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

We'll get there in just a minute. It is interesting to note in 2 Timothy 4 that we touched on this in Acts 28 last Wednesday. At the end of Paul's life, he's writing this letter to Timothy, a young preacher who he has trained. He's giving Timothy some parting advice. I believe that Paul knew he was about to be executed here. The Bible doesn't give us that specific detail, but that's what I believe, and I told you why I believe that on Wednesday night. But the point is, this is his last advice, and that's interesting. You should always pay attention to the final words of somebody. So whenever somebody's giving you final words, those are probably some important words that you need to listen to. So just keep that in mind when we look at 2 Timothy 4 this morning. So keep your place there, but we're talking about liberal Christian fallacies the last few weeks, things that liberal Christians believe and teach and practice today that are not biblical. We looked at some things the first week. We looked at all sin being equal. We looked last week at this idea of unity and that we all need to come together no matter what we all believe. We should all just come together and find middle ground, this political approach to Christianity, well that's completely not biblical. Jesus himself said I came to divide. This morning we're going to look at contemporary Christianity. We're going to look at this idea of contemporary Christianity. What is it? Why do people do it? Are we going to do it ever? Are we going to lean that way or not? What does it mean? So the title of the sermon this morning is contemporary Christianity. The vast majority of Christian churches, I use quotes there, are what you could call contemporary or at least delve into the contemporary area. Contemporary means, the definition of it is, means occurring at the same time, at that time, matching those times. So basically what contemporary means is, in the sense of contemporary Christian churches or contemporary Christianity, is Christianity that matches the times that we are in. Right away you probably just won't like that. Let's actually study it. Contemporary Christianity is Christianity that fits in with the times that we're in. That fits in with the popular culture, I guess you could say. In their worship, in their practice, in all these types of things. When I was Lutheran, before I was saved, I was in the most conservative synod of the Lutheran church. I was in the Lutheran church, Missouri synod, which was the most conservative of Lutheran churches. Even Missouri synod Lutheran churches that I was in and went to started to have one contemporary service and then one traditional service. So typically the early service would be the traditional service at 8 o'clock in the morning or whatever it is, and then the later service because apparently the young people can't wake up anymore. The later service at 1030 or 11 or whatever would be a contemporary service. The messaging is different, the songs were different. It's funny because a lot of conservative people that I knew were really against it, because what you did is you basically created two different churches. There was people that never saw each other, some people went to, and it just really divided along the lines of age, really. So you ended up with the older people church and then the younger people church. But the point is, what's the deal? Why are churches doing this? Why do you see it everywhere? The majority of churches today are doing this. Most churches today that you see that are non-denominational churches especially, they're just all contemporary. There's no traditional anything. So the point is Christianity, and I used that word loosely this morning, Christianity is changing today. It's changing with the times, it's changing with the cultures. I mean church services all together are changing. They don't look or sound like they used to sound, that's for sure. And I guess it makes sense because everything changes. So the first thing I want to look at this morning is, you're there in 2 Timothy chapter 4, the first thing I want to look at this morning is why do people do it? Why are churches going contemporary? Why is this happening amongst Christianity or Christian churches today? Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4, and we'll get the first answer here, and there's really two answers, and I want to show you both sides. These two answers are really, they're both sides of a single evil coin. So the first one is this, the first reason that churches are becoming contemporary or changing with the times is that the people want it. That's the first thing. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4 in verse number 1. Remember, this is the last words that Paul is saying to a young preacher, someone who is going to be leading a church. Look at verse number 1, he says, I charge thee before God. Notice how he says, hey, he doesn't say do what I say. He's like, no, he's like, you have a responsibility towards God for the things that I'm going to tell you, alright? And the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead and his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long, you say how, reprove, rebuke. These words are saying like correct people. To rebuke is to harshly correct someone, someone that's just doing the wrong things. Like, you know, you're going to have to use the word of God to harshly correct at times, alright? I mean, that's a rebuke saying, no, that's wrong. You should not be doing that, alright? And using the word of God, you are to do that with all long suffering and what? Doctrine. Now look at verse number 3. And this is what my first point right here. It says, for the time will come when they, who's they? This is the people. This is the people that Timothy will be preaching to. This is the church that he will be preaching to. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. Boy, there's just so much truth in that verse right there. He's saying there's going to be a time when the people don't want to hear what you have to say. What is he saying? He's saying the word of God. He's saying the doctrines of God. There's going to be a time when people don't want to hear the doctrines of God. Look folks, people that love sin hate preaching. And he's saying that there's going to be a time when you have a group of people that don't want to hear the word of God. They don't want to hear the doctrines that you have. But he's saying up in verse number 2, he's like, you keep preaching the word. He's like, you preach the word whether they want to hear it, whether it's in season or it's out of season. But this is why churches go contemporary because they're not doing this. Why do you think Paul had to say this to Timothy? He said it to Timothy because there's a temptation for a church leader to not do these things. Look, and it must be a pretty big temptation and a pretty big risk if Paul thinks this is the main thing I need to bring up to Timothy in my final words to him, my final letter to him. Churches change and they go contemporary because people want it to change. That's the first reason. Doctrine, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. Turn to Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1. So that's the first reason. Why do churches change? Why do churches change with the times, which is the definition of contemporary? Why do they change with the times? First reason is because the people sitting in the pews, the people sitting in the chairs, they want it to go that way. It's very simple. Look at Titus chapter 1, verse number 7. We're talking about the qualifications here for a bishop or a pastor. The Bible says in verse 7, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to what? Not given to filthy lucre. The Bible here is saying it's pointing out that he must be the steward of God, not the steward of himself. And then a further drilled down detail of that is that he can't be in it for filthy lucre, meaning the pastor, the church cannot be in it for the money, is what the Bible is saying here. Then it goes into several other qualifications, but then in verse number 10, it says, for there are many unruly. Now he's saying because there are people that are going to try to be pastors and try to be bishops that are unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. That's for their time. He's talking about the Jews and the Jewish leaders. Look at verse number 11. He's like, these people, though, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not. Why? For filthy lucre's sake. So the second reason that churches go contemporary is because it's this church growth movement for what? Because the leader of the church is in it for the money. The leader of the church, the false prophet, is in it for his own belly himself, to make money. More people, more money. All right? Look, it's a perfect storm. It's a perfect storm. Because, I mean, you think about it, you've got these people that don't want the money. People that don't want sound doctrine. They don't want to hear sound doctrine. And it's perfect because you have these men, and maybe women in many cases, that you don't want to pop up and they don't want to teach sound doctrine. They're just in it for the money. They just want the people. So they're going to go and they're going to gather up all these people. They don't want to teach sound doctrine. They're going to gather up all these people and they're in it for the money. So you say, what does sound doctrine have to do with worship types and how church music and worship and all these types of things? But I'll explain that in just a few minutes. But the point I want to make is you will not find a contemporary church that has sound doctrine. I'm going to explain that to you right now. All right? So you see the first point, before we even get started with the sermon, is that there's this perfect storm. It's like two magnets that are flipped the right way, where you got these people. They don't want sound doctrine. And you got this guy over here. He doesn't know or want to preach sound doctrine. He just wants money. So these people don't want sound doctrine. They have money. And he's like, I'm going to gather up all these people. Click. Perfect fit. This is how churches become contemporary. You say, so what does doctrine have to do with contemporary churches? Why can't you find a contemporary church that has sound doctrine? And the answer, I mean, to just give it away for you, is the fact that they are contemporary means that they don't care about doctrine. And that's what I'm going to show you next. Look at verse, actually go to Romans chapter 12. And they don't want doctrine. So it's perfect. They won't tolerate doctrine. So it's perfect. See, these are people that want the church to come to them. They want the church to match them, not the other way around. So why is it wrong? Why is it wrong? Go to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. The Bible says in Romans chapter 12 in verse number 2, now let's talk about some doctrine. Let's talk about some doctrine about why going contemporary is wrong. And then you'll see that the very fact that someone went contemporary means they don't care about doctrine. All right. They don't care at all. Look at verse number 2. It says, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So the Bible here is saying is that no, no, no, no, no, no. The church doesn't come to us. The Bible is not going to come to us. We are to be transformed to the Bible. We are to go to it. So no one would argue that this world is changing. No one. No one who's in their right mind would argue that this world is changing, and it's changing quickly. But look, it's always been changing in certain aspects. You just think about, I don't know, most of you are pretty young, but you just think about the older you get, the more you'll notice things changing. You think about just fashion and just how fashions have changed over time. We make fun of how people used to look in the 80s and things that people used to wear in the 80s and things like that. You think about just cars that have changed over time. Cars are constantly changing. This is why you'll typically see people that always like a certain era of cars. It's kind of that era of cars that they grew up in. It's kind of like why I bought an old car, because I kind of like that era of cars. Cars are changing. They're constantly changing. Technology is constantly changing. The internet was invented in 1995. Then you had all these things that come and just technology is just changing very quickly. But you're like, hey, this is all good. Isn't this all good that cars are getting better? Technology is getting better. By the way, I predicted that the self-driving car thing is going to go away, and it pretty much did. I just read an article the other day that self-driving cars are being shelved for now, because they've killed almost everyone that's tried to use the self-driving feature. But anyway, technology is changing all these things. Our lives are getting easier. People are being saved through medical machines and MRIs. How is this bad? This is good. Shouldn't the church change too? Think about this. Opinions are changing. I don't care who you are, a Democrat or Republican, they're both going in a certain direction. They're both getting more liberal. They're both kind of like, okay, they might be moving together, but one's slightly to the right of the other, but sometimes maybe not. But they're all moving. They're all changing. They're all changing. What a conservative is today is completely different than what a conservative was in 1985. It's changing. Here's where it's not good. We start getting into these philosophies of life and what's right and what's wrong. Families are changing. Families are changing. My wife was telling me a story like how when she was younger, and this isn't to beat up on anyone that's ever been divorced, but when she was younger, someone being divorced, and I remember this too, it was a really big deal. When we were kids growing up, yeah, there was a kid in school and like, oh yeah, their parents are divorced. It was like a really big deal that somebody was divorced. Now it's like, whatever. I mean, marriages are changing. People are trying to redefine the roles within marriages. You preach what the Bible says about a woman's role as a submissive wife and a husband's role as a strong spiritual leader, and you'll be labeled a hate preacher, you know, online or whatever. Because these ideas are changing today. So it's not surprising because everything's changing. Morals are changing. Look, even the Bible itself is changing. There's more and more versions of Bibles coming up all the time. Why? Filthy, lucre, sick. And there's evil people out there working for Satan trying to change the word of God. So look, the point is, in order to be a contemporary church, you would have to just, first of all, think of the work of this. You think about how fast our society and our culture is changing today. I mean, it makes my head spin to think about how stressful it must be to change with those times, just from the mechanics of it. I found an article, I found an article from, I won't even mention the website, but how Christianity is changing and how you would have to change so rapidly. It was an article on Joel Osteen. And this article, this article was, I don't know, okay. So the article was from a far left God-hating group, okay? And I won't even give them the credit of saying the name of the group, right? But it's ironic, by the way, that a far left God-hating group is trying, thinks that they should be able to define what is Christian and what isn't. But they wrote this article, and it just shows you that compromise gets you nowhere but failure anyway. I mean, even compromising, it's not like people are gonna love you. The article's title was this, Joel Osteen's Gay Problem. The religious right is history if he can't solve it. Like I said, this is a far left God-hating site, and it says, it starts out the article, evangelicals need to tone down their views to stay relevant. The slick Houston pastor is showing them how it's done. Well, first of all, that's exactly what's happening. To just show you that Christianity today is being driven by far left God-hating philosophies. And of course, you can go and you can look up Joel Osteen's views on gay marriage throughout time and how they've evolved so he doesn't get in trouble or whatever. He never even said anything bad about it, really. But I mean, the point is that he's changing with the times. He's changing with the times, as is Christianity itself. But the Bible says don't do it. So what do we do? Turn to Malachi 3. Why does the Bible say this? Why does the Bible say don't change? Why does the Bible say don't be conformed to this world? I mean, maybe God knew that societies are always changing and they're not changing for the good. Turn to Malachi 3. The Bible says don't do it, and here's the reason why. Here's the reason why we are not to change with the times. I don't care what it is. All right, look at Malachi chapter 3, verse number 6. The Bible says, for I am the Lord, what? I change not. The Bible says that God is the same. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. In Hebrews chapter, you say, well, that's Old Testament God. This is another weird false doctrine that God has suddenly, I mean, that literally, the Old Testament literally says that I will never change. I am the Lord, I change not. Not until the Messiah comes. And look, people haven't even read the Bible that believe that. Because, you know, people have just invented a new Jesus, they've invented a mean God from the Old Testament, and they invented a brand new Jesus that wasn't Jesus. Hebrews 13, verse 8 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and what? Forever. God does not change. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 1. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 1. So this begs the question, this begs the question, what about the people? What about the people that want the church to change? Look at Jeremiah chapter 1. This shows you, this shows you that God was having this problem since people stepped foot on the earth, folks. Look at Jeremiah chapter 1 in verse number, let's start at verse number 6. Jeremiah, this is like the first things that God is saying to Jeremiah. He's just a young man, and the Bible is saying God is calling him to be his prophet. Then said I, Jeremiah, ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. God is saying, I need you to go, and I need you to spread this message, and I need you to speak my words to the people, and Jeremiah is like, I can't, I'm just a little kid, I can't do this, and look what God says. God says, but the Lord said unto me, say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. God's like, hey, it doesn't matter how old you are, because I'm going to tell you what to say. He's like, I'm going to give you the words to say, and then you're going to go out and say them, and God's like, he just stops right there, but what's the first warning that God gives Jeremiah? He's like, I'm going to give you my words to say, and then look at verse number eight, he says, but be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And boy, doesn't that just define Jeremiah's entire life right there. He's saying, I'm going to give you these words to say, and what God is saying is, these people are not going to like what you have to say. They're not going to like the words that I give you to say. So Jeremiah's like, I don't know what I would say, I'm just a little kid. God's like, I'll tell you what to say, but don't worry, they're not going to like it. Don't worry about their faces. Don't worry about that. I've actually had people that, you know, have been, you know, backslidden and ended up fighting against the Lord themselves tell me that they don't like this verse. Like, be not afraid of their, but like I said, people that love sin will hate preaching. And what will they hate? They will hate the word of God. They will hate it when it's thrown at them, when the words of God are read and preached, they'll be like, ugh, ugh. They don't want to hear it. And that's a common thing for a pastor, and that's exactly what Timothy was being warned about by Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 4. He's like, they're not going to want to hear this stuff, but you've got to keep saying it, because God does not change. And if God doesn't change, if God doesn't change, actually turn to Romans chapter 1. If God doesn't change, and churches change the message, churches change what is right, what is wrong, what is righteous judgment, and they change, and they go into this, we must be unified, and they go into all these false teachings. If churches change in that way, what have they done? Look at verse number 25 of Romans chapter 1, talking about the worst type of people right here, talking about people that literally the Lord has given up. What are the people that are rejected by God and look at what one of the first characteristics that is their most serious sin is, who changed the truth of God into a lie. What contemporary churches have done, God doesn't change, so they have changed God. It is not a small thing. It is not like, oh, they just have a different word, no. They have changed the truth of God into a lie, into something that it is not. It is a very serious thing. Now, I hope you recognize a pattern here. As we talked about last week about unifying evil, we talked about the week before that about this don't judge, don't ever judge all these wicked false doctrines, and now we're seeing that we need to change God to fit the people. We need to literally, me as a pastor, literally need to change the word of God to fit the people. I did a study before I even came to the satellite ministry, before I even moved to Fresno. I did kind of this exploratory search when I was thinking about going into the ministry, and I was just kind of wondering where did all these preachers go? I kind of did this study on all these, you know, there's certain preachers, and there was several preachers in Southern California that were just fire-breathing Baptist preachers, and you're just like, where did they go? Back in the 80s, even into the 90s, there was a lot of these preachers, and I was just curious, because why did I look into this? I looked into it because I was like, hey, they were there, they were young, they were 30, they were 40, they're not dead. And I'm like, what happened to them? I don't want that to happen to me. This is why I looked into it. So I looked into it, and here was a common thing that I found in one particular one, I won't mention any names, was actually in California, but what happens is, you know, one of two things. Either the preacher caves to the people, or the people literally kick the preacher out. That has happened in a couple of cases, and there's this one case where the people literally voted the preacher off the island. They're like, say, we want a contemporary church, and we want, you know, that's why this is not a democracy here. You know, this is not a democracy, this is, we just go off the Bible here. You know, we don't take a poll every week on how you, if you didn't like the sermon, then I'm going to change so you can like the sermon. But, I mean, this literally has happened to many, this is where they all went. It's like the people found a way to get rid of these fire-breathing preachers. And maybe, you know, a couple of them, maybe some of them I'm sure were just like enough of this. And maybe they quit, they stopped, or whatever. It was a case with one or two that I found as well. But the point is, the people don't want sound doctrine, and that's why this is moving in this direction. And there's plenty of people, there's plenty of people, there's plenty of these false prophets that are in it for their own belly, they're in it for the preeminence, they're in it for what? For ultimately the money, who are willing to go to the people and say, you know what, that guy there, he's mean to you, he's a meanie head. You know, I'll tell you what you want to hear. And that's literally, in a nutshell, what has happened to Christianity today. This is the contemporary Christian movement right here. They've literally created their own God. Look, the real God in the real Bible, there's a lot of wrath in there. We're going to learn about it tonight. We're going to learn about some of it tonight in Revelation chapter 18. There is a lot of wrath in the Bible. And that is who God is, and we ought to take heed to that, and we need to know, look, we need to know who God is. That's why he gave us his word, so we would know who he is. And he tells us who he is, and he tells us what he wants through what? Through doctrine. That's how he does it. So look, in conclusion, just to be contemporary, you have to ignore this key doctrine that God doesn't change. It's a very simple doctrine. When I read to you Malachi 3 verse 6, was that complicated? I am the Lord, I change not. Like, oh man, what does that mean? It's like, no, the Bible, this God is always going to be exactly this God, no matter what we think about this doctrine or not, which is a good check for ourselves. Like, is there parts of the Bible that, you know, I'm fighting against in my life? That's a good check. And guess what? You can't know what's in the Bible if you don't read it, if you don't listen to it, if you don't go to church and hear preaching from the Bible. So the very fact that they are contemporary means that they have a desire, they have no desire for doctrine. It proves that the opinions of God, the doctrines of God, mean nothing to these people. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5. And it's a perfect match. It's a perfect match between those people and the false prophets who will step in that just want money. You say, oh, but it's just the music. It's just the music. I just like the music. I know people that literally, like, will not go to a Bible preaching church just because of the music. Look, that's a problem. Look at Ephesians chapter 5 in verse number 19. Ephesians chapter 5, verse number 19. The Bible says, speaking to yourselves in Psalms, you know, why are we seeing hymns? Why do we sing all these hymns that have doctrine? And look, I'll bring up the words of hymns in sermons many times because there's doctrine in the hymns. The Psalms themselves are songs. They're written to be sung aloud. Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and what? Spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. And guess what? If you listen to contemporary music, if you listen to contemporary music, you will not have a desire for hymns anymore if you get into that. Your desire for hymns will go away. It's just the flesh taking over the spiritual in just one other area of your life. So even the music, the music of CCM, contemporary Christian music. First of all, it's always been extremely annoying to me, CCM. I've never been able to stand it even before I was saved. I'm just like, every song is this really just femmy, like, love songs to Jesus. I'm just like, what in the world? There's no doctrine in it. There's false doctrine in it. It's all wrong. And what is it doing? It's trying to conform to the world. It's trying to be like, hey, we went to a rock concert on Saturday night and now the church kind of looks like where I was on Saturday night. Kind of looks like the bar. Kind of looks like the club. Kind of looks like all these things. It's just another way of conforming to the world. That's why people like it. But guess what? If you get out of that and you separate from that and you start just reading the Bible and studying the Psalms, you'll start speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You will sing the hymns that we sing and you will say, man, this is just great doctrine in this hymn. There's a couple hymns that we don't sing because they actually tend towards the repent of your sins and some false doctrine. So we're not going to sing hymns that do that. But the hymns contain doctrine and you will start to love the hymns. You will start to love those things. But look, all this contemporary music, it feminizes Christianity. And what it does is it plays to people's emotionalism. And that's what people want. They want an emotionally high experience when they go into a church or whatever. So look, what does it produce? Let's look at what it produces. Let's look at what contemporary Christianity produces. The first thing that it produces is this. Turn to 2 Timothy 3. The first thing that it produces is basically a church full of unsaved people. And church is for the saved. That doesn't mean that unsaved people won't come here or won't visit here. But what is the first thing that we do when somebody walks into this church as a visitor? You're going to get the gospel. Someone's going to come up to you and make sure that you're saved. Because that is what church is for. But these churches will be filled with unsaved people. But they'll be filled with unsaved people that feel spiritual. Unsaved people that, you know, they have a form of godliness. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse number 5. These people have a form of godliness, but what? Denying the power thereof. From such, turn away. What is the power thereof? What is the power of God? It's his word. It's his what? It's his doctrine. So these people, they want to feel spiritual, but they will reject any doctrine. They will reject anything. Oh, that's just judgmental. No, no, no. That's the Bible. I literally ran into somebody like this out this whole morning yesterday. I'm just like, but that's the Bible. Yeah, but, but, but. That person, you don't spend too much time talking to people like that. When you say, but that's the Bible, and they're like, yeah, but this, yeah, but have a nice day. Because they're denying the power thereof. And if they're just rejecting clear scripture, clear doctrine, they're rejecting the doctrines of God. And it's because they're spiritually feeling people. They feel spiritual. They think they're spiritual. They're in these churches where they go and it's a rock concert. It's happy clappy. It's positive only preaching. We'll talk about that next week. But they're just denying the power because the power is in the doctrine. The power is in God's words. Look at verse number 6. And notice how verse number 6, it says, for this sort there, which for this, of this sort, are they would creep into houses and lead captivity, silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts. Doesn't that match what I've been telling you? So we see two things here, right? What are the first things? First thing is we see silly people. What that means is just unintelligent people that aren't thinking things through. They're easily fooled. The Bible says other places they're simple. Simple people. That's why you will see people. That's the first one. You see silly people. These are the people in these churches. They will sit in church for years. They will sit in these contemporary churches for years and they will have no idea how to get to heaven. They will have no idea if they're going to heaven. No clue. And you'll talk to them at the door and you're like, do you know if you're going to heaven? No. You go to church? Oh yeah. They'll talk to you about their church for hours. They're super proud of their church. They tell you how to get to heaven. What? Can anyone really know that? What? Not sure. I think if I'm pretty good, I'm trying to be as good as I can. No idea. That's silly. Silly is kind of a light word. But what the Bible is really saying here is foolish. They're foolish. But they feel it's dangerous to them. In that case, that contemporary church is dangerous because they feel spiritual. They feel like they've done something good when they go to church. I couldn't stand going to church as a Lutheran. I couldn't stand it. It was boring. It was like I just remember standing at the pew. There was a prayer at the end of the sermon, at the end of the eleven minute sermon. There was a prayer. I remember this as a kid. It was like torture. The prayer after the sermon was like ten minutes long. And you had to stand for it and I'd be like ugh. But as soon as you leave the church service, you feel like I did something good today. You get that spiritual, like I went to church today. I'm a good person. But it's dangerous because it makes you feel safe. It makes you feel, it gives you some sort of emotional comfort at least. But there was no power there. There was no power at all. So the first thing that you see in 2 Timothy chapter 3 is what I've been telling you is you see these silly, these foolish people who just want to feel spiritual, want to get some kind of emotional high. But the second thing you see in verse number 3, or verse number 6 I'm sorry, is you see the false prophets. The people that are creeping in and the people that are leading the silly, foolish people. You see the false prophets there and you know what it says about the false prophets? Look at verse number 7. It says, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And this is one thing that you will notice about false prophets is false prophets, they claim to know all this stuff. And they claim to be so smart. And they claim to be so spiritual. And they claim all these things. And they claim that these are the people that you'll meet that they have no idea about the gospel. But they're going to tell you how much they know about the Bible. They're going to tell you. And then like even the earliest intro soul winner will know more about the Bible than 99.999% of the population today. They'll have no idea what the gospel is. No idea about any of these things. But they want to sound so smart. But they do what? They know nothing. It's crazy. You can definitely tell that it's a spiritual battle that we are fighting here. So the first thing that you're going to see in these churches, you're going to see a bunch of unsaved people. And you're going to see these false prophets that are just leading these false, leading these people, these silly, these foolish people astray. And these foolish people, they don't know anything about the Bible. So this person is standing up and telling them how smart he is. And telling them how much he knows about the Bible. And there's no Bible used. And it's just all about making the people feel good. Turn to Revelation chapter 2. Here's another thing that you'll see. And this is the minority of the contemporary churches. But it is still, it is still a problem. You will have a church that maybe has the right gospel, a contemporary church that might have the right gospel and has saved people in it. You say, well, that sounds pretty good. But here's the problem. You're going to have a bunch of saved people. And this is the vast minority. The vast majority do not have a correct gospel. But say we get a contemporary church that has the right gospel. And it does have some saved people in it. Many churches that, by the way, have the right gospel on their website will still be filled with unsaved people. Because they're not preaching anything. Like I said, we'll talk about that next week. But even if you have a church that preaches the right gospel and has gone the contemporary route and is not teaching the doctrines that they need to teach, look at Revelation chapter 2 and verse number 5. The Bible says this, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent. Meaning change. Meaning stop it and go the other way. And do the what? The first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove that candlestick out of its place except thou repent. In Revelation chapter 1 at the end, the candlestick is the church. That's what is defined. The candlestick is a symbol of the church itself. The seven candlesticks were the seven churches. If your candlestick is gone, you are not a church. So, oh, you've got a bunch of saved people that aren't doing anything. It's not a church. Well, maybe God will give them time. I'll come to you when? In 10 years? He says I'm coming quickly. He said you better get it right or I'm coming quickly. Look, this is what it, this is how serious it is to have a church where people are doing the first works. Where people are going out. And this is why soul-ending is pushed and always will be pushed. Look, and the reason they don't do it, folks, is because to the general public, even the Christian public that might even be saved. Walking down the street with a Bible is a terrifying idea. You may not even remember how that was for you the first time. But it's like that terrifies the general public. Even the general saved Christian public. So church leaders are like, I can't. There's no way people will do that. But that's how important it is to have a church that has saved people actually doing the first works. This is going out and preaching the gospel to people. So look, folks, it's easy to see why this happens. Because of the people, there's plenty of false prophets to step in and lead those silly, foolish people around. And this is why, by the way, if you look at the invitation, we're independent, we're King James only. What's the other word? We're fundamental. We're fundamental. That means that we will never go the contemporary route. Fundamental means sticking to first principles. We are fundamental to the Bible. Many people will look at a church like ours and say, well, that's old-fashioned. It's not old-fashioned, folks. It's fundamental. It's fundamental. It means we're just sticking to the principles of the Bible in what? In all manners of faith and practice. Everywhere. Everywhere. I mean, think about just the dress standards. I mean, that's not something that we just make up because, oh, we're an independent Baptist church and this is how Baptist ladies dress. That's not something that we make up. I made myself laugh this morning. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 22. We're just sticking to the fundamentals. You know what? I feel bad for women today. I feel bad for women today. I was just telling my wife about this yesterday. We're driving through the line at Chick-fil-A and it's at the mall and we're watching people walk by the mall. And I'm just like, who convinced these women to wear these things? It's no good for them. And my wife said, she said, I think they must know like in their heart and their conscience. They must know that it's not good for them. And I mean, just the feminist idea, like women in general, like worldly women, who do they think is driving these trends? The feminist is like, the feminist would look at a Baptist lady in a dress and dressed decently as a lady and they would look at that like, oh, she's being controlled. No, she's just, she values herself. She has value for herself because God values her. And God is telling ladies that, hey, you know, you're more than your nakedness. Your nakedness is yours and your husband's and vice versa. I mean, with the Bible, I mean, God values ladies. God values young ladies. It's the feminist today that's driving these young ladies to wear nothing and go out and play in these sports where they have to all play in their underwear and all these different things. And it must be driven by men. Somewhere there's a man laughing at all these standards that are being set for the feminist in the world. But it is God that values these ladies. And look, what are we doing with our dress standards? Why do I preach on dress standards for men and for women? Why? Because it's fundamental to the Bible. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 22. I make notes in my Bible. I made myself laugh this morning because I have a Bible where I have like note sections and they're blank. And I make notes whenever I use a verse for a sermon or whatever. And look at Deuteronomy chapter 22 in verse number five. The Bible is very clear about this. The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man. This is just demonstrating our fundamentalism here. How we read the Bible and we don't read this verse in the Bible and say, yeah, but that's not how things are today. No, we read that verse in the Bible and we say, that's what God wants. That's what we should do. So the Bible says here, it says, the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man. It's just talking about clothing here, folks. We're not talking about perverted, vile things. The Bible is just talking about what you literally wear. Does God care what you look like? Yes. Yes. Look at verse number five. Continue reading. Neither, so I mean, you said it's beating up on the women, just saying they can't wear what a man wears. Neither, beat up on the guys. Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do so, because God's like, yeah, I don't really think much about that. No, all that do so are an abomination. And it's funny because I have a note here in my Bible that I must have wrote years ago or something that says tranny. And I laughed at myself and I'm like, oh. But people think, people think that fundamentalism is so bad. Look where we are today, folks. Look what's going on today. Look what's going on and it's being pushed on kids today. Fundamentalist is looking pretty good to me. Fundamentalist is suddenly looking pretty smart to me. So we're going to stick with the Bible. We're going to stay fundamental, old-fashioned. We're just going to stick with what the Bible says. It doesn't have to do with, we want to look like somebody from the 30s or whatever, you know, or we want to look like somebody from, you know, some other era. No, it's just what the Bible says. And this is going to get worse. This is why you see the pastor up there and he's got a Hawaiian shirt and skinny jeans and ripped up pants. He's like some 52-year-old guy with a belly and he's trying to wear stuff that like 18-year-old guys wear. It's embarrassing. You look at that and you're like, I'm embarrassed for you. I don't know how you could be embarrassed for a false prophet, but like, I'm embarrassed for you, false prophet. You look like a fool. But people will say, well, fundamentalism, you know, it's no fun. There's a lot of false things about fundamental Baptists especially. They say, oh, we're no fun. That's not true. I mean, we have all kinds of fun here. I mean, we have like youth conventions we just went to, youth rallies. We have all kinds of activities at the church. We go hiking. We do all these different activities, fun, sports, all these things that there's nothing wrong with, but we hold to the standards of the Bible when we do those things. I mean, even people, I mean, people will even push the lines in a church. Like literally, if I wanted this church, I mean, I remember Jimenez said it years ago, and this is one of those things I never really understood, but he's like, you know, one of my main jobs is to just say no. I was like, that's so true, because if I wanted this church to get contemporary and to get liberal, all I would have to do is just let things happen. All I would have to do is just never say anything about anything. I've had to step in on so many different occasions and you know, not with you all, but I mean, people come, people go, and I've had to step in, and look, we're never going to have somebody come into this church and have a lady, you know, wearing pants or some lady that, you know, is not dressing like a Baptist lady or whatever, and we're never going to get on them for that. But if some lady walks into this church and she's naked, meaning she's showing her nakedness, because the Bible never says half naked. The Bible never says, like, you're either naked or you're not. So some lady comes into this church and it's happened and I've had to address it. Lady comes in church and they've got pants torn up and her legs are hanging out and all this stuff. It's like, no. No. We're not going to allow that. Because why? Because, like, this church is fundamental and everything in it is fundamental to the Bible. The highest standards. The highest standards of the Bible. Your home is your home. But this church is fundamental and it's going to remain that way. All I'd have to do is just allow the lowest common denominator to happen and this place would be a circus in a year. Guaranteed. So yeah, I mean, is it uncomfortable to have those kinds of conversations? Yeah, but I mean, I just can't care. That's the whole message to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4. That was God's message to Jeremiah. Like, I care about people when it comes to holding God's lines. You just can't care about the people in those cases. They just have to go with what the Bible says. So look. Church growth. What about church growth? Do we not want the church to grow? Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. We'll end here. But you know, going contemporary and having some rock music, Pastor Pizarnsky, you know, we would really get the people in the doors here. You know, we would really, first of all, we could have a rock band up here and we could bring a bunch of people in the doors and then I would get up and preach the same and then they would all leave. So it would make no difference. So I mean, it would be a pointless adventure. You literally would have to change the music and the message, see? Because it wouldn't work. It wouldn't work to bring a bunch of people in here that are in sin and just like, not that we're not all sinners, okay? That's not what I'm getting at. But a bunch of people that are just like, just don't want to hear the Bible preached and don't want to hear what the Bible says, don't want to hear anything about sin in their life and then just have some rock music, get them in the door and then just offend them out the door. I mean, we'll, I'll offend people out the door anyway without the rock band, all right? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse number 6. Don't you want the church to grow? Of course I do. Of course I want the church to grow, all right? But I want it to grow the right way. I want it to grow God's way. So what do I have to do? I have to do the first works. I have to preach sound doctrine. I have to hold the fundamentals of the Bible in a church that's not mine. This is Jesus Christ is the head of this church and he's literally the word. I mean, can you imagine, can you imagine coming into a church that is Jesus Christ's church and then changing the word of God? I mean, that, you got some stones to do that kind of thing. I mean, that is crazy. But that's exactly what happens. Look at verse number 6 of 1 Corinthians chapter 3. It says, I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So all we have to do is plant and water and God will give the increase. God will grow this church as he feels this church should grow. God will take care of it. That's, it's just a matter of faith, folks. It's just a matter of faith. The beginning of contemporary Christianity starts with a lack of faith. Like, oh man, I need to step in and do things my way in order to, no, that's a false idea that a true man of God should never have. That I need to step in and change God because God's not doing it good enough. No, no, no, no, no. That's scary to even say. I must do myself what God won't do. Whoa. I mean, it's a serious thing what's happening in these churches. And ultimately, it's driven by money. But the funny thing is, the contemporary Christian church nullifies the church. Even the term contemporary Christian church, it's an oxymoron. Because being contemporary nullifies the church. It nullifies the church. Because guess what? Families, families need doctrine. Husbands need doctrine. Wives need doctrine. Young ladies need doctrine. Young men need doctrine. Children need doctrine. And what they're doing is they're getting rid of the one thing that everyone needs. And that's why we will never be contemporary, but we will always be fundamental, meaning sticking to the Bible. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.