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Amen. So it's been a minute since I've been in the pulpit on a Sunday morning. We had somebody fill in last week. I was up in Phoenix. The week before that, we had brother Oliver Gonzalez here, and then the week before that, I was sick. So feels like it's been a little while. But if you recall, we're going through our distinctive doctrine series. And so far, we've covered just going through that acronym that you often see, the Baptist acronym, we've covered the biblical authority, we've covered the autonomy of the local church, we've covered the priesthood of the believer, and we've covered the ordinances, the believers baptism and the Lord's Supper. And then this morning, we're going to find ourselves in the eye of that back of the acronym, which is going to stand for the individual soul liberty. And really, you could apply this to different ways. And what I found with this acronym is that as you study this, and you look into the way other people have taught it, and some of these letters, people apply it in different ways, they want to say, actually, it stands for this, or it stands for that. And that just goes to show you that we really are independent Baptist, that we can't even get our own acronym. We can't even agree on that as a whole. So, but amen for that. But really, the way this one I kind of want to apply this morning is just really to the unbeliever, and then to the believer, the way this would apply. So what, but really, what essentially boils down to is that the doctrine of individual soul liberty simply means that every person has the right to believe as they see fit. And these kind of things kind of are these kind of acronyms, or these doctrines are often birthed when because of the fact that people have gone through things and they want to they want to lay a foundation to make sure that that error that the things that they suffered don't go through. Again, you have to remember the Baptists for a long time, were persecuted for what they believed and told that they were not allowed to believe what they believe, even about a doctrine as simple as baptism. And they said that they had no right to establish a doctrine outside of, you know, a state run church or a or, you know, the Catholic Church wouldn't allow other people to preach anything different than what they believed. So our forefathers thought it was important that we understood this idea of individual soul liberty, that every one of us, not only as unbelievers, but also as believers, as we'll talk about towards the end of the sermon, have the right to believe as we see fit as individual people. So everybody has the right to believe as they see fit. Now, how would that apply to the unbeliever? Well, that would apply to the unbeliever that every person has the right to either choose or reject the gospel. And that's very contrary to a popular doctrine that we hear about a lot today, the doctrine of Calvinism, and specifically predestination that we'll talk about that here in a minute, that God is picking and choosing who's going to be saved and who's going to go to hell. Okay, but we don't believe that as Baptists. We believe that every person has the right to either choose to believe the gospel or the right to reject the gospel. That's left up to the individual themselves. It also means that a believer, and I also want to apply it this way, is that as believers, we have the right to determine, in fact, the responsibility to determine what doctrines are biblical and what doctrines are unbiblical. We're not going to just go along with whatever the church says simply because the church said so. We need to be comparing these spiritual things with spiritual and determining for ourselves why we believe what we believe. And we have the right and the responsibility to do that. We'll just get right into it here. The first thing I want us to understand this morning is that individuals have the ability to accept or reject the gospel. Now, notice I said ability. Again, that's contrary to the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination of the believer, the belief that God has already chosen who will be saved and who will be damned. That God is somehow up in heaven before the world even began has decided, well, you're going to be saved and you're not. That's not a loving God. I mean, saying that what's the point of even trying to preach the gospel to these people if God has already determined who's going to be saved and who's not? And really, quite often, I think that's why a lot of even independent Baptists are starting to allow that doctrine to creep in and are starting to fall under its spell a little bit because they get a little lazy, they get a little backslidden, and they still want to stop soul winning. And so they say, well, they say things like, well, if they're going to get saved, they're going to get saved. If God has decided that so-and-so is supposed to get saved, whether I preach them a gospel or not, somebody else will come along. That's not true, though. If you don't preach the gospel to be somebody, that might be their only chance to get saved. God's not just up there pulling strings and has us all pre-programmed like some kind of a ... This isn't the matrix where it's just a bunch of ones and zeros and God's the great programmer or whatever, and we're just running through some preordained, predestined story. This is something that we all play a part in. I think of those people out on the Navajo reservation. If we don't go out into those two tracks and slap around in the back of that van and bump our heads on the ceiling, and we didn't bottom out any shocks, but it's possible. If we don't go out there and do that, who else is going to do it? Probably nobody. Maybe a Jehovah Witness or a Mormon or something like that. You're going to sit there and tell me, well, if that person back there is supposed to get saved, they will. Well, how? How shall they hear the word? They have the word preached to them. How shall they preach except they be sent? This is why he has to be touched upon in the sermon. It's because this kind of thinking and this kind of doctrine creeps into Baptist churches. Even independent, fundamental Baptist churches, to all appearances, have the gospel right. You would say they believe the right gospel. Even then, they can let this thinking creep in to where they end up saying things like, well, God will just save who he wants saved, and they'll show up here at our doorstep. That's not how it works. In fact, predestination, the concept, the manner in which the Calvinist teaches it, is contrary to the nature of God. That's what I believe. Because think about it. If God is choosing who will be saved and who will be damned, that's contrary to the nature of God. That's not love, then. You're going to tell me God loves the people in hell? How can you say that God so loved the world if he's already preordained some people to go to hell? In fact, the vast majority of people are going to go to hell. Broad is the way which lead to the destruction, and many there be which go in there at. So God, just right out of the gate, just hates the majority of people. Then John 3.16 is a lie. For God so loved the world is a lie. That's against the nature of God to say that he is preordaining who's going to be saved, and preordaining who is not going to be saved, or who's going to be damned. It's contrary to a multitude of Scriptures. And I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, because we're all saved here this morning, and I think there's another concept that we really need to make sure we have nailed down. But we could just think, probably go around the room, and we could probably all think of a few verses that would debunk this idea that God is picking and choosing who's going to be saved and who isn't. For example, 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promises. Some men count slackness, but his longsuffering to us were not willing that any should perish. The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish, but the Calvinist will tell you, you know, God willed that some people would go to hell. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. How many should come to repentance? Everyone. God wants everyone to be saved. John 1-6, where there was a man sent from God, whose name was John, the same came for a witness to bear witness to the light that all men through him might believe. How many men did God want to believe? All men. Not just some. And we could go on and on. 1 Timothy 4-10, 1 John 2-2, John 3-16, 1 Timothy 2, for this is good and acceptable sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. You could turn to Matthew 23 and read Jesus as he was coming in to Jerusalem before he was crucified and said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often I would have gathered together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens that are her wings, and ye would not. So he would save them. He would have been their Messiah, but they chose to reject him. So this concept that God predestines who's going to be saved is contrary to the doctrine of individual soul liberty. Every person as an unbeliever has the right, the ability to choose whether or not they're going to believe or reject the gospel. That's why it's so important for us that we go out and preach the gospel. It's contrary to the nature of God to say that God is picking and choosing who goes to heaven, who goes to hell and who doesn't. Because what sends a person to hell? It's sin, right? Sin, you know, the wages of sin is death, right? We understand that that's part of that death is our spiritual death and we go to hell. So to sit there and say that God chooses some men to go to hell, well you're kind of saying well now it's not even about sin that takes them to hell. Now it's more about because just God decided that's the way it is. In fact, it almost starts to imply that God forces men to sin. I mean if that's what's going to take people to go to hell, if that's what takes people to go to hell is them having to commit sin, then you know they would have to. That means that if God wanted someone to go to hell, then they would have to sin, wouldn't they? And we know that God is not, cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. Let no man when he is tempted, say when he is tempted, excuse me, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then lust when he hath conceived bringeth forth sin and when sin is finished bringeth forth death. So this doctrine is just completely false. It's not something we should entertain and it's wicked and it casts God in a bad light quite frankly. It makes them look like this just this cold heartless being who is just choosing you know based on what I don't know who's going to be saved and who's going to go to a lake of fire for all of eternity. I mean it's a I mean hell is a serious place you know we shouldn't take it lightly so just say that well God is just on a whim just sending people there just because he feels like it is wicked. Now the reason people get mixed up on this is because of the term that are used. Terms like predestination or predetermined or preordained or words like ordained or you know these are these type of terms that get thrown around and people have a have a misconception of exactly not necessarily what it means but the way in which it's being used and what it's referring to. We see an example of that there in Ephesians chapter one. It says in Ephesians chapter one we'll go ahead and just pick it up there in verse three where it says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blame before him in love. So let's say we'll see there in verse four it says he hath chosen us in him so they'll say that means some people go to heaven and some go to people go to hell based on whether or not God has chosen them but this the way it's using chosen there is does not mean to the exclusion of other people you know he hasn't chosen us so that others would be excluded it's we're chosen what in him that's what the choosing is that we're chosen in him you know the way we're going to go to heaven is through Christ it's not it's not do you see what I'm saying there it's not about God picking and choosing somebody it's the fact that if you're going to heaven you're chosen in him we are chosen in him that we should be holy and blame without blame that's what's predetermined that if you're going to come to the father it's going to be through Christ no man cometh in the father but by me Jesus said that's what's being predetermined the manner in the the way that you're going to get to heaven is in him that if you're going to be holy and without blame before him in love it's going to be in Christ it goes on there in verse five and it says having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will so see see there some people are predestined and it says there we have been predestinated right having being predestinated unto the adoption of uh of children by Jesus Christ to himself now does that mean that because you're predestined that God chose you and and excluded somebody else that God drew your name out of a hat and said oh you're one of my chosen drew another name out of a hat and said he is not that's not that's not how it works what he's predestined it says there is we are predestinated unto the adoption just like we are chosen in him we are predestinated unto the adoption by Jesus Christ that if you're going to be God's child if you're going to be adopted if you're going to be an heir of salvation it's by Jesus Christ it's not talking about who it's talking about the how you're predestinated to be adopted by Jesus Christ you see you're not going to be made holy you're not going to be made without blame by any other way than through Jesus Christ look there verse 11 it says in whom we also have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will see there again and they'll just pick out a word now you can turn to just some there there's no false you could pick any false doctrine you want and you could find a scripture to twist and make it sound say what you want it to say say well we believe in predestination because the bible uses the word predestination we have how does it use it what's it referring to what's the context it says we're predestinated look there in verse 11 we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will the sentence continues in verse 12 that we should be prayed to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ the predestination is that you should be to the praise of his glory that's what God has before determined that those of us that come to Christ that we are going to bring him glory in heaven that's what's being predestinated here again it's it's the what it's the how it's not about the who it's not about who's getting picked and who isn't it's about those people that are saved what is what lies ahead for them and what lies ahead for us is that we should be to the praise of his glory we are predestinated to bring him praise this ties in with first peter chapter two go ahead and turn over there real quick first peter chapter two first peter chapter two beginning of verse nine the bible says but ye are a chosen generation right now see they're right there well there you have it some people are picked and some people aren't no that's not what it's saying here because again if you're going to say that if you're going to turn to this scripture or another scripture in ephesians one and say well it says predestinated and some we are chosen well then that's and you're going to interpret it that way to say that god picks and chooses who's going to be saved now you've just created a huge glaring contradiction in scripture because all the scriptures i read earlier that said that god is not willing that any should perish now you have a contradiction and the bible cannot contradict itself so we have to understand you know we already understand that god wants everybody to be saved so now when we read these verses and we read ye are a chosen generation it's we now understand it's not talking about the fact that we're being picked but with no uh with with no act of will on our own part that god just has just predestinated so we can't even help it we're just going to be saved irresistible grace these other doctrines that they teach it says we are a chosen generation to do what that ye should show forth the praises of him with calls you out of darkness you're chosen to do something you're chosen to be a royal priest at a holy nation that ye should show forth his praises who have called you that's what we've been called unto that's what we've been chosen to do that's we're predestinated to to bring him glory and praise and it's all done through christ so god predetermines the fate of those that are foreknown and really that's the term we really need to come to grasp with and that's the term a lot of calvinists want to ignore is that that term foreknowledge because when you understand foreknowledge predestination makes a whole lot more sense god predestinates things based on his foreknowledge god foreknows everybody is going to be saved that doesn't mean he picked who's going to be saved just because you know something ahead of time doesn't mean that's you made it happen you know i'm trying to think of some some carnal examples but it involved food but we're not going to go there just take your time but you know god predetermines the fate of those who he has foreknown god because god knows all things right god is all all-knowing he knows the beginning from the end the bible says in isaiah 46 verse 9 i'll read to you remember the former things of old for i am god there is none else i am god and there's none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand i shall do all my pleasure god says that he declares the end from the beginning that when they that from the beginning god already knows the end and he declares the things that are not yet done the things that are going to come to pass god has foreknowledge god already knows who's going to be saved and who isn't but that doesn't mean he picked them what he has determined for those people is that they should bring him glory that they should be pre be to his praise that they should be conformed to the image of his son that was what god has predestinated us to and there's a lot of other uh you know scriptures that we could turn to and look at but um i think we get the point on that and i kind of want to move on and hopefully i'm not just touching and going on that but i think we all get that i think everyone i don't think anyone's you know is is teetering on the brink of going into full-blown calvinism this morning you know and if you are if that's you if you're really struggling with this come talk to me and we can look at some other you know we can turn to romans 8 we can turn to romans 14 we can look at these other passages but uh what i want to kind of focus in on uh this morning is the fact uh that you as a believer have you know someone who's already chosen to receive the gospel by your own free will right you have the individual liberty because remember that's what we're talking about this morning is the individual liberty the the individual liberty that you have to either reject the gospel or to believe it not only that but you as a believer have the the liberty to deny or reject doctrine that is taught in a church and this is important because now there's some caveats here we're going to get into now because here's the thing some churches will teach things that you might not agree with does that mean you can't go there you know does that mean you shouldn't you shouldn't even go darken the door of that church well you have to kind of take some things into account like what exactly are they're teaching what specific doctrine are we you know talking about because and this is important because some people today you know they get all bent out of shape because some church preaches a pre-trib doctrine now i sat in church for for over a decade where the pre-trib was believed it necessarily wasn't taught because it's hard to teach that doctrine and make any sense because it doesn't make any sense but people go to churches and you know people become post-trib they read the bible they read matthew 24 where it says after the tribulation you know they they read all these passages they read the bible for themselves they come to that you know that that determination by themselves and then they end up going to a church that doesn't believe that is that a doctrine that you should separate over no i don't think it is you know some and some people will make a big mistake and say no you should i don't believe that i i believe that you have the you have the responsibility to be in church because here's the thing if you decide if you decide that's going to be a a deal breaker for you as far as a church goes you're gonna have a hard time finding a baptist church you know you just narrowed your your your selection down quite a bit because a lot they all believe it the vast majority of them at least in america they believe it that by and large so what i'm talking about is the fact that you as a as a as somebody who's attending a local church you have the right and responsibility to choose whether or not you believe what is preached as doctrine by this church and go ahead and turn over to romans chapter 14 romans chapter 14 now that doesn't just mean that you just have a license to just teach whatever you want you know or to to uh you know object beyond reason for now you're going to make it a point of contention over some doctrine some trivial you know uh tertiary doctrine some peripheral doctrine that isn't one of the main tenets of the faith now you're now that's going to be your hobby horse we'll talk a little bit of that but you do as an individual have the right and the responsibility to either reject or accept the doctrine that is taught by a church look there in romans chapter 14 beginning in verse 1 where it says him that is weak in the faith receive he but not to doubtful disputations you know so if somebody comes in and they believe some weird doctrine or they if they've got something wrong in their doctrine biblically they're a little off on something the bible says it doesn't say to just reject that person out of hand and have nothing to do with them you know call them a heretic and beat them with the rod out the door you know and tell them never to come back no it says to receive them they're weak in the faith receive them you know give them time admonish them show them from the bible why they're wrong teach them allow them to grow let the let the preaching come across the pulpit and begin to correct them you know let that happen and receive them but not to doubtful disputations that's where that caveat comes in you know where somebody's going to come in and bring in a strange doctrine or a wrong doctrine that's fine but as long as it doesn't lead to doubtful disputation you know disputings people that are going to make contention out of it well i'm going to tell you why the earth is flat you know i believe the flat earth and by the time i'm done with this church everybody will you know ain't going to happen you know or or whatever strange doctrine that's out there today you know the nephilim you know the lizard people or bigfoot all these strange things that people that spend too much time on youtube get into and they want now they find a local church you know and they you know they're and they they go in there and now they have this doubtful disputation they're weak in the faith they're not church they're not read up in their bible you know they've been they've been up till two in the morning you know watching you know some conspiracy stuff or whatever and i'm all for that you know some of that stuff there's some good conspiracy videos out there but that's not the meat and potatoes of the christian life you know this is right here getting in this book and we should you know if we just spent more time on this getting into this we would have right doctrine so he says not to receive them to doubtful disputation so there is a line there you know where somebody if they're bringing in something and they're just making a point of contention they're not going to give it up after they've been corrected then you know then we have to sit sit down and have a talk but it goes on in verse two it says for one that believeth that he may eat all things another who is weak eateth herbs okay so specifically what he's talking about here is that there's some people are saying well you shouldn't eat meat you know they're vegetarians and he's saying you know that's fine let them be a vegetarian you know but don't let them impose that upon you don't make that a matter of you know dispute uh for one believeth that he may eat all things another now it is worth noting he who is weak eateth herbs right push the salad aside and have a double portion of meat right let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not you know if somebody says hey i don't eat meat don't despise that guy you know that's fine that's their choice and let not him which eateth judge not him not judge him that eateth so don't let the vegetarian come in and say hey why aren't you why are you eating meat don't you know that's murder you know don't let them go to the pescatarian i think that's what it is they only eat fish right is a pescatarian i don't know nobody here knows is it i got okay i got the head knot i'm good so the you know go hey just because you can't hear him scream doesn't mean it's not murder you know that fish has a life you think that's you laugh i've seen it people who are approaching people out in public fishing and saying that fish has a right to live and calling people out in public did anyone see that facebook video that guy just went off on that dude in the park i'm thinking man if i even if i felt that way i would first of all if guy's taking his time on his day off and he's down at the park and and he's he's fishing you know he might be he might be a little bit of an outdoorsman he might be one of those you know a little bit more of a rough neck i don't know if he'd be approaching strange men who are fishing and start running my mouth at him you never know he might be in there with the fishes before you know that didn't happen but this guy's just going off you know calling the cops throws the guy's fish back in after he catches it you know what's he doing he's judging him that that edith not you know he's despising him it's a doubtful disputation and it says therefore god hath received him so if it's a believer in christ if it's a brother in christ you know there's more important doctrines there's more important things that we need to focus on than some something as as silly as you know whether or not we're going to eat meat now it says there in verse four this is kind of the thrust of it who art thou that judges another man's servant to his own master he standeth or falleth so we should really be more concerned with what we believe and what we're going to decide we believe than what somebody else is believing right he goes on yay he shall be holding up for god is able to make him stand one steam with one day above another another esteem every day alike let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind you know don't be so if someone doesn't want to celebrate birthdays you know more cake for you you know then you don't have to give him a gift praise god right you know what a pain that is but i'm kidding but you know he's just saying look don't sit here and judge each other over you know some people and i've seen people coming to churches and say they're they're big they're whether or not i'm coming to church is whether or not you celebrate christmas do you put a christmas you know go to the pastor write him a letter you know i i i hear you celebrate christmas is that true you know i'd love to be a member here but if you guys decorate a tree on christmas i don't i don't know if i can do this yeah right or bacon yeah hit the road jack there's going to be bacon getting eaten around here you better believe it okay but people make these kind of silly things this is this is what makes or breaks their church membership you know they esteem one day above another they don't esteem the day the same way somebody else does or they they don't like the way somebody else assumes a certain day they say oh i can't believe you celebrate christmas you know it's pagan holiday so is everything else in the world i mean everything is pagan to these people so what it's showing us here is that we all have the right to act in accordance to our own conscience right in verse four who art thou that judges another man's servant to his own master he standeth or falleth you know every man shall give an account of himself to god so we should be more concerned with our own doctrine our own beliefs than we are what somebody else is believing and it also shows us that we have the right to act in accordance as our conscience dictates you know you know who you don't you don't owe me an explanation for why you believe what you believe you owe that to god and we'll get into why you know it's not such a big deal because if we're all believing the same book we're all going to end up believing the same thing for the most part by and large and there's going to be small things that we probably differ on but that's good that's healthy you know that's that means people are reading the bible they're thinking about what they're hearing they're thinking about their reading they're contemplating these things they're not just going along out of uh of just you know like robotically you know they're they're involved so you have the right to act in accordance to your own conscience you will answer to your own master you will stand or fall based on what you believe we don't have to go around policing one another in this area it says there in uh second corinthians 5 i'll read to you for you must all appear before the judgment seat of christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according that he hath done whether it be good or bad so it's not saying good bad is in the sense of sinful but what you know it's it's whether or not your works were were good and right the motivations were right or whether they weren't and uh you know it says that every we must all appear before the judgment seat of christ you know i you know your our pastor isn't going to just go and stand in our place for all of us you know and and he's going to be responsible for everything that everybody believed in his church you know we're all going to give an account for whether or not for the things that we did we're all going to rise or fall based on our own merit and god's going to hold us accountable as individuals therefore because god is going to hold you accountable as an individual you have the right as an individual to determine what it is that you believe the bible says look there in verse 12 so then every one of us shall give account of himself to god you know because i'm going to give an account to myself before god and i can't just say well brother so-and-so or pastor so-and-so told me so you know that's why he's gonna say no you should have known you should have figured that out that was your responsibility so yes individual soul it's a liberty it's a right but it's also a responsibility that we have before god you know if a doctrine or a practice is upheld by a church by a church that goes against what you personally believe you have the right to disagree because you're going to give an account to that now obviously that's within there you know you can't go overboard with that they're they're all because the fact is you know you might have the right to to uphold your own beliefs that are contrary to what the church teaches or what's taught across the pulpit but you also have to understand that the church or church leadership also has the right to draw lines and that cannot be crossed you know that well they have that right because they're you know we're going to give an account too and say look there's certain things that if you're going to go here you have to believe right and that that should go without saying you know but not every single thing you know if you're going to come here you should probably believe in the king james bible right right you know you're just you're going to get tired of it you're going to come here you're going to have to believe that salvation is by grace through faith right you know you don't have to you don't have to believe that to to to walk through the doors we'll we'll work on you you know come on in we'll work on that right but you're not going to go around soul winning telling people that faith is you know salvation is by works and be a part of this church because that is a damnable heresy and that's really where the line is drawn damnable heresies you know we're teaching people to sin that some sin is okay or excusable so there are lines that are drawn but you know within that there is space for us to disagree with one another we don't all have to believe the exact same thing on every little minutia of scripture and have every single little thing you know all lined up um that that's just not that's just it's it's it's unreasonable to think that and you have the right to disagree now if a church is going to say hey there's certain lines that you cannot cross there's certain things that you must believe those lines should be very clear they should be very distinct everyone should know where they are and i feel like you know if you're here at faithful word baptist church you know probably know where those lines are you know we've already talked about some salvation by grace through faith the king james bible the preservation of scriptures on so on and so forth i'm sorry what was that yeah oneness yeah we had to bring that up didn't we just in case you haven't figured it out yet you know if you deny the trinity or the eternal sonship of christ this church is not for you you know you can take your sorry carcass over to jacksonville florida and go hang out there you know i've heard that the doors are open so and anyway i don't want to go on about that um but yeah oneness is another one you know the nature of god you know there are certain things that you can't that you yeah you have to line up with the church but it's not because it's the church saying well that's just what we believe because that's because we just want to you know domineer and control your life you know it's because that's what the bible teaches because it could these things are couldn't be more crystal clear from the bible you know and and when you start you know changing the nature of who god is or what the nature of salvation is then yeah there's a problem there you know then we need to we need probably need to separate and go ways you know but the church what's really important but the reason we want to preach this and understand this is because you don't want to fall in the trap of letting a church dictate to you what you must believe in in these smaller areas of life and churches do this you know they'll say hey you should not read the bible for yourself well the bible says we should be reading the bible for ourselves there are some churches that will you know even outside of the baptist faith especially that will start to tell you that you have to believe this because we said so and it's not even a matter of what the scripture says this is secondary to them you have to believe this because this is what our church teaches and that's it bottom line well the bible doesn't say that we don't care well you know our our our church trumps the bible you know and that's not what we believe when we started out with biblical authority that was the b in baptist that is the foundation this book if it doesn't line up with this book then we throw it out we don't want anything to do with it so we should understand that the bible says i mean jesus rebuked people for this kind of an attitude you know the pharisees he called them hypocrites he said well did isaiah's prophesy of you saying this people dryeth nigh unto me with their mouth and honor me with their lips but their heart is vain is far from me but in vain they do uh worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men and that's really where the church has to draw the line for itself to say we can only teach the come we can only teach uh the doctrines of god we can only teach the commandments of men we cannot get up here and preach the commandments of men as the doctrines of god i can't get up here and say well this is my personal preference and you will have to abide by that you know this is my opinion and if you and i know i don't have a leg to stand on scripturally but if you want to come here you have to do the same thing and start teaching things that are our own opinions our own personal beliefs as the doctrines of god and that's what jesus was rebuking them for for teaching for doctrines the commandments of men that's not biblically based it's just something that our church made up so the church leadership they have to draw lines they the church has to draw lines of saying look this is this is a certain doctrine that we uphold that cannot be crossed you have to be within these bounds and they should be clear they should be distinct and they should also those lines should find their source and authority in scripture they shouldn't be these these doctrines of men that are just made up go ahead and turn over to first scranton's chapter 14 we're going to look at one particular doctrine that this would rubble a lot a lot of people the wrong way and this would rub the fur of the wrong way but as i've you know heard so eloquently spoken once if the if i'm rubbing the fur the wrong way the cat can turn around right because it's what the bible says so such lines such that the point i'm trying to make here is that when we teach something as a doctrine as saying this is the way it's going to be in this church it has to find its source in scripture this has to be the authority this is what we have to appeal to so look at first corinthians chapter 14 verse 34 let your women keep silence in the churches for it's not permitted under them to speak that that right there is going to set some people off that's going to set these people off right over here across the hall you know with their with their female preacher with their female pastor you know did they did they not read that in seminary or is it just this isn't their final authority and that they have their own doctrines that they're teaching so it's saying right there i mean that couldn't be any clearer it says they are to not to speak in the church and it goes on it says but they are commanded to be under obedience as i also say at the law if they will learn anything let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speak in the church so we as a church have the right to get up and say look there will never be a woman preacher behind this pulpit period because that's what the bible says i didn't write this and if people don't like that too bad you know that's what it says he says what came the word god out from you or came it unto you only if any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the things i write unto him are the commandments of the lord you know he's saying look you want to know if you're right with god or not you want to you know whether or not you're spiritual well then acknowledge this as the truth and there'd be a lot of people that are they're proclaiming themselves to be very spiritual today right but they're not acknowledging what paul wrote you know the joyce myers of the world and they want and they want to put themselves out these great preachers these great these prophetesses you know and these these just devout spiritual women but they don't acknowledge what paul wrote here in fact they have whole books written to to dismiss paul what paul really meant well paul was just a woman hater it was the culture they write these kind of things to dismiss this so that they can get up and preach so we see here again this is a perfect example of a church saying yes you have the right to believe as an individual as you see fit but there are certain lines that are very clear and distinct in scripture that cannot be crossed within a church and women keeping silent is a very clear command in scripture i mean it couldn't be any clear now what if we were to start dictating other behaviors about women in the church and saying it was it was the commandment that you must do it this way like saying in this church women will feed their their women in xyz manner you know they will pitch a tent in the parking lot and anytime they need to feed their child they will go in there they will wear a burka on the way to the tent and when they are in the tent they may remove the burka and then feed their child right if we were to start saying something like that then that would be out of line right and here's the other here's the other other extreme you know other other we can't sit here and say well you know you must you i don't want to get into it a lot because it's really not it's not really a we'll spend a lot of time on it but we can't sit here and dictate how women are going to feed their children in a church that's right and how they're not whether they're gonna they're gonna breastfeed uncovered or covered that's your personal preference you know and you get to decide how you want to do that and i'm not going to get up and you say well i say that because there's been churches that do that let's say you must go to the broom closet and go sit in the bathroom stall and and and make sure no one knows what's going on in there when you feed your child i mean it's ridiculous these churches they're so squeamish about it this is a whole subject you know that we could probably get into a little bit tonight with this idea of thinking that that you you know it's some kind of a sin to to breastfeed your child publicly it's not okay and the church can't get up and tell you that it is because they have no scriptural basis for that that's your personal preference and i can't teach that as the commandment of god now what's interesting here is verse 36 and it says this in verse 36 what came the word of gout out from you or came it unto you only doesn't really answer that does he when we think about that question in the context here he's saying look did the word of god come out from you what's the answer to that no it didn't you don't get to just make up whatever you think that the bible says or came unto you unto you only look the word only came unto us we could only come to it and see what it says and determine what we believe based on what it says i can't go well i can't come to you and say well i'm speaking to you the words of god and tell you whatever i believe and say well this is this is scripture this is authority the word came unto us only and uh that question you know determines the authority and that the authority is scripture and not our own selves so he says there he answers and says the things that i write unto you are the commandments of the lord you know the things that i'm writing the word that's coming to you these are the commandments of the lord and they're very clear aren't they and if we're spiritual we're going to acknowledge them we're going to say the things that paul wrote this book are the things of the lord these are the commandments of god and that's how we're going to determine what we believe and that's how you're going to have for the most part by and large harmony and unity in a church is when we all agree that this is our authority from the pulpit to the pew and everywhere in between if we all let this be our final authority then everything's going to fall into place you know we're all going to end up believing for the most part everything the same way and the things that we differ on are probably going to be matters of our own personal preference and it says there if we if we are spiritual acknowledge them but the fact is if somebody refuses it what does he say about them but if verse 38 but if any man be ignorant let him be ignorant you know don't don't kowtow don't bend don't say don't try to well maybe you know change what the bible says to appease somebody else who's just being ignorant just let him be ignorant in that area so what he says there when he's saying if any man be ignorant let him be ignorant you know what that means is that you have the right to be wrong that's what you have in a church you know that's what individual soul liberty means you have the right to determine what you believe for yourself and that means you have the right to be wrong and you know what we're no one's going to have it right all the time none of us sometimes we're going to go to the bible and and and get something wrong and this is just something to keep in mind because you know as the church grows and we have more people and in and i've seen this especially in phoenix where new guides come in and they and and people have a fresh look on things and someone will preach something or say something they'll be talking about the bible and then somebody will kind of just will will challenge that person on their interpretation of a scripture and people get so touchy about it because because you know they've just had this long-held belief about what they think a certain passage means and then somebody challenges them a little bit on that and you know they instantly want to say well this guy's being heretical or this guy's just like well no maybe maybe that guy has a clear understanding you know that's the great thing about fresh blood in a church or people who are new to the faith coming in you know people that have been reading the bible and taught the bible and have come to just kind of be set in their ways like this is how this passage is interpreted there's only one way to understand this or they just have some kind of conception about what this passage means you know they kind of get set in their ways and they never they can never maybe see the a deeper meaning or a different meaning or the maybe even the correct meaning in some instances and then some fresh blood comes in there's someone who's read the bible maybe just a few times and they've got they don't have preconceived notions about a passage and then they challenge somebody on that you know that's a good thing we should allow people to challenge us on scripture now i'm not saying if someone wants to come to you and say well was jesus eternally the son of god you know we that's a line that we're not going to cross we've already determined that you know is god three persons or just one or whatever is salvation by faith or is it you know works involved is it predestination you know that there are certain lines but if someone wants to come to you and challenge you on you know some interpretation of some passage or some some meaning of something you know not that doesn't mean that you should just cast them off you know we should allow we should hear what they're saying and maybe consider it in the light of scripture so you have the right to be wrong you have the right to be corrected you have the right to to disagree you know i'm not saying if you disagree you're automatically wrong but i'm just saying you have that right to be to believe what you want and you should develop your beliefs and how what you believe your life based on your understanding of the scripture that's what it boils down to that you as an individual you need to determine what you believe for yourself you know by all means use the preaching by all means use the reading of the word of god to determine that but at the end of the day you can't just say well i believe that because pastor so-and-so believes that because that's what faithful word teaches that's the only reason you believe it well what if we change on something not that we're ever going to but what if we did make some major change on some you know very important essential doctrine are you going to change with us or have you determined what you believe for yourself you have the right to do that you have the responsibility of that you need to base your life and your understand on the understanding your understanding of scripture that's why the bible says in second timothy kind of get ahead of myself here but it says study to show thyself approved unto god a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth it said study to show thyself approved you need to study to show yourself approved you know the bible says that the the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets you know the guy who's getting up and preaching he's subject to i'm subject to you you know paul praised the barians because they searched the scriptures daily to see whether these these things be so he said they're more noble than those in thessalonica because they didn't just hear what paul said and said well i must settle it they went oh that's what he said and then they they searched the scripture said you know he's right or you know maybe maybe get i'll get up and say something you'll go home and read the bible say i don't know if i necessarily agree with that you know you have the right to do that uh you have the responsibility to do that i mean that's why god gave us the church that's why he gave us as it says in ephesians 4 apostles and prophets evangelists pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints you know we should be hearing the things that we hear we should hear the preaching we should receive it and then we should study for ourselves to see whether these things be so so you have the you have that liberty as an individual to determine for yourself what you believe but again as i've already touched upon you're not at liberty to preach heresy that's where the lion is drawn you know the bible says in titus 3 uh a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject you know we love to apply that out soul winning and it applies but that's within the church walls too you know somebody comes in here and they start preaching heresy they're going to get two admonitions and then it's going to be well there's the door and you say well what are the heresies well we'll cross that bridge when we come to it you know if you're worried that you're preaching a damnable heresy just let's find out you're probably not though right you know i mean you have that liberty you have a liberty up to a point you can't go around just preaching blatant heresy and here's another thing you're not at liberty live in willful sin you know if you say well i don't think that's a sin what i'm doing and it is a sin well that's just my personal belief that's just my i have that liberty no the church has very clear things that you there are certain things that are not allowed or tolerated within the church in first corinthians 5 and there's that's been talked about discussed at length you can go read it for yourself i'm sure we're all familiar with with with those things you're not at liberty live in willful sin does that mean you have to be sinless and perfect no but there are certain things that you cannot be found guilty of as a church member you or you will be disciplined for the bible says in galatians 5 for brethren you've been called unto liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh you know don't use this liberty that you have in christ to think that well since i'm not going to be condemned for my sin and being condemned to hell that i can just live however i want with no consequences there are going to be consequences there will be consequences even within the local church so you have the right to to believe as you see fit and there are certain lines that are drawn you know heresy willful sin you know certain sins and then you know there's also you shouldn't be going around you know trying to force others to believe against their will you know that's that's really what it kind of boils down to that's what liberty is all about is that we all have the right to believe as we see fit and we don't have to all try to just pry each other into our another person's mold and say you have to be just like me in every regard you know my christmas tree is approximately this high you know i get i get uh what kind do we get is the evergreen i don't know we get the conifer i don't know i don't know what it is we get one of those ones from oregon you know those really nice ones you know and so that's the christmas tree you have to have you know and i like silver tinsel and we only use the red bulbs and uh you know i can't this is this is the kind of things that people do though they they get into these strange things where they want to make everybody believe exactly like them on every little thing that's just not practical and it's not reality if you're there if i probably didn't keep anything ever go back to romans chapter 14 romans chapter 14 you have the right to believe what you want within to a certain degree you could still believe whatever you want but you'll just suffer the consequences if you cross certain lines that's what it comes down to but you also have the responsibility to to make sure that what you're believing is correct that the things that you're being taught are correct that you're you're weighing these things out that you're searching the scriptures it says in romans 14 verse 13 let us not therefore judge one another anymore but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way so instead of sitting here trying to make everybody do everything that the way we want it done we should probably be more concerned that what we're doing isn't being you know going to cause somebody else to fall you know and that within the context of you know going back to eating meat paul said if meat causes my brother to offend i you know he wouldn't eat meat for the to the end of the world and he said i'll stop i'll quit eating you know i became to all men i became all things to all men you know if if me eating meat you know we know that meat meat sacrificed unto an idol is nothing we know that an idol is nothing but if some brother is weak in the in the faith sees us eating meat sacrificed onto an idol and that this isn't happening in united states but it is applicable in other parts of the world and he says whoa this guy's claiming to be a christian but he's eating this meat well in that case for conscience sake not for meat's sake for that not our own conscience but the conscience of a weak brother in the faith we should abstain so go ahead and have your personal beliefs but don't feel like don't go forcing them on others because it might cause somebody else to offend you know if you have something a way you like doing things or you interpret scripture a certain way as long as it's not damnable heresy as long as it's not leading others into sin you know that's fine if it's going to cause somebody else to stumble maybe just keep it to yourself maybe just say hey you know what if i if i if i start talking to this guy he's weak in the faith this is just going to confuse him this is going to cause him to stumble then maybe we don't need to go and try and force everybody to believe you know let me tell you where the let me tell you where the preacher's wrong let me tell you i got it wrong you know we don't we don't need to go around doing that now if i get up here and preach something that's completely heretical by all means call me out by all means get on the horn with pastor anderson and say hey he's teaching oneness which is never going to happen down here never so yeah um go and turn over psalms 119 psalms 119 because here's the thing if we all agree that the bible is our final authority by and large we're all going to believe the same thing and that's why i know i as as overseeing this body down here don't have feel like i have to go to every individual and make sure that you line up with everything you know and say well what do you believe about this what do you believe about that what do you believe about this you know i'll just get up and preach what the bible says and if it's a point if i if it's something that you just can't abide or can't tolerate then you know there's other churches but here's the thing if we all believe the bible we're all gonna end up on the same page for the most part he says in psalm 119 verse 45 and i will walk at liberty for i seek thy precepts you know you're going to have liberty when you're in the word of god you know you you have that liberty and i'm not worried about people in this church coming up with strange and weird doctrines and and doubtful disputations if they're reading their bibles if they're saved they have the holy spirit and they're faithful to reading their bibles it's it's all going to fall into place now we're going to read passages that we don't understand we're going to read things that we don't fully comprehend and that's fine you don't have to get everything at this you know all at once but for the most part you know everyone's going to end up on the same page so the point of the sermon is this the individual soul of liberty is just teaching us that you need to believe and practice that which is right you have the right to determine what you believe is correct and you need to believe that for yourself you need to practice that for yourself and if we do that you know we're going to agree on the most important subjects all the real important ones that those lines that can't be crossed not worried about it we're all going to end up on the same page because we're all reading this book and we're all love his precepts we all seek his precepts so believe and practice that which is right you know and the rest will will fall into place let's go ahead and pray