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All right, take your Bibles back to Ephesians chapter 5, we'll start our sermon. Ephesians chapter 5. The title of the sermon tonight is, We are an independent church. We are an independent church. So the thought that I want to take out of Ephesians chapter 5, it compared the relationship that Christ has to his church as that of a relationship between a husband and a wife. What do I want to take out of this? First of all, that Christ is the head of the church. Number one reason why we are an independent church, what does it mean to be independent, is that Christ is the head of this church. Christ is the head of the church in Caloundra. There is no intermediate between this church and Christ. It's not me, I'm part of this church. There's no intermediate, there's no intermediate body, there's no president or organization that sits between Christ and his church. And God uses the analogy between a husband and wife. Okay, it takes the analogy of a married couple. Between the husband and the wife, there is no one between there, is there? Children shouldn't get in between the husband and the wife. And it says that the husband is the head of the wife and that the wife ought to be subject to the husband. That's not very popular teaching today, right? But you know, guys, we need to train our children, and this is going, you know, I'm talking about the church, but we need to train our children, especially our daughters, because they're growing up in a society that does not respect the marriage, does not respect the authority that the husband has above his wife. And ladies, little girls, especially those that aren't married yet, you need to understand when you get married, that man that you're married is going to be your authority, so you better make sure that you marry the right guy. Okay, make sure that you marry a believer, make sure you get dad's stick of approval, that's biblical, yes it is, to get dad's stick of approval, but there is no authority, there is nothing between, once you're married, there's nothing between the husband and the wife, the husband's the authority, and the wife is subject to the husband. You might say, that's not unfair, Kevin, it's unfair that the husband has the authority. But the man is told, the husband is told, you've got to love your wife to the point that you ought to die for her, just how Christ was willing to die for the church. What's harder, to be subject to the husband, or for the husband to give up his life for his wife? I think it's harder to give up your life, to die for your wife, to love him to that point where you're willing to die for that person. So look, there's responsibility for the husband and there's responsibility for the wife, but just to use that analogy the Bible speaks about, is it right for the church to be in authority of Christ? Is it right for the church to tell Christ, hey, we'll do things the way we want to do it? No, that's wrong, right? And that's just as wrong as it is for a wife to tell the husband, hey, no, you're not my authority, no, I'm not going to do the things the way you want me to do them. It's the same mess. It's ridiculous to think that a church could have authority over God, church has authority over Christ. It's just as equally ridiculous for the wife to have authority over the husband. And that's, you know, obviously that teaching is unpopular, it's out of season, it's out of fashion today, but that's why we have broken homes all over the place, because no one now wants to adhere to the word of God. But Christ is the head of the church, so we're an independent church. We have Christ, we have his word, Jesus Christ, the word of God, we have the Bible, which is the written word of God as our authority, okay? Yes, again, I've been given the overseer, I've been given the rule in the congregation, right? But I do not, you know, I am not above Christ. I have to make sure that everything that transpires in this church is to honor our Lord Jesus Christ. So number one, the main reason why we are an independent church is Christ is the head of the church. Because when you think about denominations, you think about churches that are not independent, they will have some organization above that church before Christ, right? Because they need to make sure that however they run their church, whatever they preach in the church lines up with that organization's teachings, okay? Now we're Baptists, there's the Baptist Union, I'm not sure if they're still called the Baptist Union, but there's one in New South Wales, there's one in Queensland, and then I think they all get together and there's one, a national one, I might be mistaken. But basically, the Baptist Union has to, and I've checked Baptist Union statement of faith on their website, and they say on their website, oh, we believe just like the union does. They're not even bothered to write their own statement of faith anymore. They're like, oh yeah, just like the Baptist Union, because they have to make sure if they're going to be a member of that union, they're going to be a member of that denomination, they need to make sure, it doesn't matter anymore what the Bible says, it's what the union says, and we need to make sure that we don't, you know, step on anyone's toes. You know, is that soul winning with a brother, I won't name him or the church, but he was explained to me that the church that he's been attending, that the pastor, you know, the bishop has been preaching hard against homosexuality, has been preaching hard against women preachers, because this denomination apparently allows women pastors, preaching hard against these things, and so they sent someone from the organization to reprimand him, to tell him, hey, you can't preach these things anymore, you need to stop that, or else, you know, or else you might lose your position, or who knows, you might lose your finances, you might lose your support, what have you, and this is not right. We cannot allow for an organization to exist between the church and Christ. That is why we're an independent church, and you might say, well, what about the church in Punchbowl? Didn't the church in Punchbowl send you out here, and don't you need to report back? No, I don't need to report back to the church in Punchbowl. Once I was ordained, once the church has sent me to commence and establish this church in Caloundra, we essentially cut ties as far as authority goes. Yes, I was under the authority of Victor when I was in that church, but now, no longer, okay. Now, I would like to continue ties, I would like to have relationships with that church and being able to work together and do things on a national scale if possible, that would be fantastic, but Victor doesn't ring me up and say, Kevin, what are you preaching today? You know, does it line up with what I taught? You know, is it contrary to what I taught? No, he doesn't check that, you know, and I'm not required to report back to them, but I probably will, you know, just as a courtesy, just so they know that things are going very well in this church and how much we've done, I probably will report back, just to show them the great work that's been, you know, that's been done here in Caloundra, but it's not a requirement and they are not the head of this church and we are not the head of that church, okay. We are independent churches, this is what it means to be independent, Christ is the head of this church. Now, just to show you a couple of things here, Acts 14 verse 23, you don't need to turn there, just read it, Acts 14, 23, it says this, and when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. So this is where they actually ordained elders to commence churches, to establish churches, to have leadership in a church, and what do they do once they pray and fast? They commend those elders to the Lord, not to themselves, okay, not to some organization, but they're like, hey we've done the job, we've ordained you, get that church running, and we're commending you to the Lord, the Lord's in charge of what you're doing, not us, okay. Just to show you that, Hebrews 13 verse 17 says this, it says, obey them that have the rule over you, and as uncomfortable as I am saying this, but that's what the Bible says, I have the rule over you in the church, right, so you're being commanded to obey me to have the rule of you in the church and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they must give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. So this account that we give for your souls is an account that we give to the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know how this works exactly, but when we're taken up to heaven, every bishop, every pastor, every church will give an account for his church and the souls in his church, right, and then it says that they may give that account with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. So it sounds like, yes you receive your rewards for the work you've done, but there's also further rewards given to the church for being in obedience to the bishop within the church and for taking those things into consideration, for growing in the Lord, but if you disregard what is being taught in the church, if you disregard what's being taught in the word of God, that's going to be unprofitable to you. I assume you'd lose the rewards, you wouldn't gain rewards that you would have. My point is to show you this, is that the bishop must give an account directly to God, okay, it's not directly to another bishop, it's not to an organization, the account is given to God, all right, so I as a preacher of the word of God must preach the word of God with a clear conscience. I've got to preach this and you know I've had discussions with some of you and I know there are some things we don't fully agree with, right, but I need to give an account and have a clear conscience before God, right, I have to give that account for this church and so I just want to show you why that's important, why it's important that we are an independent church because I need to make sure that I line up with what I believe the word of God says as my authority, I can't be worried about some church that sent me out and what they think about what I'm going to preach, I can't be worried about what some organizations says that you know thinks of what I'm going to preach, I have to preach the word of God, I do not want to be like these other pastors out there that are afraid to preach God's word because of what you know their peers might say or what some organization might say, no I only care about what God has to say, what you know the account that I've got to give to God, I might even have to offend you sometimes but I don't want to offend God, okay, I do not want to offend God so if I offend you sometimes guys you know feel free to let me know if I've offended you but please keep in mind that I do it not because I want to attack you but simply because I want to please the Lord God, I must give that account directly to him. So what are some denominational problems? You have denominations right, you have organizations and you might have a president or if you look at the Roman Catholic Church, who's their president? It's the Pope right and the Pope basically what he says is equal to the word of God and I know recently and probably in the last 20 years or more you know the Roman Catholic Church have now accepted evolution, have accepted probably you know they think it's a good explanation, it's a reasonable explanation that man evolved from apes, they don't care anymore what the word of God says, they don't care anymore what Genesis 1 says and I remember my wife growing up as a Catholic, she'd come home from school in a Catholic school and tell her mum did you know we evolved from apes and even her mum as a Roman Catholic is like no that's not what the Bible says you know but hey if you're under a denomination and they get corrupt or that Pope gets corrupt and just teaches whatever they disregard the Bible, guess what those Catholic schools have to do, those Catholic churches have to do? They've just got to toe the line, they've got to make sure they line up with the Pope because the Pope's word is the final authority in the Roman Catholic Church. The same thing can happen with any church, any kind of Protestant or Baptist denominations, if that organization gets corrupt or if they start teaching perverse things, they start allowing you know homosexuality in the church, they start allowing women preachers, then those churches guess what as much as they might disagree with that they have to line up with that otherwise you know they might lose their positions in the church so those are some of the problems that come up. Doctrinal alignment, they have to align doctrinally even if what is being taught and what is accepted in that organization is error. There is a fear of finances, many of these denominations give a portion of their offering to those organizations so they can run and they can support themselves right and then many times that money is circulated amongst this church or that church right there are smaller churches where maybe the offering is not sufficient to provide for that pastor so that pastor then is required to you know is living off basically that denomination's giving and so is he going to preach things that are contrary to the denomination even if he sees it clearly in the word of God of course not he's going to have money as on his site and his position as his site and so you know the other problem I've already discussed is is that accountability that should be direct to Christ is removed in favor of accountability to that denominational head and I know some of these problems I've recently spoken to some Calvinists and again there are some Calvinists that are not Calvinists right and they're part of a denomination they're part of the denomination and and they line up perfectly with us in the gospel perfectly right if they preach the gospel door to door you would see no problem whatsoever right and I've had discussions and they're like yeah we're trying to get away from Calvinism we know that's false we're trying to move away from that but guess what they can't preach openly against it they can't fully remove it out of their church because the dominant denominational headquarters says no that's what we believe so even though you have these people they're stuck you know they want to escape these these are these you know prison bars of the denomination circle they want to move away from false doctrine but being stuck in that denomination means they have to try they have to still give lip service to it even though that's not what they believe anymore so you can see the problems that denominations have and even though we're a baptist church we are not part of a baptist denomination we're independent fundamental baptist and the next sermon today I'm preaching on being in an independent church next week it's lord willing it's going to be on why we're fundamental and the week after it's lord willing why we're baptists okay but what does it mean to be independent it means we're self-governing turn to Acts chapter 6 Acts chapter 6 verse 1 to 6 the church is self-governing and I want to show you that the early church in the bible were independent churches Acts chapter 6 verse 1 to 6 Acts chapter 6 verse 1 to 6 this is the first time that deacons are appointed in the church look what it says here in those days when the number of the disciples were multiplied there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration then the 12 who are the 12 of the apostles right then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples unto them and basically just to give you the context this is in the church in Jerusalem this is in the church in Jerusalem then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables wherefore brethren look ye out look ye out among you seven men of honest report full of the holy ghost and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business but we give ourselves but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word and the same pleased the whole multitude and they chose Stephen a man full of faith and of the holy ghost and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanah and Timon and Parmenas and Nicholas a proselyte of Antioch whom they set before the apostles and when they had prayed they laid their hands on them so we see this church in Jerusalem they needed to govern themselves they needed to appoint some deacons to help the bishops of this church to help the apostles to help deal with the daily ministration and in this case the widows were being neglected in the church and they chose but look look what they said hey you the church you choose men amongst yourselves it's something done within the church they didn't have to go to some organization and say hey can you approve this decision we're making in this church can you select no the church itself selected those people and look what it says in verse uh number five and it pleased the whole multitude so this was something done in the church I just want to show you that the church was self-governing they appointed their own deacons that we see in the scriptures they didn't have to go to some denominational headquarters and get approval for that number two turn to first corinthians chapter five first corinthians chapter five verse 11 first corinthians chapter five verse 11 what i'm going to be talking about now is every church has self-discipline there is discipline to be done within each church on its own self-discipline first corinthians chapter five verse 11 to 13 paul is right into the corinthian church and if you remember this is this is one of the worst churches you're going to read about in the new testament it says here but now i have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one do not know not to eat for what have i to do to judge them also that are without pay attention here do not you judge them that are within but them that are without god judges put therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person put away from among yourselves that wicked person so we see every church here the corinthian church is being told hey you can have your own self-discipline in the church these people that are fornicators covetous drunkards they should not be allowed in the church and you're within your own right i don't have to tell you this he says he says in verse number 12 do not you judge them that are within hey you have the authority to judge people like this within your church and kick them out of the church you don't need to get paul the apostles approval you don't need to get the approval of the denominational headquarters you don't need to get approval from any other church anyone else self-governing self-discipline we see here and so we see the independence of the church and how it is to be run number three you're already in first corinthians chapter six first corinthians chapter six verse four first corinthians chapter six verse four each church is required to judge internal personal problems right if there's problems within individuals in the church and hey as we grow we're going to have problems with individuals within the church first corinthians chapter six verse four and five if then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church i speak to your shame is it so that there is no not a wise man among you no not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren so in this story we have two brethren that are in dispute they're not getting along they think one has defrauded the other they can't get justice paul says hey just set the least esteemed the person that's the youngest christian the one with the less reputation let's put him as the judge right he can judge the church and he goes i speak to your shame you should have dealt with this already right so i just want to show you that the church the um local church that we have is to judge internal problems between believers again no need to go to the apostles we don't have apostles today today anyway no need to go outside of that no need to go to some denominational headquarters to get the authority to do that so i just want to show you that hey every church has its own right to deal with personal problems and number four i'll just read very quickly first oh you're in first corinthians you might as well turn there first corinthians chapter 16 verse 1 finances finances now should finances be taken to some you know some body where they then recirculate it and and give it out to churches now we don't see that happening in first corinthians chapter 16 verse 1 it says now concerning the collection of the saints as i have given order to the churches of galatia even so do ye so paul is saying hey there's a collection of the saints it happens in the churches in galatia i'm not sure how many churches they were there that's what's happening there even so do you do ye so you the corinthian church you guys have a collection as well okay every church is to have their own collection their own finances churches should be self-financed and not going off the finances now there's a different story if you send a missionary overseas and they're planting churches and the finances are different because of the poor nation we'll see later on that churches are required to support one another but that is not a mandatory requirement because we are independent churches churches should be self-financed um i've got some other things here i won't go into it right now but some of the other points i have on the finances is that pastors were paid by the church and widows in the church were taken care of by the church if they had no one else to take care of them okay but those finances came within the church and they were then given to help not just the pastor but other people in the church that needed assistance especially the widows all right so i'll go into those things at some other time because i think finances needs its own sermon but all that to say this we stand as an independent church christ is our head the bible's our authority everything that's taught behind this pulpit ought to come from the word of god but does that mean then that we just isolate ourselves and we have nothing to do with other churches in our area we have nothing to do with other churches in our nation we have nothing to do with other churches in the world is that right no because even though we're independent churches what we see clearly taught in the bible is that churches did work together churches did work together turn with me to romans chapter 16 romans chapter 16 verse 23 romans 16 verse 23 romans 16 verse 23 paul writing to the roman church he says gaius mine host and the whole church and by the way many people believe that this letter was written from the corinthians okay so it's from the corinthian church guys from the corinthian church guys mine host and the whole church the corinthian church salut of you arrest us the chamberlain of the city salut of you and quarters a brother so we have this church and individual within this church in the corinthian church it's not just paul but those other members saluting the church in rome so there ought to be fellowship between churches that are like-minded we see that in the scriptures turn to uh oh are you already there chapter 16 look at verse number one verse number one chapter 16 roman 16 verse 1 i commend unto you phoebe our sister which is a servant of the church which is in cranchia that ye receive her in the lord as become of saints and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she have need of you for she have been a secura of many and of myself also so we have phoebe this sister coming from the church in cranchia coming to visit the church in rome i'm not sure what business she's doing there i don't know if she's visiting family or going on holidays or maybe just going to assist the church but we do see members of churches visiting other members of like-minded church that that's that ought to happen right if you're ever out you know um away from this area ideally you'd find a church that you can visit and be a blessing to and they can be a blessing to you so it's fine for members to visit other churches there's nothing wrong with that and then i'll just read to you acts 11 verse 27 to 29 it says and in these that in it and in these days came prophets from jerusalem unto antioc okay so you have prophets preachers coming from jerusalem from jerusalem unto antioc and there stood up one of them named agabus and signified by the spirit that there should there should be great dearth throughout all the world so there'll be a great drought amongst in the world which came to pass in the days of claudius caesar then the disciples every man according to his ability determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in judea so in the antioc church because they knew the brethren in judea were suffering because of this drought they got together to send relief i don't know that's probably financial aid there could have been food water these kind of things were sent to this church so it's fine to give aid from one church to another we ought to work together even though our churches are independent and not one church has the authority over the other number four we ought to encourage each other we see in acts 11 verse 22 to 24 then tidings of these sorry then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in jerusalem and they sent forth barnabas so this church in jerusalem is sending barnabas that he should go as far as antioc so the last one we read was antioc helping jerusalem now jerusalem's helping the church in antioc verse 23 who when he came and had seen the grace of god was glad and exalted them all so barnabas came and strengthened that church exalted them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave unto the lord for he was a good man and full of the holy ghost and of faith and much people was added unto the lord so we see the church in jerusalem sending barnabas to be a help to be an encouragement to the church in um antioc here right and let me tell you right now we've got a good man we've got a barnabas coming in a couple of weeks in that his name is michael he's coming from the church in punchbowl he's their best soul winner he's out there the most hours than anyone else he gets the most people saved he's full of the holy ghost he's a good man he's going to come and visit us for a week and he's going to come and encourage us let me tell you that so we're going to have that happen in practice soon and lastly number five we do see financial aid from one church to another from the church in macedonia to the church in corinthians in second corinthians chapter 11 verse 8 to 9 paul says i robbed other churches taking wages of them to do you service so paul says hey you guys i've come to help you but the financial aid that's come to help you have has come from other churches and when i was present with you and wanted i was chargeable to no man for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from macedonia supplied so the brethren from macedonia supplied the needs for paul to go and help the corinthian church and in all things i have kept myself from being burdensome unto you and so will i keep myself and so for whatever reason i don't know what it is the corinthian church were unable to supply the needs for paul paul knew if they helped it'd be a burden upon them paul said look i'm coming to help you i don't want to be a burden to you and so the church from macedonia hey they're willing to help uh you know send me financially help provide for my needs so i can be a help to you okay so i want you to understand just two things here there's only two things that i have in this sermon number one we are an independent church we have christ as our head there's no other church in the authority of us there's no organization nobody just got jesus christ and the word of god but that doesn't mean we become isolated and i've seen churches that have this teaching they become so isolated they don't want to fellowship with anyone else because they're not just like them hey if you've read the bibles the churches in the bible they're all dissimilar you have very faithful churches you have very bad churches you have all in between okay and yet what we see the practice is if they're like-minded they're like faith preaching the right gospel that they're more than willing to go and help one another we can see that right and so we ought not to feel that we ought to be an isolated church hey we ought to pray for churches that are like-minded and especially those that believe the gospel as we do okay now you might ask the question you know well you know what's what's your criteria kevin as far as churches go you know churches that we're willing to help and be a part of um i'll give you my rule of thumb okay but it's really it's going to come down to a case-by-case scenario all right if a church reaches out to us and and wants assistance it'll be a case-by-case scenario okay church wants to fellowship or we want to fellowship within a church case-by-case scenario but i do have a rule of thumb by the way before i get to this rule of thumb i have been contacted by other pastors already all right they just find you online they contact you the first thing i asked them i don't i don't care if you defend them is what do you believe how do you get saved and after they tell me is like can you lose your salvation all right i tell them sorry and and and and there's been one pastor that contacted me you can lose your salvation it's not faith it works i'm like i want nothing to do with you all right another pastor contacts me is right on the gospel it's by faith out of words he cannot lose it but he doesn't use the king james bible all right um but he's my brother right he's saved he just doesn't use the king james so this is what i mean what's my rule of thumb and there's another group that's heard my recent sermon that you cannot lose your salvation and they're like yeah but you have to endure to the end you know and they're like and then i said no you know and they're like oh we'll just have to agree to disagree we'd really like you to work with us and blah no all right if you've got another gospel i'm not working with you i'm sorry i'm not sorry i'm not working with you okay get right on the gospel but here's the rule of thumb number one so there's three things there's really three things you want to look for in a church right number one they're right on the gospel that's the main one okay number two we believe in the king james bible we believe it's the perfect preserved word of god that's the second thing you ought to look for in a church and number three that they have some type of evangelism they have some type of door knocking ministry where they can speak one-on-one with people and preach the gospel get them safe doesn't have to be every week they might do it every fortnight they might do it every month i wish they did every week okay but at least they're doing something because there are churches out there that do nothing but when you're looking for a church those are the three things you're looking for right on the gospel right on the king james bible and soul winning okay but what happens if there's a church that's just right on the gospel they're just right on the gospel but they don't do king they're not just king james only and they don't do so winning well number one if they sound on the gospel they're my brothers they're my brothers in christ okay and the bible says we ought to love the brethren okay so if there's a church out there that says hey we have a need we can you please pray for us you know we're your brothers in christ and i checked it out and they indeed are but they're not you know they're not aligned with us on these other points i am more than willing to pray for them i'm more than willing to love them and pray for them because they are my brother in christ okay and i'm even willing like we saw in the case where there was a drought and one church helped another i'm even willing if they're in some type of emergency and they need some physical aid i'm more than willing to even help them out with that physical aid okay now you might differ with me on that but i'm just saying that's where i stand that's my rule of thumb if they sound on the gospel because they're my brethren and i'm commanded to love them now but that's that's as far as i go i would not get our churches to fellowship right because if they're teaching something else then that'll corrupt our minds if they're teaching false doctrine because of their false bibles i would not want to fellowship and and cause this church to suffer because i've got to give an account to the lord all right now what if they're right on the gospel and they're right on the king james bible but they don't do so win well i'm in that case i wish they did so winning right and i'd preach so winning and i tell that preacher the pastor the bishop to do so winning but i'm still happy to fellowship with that church i'm happy to fellowship with that church right um because they sound the gospel they're our brethren but they also teach from the king james bible so they're less likely to have you know heresy doctrinal heresy than the one that is teaching from a false bible i'm happy to fellowship with them but i would not work with them okay i would not work with them because like we said what are our church goals preach the gospel and if they're not doing that then i don't want to work with them but i'm happy to fellowship with them okay now the third thing is if they send the gospel the king james only and their soul winning then i'm happy to do all these things pray for them provide physical aid in case of an emergency for them happy to fellowship with them and happy to work together preaching the gospel if they need laborers and we're able to send laborers to them to help and preach the gospel in their local area i'm all for that i'm all for that i'm all for sending resources whether that's manpower or finances to get the job done because that's what we're about okay we're about preaching the gospel to the lost and if they're doing those three things i'm happy you know and again guys you know i'm just giving you a rule of thumb okay it's still case by case scenario because they might have all of these three things but then their church might be full of drunkards full of fornicators full of you know all these things that you know we're not meant to fellowship with and in that case obviously i would not work with them okay but obviously case by case it's unlikely that you've got all these three things in there like that but you know just so you know that's all i have for you today