(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you I I you you you you you and you Amen. All right, welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church this morning. This is, of course, the final day of our fundamentalist Baptist conference. So, glad you can be with us. We heard a lot of great preaching over the past few days. Thursday night, we had Pastor Enrique Reyes from Spring Crest Baptist Church with us. Preached a great sermon, and then, of course, Bruce Mejia, Pastor Mejia from First Works Baptist Church out in LA, preached for us on Friday. We had a soul-winning marathon yesterday, so we're closing up today with this conference. So, all the sermons tonight, or this morning, and this evening will be fundamentalist-focused. Of course, every sermon is a fundamentalist sermon because we're a fundamental Baptist church, but we're focusing more on the fundamentals of this conference. So, let's see. Let's open up here to the first page. You'll see our service times, as always, Sunday morning at 10.30. Sunday evening, again, at five o'clock. Wednesday night, seven, is our Bible study. We'll be in Jeremiah chapter eight this week. We've got the soul-winning opportunities listed there, as well as the salvations and the baptisms for the month of August, as well as for the year. And if you wanna just flip over to the other page, you can see the results of our soul-winning yesterday, since we're talking about soul-winning anyways. I have the fundamentals conference, but the soul-winning results, we had 85 soul-owners show up, 85 people, that includes families, children, everybody. Everyone that came here yesterday, 85 people, and 43 salvations for the day. So, praise the Lord for that. Put in a whole day's worth of soul-winning. Some groups had a little bit harder than others, but you put in a whole day of effort, 43 people call in the name of the Lord. So, praise God for that really good effort. Appreciate everybody who's put in the time, and people who continue to put in time. Even if you weren't here yesterday, but you still come out with us at church, you go and join the soul-winning, that's what it's all about, is trying to reach people with the gospel of Christ. So, we're really trying to make a difference. We're really trying to help seek and save that which is lost in our area. So, if you don't know, or if you haven't been soul-winning with us, maybe you're visiting with us, come and join us. We have opportunities, and just at least see what we do. If you have any interest at all, come and join us and see what it's all about. We can show you how we approach people, how we open up, talk about the gospel of Christ, and how we show them how to be saved out of the scripture, and help them to understand the freeness of salvation, and the eternal life gift that's available to them. So, that being said, I'm gonna count up anything other than yesterday, the big marathon. If you have salvation numbers to report, slip your hand up real quick, and then just tell me what day we got some salvations, and I'll get those added to the list. So, there's four, is that from Friday? Okay, thank you for that. Brother Andrew? One on Tuesday. Another one Friday. And four more on Friday, amen. Okay, I was waiting before, I'm adding up all the Friday numbers, going like, okay, wait, was that Friday too? One on Thursday. Yes, sir, two on Friday. Amen, amen, amen. Friday's a good day. Anyone else have anything to report? Excellent, all right, very good. Keep up the good work. Outside of, you know, in these big days, while they're great, you know, the bulk of the numbers come from just random days, people going out and staying consistent week after week after week after week. So, I encourage you, if you only come out so many on days where there's big events, try to add, just put, make it part of your schedule to go out on a regular basis. You know, even if you go out once and see five salvations or 10 salvations, that's awesome, that's great, but if that's all you ever do, like maybe once a year, well, if you went out regularly week after week, you would see a lot more people saved over the time. If it's just one here, one there, sometimes you go out, nobody gets saved. Hey, that's just the way it is, but just staying faithful, staying consistent is how you really see the good results and we end up having good numbers, so, very good. All right, offering totals received through the month of August are listed down there, and then today at one o'clock, we've got the sword drills, Bible memory, trivia, kids, hopefully you've worked on your Bible memory passage, we got prizes available for all these contests and these activities, so stick around after service, one o'clock, you'll be able to join Brother Lance in the back of the auditorium and participate in that. Prayer requests, I forgot to add Brother Seth Johnson to the list, I intended on doing that and I'd missed it, so please pray for Brother Seth, he is going to, where, the Amazon, is that? I'm sorry, Ecuador, Ecuadorian rainforest. You say, what? I know, I don't know, but he's going there, he's gonna be flying these little tiny planes and they're doing some video work for a missions group, which, it actually sounds really cool, though, he was just telling me about it before service today, they're doing, they're gonna be recording in 360 video, so you kinda see from the eyes of the missionaries what it's like to go to the jungle and do the missionary work that that group is doing there, where you can put on a VR headset or whatever and kinda look around and get the whole experience of being out in that environment and what it's all about, so it's really interesting, I think it's super cool, but we wanna pray for his safety, first and foremost, and also the opportunity to be able to preach the gospel and get someone saved, he's going to area, he doesn't know the language of the people they're going to, but there's gonna be some people who speak English there, so just pray that God will give him the boldness and the opportunities to witness to the people he's with, in case any of them aren't saved already, then they can hear the gospel and get saved, so we wanna pray for his safety, though he's leaving tomorrow, tomorrow morning, he's heading out, so we'll pray for him, and then, I don't know, we had an update on Delaney Gorman that she did finally get a doctor's appointment, which is really good, because there's not many doctors that treat her problem, her autonomic dysfunction that she has, so we'll pray that that goes really well and that they're able to identify how they can give her a good treatment and provide her some relief. Is there any other updates for people on the list? Brother Logan, how is Kelly doing? Is she any better at all? Is she a little bit? A lot? Oh, good, amen. Amen, I'm glad to hear that. We'll continue to pray for her, but I'm really happy to hear that she's doing a lot better than she had been. I know it shows a real big deal for her, so thank you for that good news. Anyone else have any updates for people who are on the prayer list? Yes, ma'am. For the hernia? For the hernia? Other appointment? Okay, when is the hernia treatment? This week? Oh, in Florida, okay. Right. What kind of treatment? Okay, for that, okay. Yeah, so of course continue to pray for Vanda Martin. She was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia and she's gonna receive treatment this week, so pray that that goes well and we'll solve that problem and then of course continue to pray for her. She's got a neurological doctor appointment for the end of the month, so pray for her there. Anything else to update on? All right, very good. Please remember to, oh, and then I added Spring Crest Baptist Church there. That's Pastor Raya's church that was here on Thursday. They're also in Houston. We've been praying for Pure Words in Houston, but we'll pray for both of those churches that together they'll be able to reach that whole area. Houston's a big city, so a lot of work to be done there and pray that God will bless their ministry as well. Please remember to take these home with you. Take a picture of it on your phone. Prayer is really, really important and many of the people on here, all the people on here need your prayers. That's why we have them on the list, right? So please, please, please remember to be praying for our church and for those people who are on our list here. All right, continuing on, we went over the results from the soul winning of the conference and that was just awesome. Really, really excited about that. September challenge, so we do challenges every month. August was the one month that we had this year where we didn't have a challenge, so that was your break and August is almost over, so I hope you enjoyed your break. Hopefully you didn't just backslide completely through the month of August, but we focus on various aspects of the Christian life every month and put a challenge in to challenge you to try to make sure these different areas of your life are really thriving and just to do maybe a little bit extra. It's that little extra push. It's easy to fall into routines. I think routines are good. I think it's good to have your schedule on how you do stuff, but you don't want to always just get stuck in a routine because you'll find out that oftentimes we could end up doing a little bit more. So you gotta push yourself a little bit. You gotta make things work. You gotta put in the time and say, you know what? I think I've been doing it this way forever, but maybe I can do a little bit more. That's what the challenges are about to try to push you to do a little bit more and sometimes you can't maintain that for all the time. I get it, but like we have a soul winning challenge in June where you gotta try to give the gospel to one person every single day of the month. Yeah, that might be kind of hard to keep up for a lifetime, but hey, wouldn't it be great if you could? If you find a way to do it and you take opportunities and you seize them every day to be able to try to give somebody the gospel, like amen. So this month though, it's just a church attendance and I think it's a real simple challenge, but that's because I already have to be here. So it's easy for me to say, yep, easy challenge, three times a week. Every time we have church services, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. So a challenge for you is to attend church three times a week. And many people don't live here. Some people travel longer distance to come here, but if that's the case, find a church that you can attend. Find a good church to go to. I appreciate you coming here. We love you, want you to keep coming to our church, of course, but going to church, the reason why we do is because a church attendance is important, right? The Bible says that you're not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as a matter of some is, but so much the more as you see the day approaching, like we need to be treating church important and even more as the times get more wicked, the days are more evil. The culture seems to just be in dramatic decline. It's that much more important to be in the house of God, amongst God's people, hearing the word of God, singing praises to God, right? It's that much more important to be here. So that's why we're doing this church attendance challenge three times a week. That's how often we have church. So see if you could hit this challenge for this month and who knows, you might even like it. I hope so. All right, men's preaching class, September 7th, 10 a.m. right here. So we're looking for all men are welcome to attend our preaching class. I'll be teaching a class and if you want to preach, plan on a five to 15 minute sermon, depending on how many people here is how much time you'll get and the only caveat here is you must be a sole winner if you want to preach. So you have to already be preaching the gospel to participate in the class. So I hope to see you on September 7th, Bible memory passage. We're about halfway through Hebrews 12. So we're on verses 13 and 14 this week. Of course, you'll get a prize if you could quote that passage word perfect. And then we've got the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries through the end of August as well as through most of September, if not all of September. Does anyone have a birthday here that I missed for either the end of August or September that's not on the list? Stratton, you're out. Dom, when? The 10th of August? Okay. I'm gonna, thank you. Ms. Liliana, I appreciate that. And was I, yes, sir. Oh, 17th, okay, very good. Yes, the 13th is your birthday. That's the same birthday as my son. Awesome. All right. So you will, thank you. We're getting caught up on our records, I'll tell you what. Anyone else? This is why it's a good thing to do this, right? Especially before the month starts. All right, very good. I will update the records with all these and get these printed in the bulletin for next week. Appreciate that. Of course, on the back, you've got a spot for sermon notes. I encourage you to make use of that. So you should always be ready to hear, ready to learn. When you come to church, have a heart that's soft, have ears that are open, ready to hear what you can learn from the Word of God, but at the same time, don't just be a blind follower of what you hear. Compare everything against the Word of God. Every human being's capable of making mistakes. I'm capable of making mistakes. I'm not trying to intentionally deceive you, but you know what, if I say something that's wrong, it's up to you to make sure that you catch that and say, no, no, wait, that's not right. So make notes, follow up on the scripture, and learn today. That's about all I have for announcements. I'm gonna turn the service back over to Brother Will who can lead us in our next song. Let's start with song number 24. The psalm's gonna be on the first page. And gave me what I should gain. An interest in the Savior's blood. I think for me who caused this pain. I think for me who caused this pain. For me who hid through death's pursuit. Amazing love, how can it be? That thou, my God, shouldst die for me. That thou, my God, shouldst die for me. Amazing love, how can it be? That thou, my God, shouldst die for me. He left his father's throne above. So free, so infinite, his grace. Emptied himself of all but love. And bled for Adam's helpless race. Didst die for me. His mercy, all immense and free. For, oh my God, it found out me. Amazing love, how can it be? That thou, my God, shouldst die for me. For me, all my embrace, I fear it lay. Past bound in sin and nature's night. Light I diffuse the winning grain. I woke the dawn of the day. And complained with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose with hope and followed thee. Amazing love, how can it be? That thou, my God, shouldst die for me. This is 1 Peter 4, which reads, My life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excessive wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead? For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit. But the end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober and watch in a prayer, and above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever, amen. Beloved, think not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you, on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf, for the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first began at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful creator, let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this day, thank you for allowing us to come together and to worship you and to sing praises to your name. Thank you for this conference, thank you for this church, Lord, and please bless pastor, fill him with your spirit, give him clarity of mind and the words to say, give us ears to hear and to apply it to our lives that we can go out better serving you, giving honor to your name, in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. All right, very good. So I'm glad to have you again here with us for the final day of our fundamentalist conference. And of course, if you were here for Pastor Mejia's sermon, I liked one of the points he made, he opened up his sermon as well. Fundamentalists are different, so hopefully you're here because you are an independent, fundamental Baptist yourself, right? So I like using the tags, I don't mind the labels. You know, some people are like, oh man, don't label me. I get it, you know, we're all unique individuals, but at the same time, labels are very helpful and very useful. I like the labels because people who share very similar ideas and thoughts can label themselves as something and then you can find other people that believe something very similar, right? So just the term Baptist, right, the Baptist faith in a broad sense, there are some things that you would come to expect if you were gonna go to a Baptist church, right? And you should have some level of expectation of how things run, of what the beliefs are, what the doctrine is. Yes, there's a variety of beliefs and doctrines in the broad sense of the Baptist faith, of people who call themselves Baptist, but that's why we add a few more labels. Independent Baptist, okay, well now I understand that you shouldn't be part of a denomination of a greater organizational structure other than the local church having the full authority within that church, right? So that's one label that, hey, independent Baptist, that's great, I don't want any outside influences that actually control what can or cannot be said or preached or taught within a church because now you're part of this other group that has these governing powers or maybe is sending money and has other influence over the church. We don't want that, we want an independent church, but not just an independent church, we're an independent fundamental Baptist church. So this conference we're focusing on kind of what does it mean to be fundamental and what are some of the aspects of fundamental churches and this morning I'm gonna be preaching on the fundamental Baptist standards because one thing that you'll find, hopefully, if you're going to an IFB, independent fundamental Baptist church, is that these types of churches will try to hold to particular standards in your day-to-day life. Within the church, yes, but also outside of the church that we try to hold a high level of standard in our life and that is something I know when I was trying to figure out, when I got saved personally, it was quite a while ago now, 27 years ago plus, and I didn't get saved from somebody coming to my door from a church. I got saved because I called on the name of the Lord, like everyone gets saved, you call out in faith, but I didn't have someone there to guide me through it when we go out and talk to people. I'd heard the truth, I'd been trying to find the truth, and then one night I decided to call on Jesus, get saved, but I didn't have, that being said, it's because after that, after I was saved, I didn't really know exactly where I should be going to church, I started reading my Bible a little bit and I wanted to grow, but I didn't have any good direction. But over the years, I would hear different things, kind of talking to the family members, friends, and trying to figure out where the truth resided. Because when I got saved, my thought was, I felt like I kind of, I joined the club of Christianity, whereas previously, I was raised, for those of you who don't know, I was raised in a Presbyterian church, so it's a Christian household, and we went to church every week, every Sunday we'd go to church, and I didn't reject it, and I wasn't like a bad kid, I would go and I would sit there and whatever they wanted me to do, I would do, but it was never like my faith. Now if you would have asked me, hey are you a Christian? I'm sure I would have just said yes. I mean, it's just how I was raised, right? But it wasn't anything really serious about like, oh, I actually believe this, right? It was just a matter of, well, you know, you teach kids things and whatever, they're just gonna tell you stuff, but it wasn't really real for me until later on, I started getting older and I started questioning things, going, well, what's the purpose of life? Why am I here? There's all this stuff that you start thinking about, that's when I really started challenging, well, what do I really believe? And started trying to figure out, like, well, what is it? And then of course I got saved. I realized, oh, the Bible is true. The Bible is true, it's the word of God, amen, right? Jesus is the savior, amen, well, that's good. So then at that point, I just kind of felt like, oh, okay, cool, I knew there's all these different denominations and stuff, but I just felt like, well, they're just all saved, because they're all Christians, and I was the dumb one who didn't understand, right? Like, I just didn't get it, and I just kind of felt like everyone else got it, I didn't, and now the light went on, I was like, oh, okay, cool, I'm a Christian now, because now I have these beliefs, but after a little bit more time in being introduced to other things and kind of reading stuff and hearing different things, I started to realize that, like, oh, wait, no, actually, no, not everybody believes the same things, and amongst Christianity, there's some very significant differences, right, especially when it comes to salvation and things like that, to where, oh, wait, some people actually aren't even, they call themselves Christians, but they're not saved, and they could have sincere beliefs, and they could really claim Jesus, but they're still not saved, because they don't have the right belief, right? So over time, again, I just sorta came to the conclusion that, well, the fundamental Baptists seem to have it the most right, they've got it, you know, fundamentalism, at least for me, makes the most sense, and I would say this first, no matter what your religion is, right, just, you should be a fundamentalist, because you're just going to the root and not trying to twist things and make things say other things, and it's just like, the weak, watered-down version of anything kinda angers me a little bit. It's just like, what's the point? What's the point of claiming you believe something if you don't really believe it, right? What's the point of saying you believe the Bible if you don't really believe the Bible? You know what I mean? So it's kinda like, look, like for the Mormons, for example, hey, if you're a Mormon, just be a Mormon, right? Follow the crazy teachings of all the false prophets that taught the polygamy and the racism and all, like, look, if you're just gonna embrace something, then just get all the way in, right? Just be a fundamentalist. Go join Jeff Owens and, is that his name, right, the Owens guy that's in prison now? I don't know, whatever his name is. I used to know, I lived in Arizona, and that was a bigger thing out there, but it's kinda like, he's following it to the letter of his predecessors, of Joseph Smith, right, founder of Mormonism. If you're in Islam, right, be a fundamentalist. I mean, hey, death to the infidels, right? Like, just go full on. Those are the people who are really taking it serious. Now, obviously, I don't endorse religious religions. The point is just, like, if you're going to believe something, like, take it for what it says. Like, if you're gonna believe the word of God, if you're gonna believe the Bible, it says a lot of things. Why don't you just believe what it says? So, the fundamentalist, to me, it's just kinda like, that just makes sense. If I'm gonna believe this is the word of God, let's just believe it all. And the fundamentalists do the best job at trying to follow the word of God as it's written. So, in my journey, that just made sense to me. Of course, I figured out about the King James Bible, too. Someone had given me information about that. Oh, that makes sense, too. One Bible. Why does God want us reading a whole bunch of different Bibles that say different things? It sounds like confusion to me. Like, boy, mine says this. Well, this says this. It's just kinda like, what does it mean? I don't know. One Bible, be unified in the faith. Yeah, sure, that makes sense. He gave it to us once. People put in a lot of effort, did a lot of work to make sure we got a faithful translation in our language. Why do we have to keep on coming out with new ones every year? Sounds like the love of money to me. But one of the things I noticed in my journey, in my visiting different churches and coming to this conclusion, though, and one of the things that stood out is that, you know, fundamental Baptists also hold a higher standard, a higher standard of living, what we call separation from the world. And it's not just to put on a show. It's not to just make yourself different for the sake of being different, or, and as we shouldn't be, a holier-than-thou type of a person, right? Now, a holier-than-thou type of person, that's an attitude. Okay, your heart, your attitude doesn't always match your life and your exterior, right? Now, they should. Our heart, our life should match the exterior, like all of it should be in sync with each other. But oftentimes, that's not the case, and we don't ever need to be lifted up in pride. So I'm starting out just kind of talking about this, and we're gonna talk about the spirit which we should have, which is the whole reason why we have the standards that we have. So I'll bring up a few examples of standards that we try to hold. There's too many to preach in one sermon anyways. We wanna hold a high standard in every aspect of our life, because we wanna be the most pleasing to God. We wanna be the best workers. We wanna live as much as possible without reproach. We wanna, you know, hey, let's do it to the best. But it's because your heart is right because of what the Bible teaches about our spirit and how we ought to be striving to live. That's the reason. That's the fundamental reason. The heart of it is where our spirit should be. Now, there's no doubt that we are different because we are saved, and every saved person should be living different, because when you get saved, there is a fundamental change that takes place within you. Because the Bible says, but as many as received him, to them gave me power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. When you believe on the name of Christ, there is a fundamental change inside of you. There is a new creature that is born inside of you. As 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, you don't have to turn or stay in 1 Peter 4. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. As a believer, look, things are new. Old things are passed away. All the, you're a new creature in Christ. So as a new creature, now we have to figure out, well, how should I be as a child of God? Not a child of the world, a child of God. There's a difference, and there ought to be a difference, and God wants there to be a difference. And people ought to be able to see a difference. And it's shameful when there isn't a difference. And unfortunately, there are, and this is, again, a contrast between fundamental Baptist churches and other churches. Other churches will teach, well, no, you wanna be just like everybody, right, to try to reach them and be friendly and all this other stuff, and that's how you're gonna lead people to Christ. No, now look, am I for being friendly? Absolutely. Should we be looking down our noses at people? No, no. We wanna reach people, right? We're gonna have tact, we're gonna have love, but we need to hold a standard to God. Amen. And if people get offended at that standard, that's their problem. And that will be a struggle when you start implementing standards in your life, is that other people will start judging you and being mad at you for holding standards. It happens, I would say, every single time. Unless you're brought up in a family that's already a whole bunch of fundamental Baptists, you will have other people starting to criticize you for your standards, and it's crazy. I know when I first started going to a fundamental church, and especially with my family and my wife, who was newly saved before we got married, we get married and we start having kids, and we're raising them a certain way. We have dress standards for ourselves. And look, these are all standards for us, mind you. We don't watch the Hollywood stuff. We don't drink booze. We don't do all these other things. And then it's like, sure enough, you've got people trying to criticize you for your standard. And what do we get slanderously reported as? Like, oh yeah, you're so legalistic, and you're always telling people, you're looking down, you're like, no, we're not doing any of that. We're not looking down at people. We're not telling you how to live your life. But just by being a fundamentalist and trying to make my own changes in our own lives, other people have a problem with that. Even Christians. Like, why is that? Why do I think that is? Well, here's why I think that is, because I think that people get a little convicted when they see someone else doing things that they're not doing that they probably should be doing. Deep down, they know it. And then they want to lash out at you for doing those things. That's my opinion. Obviously, that's not necessarily the case for every single person, but it seems to be the way it goes, right? But when you decide to be, no, I'm gonna be a fundamentalist, we want to make the changes. Hey, I'm a new creature. I want to really know what it is that God would have for me to do in this life. And obviously, there's some things that are more important than others, and the most important thing is what's on the inside. And that's why we're starting with that, and that's what I'm gonna go into. But because of that, because of what's on the inside, because of the fundamental truths here that we're gonna look at, that's why we make standards for ourselves in our life, so that we could be pleasing to God because we love God and we care about it. Because this isn't just a book of like, oh, yeah, people say, oh, yeah, it's a basic instructions before leaving Earth, which, yeah, I mean, I don't have a problem with that particularly, except that most of the people that will say that don't really follow the instructions. It's nice to say, but are you really looking at it like it's an instruction set, or is it just kind of more guiding principles to help you out a little bit? No, let's look at it and treat it as the word of God. As it is, it's not the word of men, it's the word of God. And if you're really serious about something, especially, it's like, take a step back and think, no, this is the word of God. Like God, God the creator, God almighty, God who gives you breath, God who saved your soul has something for you. So before you just get caught up in the chore of having to read your Bible every day, like all these fundamental Baptists telling me I gotta read my Bible every day, it's their standard. Right, that's one attitude, that's one heart. You could otherwise just think about it and be like, hey, God actually cared enough to preserve word for me that he used men to deliver what he would want us to know, and has kept that saved, and has kept that sanctified, and has kept that throughout ages, and has allowed it to be translated in the language that I speak. Hey, maybe I'm gonna look at this really carefully and see what God would have me to do with my life. That's the spirit, that's why we hold the standard, that's why we look to where God said, hey, you oughta be reading the word of God every day because you oughta have your ears open to God daily seeking what he would have for you to do. It's not about the standard of, you just have to check a box and say, whoop, okay, I read my Bible today. No, it's to have the right heart, to have the right attitude, to revolutionize your life, to be right with the Lord, because we care about it. If you're just keeping standards because you're forced to, you're missing the point together. And kids, listen up, you have to follow what your parents say for you to do. But understand and learn this, okay, the standards that your parents are trying to have you do are good for you and what we all care about most as parents is that you understand the heart behind the standard. We want you to understand and learn that, that it's not just these rules of do's and don'ts, it's we want you to love God, we want you to love the word of God and to take it seriously in your life. And because of that and because what we see in here, God loves you, he wants the best in your life. He wants you to live a good, successful life here on earth. And he loves you more than anybody. God loves you more than your parents do. God has a love that we can't, we're incapable of. God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It's a love that goes beyond our love. So know that and when you know that, you could look at his instruction and be like, okay, I'm gonna take this seriously because God loves me so much. And even if you don't fully understand it, know if I can follow this, if I could look to the word of God and try to understand what God would have me to do, you will have a very successful life, you have the best life that you could possibly have here on this earth. Guiding principles. 1 Peter 4, I love this passage, it gives us some of the spirit by which we should be living. Look at verse number one, the Bible reads, for as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. So this is talking about a mind change, a shift in your mind to, hey, Christ didn't sin, Christ wasn't a sinner. We ought to cease from sin because we're dead with Christ. Christ was crucified for us, but if you're saved, hey, you're dead with Christ. And as he was resurrected, so shall we be also in that day. But let's keep reading here. So we should not be living the rest of our time in the flesh to the lusts of men, right? Just to satisfy your lusts, whatever feels good, whatever's gratifying, just to give yourself to that, he says, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it's strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. So this is pointing out that when you get saved, you shouldn't any longer be going the way of the world. The way of the world is the drunkenness and the banquetings, the excess of wine, the lusts, these idolatries that is normal in the world. For the unsaved world, all of these things, it's just normal, just part of life. And they look at you and they think, you're like, that's odd, how come you're not going out with us? Hey, the whole office is getting together, we're going out to the bar, we're gonna go to happy hour, it's gonna be a lot of fun, we're gonna have some drinks, why don't you come with us? No thanks. Appreciate the offer, but no thanks, I don't go to bars. Well that's kind of weird, what do you mean? Oh, you don't drink, that's odd, why don't you drink? Oh, you must have had a problem, you must have been an alcoholic. No, you know, I just believe the word of God. I'm just a Christian. And you don't need to rub things in people's faces, but here's the thing, they think it's strange when you don't run with them to the same excess of riot, and oftentimes what they're gonna find, they're gonna speak evil of you then. They're gonna make fun of you. Oh, what a square, right? That guy is, they probably don't say that anymore, but they do at my office, I work with older people. So you work with younger people, I don't know what they say, who knows? It won't be nice. But look at verse five, who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. And here's what I wanna, I just wanna point out here, everyone's gonna have to give an account. So the unsaved are gonna give an account at the great white throne judgment, and they're gonna come up short, and they're gonna be cast in the lake of fire. And all of their transgressions are gonna be brought up, and they won't be able to give an account of what they've done. But for believers, we won't be at the great white throne judgment, but we will be before the judgment seat of Christ. Which is our motivation. Now, we won't be punished at the judgment seat of Christ, but everything that you've done and all your works and everything you've done for the Lord is gonna be tried by fire. And you're only gonna receive for the good stuff that you did, for the stuff that was valuable, the stuff that actually mattered in the eternal sense, the stuff that mattered for the Lord. You get rewarded for that, everything else goes away. So holding ourselves to standards in that light too is, it's important, we're trying to make sure that at the end of our life, when we stand before Christ, we can at least say, hey, look, we did this, this, this, this, this, right, here's some of our work for you, Lord. Turn, if you would, to 1 John chapter two. Fundamental Baptist standards. Our standards are different than the world's, by far. Way different from the world, and also different from other Christians, but really, I'm gonna start just pointing out the difference between our standards and world standards. 1 John chapter two, verse number 15, the Bible reads, "'Love not the world, "'neither the things that are in the world.' "'If any man love the world,'" catch this, "'the love of the Father is not in him.'" You may say you love God, but if you love this world, and if you love all the things in this world, you don't love God. That's what it's saying, the love of the Father is not in you. That's not me saying it, and only the reason I'm saying it is because it's what the Bible says. It's God's word. God's word says, so you apply this to yourself. Do you love the world? Do you love all the things in the world? Well, what are all the things in the world? What is the world putting out? And you know what, the things in the world are not just things that are inherently sinful. That does include those things, but just think of anything that's just out in the world just in general, what does the world promote as being good? What does the world, by and large, what's being pushed out by the world? It's not of the Father. The only thing that's gonna be good is anything that would be from the Father, but the world's not gonna produce that stuff. So let's go, he gives a little bit more detail here. Look at verse 16. For all that is in the world, now it's gonna define this a little bit more. The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. Lust of the flesh, anything that's just gratifying to your flesh. Your flesh and your spirit, they're at odds with each other. All the gratification of the flesh, that's of the world. All the lust of the eyes, the things you wanna set your eyes on and look on and feast on with your, oh man, look at that. Not of the Father. We shouldn't be setting our sights on the things on this earth because we need to have our eyes on the things of heaven, the heavenly things, New Jerusalem, what's gonna happen in the long term in the eternal sense. That's how we oughta be focused. And then the pride of life. And the pride of life, I mean, to me, it just encapsulates all the people who are promoted in this world are full of the pride of life. All the stars, all the people on the magazines, all the, you know, what everyone's looking up to as, oh, wow, wouldn't that be so great? That's part of the pride of life. And see, all that stuff is not of the Father, but is of the world. So if you're just loving all those things, loving everything the world's put out, then you don't really love God. Because you can't have both. You can't serve God and money. It's another thing, Jesus said, yeah, you can't serve God and mammon. Serve one or the other. You can't have them both. You can't love the world and the Father. One or the other. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Romans 12, turn if you would please to Romans 12. We're gonna look at a couple of verses here. It's a long introduction, but this is what matters more, is having the right spirit. So the mindset behind our standards is gonna be, hey, if I love the things of the world, then I don't love the things of the world. If I love the things of the world, then I don't love the things of God. So these are the verses, this is the verse you turn to and say, okay, now I'm gonna start making rules for now, I'm gonna start changing my life to be consistent with what the Bible's saying here, because I don't wanna be found as someone who the Bible says doesn't love God. So I'm gonna try to safeguard myself from allowing my heart to start loving the things of the world. So how do I do that? Well, I just choose to not put all of the things from the world in front of my eyes, and in my ears, and in my daily life, right? This, this is one of the reasons why, this is fundamental and why so many fundamentalists you'll find get rid of their TVs, or are very, very strict on what will come out of those devices, right? I mean, look, is it a sin to own a television? No, it's not. I own televisions. I don't think it's sinful. But what is it that you're putting in front of your eyes? What is it? What are you filling, what are you getting your, are you gratifying your flesh with just a bunch of worldliness, or are you trying to gratify your spirit with things that are spiritual? I mean, you could do either one with that device. You could watch preaching. I mean, we live stream our stuff. You could listen to, whatever. There's a lot of good things you could do. But this is where, and again, you make up the rules for yourself, but if you got the spirit right, you ought to be able to now start to put your standards into place. This is where it stems from. Romans 12, look at verse number one. Bible says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Your body ought to be presented to the Lord as a living sacrifice. And isn't it, it says, that's your reasonable service. Isn't it reasonable? I mean, if God saved you from an eternity of hell, and just gave you that free gift, because he loves you, isn't it then reasonable to be able to say, you know what, God, thank you, and I'm eternally grateful for your love and for you saving me, that now, as a result of you doing that for me, I'm gonna just offer up myself as a living sacrifice to you to live the way you would want me to live. Because when I lived the way I wanted to live, the wages of my sin is death. I tried that, okay, it doesn't work out so well. And now, as a result, I needed a savior. But you saved me, because you love me. You saved me, you did everything for me. Now, you know what, God, I wanna do what's right. Now I'm gonna offer myself up as a living sacrifice. But here's the thing, what's acceptable to God? What is acceptable to God? Are you living your life seriously in a way that you think that what you do is acceptable to God? This is why we make standards. Say, oh, but I'm still a sinner. I know, we all are, we all are. But just because you know that you're a sinner, you know that there's gonna be times where you fail, and there's gonna be times, does that just mean you throw up your hands and give up and just be like, well, forget it all then, I'm just gonna go wallow in the mud? I'm just gonna go ahead and just sin away because I can't be perfect. No, we still strive, we still try, we still do the best that we can to live righteously, to live perfectly, to be acceptable to God. And thank God, he has mercy, and we know that God has some mercy and long suffering with us, so we can at least have the confidence of knowing, look, I know I'm gonna slip sometimes, but I'm gonna do my best so that God can be pleased with me. Because we do know, the Bible says that there's gonna be people who says, hey, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And we also know that those same people weren't perfect in their lives. So we strive to be acceptable to the Lord, and the best way to understand this is the same way that a parent would accept of their children, right? Your child's growing up, no child's perfect, we know that. But the more they are being good and obedient and following your will, what you have for them to do, the better relationship you're gonna have, and the child who's being really good will have that acceptance in your eyes, but the stubborn, rebellious, one that doesn't wanna listen, they're not accepted. Now, they're still your child, you still love them, of course, you still got a home for them, but they're not being very acceptable to you, are they? This is different, and this is how we wanna strive to be. And look, we don't want to find, well, what is that middle point, right? Can I be unacceptable plus two? So now I'm in acceptable range, right? The spirit, the heart, is not trying to find the minimum. The fundamentalist spirit and heart is, I don't wanna be anywhere close to that line. I wanna serve God with all my heart, so I'm gonna just give it my best. I'm gonna give it my all. I'm gonna make standards in my life. Hey, if loving the world is gonna mean that I don't love the Father, then I don't wanna love the world. I'm gonna make rules, I'm gonna make standards in my life that I'm gonna try to follow so that I don't fall in love with this world. I'm gonna make rules, I'm gonna make standards in my life so that I could be this living sacrifice that's holy for the Lord. When you look at the Bible, when you look at the Old Testament, you look at the sacrifices, God doesn't accept the junk, right? Because what some people wanted to do, which is why he probably even made the rule about it, was, oh, I have to make a sacrifice to the Lord, well, let's find the worst one. Oh yeah, this one's sick, this one's diseased, this animal's got broken bones, it's ready to die anyways, it's not really worth anything to me. Yeah, we'll sacrifice that one to the Lord. What a wicked heart, right? But if you apply that now, when you live as a living sacrifice to the Lord, is it, well, you know, I've got all these other things to do in my life, and then maybe when all of that's done, okay, now I have time for you. Okay, I guess, if I'm not too tired, Lord, tonight, if I'm not too tired, if I'm not too busy, if I don't have to wake up too early the next day, then maybe I'll crack open my Bible and read a couple verses. Maybe I'll read the Psalm of the day. Does that sound like a holy living sacrifice to the Lord with that behavior? I would say no. Now look, at the end of the day, you have to make your own standards. But I'll tell you what, the fundamentalist standards are gonna be a lot higher than the rest of the world. And I would say the rest of Christianity. Because of the love for the word of God and the priority of putting God's word in our life and saying, no, look, this is the word of God. If the word of God says, hey, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies in living sacrifice, we ought to do it. This isn't just the Apostle Paul. This is the Holy Spirit speaking and using the Apostle Paul to tell us what God wants in our life. You believe that? I do. I do. It's the word of God. So let's treat it as such. Let's present our bodies a living sacrifice. Let's present our bodies holy. Let's think about what's acceptable to God, not just what's acceptable to man, not just, well, what does man allow? What does God want? Which is your reasonable service. That's reasonable. And be not conformed to this world, verse two, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The Bible calls us to be transformed. We need to be different. Different from the world. God has called out to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. That's what he wants for us. We're his workmanship created under good works. We ought to be changing our lives and living differently, getting the sins and the lusts of the world out. Get rid of that junk. Get rid of the sins which do so easily beset us that are holding us back so we could serve the Lord in spirit and serve him in truth and set up the standards and say, no, we're gonna live this way. I'm gonna treat the Bible and the word of God as serious in my life. It's not just showing up on Sunday and saying, hey, brother, hey, sister, and saying all the right things and then living like hell the rest of the week. Hypocrisy. All introduction. We're 37 minutes in. Don't worry, that's the most important part. Now I wanna just contrast biblical standards with the world standards. Fundamentalist standards, which all come from the Bible, they should, okay, they should. If people have standards outside of the Bible, you could have opinions, you could do whatever you want in your life, but don't teach for doctrines or commandments of men, right? That's what Jesus said. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees. They were teaching, not that it was a bad thing to wash your hands before you eat, but that's not a commandment of God. So don't treat it as, don't teach it as such. So let's just talk about success. And we were just talking about the world view versus the biblical view. What is success? I mean, what's our life all about? What would be a successful life? Well, in the world, it kind of boils down to one thing, doesn't it? Money. What is it that defines success in the world? How much money do you have? How comfortable can you be? How much money do you make? That, I mean, that's what's taught out there. You know, when people say, man, I got this new job opportunity, it's gonna pay double my salary right now, but I gotta move to Georgia in order to get this job. Everyone in your family, any unsaved person you talk to, any of your current coworkers will say, wow, that's great, take that opportunity, move your family out there and take that job. Right? I mean, isn't that something that everyone in the world's gonna tell you? But what if you said, hey, I found this awesome church, and they are serving the Lord, and man, they're on fire, and I want my kids to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and I want them to have good friends, and I want them to know what it's like to live a really zealous Christian life, but you know what, I gotta move my whole family to this church out in Georgia. The world will laugh at you. They will. It's a joke to them. They're gonna think you're crazy. They're gonna say, what, are you part of a cult? I'm not going to Jonestown. And look, when I say Georgia, I think this is a great church, but it could be any one of a number of church, any church that's serving the Lord with vigor, with tenacity, right? Amen. There's many like that. It's not just our church. This isn't a cult. You can come and go as you please. What cult is like that, huh? You wanna go? Leave. Cults try to keep you in. But no, we serve Jesus, right? But the philosophy, the mindset, right? Hey, you wanna serve God with your life? The world's gonna think that's crazy. But you wanna serve money? Do it. Oh, you're really successful. Oh, you run a company. Oh, you're a millionaire. Wow, that's really successful. Well, you know what the Bible says? The word success is used one time. It's in Joshua chapter one. While you're turning there, if you wanna turn there, I'm gonna read for you from Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23 verse four says, "'Labor not to be rich. "'Cease from thine own wisdom.'" And when he says your own wisdom, it's talking about the wisdom of the world. Don't work to be rich. Now, do we have to work? We do, because we have to provide our needs. We have to eat. We have to live. We have to have a place to stay. We have to have clothing, right? But here's the thing, like Jesus said, hey, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. God promises to take care of you. He does. He promises that. Now, we still have to work. We have to labor, but we're not laboring to be rich. We're laboring because we have to labor, but what is our real heart, what is our real desire? It's gonna be in the, it should be in the things of God. It's not getting so wrapped up in, well, how much money can I make with my life? Because here's the thing, if you want to be really rich and make all that money, guess what you're gonna have to do? You're gonna have to sacrifice things. Because the people who make it in this world, as far as making it financially, making it with money, they live at their job. You know people like that, I know people like that. They work and work and work and work and work, right? Some people have this, some people don't even realize this. Some people have this attitude like, oh, it must be nice to have all that money, right, to a lot of other people. It's like, do you know how much they work for that? The vast majority of people, they're working their tail off to achieve that level of success. Yeah, I say success, I have to put quotes around it because that's the world's idea of success. But you know what would be smart for you? Don't even get wrapped up in that mindset. Yeah. Who cares? Yeah, you know what, when I hear someone that's working and working and working to make a whole bunch of money, to me, they're wasting their life. You are wasting your life. Because you know what, the riches don't matter. Like the Bible says that in verse 25, you're in Joshua 1. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? Like you're putting your eyes on all this money. That money is nothing. It's not going to last. For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle toward heaven. Here today, gone tomorrow. That's money, man, it's gone. And I know that more than anybody else here, bro. Man, that paycheck hits my bank account and then it's gone. Flies like a bird way out of that account again. That was nice for a few seconds. At least my bills are paid now. Keep on going for another two weeks. But seriously though, it's just, it's meaningless. Like what's the point? What's the point? Joshua 1.8, the usage of the word success is found here. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success. You want to have good success according to the Bible? Meditate in the word of God day and night. Meditate in the law. Hey, I want to be successful. He's telling us to meditate in the law. Why? Because then you know what God's will is. You know what you're supposed to do and what you're not supposed to do. But the law doesn't save you. I know, Jesus saves. But hey, we're all saved already. So let's meditate in the law now. Thank you, Jesus, for saving us. Now let's focus on making sure that God can be pleased with us and that we're not displeasing to him. So we're going to look and see, well, what is it that we're not supposed to do? What is it we're supposed to do? And that's a biblical definition of success. Great. And you know what? That, meditating therein day and night, guess what? If you're meditating in the Bible day and night, you're not going to have all the time to go out and make all this money. Because you're going to have to be focused. You'll be thinking, you know, like, no, think kind of things of God. Do whatever you need to do to work to survive. Provide for your family. But where you're going to get true success, meditate in the word of God day and night. Turning to Matthew chapter 20. I get it. Fundamentalists are people that are viewed by everyone as, oh, you guys just have a bunch of rules. Okay, sure. Guilty as charged, yes. But why? Why is because of the Spirit. Why is because of the verses we've already looked at. Right? And why? Because we're not like the world. We're not trying to be like the world. Yeah, the world's trying to get free from the rules. We want, I want to have a structured life. I want to have a life that's okay. If God says this, here's the rules. Great. Another thing that's different though, we're talking about success, right? Here's what Jesus taught. Jesus explains, and we're going to look at verse number 25, the difference between what the world thinks as far as being raised up or being lifted up in the eyes of God versus what you really have to do. Success in the world is going to be, hey, being a boss. Right, be the boss, be the CEO, be the C-suite. That's where you want to be. You want to be in charge of things. That's success, right? Look at verse 25. But Jesus called unto him and said, ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them. And they that are great exercise authority upon them. So these are the, this is the way the world works. Get in power, get in charge, be ruling. So whether you're, it's in a business or in politics or whatever, like you're successful because you're ruling, you're in charge over people. But it shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. So what's success in the Bible according to Jesus Christ? It's not getting to the top. It's not ruling over people. It's the exact opposite. It's serving, it's ministry, it's helping. It's giving of yourself for other people. Jesus was the best example. He gave his life for all of us, for all the sinners of the world. He sacrificed himself. He served, he went and preached the gospel to the poor. He healed people. He did all these good things at his own expense, at his own cost, he served and ministered. Well, that's our example. That's success. The world's gonna look on the person who has almost nothing, is going, giving of themselves. You know, you should charge money for that. No thanks, not interested. We're gonna make the word of God of no cost, of no expense, no charge. This is free. Hey, I received freely, I'm gonna freely give. And giving the spiritual help is the best help you can give. Really is. I mean, we're gonna help people as much as we can, whether it be carnally or spiritually, right? Or try to help people out, help your brothers out, help your sisters out. But the spiritual meat is the best meat to give. Turn, if you would, to First Peter chapter one, please. Sometimes the world standards sound reasonable, they sound okay. But when you compare it to biblical standards, it doesn't quite measure up. A worldly standard that I've found to be out in the world, which is also adopted into much of Christianity, is, how about this, everything in moderation. Everything in moderation. Now, there's a nugget of truth to that, right? We ought to be temperate, the Bible says, over our bodies, meaning we have self-control, right? And that's a good quality to have, and it's something we all ought to be able to possess, is to possess our vessels in honor, and be able to deny the ungodly lusts, and to be able to only do the things that are good for us. But everything in moderation is not a good thing, because there's some things you should have nothing to do with at all. So adopting the standard that just says, well, I mean, everything's pretty much okay, as long as you just don't do it too much. Not good. Bible says in First Peter chapter one, look at verse number 13, Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. Now, holiness means you're sanctified. You are set apart, okay? And holiness is gonna be completely set apart. So if you imagine holiness like this, in terms of a glass of water, you can't see this right through this, it's steel. But if we had a glass of water and you could see through, it's transparent, right? Pure holy water, you're gonna be like, wow, that's clear, crystal clear. We say, well, everything in moderation, I mean, let's just get like a little, just a little bit of dirt, little bit of whatever. I mean, just put anything in there, a little bit of soda. Now all of a sudden, would you consider that still to be holy? Would you consider that to be pure? Like, no, of course not. Well, it's just a little bit, I mean, I'm moderating how much of this other stuff I'm putting into it. It's not the same anymore. Now it's not pure, now it's not holy. Now it's not set apart, you've reduced the quality of that. See what I'm saying? Obviously, this isn't talking about water, it's talking about us though, it's talking about our lives. So if we're supposed to be holy, we can't introduce a little bit of sin, we can't say like, oh, it's okay, just a little bit. And the number one thing that probably pops in your mind as it does in mine, when talking about moderation, is people talk about drinking alcohol. Well, it's okay in moderation. Just drink a little bit, it's fine, but don't drink too much. Well, you know, the problem with that is once you start drinking, alcohol starts impacting your brain and your body, right away it starts impacting your brain. First drink, read up on it. Medical science will teach you the same exact thing. Why? Because it's true, it's true. I preached an entire sermon, it's not that long ago, less than a year ago, and I did the studies too. I know this anyways, I know it firsthand, I know it through the Bible, I know it because of the science It all lines up, it's the truth. Not that you need the science, the word of God is enough, but I'm just saying, it's there, it's there. I mean, no one's denying this, but here's from the Bible, Bible reads in Proverbs 23, verse number 31, look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. If you're not even supposed to look on this wine, how are you gonna be consuming it in moderation? Don't even look at it, why not? At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder, thine eyes shall behold strange women, thine heart shall utter perverse things. Now, if I tell you, hey, if you consume this beverage, you start going down this path, you start consuming this stuff, your eyes are behold strange women, your heart's gonna utter perverse things, does that sound like, well, let me just have a little bit of that. Just a little bit, give me a little taste of that. No, no, get that stuff away from me. It's bad, it's poison, it's wicked, I don't want a little bit, I don't want to have moderately enough of this beverage that's going to make my heart utter perverse things. I'm gonna hold a standard. Says I want nothing to do with that. Get it away from me. I don't want something that's gonna be like, hey, you're gonna be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick, they have beaten me, and I felt it not. Because that's what happens, you're gonna get to the point when you drink that people could be beating on you and you don't even feel it. It's true. When shall I awake? I don't know, I'm passed out, drunk. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. It's addictive. You start drinking, you say, no, but I'm gonna control it. Every drunk thought the same way. Nobody gets into that thinking I want to be an alcoholic. No drug addict goes into it thinking like, you know what I wanna do? I wanna be strung out and willing to do anything for another hit. Nobody thinks that way when they start. Everybody thinks, well, I'm just gonna have a little fun. I just wanna see what it's about. I just want, you know, that's where it starts. Look at reality, look at the people out there. How about you make the rule, it says, I'll never try heroin. Be like, yeah, okay, pass the rules, that's pretty easy. That's not a really high standard, is it? No, how about, well, how about, I'm never gonna drink booze ever again? I don't think that's a high standard. When you know the truth about it, it's not a high standard at all. I think they're both the same as far as having the rule and having the standard and understanding what the end of it is. The world won't tell you that at all. No, it's fine in moderation, go ahead. And don't believe the lies of, well, one glass of wine is good for your health. You know what, you can have one glass of juice, grape juice, it's gonna be good for your health. And you don't even need the alcohol, imagine that. When you figure out why is it that they say a glass of wine is good for you, it's not the benefit of the alcohol. It's not the poison part of the beverage that's good for you. It's where it was sourced from that's good for you. So how about you just have the source, the fruit of the vine, without it being decayed and rotten and full of poison. Let's just get the good stuff. Okay. All right, we're ending summer, but I'm gonna close with this. And turn it to Exodus chapter 28. Well, I'm gonna close with this example and then there's one more passage that I'm gonna close with. Because this is something you see all too much of, unfortunately. Talk about dress standards. Dress standards in the world continue to go down the toilet. It seems like I think the only thing that could happen next is people just being completely nude and that that's an appropriate standard for the world. Seriously. Like that's how bad things are in the world. It's kind of like, even businesses, what do you really enforce? It used to be no shirt, no shoes, no service. I don't know if that's still the case. So that's a pretty, that's not a very high standard. Because you got people walking around in their swim attire. But then they put on something see-through over that and it's like, oh yeah. People go out in public like that, but people go out in public like the beach, like the pool, wearing almost nothing. Wearing less than their underwear. Less than their underwear. Why do they call it underwear? Because it goes underneath your clothes. Because you're supposed to be wearing other things on top of that, but some people think it's acceptable to wear less than that and be out in public. No, underwear, put things over that, cover yourself. Stop showing your nakedness. It's actually a shame to show your nakedness. But when you live in a culture of society that doesn't seem to have any shame, that's what you get. But the biblical standard goes a lot higher than that. I had you turn to Exodus 28. I preached on this not too long ago, but I didn't turn to this passage. We write out of Isaiah that says that when you're exposing the thigh, the teaching there is that you're showing your nakedness. Well, here's another passage, because that whole sermon wasn't about that. This isn't either. But look at verse number 40 in Exodus 28. How are we going to Exodus about nakedness? Well, look at verse number 40. The Bible says, and for Aaron's sons, thou shalt make coats. Now, this is talking about the attire that a priest would wear in the service of the Lord. Just to be fair, full context, understanding what we're talking about. This is specific to the priest. So there's many things that the Bible's talking about. They had to wear blue and all these, specific things for the service of God. But there's a point in here that I want you to see that's going to, I think you'll agree, transcend just the priest's office, because you could make the application then broadly when we get there, we'll talk about it. Look at verse number 40. And for Aaron's sons, thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles and bonnets, shalt thou make for them for glory and for beauty. And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother and his sons with him, and shalt anoint them and consecrate them and sanctify them that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. And thou shalt make them linen britches to cover their nakedness. From the loins, even unto the thighs, they shall reach. Now, this is another witness of that part being nakedness. So the fact that it's mentioning, hey, you're giving them britches to wear to cover their nakedness, now it's gonna define in order to do that, they need to go from the loins to the thigh. Now, if you're talking about the top of the thigh, there's like no distance between your loins and the top of your thigh. They're not wearing dental floss. They're going from the loins to where your thigh ends. It's covering the thighs. And why do they have to wear that? To cover their nakedness. So that all needs to be covered for you not to be naked according to the Bible. You know, our modern definition, the world definition, naked's gonna be fully nude, like zero clothing. But that's not the biblical definition. The biblical definition of nakedness is in order to not be naked, you gotta have from the loins down to your knees, basically. Your thighs need to be covered. And look, people have had to stand, this isn't anything new, right? Am I teaching anything here that you haven't heard before? Do people have any standards? Look, I've heard the standards. People say, okay, well, wherever your fingertips go, people make up all these different rules. And whatever, you gotta have some standard for yourself. But whatever your rule is, whatever your standard is, it oughta come from the Bible. And say, okay, well, if I don't have clothing that at least covers this, then I'm considered naked according to the word of God. Just like if I love the things of the world and I don't love God. Okay, well, this is what it says. And they shall be upon Aaron, upon his sons, when they come into the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near under the altar to minister in the holy place, that they bear not iniquity and die. It shall be a statute forever unto him and a seed after him. Turn if you go to 1 Timothy chapter two, we just got two places we're gonna turn to, this one and one more and we're done. Because again, like a lot of these subjects, I could preach all morning long on, they really could deserve their own sermon, but I'm just trying to hit out a few examples of standards. And dress standards really requires a full sermon because there's a lot of different standards that we have here that we should hold in our personal lives. Now, is it the most important thing? No. But how we dress ourselves, how we present ourselves, well, if we're thinking about how can I be most pleasing to God, we oughta be thinking about that. So when the Bible teaches that, you know, a man shouldn't put on a woman's garment, a woman shouldn't put on that which pertain to a man, like, hey, that's gotta mean something. What does that mean? You're gonna have the burden of figuring out what that means. I can help you along, I don't think it's that difficult though. I really don't, I don't think it's that hard. God made britches for the men. We saw that, that's clear. We don't see britches being made for the women. You wanna go figure out what bathroom to use? You got two symbols. It's pretty universal. Here's what a man looks like, here's what a woman looks like. These days though, who knows what they're gonna come up with I don't know, there's no reason for difference between genders these days. Is that really what God teaches though? No, there oughta be a difference. But here's a little bit more of the spirit, right? So we could look at the letter, we could look at the definitions, but 1 Timothy 2, here's something that strikes a little bit to the heart of the matter. Verse number nine, in like manner also, and this is only talking about the women, I don't have time to get into all the men's and women's garment stuff, but this is very poignant. That women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shame-facedness and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. So according to the Bible, if you're a woman that's professing godliness, like hey, I'm a godly woman. Well, in order for that to be the case, then you ought to array yourself or adorn yourself with good works, right? So people ought to be recognizing you as a woman for your good works for the Lord. Well, that's a really good woman. You know, she serves here, she does this, you know, a good worker for Christ, for God, right? That that's what goes before you, as opposed to adorning yourself with the broided hair, the gold, the pearls, the costly array. Now those are all things that are gonna do what? They're gonna draw attention to you, right? Which is the exact opposite of modesty. So if you want to be modest, you ought not to be drawing attention to you. The fancy stuff, the sparkly stuff gets all eyes on you. But we ought to, the Bible says in 1 Peter 3 that they ought to have a humble spirit, right? A meek and quiet spirit is what the Bible says, which is in the sight of God, of great value. It's a great price. It's real precious in God's eyes that women adorn themselves in a meek and quiet spirit. Here it says, hey, look, have good works. And it says, have modest apparel. Now, obviously the flashy stuff is gonna draw eyes on you, but you know what else is gonna draw eyes on you? Having the real tight clothing and the low cut and the high cut, that draws a lot of eyes on you too. That's not modest. And we ought to have a good standard as fundamental as Baptist that says, we're gonna dress modestly. We're not gonna try to get all eyes on us. We're gonna love the word of God, respect the word of God and say, hey, I'm different from the world. The world doesn't have a problem with that. But the Bible talks about how we ought to be. And you say, well, what, does God really care about what I wear? Well, he cared about what the priests wore. He outlined exactly what that should be, but those were the priests. Well, he's talking about what women should adorn themselves with in more than one place. And again, I could go on and on. There's so much scripture about this. You'd be a fool to say, does God really care about what people wear? Well, it's in the Bible enough to say yes. One time is enough, but it's in the Bible way more than one time. Way more than one time. Matthew 23, last place we're gonna look. Say, Pastor Burns, you're talking about the outside of the platter. I agree. Now, all of the outside of the platter stuff, all the outward appearance stuff, you should deal with the inside first. But that doesn't mean that the outside doesn't matter at all. And that is the biggest folly of the people who want to say, oh yeah, well, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for worrying about the outside of the platter. But how did he rebuke them? Because here's the thing. Here's the thing with the Pharisees. Matthew 23, Jesus just goes off on the Pharisees. I need to say a woe unto you. And I love that passage because you know who the Pharisees were? They were the biggest stinking hypocrites. They were the ones that were telling all these people to do this stuff and they didn't do them. They were the ones that taught for doctrine, the commandments of men, their own rules, versus what the Bible says. But they didn't actually care about the word of God and putting the word of God's rules into practice in their lives. Jesus told them, hey, you've made the word of God of none effect by your traditions. Because they would say, you know, when he said let them think of Corban, whoever would, you know, whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me. He was talking about the people and helping their parents honoring their father and their mother. Jesus said, you break that commandment. Because that commandment is a duty of yours. That's a commandment of God that you take care of your parents when they need you. You honor your father and mother. You care for them in their older age. And they had a rule, they had a tradition that just said, hey, you just better consider yourself lucky that I do anything for you. So anything I do for you, you better just consider it like my grace and my goodness for you. When the Bible's like, no, that's your duty. You don't pick and choose that stuff. You don't hold that over their head. You are bound to honor your father and mother as one of the commandments of God. Don't downplay or minimize or change God's meaning on his word because you don't like it. And the Pharisees were consistently trying not to do the commandments of God. You read through the Bible and you find when they're confronting Jesus, they're like always trying to figure out ways to not have to follow God's word. Well, can a man get divorced for any cause? No, I mean like what, what do you mean? Look at verse number 25 of Matthew 23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. They appeared to be righteous outwardly to man. And anyone can do that. But that's not why we have the standard. It's not just to appear outwardly to men to be righteous. That's not why we do it. We care about the word of God. We want to live this, but in living it, we make our own standards to try to follow it. Because we sincerely care about it. The Pharisees, they just wanted people to think that they're holy and righteous and godly because they love the praise of men. They liked what went along with people who thought, oh wow, Father so-and-so is in our presence. Isn't this so great? Right? And look, that's how the world operates too. People love it. People love to have the people who are really highly esteemed in the world, being in their presence and like, oh, and they're fawning over them and stuff. That was a Pharisee. They didn't actually care and live that way though. We ought to care about the word of God, not be like them. But here's Jesus, when he continues to rebuke them, he says, first of all, you may clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within you're full of extortion and excess. And I would say the same thing. Hey, if you've got extortion and excess and that's how your heart is, I don't care what your dress standards are. That really doesn't even matter because you need to fix the extortion and excess on the inside. That is the most important thing. But if your heart is right, like Jesus says here, verse 26, thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter. Get that taken care of first. Get that wickedness out of your heart. Stop being so full of extortion and excess that the outside of them may be clean also. He's not saying only get the inside clean and then who cares if the outside's dirty. Is that what he said? Not what he said. He said that the outside may be clean also. The priority, inside, absolutely. Get that fixed first. The heart, the spirit, having the right mindset to serve Christ, to offer yourself a living sacrifice. But then, hey, you got that right. That's gonna prompt you to get the outside clean also. Well, what does that mean? Oh, I got the right service. So now I'm gonna care about how I speak. I'm gonna care about what I wear. I'm gonna care about my communication with others. I'm gonna care about serving others. I'm gonna care about other people. I'm gonna preach the gospel. Like this is what drives you. Get the inside right first. Hey, now let's get to work on all the outside stuff as well and all of it. And let's treat all of it serious if it's all in the word of God. If it's not in the word of God, I'm not as worried about it. But the stuff that's here, let's take it seriously. Let's make the standards in our life. And if the world thinks we're crazy, who cares? We're in this world, but we're not of this world. This world isn't my home. We've got a spiritual and we've got a heavenly home. We're gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Let's live knowing that's the reality and try to please God the best we can. Let's be the living sacrifice. It's reasonable. We may slip and fall and fail, but let's get up and keep trying and persist. Let's try to be a good example. Let's try to show the world, no, this is what it's like to be a Christian. Because you know what, hypocrisy doesn't go very far. When you claim to be a Christian, but you're living contrary to what this book says, who wants to take you seriously? And why should they? Now I would say why should they? Because it's the truth. It is that whether you live it or not, this is still true. But you're gonna have the most impact serving and trying to convince other people that this is the truth if you actually live that way. If your heart is right and the outside of the platter is too. Because you know what people are gonna see? They're gonna see the outward. And again, I'm not putting primacy on the outward. I'm not. But let's get it all in union with the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the Bible. Pray that you would please help us all. We all have areas where we failed, God. Clearly we do. And we need your help. We need to just be able to be honest and sincere with ourselves, dear Lord. And I pray that you please help stir up our spirit, especially when we read these passages about being a living sacrifice, that when we go home, when we're in private, that we can remember these passages and remember these verses. And prick our hearts, dear Lord, to remember that we ought to be holy and a living sacrifice to you, that whatever we do, we can be acceptable unto you, dear Lord, and that you'd help us to rid ourselves of the sin and not to succumb to the lust of our flesh, dear Lord, but that we could walk in the spirit as much as possible. God, help us to set up rules in place and our schedule in line so that we wouldn't give ourselves opportunity to the flesh in order to fall, dear Lord, but that we could try to maintain to the best of our ability an adherence to your word and godly living, dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for saving our souls. We owe everything to you. Help us to be a blessing to others. Help us to learn how to minister and truly follow in the steps of Christ. God, we love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed this morning. Will, can you please lead us in our last song? All right. Turn to Psalm number 406. Here we go. Sorry about that. The psalm number 406, the Lord's sign. The psalm number 406, the Lord's sign. Who lives on the Lord's side? Who is on the Lord's side, who will serve the King? Who will be his helper, other lives to claim? Who will be the world's side, who will face the throne? Who is on the Lord's side, who for him will go? By thy call of mercy, by thy grace divine, We are on the Lord's side, Savior, we are thine. Not for weight of glory, not for crown and palm, Enter we the army, praise the warrior's song, But for love that claimeth, lives for whom he died, Be whom Jesus' name it must be on his side. By thy love for straining, by thy grace divine, We are on the Lord's side, Savior, we are thine. Jesus, thou hast bought us, not with gold or gem, But with thine own lifeblood, for thy die again. With thy blessing filling, each truth comes to thee. Thou hast made us willing, thou hast made us free. By thy grand redemption, by thy grace divine, We are on the Lord's side, Savior, we are thine. This may be the conflict, strong may be the foe, But the king's own army, none can overthrow. Round his tender raging, victory is adored, For his truth is changing, baseless triumph sure. Joyfully enlisting, by thy grace divine, We are on the Lord's side, Savior, we are thine. There's a lot of extra food from yesterday. There's a few sandwiches and there's some pizza that was left over from the zoning event yesterday. Anyone that wants to, you can have it, but there's not enough for everybody, so try not to fight each other to the death for food. If I'm not hungry, I'll take you out and you can get my feed. But do please feel free to eat up and consume all the food that we have, the pantries and everything else here, so that we don't have anything left over, nothing goes bad. With that, we're just going to thank you for being here. Come on!