it's not just a church, it's church's plural, right?
So if that's the example that we see in the New Testament,
then why wouldn't we do that same example?
Why wouldn't we follow that?
Because just the traditions of Father Hippo
or whatever from whatever like...
2000 years ago, it's like, I do not care what Father Hippo says, okay?
And he's not a father, because the Bible says, call no man father, right?
So why are they calling them fathers?
Anyway, it's weird.
So point number one of this sermon, it was that the scripture isn't a private interpretation.
That's why we're independent.
Number two is that systems are easily corrupted.
And the thing about being an independent, like I said earlier, is that if one
independent church gets corrupted, it doesn't corrupt all the rest of them,
as long as they truly are independent, right?
But number three is this, is why we're independent.
This is my last point that I'll wrap up on,
is that men are just men at the end of the day.
That's why we're independent.
You guys are there in 1 Corinthians 11, verse number one,
or at least, did I have a camera in there?
Maybe I didn't.
1 Corinthians 11, verse number one,
go there if you would real quick.
Men are just men at the end of the day. We see this in 1 Corinthians 11 1
He says be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ now as a side of this
Sometimes people when they're being whlier now as they'll take this verse and be like I'm I don't follow any man
I just follow Jesus Christ. It's like well
Then you don't do what the Bible actually says right because the Bible says be followers of me even as I am also of Christ
so
All these little weird cute sayings that they have, I just think it's so weird, like if they were so actually holy as they think they are, they would know their Bible better to not say dumb stuff like that.
Like, why would you say, like, I'm not going to follow any man if you're actually so holy that you're reading the Bible and praying and fasting every day?
Like, okay, like you would portray, right?
It's weird.
Or like, I was watching this YouTube video one time where there was this girl and she was talking about, like,
Like submitting like husbands and wives and she was saying in the video
She was like I'm not gonna submit to any man on this earth because no man's perfect
The only person I'm gonna submit to is Jesus Christ and she's even said like there's a merry girl
And she was like I'm not gonna submit to my husband. I'm gonna submit to Jesus Christ instead. It's like
But if you were submitting to Jesus Christ,
then you would do what Jesus said.
What Jesus said was that wives should submit themselves to their husbands as unto the Lord.
So what is she yapping about?
Again, people just, they have all these little cutesy sayings,
but more important than cutesy sayings is what the Bible itself actually says.
Talking about that that's a side note though going back to the kind of main point here is here's the reality of things
It is good to follow a good spiritual man
There's nothing wrong with that according to the Bible as long as they are following Jesus Christ
But we, as humans, need to just realize, again,
like with the point is that men are men at the end of the day.
So you don't want to just follow a man off the cliff, OK?
Just because someone is good at one point in their life,
or just because they've done good things,
that doesn't mean that you just completely follow them
off the edge of the cliff.
Like, as soon as you see someone drifting.
From following the path of Jesus Christ, that's where you'd break off from following them as well, right?
And so this shouldn't be a surprise to us though, because we see this with every
single man in the Bible. Every single man in the Bible, outside of Jesus Christ, obviously, makes mistakes.
They have failures. They have shortcomings. And this makes sense because what does the Bible tell us for all the sin and comes from the glory of God, right?
Or for there's none righteous, no, not one.
Everybody fails at the end of the day. We all, even the most spiritual
the most godly, the best of the best.
When it comes to men, they'll let you down eventually
because they are just a man at the end of the day.
And I just think it's important to point this out
because for two reasons.
Number one is this, is that I've seen people's faith
be destroyed because they counted too much on a man.
Like they're just like obsessed with one guy.
And then like when he falls down,
it's just like their faith falls with them.
should not be the case. You should have your own independent walk with Jesus Christ, right?
Talk about being independent. You should, because you should have like a double protection there,
where you're independent as a church, but you should also be independent in the sense that
you're not just following a man into utter destruction, right? You should have your own
teachings and your own walk that you have.
And like I said, yeah, at the end of the day men are just men go to first Corinthians 2 verse number 5
That's the last verse. I'll have you turn to first Corinthians 2 verse number 5
It looks like it's actually gonna be a shorter sermon. I'm kind of surprised. Okay
Guys gonna done a good job
First Corinthians 2 verse number 5. Yeah, they're about men
Like even the best of the best will fail you because I was also bringing up earlier
You don't want to be like that girl in that analogy where it's like I'm not gonna follow anybody unless they're perfect
The other thing, you're never going to follow anybody then.
You can't even follow yourself if that's the case, because you're not even perfect, right?
You're just going to be like wandering around, okay?
But you don't need someone that's perfect, but you should have someone that's generally following Jesus Christ,
and that you see as following Jesus Christ.
But even the best of the best men in the Bible have their lows.
You think of someone like Peter is denying Jesus Christ three times,
multiple times he's getting rebuked by Jesus in the Bible for the stuff he's saying.
You have King Solomon, I mean, the wisest man on earth.
and he has like a thousand wives and it's like what are you doing dude like and and the thing is
it's like Solomon and this is what it is actually and I want to preach a sermon almost about this
is like men are just complex is what it is many women are both complex okay it's like
people like want to just summarize people and very like easily like was this person good or were
Most of the time it's somewhere in the middle, right?
It's like either like, you know,
more bad than you are good or more good than you are bad.
Very rarely though, is it just like someone's like 100% evil.
And then obviously it's never that someone's 100% good
because there's only one that's good and that's God, right?
People are just mixed, people are complex
and you can't just judge someone
on just like the one mistake that they make
or even multiple mistakes that they made.
Because if you did that,
then you would discount every single man that's in the Bible.
But you have someone like even a King David obviously great man a man after God's own heart
And then he's committing adultery and he's killing the wife or a killing a Uriah the Hittite to take his wife
It's just like a man after God's own heart. It's like what is that?
He's a man. He is just imperfect, right?
Even someone like Paul who's like leading the charge for salvation to the New Testament
It's like you see his errors that he makes too. It's like so many times in the book of Acts
The Holy Spirit is sending prophets to Paul and be like do not go to Jerusalem
Don't do it
He's like and then like he has like the problem that goes with me
He's like whoever brutal this is is gonna be bound and changed in Jerusalem and Paul is like
I'm going to Jerusalem. What are you doing, right?
Even as good as Paul was, he was a man at the other day as well, right?
And so, you just have to always remember that, like, because if you're aware that
even the best man can fall, and you're not putting your faith into men, you're putting your faith in God,
then when it does happen, it won't just shake your faith completely, right?
First Corinthians 2 verse number 5 what the Bible says it says that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men
But in the power of God just know men if you're counting on them
They will always eventually lead you down. They'll let you down excuse me
But God will never let us down and that's who we should put our faith in and so just kind of in closing for this sermon
Again, why are we independent? I probably would have gone into more points about this
Obviously weren't doing a little bit of a shorter sermon
But I think this suffices for right now.
Why are we independent?
Number one is because the Bible is not
of private interpretations.
You do not need someone to teach you the Bible.
Someone can teach you things out of the Bible.
I mean, that's why we have church in the first place, right?
And we're supposed to sharpen each other like iron,
sharpens iron.
But if you're just relying on someone
to teach you everything out of the Bible,
or if you're one of these people like the Catholic Church
that says that you cannot understand the Bible without us,
then that's where you air.
And the Catholic Church does a number on that scripture.
And they're like, no, well, actually, unless you're taking
our interpretation, then you're making a private interpretation
to scripture.
It's like, that's not how definitions work, OK?
It's like, when we say in private interpretation, too,
like I said, we're talking about someone who's making up
a doctrine that nobody else has ever believed.
But it's like, if people are independently coming
to the same conclusion about a passage of scripture,
How would that be a private interpretation, right?
Does it make sense?
So with the Catholic Church's definition,
does it make sense?
They're like, you gotta take our definition.
No, that is a private interpretation, okay?
But number two in this sermon was that
systems are easily corrupted.
We see that in the Bible.
We see that throughout history.
I mean, even our system right now,
every government in the world is corrupted in reality, right?
It's like,
Every system can be easily corrupted, but the thing about being independent is that when one person falls, it doesn't take everybody else down with them.
And number three of this sermon was that at the end of the day men are just men. That's why we're independent.
Because people make mistakes, so you shouldn't let some man just...
dictate everything you believe or guide you every step along of the way,
you should always go back to the Word of God because that's who's supposed to lead you above all.
With that all being said, let's pray. Dearly Father God, thank you so much for
an awful day. Thank you so much for everything you do for us, God. Thank you so much for this
church, God. I just pray that you would be with us with the song leading class, God. And I just pray
that you would send more laborers for the harvest and help us to be filled with the Holy Spirit when
we go out soul-warning later, God. And I just pray that you would be with the people that are sick
to go ahead and take your hymnals we're gonna turn to page number 316. It's page
number 316. I have decided to follow Jesus.
to follow Jesus I have decided to follow Jesus I have decided to follow Jesus no
and sing everybody for the runch.