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Amen. So keep your place there in Luke chapter 12. The verse that we're going to focus on, you're going to keep your place there. We're going to come back to it a couple times throughout the sermon. But the verse I want to focus on is verse number 51 where Jesus says, suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth I tell you nay but rather division. So in verse number 51 we see a great verse from Jesus there. Verse that's pretty much ignored today. I told you on Wednesday night that I would preach a sermon on the universal church. So here it is. I'm going to preach a sermon on the universal church and this doctrine of the universal church. This is kind of personal doctrine to me because I grew up with the belief, you know, growing up in the Lutheran Church which is basically very Catholic the same. I grew up with this doctrine of the universal church and after getting saved and then getting into a Baptist Church I noticed right away that, you know, the Baptist preaching and the biblical preaching that I was listening to even before I got into a Baptist Church was very focused on the local New Testament church. You know, that phrase is used over and over and over again. And I guess at the beginning of my Christian walk and my Christian life, I guess you could say, I didn't really understand the full scope of how, you know, serious this doctrine is. For me the doctrine of the universal church was mainly realized in the Nicene Creed. If you've ever heard that, the Nicene Creed was a creed that you would chant. It was a vain repetition that you would chant in every church service or every mass that you would go to. You just chant to this belief and it's commonly held, by the way, if you go and you just Google what people think about the Nicene Creed, it's commonly held that this this Creed encompasses, you know, Christian beliefs. You know, four or five points of Christian belief. Now, you know, that's what people looking at Christianity from the outside think, right? And in the Nicene Creed, of course, it says, I believe in one. Part of it is, I believe in one holy Catholic, is one version. Catholic meaning universal Catholic and apostolic church. It's kind of one of those, you're just chanting these beliefs. They do have the Trinity in there, so there are some things that are correct, which makes it even more confusing to people. But basically, the Nicene Creed was created, if you just look at the the birth of Christianity, let me give you a history of Christianity in two and a half minutes, all right? So basically, you look at what we're looking at in the book of Acts on Wednesday night, you have the book of Acts where maybe we go up to 60 or 70 AD, where the church, the churches, I'm sorry, the churches are being persecuted largely by the Jews in the book of Acts. But that's transitioned during Nero's reign into persecution by the Roman government itself. And then, of course, I've talked about this in many sermons. The Martyr's Mirror and other secular historical documents talk about the ten Roman persecutions, which is basically, it was, you know, nearly 300 years, 250 years of persecution by different Roman emperors, different Roman rulers, all right? There was, you know, a terrible time for Christianity, terrible things were done. But then in 300, 313, I believe it was, or 313, I believe, was the edict of Milan, where basically Constantine, this Roman emperor, kind of declared the persecutions over, let's leave the Christians alone, kind of thing. And then in 325 AD, something that is touted by the Catholic Church and even Lutheran churches, was this Council of Nicaea that was brought together. And this is kind of the formation of what we know as the Roman Catholic Church, the Council of Nicaea. Now, many people, and if you look this up, many people call the Council of Nicaea, there was another one in 380 or 381, I think, that was like the second Council of Nicaea. But many people call these councils, this is where they, of course, in 325, the first council, they created the Roman Catholic Church. They invited all these bishops from all the different churches everywhere. Constantine and the Roman government actually funded the council itself. So it was literally, it was literally a government-sponsored, you know, ecumenical conference, is what it was. And so this ecumenical conference, many people call it the first ecumenical conference and the second ecumenical conference. It was the beginning of ecumenicalism, which we'll talk about this morning. But anyway, out of that came this Nicene Creed, all right? This, all right, let's all get together and come up with what we believe together, okay? And out of that, of course, is where we get this idea of the universal church itself, okay? Now, remember this about yourself, because many people do not know this about Bible-believing Baptists, but here's the thing, folks, not everybody showed up to that ecumenical conference. And one thing you have to remember about yourself, and people don't realize this, and you'll know this going out soul-winning if it ever comes up in conversation or, you know, deeper conversations about things, we are not a Protestant Church. So we are not Protestants. Many people will think, oh, Baptists were, you know, formed in, you know, the the 17th century when all the other Protestants, you know, came out with Martin Luther and John Calvin, all these people. We are, you know, John Wesley, Joseph, yeah, the Wesley, you know, the Wesley doctrine, the Methodists, and all this. We are not Protestants. We're not, you know, Protestants mean people that came out of the Catholic Church were protesting the Catholic Church. We were never part of it. You know, they may not have been called, you know, they've been, right after 325 AD is where the word Anabaptist started coming up, right after that. And they weren't called Baptists before that because they call them Anabaptists because they wouldn't accept the change to the gospel, meaning works-based salvation in all these sacraments, okay. So basically there's always been true believers since Christ and the book of Acts, all right. We are not Protestants. And when the Catholic Church was formed, under the Roman government, kind of mixing this doctrine with all these different people and Roman paganism, we get the Nicene Creed, which brought in this doctrine that we're going to talk about, all that to say this, brought in this doctrine of the universal or Catholic Church, you know, the universal Church, meaning anybody that, you know, claims Christ is part of the Church everywhere in the world, we're all part of the Church right now, all right. So look, I talked, I'm going to talk to you about, you know, the wickedness of this doctrine and why it's such a big deal. I already kind of mentioned one aspect of it on Wednesday night is it takes away focus on the local assembly a church is literally, if you translate it from the Greek, it is literally a local assembly of believers, all right. So it takes away, you know, the focus of what the Bible actually says of coming to an individual church in a location, all right. You can just say, if you believe in the universal Church, you can just say, look, I've heard many people say this to me, like we're all part of the Church. They don't go to a church, but we're all part of the Church because they believe this universal Church doctrine that is not in in the Bible. So no, God wants you in a church, we talked about that on Wednesday night, Hebrews 10 25 and other places in the Bible. The internet is not a church, you know, which is a lot of, you know, it's a big problem today, you know, when everybody just stopped going to church and started just watching church online, you know, in a teams meeting or whatever, you know, that's not church. You know, the Bible says that church is a local group, a local assembly of believers, all right. So let's look at this idea of the universal Church. First of all, let's just do a quick Bible study on the word church in the Bible, all right. In the New Testament, the word church is used nearly 80 times, I think 78 or 79 times, in the New Testament. Now, it is used, majority of the time, it's used in Paul's nine epistles, two specific churches, okay. Paul has nine epistles, then there's what's called the general epistles, which are two groups of people, you know, the Hebrews, you know, all these different books. But even in these other books where the word church is used, it's always used in the same way to mean a local group of believers, in a local place. Let's look at just a couple of verses. I'll read for you some verses and then we'll turn to some verses as well. So why don't you turn to 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse number 13. Well, I read for you Romans chapter 16 and verse number 1. Paul says you're going to go to 1 Peter 5. I'm going to read for you Romans 16 verse number 1, where the Bible says, I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, which is a servant of the church at Centria. So it's talking about, you know, you'll see this in the Bible again and again and again. And literally, I started to, as soon as I started reading the Bible, it's hard to not notice this. Because you notice that whenever it says the church, it's pointing, you know, 90% of the time it's pointed to a specific, it literally says the place right after that. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 18, first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you and I partly believe it. So in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, he's obviously talking to the church at Corinth. He mentions that in verse 2 of 1 Corinthians, just the beginning chapter, but he's saying when you come together in the church, he's talking about, you know, coming together in that local place. Look at 1 Peter 5 13. The Bible says in 1 Peter 5 13, the church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you, and so doth Marcus my son. Turn to Acts chapter 12. Turn to Acts chapter 12 and I will read for you 3rd John chapter 1 verse number 9. I wrote unto the church, but Diatrophes, who love it to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. So a letter was written unto the church. Now people don't necessarily know, like, where this Diatrophes was at. He's writing to a man called Gaius here, who many people think was, some people think he was part of the Corinth church, some people think he was part of the church in Ephesus. Doesn't really matter. Diatrophes was obviously a person that was obviously not, like, you know, all present everywhere in the world. He was at some local assembly somewhere. That's what the church means there. Look at Acts chapter 12 in verse number 1. Acts chapter 12 and verse number 1. Now about the time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. What church are we talking about here? Here we're talking about, you know, the Church of Jerusalem here. We're talking about, you know, a specific local church here. Look at Acts chapter 18 verse number 22. Just a few, just a few chapters over in your Bible. Acts chapter 18. Look at verse number 22. And when he had landed at Caesarea and gone up and saluted the church, where? At Caesarea he went down to Antioch. So it's very specifically pointing out these churches. It's pointing out these churches at different locations. Now here's some, let me just give you some controversial verses that, you know, people use to try to prove the universal church. Okay, turn to Acts chapter 9. Turn to Acts chapter 9. So you say, where are these people getting this doctrine? They must be using some verses. Obviously we can look at every single verse where the church, the word church, is used in the Bible and see that it's talking about a local assembly of believers. But look at Acts chapter 9 verse 31. The universal church people will actually say, and this is kind of a big red flag right here, look at Acts 9 31. The Bible says, then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilea and Samaria and were edified. So here we're talking about, now if it was a universal church, we could just use the word church there. Then had the church rest throughout all these different regions. Instead it specifically points out that the churches had rest. It's talking about regions. It's just talking about regions here. It's not talking about individual you know, it's not pointing out individual cities, individual churches. And look, I'm sure there's many cities where there was many different churches in each city. But the point is, is it saying then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and area, Galilee and area, and Samaria and area. All right, so we're talking about all these different churches. He could have just said the church. Well the universal church people that are really just like really on this doctrine, they'll say this is a mistake and it's a translation error in the King James Bible. All right, so they don't even believe the Bible. You know, shocker. So right away that's a huge red flag. When you meet somebody that says oh that's a translation error and they're casting doubt on the Word of God. Right away we can exit the building at that point. All right, so they say it should be just church because you know that doesn't follow up their doctrine. Turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 12. Turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 12. 1st Corinthians chapter 12 and look at verse 28. 1st Corinthians 12 and verse number 28. The Bible says here, here's another verse that they'll use. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondary prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. So here the Bible is saying here when you actually let me turn there myself because I believe just a couple verses before and I'm going to bring this up on something else but if you look at just a couple of verses before that. 1st Corinthians chapter 12 verse number 28. Look at verse 27. It says now ye are the body of Christ. Okay, so they'll basically say because 1st Corinthians 12 and verse number 28 doesn't specifically talk to, you know, doesn't say the church at Corinth. I mean first of all the letter is to the church at Corinth. You know obviously all scripture is profitable for doctrine for all of us but he's literally writing about, you know, a generality about what God has done in the church. Talking about how he's put in local churches apostles. He's put in local churches prophets, teachers, and you know gifts of healings and all these things but up in the very first in that very next the verse above it he talks about, you know, the church you know ye are he's saying ye are so it's like me I'm talking to a plural group of what group of people right ye are the what the body of Christ so he's talking about a church being the body of Christ so ye are the body of Christ so another word really for the the word of a local church could be the body of Christ but now how many people think now the body has many members now how many people think that like a body could have like an arm in Fresno and then you know a head in Africa or something you know so I mean let's say I mean let's say I had a friend who was a Christian in Africa all right the proper way to say that biblically would be to yeah I'm a member of this body of Christ and he's a member of that body of Christ churches local assemblies not we're all the members of this you know body of Christ all right which you know is a is another way of pushing universal Church doctrine which somebody that might surprise you believed in and I'll mention that in a little bit but go go to Colossians chapter 1 18 we're looking at verses that people use to teach the universal Church all right Colossians chapter 1 look at verse 18 which is an epistle a letter to the church at Colossae all right and he is the head of the body the church who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence here Colossians chapter 1 18 and go to Ephesians chapter 1 now he's just talking about the structure what a structure of a church should look like so the Bible here is talking in Colossians chapter 1 and Ephesians chapter 1 it's giving us this doctrine of what the structure of a local church should be all right look at Ephesians chapter 1 verse 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him in his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion just describing Christ here and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and have put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church now does that say that like there's a universal church it simply says that this is the structure of the local church that Christ is to be the head of the local church first Corinthians 15 9 I'll just read for you for I am the least of the Apostles you know actually why don't you turn there first Corinthians 15 verse 9 Paul is saying for I'm the least of the Apostles that I am NOT meet to be called an apostle he's saying I don't even deserve this job that I have right now because I persecuted the what he's saying I persecuted the Church of God right Paul says I persecuted the Church of God now look at verse number two of first Corinthians chapter one so he oh he persecuted the Church of God there's the universal church right there he's saying the Church of God I don't know that sounds like kind of a universal name for all believers all right but look at first Corinthians chapter one in verse number two look what he says he says unto who's he writing the letter to the Corinthian Church he's literally about to I mean look and you I mean he's literally about to we can learn lots of doctrine from Paul's letters to the Corinthians but Paul's kind of ripping some face on the Corinthian Church here they've done some specific things they've done this is where we get a lot of our doctrine on things that you know how we're to react to certain things in the church how you know a church is supposed to be managed it comes from these two letters that Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church because he's using them as an example to say look you can't have these things happening there but look what he says in verse two he says unto the Church of God which is at Corinth all right so obviously the Church of God is again talking about the local church okay so what and also you know that Paul says that he persecuted the Church of God what was Paul doing Paul was literally going around to different locations attacking and persecuting what groups of people he literally said you know in in the in in acts before he gets saved he was literally on his way to Damascus to persecute the local people there like people in just a local area all right because look he traveled around and persecuted local groups of believers that's what Paul was doing before he got saved so look we just need to use clear scripture to define doctrine can't just pull out like half of a verse and say oh that's a universal Church okay so you say all right you say I believe you pastor but what's the big deal what's the big deal if somebody thinks that you know if somebody's saved and they think that hey I'm part of some universal invisible Church okay well first of all you know we know from Wednesday night that it diminishes the command to go to church the command to be part of a local assembly but there's much more to it than this turn to 2nd John chapter 1 turn to 2nd John chapter 1 the term look if if the if basically what this means is the word church has lost all meaning today is what the universal Church does all right I mean if the term going to church isn't even true for most people but they think they're still part of a church a you know even if no one's even saved you know I mean is it even a church I mean you have to ask yourself um what what makes a church what what makes a church just because a bunch of people claim the name of Christ and get together does that make it a church what is it according to Jesus all right so the first thing I want to point out the first major issue aside from just diminishing the local assembly and the meaning of going to church and being part of a local assembly is this it diminishes doctrine it diminishes the importance of doctrine in the Bible are you in 2nd John chapter 1 look at verse number 9 2nd John chapter 1 in verse number 9 the Bible says whosoever transgresses transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son so it sounds to me like doctrine is pretty important it sounds to me like doctrine is pretty important look at Matthew chapter 22 in verse number 33 and I'll read for you actually you go to John chapter 7 I'll read for you Matthew 22 go to John chapter 7 go to John chapter 7 Matthew 22 33 says this it says this is how important look this is how important doctrine is doctrine is literally what got Jesus in trouble doctrine is literally why people got upset at Jesus you're like well why does he just not have doctrine then but the point is the doctrine was the the entire the doctrine was the point look at John chapter 7 Matthew 22 33 says this when the multitude heard this they were astonished at his doctrine they were astonished at his doctrine this is why because what he was preaching who he was saying he was is why Jesus was killed I mean obviously we know that he was killed to die to take the punishment for the sins of the world but the people that didn't believe in him they were mad and they were upset at his doctrine look at John 7 16 Jesus answered them and said my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me Jesus said that the doctrine that I'm preaching is the doctrine of God the Father so that's how important doctrine is so this idea that we are all part of the church no matter what doctrine we have is just false it's just it's just not true people that you know just claim the name of Jesus regardless of any doctrine that they believe and they're part of the church is just it's a it's a horribly wicked false doctrine and you know what it's a false doctrine that does a disservice to those people that think that they're just part of this church that they're you know they're in the club when they're not even saved because they have the wrong doctrine all right look the truth is folks is that most most local church it's much worse than this because the truth is that most local churches today that we would look at and we would drive by on on the highway or we drive out down Bullard Street or whatever Street and we would say oh there's a church the truth is is that those aren't even churches if we want to actually look at doctrine in the Bible turn to Revelation chapter 2 turn to Revelation chapter 2 if we want to look at doctrine in the Bible most churches aren't even churches most churches aren't even churches because of doctrine all right well let's look at just this doctrine of the candlestick in Revelation chapter 2 in Revelation chapter 3 so we see Revelation chapter 2 and 3 Jesus is writing these letters or Jesus is talking to seven churches we've studied this extensively but what is he talking to them about first of all look at verse number 5 he says remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come to thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent so Jesus is saying go back to Revelation 1 20 the verse just before chapter number 2 revelation 1 20 Jesus is saying like look if you if you know this church it's not that this church had a false gospel it's not that this church you know was even preaching false gospel false doctrine it's just they weren't doing the work they weren't doing the first works that Jesus told them to do they weren't preaching the gospel they weren't preaching the Word of God and Jesus saying look I'm going to remove the candlestick from you so what does that mean what does that mean well I'm going to remove the candlestick from your church if you don't fix these things look at verse number 20 of Revelation 1 says the mystery of the seven stars with thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks now he tells us what they are it's like the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches I believe this means the messengers of the seven churches or the pastors of that set those seven churches and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches so when Jesus says hey get your works right get your works right or I'm going to remove your candlestick you know what he's saying he's saying I'm going to remove you from being a church is what he's saying he's saying literally if you don't get your works correct doesn't mention anything about doctrine he's like I'm gonna remove you from being a church so how do you think and then he goes off you know on the other six churches and is like there's some false doctrine by specific people in the churches he's like hey you better not allow this in there you know and then something you know some you know some churches are just they're not zealous they're lukewarm he's like I'll spew you out of my mouth what he's referencing just removing them as a church when he says things like that taking away that candlestick now knowing that these are the standards think about that verse in Revelation chapter 2 in verse number 5 that if a church a local church is not because it was a specific local church that he was talking to okay now with a specific local church doesn't have the works isn't doing the works that Jesus wants them to do Jesus says I will remove you from being a church now what do you think Jesus would think with that standard in mind what do you think Jesus would think about a church that's preaching a false gospel and I say that word loosely a a local group of people that are led by some person that's preaching a gospel that is different from the gospel that Jesus said what do you think Jesus would say there well the Bible tells us turn to Galatians 1 turn to Galatians chapter 1 you say you know those seven churches they were getting you know they were getting kind of raked over the coals by Jesus there for you know not doing the works and having some people in the church that were preaching some false things or saying some false things you better get rid of those people get that those things right fornication there's some sins that were being allowed that shouldn't be allowed look at Galatians chapter 1 over 78 now now look at what the Bible says about somebody that would come in and teach a local group of people a false gospel the Bible says in verse 7 which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ we're talking about the gospel here is that some people are coming in trying to pervert it what does that mean they're trying to twist it change it make it something bad okay look at verse 8 then Paul says but though we or an angel from heaven he's saying anybody comes and tells you some other gospel preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed verse 9 as we said before so I now I mean you think he thinks this is important he's literally saying the same thing twice if any man preach any other gospel to you then you have received let him be accursed what he's saying is he's going to this church at Galatia that he has heard has a false gospel being preached there and he's like if anyone do this they're damned if anyone do this damn now what do you think about a local group led by somebody doing this you think that God Jesus by any stretch of the imagination believes that they are a church absolutely not God was going to remove the candlestick from the church in Revelation chapter 2 for not working hard enough for not doing the right works didn't say anything about their beliefs being wrong people so most local churches it's much worse than just this universal Church of unsaved people it's most local churches are not churches they're not a church but yet those people believe they are part of some weird universal weird individual church or invisible Church because they go to a building once every two months that has a cross on it they think they're part of this weird universal Church so first of all it diminishes doctrine the universal Church diminishes it tries to round corners on doctrine it tries to erase doctrine what do you think that they had to do when they got together at that Council of Nicaea and they all had their doctrine some people had to drop their doctrines if they were all going to get together and agree on this creed that they all believed all right the second thing is exactly what I just said is it promotes ecumenicalism that's what it does and that's really the goal is to promote ecumenicalism you know amongst quote-unquote Christianity you know I mean you say well now turn back to Luke chapter 12 you say well you know I mean can't we all just get along isn't it a good thing to get along I mean this is what people will say to you you know as you believe the Bible they will say well why you know why do you know why judge why judge you know why why are you so judgmental you know well what does Jesus say the point is is that Jesus says it himself in Luke chapter 12 look what he says in verse 51 I read it for you at the beginning of the sermon suppose ye that have come to bring to give peace on earth he's saying yeah am I here to just put my arms around everybody and bring everybody in and no he says I tell you nay but rather division then he goes into this long diatribe about you know I'm gonna divide the closest groups of people why doctrine that's why because he's saying he's saying I'm here to divide because doctrine is so important doctrine is literally what God is gonna get Jesus hung on the cross and doctrine is so important he said that it will divide the the closest groups of people and he uses the example of a family in one house son father mother daughter daughter-in-law mother-in-law very close people he's saying it is going to divide why because my people are not going to give up their doctrine is what Jesus says he's like look if you think if you think that you know all people in one house have to get together and just okay it's not a big deal and okay I'll believe what you believe and and let's come up with a with a family creed in our house Jesus is saying that's not that's that's not my doctrine he's saying doctrine will divide people and he says that's why I bring division because he brings very specific doctrine so a local church a true candlestick will divide that that is I mean it's kind of the sign of a local church it's kind of a sign of a true candlestick is that it holds to doctrine and look if there's nobody if there's nobody saying that you know what we preach here when I preach the Bible if there's nobody saying that that's divisive then I think I've got a problem I've got a problem because Jesus literally said who is the word that I came to bring division so if Jesus brings division and I'm just all about getting together with everybody and all about getting together with which just whoever claims the name of Jesus has a cross on their building or whatever I've got a problem because Jesus said he divides all right turn to 1st Kings chapter 18 and ultimately it it brings in ecumenicalism which the problem there is it promotes compromise it promotes compromise you say what kind of compromise how big of compromise does it promote turn to 1st Kings chapter 18 1st Kings chapter 18 this is a story of Elijah and you know the showdown with the prophets of Baal and I'm not going to go through the whole story but I want to read you something that he said at the very beginning of this confrontation look at 1st Kings chapter 18 to look at verse number 20 1st Kings chapter 18 of verse number 20 so Ahab and Elijah they don't really like each other because Ahab's wicked and Elijah's the man of God so Ahab in verse 20 he sent unto the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel these are all the prophets of Baal all these false prophets and Elijah he so he gathered the people and the false prophets all right and look what Elijah says before he gets down into this big showdown with these prophets he says Elijah came on to all the people and he said how long halt ye between two opinions he's saying if the Lord be God follow him but if Baal follow him and the people answered him not a word you know why they didn't say anything because the people were kind of like well they worship God too we should worship God it's we all worship God that's exactly what's going on now you will find that today now I'm talking about the ultimate ecumenicalism is that all religions worship the same God this is the ultimate ecumenicalism you know there are quote-unquote Christian leaders that believe this there are Christian leaders that believe that Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims and all those people they'll go to heaven too he say well what about you know John 14 6 where Jesus says you know I am the way the truth in the life then nobody reads the next part says no man cometh unto the Father but by me you know there's Christian leaders that say yeah but people that don't know who Jesus is you know that doesn't apply to them you say what kind of Christian leader would say something this I don't know how about this one Billy Graham Billy Graham Billy Graham Billy Graham believes that Hindus Muslims believed that Hindus Muslims Buddhists he believed in this this body of Christ his his word for the universal Church was the body of Christ which I already showed you that's not what it means he believed that the body of Christ was the universal Church on earth and he and he gave an interview in like 1997 saying yeah you know what it's the body of Christ well how do you get past you know the verses look at look at are you in Luke 12 are you in Luke 12 go back there look at every believed up verse number eight verse number eight of Luke 12 look what Jesus says in verse number eight of Luke number chapter 12 he says also I say to you where whosoever shall confess me before men him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God but he that denies me before men shall be denied before the angels of God you know what a Buddhist will do if you walk up to his door and start talking to him about Jesus and he's not open to it he'll deny Jesus they don't believe Jesus was God a Muslim will deny Jesus a Hindu will deny Jesus look I'm doesn't make me happy I hope they would accept Jesus we only try to get as many Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims and and all these different people saved as we possibly can but you know what they'll do if they hold to their beliefs they literally deny Jesus but Billy Graham says in this interview he says oh you know whether they consciously or unconsciously accept Jesus they're there they're gonna go to heaven I believe that they're all saved well you're like you're just like like who is this person so not only did he preach look he just preached the false gospel anyway he preached to repent of your sins work-based you know gospel he already preached the false gospel so it really shouldn't surprise you that he doesn't believe the Bible that he doesn't literally believe that he didn't believe the words of Jesus right there's plenty of other wicked things we go into about that man but the point is like this is where it goes even with Christians is just it's just like 1st Kings 18 where they're just like oh we all worship God you're like how could they possibly you know the children of Israel except with everything that you know in the Bible except prophets of Baal it's the same thing today we all worship the same God we all worship the same God look Eliza says these things are not the same you must choose one is what he says you must you know what Elijah was teaching you must divide just like what Jesus was teaching God wants you divided so we see that you know people can go into this like ultimate ecumenicalism that anybody that claims God look this is what the Sikhs believe the Sikhs will sit there and they'll listen to you preach Jesus and they'll say I believe everything that you say we all worship God you know Sheba and all these other gods and all these different things they just add it all in it's all God it's not all God some are is Baal some is Satan and only Jesus is God you know only Jesus is God we're talking about that with Jehovah's Witnesses yesterday you meet a Jehovah's Witness you know it's easy to say like who's your God you know who's your God because they won't say Jesus they don't believe Jesus is God so look it's a it's the dividing point folks you know with people that how about these people that think that oh anybody that claimed the name of Jesus I mean just now we just we can take it down one level of hierarchy and be like well okay you have to have Jesus but anybody that claims the name of Jesus then they're in the universal church well no that's not what Jesus says in Matthew 7 we went into that in detail yesterday Jesus literally said himself those are red words in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21 the words are red he literally says not everyone that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven why because they're they're they're Jesus plus works that's why so look folks this is important this is important to remember that we are a local church because the universal church tries to round all these corners it tries to break down all the division it breaks down doctrine it breaks down look it's telling a bunch of people that aren't saved that they're saved it's making people believe that they're safe when they're not it's making people believe in the prison cell of their life where they're waiting to go to hell that it's not a prison cell it's dressing up the prison cell it's making it look good so they'll stay in there people need to know that these divisions these doctrines are important and it's the difference between heaven and hell but people just want to fit in see people just want to fit in I even you know psychology today I've got a little quote for you here the need for acceptance people just want to fit in they want to be all together the need for acceptance is a basic human instinct although some value it more than others we all want to fit in to belong in order to achieve that in order to achieve that we often present slightly different versions of who we are depending on the environment of whose company we're in they're saying people just like change who they are depending on who they're around we should never do this we might have new newer additions of ourselves for work or at home or even online isn't that the truth then it talks about things like peer pressure peer pressure works the reason that peer pressure works with kids and even adults is because of this is because this basic human instinct that people want to fit in people want to they don't want to go into a group of people and be the weird one or be you know you know this is the peer pressure don't you want to be cool you know do it you know this is how bullies you know operate you know this is where you know and then also this is where this modern philosophy of of you know so people try to change for the group that they're in this is where this moss modern philosophy of just be yourself hey you do you you know how many times have you you know went out soloing a couple years ago in Fresno and there's a couple guys they were out in their yard you know smoking marijuana and like how do you get to heaven and they've they bought into this philosophy of you do you so much they're just like they're just like be true to yourself man just be true to yourself that's where this comes from because they're just saying hey just be true to who I want to be look that's a wicked philosophy too but it's all based on this idea that we all want to fit in turn to 1st Peter chapter 2 we all want to fit in but the Bible says and that's why Jesus is saying this over and over and over again about division he's just telling us like this is how it has to be for you in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse number 9 the Bible says you're a chosen generation a royal priesthood and holy nation a peculiar people Jesus is there the Bible is telling us here that you're gonna stand out if you do it right you know you're gonna be peculiar you can't be a Christian listening to what God's Word says and just want to fit in with everybody you got to let that go you got to let that go and this is where like it really comes from full circle right here in the sermon so we see that Jesus divides we see that Jesus divides which is against kind of our flesh nature that wants to fit in Jesus saying I divide you know and I you know I divide which is against what your flesh wants to do which is just fit in and not have any trouble with anybody all right that's where this idea of the universal church is just feeding the flesh it's just feeding the flesh and we all just want to get along we all just want to fit in all right we all just want to fit in together but guess what as we become peculiar you know maybe there's peer pressure we're just like you know what I don't care what all those other people say but that's why we talked about in Hebrews 10 25 that's why when we talked about that Wednesday about that admonishment and that exhortation you know what that is that's positive peer pressure that's that's basically what the world will call peer pressure except in a good way so the local church is so important because as we're peculiar like I don't have to be peculiar by myself I'm not like some lone weirdo standing out here I'm peculiar with a local group of people and that's why you know it just the local church makes so much sense everything in the Bible you know Jesus I'm gonna divide things but if you think it through and look at how the church is structured and how everything is supposed to go in the church as we talked about on Wednesday night it all makes sense and it makes sense for us God's not just saying hey you know dance this jig because I say so he's saying no do it this way because it will help you walk this Christian life together it's very hard being a look we've done it it's very hard being a peculiar person being a Christian on your own that is a very difficult thing to do and you know many people including us at certain points before we came to California failed in that area because we were just we didn't have that positive admonishment we didn't have that positive exhortation we didn't have that positive peer pressure is what it comes down to so what God designed it this way for us he designed it this way so a group of people could be successful in what in the first works that's the whole point all right so look the main thing is is that outside of us this universal church you say okay I just run into all these people that believe in the universal church it's gonna cut it's gonna cost a lot of people their eternity is is really my main concern is that these people that believe this it's giving them comfort where there shouldn't be any because guess what the wrath of God abideth on them look at the wrath of God abideth on me I would want to know I would want to know and this doctrine it rounds it this false doctrine rounds corners it takes away that fear it takes away you know the wrath of God upon people that feeling that they should have that hey maybe I should go seek the truth and find out what's actually true all right so yes it's very very wicked it's very very bad turn to 1st Timothy chapter 6 and we'll end here 1st Timothy chapter 6 and we will end there 1st Timothy chapter 6 look at verse number 3 1st Timothy chapter 6 and verse number 3 the Bible says if any man teach otherwise again talking about doctrine and consent not to wholesome words even to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the again the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and stripes of words where have cometh envy strife railings evil surmising perverse disputings of men and corrupt minds destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw thyself again dividing dividing us all right let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer