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Amen. The part of the chapter we're going to focus on is found in Revelation chapter number 2 and verse number 18 where the Bible reads, And unto the angel of the church in Thy attire write, These things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass. I know Thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and Thy patience, and Thy works, and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things against Thee, because Thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And the title of my sermon this morning is Thyatira Baptist Church. Okay. Thyatira Baptist Church. Now let me just give you an introduction of what we just read in Revelation chapter number 2. These are letters written to the first century, obviously to churches that were in the first century A.D. by the Apostle John. Now as you read chapters 2 and 3, you're going to read about a lot of different churches. And a lot of these churches, they have strengths, and they have their weaknesses. You'll see that God is commending them for their strengths, and then He just comes down on them for their weaknesses. Now all of them have strengths and weaknesses, except for the church of Smyrna, which God had a lot of good things to say about the church of Smyrna. And we can learn a lot from a lot of these churches that they mention here, but they had good attributes, good and bad. Let me just start off by saying that these churches were literal churches. And you say, well, obviously, you know, who would think otherwise? Well there's a false doctrine out there called dispensationalism. And dispensationalism teaches that these seven churches found in the book of Revelation, chapter 2 and chapter 3, are actually seven different church ages. Which is not true. And in fact, they teach that these churches are not literal churches, that they're figurative, and in fact, today we are in what's called the Laodicean era, church age. You say, why is that? Well, if you look at the Laodicean church era in the book of Revelation, they're very lukewarm, right? And in fact, the Bible says that God spews them out of their mouth, they're lukewarm. And so a lot of pastors will get up and say, you know, this church age, and by the way, we don't believe in the universal church either. And I'll explain why in just a bit. But they'll say, you know, all the churches today of this time, they're all lukewarm. Well, you know what, just go ahead and speak for yourself. You can be a Laodicean Baptist church, we're not. And that's the reason why they want to prop up this dispensational teaching is because they say, no one's sowing as they used to, and no one loves God the way they should. Everyone's lukewarm, they're worldly, they're involved in sin, they're involved in fornication. Well, your church might be, but not ours, okay? And so these are literal churches that God is speaking to here, okay? Now, these churches don't exist anymore, okay? But they did exist at one point. And again, often what they'll say, and they'll come to this conclusion that this is a church age, because they want to use Romans 11, verse number 25, where it talks about the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled. And they'll say right now, during this church age, it's considered the times of the Gentiles. They'll say, we're in the times of the Gentiles, because we want to see people saved, and the Gentiles are being saved, and when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, then all Israel shall be saved, in Revelation chapter 4, what they consider to be the rapture, after that, which is false, okay? And that's a sermon for another day. But what Romans 11, 25 is talking about is really the latter end of the three and a half, forty and two months of Revelation, ending with Revelation chapter 19, Jesus Christ coming on a white horse to establish his kingdom, ungodliness shall be removed from Israel, and then all Israel shall be reserved, they shall be saved, believing Israel, okay? That's what it's talking about. But they say the times of the Gentiles are now, you know, we're living in the times of the, because this is the church age, you know, and all these things, and they'll say, right now we're in the Laodicea and Arab, because it's a lukewarm church. Well, not all churches are lukewarm, okay, there's churches out there that are on fire for God, they're winning souls, they're teaching out of the King James Bible, they're doing great works for God. So it's not every church. We believe in local churches, visible churches, I mean, you're here, this is a local visible church, okay? And so, and by the way, the Bible teaches us in Ephesians chapter 3, the glory should be in the church through Jesus Christ throughout all ages, right, amen, throughout all ages. So the reason they teach that doctrine is to prop up, obviously, their pre-tribulation, false doctrine, and their belief on Zionism, but these are literal churches that God is addressing here. Now again, when we look through these churches, it's very interesting to know that though they're literal churches, we can make an immediate application to our church, right? We could look at their strengths and say, man, you know, amen to that, we want to attain to that, that's a great testimony that that church had. I mean, we can do that with churches today. We can see churches today in America or wherever, maybe all around the world and say, wow, that church is very strong on doctrine, or that church is very strong on discipleship, and they're very strong on soul winning, I want to adapt that principle to our church. Well that's what we're going to do today, okay, but at the same time, we could look at their weaknesses and say, okay, that's what we shouldn't do as a church, right? That's what we should avoid as a church, and we're going to highlight one of the churches here by the name of Thyatira. Now why would you say, why would you call it Thyatira Baptist Church? Because the reality is Thyatira Baptist Church is existing today, is in existence today. You say, why is that? Many churches are guilty of what Thyatira was guilty of, this church right here. Now I learned that we ought to do like the sandwich method, you know, when we teach on something, so we're going to give the good part of Thyatira first, and then we're going to give the bad part, but we're going to lack the other part of the sandwich, because we're just going to end on the bad part, right? But we have to, okay? It's important that we talk about this. So we're going to talk about the good characteristics first of Thyatira. First of all, look down at your Bibles, in verse 19, obviously we notice that it was a working church. Look what it says, I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and then it says, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first. So the first thing we notice is that Thyatira was a working church. I mean, all these churches that we see in Revelations 2 and 3, they're all working, but Thyatira was the one that said, I know thy works, oh yeah, and thy works, right? And the last to be more than the first. That means their last works were greater than the ones that they did in the beginning, and that's a great testimony. It's good to see that this church obviously did great works, and guess what? They didn't stop at the great works that they were doing. They did greater works than that. And that's something, that's a principle that we ought to apply to our church, to say look, great works are being done. I mean, I was looking at the numbers, and we've already seen more than 550 people saved within the last four months. Praise God for that. I can't wait till we reach a thousand, right? Over 550 is a lot, okay? That's more than churches see in five years, but you know what? I want to see greater works than that, and I want our works in the end to be greater than that which happens in the beginning, okay? I pray that within the next couple years, five years, ten years, that we start seeing thousands upon thousands, heaps upon heaps of souls being saved. That's a great testimony. I want God to look down on us and say, I know your works, and the last works that you do are greater than the ones that you did in the beginning. You see, a lot of churches out there, what takes place is they do great works in the beginning, and what happens? They begin to scale back soul winning. They begin to scale back the works. And what happens? They become a church that lives back in the glory days, right? All the things that they used to do, and they used to be, and they're the used to be church, right? I mean, you see that all the time. Churches that say, yeah, I remember back in the day, Jack Hiles this, and bus ministry that, and all these people being saved this, and the sawdust trail, and all this garbage. But you know what? The past. And look, what happened in the past counts, obviously, but look, we want to look forward, you know? The best is yet to come, all right? And we can't live in the past, we can't live in the glory days of the past, why? Because if we constantly look at the past, we're not going to be planning for the future, okay? And we want our church to grow, obviously, numerically, and I believe it is. I mean, it is growing numerically, but now that I want to see more souls saved, okay? More ground covered for the Lord Jesus Christ with the gospel. You know, Lord willing, in the next couple of years, we'll be able to take mission strips to go, you know, church mission strips where we can go out and preach the gospel in different countries. I mean, our church is going to do great works in the future. Greater works than that which we're doing even today, all right? So we see the first characteristic is that it was a working church. That's a great characteristic to have, but not only that, we see that it was a charitable church. Look at verse 19, it says, I know thy works and charity. Now what's another word for charity? Love, okay? Basically, this church was a very loving church, and look, that's a character quality that every church needs to have. Every individual needs to have within the church is to be loving, right? Now what is loving is to go out and is to basically sacrifice yourself for the benefit of others, okay? You think of Christ, God who so loved the world that he what? He gave his only begotten son, he sacrificed his only son because he loved us, correct? Now we as a church could adapt to that and say, man, I want our church to be a loving church, okay? And you say, how can we be a loving church? Well, in a practical level, obviously soul winning is the greatest way we can show our love, right? Why? Because you're going up to complete strangers, okay? You're going up to complete strangers to give them the gospel, to see them saved. Is that recording? Okay, sorry. It just, my mind just went. Commercial break. The worst thing that could ever happen is like everything's done and then I have to upload the sermon and then you go and it's the black screen of death, like it was not recording. Anyways, that's the greatest way you can love someone is by going out there and giving them the gospel obviously, right? A complete stranger. But then you know what? What about the people who come within our church, right? Maybe they get a track on the door, they get invited or whatever it may be. You know, a way you can show them love is, how about saying hi? You know? I know when we come here, it's just like, I got to get my seat, I got to get settled. But once you get settled, once you get your seat, get up and go say hi to someone. You say, you know, well that person's been coming for weeks, you know? So do you know their name? You know, he's like, no, that's why I don't go say hi, because that's kind of weird. Well, you know what? If you don't know their name, they might not even know yours. So why don't you be the initiator to go and go talk to that person and say, hey, I'm sorry, I haven't gotten your name yet, what's your name? My name is Bruce, you know? And you know, what's your name? Well, my name is Alex, whatever. You know, and you get to know the person, okay? You're like, no, we're going to church, we're going to learn the Bible, I'm here to do, I'm here to be serious about the things of God. Yeah, that's good. But why don't you be charitable as well? Because I think you can do both. In fact, I know you can do both, okay? Be charitable, be kind, take people out to eat, spend time with people, fellowship with people, get to know people. Come out of your shell, okay? And look, you say, I'm not a social creature. We as Christians don't have the luxury of not being social creatures. I mean, the very concept of soul winning is, requires for us to get out of our shell and go talk to someone who we don't even know. So it's easier to talk, if you have not so much of a hard time going out talking to people you don't know, then it's not that hard to talk to people you do know. Within your own local congregation. But it was a charitable church, and I think it's important to love the lost, obviously, but the Bible says to do good unto all men, especially into the household of faith. Obviously we ought to favor God's people more than anything else, right? Next, verse 19, we see that it was a serving church. It says, I know thy works in charity and service. So this is a serving church, they're very active, they're serving the people of God, they're doing those type of works. And I think we have a serving church. You know, I don't think I've run into anybody who's not willing to just help out in any aspect of the church. That's important. You know, it's important to never think that we're so good that there's no job that we can't do, right? Everyone should always be open to say, you know what, I'm here to do anything you want me to do, whether it's throw out the trash, vacuum, clean, whatever it may be, we ought to have a servant spirit, correct? But next we see here that in verse 19, I know thy works in charity and service and faith. So it was a church of faith. What does that mean? We're like risk takers, because that's what faith is, right? It's to take God at his word, to take some risks, you know, whether it be financially, in the ministry, whatever it may be, this is a people who had faith, okay? Next it says that they were patient, it says in faith and thy patience. So patience, what does that say about someone? Patience is basically someone who's complete, right? According to James chapter number one. And someone who's patient is someone who's long suffering, they're forbearing, okay? They're not easily provoked. And look, we need Christians who are patient with people, all right? You say, why is that? Because within the spectrum of our church, there's Christians at all different levels of spirituality. You have the babe in Christ and you have someone who's been a Christian for 20 plus years, they've been reading, they've read the Bible over and over again, they know all the doctrines, you know, they're maturing the Lord, whatever it may be. So we have different levels. So guess what? It's often it's easy if you're not careful, you're a seasoned Christian to become impatient with someone who's not a seasoned Christian, okay? You know, someone who asks a question, you're like, so are you sure that the, you know, that the rapture, you know, doesn't come before the tribulation? Don't jump down to that guy's throat if he's a brand new Christian. By the way, you know, sometimes people ask dumb questions, I understand that, but don't tell them it's a dumb question, like what? And then throw like after the tribulation at his face or something, you know? You know, maybe that could be your opportunity to be a blessing and say, yeah, actually, can I show you real quick? You know, let me sit down with the Bible, let me show you real quick, because man, I thought the same. Look, it's good to like share commonality with that person, because obviously not everyone here knew the truth from the very start, okay? Maybe some of you did, but not all of us. So think back to the time when you didn't know the truth, okay? And approach a person, approach that brother in Christ with that same attitude that you would want to, someone have to approach you with, right? And go up to him and say, yeah, if the Bible says that, let's go to Matthew 24, can I show you real quick? With meekness, okay? Be patient with people. And look, if someone doesn't get something right away, it's okay, all right? Be patient. And I'm not talking about sin, okay? If like there's like a heroin addict or something and it's just like, he comes in with the needle sticking out of his arm, it's like, well, let's just be patient with him, all right? He still needs to take it out, we'll give him a couple weeks, no, okay? And I'm exaggerating, obviously, you know? But what I'm saying is this, I'm talking about being patient with people who haven't gotten everything right away, all right? And don't give him the eye if he says something dumb. And look, I come from the old IFB, so there's gonna be people coming from the old IFB to our church. Now the vast majority, I think, of the people within our church were born again into this movement. So you didn't really know nothing about the old IFB, okay? So to you, it's just like sodomites in the church, what the heck? You know, it's just like, and they might come in here and they might agree with us as far as the sodomites are concerned, but they might not have that same bent. Don't jump down their throat if they don't, they need to hear some preaching. They need to hear the preaching of God's word, they need to get a couple sermons, they need to see what the Bible says, and then they can condition themselves to be what we are, okay? Oh, this is brainwashing. Yeah, we're looking to brainwash you, yes, to wash your brain from that filthiness, okay? To renew your mind, to transform it according to the word of God, that's what we're looking to do. We're not hiding it, okay? But be patient with people, and it's important, it's very important, because look, we can't expect someone to be a full-blown, just all-in Christian, knowing everything overnight. It's not gonna happen, okay? It takes time, be patient with people. So these weren't patient people that were willing to forbear and suffer long. Now, we're gonna talk about this in just a bit, but this doesn't mean that we tolerate sin. Right. Okay? It's like the guy's coming with a beer bottle, and he's like, every time everyone looks down to look at the verses, he's like, you know? No. And you're like, whoa, brother, just be patient, you know? Be long-suffering. No. And we'll explain what the difference is in just a bit. I'm talking about practical aspects, maybe of beliefs. Maybe they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, the Jews are wicked, but man, don't forget, they're still God's chosen people, you know? They'll be like, you know? Don't knock them out. Just allow that to be a flag to you to say, okay, I don't think this person knows everything that there is to know about this subject. Obviously, they're a little ignorant of this subject. Now, don't tell them that, like, hey, you're a little ignorant of this subject, I can tell that. But don't worry, I'm gonna be patient with you. You don't have to tell them these things. Just say, hey, look, can I show you what the Bible says about it? Because I used to think the same thing, or whatever, you know? I used to believe the same thing, but until I was shown the truth. So be patient with people. Now, let's get into the bad characteristics of Thyatira, right? Verse number 20, the Bible says here, so after he finished just saying all these good things about Thyatira, right, they're like, oh, man, we're doing good. Not with sinning. What does that mean? Right? Even though you did these things, notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee. Because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. Now, obviously, Jezebel is a character within the Old Testament, we're not gonna get into all that, we're just gonna get into what she did. So problem number one with Thyatira Baptist Church, they allowed a woman to teach. It says, notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach. Now, let me start off by saying that you should never name your daughter Jezebel, okay? Not a good idea. Just like you probably should have named your son Judas, right? Not a good idea. You know, because sometimes, let's say people, they'll like, well, let's choose a Bible name. Hey Jezebel, that sounds cute, you know? So they're, Thyatira allowed a woman to teach, she said, is that bad? Yes. Amen. Very bad. Now, go to 1 Timothy, hold your place there in Revelations chapter 2, and go to 1 Timothy chapter 2. Now look, don't come at me with this attitude, oh, you're just a chauvinist pig, you're a sexist, you know, no. Because look, I don't downgrade any woman, and I don't think that any woman is below us as men. That's right. Okay? And that's what people like to misconstrue and try to twist your words and say, you're just a sexist, you're just a chauvinist pig. Well, first of all, a pig's a female. If you're gonna call me something, call it right, I'm a chauvinist hog, all right? But secondly, women and men, they're equal in essence, obviously, right? And God sees us as equals in essence as far as, you know, we're both human beings, especially, you know, we're both saved, we're children of God, but there is an order to things, okay? God has order. And look what the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 12, let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, but I suffer, suffer means not allowed, I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Now, this is another reason why we don't allow the women in our church to say amen out loud, okay? Now, I've been to churches where, I mean, you go down south, hey man, you know, they don't care. Well, that ain't happening here. Because the Bible says there to learn in silence with all subjection, okay? Not supposed to speak. Now look, I think that the good majority of the women in our church, they enjoy the preaching and they agree with what I say, and guess what they do when they agree? They go, I don't see nothing wrong with that. You don't nod in your head. Now, some of them give me the eye, maybe, you know, they're just like, you know, but for the most part, people agree, the ladies agree, okay? And here's the thing, if you don't agree with me, then you don't agree with the Bible, because we just read it right there. You know, how are you going to go around that? Well, I think the ladies should, I think the ladies should keep in silence with all subjection. And he says, and look, that's why women teachers in church should not exist, okay? No Sunday school teachers, nothing of that sort, okay? Now I'm not against women teaching, because the Bible's not against that. And I'm going to explain to you what I mean by that. Go to Titus chapter 2. I remember I was in a church, and there was a lady at this church, she came from a charismatic background, like a Pentecostal-type church, but she loved my preaching, okay? And she would always come, and obviously I was not the pastor, but any time I preached, she enjoyed it a lot, and she was just all over the place when it came to this concept of saying, amen, brother, you know? And I'd be ripping or something, and she's like, amen to victory, brother, you know, all this stuff. And I even told her, I said, can I show you the scripture right here? The Bible says you should keep silence in the church. And she got offended, you know, she left for like a couple months, she even wrote me a letter, you know, talking about how offended she was, and all this stuff. But she ended up coming back because she liked my preaching. Now unfortunately, I mean, if it was up to me, obviously I'd just kick her out, but I wasn't the pastor at that time. But the Bible teaches us here that not only are they not supposed to teach, they're not even supposed to have authority over the man. You know, you'll often go down the freeways and you'll see some apostolic church, you know, Pastor Jim and Pastor Janie or whatever, you know, it's just like him and his wife are both pastors, you know, that's garbage, okay? Titus chapter 2 and verse number 1, the Bible says, But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith and charity and patience, the aged women likewise that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. So the Bible teaches us here that women should teach other women. Now does that mean that we just give them a pulpit? To go teach? Absolutely not. But you know, you can teach someone when you're sitting there before service. You know, you can talk to a young lady and say, hey, look, you know, this is the best way to take care of your husband. You should love your husband. Oh, but my husband's this and he doesn't, he doesn't love me and he's all this stuff. Well, why don't you just submit to your husband and everything will be a-okay because I don't like submitting to my husband. Well, the Bible says you should submit. You know, that's, that's teaching them, okay? That's the kind of teaching that we're talking about. But we're not talking about giving them a pulpit and say, okay, well at this time we're going to have, you know, Miss Hama, she's going to come on up and she's going to teach us on this doctrine. No, we're not doing that. Thyatira made a big mistake by having a woman come teach, okay? And look, some women, you know, they know their doctrine, they know what the Bible says, but that doesn't excuse the fact that they can go and teach. That's like having women missionaries. Okay? And I'm not talking about missionaries where they just go on a missions trip to go win people to Christ. I'm talking about when they're like sent out of their church as a missionary. That's not biblical, okay? And they're going around all these churches getting support as if like they're like a man. Not biblical. Shouldn't take place. They say, well, what do you think she should do then? Get married. And maybe that guy can be called to go to the mission field and then she could go to the mission field. Because a woman is supposed to follow her husband, okay? And look, that's not popular today, but guess what? That's still Bible. And if you don't like it, then read it over and over again. But it's fact. You say, you know, well, you don't know my husband. Well, you married him. So, you know, is that my fault or yours? You married him. And look, you say, well, you know, he does this and he does that. Well, you need to find out what makes him happy and do that which makes him happy. You say, why is that? Because according to the Bible, the man is the boss. I know this isn't popular and you've been watching Oprah and all that garbage and all this feminist movement. No, well, this is Faith Award Baptist Church and this is what we believe according to the Bible. Look, if you just submit to your husband and you do that which is pleasing to him, man, he'll love you up and down. He'll take care of you, okay? And the relationship will go smooth. And look, I'm not talking about the man who's just like, this isn't caveman style obviously, right? We're just yanking him from the hair and stuff. You know, I don't do that to my wife. My wife and I get along great. But you know why we get along great? It's because I love my wife and she follows me and submits to me. Look, I'm sure my wife submits to me in times when she feels like, oh, man, I don't know if that's like the best decision. But when I'm in my mode, she just submits. She's like, all right, let's do it. And if it doesn't pan out the way I thought it was supposed to pan out, she just doesn't say anything. And I say, well, that was a big mistake. You know, I guess we won't do that again. But the fact is, she still follows me. Why? Because that's what the Bible tells us, tells women to do, okay? Submit to your husband. Find out what makes them happy, okay? Look at his best meal, amen? And all that God's people said, all right. So it's not against teaching. It's against teaching in the church, but women ought to teach other women, okay? And look, if anyone gets offended at what I just said, it's because you've been just so indoctrinated by the world, by Dr. Laura and all these other feminist ladies who are just inserting within you this independent spirit, and not be dependent on your husband, you should do your own thing. It's not Bible, okay? Just repent, get it right, submit to your husband, and everything will be A-okay, okay? I don't agree with that. Well, sorry. So the second thing that we see here is that, first of all, the first problem is that they allowed a woman to teach, okay? Problem number one. Problem number two, they tolerated her to teach to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And now I'm going to the latter end of the verse because I'm going to focus on fornication in just a bit. That latter end of verse number 20 says, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. Now what does that mean? Now you're in Revelation chapter two, go to verse number 12, we're going to look at the church of Pergamos. In verse 12 it says, and to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, these things saith he that hath the sharp sword with two edges. I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is, and I hold this fast my name and has not denied my faith, even those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication. So we see the same thing was happening with the church of Pergamos, okay? Now what is the doctrine of Balaam? Balaam basically, obviously because he was greedy and he wanted the wages of unrighteousness according to the Bible. He taught Balak the way that God can curse the children of Israel is if he caused the children of Israel to disobey God, okay? And how were they to disobey God? By eating things sacrificed unto idols. So we see here that what Jezebel was teaching in Thyatira is basically how to disobey God, okay? And we have that happening all over churches. Now I wouldn't say necessarily in Baptist churches this is taking place where the woman is getting behind the pulpit and teaching people how to disobey God, but that is done in an indiscreet way obviously, okay? But that's what that means there. Now point number three is the point that I want to focus on this morning. This is the biggest problem of Thyatira right here is that they tolerated fornication, okay? Verse 20 says to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication. The fornication was the main reason God was coming down on this church. Now obviously eating things sacrificed unto idols is wicked, okay? Allowing her to teach, wicked. But the reason God was coming down on this church was because of fornication. You say, how do you know? Look at verse 21, and I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not. You see, fornication is a very wicked sin. And when there's fornication taking place in the church, it's very wicked. It's what the Bible calls a little leaven that will leaven it the whole lump, okay? We're going to talk about what that means. So the church of Thyatira was guilty of allowing fornication in the church and not exercising what's called church discipline, all right? Now you say, I never heard that before. What is church discipline? Well the simplest definition I can give of what church discipline is, is when church discipline is a punishment that is carried out by the church on an unrepentant brother or sister for not following church rules. Does that make sense? I think I put that on the bottom shelf, right? That makes sense. It's basically when the church agrees, you need to get out of here, okay? Now a lot of people will listen to something like this and they'll flinch at it. It's like, you kick people out of the church? Well, I haven't kicked anyone out of the church as of yet, but yes, we do believe in kicking people out of the church. Okay? You say, man, that's kind of cultish, isn't it? Like, exactly. Exactly. Cults, I mean, you think of Jim Jones. Jim Jones, when he had his little base out there in Guyana, he didn't let anyone leave. Okay? See, cults keep you in, whereas biblical churches, they say, and by the way, they're not looking just to kick you out. They just kick you out if you need to be kicked out. Okay? Now, church discipline is very important, and church, we do have rules, okay? Now there are certain churches that have rules that they shouldn't have for their members and they're unbiblical, we should not follow them, and they are man-made rules, okay? They're what you would call standards, all right? Now standards aren't bad to apply to your personal life, your family, your children, if that's what you want, but if you want to teach standards to be the commandments of God, then it becomes wrong, okay? I have standards for my wife, I have standards for my children, for my personal family, but I'm not going to get up here and teach those standards as though they are the commandments of God. That would be wrong to do. My job is to teach you what the word of God says, the commandments, and you build your own standards with your own family. But church discipline is important. It's basically if we find someone who's not following church rules according to the word of God, we basically ask you to leave. If you're not willing to repent, okay, if you're not willing to get it right, then what we do or what I do as a pastor is I say, okay, then you can't come to church. Bottom line, until you're willing to repent of that and get that right, you can't be a part of this church. Well, I'll go to another church, then go to another church, but you can't come back to this church. That's what church discipline is. And it's not church discipline like we go beat you up, okay? It's like surround them, you know? Lock the doors. No, we don't, we're not, I'm not talking about being, we're not violent. It's simply a matter of words of saying you need to get out, okay? Now let me say this. There's a bunch of reasons why people could get kicked out, and look, I don't believe in church discipline when it comes to homos. I don't believe in doing church discipline with them. You say, why is that? Because we didn't even let them in, okay? So they're not even allowed to come in, right? Now some of them might come in unawares and we might not know about it, then we'll do it, but for the most part, we just don't let them in. We're talking about people who are saved, okay? Because the church is for the saved. It's for believers, all right? So church discipline is when we excommunicate someone, it's when we tell someone basically to get out. Now, you say, what authority do you have to do that? Well, the church has authority. Okay, God has endowed the local church with authority to do that. And in fact, the Bible says in Matthew 18, 18, very late I say unto you, whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So God is telling us right there, look, if you bind someone, you throw someone out the church, then you know what? The fact is, I back you up with that. I'm with you. It's bound in heaven as well. So God respects his establishment and the decisions that the leaders make within the church to boot someone out. So you can't leave and say, oh man, God's judgment is on that church for kicking me out. No, God's judgment is on you. Because it was bound here, according to the Bible, it's bound in heaven as well, okay? Now go to First Corinthians chapter number five. First Corinthians chapter number five. We're going to read a passage here. We're going to read the whole chapter. And this is primarily dealing with fornication, but it gives a list of other sins that can be committed that can get you thrown out of the church. Now this, you say, man, is someone getting thrown out today or something? No, no one's getting thrown out today, okay? I mean, I don't think so. But this is preventative, okay? And this is something that we need to talk about regularly so you know what can get you thrown out, okay? And don't think we're like trigger happy waiting to get, I'm just waiting to put like some church disciplines under my belt, you know what I mean? We don't gather around as pastors and say, man, I got to throw this one guy out. It was great, you know? I got five this month, you know? No, I don't want to throw anybody out of the church. You know, I'd rather that everyone just live in accordance with God's word. They're on fire for the Lord. They read the word of God. They're going soul winning. Everyone's prospering spiritually. But you know what? In a perfect world, that's what it would be like, but there's a reason God commands us to do it is because it's going to happen. And when it happens, it needs to be executed. First Corinthians 5, one says, it is reported commonly that there's fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. And you're puffed up and if not rather mourn that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you. So we see here that someone's committing fornication in the church, okay? And this person who's committing fornication in the church is not being taken out. Now when it says taken out, it doesn't mean like, you know, take them out, mafia stuff. Just means being removed from the church. And he says this, Paul said this, he says, you're puffed up. And if not rather mourned, okay, so what he's saying, you're being prideful. And look, today we see a lot of that taking place. Where fornicators are allowed in the church, open fornicators are allowed into the church and the pastor refuses to boot them out or tell them, hey, you need to repent, get this right, or get out. They won't do it. They won't confront them. And they'll say, well, it's because we're being loving, you know, we're being patient with people. No, you're puffed up. You see, what does it mean to be puffed up? It means to be prideful because when you think you can do it better than the way God does it, you're prideful. That's what that means. Say, I just don't think that'll work. You know, you'll lose the whole church and you'll lean not into thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. And even when it doesn't make sense, you just obey it because that's what God says. You know, don't be puffed up. We have churches today, it's just like, well, I don't want to lose this tithing member. You're puffed up. He says you've not rather mourned. That's sad. See, to see someone in sin should cause us to grieve and mourn. The fact that someone's involved in this junk, it's like, that grieves me that this person's involved in this. It's mournful. And therefore, we have to cast them out. Verse three says, for I verily as absent in the body be present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him to have so done this deed. So because it was reported commonly, Paul's like, I don't even have to be there. It's already reported. People know about it. So I've already judged in spirit. Verse four, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, this is where the authority comes into play. When you are gathered together in my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So he says, with the authority of Christ backing you up, deliver them up unto Satan. What does that mean? When someone's not willing to repent of their sin of fornication, for example, you boot them out, Lord willing, they'll get chewed up out there by the wrath of God to the point where they'll repent, they'll get that right and come back, okay? And that's the end game for this. This is what the goal is. The goal is for them to get it right, come back and say, Brother Bruce, I'm not involved in it anymore. I want to repent. I want to come back. Amen, brother. Come on in, man. And when they come in, everyone greets them. We forget about it. We let them live his life. Let them build upon his faith and don't ever bring it back up. You don't go up to him and say, hey, man, so you're not going to get involved in fornication, are you, again? Because I know you got that thing in the past. No, we don't do that. You forget it. Okay? You don't bring it up. You let them live their lives and build upon their faith. Okay? Look what it says. Verse 6. Your glorying is not good. Wow. So none of this is to say that they're puffed up. It says they're glorying. They're like gloating about it. Yeah, we don't kick anybody out of our church. Yeah, that church, Faithful Word Baptist Church, they do, but we don't do that. That's weird, man. That's wicked. You know, we love people over here. Yeah, I love them so much that you would allow them to continue in their sin and suffer the consequences of their actions. That's very loving. Verse 6. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leavened at the whole lump? You know what I'm saying there? Don't you understand that if you allow a little sin into the church, the church will become a cesspool of iniquity. If you allow fornication into the church, then you're going to allow adultery into the church, you're going to allow divorce into the church, you're going to allow drinking into the church, you're going to allow homos into the church, it just becomes a cesspool of sin. A little leavened, leavened at the whole lump, you say, well, we just want to be patient with these people. No, no, no. Once you make the exception for one, you're going to make the exception for everyone else. So better to just hold fast, be strict, have some integrity, boot them out, and just keep doing it, and by the way, the church members will respect the church a lot more if that's being done. Okay? It's not easy to boot someone out, obviously, okay? I mean, if I ever have to do it, it would hurt me, to be honest with you, to boot someone out. Why? I love the people here. I would hate to boot someone out that I know, because if we're friends, but you know what, the fact is, because the commandments of God said it, it'll grieve me, but we'll do it. And it'll cause me to mourn, obviously. I mean, I'd be in prayer and say, God, please, I hope that person who repents it comes back. It's not like something I want to glory, like, yeah, I just kicked them out. No, it's a matter of that person's involved in sin, they're going to destroy their lives if they don't get it right. Chapter seven, purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new love, as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover sacrificed for us. Purge out, taken out, that's what that means. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So look at that. He says, look, when, in God's eyes, because he, when we look at concepts like this, we need to see how God thinks about it. What's his perspective on it? And he says, when you boot someone out, you purge them out, that's sincere, and that's truth. Okay, you're being sincere, you're being truthful, that's right. Verse nine, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. So what is he saying there? Obviously we as Christians, not, we shouldn't have drunkards and fornicators just as friends where we just hang out with them, you know, just, you know, shooting the breeze, you know, doing worldly things. Why? Because we're not supposed to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, obviously, right? Now there is the concept of, if you're trying to win him to Christ, that's something different. Okay? But if you're trying to win him to Christ and you go to the bar with him, and you go and have yourself a beer with him, you know, or you go to the club, okay, and you use that as a matter of, well, I'm trying to win him to Christ, first of all, you're a liar. Okay? You're not trying to tolerate, you're just trying to basically, you're trying to sin. Right? And you're trying to create a straw man to make it seem as though you're doing something good. Okay? It's not what's happening. So obviously we need to win the loss to Christ, but that shouldn't be our best friends, right? Our best friends should not be unsaved people, okay? Verse 11, it says, but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother. So who are we talking about now? Christians, right? Be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat. So now it's telling us, obviously, you don't just hang out with fornicators of the unsaved, but here he says, look, if someone is a brother, you shouldn't even eat with them. Okay? Now, we probably won't do it today, but we do a lot of eating around here, you know, after service or something, you know, Hike might buy like 20 pizza boxes like he typically does on Sunday night. And what do we do? We're a fellowship and we're eating together. But if someone's a fornicator within the church and they're eating with us, even that's forbidden. Yes, even Little Caesars. Eating Little Caesars is forbidden, okay? But it commands and it says, with any of these people, you shouldn't even eat with them. So how do you take care of that? You cast them out. And this is where the universal doctrine just falls apart. You say, why is that? Because if the Bible commands us to cast out someone who's involved in fornication or being an extortion or covetousness, idolater, railer, well, if we're part of the universal church, how does that take place? Because we cast them out, it's like, well, we're still a part of the universal church. It's like, I can't do it. I boot him out and he's still part of the church. That's why the universal church doesn't exist. But local churches, if you cast someone out, that is possible, obviously. Okay? Verse 12, for what I have to do to judge them also that are without, do not ye judge them that are within, but them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. So the commandment is clear. We've got to put them away from us, okay? Now aside from these six sins that will get you booted out of the church, there's also a matter of trespassing against a brother. We won't go into detail as far as what that concerns, but that's just like personal matters, okay? If you have a personal matter with someone, someone owes you money, whatever it may be, we can deal with that in the church. But let me say this, you need to deal with that, okay? And a lot of the problems get solved pretty easily in church if you just go to the person and talk it out, okay? Problems occur when you don't go to the person, but you go to another person to talk about that person, okay? Don't be some gossiping Christian that just goes about and just putting everyone's dirty laundry out there. Why don't you just resolve the problem and go to the person himself or herself and get that resolved, okay? Now see if that doesn't take place, you can come before the church. If someone was defrauded, something ill was done, we confront the person. If they're not willing to repent even after that, we'll call them out before the church. They get excommunicated. And then also being a heretic, all right, will get you booted. That's according to Romans chapter 16, we won't look there, but the Bible talks about how we're supposed to mark those who cause divisions, those who teach heresy. This will fall under the category of repent of your sins, Calvinist, dispensationalism, anything that we will not hold to as being a damnable heresy, they're supposed to get booted out. Right. Okay? Bottom line. We live in a church culture where everything is just backwards. People are getting kicked out for the wrong reasons. And some people are not getting kicked out for the reasons they're supposed to get kicked out. Right. Okay? And here's the thing, look, if you're in here and you're listening to Paul Chapel, I'm not going to kick you out. Why would I kick you out for that? That's not a biblical reason. Okay? If you're listening to a pastor or whatever, who we don't agree with, we can't kick you out for that. That's not a right reason. You say, why don't you bring that up? Well, you know, there's a man that I knew, you know, a couple years ago, you know, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, right? Because they were listening to Pastor Anderson, they got booted out of their church. You know? It happened, I promise you. It's a real person. Okay? If you don't know who that is, you know, afterwards, just ask me, I'll tell you who it is, right? But now it's even gotten to the point where people are getting kicked out just for being associated with me. Yes. Okay? Now, we joke about that, but that's not, that's an unbiblical reason to boot someone out of the church. Okay? Unbiblical. And I've even heard pastors say, well, you know, people who don't agree with us, they'll say, well, I listened to Pastor Roger Jimenez and he booted out Evan for not believing, you know, what they believe. First of all, Evan's an idiot. Case closed. He wanted to create some militia against the government and he's over here trying to recruit people for that. That's foolishness. That's a heretic, okay? But to compare that with someone who's being booted out because they're listening to Pastor Anderson or they're associated with me, not biblical. Okay? Not biblical at all. And here's the thing. It's wicked to boot out a biblical, Baptist, soul-winning, King James only Christian, but you keep the sodomite, you keep the pedophile, you keep all those things that the Bible says you ought not to keep. Purge those things out. Leave the Christians in. But we got it backwards. Not we, but a lot of churches, they got it backwards today where they're not purging out that which needs to be purged out, but they're keeping that which God says, get those out of here. Okay? Glory is not good. But you're in 1 Corinthians, chapter number five, I'm going to say something. So we're just going to go through the list. I'm going to go from the bottom up. So we're going to start with the extortioner. So extortion will get you booted out of the church. Okay? And look, I don't think anyone's involved in this right now. So don't think, oh man, you know, I got to like walk on eggshells around here. I'm not the Baptist police. We're not like, you know, where were you, you know, what have you guys been doing? You know, I'm not, I'm not going to do that. But if it comes to my attention, obviously I'm going to confront the person. We'll talk about it and we'll execute the right judgment. Extortioner. What is extortion? Well, extortion is the practice of obtaining something, specifically money, through force or threat. Okay? So let's say that John, right, owes me money. And I come here and he's like, he loves coming to church, but he's afraid to come to church because I'm always here and I'm always giving him the eye like, hey, you better pay me, man. If not, yeah, I'll see you after church. I'll see you in the alley. And you're like harassing people and you're just threatening them. That'll get you booted out. Okay? If we find out, if you're bullying someone for money, obviously, you know, that'll get you thrown out. At that point, we'll come up to you and say, hey, we heard that this was taking place out of the mouth of two witnesses, two or three witnesses. Every word should be established. We heard that this is taking place. Is this true? Yeah, because he owes me money. Okay. Well, so you have one or two choices. You can either repent of that because that's not right to do. You know, either allow yourself to be defrauded or, and look, when you give something away, just expect to just, for it not to come back sometimes, you know, or, and say, or you can just get out. Okay? Because we don't permit extortion in the church. Okay? So that's extortion. All right? Then it talks about the drunkard. Drunkard is someone who drinks alcohol or is involved in any substance abuse such as marijuana. Okay? He said, well, marijuana, I don't know, man. You know, marijuana is, it's like an herb, you know? God made that. Well, look, first of all, a drunkard is someone who is not sober, but someone who smokes pot is not sober either. Okay? And you say, well, it's the meat. You know, God says that all these herbs are the meat, but you're not rolling up a carne asada and smoking that, so don't give me that. Okay? Now, here's the thing. Drinking alcohol, you know, obviously, if you're just like just drinking beer, and there's all types of categories that this can fall into, and we'll know if you're drinking, okay? First of all, drinking just smells. Alcohol just stinks. Okay? Yeah, it comes out of your pores. When you sweat, it'll actually come out of your pores. Okay? But smoking pot can also be tested as well. And look, if you're coming in here, your eyes are glazed, you're always chewing gum. Here's the funny thing about these pot smokers is they chew gum to like, so people don't smell the, but it's just a mixture. And then they douse themselves with like 10 gallons of cologne. So you smell like ganja, and you smell like cologne. You're not covering anything up. At that point, we'll confront you and say, hey, are you smoking pot? You know? Are you doing this? Well, yeah, I just took a couple hits before, because I heard you're going to preach on Revelation, you know? At that point, we'll say, okay, we'll say, look, you can sit through the service, but either you repent, or you can't come back anymore. Okay? Bottom line. And look, I'm not even against marijuana, okay? Because I've even heard marijuana used in cases, for instance, my father-in-law, he's at a nursing school facility, and they have this rehabilitation center where they're helping him because he had brain damage, obviously. And there's a lot of people within that vicinity that have brain damage. Well, there's this teenager that has brain damage, and they do these exercises with them in order to basically help their brain gain mobility of their limbs. Well, sometimes because they have brain damage, it's hard for them to focus when they get commands. So they give this kid marijuana. Now, he doesn't smoke it, okay? Obviously, they consume it, you know, whatever it may be, and it calms him down so he can gain mobility once again, okay? I think that's a valid reason to take that, all right? But look, most of the people who are consuming marijuana, they already have mobility. They use it to gain immobility. Okay? And here's the thing. Where's the cherry? Look, if you're in church, the pastor knows if you're smoking pot. I've been around enough pot smokers in my life to know, okay? But if you're just like... You know, and then here's another thing. This is how you know you're smoking pot. Look, we make jokes sometimes, and people laugh, but we all laugh in unity. But when you start laughing at things that I'm not joking about, you're just like, huh. You know, it's just like random laughter. Hey, something's wrong with you, obviously, right? And then when you start doing this, you know, you're just... You're out there, then you're out of this church, okay? Because we're not gonna tolerate that. Pot smoking is... You're not sober when you're high on pot, okay? And you can pull out all your verses that you want from Genesis. You can say all you want about the herbs. It's not gonna count. You don't know what you're talking about, and you need to just get off the weed, okay? Oh, it's legal. So what? Not in this church, it's not. So there goes that. And the Bible says to be sober, okay? Be vigilant. It says to be sober to the pastor. It says to the aged woman. It says to the aged man. It talks about to the young man. Everyone needs to be sober. You can't be sober if you're smoking pot, okay? And that goes for any other substance abuse. If you're involved in any of that, you get thrown out. You get a chance to repent. If you don't wanna repent, you get thrown out. Next one is derailer. That's a false accuser, okay? A railer is someone who makes a railing accusation. They're a false accuser. They're making up lies about other people. That falls under the category of just causing division within the church, okay? When you're just constantly trying to dig up dirt about people that's not true, that's a railing accusation. That can get you thrown out of the church if you're not willing to repent of that. And we're gonna read Proverbs 6, but for the sake of time, we're gonna skip that. Next one is idolatry. So this is the worshiping of graven images. Now, this obviously is not prevalent necessarily in the United States. This will be more common, I guess you would say, like in, you know, you would think of Cambodia, the Southeast Asian places where idolatry is very popular. But it can be within the context of our culture because Hispanics come from Catholicism many of the times. And because they come from Catholicism, they just, they have this endearment towards idols maybe because they belong to their grandma or something like that or whatever it may be. So according to the Bible, if you're involved in that, you need to get rid of that. Now, again, we're not gonna go into your homes and say, hey, do you have any idols in your home, okay? But if it's obviously something that you're promoting where you're saying, yeah, you know, I don't really agree with that. I have like some idols, but I don't worship them, you know, I just have them, you know, then that's a different story. And so while you're making it known, you're involved in that, at that point, then we will confront you and say, hey, you can't be spreading that in the church and you can't be an idolater, okay? Because whether you think that's idolatry or not, it's idolatry. If you don't agree with that, then you have to leave, okay? That's very few, far and in between. Then you have the covetous person, someone who is always talking about money and causing others to focus on it as well, okay? Covetousness, very dangerous, okay? It's people who try to come into the church with the money mindset, okay? This is the Amway crowd, right? Which Amway, I think, is like 90s or something, right? But there's always some new pyramid scheme that comes up, okay? And when that comes up and people within the church are starting to get involved in this and they're starting to want to make money, then we need to nip that at the bud, okay? This is not a house of merchandise, amen? So don't make it a house of merchandise. And look, if you're involved in some sort of business, amen. Go make business but not within the church, okay? And then the last one, of course, is the fornicator. This is having a physical sexual relationship outside of marriage. Now there is a difference between fornication and adultery, okay? Adultery is when two people who are married or one person within the marriage commits a sexual act with another person, that's considered adultery. And of course, there's a concept of being divorced as well. That's also adultery. But the Bible says that adultery is a crime, punishable by death, whereas the fornication is not a crime punishable by death, okay? There's a dowry that needs to be paid, they need to get married, so on and so forth. However, fornication is still sin and it's not to be allowed in the church, okay? Now, because we are a church that's constantly sowning, reaching people, there's gonna come people within our church that maybe are involved in that. And let me make something very, very clear, okay? Because if we're not careful, we don't get this concept down. New people who come within our church and they're involved in fornication, we don't throw them out right away, okay? So don't think, oh, you know, oh, they're in here. Yeah, they're involved in fornication, let's get them out. First of all, shut up, okay? Number two, shut up again. And number three, we need to be patient with them. They need to hear some sermons about it. Now, I would say that after this sermon, I think you know, okay? I think it's pretty clear. I don't think there's anyone who could come out of the service and say, eh, I don't know about that, you know? I think fornication's okay, you know? I love her, she loves me, you know, we're good. I don't think anybody, if you do, you got rocks in your head, okay? Because I think it's very clear within the Word of God. But people come in the future, they're not gonna know about these things. They need to hear some preaching, they need to be under the preaching of God's Word, they need to understand these concepts, and then we approach them if they're not willing to do it. And here's the thing, if you're involved in fornication, you have a few options. Unlike the other ones, you actually have a few options, amen? You could do one of three things. You could do one, separate, okay? That means separate, okay? I think you guys can get that, right? Two, you can get married. Okay? And that's, number two is probably the best option. Not probably, it is the best option. Just get married. And we give you a week to get married. Like a week, that's all? Hey, that's seven days, man, that's a good amount of days. Go to the courthouse, get yourself a marriage license, get married, bada bing, bada boom, you're good, okay? You say, yeah, but I want this elegant wedding. Then if you want this elegant, wonderful wedding and stuff like that, then have the maturity to separate until you're willing to do that, okay? But if you know that you're like, man, but we just can't stay away from each other, then just get married. And look, people look at us, and when we say things like that, it's like, I can't believe you guys would like, like, in a week? That's crazy. But here's the thing, if you're allowing someone to be involved in fornication, they have God's chastisement on their lives until they correct it. Whereas if someone gets married, guess what they get? The blessing of God. So what's more loving? To allow someone to be involved in fornication, God's wrath is on them. God's blessing is not on their lives. They get to suffer the consequences of their actions just because you want to be this cool pastor who allows anything into the church, or have them get married, and guess what? Everything is a-okay. They get God's blessing on their lives. They get to alleviate the guilt from their minds, because people live guilty when they're involved in fornication, they're in church. They know they're not living right. Who's this? Oh, this is my husband, well, my boy, my significant other. You know, it's like, they don't know what to say, you know? And then they hear sermons, and they're just like, man, I know I'm not living right, I know I'm not living right, I know I'm not. Just get married, and then you get God's blessing on your life, okay? And I know we live in a society where young people don't want to commit anymore, okay? That's why they want to go out and fornicate. That's why they want to go out and do all that wickedness, because they want all the pleasures without the responsibility that comes with it, okay? That's why you have a bunch of bastards being born. Because a bunch of dads are not willing to take responsibility, get married, become a father, become a husband, and just be a functioning member of society. Just get married. It's the best thing. Look, and God's blessing is on a, I love being married, it's awesome. Let me just put a plug in for marriage right here. It's great, okay? And anybody who tells you it's not great, they're liars and they're not working on it, okay? It's awesome. I would hate to be single again, sorry guys. I don't mean to like, I hate it. Sucks, okay? I love being married. It's the best thing ever. And I hope that everyone would want to get married, okay? And not, and here's the thing, God's, because look, fornication's all over the place, but here's the antidote to fornication, just get married. That's what you do. Instead of burning and then you're lusting one toward another, you're causing yourself to be tempted, you know, you're brushed up against one another, then you're excited, and all these things, why don't you just get married and you can do that all the time? You can hold hands whenever you want. All you want, I promise. To the point where you don't even want to hold hands sometimes. You know, my father-in-law used to say, I don't get you people. He used to say, before marriage, we used to preach on you guys to like stay away from each other, now when you guys are married, now we got to preach to you guys to like come together or something. Because when you come together, it's like they don't want to hold hands, they don't want to hug, they don't, it's like they don't want any of that, okay? You got to work on it. But the fact is, is that fornication is a sin that's highly condemned in the Bible. And it will get you thrown out. So the third option is this. If you don't want to separate, if you don't want to get married, then your third option is this. Get out. You're just going to have to get out, you know? And I'm not picking you up and throwing you out, okay? I just will tell you, these are your options, you know? Well, you know, I kind of, okay, then. And look, I've had people email me, you know, and they'll say, they've emailed me and they'll say, Brother Bruce, I know what you guys believe, and so I probably won't be coming back for a while, because, you know, I'm involved in some things, and regarding fornication, he said, and until I get married, you know, I won't come back, and I said, all right, amen. Well, I appreciate that, you know what I mean, that they would say something like that, you know? So obviously they know. Now, Lord willing, I hope he just gets married right away, and then he just comes to church. That's the end, that's the goal right there, okay? And so the solution is not to just tolerate it within the church, and look, he said, well, we need to disciple them, you know? They need to know, we need to disciple them. It takes two minutes to disciple someone in this subject. That's it. It doesn't take two years. It doesn't take three years. It takes two minutes. But you know what the problem is, is the pastors don't have the goal, they don't have the backbone, okay? They don't have the guts to just go to a man and tell him this is wrong. Okay? Yeah, but I'm afraid I might offend them. You will offend them if they suffer the consequences of their actions, because you knew what was right. And look, a righteous father will not allow his kids to do it, but then you allow the church members to do it. And what kind of example does that put for the people in the church? What kind of example is that for our children, right? My son grows up in this church, and his dad is just allowing all kinds of fornication, but I'm strict with him. He can't do that. I'm not going to allow him to do that, but I allow everyone else in the church to do it. The whole standard is hypocrisy. You're being a hypocrite. Just go on a limb, trust God, execute righteousness, make the judgment, withhold God's commandments, and say, look, these are your options. If you don't like that, then you're going to have to leave. Bottom line. It's not an unloving thing to do. It's the most loving thing you can do. And again, I haven't even had that issue come up where someone just left because of that. Okay? I had someone just tell me I'm not going to be coming. But as far as me telling them, like, well, I'm leaving, I've never really had that happen before. Okay? I'm not saying it won't happen. I'm just saying it hasn't happened. For the most part, the people that I've talked to, they've been repentant. They got it right. They got married. Praise God. Amen? Functioning members of our church, wonderful people, love them to pieces. Everything's A-okay. That's how you do it. Okay? Not tolerating it all the time. So what's the sermon today? The sermon's simply this, is we believe in what's called church discipline. Okay? It doesn't mean we're going to bring you up here with the paddle and just, you know, spank you in front of the church. It just means, look, if you don't follow these rules, which I think are very simple rules. Something extreme, to be honest with you. You know? No one's perfect. I understand that. And you say, well, we're all sinners. Yeah, but we're not all fornicators. We're not all drunkards. We're not extortioners or covetous, idolaters, railers. We're not heretics. You know? So these are pretty simple. If you just follow these things, you won't get thrown out of the church. And I don't think anyone will get involved in these things. The fornication one, I think, is one that we got to basically, I need to harp on that at least, like, once every two months or something, just to make it clear where we stand on that. Okay? Amen? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Help us not to be a Thyatira Baptist Church where we allow Jezebel to come in, teach, and to cause the servants to commit fornication to wicked sin. And I pray, God, that you'd help our people to learn this. And to some people, it might be a hard truth, but I think we made it pretty clear today, according to your word, what you require of us, Lord. And I just pray that you would help us to keep this church pure, because we want God's blessing on our church. And we want your blessing. We want to continue to see a lot of people saved and preach right doctrine and just be a church that's pleasing in your eyes, Lord. And the only way that's going to happen is if we uphold these commandments and we have integrity to execute church discipline when needed. And I just pray you give us wisdom, give us patience with those who are still growing, but help us to take the initiative to execute the judgment when needed. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen.