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

Thank you for watching! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If we can go ahead and find our seats, we'll go ahead and get started. For this morning's first song, Once You Find a Hymnal, we'll sing the song number 412, Onward Christian Soldiers. Song number 412, Onward Christian Soldiers. Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus, going on before, Christ the royal master, leads against the foe, Forward into battle, see his banner go, Onward Christian soldiers, marching on to war, With the cross of Jesus, going on before, At the sign of triumph, Satan's host doth flee, Onward Christian soldiers, on to victory, Hell's foundations quiver, at the shout of praise, Brothers, lift your voices, loud your emblems raise, Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus, going on before, Like a mighty army, moves the church of God, Brothers, we are treading, where the saints have trod, We are not divided, all one body lead, One in hope and doctrine, one in charity, Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus, going on before, Onward then ye people, join our happy throng, Climb without your voices, in the triumph song, Glory loud and honor, unto Christ the King, This through countless ages, may an angel sing, Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus, going on before. Great singing everybody, let's all bow our heads together and we'll open up the service with a word of prayer. Lord, we love you and we just thank you again for Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you for allowing us to gather here and sing unto you, Lord. We just ask that you help us lift up our voices and honor and praise you today. That's in Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, for our next song, let's go to song number 153. Song number 153, How Firm a Foundation. Those that know it well, sing it out. 153. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith, in his excellent Word. What more can he say, than to you he hath said, To you who for refuge he does not dwell, In every condition, in sickness and hell, In poverty's veil, or abounding in wealth, At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea, As your faith, amen. Shall your strength ever be, With her fiery trials, thy good pathways shall lie, Thy praise, all sufficient, shall be thy supply, Thy praise, shall not hurt thee, I only desire, Thy draws to consume, and my goal to refine, And down to old age, all my people shall prove, I saw their eternal love, unchangeable love, And when glory hears, shall their temples adorn, By high clams they shall still, in my bloods only mourn, The soul that leads us, that we foregoes, I will, I will not, deserve through his rose, That soul through all hell, should it never to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. Good morning. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you did not get a bulletin and you would like one, just lift up your hand nice and high. Our ushers have those bulletins. They can come by and get you guys a bulletin. On the front, we have been working on Proverbs 31, the entire chapter, and if you can quote the entire chapter to a non-family member, you can receive a special prize. We've actually already been handing those out. If you have quoted that to a non-family member, you can see me or brother Jason, our head usher over here, and we can help get you a prize. We have a couple different options. Also, on the inside, we have our service, soul winning times and church stats. One thing to note about service times, and it's kind of actually listed on the right hand side of your bulletin, but we are going to be changing and adjusting our service times. They're going to be changing in the month of May and then moving forward, but starting on May 5th, instead of having our evening service at 5.30, we're going to just bump that up one hour earlier, so it's going to be actually 4.30 from now on, and what's going to happen is the Spanish service that we were having at 4.30, we're going to move to 9 in the morning, and so I think that that adjustment is going to make sense for a lot of different reasons, and I hope that it kind of encourages people to go out soul winning with us and stay for the evening service as well. Plus, it should make it a little bit more accommodating for people to maybe go out and have dinner or fellowship with each other later on Sunday night and still get home at a reasonable time. So I'm really looking forward to that adjustment. We've ordered new cards that have that information, and we're trying to work on all the other information that we need to update, but we'll just keep reminding you until the change and then maybe after the change, and so just keep that in mind. Also on the right, we have at the top several expecting ladies. Please make sure you're still praying for them. We have our prayer list. If you'd like to be added or you have anything that you'd like to put in the bulletin, you can email us. We try to update it every week, so make sure you're sending us in updates. On the back, we have the note about some upcoming events. There's a preaching class on the 27th. There is the homeschool field trip. It's going to be on the 29th. May 4th is the baby shower for the Hernandez family. The 5th is a spring swap, so that's essentially where items of value that you no longer need or want, you can just bring, and then anybody that wants an item of value, they can have, and so it's actually going to be in between services this year. Usually it's done on a different day, but it'll actually be on that Sunday, so if you come, you know, of course, to church in between services, you'll probably, depending on weather, but most likely just have stuff set out here, and of course it's all just free, and you don't have to bring anything to participate, so it's basically you can be a giver only. You can be a taker only. We like both, and any items that you give away that doesn't find a home will just be donated to a local charity, so if you do have an item that's large or furniture, I did ask that you would have somebody that's already designated to pick it up. Don't just bring them just because we may not be able to get rid of them very easily. Also, if you do plan on bringing anything, we're not taking the donations until the Wednesday before, so that's just a few instructions on that. May 11th is going to be our Mother's Day tea, and of course all ladies are welcome to attend. There is a sign-up sheet over here out in the foyer, so if you are planning on attending, and of course, you know, invite your mom or grandmother or sister or friend. Of course, you can invite anybody that you would like to also attend with you, but it is for ladies and their daughters. And essentially, nursing boys are the only ones that are welcome, so you can't bring any of the men, all right? We don't want to be there anyways, okay guys? It's all right. But it's a lot of fun. Make sure to sign up, and if you have any questions, you can always ask my wife about that. Down below is the great, the best announcement. We have the congratulations of the Oz family on the birth of Heidi Lorraine. She was born on the 20th at 4.31 a.m., nine ounces, and 20 inches long. Congratulations to them. With all those girls, he's trying to be like Philip the Evangelist, you know? So there you go. Congratulations to them. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We'll go ahead and sing our third song for this morning. It's going to be in our special handouts, and it's going to be Psalm 126. So if you have your special Psalm booklets, it's 126. All right, that was Psalm chapter 126. In your special handout or in your King James Bible, Psalm 126. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion We were like them that dream Then was our mouth filled with laughter And our tongue with singing Then said they among them he then The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for us Whereof we are glad Turn again our captivity O Lord, as the streams in the south May their going tears shall reap in joy May their sowing tears shall reap in joy Then said they among them he then The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for us Whereof we are glad He that goeth forth, but weepeth fair in precious seed Shall doubtless come again Shall doubtless come again With rejoicing, bringing his sheets with him Then said they among them he then The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for us Whereof we are glad The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for them John chapter 5 the Bible reads After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked, that on the same day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered them, He that made me whole the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? And he that was healed whisked not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. For what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is past from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, and the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. I can of mine own self do nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. He sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man, but these things I say that ye might be saved. He was a burning and a shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself which hath sent me hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you, for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. I receive not honor from men, but I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for today, for our church, for Pastor Shelley as well and his family. I pray that you fill him with your spirit, and enable him to thunder forth the message you've laid on his heart, with boldness and clarity of mind, and soften hearts in the room, open ears as well, so that we may receive your message and apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. I want to look back at verse 44, the Bible says, How can ye believe which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? And what's interesting about this section of scripture is that Jesus Christ is kind of getting at a fundamentalist issue of how can one believe the New Testament or the Old Testament and not the other. He's kind of pointing out how it's not really possible to hold such an inconsistency. There's other places in the scripture that bring up this idea of you can't believe in the Father and deny the Son. If you deny the Son, then you're denying the Father. And what Jesus is basically pointing out is those who believe the Old Testament are those who believe in Jesus Christ. And those who do not believe in Jesus Christ also do not believe in the Old Testament. It's not really like you get to pick and choose what you believe. And yet many people will give lip service to believing certain Christian doctrines. People will give lip service to believing the Bible. And I find that there's this pejorative term, which we embrace wholly, but there's a term that some people use in a pejorative way, in a negative way, to try to talk about us as Christians and they'll say, oh, you guys are a bunch of fundamentalists or you're a bunch of fundies or they have all kinds of different colloquialisms. But at the same time, we call ourselves an independent, fundamental, Baptist church. And so we embrace the term fundamentalist. And really, to me, when I try to think about this issue of being a fundamentalist, it seems to me within the realm of Christianity, within the realm of people who claim to believe the Bible or claim to believe Jesus Christ, there really is only two camps. There's fundamentalists and then there's liars. That's really the only groups that exist in Christianity today, is there's fundamentalists and there's liars. Now I will submit to you, I think that there are many people that fall into the fundamentalist camp but wouldn't use that term about themselves or don't like that term. But really from my perspective, fundamentalists are the people that actually believe the Bible and then there's a lot of people that say they believe the Bible but they really don't, they're a liar. And of course there's a wide range of scale here. Some people will embrace a lot of the Bible and yet they hold some inconsistencies, some cognitive dissonance, or perhaps they just don't want to go all the way into believing the Bible and so they truly hold some lie, some deceit within their faith. And I want to try to show and illustrate from the text and just from a lot of logic why essentially everyone should be a fundamentalist. Every Christian should be a fundamentalist. It's not a scary word. It's not like, oh, these people are extreme. Honestly, being a fundamentalist is the only thing that even makes sense. And I want to again emphasize that I am going to bring up some different topics and some other things I want to read to you. But if you just look up fundamental, that root word in the dictionary, this is one of the definitions that says, forming or serving as an essential component of a system or structure. And I think that that definition kind of lies at why we call ourselves fundamentalists in the sense that we believe there are certain doctrines, certain Christian teachings that are fundamental to being a Christian, fundamental to being a Baptist, fundamental to serving God. The fact that we believe in the Bible as being the inspired word of God. I mean, without that belief, what are we doing here? And without ascribing to the Bible as being the inspired word of God, well then you have to ask this question, who's the authority? And when this isn't the authority, whoever's teaching ends up becoming the authority becomes some kind of a guru and you could really look at this as being a cult or even the Catholic church, where they elevate man's opinion, man's idea over the text and they don't really say this is the final authority. They say, I know what's the right teaching. Let me tell you what's the right teaching and you can't figure it out on your own. You need some man to teach you. This is a guru philosophy. And for us as fundamentalists, we put our authority on the text of scripture and we say that the King James Bible is the final authority in this room. If we were to say, what is the person that's in charge in this room? It's this. This is the person that's in charge and it's Jesus Christ and he is our high priest and he is the bishop over our souls. He is the chief shepherd and all of us are following underneath his authority structure. That is a fundamental belief. I would say that is essential in order to be a Christian. That is essential to being someone who believes the Bible, is elevating and putting the Word of God as the authority in our lives. The Bible tells us to trust not in ourselves, to not lean on our own understanding, but in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. We're not supposed to trust in ourselves and if we're not trusting in ourselves, then our trust is to be somewhere else, folks. And it doesn't say trust in man and princes and horses. It says to trust in the Word of God. It tells us to trust in the commandments of God and to trust in the Lord. That's how we can trust in him is through the scripture. This is an important element of being a fundamentalist. I'm not going to go through our entire doctrinal statement. That's the most important point, but we have several other core teachings that we believe are essential or fundamental to our faith. The fact that we believe in the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, these three persons are one God. We believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind. We believe in the virgin birth. We believe all kinds of other fundamental aspects of just salvation that are necessary in order to go to heaven. We believe in a heaven and a hell. You know, if you just look at our fundamental statements. Now, of course, there are some doctrines that aren't necessarily core doctrines. They're not necessarily something that separates Christians from one another. That would be things like end times Bible prophecy. You know, we're not going to say this person's not a Christian just because they have a different view on interpreting future prophecy. Or, you know, there's going to be sometimes distinguishments in how people run their church practice, maybe slight interpretation differences. You know, if they think that Jesus Christ died on Wednesday and we think they died on Thursday, well, you know what, that doesn't really matter. We're still friends. We're still Christians. You know, that's not a core doctrine. You know, people that are baptizing by sprinkling, you know, that's way too extreme because really now you're just saying you don't believe the Bible. You know, how can you say you believe the Bible and you're doing sprinkling when it's never mentioned? There's no mention of them going near water and shooting each other with a water gun or something or just sprinkling a little water on their head. No, they're going into the water. Why in the world, if sprinkling was the practice, would you go into water? Right? And if you go to a Catholic church, are they saying like, here is water. Let's walk into the water and then I'm going to sprinkle you. No, of course, you are going to go into the river or go into a large body of water because they're going to actually baptize you, which means immerse you. And so really, people who don't baptize by immersion, they're not a fundamentalist and they don't believe the Bible. They're a liar. Their view of baptism is just lying. It's not like, well, this is just our interpretation. No, no, you just reject the clear instructions of the Bible. If someone says, I don't believe that Jesus is God, they're just denying the clear instructions of the Bible. I mean, the Bible makes it clear that God was manifest in the flesh. That's not esoteric. I'm not like trying to get some mystical teaching from the Bible. The Bible just plainly states that God was manifest in the flesh. It just makes it manifest in Hebrews, chapter number one, when God the Father is looking at the Son and he says unto him, God, okay? God the Father, when he looks at the Son, he calls him God. He doesn't say like some other abstract idea and we're just trying to figure out how that could possibly mean God. No, it just says God. And you know what I like about the Bible? It means what it says. And it's not mystical and it's not just some hidden esoteric idea. You know what's that? The Talmud. The Talmud is like that because they will often reference Jesus Christ in the Talmud, but it's never Jesus Christ. It's been Stata. Well, of course, that would be an esoteric understanding. If I was to try and derive the idea of Ben Stata being Jesus Christ, you know why? Because that has nothing to do with the name Jesus Christ. It's not Jesus Christ. The word Ben in Hebrew means son of and Stata means error. And so you say, how is someone the son of error? Well, they believe that Mary was a whore and committed whoredom and so they call that an error, call that a Stata. And so they say that Jesus Christ is the son of error because he's coming from Mary and they deny the virgin birth. They deny Jesus Christ being born of Mary through the Holy Spirit and actually they subscribe to him being the son of Pantera. So basically, if you read the Talmud, you'll find out about a character called Ben Stata and then you'll find out a character called Ben Pantera, okay? Like the rock band. Yeah, the rock band that's satanic, folks, okay? Pantera. Pantera is the name supposedly of a Roman soldier that's the real father of Jesus. You know what? All of that is blasphemous and that is esoteric because no one's just gonna read the Talmud and just instantly recognize that that's Jesus. It's a hidden occult teaching. But you know what? When you read in John chapter number one, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God, you can understand that the Bible's saying that Jesus Christ is God. It's not esoteric. It's fundamental. And of course, that's why the Jehovah's Witnesses, which are a cult, changed the Bible and literally changed the translation to say he is a God because they want to mess with the divinity of Jesus Christ. And anybody messing with the divinity of Jesus Christ is not a Christian, not a fundamentalist, and is a liar. They are a liar. There's not a, oh, this is a valid, alternative interpretation of the scripture. No, no, no. It's just a liar. It's just a liar. It's not Christianity. It's not real. And you know what? They don't believe the Bible. Oh, I believe the Bible. No, you don't. You literally do not believe the Bible. You're denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. You do not believe the Bible. You are a liar. That is the reality. Just like Jesus is calling out the Jews and saying, You don't believe Moses. The Jews will say this about themselves. We are Moses' disciple. This is what the Jews said out of their mouth. We are Moses' disciple. Jesus is saying, You don't believe his writings. Well, who's telling the truth here? Because they both can't be right. Someone's a liar. And who is a liar? But he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He is anti-Christ. And let me tell you something. The Jews today are anti-Christ. They are anti-Christ and they deny the Son and they deny the Father. Some Christians out there have this wild idea that Jews somehow are worshiping God the Father or have a special covenant with God the Father. And even though they've denied their Savior, Jesus Christ, you know what? That they're still okay and they have their covenant and they're doing their thing and they're having fun. No, no, no. They're being led by the devil. They're of their father, the devil. Is what the Bible says. Now, of course, I'm not saying that every single person who's ethnically Jewish is of the devil. That's, of course, not true. I'm sure there's plenty of people that are ethnically Jewish that are Christian, that are saved. Not only that, I'm not even saying that everybody who practices Judaism is for sure a child of the devil because I think it's possible that some of them may even could get saved. But at the end of the day, they're still under the authority of the devil and they're still worshiping the devil, whether they realize it or not, and they're taking the leading of the devil. In the Old Testament and in the New Testament, we have people worshiping idols and the Bible gives us commentary in the New Testament saying that when they're worshiping idols, they're not really worshiping idols, they're worshiping devils. But they didn't know that. It's not like the Gentiles necessarily would recognize what's really happening in the spiritual realm, but they are truly worshiping devils. And here's the thing. Christians who are subscribing to this fake version of Christianity, this Judaism, or this God of the Old Testament that they dream up that's completely different, they are not worshiping the God of the Bible. It would be like Jesus coming to the Samaritan woman and saying, ye know not what ye worship. They're really worshiping the devil and they're being led by the devil. Jews are worshiping the devil. That's why they're called in Revelation 2-9 and 3-9 the synagogue of Satan. It's the synagogue of Satan. It is an anti-Christ religion today and they don't believe the Bible. They're liars. But beyond that is even Christians today. Many Christians are going to a church today and they would say, I believe the Bible. I believe the Old Testament. But then when you actually show them verses in the Old Testament or show them verses in the Bible, they say, I don't believe that. And they say, oh, I'm not one of those fundamentalists. No, no, no. You just don't believe the Bible. It's not that you're not just a fundamentalist. Oh, I'm a valid version of Christianity that's not a fundamentalist. No, no, you're just a liar and you don't believe the Bible. You're lying about believing the Scripture. Go to John chapter 8 for a moment. Go to John chapter number 8. I'll be honest with you. The point that I'm making this morning is something that took me a while to figure out. And it really kind of took me by surprise. Because I remember growing up, I grew up in church my whole life, and eventually I started realizing there was a lot of doctrines, a lot of teachings in the Scripture that I just was very ignorant of, I didn't know much about. So I was learning a lot. And this is over a decade ago that I was learning a lot of different things in the Bible, learning about the timeline of Scripture, how essentially, you know, if we really study humanity and we study the history of the world, it's only about 6,300 years old. And I was just, I was kind of flabbergasted thinking like, how have I been in church my whole life and no one's been teaching me that. No one's been showing me that from the Bible. And so I was really excited. Like, I loved it. I thought it was really cool. I got really into a particular doctrine that's called Young Earth Creationalism. It was exciting to me. And I remember going to other people that are Christian that have been raised in church their whole life, and I'm showing them what I learned. I'm like, hey, look at all these things that the Bible's bringing up about this topic. And it just blew me away how many of them just immediately rejected everything I was saying. In fact, they were even offended by what I was saying, saying you're an idiot or you're a fool or I can't believe you think that. I mean, did you not type in Google how old the Earth is? I mean, Google says it's 4.5 billion years old. Oh, okay, well, yeah, Google's, I'm sure if I asked Google what happened on 9-11, they'd give me a good answer too, right? I'm sure if I asked Google all kinds of different things, it'll tell me the truth every single time, right? I'm sure if I asked Google how many votes did Biden get, it'll be 81 million, right? I mean, I'm sure Google just always tells me the right thing. They're always so scientific, so accurate. And I said, but you believe the Bible, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, I believe the Bible. Okay, well, let me show you what the Bible's saying here because the Bible literally has a genealogy from Jesus Christ all the way back to Adam, and it wasn't 4.5 billion years. And not only that, if you look at the six days of creation in Exodus 20, verse 11, it makes it abundantly clear for in six days, the Lord made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and all that in them is. He didn't say like, oh, well, for billions of years, billions of years, nothing was happening, and I was just watching like light flow towards a non-existent planet. It's like, whee, you know? I mean, think about how boring that is. Think about if you believed in the gap theory, like God's just sitting here just waiting for billions of years before he can create the next thing. He's just like, man, this is taking a while, you know? I mean, really, in fact, you'd have to believe that 99.99999% of all history, nothing was happening. Like, why is, what's the point of that? No, God's just like, hey, let there be light, and there was light. God just created everything instantaneously about 6300 years ago. My opinion is 6308. If you're a little off from that, it's okay. Just don't go all the way to the Jew 5784, okay? That is wrong. That is not what the Bible teaches. And of course, people that would say, oh, you believe the earth is 6300 years old? You're a fundamentalist. I'd say, I believe the Bible. If you don't think the earth is about 6300 years old, you're a liar if you say you believe the Bible, because the Bible makes that manifest. The Bible proves that, in fact, all science, logic, and reality and history confirm that to be true as well. There is no way to wiggle out of the idea of the universe being 6300 years old. There is so much evidence, and again, I don't put it in evidence. I put it in faith, and the Bible makes it abundantly clear that that is the age, approximately, of our universe. And people say that's a fundamentalist belief. No, that's people that believe the Bible. Let me say this that you'd probably be shocked by. 10 years ago or 15 years ago, somewhere not that long ago, not that distant. I'm not going 4.5 billion years ago. I'm saying like 10, 15 years ago, maybe 20. I don't know. They did a survey in America, and they asked every single person how old they thought the Earth was. And over 50% of Americans said that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old. So don't think like you're in this vast minority of people who believe these kind of things, and if we go further back, it's basically everybody. Before the evolutionary theory, everyone believed that. Literally everyone. It wasn't until evolution that that started getting challenged and some people started getting confused on that. So when we talk about fundamentalist beliefs, they weren't always in a minority. Many of them have been in the majority. It's only in a modern era where we've deviated from the Scripture so much, where we've seen a great falling away from truth, where now people say like, oh, that's a fundamentalist belief. No, no, that's just the people that believe the Bible. And it's always been the people that believe the Bible, and you're coming up with some term as a pejorative, but you know what? We'll embrace it. I don't want anybody to get confused when they show up here thinking that we cherry-pick which parts of the Bible we believe. We believe all of it. And we like all of it. I'm not even embarrassed of any verses in the Bible. Like, you couldn't show a verse, and I'm like, yeah, it says that. It's like, you know what it says in Leviticus, right? It's like, yeah, we have a whole movie. You want to watch it? We got a poster. Do you want a poster? Do you want the T-shirt? I mean, what do you want? I'm not embarrassed of any verse in the Bible. I love the Bible. The Bible is Jesus. I'm not embarrassed about Jesus. He's the best thing that there is. You know what should be embarrassed? This world. The things that are on TikTok and Facebook and on the Internet and the things that people are wearing today and the things that people believe today. That's embarrassing. What's embarrassing is you walking around with a Charles Darwin book in your hand. That's embarrassing. What's embarrassing is walking around with a Koran because the author of that was an illiterate pedophile. I mean, that's embarrassing. How in the world are you embarrassed of anything in the Bible? Anything the Scripture says. You know what? That's a joke. Jesus is embarrassed of you if you're embarrassed of his writings, is what he said. Look at John 8, verse 37. The Bible says, I know that you're Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my father, and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. This is pretty harsh words that Jesus is saying. He is saying that the Jews have a different father than Jesus. OK, verse number 39. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto them, If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. This is what you hear Jews say. I worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But you know what? If you were of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham. Your works testify and prove to me that you're not of Abraham. You don't worship the God of Abraham. You don't even like Abraham. Because Abraham is the father of faith. If you don't believe in faith alone, salvation, you hate Abraham. Because he is the father of faith alone. Those who believe in works, salvation, they despise Abraham. You know what? They're of their father, Cain. They went the way of Cain and ultimately the way of the devil, the way of a satanic gospel. And that's the point he's going to make here. Look at verse 40. But now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your father, ye would love me. For I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because he cannot hear my word. Notice he's saying you can't understand what I'm saying. Why is it that they can't understand what he's saying? Well verse 44 says, Ye of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it, and because I tell you the truth ye believe me not. Notice why is it that the Jews could not believe in Jesus? Because he spake the truth unto them, and they could not embrace the truth. Ye can't handle the truth. I mean that's what Jesus is saying unto the Jews. They don't like the truth. They hate the truth. They're of their father the devil because they love lies. They love and embrace lies, and they can't understand the truth. They don't want to understand the truth. They reject the truth. So we see a contrast here. You believe in Jesus because you love what? You love the truth. And you don't believe Jesus. Why? Because you're a liar. Don't you see how there's a contrast here of two different groups? The people who believe and the people who are liars. But there's not really much in the middle, is there? Either you believe what Jesus said or you're a liar. And you hearken to lies and you love lies. Now of course Jews are at the extreme end of this spectrum, right? They're basically the extreme of like they can't handle any truth whatsoever. And then of course Jesus is contrasting the idea of believing everything in the Bible. And of course we want to, as Christians, be those who embrace everything the Bible teaches. All of the commandments, all of the instruction. We don't want to just believe John 3.16. We want to believe all the book of John. And not just the book of John, all of the New Testament. And not just all of the New Testament, all of the Old Testament as well. We want to embrace every single teaching because that's what it really means to believe in Jesus. You can't cherry pick it. You can't just decide what you think is good or what you think is bad. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 3. And I would submit to you that the idea of being a fundamentalist, when we apply it to any other context, it becomes immediately obvious how silly this accusation becomes. So I would apply it to some different contexts here for a moment. Because again people will be like, oh I'm a Christian but I'm not one of those fundamentalists or something. Okay, let's apply this to any other context. What if we just apply it to the Constitution for a moment? Right? Now what's the First Amendment in the Constitution? The First Amendment in the Constitution is this. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for redress of grievances. So based on the First Amendment, people should be able to say whatever they want. They should be able to practice whatever religion they want. And they should be able to be a journalist and ask any questions that they want. And that there's no one that's supposed to be able to stop them or not allow them to do these kind of things. That's essentially the elements of the First Amendment. But what if someone said, yeah but of course they can have free speech as long as it's not hate speech. And you're like, what do you mean hate speech? Well if it's hateful rhetoric, we can't allow them to have that kind of a hateful rhetoric. And you say, well do you not believe in the Constitution? Yeah no, I believe in the Constitution. But you can't have hate speech. Well here's the thing, that person doesn't believe in the Constitution. They're a liar. Oh I'm not one of these fundamentalists who believe what the Constitution actually says. I just make up whatever I want and just add it in there and then claim I believe in the Constitution. No no, you're a liar. If you do not believe that people can say whatever they want, you don't believe in free speech. You know who's in violation of this? Elon Musk. Elon Musk of Twitter constantly says, oh man we're a free speech platform. But then they ban and censor all kinds of people for having unpopular opinions. So how are you free speech? You're a liar. If you believe in free speech then you would let people say whatever they want. Well but this person says a lot of negative things and advertisers won't really want to be on one of their posts so we can't really let them have a platform blah blah blah. Oh I guess then you don't really believe in free speech then buddy. But it's silly because anybody and everybody would recognize the fact that that person just doesn't believe it. It's not like, well I'm one of those fundamental Constitution people and I'm one of those modern constitutional people. There's no such thing as modern, you just don't believe it. What about the second amendment? Second amendment says a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Basically to not be taken over by communism you need to have a gun. And that's what they do and that's what they said. And you know what they didn't say? The right to keep and bear arms that are not fully automatic. They didn't say that. In fact they even say that you're allowed to have your own militia. That's a military. But you know what? There's a lot of stuff that's going on in our country that's prohibiting these things from happening. And you know what? They don't believe the Constitution. Let me explain something. Our Congress doesn't believe the Constitution folks. And it's not like well they're just not fundamentalists. No no they just are liars is what they are. They are liars and they are the domestic terrorists of our country. They have been bought and sold and taken over and you know what? We need people to actually hold them accountable. But of course you know our country is going to hell in a hand basket because they reject truth. And when you reject truth you're going to reject it in all areas. Imagine if someone says I love football. You're like okay. Yeah I believe in football. I like to play football. And so you go out there and you're going to play football with them. And they run out of bounds. And you say oh you ran out of bounds it's my ball. Oh I don't believe in out of bounds. What do you mean you don't believe in out of bounds? That's the line. You ran over the line. No no no that's not how you play football. What do you mean that's not how you play football? Well that's not how we play football. Well here's the football rule book. It says that when you cross the line you're out of bounds. Yeah but that's not how I interpret that. What do you mean that's not how you interpret that? Well I just don't like that. Well how do you interpret it? That's just not how it is. Oh you must be one of those fundamental football people. We actually believe in boundaries. You actually believe that the line means something. Right? Oh you know it's the fourth down and you didn't cross and got a first down. Oh well we do five downs here. You'd be like you just don't like football. You'd say you don't believe in football. You're playing your own game. You're just playing yard pick up make my own rules up. Right? And they're like no no no I love football. No you're a liar. You're a liar. I mean if we apply this logic to any other circumstance people easily recognize the absurdity of it. It is the same with Christianity when someone would say like hey you know I believe in the Bible. Okay what about Leviticus 2013? Oh no no I don't like that. Well wait a minute I thought you said you like the Bible. No I love the Bible. I love Jesus. I love all of the scripture. Okay how about this verse. No no no I don't like that. Well let me explain something. You don't like the Bible. You don't like Jesus. You're a liar. Oh I'm not one of those fundamentalists. Yeah because you just don't believe the Bible and you're trying to mask it with this fancy word but really what you should just say is I'm a liar and I don't believe the Bible. Imagine if we live in a society where there's no punishment for evil. You say well I don't like that punishment. Okay let's play that football. You know in football if you grab somebody by the face mask and you yank them down it's a penalty. And you know why it's a penalty? Because if it wasn't people would tackle that way every single time. And it would injure people and it would ruin the game. People would literally their necks would be like snapped and broken and they would just injure everybody. Nobody could even play. And it wouldn't even turn into a competition of actually people being skilled. It would just be who's the strongest neck person. Right? Or who has the longest arms and they can get to your neck before you can get to theirs basically. And they're just going to snap each other's necks and it wouldn't even turn into a football match anymore. It would just be like a gladiator match. So that's why they literally made that rule. And you know you get punished if you do it. But imagine you're going out and playing football and someone grabs by the face mask and rips them down. You say that's a penalty. No it's not. I don't believe in that. That's a fundamentalist belief. Or what about horse collar tackle? Horse collar tackle is another illegal move where you basically grab them by the back of their padding and you rip them down. And the reason why is because that particular move can injure the player. It's more likely to harm the player, hurt their back, cause them some kind of issue. So it's an illegal move. But this is what will happen. You'll say I don't like horse collar tackles. They're illegal. That's a penalty. And they'll say like, wow, you're so mean to the horse collar community. I mean there's this horse collar community out there and you just are so hateful towards the horse collar community. No, no. It's not a community. It's people committing crime. It's people committing penalties. It's not a special community. You know, I don't have like this animosity towards the murder community. The rape community. There's no such thing. I hate rapists. I hate murderers. They should be put to death. It's not like a special demographic of society. The rape community. The adultery community. Where they're all linked together for being adulterers. Just like in football. It would make no sense if the media started saying like, well, I feel like the commissioner is really going against the horse collar community out there, you know. These individuals that just want to live their life in horse collar people. You know, I mean, what's wrong with that? You know, how they tackle, they tackle. Tackling is tackling. Okay. I am pro-tackling. And it's just like this is the absurdity of applying this kind of logic to other areas of life. And say, hey, I can't believe you believe it's 2013. Well, you know what? Why do you not think that's a crime? How are you going to determine what's crimes? I mean, it's just whatever your opinion is, whatever you think is right or wrong, how about God already told us it's right or wrong? And we just embrace that. We just say like, hey, he knows what's right or wrong. You know, even in our society, many people are committing murder and are not being put to death. You know, I believe abortion doctors should be put to death. You want to stop abortion? It's not Roe v. Wade. It's putting abortion doctors to death. That'll stop it real fast. Real quick. Real quick. We'll end it real, I mean, I like Arizona's law, but you know what? We could go even further. Some people, some fundamentalists, supposedly, in the Republican movement, I'm using the word fundamentalist kind of loosely, conservatives, some conservatives in the Republican movement, they got mad about Arizona's statute. And I read it the other day off the top of my head. It's basically saying that you cannot have an abortion in Arizona based on an older law. It's 1864. It's an older law. That law said that you can't have an abortion for rape or incest only in a situation where the life of the mother is at risk. And it said that the abortion doctors could be punished. And I was thinking, you know, some Republicans came out like Donald Trump and Carrie Lake came out and said like, what's, you know, too extreme and that's so bad. I was thinking this, that's not extreme enough. Now again, I understand why they put the revision in there of the idea of like in the safety of the mother. It's mostly just to protect the doctor if he did like a C-section or did something and there was an injury and the baby died as a result that they couldn't get sued or something like that. It's not like every time they're actually just trying to literally kill the baby or something like that. It's just basically some kind of revision. But to say that the abortion doctor should just be punished, no, it should be put to death. The abortion doctor should be put to death. In the cases where there was obvious negligence or obvious guile or obvious planning and premeditation to end the life of that baby, yes, that person should be put to death. There should be diligent inquiry. There should be a trial. There should be two or three witnesses. And then you know what, they should put that person to death. Oh, I can't believe that you're a fundamentalist. No, no, I believe the Bible. Because the Bible has the death penalty for murderers that are premeditated. In fact, the Bible has the death penalty for murder when you're just being negligent too. And even in our society we don't do that. People get mad at me, they say like, oh, why don't you believe all the other death penalty statutes? I do. I just bring up the most extreme just to test where you're at. And I already know where your heart's at. But you know, my heart already embraced the extreme ones because I like the Bible and that's what makes me a fundamentalist, liking the Bible. I'm not a fundamentalist because I just want to you know, flex my muscles or something or act like I'm better. No, being a fundamentalist just means you believe the Bible, folks. It's that simple. You know, the IRS is a fundamentalist because they believe everybody should literally pay the taxes that they subscribe to you. They're not saying, you know, the IRS isn't saying it's a legitimate view to say like, well, you know, when they say like 7.5% FICA, I just think that that means like, you know, 1%. That's just my view. You know, they're not going to be like, that's a valid view. They expect everyone to be a fundamentalist when it comes to the tax issues, doesn't it? You have to pay exactly whatever they say and go buy their book exactly. I mean, is there any wiggle room with the IRS as far as their rules? Now, I get that they have some vague statutes and they have some loopholes and things like that. But I'm just saying, they never go like, you know, I know the statute says that, but we're just going to do whatever we want today. They're like, you got to do exactly what's written in the IRS code. They are all fundamentalists. They expect everyone in America to be a fundamentalist when it comes to the IRS code. Why would we not demand that that's how you would treat the Bible when it's so much more important than taxes? I mean, everyone is obligated to abide by the IRS code as if it was God's word. Why can't we treat God's word that way? Oh, you're a fundamentalist. Yeah, everyone should be a fundamentalist. There's no room for liberal, modern theology here. You should just do it. What about work? Well, you know, the boss says come at 9, but I just don't really think that. I think 9 just means whatever I want. I think 9 means just like, come in at 10. Or does the boss expect everyone to be a fundamentalist on the rules at work? Oh, I know you say wear a uniform, but I'm just going to not wear whatever you want me to wear. Are you allowed to be a modernist or a liberal when it comes to the rules at work, or you expect to be a fundamentalist at work? Where, hey, the time that you clock in is the time you clock in. Here's the rule book. Here's the handbook. Here's the instructions on how you're supposed to behave at work. And they say, we want you to follow exactly all these instructions. We want you to be a fundamentalist at work. Why is that so then radical that you would expect people to be a fundamentalist when it comes to the Bible? Hey, the dress code at your work is not as important as the dress code found in the Bible, folks. You fundamentalists think that women should dress all modest and in skirts and dresses and whatever. It's like, yeah, because the Bible says that, folks. I'm not just sitting here just dreaming up whatever I want to do. No, you just don't believe the Bible. And you'll literally show them Deuteronomy 22, verse 5 telling people, telling women not to wear that which is retained under the man, and they'll say, I believe the Bible. I believe the Bible. What do you believe about this verse? That's Old Testament. I don't know. No one could know. I mean, how would your boss feel if he's like, hey, here's a rule that we have. No one could know what that means, boss. I'm not going to do it. I refuse to do that. I don't really care. It's not that hard to figure out. It's an unwillingness to figure it out because you don't believe it. And they'll say like, oh, I'm not one of these fundamentalists. Oh, so you just don't believe that verse. You're a liar because you just don't believe the Bible. You know, to me, there's grace for people that are ignorant, right? There's grace for people that you point out stuff and they say, I didn't know that, right? I wasn't aware of that and they want to make a change. But to me, if you see it and you know it and you've heard it and then you choose not to do it, well, now you're just a liar when you say that you believe the Bible. Fundamentalism. It's the only thing that makes sense. Go to 1 Timothy 3. Oh, these fundamentalists, they're so obsessed with getting people saved and who's going to heaven or hell. They'll be like, man, this football team's obsessed with scoring points and winning the game. Yeah, that's the point. Like, are you going to really get mad at a football team? Like, man, you guys just seem like all you want to do is score points and stuff. Yeah, that's the point of the game. Now, here's the thing. In a football match, not every play is designed to score points. Sometimes they're just trying to get a first down or sometimes they just want to get the ball in a particular portion of the field or maybe they're trying to run out the clock or heck, half the time they're playing defense. They're not even necessarily trying to score. They're just trying to stop the other team from scoring. So, yeah, in the Christian life, we may on a micro level do all kinds of things that aren't directly related to getting someone saved or getting someone to heaven. But that's our goal. And when you lose sight of the goal, the question you have to ask yourself is, what are you even doing? What are you even doing? All these fundamentalists are just so obsessed with salvation, who's going to heaven or whatever. Yeah, that's being a Christian. That's the whole point of being a Christian. And, of course, when we come to church, this is the one institution designated by God to be the institution of truth. Look what it says in 1 Thessalonians 3, verse 15. This is all the truth and this is supposed to be the house of truth. How could you not then be a fundamentalist? Because the whole goal of church is to know all of the truth and understand all the truth and to be the pillar and ground of all the truth. Therefore, you better be a fundamentalist. It doesn't make any sense to not be a fundamentalist when that's our job. Go to Romans, chapter 3. Go to Romans, chapter number 3. You're either a fundamentalist or a liar. Now, I would submit to you, I think there's a lot of people, a lot of Christians that go to non-denom churches, fund centers, and all these other places. But when push comes to shove, if you show them something in the Bible, they would say, yeah, that is true. Yeah, I guess that's right. And maybe a lot of times they're ignorant. Well, you know what? I still think they're a fundamentalist. They just don't know it yet. They haven't recognized it and they need to realize, hey, I really am a fundamentalist at heart, so I need to get into a fundamentalist church that's the pillar and ground of the truth. I need to go to a church where they actually elevate truth over anything else. And they're focused on the truth. You know, I may not be the best preacher. We may not have all the coolest programs, but you know what? There's one thing I want to try really hard to do is make sure that we're always saying the truth. No matter how popular, unpopular, you know, sometimes the truth's really popular. It's a lot of fun. People get excited about that. But then there's other truths in the Bible that people aren't as excited about, that they don't really like as much. And you know, as a church, we should try to say, you know what? We're going to preach the cool truths and we're going to preach the really, really unpopular truths too. And you know, the unpopular truths are different for every person. You know, some people, if I got up and ripped on homos, that would be like the most uncomfortable thing they've ever heard in their life. You know, and in this church, that's probably not the case. You know, some people, if I ripped on having money, that would be the most uncomfortable thing they could have. Rip on marriage, that would be the most uncomfortable thing. Being lazy and poor, that might be the most uncomfortable thing. Like it's going to be different for every single person. And you know, don't be the type of Christian that says like, I like all the sermons that aren't pointed at me. Be a fundamentalist that says, I like the truth every time, and I even like the truth when it's aimed at me. In fact, that's the ones I want the most. That's what we should desire. But a lot of Christians are going to a church today to hear all the cool truths, all the fun truths, all the cherry picked truths today, not the ones that are going to make them feel uncomfortable and make changes. And when they start hearing truth that's challenging them to make changes, they'll be like, I don't want to be a fundamentalist. But you know what they're saying, I don't want the truth, I don't believe the Bible, and they're a liar. Because you can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't tell me you love Jesus and you love the Bible, but then you won't hear all the uncomfortable truths. Nope, the same is true. If you love Jesus and you love the Bible, you'll love everything in it, not just the cherry picked parts. Of course, we all love the grace, right? Salvation by grace? I mean, if you don't love that, you really don't like any truth. I mean, that's the most essential, easy, and free truth. Salvation by grace. The Bible says in Romans chapter 3 verse 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. What could be a better verse than that? I mean, you don't have to have any law. Salvation is so free, you could literally do nothing your entire life and believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. Something that many Calvinists and lordship salvationists could never understand. They don't believe that. But you know what, the Bible's clear that salvation is so free, you could take it and have no works and be saved. And we all love that. And we go out and preach that. But you know what, that's not the only truth that we embrace. We keep reading. Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seeing as one God was to justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith, do we then make void the law through faith? This is like, do we then go to Stephen Furtick's church? Do we then go to Kenneth Copeland's church? Do we then go to one of these hyper-grace churches that teach to Joyce Meyer? Do we then go to Joyce Meyer's church? Do we then just not even go to church? What does it say? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law. Hey, I believe that you don't have to do anything but believe in Jesus to go to heaven. But you know what, you should do all the law too. In fact, we should establish the law. We should be the people that are showing the law. We should be the people doing the law the best. Even though we believe it's free. And you know what, a lot of Christians today, they want to throw out the Old Testament. In my view, there's kind of like two major things that happen in Christianity. Either, A, Christians get sucked into a movement where they either throw out Hebrews or they throw out the Old Testament. And we want to embrace both. We want to embrace Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, and we want to embrace the Old Testament. And so many people, so many Christians, they're just throwing everything in the Old Testament out. It's like, oh, that's Old Testament, or that doesn't really apply, or that has nothing to do with me anymore. And they're rejecting Hebrews by doing that. Or you have some Christians, which is even a weirder, smaller subset, but there's some Christians that reject the book of Hebrews and they say like, we should do everything in the Old Testament. But here's what's so silly about that position. That position doesn't exist. Now, I will admit, there are a lot of people throwing out the Old Testament. That does exist. A lot of Christians are just ignoring the Old Testament and not doing it. There is no one on the planet that is following all of the Old Testament. No one. It's not happening. Go to Acts chapter 15. Go to Acts chapter number 15. This is a silly idea. Now, as a fundamentalist, because we love the truth and because we believe the Bible, we have to believe all of it. That means we have to take sections that explain other sections and we have to reconcile them and we have to fit them together and we have to make the puzzle fit. And so we have to understand how the Old Testament and the New Testament fit together and what things are different and what things have changed. And some people are like, that's just too hard. Man wants to be lazy. So they just want to either just accept it all or reject it all. Like, well, everything in the Old Testament is gone or embrace everything. They don't want to actually have to understand how some things may have changed. And so you kind of see this idea of just basically rejecting the Old Testament. But there is a group that will say, we should do everything in the Old Testament. And that's preposterous. First of all, no one can be perfect. But even beyond that, they're not even close. They're not even close. But this idea gets brought up in Acts chapter 15, verse 1. The Bible says, And a certain man which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. So these are people adding the law to salvation. But in this context, it actually brings out a pretty good point in verse 7. It says, And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Did you notice what Peter said in verse 9? And put, No difference between us and them. Oh, you don't understand, the Jews are special. There's no difference between them and us. Well, but you know, they're God's chosen people. There's no difference between them and us. But you don't understand. They're like the sons of Abraham. There's no difference between them and us. But they get the promised land. Like God has given them the promised land. There's no difference between them and us. But they have their covenant with God the Father. They have a different covenant. There's no difference between them and us. And it's not like a Gentile saying this. This is their beloved Peter. Peter is of the children of Israel, and he's making it clear there's no difference between them and us. No difference. Purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Did you notice what Peter just said there? Peter makes it abundantly clear. We didn't keep the law. Our fathers didn't keep the law. Why in the world would then we ask Gentiles to keep the law? It's absurd, folks. It's absurd to try and go back and say, like, let's follow all the Old Testament. We need to get the red heifer. Stupid. They didn't even do it. And you're not doing it. Why in the world do you expect me to do it? Here in Texas. You know what the red heifer should do? He should get his head chopped off and butchered and cooked medium rare and put on my plate and I'll eat it, okay? That's what should happen. That's the sacrifice that God wants me to have. And you know what? I'll pray over it. I'll bless it in the name of Jesus Christ and I'll praise Jesus for what he did and his sacrifice so that I could eat that sacrifice, all right? And you know what? I'll actually have some bacon in my baked potato too. Praise God for the New Testament, all right? That's where we get to mix the old and the new. I get to have the filet and I get to have the bacon. I get it all. It's called the better testament, folks. Why? Because of bacon. That is one of the reasons. You think I'm joking. I'll explain why it's really, really the better testament for all you men. Circumcision, okay? There you go. That's all you need to know, all right? Because let me, you know, you say like, oh, but circumcision is when it happens to the baby. Yeah, but how many of you got saved as an adult or a little bit older in life? How many of you would want to have gotten circumcised after getting saved? Where's all the hands? I'm just kidding. The better testament, folks, okay? Wow, there's a lot more that we can talk about, but it's super clear that no one kept the law. Peter's saying they didn't keep the law. Go to Galatians, chapter number six. Now, does that mean that we make void the law? No, of course not. We're not saying that. We're not going to some extreme to say that now we just throw out everything from Genesis to Malachi. Of course, we embrace all of that, but we understand so much of the old testament was fulfilled by Jesus Christ and that we entered into a new covenant. The Bible says the old covenant is abolished. Just fact. Second Corinthians chapter number three says the old testament is abolished. You can't go back. It's done. It's not like, well, maybe they still have their covenant. No, it's waxed old. It's decayed. It's gone. It's perished. It's abolished. It's no longer valid for any person. No one has opportunity to accept it. No one can enter into that covenant. It's over. Now, Galatians chapter number six, look at verse 12. This is going to further establish the point that I just made, but it says, As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. This is what's so funny. It's saying Jews don't keep the law, but you know what Jews love to do? They love to trick Gentiles into converting and becoming somehow a Judaizer, keeping the law so they can glory in them. It's like a Jew finding some Texan and convincing him to provide him red heifers and becomes some kind of a Judaizer and basically they're just doing it so they can glory in themselves, but they don't keep the law. And then you ask them, you say like, oh, where's your Passover animal sacrifice? Oh, you don't have that? Where's your Leviticus 2013? Oh yeah, Tel Aviv is one of the most faggoty places on earth. I mean, they don't follow the law. They don't keep the law. The Jews don't even care about the law. They reject the Old Testament. If they believe the Old Testament, they would be Christians and they would believe in Jesus. The people who believe the Old Testament are the people who believe in Jesus. So you know what? It makes me nervous. I'm afraid of you when you reject so much old scripture, Old Testament, when you don't like it, when you're uncomfortable with it. I'm thinking like, well, what's wrong with your belief in Jesus? Because if you had believed Moses and his writings, you would believe in Jesus. Oh, but I'm Jesus' friend. Go to John 15. Go to John 15. No, you're not. The Bible talks about how Jesus Christ came and he is the priest of Melchizedek. He's after the order of Melchizedek and it said for the priesthood being changed, there's also of necessity a change also of the law. So the priesthood was changed. The Aaronic priesthood's gone. The priesthood of Levi is gone. There's a new priesthood. And it's not the priesthood of Judah. It's the priesthood of Melchizedek, which was before the law, and that is Jesus Christ is after the order of Melchizedek. Since the priesthood changed, don't you think something else changed? Since the Levites are the ones commanding an order to order the sacrifices, but the priesthood changed, well then I'm guessing all those sacrifices and all the things that Levi did are gone. You know why? Because they are. They've been fulfilled by Jesus Christ. So of course the Bible tells us in meats, drinks, divers, washings, and cardinal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation, guess what? But Christ being come, it's gone. Just like when you are 14 years old, you are not allowed to drive a car legally. Now of course there's some exceptions for hardships or whatever, but generally speaking you have to turn 16 in the state of Texas to be able to drive a vehicle, barring exceptions of course, to drive a vehicle on your own. But after you've become 16, 17, 18, you can drive, you get a driver's license, you can do whatever you want. You can drive around and drive, and it's not a contradiction to say like, oh, you used to not be able to drive. Sure, but I used to be 14. And it's like yeah, well in the Old Testament they say they're not allowed to eat shellfish and they're not allowed to eat bacon. Okay, but guess what? We grew up. Guess what? We're in the new covenant and that specific ordinance has changed because I've accepted Christ and I've become saved, and so because of that change, now I can't eat it. Now I can't handle it. That has evolved. That doesn't mean that I disregard that, and if I personally lived in the Old Testament, I wouldn't eat bacon. And if I was 14, I wouldn't drive. But guess what? I'm not 14. I'm just a little older. No, I'm just kidding. Some of you too. But, so I can drive, just like I don't live in the Old Testament, so I can eat bacon. That's not an inconsistency. You know who doesn't believe you should be able to eat bacon? Joel Osteen. Isn't that bizarre? Like the guy that rejects Leviticus 20-13 is the same guy that rejects 1 Timothy chapter 4 too, huh? You know why? Because if you believe the Old Testament, you believe the New Testament. And if you believe the New Testament, you believe the Old Testament. And these people are liars. It's not that Joel Osteen isn't a fundamentalist. He's a liar. Because people who believe the Bible, they believe all of it. Don't fall for this idea of this modernism and liberalism. It's just thinly veiled atheism, folks. Oh, but I'm a friend of Jesus. Okay. You're a friend of Jesus, okay? Well, this is what Jesus said about his friends. Look at verse number 14. You're my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Oh, I'm a friend of Jesus. Okay. Are you going to church? No. Do you read your Bible? No. But I have a relationship. Liar. Liar. You know who are the friends of Jesus? Fundamentalists. Fundamentalists are the friends of Jesus because they keep the law. They establish the law. They like every single commandment. They like going to church. They like reading the Bible. They like going out soul winning. Go to Matthew chapter number 4. Go to Matthew chapter 4. There's all these books from these non-evangelicals, as I call them, the fun center Baptists, the fun center Christians out there. They write all these books about how they're a friend of Jesus and they have a relationship. Or they'll even say this, I'm a follower. Oh, you're a follower, huh? Well, let's test that theory, too. Matthew chapter number 4, look at verse number 19. And he saith unto them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. If you say you're a follower of Jesus and you're not a soul winner, you are a liar. Liar. Oh, I follow Jesus. No, you don't, because you're not getting anybody saved. The only people that are following Jesus are getting people saved. Because those who are following Jesus are getting people saved and the people that are not following Jesus aren't getting anybody saved. Oh, you're one of those fundamentalists that goes out and preaches the gospel. No, I'm a follower of Jesus. But you don't understand, I got my book, Follower of Jesus. I got a book. I got a book, Radical. It's called Radical. You know, I got my book by Matt Chandler, you know. And Steven Furtick. And I got all these books and it says that I have a radical reformation. But you know what, I can test and see how radical you are. Where's your sodomite deception t-shirt? Okay. You tell me. You say that you're radical. Show me you're radical by your t-shirt. Okay. You know, it's just so silly that people, they want to throw out these labels and act like there's something wrong with us. Oh, they're fundamentalists. You know what, this is what they should be saying. Oh, they're friends of Jesus. Oh, they're followers of Jesus. Oh, they believe the Bible. Because that's what it really means to be a fundamentalist. Fundamentalists are the ones that have the faith in all the Scripture, the Old and the New Testament. Fundamentalists are the ones who are the friends of Jesus. Fundamentalists are the ones who are the followers of Jesus Christ. The reason why you're not a fundamentalist is because you don't have the faith, you're not a friend, and you know what, guess what, you're not a follower. Why would I want to be in Christianity and not do what it says? Why would I want to go and watch a football game if they're not going to care about the rules? How much fun would it be to show up at a football game and they're running out of bounds, horse-collar tackling, grabbing by the face mask, and at the end, someone gets 81 million points by mail-in. You're like, what? You're like, what is the point? Like, I don't want to watch that. You know why people like football? Because they play by the rules. And in fact, you know, who's the most hated person in all of every sport? The ref. And you know why they don't like the ref? Because they feel like there was an unfair call. They feel like the rules weren't being followed. And then it's so funny that everybody gets so mad and they scream and they yell so much at the ref. Stupid ref, how blind are you? But then it's like, why don't you get mad at the blind guides? Why don't you get mad at all the people that are misinterpreting this? Why don't you get mad about something? Hey, get mad at false doctrine. Hey, get mad at liars out there. Get mad at people that are compromisers and destroying Christianity and destroying faith and destroying what it means to be a friend and destroying what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. You know what? Everyone should be a fundamentalist. We should be a nation of fundamentalists. It's embarrassing to not be a fundamentalist. I'll be embarrassed to not be a fundamentalist in Christianity. Just like I'll be embarrassed to not be a fundamentalist in every other one of these things. Oh, I play chess. Oh, how do you play chess? Well, I just move the pawns wherever I want. Well, that's not chess, folks. You can't just move the pieces however you want. You have to move them according to their rules. And if you don't, then it's not chess. Now, of course, when it comes to chess, there's all kinds of variations. You can play rapid, blitz. You can play, you know, unlimited time. And all of that's valid chess, right? And when it comes to fundamentalism, you know what? There's all kinds of shades and flavors and different, you know, ideas. There's some variance between fundamentalists. And I'm not going to say they're not a fundamentalist. But you know what? If you're denying scripture, you're not a fundamentalist. If you're not following the commandments, you're not a fundamentalist. And if you're not getting people saved, you're not a fundamentalist. You don't have the faith. You're not a friend. You're not a follower. And you know what? Us at Stephes Baptist Church, we're going to be fundamentalists as long as I'm the pastor. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us the scripture that we can believe in. I pray that we motivate to be your friend, to be your follower, that we wouldn't care about pejorative labels or accusations, but rather we embrace the truths of the Bible. We'd care about the truth. And I pray that we could help win other people over to the truth. They could recognize their need to believe the Bible. They could recognize their need to actually become a friend and a real follower of Jesus Christ. And I pray that people would actually get mad about the right things today. I hope that people would actually embrace all the scripture and not just cherry pick what they like. And I pray that we could motivate many people not only to get saved, but also establish the law. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 136. Song number 136, Master, the Tempest is Raging. Song number 136. Song number 136. Everybody sing it together on the first. Master, the tempest is raging. The billows are tossing high. The sky is o'er shadow with blackness. No shelter or help is nigh. Caris thou not that we perish? How canst thou lie asleep? When each moment so madly is threatening? The brave and the angry deep. The winds and the waves shall obey my will. Peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, or demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the shin where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. They all just sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still. Peace be still. They all just sweetly obey thy will. Peace, peace be still. Master, with anguish of spirit, I bow in my grief today. The depths of my sad heart are troubled, Awaken, and save, I pray. Forance of sin and of anguish sweep o'er my sinking soul. And I perish, I perish, dear master, O hasten and take control. The winds and the waves shall obey my will. Peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, or demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the shin where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. They all just sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still. Peace be still. They all just sweetly obey thy will. Peace, peace be still. Master, the terror is over, the elements sweetly rest. Her sun in the prom lake is nearer, and heaven's within my breast. Linger, O blessed reminder, leave me alone no more. And with joy I shall make the blessed harbor and rest on the blissful shore. The winds and the waves shall obey my will. Peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, or demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. They all just sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still. Peace be still. They all just sweetly obey thy will. Peace, peace be still. Great singing, everybody. You are all dismissed. Thank you.