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Up in the skies as he is living for me, daily he's pleading and praying for me, all because Jesus is living for me. Coming for me, coming for me, one day to earth he is coming for me, and with one joy his dear face I shall see, oh how I praise him he's coming for me. Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs chapter 22. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, in loving favor rather than silver and gold. The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all. A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor in life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward. He that doth keep his soul shall be far from them. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity, and the rod of his anger shall fail. He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he giveth of his bread to the poor. Gassed out the scorner and contention shall go out, yea, strife and reproach shall cease. He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend. The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor. The slothful man sayeth, there is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets. The mouth of strange women is a deep pit. He that is a hoard of the Lord shall fall therein. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want. Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. For it is pleasant, for it is a pleasant thing, if thou keep them with thee, they shall withal be fitted in thy lips. That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee, have not I written to thee excellent things and counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth, that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that sent him to thee. Rob not the poor, because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gate, for the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them. Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul. Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts. If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee? Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men. Let's pray. Gracious Lord, thankful to be gathered in your house today, and I pray, Lord, that you would just help us to focus on the preaching of your word, the words that you reveal past your audience and spirit, or just help us to have a great service, Lord, to honor you and do things right from there. Amen. All right, well, we're in Proverbs 22, and let's read verse 28. Where the Bible says, remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. Now, what is a landmark? A landmark is something that just signifies something else, right? It could be signifying a border, like a property line or something like that, and it's used that way sometimes in the Bible. Other times it's used in the Bible, it's kind of a memorial to where you would see this landmark and it would cause you to think of something else. And really, it's good to have these things in our society, and us as Christians, every new generation is given landmarks, both good and bad, quite honestly. We're passed down things from previous generations, and it's our job as Christians to make sure that we're not removing the ancient landmark that our fathers have set. That's what Proverbs is saying here, and of course, we should examine the good landmarks that they've given us and not remove those things. And so, the title of my sermon this morning is Remove Not the Ancient Landmark. Remove Not the Ancient Landmark. Now, go to Joshua chapter number four, Joshua chapter number four, and we're going to see an example of how the Bible uses this idea of a landmark. Number one this morning is we need to remember the works of previous generations. We need to remember the works of previous generations. This is kind of a disease in our society, and maybe it's always been this way, where the younger generation that's coming up kind of scoffs and ridicules everything that the previous generation has done. And like I said, I think that's kind of been that way for most generations, but it just seems amplified today, where it seems like so many things in our society were just completely turning around on their head, things that have been accepted for thousands and thousands of years, where our society is just looking at the ancient landmarks and saying, oh, these are bad, let's tear these things down. Look at Joshua 4-5, it says, And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up, every man of you, a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers, in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? then ye shall answer them, that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever. So if you remember the story, God performed a miracle, similar to when God split the Red Sea, to where the children of Israel walked through the Jordan River on dry ground, and Joshua did not want the coming generations to just forget about that. I mean, that's kind of a big deal when God splits the river, right? And so in order to preserve this memory, now of course we have it in the Word of God, and that's great, but also Joshua said, Hey, we need to set up a memorial, and I want everyone to gather these stones and place these stones on top of each other so that the coming generations will look at these things and ask their fathers, What mean ye by these stones? And when you have landmarks, when you have memorials in your society, it provides a teaching opportunity for the next generation, right? And we need those things in our society. We need wisdom from the older generation and customs and practices that are good and biblical to be passed down to the younger generation. Keep reading in verse 20. It says, And those twelve stones which they took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal, and he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you were passed over as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us until we were gone over, that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty that you might fear the Lord your God for ever. So notice the whole purpose of having these landmarks is so that the coming generations will know the great works of God and that they will fear God. And when you start removing landmarks, when you start erasing history, when you start just disregarding everything from the previous generations, you end up with a society that has forgotten God and that does not fear God. And, you know, that's kind of where we are in many ways as a country. We're definitely seeing some positive changes and praise God for that. But, I mean, just your average young person today in America is not reading their Bible cover to cover every year. They're not soul winners. They're not three to thrive. And part of it is because the previous generation has failed to set up some landmarks. Now, the good news is that we have the ultimate landmark right here is the Word of God. And so anything that previous generations have failed on, we as a church get to examine the landmarks that God has given us, and it's up to us to preserve those landmarks. It's up to us not to forget the works of the previous generations. And, honestly, our church kind of represents a new generation. We're a new church. This is a pretty young group of people here. You know, we represent a new generation, and it's incumbent upon us to decide to be a church that looks at the good landmarks of our past and decides to honor, respect, and preserve those things and not just forget about them. Go to Proverbs chapter 4. You know, today, the people on the left, they're called what? Progressive. But, really, they're not progressing. They're just destroying the foundations of our society, right? They look at the things of the past, things that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers believed and that people believed for thousands of years They look at those things, and they want to tear down those landmarks so that people forget God and forget to fear God, but it's up to us to preserve them. Now, look at Proverbs chapter 4, verse 1. It says, Hey, here's a great previous generation that children should be looking up to is their parents, and, you know, it's the parents' job to make sure that they're giving a good doctrine and good law to their children, and you should listen to your parents' children. Do not buy into this modern idea of, oh, all the previous generations, they don't know what they're talking about. We have to, you know, reinvent the wheel every generation. No, your parents are giving you good doctrine, and let me tell you, parents that come to this church, parents that are free to thrive, parents that are reading the Bible, I guarantee you they are giving you good doctrine. They are giving you good things to learn, and you'd be wise to obey those things. Look at verse 3. So notice how this father here is giving wisdom to their children, and he's explaining, like, look, this is going to preserve you. This is going to keep you. This is going to keep you safe, and many of the landmarks that our fathers have placed in this world and the landmarks that have been given to us by the King James Bible, they're there to preserve us. They're there to keep us safe, and it is a foolish generation that looks at the previous generations and just wants to tear it all down, just wants to dismantle it all, things that we've always believed, and we'll get into some specifics of those, but we're still laying a foundation here. Go to Psalm chapter 78, Psalm 78. Psalm 78, when you're there, look at verse 1. Give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, verse 3, which we have heard and known, notice, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. You know, like I said, it seems like the previous generation, you know, the baby boomer-aged people, it seems like they really dropped the ball in preserving some of the landmarks that we've had in our country for a long time, and it seems like many of the older people in our country are some of the most liberal and some of the most non-religious, which is very strange. It's usually not like that in a society, but, you know, as we are raising our children or if you're a grandparent and you're helping out with grandchildren, you know, you need to take this mentality seriously in verse 4, where it says we will not hide them from our children. You know, we need to make sure that we are putting up these important landmarks and explaining when they say, hey, what mean ye by these stones, and explaining the great works of God and the great works of previous generations. One of the things it says, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord. Hey, one good thing to pass down to the next generation is singing. I mean, that's an important thing, and it seems like a lot of people, because many young people now, you know, they came to Christ maybe in their 20s, or they started going to church in their 20s or something like that. They didn't really grow up in church. They didn't grow up, you know, around music or grow up around singing, and so it seems like music is kind of a weak point for our movement, if I'm just being honest, and, you know, we want to make sure that we're showing a good example now to the generation coming up, showing the praises of the Lord. You know, singing should be a major part of the Christian life. Don't be the type of person that comes to church, and you're just mumbling. You're not singing aloud, because what you're doing is you're failing to put up that landmark for the next generation to where they look at that and say, like, this is what we do at church. We sing out loud. We praise the Lord. We learn instruments. You know, we try to do our best to play skillfully and learn these things. That's something that needs to be passed down to the next generation, and, you know, we don't want to look towards, like, the new evangelical style of music, because that's just faggoty, if you ask me. You know, I remember I could... I only went to church, like, a handful of times when I was a kid, but it was to this, like, rock-and-roll style, purple lights, smoke show, really emotional church service that's just geared towards, like, divorced women. Let's be honest. That's what these churches are, okay? And it's like, you know, the swinging and swaying and the high-pitched falsetto singing and stuff like that, and I'm just like, this is weird. This doesn't seem like Christianity. This doesn't seem very masculine. It doesn't seem very strong. You know, real Christianity is spiritual warfare. Real Christianity is a strong religion, and many false religions even mock Christianity because they say it's so weak, it's so pathetic, and it's like, yeah, that fake Christianity is weak and pathetic, but, you know, we're going to sing out loud to the Lord here, not in some sensual way, not in some feminine way. No, we're going to sing out to God as God's people. Go to if you would. Let's keep reading verse 5. It says, For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children. See, it's our job to make known the word of God to the next generation, and you know what? That's not just the pastor, because the pastor's only preaching three times a week. What about the rest of the week? You know, parents need to be, as they're walking in the way, as they're rising up, as they're lying down, constantly using these situations of life to teach children, what mean ye by these stones? Mom, Dad, why do we do these things? Why do we go soul winning? Why do you dress that way? You know, these are landmarks that we need to preserve for the next generation. Verse 6, that the generation to come might know, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. See, we ought not to be a selfish generation that says, well, as long as there's peace and truth in my days, you know, then I'm good. You know, we want to make sure that our children and our children's children will set their hope in God and not just say, nuts to what America's going to look like in a hundred years, nuts to what the independent fundamental Baptist church movement is going to look like in a hundred years. No, we need to be preserving those landmarks and taking it very seriously. Go to Psalm 16, Psalm 16. And as you're turning there, I'll read for you Isaiah 51, verse 1 says, Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are dig. And you know, the best way to learn ancient wisdom, the best landmarks that we could learn from and look to are the landmarks from the Lord Jesus Christ. When He says, hey, look to me. And this is the good thing is that we could actually take ownership of our beliefs and not just say like, oh, well, here's why a lot of churches are screwed up today because it was just passed down to us that way. No, that excuse doesn't fly. We have to take ownership of how this church is and the things that we preach, the things that we believe. Why? Because we have the Bible. We have the King James Bible. And we could hearken to the Lord. And it doesn't matter even if previous generations did hand down some bad things. It's our job to look at what we've been handed down and compare it to the Bible. We need to remember as Christians. And I feel like some people are starting to take this for granted and starting to slip back a little bit here that our final authority is the word of God and pastors and preachers. They must preach with authority what the Bible says, not their opinion. And look, if you are going to preach your opinion, that's OK, as long as you're saying this is my opinion. You know, it makes me mad when I see preachers and pastors getting dogmatic about things that are not in scripture, things that the Bible does not explicitly say, you know what I'm going to be dogmatic about? The things that I heard from God in the Bible. That's my job. And it makes me mad because people, people are easily swayed. People are easily tricked. And let me tell you why people are easily tricked because they don't read the Bible. If you want to be someone who's not easily tricked, read the Bible and you will be standing, you'll be anchored to the truth. You'll be standing on the solid rock. But it's so easy for pastors and preachers to get up and just spout off their opinions and just pontificate their worldly wisdom. And because the people in the pew are also backslidden and in the flesh, they're like, oh, yeah, I agree with that. Oh, yeah, that sounds good. But the question is, what does the Bible say? It doesn't matter necessarily the landmark that was put up. You look at the landmark and you say, OK, is this a good landmark that matches the Bible? If it is, let's preserve it. Let's follow it. And if it's wrong, let's discard it. And so we actually have to take ownership of what the previous generation has preached and done as practices and culture. And we get to look at the Bible to see those things. Psalm 16, verse six says, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage. And, you know, thank God in America, us as Christians, we do have a goodly heritage. You know, the previous generations in our country have done a lot of good, have taught a lot of good. This book right here was the book of our fathers. And we should not look at just everything that they've done and everything that they've taught and just throw that in the trash. You know, we need to kind of be some, have a guardianship mentality here where we're going to guard and conserve and protect the works of our fathers. Now go to Hebrews 12. So we want to appreciate the works of previous generations. But number two, we want to build upon the works of previous generations. We don't want to have this mentality that looks at the past and says, oh, in the past is when great works for God were done. Oh, in the past, that's when you could build a church. That's when you could preach hard sermons. That's when you could actually believe what the Bible says and not get in trouble with anyone. No, we want to appreciate and honor the past, but we want to build upon those works as well. Hebrews chapter 12, look at verse one, it says, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about, with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now, most of the time when I've heard this verse preached, I've heard it as the people in heaven looking down at us. And I do think that there is some truth to that. I do think that the people in heaven are aware of things going on in earth. You see that in Revelation. However, I believe that the primary teaching of this verse is not that people in heaven are looking down at us. I believe that it's we're looking at the witness that they bore, okay? And I'm going to explain to you why I think that, but go to, if you would, Isaiah chapter 43, Isaiah chapter 43, because what does it mean to be a witness, right? So a witness could be, certainly could be, someone that's seeing something. That's a fair interpretation. I mean, that's a fair thing of what a witness is, but also a witness could be someone that's bearing testimony of something. Let me show you that in Isaiah 43, verse 10. It says, ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord. Now, when he's saying you are my witnesses, he's not saying you guys are physically seeing me. It's not like the people here are physically laying their eyes on God. It's saying you're my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me, there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me, I even I am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. So what are these people witnessing? They're witnessing saying, God is the true God. He's the only Lord. He's the only Savior. They're bearing witness. They're preaching, in a sense, a truth. That's what they're witnessing there. It's not saying that they're seeing God. Now, go to Hebrews chapter 11. So a witness is someone that bears testimony. Hebrews chapter 12 does not exist in a vacuum. It's within the context of Hebrews 11. And what is Hebrews chapter 11? It's known as the Hall of Faith, where imagine you're going through, you know, like the Baseball Hall of Fame or some sort of museum where you're walking from exhibit to exhibit to exhibit where God's saying, look at this person. Look at all the great works that they did through faith. Look at the next person, right? Let's start reading some of that. It says in verse 32, And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah and of David also, and Samuel and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousnesses. Righteousness obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lion, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, women received their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection, and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. Beautiful words up next, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth, and all these, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should be made perfect, should not be made perfect. And of course this is just a beautiful passage here, but it kind of fits into our first point of, God is giving us all these great stories of the previous generation. Right, God doesn't want us to forget all the works of these people, and so he records it in Hebrews 11, saying look, hey, don't forget the great works that these men did. Why, because it was God that helped them. And then when you get to Hebrews chapter 12, verse one, it says this, wherefore, so wherefore, because of all these great works that these men in the past did, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, and I believe it's just, they're witnessing to God's faithfulness, they're witnessing to all the great works that God accomplished through them, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. I believe the primary interpretation of this passage is not that the people in heaven are looking to us, I believe that it's we're looking to them, we're looking to the witness that they witnessed, the confession that they confessed, and that we say, look at the great works of this previous generation, not because we say, oh, they're so great, it's because the God of those people are so great. And we realize, hey, because the great works that previous generations did through faith by the power of God, we have access to do the same thing. We have the same exact access to God to do great works through faith. That's why he says, wherefore, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. See, all of Hebrews 11 culminates in Hebrews 12, 1, where the goal, the action, the application of him listing all those previous generations is so that we would run the race, is so that we would do great works for God. And so, yes, we want to look at the previous generations, and we want to honor their works, but we have to realize that the reason that they did those works was from the power of God and realize that we ourselves could also do great works for God. And we don't have to have this mentality that the dispensationalists have where they look at our world and say, well, the reason why churches aren't thriving and growing and the reason why great sermons aren't being preached and why many people aren't getting saved is because we're in the Laodicean church age. They'll preach that history is recorded into seven different dispensations or ages and that right now we're living in the Laodicean church age, which means that we're just kind of doomed to failure. We're doomed to apathy. We're doomed to be living in a generation that doesn't care about God. Look, that's like weird Calvinist garbage. We get to take ownership of the works that we do. We don't have to just sit here and just pray for revival to come. We could actually just look at the works of the previous generation, believe that God helped them, believe that God could help us, and just get out there and do the work. You know, this weekend, Steadfast Baptist Church had a great soul-winning marathon in Mexico where they got almost 200 people saved, I believe. You know, the old IV, while they're sitting around praying for revival, some people who actually want to put aside the weights and run the race are going to Mexico and opening their mouth and people are getting saved. People are doing great works for God. And so, yes, I love history. I love the old generations, but we don't look at that and just be like, man, must be nice. It must have been so cool back when America was on top, back when Christianity was on top. No, we could just do that right now. We could just make church great today. We don't have to say, oh, the best days of church was in the 1960s. That'll never be topped again. No, the greatest days of church could be ahead of us. And guess who gets to decide that? We get to decide that. Oh, isn't God going to be the one to decide that? No, because God already wants the Great Commission to be fulfilled. We already know God wants the word of God to be preached. God wants people's lives to be changed. God wants pastors to preach good sermons. This isn't a question of, is God going to sprinkle pixie dust on America and have revival come? It's going to be a matter of, are we going to obey the word of God or not? Are we going to look at the landmarks that are given to us in the King James Bible? And are we going to say, hey, we're going to fight for those things. We're going to build upon those things. We're going to put up better landmarks than just throw up our hands and give up and say, oh, all that's in the past. You know, that's a lame attitude. That is not an attitude that we should take. Go to John 14. John chapter 14. John 14 verse 12 says, Jesus said this, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto my father and whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do that the father may be glorified in the son. Like I said, we have to realize there's nothing stopping us from doing the greatest works for Christ that have ever been done because Jesus already told us how he felt about it, right? Hey, greater works will they do. Verse 13, and whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do that the father may be glorified in the son. You know, a faithful man who could find, the Bible says. The Bible talks about a wicked generation, a rebellious generation. You think that if we actually decided as a church that we're going to pray to God and say, God, we want to believe exactly what the Bible says. We want to fulfill the great commission. We want to do all the works that you want us to do. We want to follow you with all of our hearts. Please bless us God. You don't think that God's up in heaven just like excited to answer that prayer? Because do you think there's very many people in this world praying that? Do you think there's very many churches that actually above all else, above money, above buildings that they just want to preach what the Bible says? No, many churches today, they're concerned about money and they're concerned about having, you know, a nice appearance and being good with the community and not having, you know, a disgusting protester outside the door like we have today. You know, those are the things that they're worried about where it's like, okay, I preached that in 2022. Let me check the landmark here. Oh yeah, Leviticus 2013. Yep, I still believe that. Yep, that's still a landmark that we're going to stick with. Doesn't matter how the world changes. Doesn't matter who likes it or doesn't like it. And guess what? A lot of people are starting to like it. I mean, Oklahoma is the wrong place to be protesting against this because this is the most conservative state in America, okay? And look, there's even governments now that are petitioning the Supreme Court to get rid of gay marriage. You faggots better be scared because change is coming and we're going to keep preaching what the Bible says and it doesn't matter if it's in season or out of season. We're going to stick with the landmarks. We're going to preach what the Bible says and I don't care how many people decide to come to this church. I don't care how many people like me or don't like me because I want to preach the truth. That's why I'm in the ministry. And I would rather preach the truth, not my opinion. I'd rather be dogmatic about what the Bible says and grow very slowly, yea, or never grow than be one of these compromising fake Christians that get behind the pulpit and preach lies. I'm not in this to preach lies. I want to preach the truth. Go to Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter number 1. And you know what? I'm not going to look at previous generations and say, man, that was really cool back when you could rip face against sodomites. Oh man, that was cool back in the day when Pastor Jack Hyles would say, hey, some of you men ought to ask your wives permission to say amen once in a while in the sermon. Back when pastors would call out feminism. Back before pastors were kowtowing to feminism. Back before pastors were subtly jabbing at authority, biblical authority, and stripping authority away from parents and husbands and pastors. Oh man, must have been cool back in the day before the pulpits were filled with a bunch of weak, spineless preachers. You know what? We could just do that right now. We could just preach the truth right now. And guess what? We're an independent Baptist church. We don't have to worry about what anyone else is preaching or what they're doing. We here get to decide to preach and believe the truth. Philippians 1.8, for God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. See, the Bible teaches us that we should not just get some knowledge and just coast. Get some Bible preaching, get some soul winning, get some church programs, and then just ride that till Jesus comes. The Bible's saying that we should abound more and more. And we as Christians should constantly be thinking about the more that we could do for the Lord Jesus Christ. How can we get more people saved? How can we reach more people? How can we preach more good sermons? How can we teach more good doctrine? We should constantly be having this growth mindset, not saying like, well, we're in the Laodicean church age. So let's just all show up, pay your tithe, have a two minute sermon and go home. No, we're going to actually do our best to abound more and more. Go to Deuteronomy 27, Deuteronomy 27. So number one, we want to respect previous generations. We want to look at the landmarks they've given us. Number two, we don't want to just take those landmarks and do nothing with them. We want to actually build upon those things, right? We want to do our own works and not just ride on their coattails. Number three, we need to protect the ancient landmarks of previous generations. So we're going to get a little more specific now. But Deuteronomy 27, 17 says, cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark and all the people shall say, Amen. What does the Bible say? The Bible says that when there's a landmark that has been placed and it's a good landmark, it's a godly landmark, it's something that God wants there, when a society takes those things away, people are cursed. A curse comes upon your nation and us as God's people, we're supposed to have the attitude that says, hey, if someone wants to take away landmarks, hey, that's a curse. We're supposed to say, Amen to that, right? And of course, the most obvious, the most obvious curse upon our nation the last several decades is this filth of sodomy where it starts off with people just being told that they're normal, that they're born that way, and it progresses to 2015, allowing them to get married, and then it turns into trannies going into schools, reading to kids, indecently exposing themselves, taking kids into all these tranny bars, allowing faggots to adopt children, which 100% of children that are being adopted by sodomites, you better believe those kids are being molested. There's no reason that anyone should ever give a sodomite a child. But what have we done? We've taken down the landmarks where it's like for thousands and thousands of years in our world, sodomy has been looked at as an abomination, as a crime, as one of the most disgusting things imaginable. And all the empires of the past that ended up destroying themselves and getting destroyed by God, what did they embrace right before the end? Homosexuality. Pompeii, Rome, Greece. These places were destroyed by God, and they were filthy, abominable places that practiced homosexuality. I mean, Sodom and Gomorrah. Why did God destroy them? Because all the people of the city, young and old, were encompassing about Lot's house to abuse him and the angels that were there. Why? Because they're predators. You know, it is a curse. It's a curse when we take the landmarks that God's given us to protect us, and we decide to remove those things. And look, thank God, because of the preaching of the word of God and just the insanity of the world we're living in, like I said, some people are starting to realize how gross this is and how insane this is and how thankfully the state of Oklahoma passed through committee and, Lord willing, that this gets signed into law where they are going to ban all state-run promotions of LGBT Pride or Intersex Pride Month or anything like that, and all of these policies are going to be scratched from our state and that it will be illegal to fly an LGBT flag on any state property. Look, praise God for that. Hey, this is Oklahoma. That's a good start, right? We're sick and tired of people taking down the ancient landmarks. We're sick and tired of sitting here and having to pretend like the LGBT are not pedophiles. I'm sick of having to pretend like when you're giving up a child to a sodomite to adopt that we're not just giving up this innocent child to be destroyed by this wolf. We're not pretending anymore. Look, we're not going to pretend. We're not going to call you ma'am when you're a sir. I'll call you a filthy freak. How about that? Is that better? I'll ask you to take some lead to your head from the government. I am sick and tired of our society acting like this is normal and pretending and playing the games. No, we're done playing the games. Why? Because the Bible says, if a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. And guess what? I'm going to say that dogmatically because that's not my opinion. You want to know what my opinion is? My opinion is also that they're gross and disgusting. But guess what? The Bible says that it's an abomination. So my opinion is in line with what the Bible says. Now it just so happens, my opinion also agrees. Guess what? There's going to be times where your opinion does not agree with the Bible. You know what you should do? You should submit to the landmark. You should look at the ancient landmark that's been set up and say, that must be there for a reason. Let's not take down that ancient landmark. No, maybe you just lack wisdom. Maybe you just haven't read the Bible. Go to Jeremiah chapter six, Jeremiah chapter number six. Jeremiah 6 16 says, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths. Where is the good way? And walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. So notice, walking in the old paths, it's the good way, the Bible says, and it provides rest. You know, God's commandments are not grievous. Everything that God gives us in the law of God is to protect us, to protect the innocent, to establish justice. But when you decide not to walk in the old paths, when you want to deconstruct Christianity, you know what that brings? That brings bondage, sin, destruction, pain, people's lives being destroyed. You know, when you start removing landmarks, you start destroying society. And go to Psalm chapter number 12, Psalm chapter number 12. What are some, what are some ancient landmarks? Besides, you know, we talked about homosexuality. What are some other ancient landmarks that our fathers have set up for us that we should protect? How about the King James Bible? We are going to stick with the King James Bible. We're not interested in changing to the modern versions. Why? Look at Psalm chapter 12, verse six. The words of the Lord are pure. The words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Verse seven, notice, thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. You know, the Bible teaches that it was God's job. It was God's responsibility. He was the custodian of his word, and it was his responsibility to preserve the words of God from this generation, which is the word of God. This generation, when these things were written, forever. And, you know, it takes faith, of course, to believe that. But you know what? I do believe that. I do believe that God has preserved his word through all generations. I don't believe that man has just corrupted the word of God to where it no longer exists on this world, because, you know, many church doctrinal statements, they'll say, like, hey, we believe the word of God, that it's the final authority in all matters of faith and practice, as long as it was written in the original manuscripts. It's like, well, how helpful is that? Hey, isn't it great to know that you could know what the Bible says and you could follow it, and we could submit ourselves to it if we had those original manuscripts. But man, shucks, they got destroyed, they got buried, so here's our, you know, NIV, where it's the best we have. It's like, I thought you were a Christian. I thought that you believed through faith that Jesus Christ died and rose again from the dead. Like, don't we believe that our Savior died and came back to life? Isn't that a miracle last time I checked? So it's like, you'll believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again, but you won't believe that God preserved his words? Like, raise your hand if you believe God created the heaven and the earth. Okay, yeah, God created the universe, but he can't preserve his word. That's the level of faith that these churches have today. The original manuscript onlyists. Oh, you guys are so uneducated, you know, you King James onlyists. Bro, I actually believe God created the heaven and the earth. I believe that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. Yeah, I believe he preserved a book for us. And guess what? It's nice to read a book that has authority that can correct my opinions and that can correct your opinions. But you want to know why a lot of pastors don't want to be King James only is because they want to be the final authority. They want to be the landmark where they get up and say, oh, let me correct what the Bible says in front of you because here's my nonexistent knowledge of Greek and I'll tell you what the Bible actually says. And then now you're supposed to just submit to a man. And so now man is your final authority. Yet we're the cult for being King James only when we actually have statutes and a law book here that we must submit to where pastors who aren't King James only, they got to make up whatever they want and say, oh, this is what the Bible actually says. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Now many people today would scoff at the idea that there is a conspiracy to corrupt God's word. And folks, what is a conspiracy? It's multiple people agreeing to do something. That is what a conspiracy is, right? Conspiracies do exist in this world, especially conspiracies that the Bible tells us exist. Okay? How about 2 Corinthians 2 verse 17? See, the apostles were saying, look, we are not like the many people, meaning there's lots of people that do this, that corrupt the word of God. Now, how do people corrupt the word of God? Well, one way is just by preaching lies out of it, preaching things out of context and just preaching false doctrine, trying to make the Bible say something it doesn't say. That's one way that people try to corrupt the word of God. But here's another really obvious way, when they translate the word of God into something that's not true, when they take what the Bible says and they change it into something completely different. And people that are against King James only-ism, they'll often say, oh, well, the modern versions, they don't affect doctrine at all. There's nothing important that's changed in those versions. Okay, let's see if that's true. Go to Isaiah chapter 7, and I'm going to show you some important doctrines that are corrupted in the modern versions. And look, there's plenty of minor doctrines too that are affected, but let's just talk about some major ones. Isaiah chapter 7. You know, this is a landmark I'd like to hold on to. How about believing in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ? I believe he was born of a virgin. Why? Isaiah 7 14. A virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Now, that is important. You know why it's important? It's because the Lord Jesus Christ never sinned. And why is it that he never sinned? Because he didn't have an earthly father. His real father was God. So when he was born, he was 100% man, but also 100% God in the flesh. And so that's what enabled Jesus to live his life perfectly, never sinning. It's because he was born of a virgin. Here's what the RSV says. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. There's a big difference between a virgin and a young woman, okay? And it makes a big doctrinal difference because Jesus was not just born of a young woman, because guess what? Lots of people are born of a young woman, but he was born of a virgin. That is an important doctrine. And look, it's not just the RSV. It's the NRSV. It's the NET. It's the CEB. All of these Bibles all say young woman. You know, that is a serious attack on a major landmark of believing in the virgin birth. Go to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. What about the blood of Christ? That's pretty important, isn't it? The blood of Jesus Christ that atones for our sins. Colossians 1 verse 14 says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. We have redemption through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It was not just his perfect life that saved us. It was that, and also the shedding of his blood, and also his burial, and also his descending into hell, and also his resurrection from the dead. The whole gospel, all of Jesus' life, is what culminated to salvation. But the Bible is talking about how we have redemption through his blood. The NIV, which I call the non-inspired version, says this, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So the blood of Christ is just removed. Why would you remove the blood of Christ? I mean, we're Christians here. Who's going to be reading the Bible? Christians. What does the Bible teach? That through the blood of Christ, we have redemption. Well, that's gone in the NIV. Go to 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5. You know, how about the Trinity? It's a very important doctrine, a doctrine that we take for granted here in America and here in Oklahoma, because pretty much everyone believes in the Trinity here. The only time I run into someone that doesn't believe in the Trinity is usually when I'm talking to a Muslim, which is very rare. And when I talk to a Muslim, I have to spend a lot of time on the Trinity because they reject that concept. You know, even on the Dome of the Rock that's on Mount Moriah to this day, there was an inscription written on the inside of that dome in like the year 670 or something like that, A.D., that says, like, it's not fitting for God to have a son. Speak only the truth of God. It's not fitting for God to have a son. You know, they deny the Trinity. 1 John 5.7 says, For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. That's a very important verse. It's a very famous verse. The NIV says this, For there are three that testify. That's it. That's the whole verse. Isn't that helpful? I mean, isn't that a really helpful verse? For there are three that testify. Next. That's garbage. That is corrupting the Word of God. That does make a serious doctrinal difference. And many people today, many textual critics, want to tell you that 1 John 5.8 should not be in your Bible. But I'm reading that, and the Holy Spirit is bearing witness to the truth of that verse for me, saying, yeah, there's three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. These three are one. How about John chapter 1? Go to John chapter number 1. John chapter 1, verse 1. You probably all know it. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Again, another great verse about the Trinity, another great verse about the deity of Jesus Christ, because we know that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and that's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, here's what the New World translation says. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. You think that makes some doctrinal difference between saying that Jesus Christ is God, capital G, God, or a God, little g? Yeah, that makes a big difference, okay? That's a false doctrine to say that Jesus is not God. Go to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter number 5. Here's a big one, and this one has ruined so many people's lives in our country. This one is preached all the time and causes people to sin. You know, there's doctrinal differences. Those are terrible, but there's also application differences that ruins people's lives, and this is one of those. Matthew 531 says, It has been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of what? Fornication, causeeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, commit adultery. Jesus said that if you divorce your wife for any other cause than fornication, you're committing adultery, you're causing her to commit adultery. Now, the Bible uses a very specific word there, fornication. What is fornication? It's carnal relations before marriage. What is adultery? It's carnal relations with someone else other than your spouse while you're married, right? And so the idea here is that, okay, yeah, if you were lied to, if there was fraud in the marriage where you think you're marrying this virgin and you come to the wedding night and you find out she's got diseases or she's unclean, she's lied to you about her virginity, yeah, you could put away, you had that annulment provision in God's word where it would not be adultery for you to put that woman away, but any other cause would be adultery. But here's the thing, modern versions don't teach this. Modern versions do not teach, hey, the only reason that you could divorce, which here's the thing also, let me just make this clear, is that Jesus made it clear that because of the hardness of their hearts, Moses gave them this commandment. So it wasn't even God's will to have divorce for any reason. You have to understand that right off the bat. Why? Because there's a difference between what's right and what people do, right? God did not want polygamy, but he gave provisions, here's what you do if you do take another wife. That's not God saying, please go take another wife. He's just recognizing that this is something that people do. You know, he said, hey, let not the wife depart from her husband. Don't let the husband depart from her wife, but and if she depart, right? So it's not God condoning divorce. He's just saying like, because of the hardness of your hearts, this provision was allowed. Now, here's what the modern versions say. In the NIV, they say this, it has been said, anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. So according to the modern versions, you could get a divorce for sexual immorality. Now, last time I checked, Jesus said not even to lust after a woman in your heart and that if you do that, you've committed adultery in your heart. Would that fall under sexual immorality? I would say it would. And so what are these modern versions doing? They're basically giving a license to divorce for any reason. And people are struggling in their marriage. And instead of having a man of God tell them, look, stay married, fight for your marriage, be faithful to your vows. You said till death do us part. Don't give up on your marriage. Instead of hearing that, they're hearing, oh, sexual immorality. What did he do? Did he look at a picture he shouldn't have looked at? Oh, did she talk to someone? Oh, did they commit literal adultery, which according to the Bible has the death penalty, but that's not a reason to divorce. The Bible does not say that if you commit adultery, you are allowed to divorce your spouse. The Bible does not say that if your spouse is looking at something on the internet that they shouldn't be looking at, that you have grounds to divorce your spouse. You do not get to divorce your spouse. Once you've consummated that marriage, you say there was no fornication. There was no marital fraud. It's till death do us part. And if you marry someone else, after you are divorced, you are committing adultery. That is what the Bible teaches. But look, these modern versions, they are hurting people. Go to Galatians chapter number two, Galatians chapter number two. Hey, here's an obvious landmark that we should fight for. How about salvation by faith alone? Look, we are never going to change on that doctrine. That is a foundational doctrine that salvation is not obtained by you turning over a new leaf, repenting of your sins, being a good person. It's only faith alone in Christ. Look at Galatians two. And I love this verse here because the apostle Paul just like repeats this ad nauseam at how much it's only by faith. Verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. That was one verse, folks. I mean, how many times is he going to tell us in one verse that you're not saved by the law? You're not going to be justified by the law. You're only going to be justified by faith. Hey, by the way, have I said we believe in Jesus Christ too? By the way, we've been justified by faith. It's by faith alone. And look, we're not even going to entertain this debate. Oh, well, is it by repenting of your sins? You know, oh, because you see all these stupid gospel tracts all the time where it's like, what do you have to do to be saved? Oh, you just have to believe in Jesus and repent of your sins. False information, folks. Should you repent of your sins? Do we teach people to repent of their sins? Yes, we do. To get to heaven? No. To get to heaven to receive salvation, the Bible says, is a gift. Last time I checked, when you received a gift, no one charged you anything for it. No one gave you some, you know, little terms and conditions saying, like, if you receive this gift, you're admitting that you're going to pay me $300 in the future. That's not a gift, folks. And this is so simple, but look, there's been some landmarks that I look at that have been so simple that our generation has forgotten, like homosexuality. It's like, duh, this is disgusting. This is a crime. Why would we ever support this? You know, but it's like, hey, this is a landmark that we need to fight for, that we need to contend for. And even sometimes we're going to piss off other Baptists about this. But you know what? We're never going to compromise on this repent of your sins gospel. It is a false gospel. Go to, if you would, Isaiah chapter 58, Isaiah 58. Here's another great landmark that we've been handed down as Baptists that we need to defend and fight for, and that is hard preaching. And this landmark is in serious threat of disappearing today. There are not that many churches out there that are really preaching hard. Look at Isaiah 58, verse 1. You know, I do not want this church to be built upon positive only preaching, and upon giving some sort of soft, watered-down message, and making sure that everything that's said is so nice and well-polished, because here's the problem. When you win people to that type of a church, when you win people over with that style, you have to keep them with that style. And preachers sometimes shackle themselves because they're so eager to grow at any cost that they water down the message. You know, they soften the tone. They're not crying aloud. They're not sparing not. Most churches in this country you will walk into, and you will never hear a preacher lift his voice. You will never hear a preacher yell. I mean, so many... I see all these clips all over YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, whatever, of these churches and preaching clips, and it's like every church I see lately, the preacher's always sitting down now. It's like he's always sitting down on a bar stool, and it's like, what is this, a TED Talk? Those things are super gay anyways. Like, no, this shouldn't be some sort of TED Talk. This is cry aloud, spare not, and notice, show my people their sins. You know what hard preaching is? It's biblical, it is specific, it is corrective. That's what hard preaching is, is when you're actually preaching the Word of God, showing people where they're wrong. And, you know, a wise person loves to hear that kind of preaching. You know, I can honestly say that when I got saved and when I started listening to hard preaching, that was all that I desired. I would never want to go to a church that preaches soft. I would never want to get up and hear a pastor who's sitting down on a stool whisper sweetly into the microphone. I am not interested in that type of church, and I'm just being honest. Like, if that was my only option growing up as a teenager, I might not even be here today. You know, I thank God that there were some men that preserved that landmark, that said, hey, let the world get liberal, let the churches get soft, let the preachers get quiet and soft, but they're gonna still preach hard. You know, thank God that I had that preaching to listen to and to grow from, because, like I said, I probably would not be here today. Go to 2 Timothy 4, 2 Timothy 4. But realize, hard preaching, what is it? I mean, a pastor's job is to correct bad behaviors, bad ideas, bad attitudes, bad doctrines. And then people today will be like, well, a preacher should never preach against an individual. Preachers should never preach a sermon where you kind of know what he's talking about. And it's like, cry aloud, spare not, show my people their transgressions. That's the preaching that God has prescribed. Look at 2 Timothy 4, 1. I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word! Again, like I was saying today, preachers need to preach what the Bible says. And if you're preaching your opinion, make that known. That's fine. But I get sick and tired of hearing preachers just dogmatically preach their opinion. You know, I'm going to preach a whole sermon about this pretty soon, but let me just give you a little preview of what's coming. You know, I've heard this recently that it's just wrong to always spank a teenager. It's just carte blanche. It's wrong to spank a teenager. Teenagers should not be spanked. I've heard this. I've heard these exact words, that if you spank someone over the age of 10, you are doing more harm than good. This is coming from an independent, fundamental Baptist pastor. Now, guess what that's called? That's called Second Opinions, Chapter 1. Because the Bible doesn't say that! Let me just go through this logic, okay? We could all agree that the Bible says to spank kids. We could agree with that, right? We could also agree that in the law of God, a stubborn and rebellious son who's a glutton and a drunkard and who after he is chastened, doesn't repent, that he's supposed to be put to death. Okay, okay, okay. Spanking a child, good. Capital punishment for a child in certain situations, good. Okay? There's also corporal punishment for adults, for criminals. There's capital punishment for adults, for criminals. But a teenager can never be spanked. Where are you getting this from? You know what it is? It's you not being dogmatic about what the Bible actually says. It's people just saying like, here's my philosophy on child rearing. I read these books and I heard that it's going to cause a teenager to feel humiliation. And I heard from a teenager who grew up in a home that was spanked where they said that they didn't like being spanked. Yeah, because it's called a punishment. It sounds like if you didn't like it and you don't want it, sounds like it was probably the best punishment for you then. Not just like, oh man, I loved it when my parents gave me this punishment because I could still do whatever. Dude, if it was bad, it sounds like that's the good punishment then. Stop preaching your opinion. And people in the pews, read your Bible. Read your Bible. Do not take the words that you hear as 100% gospel truth. What you should do is be ready to receive it and then look at your Bible and say, is that what the Bible says? Oh, okay, never spank your teenagers. Oh yeah, the Bible never says that anywhere. Okay, if that's your opinion, cool. Have your opinion. Say your opinion. But you know what? Hard preaching is actually preaching what the Bible says. Hard preaching is not getting up and screaming and making other people feel small and less than you as you stand on your opinion. That's not hard preaching. Hard preaching is saying what the Bible says. And look, I'm sure there's a ton of people that would be offended at me saying that the Bible does not condemn spanking your teenagers. But guess what? It doesn't. The Bible does not condemn spanking your teenagers. The Bible says to beat your son with a rod. The Bible says that a stubborn and rebellious son would actually be put to death. So there's something wrong with your logic here where it's like spank them, put them to death, but in between here, they're just safe. It's like the city of refuge. When you're a teenager, you're in the city of refuge. You can't be touched. That is stupid. And you know what? Preaching that undermines authority pisses me off. I would rather die kicking and screaming, fighting for biblical authority, than to ever give a single inch on any of it. I am not going to sit up here and preach a whole sermon about the exception to obeying authority, right? Oh, you know, wives, if your husband tells you to sin, you don't have to obey. That's true. But guess how many times that's been true for my wife in our marriage? Zero! Guess how many times my parents have ever told me to sin? Zero. I can't even think of a time that the government has told me to sin. But we're going to sit here and just emphasize. All right, kids, if your parents tell you to sin, you have to disobey them. Yeah, no crap, but is that what I'm going to emphasize? Or am I going to emphasize what the Bible teaches? Obey, obey, obey, obey. You know what? I'm so sick and tired of these pastors preaching their opinion. It says, preach the word. The instant in season. The instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. Long suffering and doctrine refers to the fact that when you preach the word of God, people are not always going to immediately jump on board with that. Sometimes you preach a doctrine and it's a landmark that's so foreign to our society and it's so foreign to our carnal minds that you have to preach it over and over and over and over again. And sometimes people aren't going to agree with you. They're not going to get it right away. But preachers should have the long suffering to continue to preach the truth no matter what. And as our world gets more and more crazy and far away from God's word, it's going to require more long suffering on our part as preachers. To say like, hey, here's another sermon on this topic. And you know, you guys need to be patient and realize that we live in a crazy world and that sometimes I've just got to preach the same things over and over again. And it's like, I just preached about spanking your kids. Guess what I'm going to preach about next weekend? You're going to hear it again. You know, be patient because I need to have long suffering on these issues. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. That's what's happening en masse right now, is people are turning away their ears from the truth. People, I mean, it's so important for you to be reading the Bible. You better not have this prideful mentality that thinks like, I've read it before in the past. I'll be able to spot false doctrine. You know, my heart would never be changed from the truth of God's word. No, you have to every single day be reading the word of God and anchor yourself in the scripture. Otherwise you will be a person that whose opinions will be driven by other men's opinions rather than what the Bible says. We'll skip some of this for sake of time here. Let's go to Romans chapter 10, Romans chapter 10. Romans 10. Hey, here's a landmark that was handed to us that I want to defend, and that is door to door soul winning. Confrontational soul winning, not just, hey, at the end of each service, we're going to have the music play and you can come up to the altar and someone will talk to you. No, we actually want to go out and preach the gospel. Romans 10 verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. By the way, you must call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. You must ask for the gift of salvation. That's how you put your faith in him. Verse 14. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? You know, God's kind of given us like a backwards process of salvation, right? Someone calls upon the name of the Lord to do that. They believe. To do that, they had to hear. To hear, they had to have a preacher. To have a preacher, they had to have been sent. And so us as an institution, what are we focused on? We're focused on sending, right? We want to send out soul winners and they're going to preach. And people are going to hear. And people are going to believe. And people are going to call upon the name of the Lord. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You know, there's probably plenty of books on how to get someone to come to Christ and how to grow a church. But you know what I'm interested in? What I want to be dogmatic about is what the Bible says. That it comes by hearing the word of God. And so we as Christians need to go out, Bibles in hand, and go confront people with the gospel and teach them the word of God and preach the gospel. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 22. Deuteronomy 22. Here's another great landmark that was handed to us. How about biblical dress standards? Biblical dress standards. I mean, this is one of those landmarks that definitely sticks out a little bit today in our society. Because it's just so common for people not to dress the way the Bible teaches. Go to Deuteronomy 22 5. It says the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man. Pertain means having to do with, being assigned to. There's a clothing that is assigned or associated with a man. Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. I would venture to say 95% of America, unless you're just some God-hating reprobate, would say that a man wearing a dress is gross. That it is an abomination. That it's something that we should not allow in society. But here's the thing. That's because in our culture, we don't see it all the time. And so it shocks us still. When we see a man in a dress, we're like, what the? What is this? This is disgusting. Right? We have to realize that throughout all of human history, that same feeling is the feeling that someone would get if they saw a woman wearing pants. Why? Because pants are something that pertains to a man. And it used to literally be illegal in America for a woman to wear pants. I'm not 100% sure on this. Fact check me. But I believe Hillary Clinton was the first person who wore pants in the Senate during a Senate session. Someone fact check that later. But that's that wasn't that long ago. I mean, Hillary Clinton is still alive today somehow. I don't know how, but the power of Satan, I guess. But look, like this was not that long ago where everyone would agree that I'm saying right now. Everyone would take these things for granted. Why? Because this landmark was just so obvious. But again, we can't just take things for granted. And this is a good example of why we can't take things for granted. Because a couple generations go by and now, you know, if you're a lady and you wear skirts and dresses, sometimes people are going to think, what's wrong with you? Like, there's something weird about you. Or people get offended that you wear skirts and dresses only. And it's like, why are you offended? Is it because you know that it's wrong that you're wearing pants? Otherwise, it wouldn't really make sense. Like, if someone was wearing a baseball hat, I'm not offended. Why are you offended when other ladies are only wearing skirts and dresses? Because it's written on your conscience and in your heart that you are dressed like a man when you wear pants. And according to the Bible, the people that do that are an abomination. Meaning it's gross. It's disgusting. It's something that provokes a negative feeling in God himself when he sees a woman dressed in pants. Now, here's the thing. Because, unfortunately, this is so accepted in our culture. It's not like some lady that walks into our church visiting wearing pants. Please don't say anything to them about it. Don't make any weird, you know, faces or anything like that. I will never police people in this area. If a lady came to our church and wore pants for the rest of her life, as long as she's okay with hearing the preaching that I say about it, she's welcome to come, okay? Now, a man in a dress is a different story. Ushers, you better stop that before it ever even comes into this place, okay? That is not allowed whatsoever. Go to, let's, again, I just keep ranting so much here. Yeah, let's just do one more. Ephesians chapter number five. Go to Ephesians chapter number five. You know, how about the landmark of male authority? We already talked about this a little bit, but you know what? I am not going to let this landmark be destroyed. I am not going to let men who are just weak and afraid of their wives and of ladies in their congregation who are little closet feminists or something like that, or closet feminist pastor's wife, I am not going to let these people sway me from the words of God that the Bible teaches. Because the Bible teaches, we talked about last week, woman preacher detected, sermon rejected, right? Oh, why? By virtue of the content of her sermon? No, by virtue of the fact that she's a woman. And the Bible literally says that a woman should not teach, that a woman is not to usurp authority over the man. Look at Ephesians 5 verse 22. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. It can't really get much more clear than that, folks. Oh, but what about the husband who's commanding his wife to sin? Okay, of course, she would obey the higher powers in that situation. But how about we focus on what the text is focusing on, which is wives obey your husbands. Hey, how about men at work obey your boss? People obey your government. Church obey your pastor. This is what the Bible emphasizes. Yeah, you could talk about the one weird scenario where a husband's saying, hey, let's hide a body, baby, let's go commit a murder. Okay, yeah, please disobey your husband if he's asking you to hide a body. But I'm just going to take a wild guess that there's not a single lady in here whose husband's ever asked them to do that. If so, we might need to have a chat, all right? But let's focus on what the Bible focuses on. God put up a landmark that said men are in authority. Men are in charge of the church. Men should be in charge of the government. Men should be in charge of their wives. Let's not let that landmark get destroyed. You know, we've seen our country suffer so much damage by letting this landmark get destroyed. I mean, we gave women the right to vote. And it's like, what is women's? And I'm not saying godly Christians in this room, of course. But I'm just saying, like, your average American woman voter, like, what's her big issue? Shout it out. What do women voters care about more than anything? Abortion. Yep. Oh, let's give women right to vote. And what do they care about? They care about murdering their babies. Sounds like this was a failed experiment, folks. Sounds like we should repeal the 19th Amendment. Because, you know what, men are all jazzed about killing children. Now, there are those wicked people out there as well. But look, that's a disgusting, abominable sin. And why is it that we give all these leftist women... I mean, you've got to realize that Satan hates you, ladies. Communists hate you. The leftist Democrats hate you. And they want to rip you away from your father, rip you away from your husband that loves you, and they want you to depend upon the government. And they want you to get your self-worth and your financial needs taken care of from the government providing for you so that you can help the Jews and the wicked people in authority pass all these terrible laws. Because, guess what, women that stay home, women that are married, women that have children are much more conservative than these foaming-at-the-mouth leftist women at the University of Texas, for example. You know, there's a big difference between those two because one is walking after the way of Satan. And one has actually stayed with the ancient landmark. And realize that when God gives you a commandment, when God sets up a landmark, it's for your own good. And what does Deuteronomy say? Cursed be he that removes that landmark. And it brings a curse on our nation. And, you know, we've had the curse of abortion because of this issue. We'll finish in Proverbs 22 where we started Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs 22 verse 28 says, Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. You know, we need to be sober and realize that in our country, in our movement, in Baptists in general, there is always a serious threat of our landmarks being removed. Always. And, you know, big battles have happened recently over topics I never would have imagined that we'd be fighting over. Let me tell you, big battles will come again in the future. And we have to defend the landmarks that God has given us. We are a new generation in this room. We are a young church, both in age and just in time existing. And we have the opportunity and the mandate from God to look at what previous generations have given us and look at what the Bible says and say, Hey, do these things match? If so, let's defend those things. If not, let's put up our own landmarks. So, number one, remember the works of previous generations. Number two, build the works of previous generations. Number three, protect the ancient landmarks of previous generations. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the landmark that we have in the King James Bible. I pray that you'd help all of us to put our pride aside and our fleshly wisdom aside and that we would just fully submit ourselves to what the Bible teaches and that we wouldn't become dogmatic on our own opinions or philosophies, but that we would truly allow the word of God to correct us. And I just pray that you would just help us as a new generation to have a vision to do the greatest works that we could possibly do and help us to defend the good landmarks that our fathers set up. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, our last hymn this morning will be number 36, Christ Arose. Hymn number 3636, Christ Arose. We'll sing there starting on the first. O in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior, waking the coming day. Jesus my Lord, out from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o'er his clothes. He arose a victor from the dark, knowing that he lives forever with his sins to reign. He arose, he arose, hallelujah Christ arose. Mainly they washed his bed, Jesus my Savior, Mainly they sealed the dead, Jesus my Lord. Out from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o'er his clothes. He arose a victor from the dark, knowing that he lives forever with his sins to reign. He arose, he arose, hallelujah Christ arose. And cannot keep his prey, Jesus my Savior, he tore the bars away. Jesus my Lord, out from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o'er his clothes. He arose a victor from the dark, knowing that he lives forever with his sins to reign. He arose, he arose, hallelujah Christ arose.