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Song number 164, as you find your seats. Song number 164, and if you are able to, let's all stand together for 164. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. See it on that first verse. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O world of wonderful love, declare. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels in glory. Strength and honor, gift to His holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children. In His arms He came, He was born. Carries them all day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the crucified. Hail His praises, Jesus who bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful deep and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals, loud with poles and a scream. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, Prophet and Priest and King. Christ is coming over the world victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord. Over the world victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song. Amen. Wonderful singing. Let's end our service with a word of prayer. Dear God, Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for God for just allowing us to be in your house this evening, Lord God. Thank you so much for bringing us back safely. We do pray that you please just bless every aspect of the service, O Lord. Please bless the singing unto you, Lord God, and most of all bless the preaching of your word. We pray that you please fill our pasture with your Holy Spirit, Lord God, and help us, Lord God, to just be attentive to your word being preached unto us, Lord God, and that we would take it to heart, Lord God, and that we would apply it to our lives, Lord God, today. We pray now these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 364, standing on the promises. Song number 364. Song number 364. Sing it on that first. Standing on the promises I can be. Through eternal ages I have faced faith. For in the highest I will shout and sing. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing. I am standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that cannot fail. When the house pulls us out of here, us and them. I will pay before I shall prevail. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing. I am standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord. Mountain and eternally my love's strong. Lord, love evading with the Spirit's sword. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing. I am standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that cannot fall. Listening every moment to the Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior as my all in all. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing. I am standing on the promises of God. Alright, great singing. Thank you for being here this evening. Just a few announcements before we sing our next song, which will be 472. This is my Father's world, if you want to get that ready. And your songbook is 472. Our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030. Sunday evening at 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. Hope to see you during our midweek service. Add another service to your week, amen. You see the so many times and teams, the list of expecting mothers, important reminders there on the left hand side. And then, of course, tomorrow, Monday, January 30th, we have our Barstow Soloning. We'll be meeting here at the building at 1130 for lunch. We'll head out to Barstow for a couple of hours to go preach the gospel. And then we'll have dinner out there as well. If you would like to participate in that, you can see brother Ulysses Hernandez. You can meet us here at the building. And we'll go in the church van and so see him for more details if you want to sign up for that. And then this coming Saturday, February 4th, is the Lady's Prayer Breakfast. That will be at 10 a.m. and it will actually be a prayer breakfast and Valentine's party. So please RSVP on the church website or you can see Ms. Janelle Gonzalez for more details about that. She'll be heading that up. Ms. Angela's Baby Shower is on Sunday, February 12th. You can see Ms. Francescini for more details regarding that. That will be on a Sunday after the service. And then the Belize Missons Trip, as we've been mentioning, will be on Saturday, February 26th through Sunday, March 5th. And so don't feel bad if you're missing out on that particular trip. We're going to head out there again in the month of November. Lord willing, we'll have a very fruitful trip this time around and see a lot of people saved but also collected a lot of information. Keep in touch with a lot of the converts there. And then Lord willing, have a preaching service in the month of November at the end of this year. So we're looking forward to that. Please pray that God will prosper our way. And so you see there at the bottom, no food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Please make sure you respect the rules there. And then make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. Let's go ahead and take some solany numbers from this past week. Salvations from Monday to Thursday. Any salvations from Monday to Thursday? How about Friday and Saturday? Salvations for Friday and Saturday? One for Riverside. And this afternoon, salvations for this afternoon? One for Brother Ulysses' team? One for Brother Morrie's team? One for Brother Cody's team? Two for Brother Hikes? Two? For Brother Hikes' team? Anybody else? And one for Brother Glenn's team? Anybody else? Did I miss anybody? Once, twice, thrice? Okay, keep up the great work on solany. Let's go ahead and sing our next song, 472, This Is My Father's World. Song number 472, This Is My Father's World. Song number 472, sing it out. This is my father's world And to my listening ears All nature sings and roundly rings The music of the spheres This is my father's world I rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees The skies and seas His hand the wonders brought This is my father's world The birds their carols raise The morning light the lily white We bear their maker's grace This is my father's world He shines in all that's fair In the frosty grass I hear him cast He's reasonably everywhere This is my father's world Oh, let me ne'er forget That the world seems all so strong God is a ruler and This is my father's world The battle is undone Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied Ever than everyone Amen. Wonderful singing. At this time, our ushers will be receiving the offering. Please turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. This is my father's world. This is my father's world. This is my father's world. Good evening, tonight we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and the Bible reads, Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sostenes our brother, under the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you in peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I have Cephas, and I have Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas, besides I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to be baptized, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is in them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made the foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world, and things which are which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, the things which are not, to bring to not things that are. That no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, we thank you for this church, Lord, and everyone within it, Lord, and we just pray right now that you fill the pastor with the Holy Spirit, and give him wisdom, Lord, as he preaches your word, Lord, and that us in the congregation can be edified by the preaching, Lord, and give us attentiveness to the preaching, Lord, and help us to go away edified, Lord. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Amen. We're in 1 Corinthians chapter number one this evening, and the title of my sermon tonight is Drama at the Church of Corinth. Drama at the Church of Corinth. Of course, the Church of Corinth was a local church that was founded by the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey after his equivalent fruitful encounter at Mars Hill. So obviously, you know, the second missionary journey took him through Asia Minor. He went throughout Greece, and then he's going south because he's being persecuted by the Jews. And eventually he lands in Corinth, and he actually gets a lot of people saved there. He meets Aquila and Priscilla. And although he's met with a lot of opposition there at Corinth by the enemies of God and by people who are just not necessarily fond of Christianity, it ends up becoming a very fruitful trip in the sense that a lot of people are getting saved. They're interested in hearing God's word being preached. And in fact, say there in 1 Corinthians chapter one, I'm gonna read you from Acts 18 in verse number eight. It says in Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. So he gets a special divine revelation from God that reveals to him, hey, this is where I want you to be for the next year and six months. Preach the gospel, get people saved, disciple individuals. This is where you need to be. And thank God he did. You know, the church at Corinth is a great church. Obviously, we're gonna look in just a bit all the issues that they had, but a great work was accomplished there. As I mentioned, that's where he meets Aquila and Priscilla, who become part of the work, and they become co-laborers with the Apostle Paul, discipling and teaching the word of God. But you know, like with any work, it didn't come without its problems and conflicts. A lot of issues that the church at Corinth had. And we know that the Apostle Paul wrote a few letters to the church at Corinth, not just two. Now we have two that are considered scripture. But when we read first and second Corinthians, we hear about the fact that he sent previous letters to them. But the difference being is that those aren't scripture. Okay, these are actually inspired by God and not to say that the previous letters did not have scriptural basis or in the sense of scriptural principles or doctrine. But these are the ones that were canonized that God would consider to be his word and that we would use in the Bible here. And so he's written a lot of letters to them because they had a lot of issues. But when we look at the Corinthian church as a whole, I don't know about you, but when I read first and second Corinthians, I kind of walk away like, man, this church is drama. There's a lot of stuff that this church had to go through. And it's not just like one particular issue that they had. They had issues all across the board, spiritual issues, personal issues, doctrinal issues. I mean, you name it, the church of Corinth probably got it. Okay. When it came to problems and conflicts and you kind of look at it and say, man, this church is very drama, very super problematic. And, you know, even at the end of second Corinthians chapter 12, verse 20, it states, For I fear, lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as you would not, lest there be debates, envings, wraths, strifes, backbiting, whisperings, swellings, tumult, unless when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall be well many which have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. So, you know, he's essentially designating a lot of effort and time into correcting the Corinthian church because they're very much involved in sin. There's a lot of issues, a lot of problems. And I believe the reason God allowed these letters to be in scripture was essentially to show us that no church is perfect. Okay. Even a church that's founded by the Apostle Paul. And I think the reason, one of the reasons that God allowed first and second Corinthians to be in the Word of God is because he wants us to understand that we cannot have an unrealistic expectation of a local New Testament church. Okay. Because, you know, Christians can often have that type of expectation where they think, well, this is an independent fundamental Baptist church. It's a new IFB church. It's a King James only church. I mean, they're right doctrinally in a lot of areas. And so there should be no issue, no problems in this local church. But, folks, that's an unrealistic expectation of God's church because of the fact that churches are filled with Christians, which are sinners. And not everyone is at the same spiritual maturity and level. Levin comes in and, you know, there's sometimes heresies within churches. Sometimes there's sin within churches. And so it's just like, oh, no, it's the leader. Well, the Apostle Paul was like the leader at the church at Corinth and they had more issues than we've had within the last five years. Okay. Is that a bad rap on the Apostle Paul? No. It's just simply showing us that whenever you have a group of people, Christians in a church, you're going to have issues. You're going to have problems. So don't ever expect First Works Baptist Church to be perfect. Okay. Don't ever think, well, you know, once there's this issue, okay, I'm out of here. Once we have this doctrinal issue, I'm out of here. Here's the right attitude that you should have. Okay. And this is the attitude that the Apostle Paul was trying to get across to the church at Corinth. And that is it's not that if there's an issue, we should get out of here. It's if the issue is not being resolved. That's the major problem. You see, the problem is not the problem. The conflict is not the problem. It's if the leaders in the church refused to address the issues, refused to correct the sin, refused to exercise church discipline, refused to correct the doctrinal errors in the church. At that point, now you got yourself a problem. But you can't get mad if these conflicts and problems arise in a church because that is the natural tendency of a church. That's why we have the example of First and Second Corinthians. And it gives us a wide variety of problems that they had because every single church will experience what First and Second Corinthians, what the Corinthian church experienced in the lifespan of their church. And so we need to have a realistic expectation of a local New Testament church. And obviously, we need to have some expectations that are biblical in the sense of, hey, they need to believe right when it comes to doctrine, when it comes to salvation. We need to make sure we have the right Bible. Amen. We need to make sure that this is a church that's actually serving the Lord. There are opportunities to learn how to preach the gospel. This church is actively going out and evangelizing, soul winning, reaching people with the gospel. There's not compromise behind the pulpit. The person behind the pulpit is a qualified individual to lead the congregation, the sheep of God. And so these are obviously basics that we should have. But on top of that, you can't get upset if some problem arises where there's conflict between brethren, if there's sin that gets into the church. That's going to happen throughout the lifespan in our church. It's a natural thing to happen. It's not good, but it's going to happen. And what we as Christians need to do is deal with it. For example, you can't control if one of your kids is a little more rambunctious than the other ones. You can't really control if one of your kids is a little more, I don't know, like, disobedient or something. They're just, you know, I got one of those in my family, you know what I mean? Where he's just, he, he just has a tendency to just be a little more lively than the other ones. He needs more discipline than the other ones. And, you know, I can't really control his will because he has a will of his own. The only thing I can do is correct it if he disobeys. Correct it when he's in rebellion. Correct it when he's being in blatant disobedience. That's when we have to correct it. So we can't get mad at the child. It's like, oh, man, you know, something's wrong with this family because this kid is just, you know, bouncing off the walls. Well, let me ask you this. Are the parents doing anything about it, though? Because if the parents are doing the best they can to discipline the child, to give the child structure, to raise the child in the nurturing and admonition of the Lord, and they are, you know, they're chastising the child to the best of their abilities, then you know what? Give that child some time, amen? And like, man, that's the same thing we can say for a church, okay? If a church has issues, problems, okay, that's normal, but what is the leadership doing about it? Are they being corrected? Are they being rectified? Okay? Now, let's look at some of the drama, okay, that the church at Corinth had, and I believe that is a proper way to describe the church at Corinth is drama, okay? And let's just be honest. Let's just be quite honest. Everyone loves a little bit of drama. Any time I do church discipline at a church, for me, it's just like, you know, I'm like on fire, I'm just angry, I'm just disappointed, but the people in the church love it, though. I'll just be honest with you. Like, oh, man, church discipline? And then, God forbid, you should miss the church service or something. They're like, oh, I missed it. Don't lie, you know that's true. People are like, oh, the one day. They're like, the one day that I decided to go do something else is when church, man, I missed it, you know? Oh, you should have been there, pastor ripped this guy's head off, and he kicked him out of the church. It's like, oh, man, why is that? Because people like drama, okay? And I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying you guys like drama, okay? But hey, I prefer to you like the drama in church than the drama soap operas or whatever. The reality shows. This is the greatest reality show, and it's not even a show. It's a real deal, okay? And I think God knows that because of the fact that, you know, in the book of Revelation, you have the letters that are written to the seven churches, which are in Asia. And what is he doing? It's basically two chapters of God just letting out all the dirty laundry of those churches. And then, you know, he writes a letter to each of the churches, and then he's just like every other church knows about the drama that's going on in that church. And then someone knows about what's going on in Thyatira and how they have a lady pastor there who's teaching people how to fornicate and eat things, sacrifice them to idols. I mean, talk about embarrassing, you know what I mean? They know about Laodicea and how lukewarm that church is and how that church makes God want to throw up. I mean, that's like embarrassing. It's just like people are like, oh, look what Jesus said about this church. They say they're lukewarm, you know, like he's saying spew thee out of my mouth. But you say, why would he do that? Well, to warn others, warn other churches not to be that way. And then we hear about the church at Ephesus who essentially had left their first love. They stopped sowing and they received a great rebuke for that. But we also see how doctrinally sound they were. And it inspires congregations to be as sound as they were in their doctrine and zealous over correcting doctrinal errors and casting out false apostles and false prophets out of their church. So, you know, yes, there's church, there's drama at the church of Corinth, but you love it. OK, and here's the thing is that at the end of the day, whether you like it or not, there's going to be drama in our church. OK, and I'm not just talking about when ladies get, you know, in conflicts and stuff like that. OK, I'm talking about just drama in general. There's always going to be drama. Don't let that deter you from being a part of, oh, there's so much drama here. I'm going to go somewhere else. Yeah, you're going to go somewhere else where there's more drama. And in fact, you're probably going to go somewhere where the drama is not being dealt with, where it's just drama upon drama upon drama. And then the pastor's drama, the pastor's wife is really drama. And I know what I'm talking about, too, by the way. OK, most of the time in churches, let me just let me just park it right here for a minute. Most of the time in fundamental Baptist churches, if you got some drama going on, I would say about 80 percent of the time. Let's be gracious here. It's like the pastor's wife or something that's causing all this drama, gossip, conflict. There's all kinds of cliques going on in the church. I mean, it's all kinds of crazy stuff that's going on in different churches. So here's the thing. You could either stay here, deal with the drama, enjoy the drama a little bit and see how it's executed and how we are to correct it. Or you could go to another church where there's drama and it's not being corrected. And then you're essentially just kind of integrated into the drama. And then, you know, you can be a part you can have your own reality show where you're the main character and you're the main person creating all the drama. OK, so first and foremost, look at verse number 10 here. We're going to look at the first problem that they had is they had problem with division and authority. OK, now this is where everything else stems from, in my opinion. OK, look at verse number 10 and says, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing. And that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Now, let me ask you a question. Is he addressing the church of this world? No, because there is no the church of this world. He's addressing the church at Corinth, which is a local New Testament church. The reason I want to make that point is because people will point to a pastor like me or church like ours and be like, Oh, you guys are calling out this other church. You guys are being what? Divisive. But here's the thing is that this this passage is addressing a church. God expects unity and for us to endeavor to to keep the unity of the spirit in our local New Testament church. So he expects for us to dwell in unity, to serve in unity and not to have division in our congregation. But yeah, we are supposed to be divided with other people who do not believe doctrine like we do, who hold to a false gospel. They pervert the Godhead. They don't they they attack the King James Bible. They're contrarians to biblical Christianity. We're supposed to be divided with them because what Concord has Christ will be the only man. But he's saying in a church, there should be no division. We should we should get along and have unity. He says in verse 11, for it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them, which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now, this I say that every one of you say, I am of Paul, I and I of Apollos and I of Cephas and I of Christ. So what's the problem here? You have these clicks going on in court and you have guys are just like, well, I'm I'm part of Paul's ministry. You know, I'm a byproduct of Paul's ministry. And then others are like, well, I'm a byproduct of Apollos' ministry. Now, this is pretty cool if you think about it, because Apollos just recently got kind of like brought into, you know, this Christian movement when he found out that who he's preaching is Jesus Christ. Right. And he says, and I have Cephas, Cephas is who? Peter. And then others are like, well, I'm just I'm I'm of Christ. Now, this is the right group here. The right group is the one who says, well, I'm of Jesus Christ. Now, what is the issue here? The issue here is that we're not gangs. It's not like the Paul gang, the Apollos gang and the Cephas gang. They're all Christians. They're all on the same team. What's wrong with these people? They're creating division amongst people where they already agree on a lot of things. OK, he says in verse 13, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any any should say that I had baptized in my own name. So he's kind of rebuking them for this. He's he's telling them, like, you know what? Good thing I didn't baptize any of you because you could have used that, you know, as a as credence to the fact that you should be with me or the people who should be with Apollos. This is a very immature thing to do. OK. When members of a church try to turn leaders against one another based upon who reached who understand, folks, at the end of the day, we were reached by Christ. Amen. And we should never seek to create division within a church and say, well, I side with this particular pastor or I side with this particular pastor. Why don't we just side with the pastors who just side with God? Right. Why don't we just esteem all these church leaders who are essentially doing the work of God? They have the right gospel as being righteous men who we want to support and not seek to divide them. OK. And try to make it into camps or something like that, where it's just like, well, you know, I know you're from Peter, but you know what? I like Apollos better, though. Well, I like them all. Apollos preaches good. Cephas preaches good. Paul preaches good. And at the end of the day, Jesus Christ is my savior. Now, look at verse thirty one. By the way, here's the funny thing. Actually, look at verse seventeen. This is I'm a chase a rabbit here, but look at this says for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now, why is that a good verse? Well, it's a good verse for those who believe you have to be baptized in order to be saved. You've got an issue here. If the apostle Paul is saying Christ sent me not to baptize. Well, if baptism was necessary for salvation, that statement would make absolutely no sense because that would mean that Christ did send the apostle Paul to baptize because baptism is necessary for salvation. If that was the case, but because it's not part of salvation, he's saying they didn't send me to baptize. He sent me to preach the gospel automatically showing that the gospel is not the same as baptism. And he says not with the wisdom of words, as the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Let me say this. Any time you add works to salvation, you make the cross of Christ of none effect. Any time you add baptismal regeneration, you add repenting of your sin, you add anything to the message of the gospel. You have made it of none effect. The gospel is powerful. It's able to save the Jew and the Greek. It's the power of God into salvation, but it can be rendered useless if you add works to it. This is what the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 11, verse number six. And if by grace that it is no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. OK, now look at verse thirty one. This is the attitude that God wants us to have. It says that according as it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory in the apostle Paul. Let him glory in Apollos. Let him glory in Cephas. Let him glory in Pastor Jimenez. Let him glory in Pastor Mejia. No, let him glory in the Lord, the Bible says. If you're going to glory in anything, glory in the fact that Jesus Christ is your savior. He's the one that we're following. He is our God. That's what God wants us to glory in. But obviously, look at chapter three, if you wouldn't. We're going to look at these problems in chronological order. This is a mark of an immature Christian. OK, see, how do you know? Look at verse number three of First Corinthians three. It says for a year yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? For while one sayeth I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos, are ye not yet carnal? Who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom he believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? So obviously, there should be a healthy respect, admiration and love for the leaders that reached you or are discipling you. But you know what? Every leader needs to have his place in the hearts of God's people, not put them on a pedestal, but also not degrade them and disrespect them at the same time. They're essentially tools in the hands of God to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And he says in verse number six, I have planted and Apollos watered, listen to this, but God gave the increase. So what is the apostle Paul doing? He's showing them the bigger picture. And when someone only focuses on, well, you know, I am of whatever of this person, of this church and of this person. OK, then what they're doing is they're missing the bigger picture. OK, well, I just think that, you know, we're just a way better church than anybody else's church or whatever. That's not a right attitude to have. OK, well, I just think First World Baptist Church is the only great church. Faithful Word Baptist Church is the only reason I'm at this church is because I'm not in Arizona. And if I would, that's where I'd be. And you're just kind of you just kind of put down other churches at the expense because you like some other church or whatever. That's a wrong attitude to have. It's obviously immature because it's God who gives the increase, my friends. OK, now, again, the balance of views should be you love your church. This is where you want to be. You feel like this is where God placed you. You're prospering here. But it doesn't mean you have to put down other churches of like faith who there is no conflict with. There is no doctrinal errors. There is no sin involved. You know, we can still support those churches and not put one down to exalt another. You understand? You can still speak kindly of other pastors in the presence of other pastors. You can still admire other preachers and pastors and leaders and still believe that God is doing something great through that ministry because it's the proper attitude to have. You know what? This is true in the New IFB Church and the New IFB movement, but it's also true for just independent fundamental Baptist churches in general. Because we understand this with New IFB churches. Like, yeah, for sure. You know, I love Pastor Thompson. I love Pastor Shelley. You know, Pastor Jason Robinson. You know, these pastors, I love these pastors. They're doing a great work. But you know what? You can also, you need to make sure you have that attitude towards even old IFB pastors who aren't necessarily your standard, but they're still doing the work of God. They're still preaching the gospel. They're sowing. They're doing a great work. They may not agree doctrinally on end times or whatever it may be, but they're still being used of God. You know what? That pastor is still praying to the same God that you pray to. He's still preaching out of a King James Bible. He still believes in the right salvation. He loves people. He's doing a great work. And God is using that person in a great way. We ought to esteem that individual as being a servant of God, not someone who is of lesser quality in the ministry because he's not part of the New IFB. Now obviously, because I have a choice, I don't want to be a New IFB. You know, let's just be quite frank here, okay? And not to put them down or anything like that, but the reality is, I want to be where like the hardcore people are. Okay? I want to be associated with David's mighty men. You understand? And so, you know, put me with the guys who are calling out the fags and that's the kind of people I want to be around. Okay? And if the old IFB doesn't want to do that, that's fine. There's still Godly people and they're doing a great work, but put me with those guys though. Sign me up with that team right there. Okay? Now obviously, there's old IFB pastors who hate us. You know what I mean? And they despise us. They think we're heretics or whatever. They constantly attack us. Phooey with them, you know? If that's their disposition, if that's what they want, if that's the attitude they want to have or whatever. But you know what? At the point where you start attacking us and slandering and lying about us, okay, now we got to like, you know, kind of defend our doctrine, right? But at the end of the day, we need to make sure that we keep the bigger picture in mind. This is why it's awesome that when we have a missions trip, a lot of churches get involved. You know, when we went to Belize, First Works wasn't the only one there in Belize. We have people from, what do we have? From Steadfast, Faithful Word, right? What? Holdfast? You know, different churches that came down to support the work and preach the gospel with us. And it wasn't like, whoa, whoa, you can't eat with us. You're from Holdfast. Pazansky? Who do you think you are, Jared? You know, like, you got to stay over there, you know? No. You know, for us, it's just like he's part of our church at the moment and we're both doing the work of God together. And we fellowship and we're like-minded. In fact, that Belize trip was awesome. It was awesome to be able to fellowship with people of other churches, because then you realize how similar you really are in your beliefs and personalities. You just have a gay old time, amen? Just an awesome time. And, you know, why? Because we understand what the bigger picture is. The bigger picture is just get a bunch of Belizeans saved. Just get a bunch of Belizeans saved. Let's do the work of God together. You know, I think it's great when other churches have missions trips and people from our church go support them. Why not? Let's get in on that, amen? Let's get some rewards from there. Let's support that church. Go experience the mission field with other churches, see how they do it. And that is the bigger picture. We never want to say, well, I am of Verity. I am of First Works. I am of Faith Award. I am of Steadfast. No, we're all of Christ. Don't divide leaders. Don't divide pastors. Just be on the same page and look at verse number 20. I'm sorry, look at verse number 7. It says, So then neither is he that plantseth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that plantseth and he that watereth are one. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, for he labors together with God, ye are God's husband, ye are God's building. Verse 20, skip down to verse 20. Verse 20 states, And again the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours, and ye are Christ, and Christ is God's. What is he saying? At the end of the day, just appreciate the leaders that you have because God gave them to you. You know, thank God that there's, I don't know, how many new F.B. pastors are there right now? Can some of them do a quick count? How many are there? A dozen and a half. Is that true? I don't know if that's an accurate number. When I say throw a number out there, I mean like an accurate number. Don't just guess, right? They're like 50? I don't know. Okay, let's see. We got three in California. Let's see, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, maybe like ten. Maybe there's about ten pastors in the new I.F.B., okay? Just appreciate God for them because of the fact that, you know, every single one of them are going to lead you in the way of righteousness. This is why I don't have beef with when people from my church go listen to Pastor Shelley's sermons. You know, I come here in the morning and Ulysses is blasting Pastor Shelley. I don't mean like he's blasting him. I mean like he's like listening to his sermons. I'm not like, bro, excuse me? You're at my church. If you want to listen to them, re-listen to the sermons that I just preached, okay? Why? Because whatever he's listening to is going to not only make him a better Christian, but even a better employee, right? I'm not against anybody listening to my friend's pastor because it's only going to make them more righteous. And guess what? At the end of the day, I'm the one who benefits from it. Because they make them better Christians for this church. So and vice versa, we should rejoice when we listen to other pastors and other preachers because we're gaining wisdom and the Bible tells us that he gave some apostles and some prophets and some pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. It says that we all come into unity. It says that no more children tossed to and fro cared about with every wind of doctrine. So these are people who are gifted to you so you can learn the Bible and just become a better Christian, okay? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. I mean these Corinthians should have just been grateful that they have an apostle who started the church. The apostle Paul started the church, but yet they're just like, well, I'm not of Paul, I'm of Apollos or whatever. You know, I am of Cephas. It's just like, dude, you have a church though. And the apostle Paul has been doing great works. Be thankful that there's a church that was started in your area. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse number 1. He reiterates this concept throughout Corinthians and it says, Let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God, moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Now let me just take a break here just to mention something, because I was in an old IFP for a long time and this verse was always used when talking about money. Every single time. In fact, we used to have this thing called what? Stewardship month, right? And they would say moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful because they wanted you to be faithful in your tithes and your offerings. And I'm not saying that can't be a secondary application, but that's not what this is talking about. It's talking about the mysteries of God. It's saying that we're stewards of the gospel. We're supposed to be stewards of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but sometimes people just see money everywhere. Verse 3, it says, But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment, yea, I judge not mine own self, for I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified, but he that judgeth me is the Lord. He said, look at verse number 6, And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes, that ye might learn in us not to think of men above which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. What is he saying? He's like, don't put these men on a pedestal either, though. So you can go to the extreme of both, and in the Old IFP, this was common, where they would put men of God on such a high pedestal that even if they did wrong, it's just like, well, they're still fine. They're still qualified, they can still be up there and be the pastor. And an example of this is Jack Scott, who is the pastor of the largest independent fundamental Baptist church in America, and this guy was a reprobate. He's a pedophile, he's a reprobate, he committed heinous crimes, and crimes that are worthy of death, and he's a wicked devil, but you know what? That guy's out of prison now, and I'm just telling you, I'm sure there's some independent fundamental Baptist church out there that's going to try to restore him to a position of authority because they're a respecter of people. They're putting a guy on a pedestal, even to the point this guy's like a devil. But you know, even if they're not devils, Jack House, who's a great pastor, he's a great man of God, he's in heaven today, he made a great impact for the fundamental Baptist movement, people put that guy on a pedestal, where it's just like they made idolatrous statues of him at Hammond, Indiana. I mean, folks, that's wrong, it's wicked, should not be done, and this is the proper attitude that the Apostle Paul is communicating here. He's saying, learn not to think of men above that which is written. Respect the man of God, admire the man of God, follow the man of God as long as he follows Christ, but don't put him on such a high pedestal that he could just do no wrong. That if he commits some wicked crime, that oh no, he's still qualified wrong. If you're sleeping around with prostitutes and stealing church money, you're done, dude. And so, great point, Apostle Paul. Look at verse 15. So the Apostle Paul is struggling with the church at Corinth here in regards to authority, and you kind of wonder where he's going with this because there's people in the church who are obviously for the Apostle Paul, but others that are not. And I would say, based upon the text of 1st and 2nd Corinthians, the majority of them were people who were rejecting the authority of the Apostle Paul, even though he's the one who started the church. Look at verse number 15. He says, For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. So in 1st Corinthians 3, he's just like, hey, we're nothing, we're co-laborers together, don't choose one over the other, but don't go to the extreme and just reject me as your leader just because I say, you know, be no respecter of people. There should be some level of respect for the man of God still. And he's telling them, by the way, I'm the one who got you saved. When he says, I begotten you through the gospel, he's saying, I got you saved. So he says, you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, you have people who are teaching you the word of God, but I'm the one who actually led you to the Lord. And obviously, you know, the principle there is that we should love and admire the people who led us to Christ. The person who led me to the Lord, that I would accredit to leading me to the Lord, he's like my enemy now. This guy just doesn't even like me anymore. And I'm talking about the pastor from Texas. His name is Bob Gray Jr., II, who is a great friend of mine, whom I still love to this day. He holds a special place in my heart. But there was conflict years ago and he sided with a really wicked person by the name of Manley Perry. They got together, made a podcasting episode against me, yours truly. And I remember, like, I texted him and I said, because we're calling on Manley Perry for his heretical views. And I texted him and I said, you know, I love you and you always have a special place in my heart, but I cannot respect what you're doing and I will no longer be an advocate for your ministry. I'm disappointed in you. And, you know, I love him. But at the end of the day, you know, he turned on me. But that's not to say, like, I hate the guy. You know what I mean? Because, you know, to this day, in spite of the railing accusations and the turning against me and saying all manner of evil, I still love him because if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be saved. You know, thank God that he was filled with the Spirit when he preached the word of God, when I came under that tent as an unsafe person and the power of God was on that man. And you know what? The word of God pierced through me and I called upon the name of the Lord and I got saved and I accredited him for that. And so even if we don't get along and our ministries are not necessarily in lockstep, I can still admire him as someone who led me to the Lord. And the same should be said of you. You know, whether you get along with the person who led you to the Lord or not, love that person, admire that person, respect that person because God used them in your life in a great way, amen. And you may say, well, you know, the one who led me to the Lord is not my enemy. Well, do a backflip then, you know. You know, some of you were led to the Lord by Pastor Anderson. Thank God for that. He says in verse 16, Wherefore I beseech you, be followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. Now some are puffed up as though I would not come to you. So what is he saying? There's some people at the church at Corinth. You're puffed up like I'm not going to do. I'm not going to go over there and actually correct what's going on in that church. Puffed up means prideful. Verse 19, But I will come to you shortly if the Lord will and will know not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power that the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. What will you? Shall I come to you with the rod or in love or in the spirit of meekness? So the Apostle Paul, he's flexing a little bit here. He's like, when I come, I'm going to see I don't I don't care who's puffed up. I want to see who has power. So what do you think? Should I come with the rod? He said, Well, what does that mean with the rod? Like he's coming to whoop him. I don't think he's physically going to do that. He's saying like he's coming there to kind of lay down the hammer on these rebellious people in this local New Testament church who are rejecting him as the authority, the authority that was given to him by Jesus Christ, which, by the way, shows us that sometimes we can't come in love, my friends. Why don't you be loving? Well, according to the Apostle Paul, he gave three distinct ways he can come to them. He said with the rod, with love and in the spirit of meekness. So that means if he came to him with the rod, he wasn't coming in love. So there's some times where we can't come in love. We have to come with the spirit of judgment. Right. So he's not messing around. He's telling them, you know, you're talking a big talk while you're there. We're going to see if you're going to keep talking that big talk once I get there. And I'm going to I'm going to show you guys what's up. OK. Now, obviously, we know the end of the story. They get right with God and, you know, everything was was great thereafter. But go with me if you went to Chapter 11. Chapter number 11. And look, let me just make this comment here, is that you would think that because the Apostle Paul started this church, he led this people to the Lord, he kind of started off the work, that these people would have a proper respect for the Apostle Paul. But obviously, these people are disrespecting him. And in fact, in Second Corinthians 13, the very last chapter of Second Corinthians, there's an implication that they're kind of rejecting him almost as being a what? A reprobate. And he's like, what? Like, though he be as reprobates, implying that they're kind of treating him that way. OK. Now, I'm getting ahead of myself here. But one of the reasons they may be doing this because they're just some of the people that are probably just really wicked. OK. But let me just say this is that, you know, this is the danger of familiarity. OK. And what am I referring to? Well, sometimes people can get close to a leader. And if they don't have discretion, they don't have enough wisdom, they can cross some boundaries. OK. Where they actually begin to disrespect the leader. And then, you know, then you have yourself a big problem. OK. Because of the fact that some people just don't know how to be friends with leaders. You guys don't understand what I'm talking about? Where it's just like, you know, it's like pastor this and pastor that. And then it's just like, bro, this or bro that. It's like, do this or do that. Or how about just Bruce? Right. That's called familiarity. Or you just begin to lose respect for the leader. And let me just say this. If you lose respect for me in this church, I'm not going to blame you. You know, that's on you. But I would suggest you go somewhere where you can respect the pastor if you can't respect me. Because here's the thing. The leadership is not changing here. So it's not like, oh, man, he's not respecting me anymore. I'm probably going to go somewhere else. No, you got to go somewhere else. I ain't going anywhere. Like, I'm going to continue to be the pastor here and I'm not going to demand for you to respect me. But you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself. And you need to make sure you don't fall into the pit of familiarity. And by the way, that's not just with the pastor. That can sometimes be with the father and the son. Children and their parents. Hey, you children, especially of this new generation. OK, show some respect to your parents and don't treat them like it's like your best friend or something like that. And parents, let me just say this. You don't need to be your kid's best friend. You're their parents. You are. They are your children. You are their parents. Well, I just want to make sure that I have it in good mind. You're their parents. You're their mom and their dad. Let them have friends somewhere else. Let someone else be their best friend. You are their parent. And they need to be able to respect you as their parent and not treat you like you're just one of their classmates or something like that. OK, show some respect to your mother. Show some respect to your father. And don't go around treating them like they're some of your high school buddies or something. Bro, dad. Dude, dad. What is that? I teach my kids. Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. And you don't have to have that standard, but I do. OK. Because I think it's of the utmost importance to show respect to your parents and not be disrespectful towards them. Not have this familiarity thing going on. And obviously I'm not saying you got to walk on eggshells unless that's your preference, parents. You know, if that's your preference, you want your kids to walk on eggshells. That's your prerogative. But I'm just saying, you know, you've got to be careful with this matter of familiarity where you get so close to your followers that they feel so comfortable that they can overstep some boundaries and then become disrespectful towards you. OK, this is a very common thing even in churches. And, you know, I learned this. I've learned this throughout my Christian life. But even just as a pastor, I've learned that because some people can't handle that type of friendship. They just don't know how to handle that. Some people can't. Some people can handle that kind of friendship and be the friends with the pastor. It's really quiet in here right now. It's like everyone's just kind of quiet right now. But, you know, some people can handle that and still be respectful and be with the pastor, but others cannot handle that. You know, and my philosophy is if you can't handle that, I can't let you be close to me because we're not going to cross boundaries here. And then we have an awkward situation where you're overstepping your boundaries and you're being disrespectful. You're not respecting the office of a bishop. You understand? And so, you know, I've never experienced it to this degree. The Apostle Paul is experiencing it pretty badly here where they're even claiming that maybe he might be a reprobate or something. But what I'm saying is respect your authorities. OK, respect your authorities. Respect your pastor. Respect your parents. Respect your boss and your secular job. You know, don't think, you know, that guy's paying you. He gave you a job. Yeah, but he's like my friend or whatever. It's just like whatever. No, he's your boss. When you're on the clock, he's your boss. And yeah, but he's younger than me. So what? And he's still your boss. Yeah, but Pastor, you're younger than me, though. So what? You know, because of the fact that, you know, and by the way, thank you for saying that I'm younger. I appreciate it. Thank you for noticing that game. But you know, the Bible calls pastors what? Elders. It's not referring necessarily to the age, it's referring to the maturity level and how much they've been walking with God. So if you feel you're like, well, you're not an elder to me, then go somewhere else then. You know, it's no skin off my back. I won't be heartbroken about it. You know, I'm not going to throw a pity party because of X, Y and Z. You can go somewhere else because you need to be somewhere where you can respect the pastor. OK, and this isn't necessarily happening here, but you know, this is preventative medicine lest it does. OK, so respect your parents, respect your father, your mother, your pastor, your boss. First Corinthians 11, verse one says, Be followers of me. Here's the stipulation here. Even as I also am of Christ. So people are like, well, I don't follow man. I follow Jesus. Well, Jesus told you to follow man, though. So know the apostle Paul did under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, though, because holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. OK, I'm so sick and tired of people saying, well, that was the apostle Paul as if like this isn't the Bible. Like this is conflicting teachings about following Christ. And it's just like, oh, no, Jesus only wanted people to follow. Well, if that were true, then no one can follow Jesus because he's not here physically on this earth. But folks, obviously, God wants us to follow a man because he's for what authority. So he says, follow me, be followers of me, even as I am of Christ. You say, look, the reason you should follow me is because I'm obviously dedicating my life to serve the Lord. I'm walking with God. And that is the main thing right there is that we need to make sure that we're following people who are following the Lord. Verse two says, Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I deliver them to you. But it would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. What is he doing here? He's essentially emphasizing the fact that God is for authority. And he's trying to kind of like teach them again, like, hey, you know, women are supposed to follow their husbands, their own husbands. And churches are supposed to follow a man as that man is following Christ. There is an order to things. And in fact, the Trinity itself exemplifies that. Where Jesus Christ is under the authority of God, the Father, the Holy Spirit is in authority, under authority to Jesus Christ himself. He testifies of the Son. It shows us that there is an order to things. There's an authority structure that God wants us to follow. And by the way, the Trinity is a perfect example that just because you're under someone's authority doesn't mean you're lesser in essence. Well, I don't want to be under somebody because that just means like I'm I'm just inferior or something. No, it doesn't because Jesus Christ is under his father, but it doesn't make him inferior to his father because they're both God. You know, people who come up with that argument just have an authority problem. OK, and don't have the humility to follow a man, to follow their boss or whatever, et cetera. Go to Second Corinthians Chapter 10, if you would. Hold your place there in First Corinthians. Go to Second Corinthians Chapter 10. So what is the biggest drama that we see first and foremost is this divisive authority issue that people have. OK, where they're just rejecting the authority of the Apostle Paul. They're creating division. They don't know how to follow a man. And you kind of wonder, like, where are the leaders at this church? But you know what? The Church of Corinth is like churches today, though, where there might be some authority at that church, but it's only in name because they don't exercise their authority. There are a bunch of pushovers. You know what churches need today in 2023? They need strong leadership. No nonsense. Strong leadership who do not allow the members to walk all over them. But the problem is there's too many leaders today who pastor churches where they just want to make sure they don't offend anybody by what they say, because, oh, then the offering is going to stop coming in. The tithes are going to stop. The attendance is going to be. So what? We need men of God who just stand behind the pulpit and thunder forth the word of God, regardless of the consequences and the repercussions of it. You understand? And you know what? People like strong leadership. And let me just say this. Let me just be real frank here. Men like strong leadership. And you know what? You give me a church where there's like some sissy pastor and leader who's high on his estrogen, low on his testosterone. I'll show you a church that's filled with women. We're not against women, obviously. I'm married to one. I got three daughters. I love women. Women are great. This is God's order. However, when a church is only filled with women, what does that show? It shows that the pastor behind the pulpit is not necessarily the kind of pastor that would attract men to the church. Because look, we want women to come to church, but we need men to come to the church as well because men lead households. Men lead their wives. They lead their children. They're essentially the backbone of a society to keep it strong. You understand? And you know what? Some guys just hate going to church because the pastor is too sissy. He's too much weak of a leader. He's got his skinny jeans on with his mohawk or whatever. He's like 45 years old and he doesn't call anything out. He's got a little earpiece going like this or whatever. He's got a glass pulpit. He's a glass pulpit. He doesn't have a leathern girdle or leathern lungs. He has a glass pulpit. He preaches motivational speeches, about 15 to 20 minute sermon that makes the girls go ooh and ah. But you put a real man in that service, they're like what is this? I hate church. I don't want to go to this. You've got purple lights on your eyes and stuff. You've got lasers going all over the place. The guy looks like a queer. No real man wants to follow a guy who looks like a queer. You're just like you're going to teach me how to be a man? Thou that teaches another teaches not thyself? You know being effeminate is a sin? You know they're over here and with their godless music that's also queer. Real men don't like that stuff. Godless music, queer music where it just sounds like some Hollywood movie or something like that. Where some dude is making love to the mic or what not. Forget that stuff. And this is why churches sometimes are just filled with women. Because they like to follow a man who is as womanly as they are. Am I right or am I right? I'm not saying am I wrong because I know that I'm right. We need strong leaders my friends. And you know what I like the apostle Paul's leadership. He's like should I come with a rod? Should I come and show you the power? I mean he's like letting them have it. This is the kind of leadership that we need. You're like well that's not very Christ like though. What do you mean Jesus made a scourge of small corn? He didn't even get a rod. He's like a rod? This is for children. I'll make a scourge of small cords. And he goes into the temple and starts whooping people. Throwing out the money, the money changers, just chasing people out. His disciples are just like watching them from afar. They're like oh you know the Bible does say, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. So I guess this makes sense. So next time you talk to me about being Christ like let's reference that story first. Do you really want me to be Christ like? Do you really want me to be like Jesus? You know I don't know if you know what you're asking for. You need to be more Christ like. Is that really what you want? I'm going to try to be like Paul because I don't know if you can handle what Jesus did. Now go to 2 Corinthians, what did I have you turn to? Chapter 10? Alright we're going to skip that. Go to chapter 13. So the Corinthian church is having this problem with authority. You know what? Godly men and godly women love authority. They like structure. They like order. Because that's how God operates. God is a God. He's not a God of confusion. He's not the author of confusion. He likes things to be done decently the Bible says and in order. He likes when people follow others. He likes when people are under authority. He likes when they're structured to the home. When there's structure in a church. And so when there's an extreme rejection to authority it's not a matter of preference. It's a matter of wickedness. Because you know you can have some things where it's just like well I don't agree with the pastor on this. But I still want to be here because I love this church and I love the pastor and I can overlook that. And not make a big deal about those things because I still love the pastor. I love the church. I love the structure. But then there's others who have this extreme prejudice against authority and hatred towards authority. And it's not because it's just like they have a preference. It's because they just hate authority. And in fact the Bible labels them as being people who despise dominion. They hate government. They despise dominion. This is what's known as a reprobate. OK. Look at 2 Corinthians 3 verse number 7. It says this is the third time I am coming to you in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. I told you before and foretell you as if I were present the second time and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned and to all other that if I come again I will not spare. Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me which to you word is not weak but is mighty in you. For though he was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. Listen to verse number 5. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you. We're in 2 Corinthians by the way. Chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse number 5. He says in verse 5. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates. So notice this is the last chapter of the letter. This is one of the last things he tells them. And he says here's the last thing I want to tell you. You better make sure that you're actually saved. Because if after I visited you three times I sent you all these letters. The signs of an apostle were done among you and you're still hating me as a leader. It might be that you're just not even saved. Because at the end of the day Christians who love the Bible, love the word of God. They'll accept some form of leadership. And even if they don't get along with that leader 100% or they don't agree with that leader 100%. They're willing to subject themselves to their leadership because they love the church, they love the truth. To them it's just like let's just let bygones be bygones. We can be happy at this church and serve at this church no matter what. But people who are just vehemently against authority. Constantly criticizing authority. Criticizing the pastor. Criticizing the leadership. Hating the leadership. He's like you better examine yourself. Now why does he say this to them? Because they're a church. These are people who have an apostle as their leader. They're here and preaching all the time. And in spite of all of that they still hate the leader. Okay now we have an issue. This person's probably going to reprobate. Because a normal person, listen to this. A normal person that doesn't like the leader. What are they going to do? Leave. I'm not coming here. I'm going to go somewhere else. That's like the normal thing to do. The weird thing to do is like I hate this guy and I'm going to keep coming. Isn't that weird? It's like I hate that guy. I can't wait to come tonight to hate him more. I hate him and I can't wait to come on Thursday. And on Sunday again and I'm going to come every single service all throughout the year because I hate him. To us it's just like you're weird. What are you, a psychopath or something? That's a bad sign. This is why the apostle Paul says examine yourselves. And by the way, side note here, this is proof that reprobates cannot be saved. Because he says Christ is in you except he be reprobates. Implying that if you're a reprobate you can't have Christ in you. I mean it's pretty simple, right? Verse 6 says, But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. Now I pray to God that ye do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. He's not saying that they're acting like reprobates. When he says though we be as reprobates, he's saying though we're being rejected of you. Because they're rejecting his leadership. Now here's the thing is that another indicator that maybe some of the people at the church of Corinth were really wicked and evil is chapter 15. Because chapter 15 is the first Corinthians, what's chapter 15 about? The resurrection, right? And what was the issue with the church at Corinth? They were what? They were questioning the resurrection. Which is an essential doctrine to be saved. That's like a non-negotiable there, right? This is why he says you're saved if you keep in memory that which I have preached unto you. So 1 Corinthians 15, we love that chapter because it's the resurrection chapter. It's about the rapture. And he's rebuking them saying, if you're saying there's no resurrection, he's basically standing in doubt of them. Because I don't know if you know this, but you have to believe in the resurrection in order to be saved. It can't be like, well I believe he died, but I don't know about the whole resurrection thing though. It's just like, then you're not saved. Because you have to believe that he resurrected. And so they're questioning the resurrection. Some of them were questioning the resurrection. So this is why he's like, I don't know if some of you are saved or not. Because if you're in doubt of this, and obviously a lot of this was coming from false Christs and false apostles who were infiltrating the church. And teaching false doctrine. But if someone doesn't come out of that and say, you know what, I was wrong about that. I do believe in the resurrection. And they actually embrace the teaching that the resurrection has passed already or that there is no resurrection. That person's a reprobate. Because they've been going to a church where they teach the resurrection. The apostle Paul is there testifying of it. And they're still in rejection of it. This person's bad. This person's wicked. And so this is one of the major dramas of the church of Corinth. Was the fact that they were just not in lockstep with just having leadership. Not in lockstep with the leader because we don't need to be in lockstep with the leader. But we do need to be in lockstep with having a leader though. Like that's like a non-negotiable. This is not a house church. You understand what I'm saying? I'm saying like, you know, we don't have like five different pastors. And it's just like, Brother Geo, what do you think this passage means? Brother Christian, why don't you come over here and explain what your interpretation of this scripture means? How many of you have ever been to something like that? I remember years ago, I went to ELAC, which is a college. And I went there to go do some soloning there. And I saw this group and they're just like, hey, we're having a Bible study. Want to come to the Bible study? We're going to talk about the Bible. And I was like, you know what? Yeah, we'll go to that. Let me go to that. Because I'm like, these people are probably not even saved. So let me just go preach the gospel to all of them. So we get into this group and it's in the library. And they're in a circle. And there's a guy who's like the leader, right? But he's like the skinny jeans mohawk. The guy I was just talking about like 10 minutes ago. Just picture that basically. And he's reading a couple of scriptures or whatever. And he's like, we're going to go around and give our interpretation of what that verse means. And people are like, well, I think this. And this girl is just like, yeah, I just think this. And, you know, I think this. And when it got to me, I told her, I was like, well, I'm not going to tell you what I think it means. I'm going to just tell you what it means. I'm just going to tell you what the Bible actually says about this. And all you guys are wrong. This is what it actually means here. And then I just took the opportunity to just preach the gospel to them. And I did it with power and authority. And then like they were not happy. Like the leaders, the guys from 20 minutes ago, you know, they were really mad about the whole situation. So then they're like, OK, you could stop. You could stop. You know, we're going to go over this next scripture. And this happened like twice. And then they wanted to skip me. So then they so then like the meeting ended and everyone gets up or whatever. And this guy tries to come talk to me. And then the guy next to me who's sitting next to me, he's just like, oh, because at the end of that, at the end of that, I said, if anybody doesn't know where they're going to go when they die, come talk to me. I'll show you how to be saved. I was like, and you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt with 100 percent assurance. The meeting ended and the leaders were pretty upset. But the guy next to me said, hey, I want to know. Show me. And then they grabbed and they took him and they took him outside. Right. They took him outside. They're like, hey, don't talk to that guy. He's a heretic, blah, blah, blah. And then these guys are like, hey, you know, we don't really believe that. I'm like, well, I'm a Bible believer, you know. And then the guy was telling the guy outside. He's just like, hey, don't talk to him. He's like, no, he seems like he knows what he's talking about. Like, he seems pretty confident in what he's saying. Like, I want to hear what he has to say. So they're like, all right. You know, because they're pushovers. So what are they going to do? You just kind of just like, you just like you just move them out of the way. And just kind of like they like float away, you know. And then he walks in and he's like, hey, I want to be saved. And I got him saved. He ended up getting saved. Another guy got saved or whatever. But here's the thing is like, you know, that's your house church there. It's just a bunch of people, unsaved, natural people who just don't know the Bible. Folks, you need one guy to stand up and say, this is what the Bible says on the essentials. And you know what? Here's the interpretation of everything else and speak with authority and with power to have the unction of the Holy Ghost upon his life. And when he's preaching God's word, you know that it's from God. What do you think? You know, what is that? And so, you know, here's some of the issues with the church at Corinth. This might be a series because I'm already out of time. It is going to be a series because I'm completely out of time. But the main thing that we see here tonight, the first couple of things of the chapter of the entire book is the drama that they're experiencing had to do with their rejection of leadership, OK, their rejection of leadership, their divisive spirit. We need to make sure we keep the unity of the faith. We endeavor to keep that spirit of the unity of the faith here in our church and respect order, desire, respect and expect order in our church, not just on a spiritual level with the pastor, but in your household with, you know, in your marriage with your children, at your job. Order should be the utmost importance because God is not author of confusion. He's a God of order and he likes he likes authority. I mean, he is the ultimate authority. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the examples that we see here at the church at Corinth. I pray, Lord, that you'd help us as your people to love leadership, love order. And we're not as pastors, we're not without authority. We have Jesus Christ as our authority. The word of God is our authority. We're held more accountable than most, Lord. And I pray that you'd help us as pastors, as church members to embrace that order, that that example that we see in the word of God and to realize that our church will not be without drama. We will have drama at our church. And I pray that you give us the courage and the discernment, the wisdom to deal with it as it comes along. And may you be honored and glorified in all that we do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Song number 134 is our last song, My Anchor Volds. Song number 134. Song number 134. See it on that first verse. Though the angry surges roll On my tempest-driven soul I am peaceful for I know Wildly though the winds may blow I've an anchor safe and sure That can evermore endure And it holds my anchor holds Though the wild has said, Oh, give All my bones are small and frail By His grace I shall not fail My anchor holds My anchor holds Mighty tides of algae stream Arrows burn within the deep Angry clouds will save the sky And the tempest rises high Still I stand on tempest shore For my anchor grips the rocks And it holds my anchor holds Though the wild has said, Oh, give All my bones are small and frail By His grace I shall not fail My anchor holds My anchor holds I can feel the anchor pass As I meet sudden glass And the cave of the once seen There's a heavy stream between Though the storm may safely rise Till the turning of the tide And it holds my anchor holds Though the wild has said, Oh, give All my bones are small and frail By His grace I shall not fail For my anchor holds My anchor holds Troubles almost round the soul Leaves the gale of our people Renders seek to pour astray Storms obscure the light of day But in flies there can be both My good anchor has shall hold And it holds my anchor holds Though the wild has said, Oh, give All my bones are small and frail By His grace I shall not fail For my anchor holds My anchor holds Amen. Wonderful singing. You are dismissed.