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Amen. Okay, we're on the final instalment of our What We Believe series, and it's been a few weeks now. We've been going through every individual statement on our statement of faith, and we had a little break. We had a couple of sermons that needed preaching, I felt, in between finishing this off. We've done What We Believe, if you remember, about salvation, the Bible, we looked at the Trinity, the Church, who's allowed in church, and also false theological systems, really, false theologies. Today we're going to look at separation from the world. Today we're going to look at the final one, which is separation from the world. So the title this morning is What We Believe About Separation From The World. What We Believe About Separation From The World. I'd like to pray before I get going with this message. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the clear teachings you give us in your word, Lord, about topics such as this, topics which are confused by many, misunderstood by many. Just help me to preach this clearly, accurately, and boldly. Help everyone to just have a tent of ears, Lord, and hear what your word's saying, and just be able to hear it with an open heart and open mind. In Jesus' name I pray all of this. Amen. OK, what is separation? What is separation? Well, it's a state of being separate. It's disunion, disconnection. When we talk about separation, we're not talking about building a commune, in case you're wondering, OK? We're not talking about all finding a way of living on the same street. You get people that do that, don't you? For example, the Jewish community around here often just want to all live in the same area, on the same street, and everything else. We're not talking about having our own little insular community where we only talk to and work for each other. And then we just kind of find a way of having nothing to do with the outside world. That's not what we're talking about either. Our first statement of faith that we're going to look at today is this. We oppose worldliness and believe in a wholly separated life. We oppose worldliness and we believe in a wholly separated life. And the scriptures we're going to look at, which are on our statement of faith, are 2 Corinthians 6, 14 to 17, 1 Corinthians 6, 15 to 20, 1 Peter 2, 9, Ephesians 5, 8, and Romans 12, 1. So we believe that we should stand out, OK? We do. And we don't believe that we're not trying to stand out like one of the many attention seekers out there. And there's a lot of attention seekers in the world that are trying to stand out, who ultimately don't really stand out. I think nowadays you probably stand out more if you're not trying to seek attention. You probably stand out more if you're just dressed normal regularly with a regular haircut without any sort of, you know, hey look at me type stuff on you. You probably stand out more nowadays, don't you? But we're not trying to stand out as an attention seeker. We believe that we should stand out because we behave differently to the world. Now, you've got to get this right, because there are those that try too hard, they try to stand out. We're not trying to stand out, we're not doing it for the sake of standing out. We just want to live how God wants us to live and therefore we should stand out. 1 Peter 2, talking of the coming of coming to the Lord, says this, To whom coming, in verse 4, 1 Peter 2, 4, is unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So we're a spiritual house, we're a holy temple. And instead of sacrificing animals all day, we offer spiritual sacrifices, don't we? We give of ourselves to God. Okay, that's what we're here to do. We're here to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and how it's faith alone. So when you hear these messages, you've got to be careful not to hear about separation from the world and then you start to kind of mix it with all the world's different versions of good you go to heaven, bad you go to hell. Yeah, that's nonsense, okay? We're saved by faith in Christ. However, we're saved, we know we're going to heaven no matter what happens. Therefore, we now want to try and honour God and glory God and live how he wants us to live. But it's not because we're trying to work in heaven. If you put your faith in Christ, you're already saved. It says, unto you therefore which believe, and let's talk about save people, he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, either to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient where unto also they were appointed. So for us he's precious, but for the unbelievers they just stumble at faith alone, don't they? In various ways, they stumble at faith alone. They're offended by the need of a saviour, really. That's what it comes down to. They're offended by them having to basically put a hundred percent trust in the saviour to get to heaven and they have to admit therefore they are not good enough. And they stumble at that, don't they? All over, all over the place in various different religions and ways of religions, ultimately they're stumbling at that fact that they need a saviour, they cannot be good enough. And with that they therefore can't understand the rest of the word either, because it's all of Jesus Christ. You don't have to turn to 1 Corinthians 2.14 says, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. They don't get the rest of it because they haven't put their faith in Jesus Christ, they're not saved. They're the natural man. But ye, it says in verse 9, ye, if you're saved, we're talking to you now, ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. He's saying to believers here that we're a chosen generation, okay. He's not talking about a particular time period, he's talking about a people of a certain lineage. That's a generation he's talking about here. And that lineage, that seed is Christ. So if you're saved, you're of the seed of Abraham through Christ. You are the chosen generation. If you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are that chosen generation. Exactly, by the way, how the physical nation was previously referred to, being that holy nation, a peculiar people, etc. You're a royal priesthood. There is no Levitical priesthood anymore, oh various flavours of Judaizers out there. There is no such thing. We're the priesthood, you're the priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. He's basically saying that we should be different. We should be different in our holiness. There should be a noticeable difference. Just because you're trying to live for God, because you're living different to how everyone else lives, there should be a difference, shouldn't there? There should be a difference in how we behave, how we interact, how we even look, dress and everything. There should be a difference to the world that you see out there, shouldn't there? We should be different in that we praise God. We want to uplift him. We want to glorify him, unlike the majority of people out there in all the different false religions that want to uplift themselves. But we're not trying to uplift ourselves. We're trying to uplift God and glorify God, which should then show, shouldn't it? Peter said that he has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. He's called us out of eternal darkness, but he also calls us out of the darkness of this world, out of the works of darkness. He wants us to live a wholly separated life. That's what he wants. Now, how does that look? Well, verse 10 says, Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. By the way, we're the people of God. Some random people over in the Middle East who converted to a religion called Judaism are not the people of God. If you're saved, you're the people of God. Clear as day here, right? He's not talking to some random converts to a false religion. Okay, we're the people of God. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Having your conversation, conversation here is talking about your behavior. Honest among the Gentiles that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in a day of visitation. So we should feel like strangers and pilgrims here. And I mean, I hope a lot of you, when you're living, you're right, you're in the spirit and everything else. You do feel like a bit of a stranger in the world, don't you? You feel like a bit of a pilgrim. And although we know we've got a job to do here, sometimes you do get those times you think, wouldn't our flight just be up there now, wouldn't you? Just man, this is tiring. This can be hard work. It can be hard, can't it? You do feel like a stranger in the world. You should feel like a stranger in the world. Abstain, he's saying, from all of those fleshly lusts, basically. The boozing, the drugs, the chasing money, the chasing fame, the fornication, the adultery, all that stuff, all those fleshly lusts in their various ways, we should be abstaining from, shouldn't we? Verse 12 is saying that our behavior should be honest among the believers, didn't it? Among the believers. It's not talking about living on a commune. It's not talking about cutting yourself off from all unbelievers, so you'll never have to be around them. Find any which way to work away from them, be away from them. No, he said, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles. The separated life isn't about living elsewhere. The separated life is to separate yourselves from how you behave. OK, from how you are in life. You should be different. It's living right, which has a knock-on effect of helping those harder cases get saved in the future. That's what he's saying here. He said that, whereas they speak against those evildoers, they may buy your good works, which they shall behold glorify God in a day of visitation. There is that as well. There's a side point there that when you're living right, when you're doing things for God, when you're trying to behave right, when there's a difference, when in the workplace they see that Christian, that guy's just talking faith alone, faith alone, faith alone. No, he doesn't half behave differently, though. As opposed to all those other various clown work salvationists, who are all just exactly like the rest of the world. They should notice the difference and with time, whether it's family, friends, workmates, whatever it is, with time, they might start to take more and more notice that, no, I can see something different in that person, I can see the power of God. And they might think about that in that time, that time when things are bad, when the chips are down, when their pride is lower, and there might be more chance therefore of them getting saved. We oppose worldliness and believe in a wholly separated life. And we don't just oppose it because we think it might help get people saved. We don't just oppose it because we want to stand out from the crowd. Turn to Romans chapter 12, which is one of our other passages here, or verses here. Romans 12 one is on our statement of faith as well. It's not just because we think it might help get people saved, although that's nice. It's not just because we want to stand out. Romans 12 says this in verse one, though. It's your reasonable service. We also oppose it because it's our reasonable service. God did a lot for us, didn't he? God died on a cross. He went to hell. He did more than you could ever really imagine, than anyone will ever do for you. Is sacrificing some wickedness, trying to live holy, too much to ask? Really? Is it really, considering you've got eternity in heaven awaiting you? It's not, is it? Well, apparently it is. For a load of churches around it seem just hell-bent on worldliness. They do. There's so many of these places that call themselves churches that are just hell-bent on being as worldly as possible, who call attempting to live holy legalism. You heard these people? Oh, they're so legalistic. They believe that, you know, God actually wants them to try and live right. It's crazy, really. When you're looking at these verses, you're thinking, but clearly he's telling us that he wants us to live right. He wants us to live holy. Well, who decides what's holy? I'll tell you who. God. And it's written in his Word. How to live holy. They claim that they need to be worldly to reach the lost, don't they? Yeah, you've seen these sorts of churches, this sort of behaviour. Well, we just need to try and appeal to the lost more, appeal to the teens. We need to be a bit more like the teens. You know, that will get them in. And although, look, it might be a struggle. So, for some of you here, maybe avoiding worldliness, maybe living that separated life is more of a struggle maybe in the workplace. Maybe is more of a struggle around the old family, around the old friends. It shouldn't be a struggle in the house of God, should it? That should be the easiest place to come, and it should be, shouldn't it? And be separate and be a way for the world when you come into God's sanctuary, right? That should be a place that you can rely on to not be worldly and not tempt you to be worldly. And it should be holy, it should be separate. And the obvious one that we see all over the nation is the worldly music. I mean, it's ridiculous, isn't it? It doesn't matter pretty much what flavour of church, it's either Christian rock, Christian rap, Christian soul, just some sort of basically empty worldly anthems in one way or another, the drum beats, the... It's all worldly. It just sounds exactly like you'll hear on whatever flavour of radio station or MTV or whatever else, just they loosely use the word God and Jesus down again. It's exactly what the world's listening to. Empty songs, no substance, all about the catchy tune, yeah? And that's what you see. And while these people are trying to claim that they've filled the spirit and all that absolute nonsense. Funny, because it's exactly the same thing you see at a worldly concert where they're standing there with the lighters out, swaying, thinking they can fill the spirit. Because it's all worldliness. Songs that sound exactly like the latest pop love song. Just the only difference is they might add the word Jesus in now and again, if you're lucky. A lot of the time it's just God, isn't it, and stuff like that. He said in verse 2 here, And be not conformed to this world. He said, don't be conformed to the world. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Do you think that God's good and acceptable and perfect will is that we sound like the latest worldly anthem? It's not, is it? God doesn't want you listening to that junk. And God doesn't want us to try and impersonate that junk in the house of God. Do you think that his good and acceptable and perfect will is that we listen to Sister So-and-so, whoever thinks that they're the best singer in the church, doing a solo? How many churches are like that? It's like, right, everyone, you don't get to sing to God now because we've got somebody who's a better singer. And then they come up and then they wail from behind the pulpit. And a lot of the time it is wailing as well. And do you know what it is? It's conforming to basically a bad karaoke bar. It's what it sounds like. And they always try and sound worldly, don't they? Ever heard this stuff? They don't just sing like a godly part. They always have to just sound a little bit worldly, a little bit, you know, like whoever the pop star is they're trying to conform to. Being conformed to the world. That's why we don't do that here. That's why we don't have the special where we think the best singer comes up and sings to everyone and you're just like, wow, how amazing, wasn't that great? Because he wants us all to lift up our voices to him, doesn't he? However bad your voices might be. I've said before, it's kind of like when your kids sing to you. It doesn't matter if they sing badly, you think, oh, how sweet. Well, that's how God thinks about it out there. They're not saying try and sound bad, yeah? Okay, some of you need to try a bit harder. Myself included, right? But you know what, he wants to hear you sing to him, doesn't he? And whether you sing badly or not, he doesn't want just some, you know, some worldly so-and-so getting up here and trying to sound like the world to impress us all, right? So we don't do that in his church either. We sing traditional hymns of the faith that have been sung for centuries. That have been sung for centuries that haven't changed with the latest fashion of the world with popular music. They're just traditional hymns of the faith. Oh yeah, but I don't know, man, I want a bit more soul in church. Well, why don't you just go off to the nightclub and then come to church and come and worship God after that? You want your soul? I'm not telling you to go and do that, okay? Don't do that. Because what we're doing, we're trying to worship God. How do we worship God? In songs with doctrine. Songs which are actually singing with some substance about God, about what he's done for us, about some truths of the word, not just something that sounds great and we can all sway and everything else, which is exactly what they're doing everywhere else. Because we're not to be conformed to this world. But it's not just about music. How about the way we dress in church? We don't want to be conformed to the world. Now you go, wait a second, Pastor Dabney, because God didn't tell you to wear a suit. No, he didn't tell me to wear a suit, but you know what? That for me is trying to dress smart for God. Okay, that for me is saying, okay, look, I'm coming into God's house, I want to look smart, okay? I don't want to come in and, you know, if I came in with the skinny jeans on and, you know, and the skin-tight tops and all that weird stuff, I mean, firstly, probably half of you would walk out. Or you'd think I was on a wind-up and it was a prop for the sermon. But really, what am I doing? I'm just conforming to the latest fashions of the world. And for me, look, suits have kind of stayed on for a long time now, you know, so I think they're kind of, I'm probably pretty unfashionable right now, especially some cheap old suit, okay? But I don't care. At the end of the day, I'm just trying to dress smart, trying to look formal because I'm coming to the house of God, right? However, look, it's something that we need to think about, ladies need to think about it a lot. We talked about that last week. If you weren't here last week, listen to Proverbs 7 and see what God thinks about how people should dress modestly, for example. And that counts for men and women, okay? We're not trying to get attention how we dress. We're not trying to do a, hey, look at me. We're not trying to get sexual attention when we just, we come to the house of God, right? Not like the world. We're pretty much almost every female in the world is just trying to get some sexual attention in the way she dresses. Is that what God wants? Of course he doesn't want that. Okay, so we're trying not to be conformed to the world. We want to be separate in that way. But also you could say the way we interact as well. So the way we interact with each other, we want to be respectful to each other, don't we? Because a lot of people are pretty disrespectful when you're out there, aren't they? Won't greet you, won't look you in the eye, treat you like you're something off the bottom of their shoe and everything else. When we come into the house of God, we want to treat God's children with respect, yeah? Because we don't have to be like the world. We don't have to give them a little nod as we walk past and stuff like that and try and look as cool and tough as possible, you know, by not opening our mouths to greet someone. No, we don't need to be conformed to the world. We see in the Bible, we see examples of greeting the brethren, greeting one another, saluting one another, etc. So that's what we do as well in the house of God. And also, just last point, also the house of God is in a hook-up joint, either. So when we're in the house of God, look, sure, you might with time for the single people, etc. They might with time get to know someone, everything else. We don't treat it like a bar or like a nightclub or something else, trying to eye people up and all that weirdness, OK? This ain't like that, OK? This is the house of God we come here with to be respectful to each other as well. We oppose worldliness. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, because on that point we oppose, therefore, the world's wicked situation now with fornication. We take a stand against fornication, and people want to criticise churches like our stance on fornication, don't they? Like, oh well, you know, what they want to do is try and redefine the word fornication, or they want to just act as if, well, we're just being over the top with that sort of thing. You know, that's just the way it is. People just live together nowadays before they're married, and so what? No, we do care about that. We take a stand on that. We oppose worldliness and belief in a wholly separated life. And in 1 Corinthians 6, we see how serious fornication is, regardless of society. Regardless of how things have changed in the last few decades, do you think that God kind of, you know, he didn't write this and then think, unless things change after the swinging sixties, then maybe they can kind of think of it a bit differently. No, fornication is serious. It's a big deal. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 15 says, Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For to saith he shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. He didn't say just avoid it, did he? He said flee it. Run the other way. Get away from it. Whatever you have to do, excuse me, to escape it, flee it. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that comitteth fornication sinneth against his own body. So you're not just sinning, you're sinning against God's body. Basically, I think is what he's saying. You're sinning against his body. So, flee it. Okay, it's a big deal. Fornication is massive. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? You know that? You're not your own. Basically, Paul's saying that you're joining God to a harlot when you commit fornication because you're part of the body of Christ. Okay, you're a member of a church which is the body of Christ. If you're committing fornication and coming to church, you're basically joining God's body to a harlot. It's wicked. Absolutely wicked. For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. That's pretty clear, isn't it? Not just about fornication, but here we're talking about fornication. The price was Jesus Christ's precious blood. He wants us to treat that with respect. Yeah, we know that we're saved. Yeah, we know whatever you do, you're going to heaven if you put your faith in Jesus Christ. But therefore, because of what an amazing thing that's been done for us, we should therefore say, look, Jesus Christ's precious blood, is it something that we just trample underfoot, do we? When he's made it clear as day in his word about things like fornication, I don't care how lustful you are. I don't care how, you know, you just find it really hard to contain, etc. Sort yourselves out and contain, yeah? Deal with it because it's wicked and you're joining the body of Christ to a harlot. We believe, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6, we believe in a wholly separated life, so we shouldn't be joining fornication. But there are other areas that we need to be separate as well. You turn to 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 14 says this, 2 Corinthians 6, 14. So for me, this passage gives us actually a few descriptive words to help us understand how to apply this. I think we actually see a few different ways of applying it through the different examples he's given here. First, we're told not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, which is to be joined or coupled together, such as two animals yoked together. So when you yoke two animals, they should be of equal kind of strength, equal ability, equal size a lot of the time to do some work, okay? So you wouldn't really yoke, you know, an oxen with some skinny old donkey or something like that, okay? The idea is that they should be able to do equal work, so one's not pulling the other and then reducing the work that it can do. However, with synergy, when you start adding animals together, they actually do a lot more than the sum of their parts, okay? So that's the point with yoking here. Then we see the applications. He says first, for what fellowship? We see the word fellowship here has righteousness with unrighteousness. Now, fellowship is companionship, society, consort, mutual association of persons on equal and friendly terms. Now, we should be friendly to the lost, yes, but should you be seeking equal companionship with them? The obvious thing would be husband and wife, but aside from that, best friends hanging around all the time. Should I be sort of, you know, when I'm outside a church, is trying to see my fellowship time with the unsaved world? No. Now, I want to be nice to the unsaved world. I'm going to be friendly. I don't want to just trample all those old relationships because I want a chance to get these people saved in the future. However, they shouldn't be what I'm seeking out as my fellowship, because if there is, there's a problem. Because I don't know, when you speak to the unsaved world, you notice that there's a big difference, isn't there? If you're living, you're growing for God, you're in the Word, you're trying to live for him, you're trying to do things right, there's a big difference, isn't there? I mean, go outside and look at the difference between the average person on the street and how God's children should behave. There's a big difference, right? So that shouldn't be what we see. That shouldn't be our best buddies, our best friends, the people that we're just ringing up to get counsel and things like that. You should be going to God's people for that. You should be going to the Word of God and to God's people after that. He said, and what communion have light with darkness? Now communion includes fellowship, but also intercourse between two persons, more, let's talk about conversation, etc. Interchange of transactions or offices, a state of giving and receiving, agreement, concord. So this for me would include business partnerships, agreement. What agreement? Going, for example, 50-50 with someone on a purchase, eg., you know, a buy-to-let, etc. You see people do things like that. What communion have light with darkness? People, for example, they'll be like, right, and there's all sorts of things people do this stuff for. I know people are into fishing and they'll pair up and buy an area or at least rent a lake for themselves, something like that. But you don't want to be in some equal agreement with someone that's unsaved. It's just going to have trouble in the long run. Verse 15 says, and what concord hath Christ's ability? So what's concord? Concord is agreement between persons, union in opinion, sentiments, views or interests, peace, harmony. Now, for me, this would union in opinion, sentiments, agreement between persons, this would apply to, for example, political stances. How are you going to have concord with someone who indirectly follows one of the devil's false belief systems? For example, people that want to like, you know, well, I go to church, however, I'm involved in this political movement, whether it's Black Lives Matter run by a load of sodomites or whether it's whatever else. You know, it's kind of, look, you ain't got no, there's no concord with these people. What are you doing? You can't, you're not going to yoke up, you're not going to have the same political beliefs. It doesn't matter, Republican, Democrat in the US, Conservative, Labour, Liberal, Democrat, whatever. It's all a load of junk. What concord do you have with these people? Are you going to get political for it? You're crazy. That's not our battle. It's a spiritual battle. Get with God's people, line up with God's views instead of the views of the world. What concord is Christ's ability? And then he said, on what agreement has the temple of God with idols? And that makes me think of yoking up with false religions, ecumenical meetups. I mean, it's amazing how many of these guys claim to believe their faith, yet then want to do fellowship and meetups and agreements with people that seem to apparently believe other stuff. But they don't really, because they all believe it works salvation. But that sort of stuff, fellowship events, for example, with Repent of Your Sins Baptist. Repent of Your Sins Baptist guy comes in, we're like, oh, well, we're all Baptists. No, we're not. No, we're not. You're not a Baptist. You're not a real Baptist. Because really, you're worshipping an idol. You're worshipping a repent of your sins. Jesus Christ, that is not the God of the Bible. And the most obvious thing out of all of that, though, would be choosing to go and marry an unbeliever. No love doesn't conquer all. It will conquer your living for God. That's what it will do. Choose to go and do that. But if you are married to an unbeliever, you need to try and make that work. You need to try and hopefully with time, maybe you might get a chance of them getting saved in the long run. However, that would include things like that. But you could think, therefore, of many examples where it doesn't work, yoking up being in some sort of equal partnership, agreement, sentiments, etc. with the unsafe world. For ye, now look at this, he said, For ye are the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Verse 17, Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate. It's pretty clear, isn't it? Sayeth the Lord and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, sayeth the Lord Almighty. It's pretty clear, isn't it? Okay, we are told to come out from among them, we are told to be separate, and there are various, as I've just mentioned, some of the various ways that we could obviously apply them. Okay, turn to Ephesians 5 for our last scripture on this first statement, because one of the attacks is to try to prevent you from being separate. That's one of the ways to hinder a Christian, is to try any which way to convince them. No, you don't need to be. No, you shouldn't be, and to find ways of keep pulling you back in, pulling you back in. The old, we're under grace, man. You know, we're under grace, we don't have to care about any of that anymore. It's all grace, isn't it? We are under grace. Being holy won't get you to heaven, but God still wants you to be holy. God wants you to be holy. And that is very hard when you're yoked up in one way or another with unbelievers, who naturally, without meaning to, will drag you down. They will. It's just a matter of time. They will drag you down, they will influence you, they will when you have to spend more time than you could have done with unbelievers, it will just drag you down. That's just the way it goes. Ephesians 5 says in verse 6, Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. Okay, you don't want to be a partaker with them. That's our verse there, but look at verse 8. For ye were sometimes darkness... Sorry, this is our verse, verse 8. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord, walk as children of light. Is it automatic? No, it's not automatic. You got saved, you didn't automatically become holy. We're constantly being exhorted to walk as God wants us to, throughout the Bible. Constantly being encouraged, exhorted to do that. He wants us to reject worldliness. Verse 9 says, For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret, but all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. How do you approve something if you're on equal terms with someone? You're just going to cause yourself trouble. So the clear point being is come out from among them and be ye separate. We believe in separation from the world. We oppose worldliness and believe in a wholly separated life. However, it doesn't mean you can't have anything to do with it. Does it mean, right, well, I need to find a Christian employer? He didn't say that. Look, if you're the employee, you work for that boss. Here's the thing, though, you should work as unto the Lord. But what you shouldn't be doing is taking you on a job with someone that's then getting you to do wicked stuff. Or if you're in a job like that, you need to make a stand. Like we've had an example this week with someone having to do that, where they're trying to get you to do something wrong, immoral. You say no, because God, what he says, comes above whatever any employer says. OK? OK, very clear, right? OK, and look, rejecting worldliness clearly doesn't save you, OK? Only faith in Christ will ever save you. You have to keep repeating this in a sermon like this just because there'll be people that sadly, you know, don't believe or at least, you know, have their heads turned. But separation from the world will save you from a whipping from God, though. As well. So aside from, look, it's our reasonable service, aside from that you'll be happier, that you'll be more successful in life anyway, aside from that, you're less likely to get a whipping from God. And that's a good thing, because it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hopefully, like me, all of you probably don't want a whipping from God. So we do our best to avoid that. And one way we do that is to be holy, to come out from among them and be ye separate. OK? Turn to Matthew 1, because we're going to look at our second statement. Now, the second statement to date is again about coming out from among them, and it's about an absolutely wicked form of worldliness that we reject. You're turning to Matthew chapter 1, and the statement is this. We believe that abortion is murder and oppose all forms of birth control that end life after conception and in brackets fertilisation, our passages or our verses. Matthew 1.23 and Isaiah 7.14, and you could go to 100 different places, but they're just two that make it very obvious. OK, abortion is murder, pure and simple. OK, if anyone's confused about that, hopefully at the end of this sermon you're not going to be. There are approximately 200,000 baby murders going on per year in this nation. It is absolutely wicked. OK, that is, it just rises every year pretty much. OK, and this wasn't the case a few decades ago. In fact, a few decades before that it was illegal. OK, this is something else. And no, things haven't got better. Don't get pulled into those stupid slogans, my body, my choice, all that. No, it's not your body, you moron. How on earth did you work that out? It's a baby. You say, well, it's not a baby yet. OK, so when is it a baby then? Anyone who's got that opinion, and I'm not asking you to call out, by the way. OK, but when is it a baby? Because most sane people wouldn't justify killing a newborn, would they? Most sane people wouldn't. I know they're trying to, like, write up to birth type stuff and weird stuff and there's been freakery all throughout the world, but normal people wouldn't at least vocalise that, right? OK, no, it's not OK. It's not OK killing anyone, OK? It's not OK killing, unless it's the death penalty and it's capital punishment, but that's completely separate, OK? OK, but in terms of that's murder, that's just an innocent child who's done nothing wrong at all, OK? So how about the day before they're born? Is that suddenly OK? A week? A month? How about a premature baby? Two months premature? Three months premature? How premature? So when exactly does it start becoming a baby or a child then? Because I think most people would agree, wouldn't they? They would say, yeah, OK, when you see that premature, yeah, they're tiny. Yeah, you know, they're so small, but they're still babies, aren't they? So when is it? Well, let's forget what we think. Forget what our so-called experts think. Forget what Dr Death and his colleagues think. What does a great physician think? In Matthew 1, Joseph is thinking of divorcing the pregnant virgin Mary, and it says this in verse 20, Matthew 1-20. And while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth the Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which is spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth the Son, and there shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. So in verse 23, where it says a virgin shall be with child, the narrator, God, is referencing Isaiah 7 and verse 14. So turn to Isaiah 7 to understand at what stage of pregnancy God considered Mary as being with child. He said with child, he didn't say with fetus. He said with child, didn't he? So let's see, he's referencing Isaiah 14. We just read in verse 23, behold, a virgin shall be with child. And Isaiah 7-14 says, Isaiah 7-14, therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. So according to Matthew 1-23, being with child is the same as conceiving. Isn't it? Because life begins at conception. Because she was with child the second that she conceived. It's a child, it's a life. You don't really need a doctor's degree to understand that, do you? Otherwise, where's your line? They just make it up as they go along. But we don't need that, do we? Being with child is the same as conceiving because life begins at conception. And you don't need, I don't think, therefore, a doctor's degree or anything else to understand that purposely ending a person's life is murder. Killing a baby is murder. Whatever age the baby is, it's murder. These abortion doctors are full-on wicked. I mean, these are mass murderers, serial killers. They're sick, they're twisted. And I don't even want to go into how disgusting it is, what goes on, because I think people in their little cuckoo land, it's just like, they just give them something and the life just peacefully ends. No, it's not like that at all. It's horrific. We believe that abortion is murder and oppose all forms of birth control that end life after conception, fertilisation. Matthew 1-23, Isaiah 7-14. And that includes morning after pills. And all the weird, hormone-disrupting, contraceptive pills and methods out there. That includes all of that, in case anyone's wondering, because they all act as what's called abortifacients. Anyone ever heard of this word before? They're basically, they end early pregnancies by preventing implantation of an already fertilised egg. Or very early human being is what we would call it, OK? Look, all that stuff, it's wicked. And if you're like, well, I just didn't know that, well, shame on you. Because why would you be taking things and putting things in your body in any way, which you don't really know what it does and how it works and everything. And look, people have done that, but if you've done bad things before... Look, I'm not preaching at you, OK? But what I am preaching is to help people get right in this church and understand how God sees this stuff, OK? And look, you know, God's washed you clean, OK? If you put your faith in Jesus Christ, he's washed you clean of all that. His blood is paid for all of that, OK? However, like we've just seen, we want to be separate from the world. We want to live holy, right? OK, so this stuff that he's talking about. OK, so some will ask, well, what if a married couple don't want more children? Well, how about you choose a way of avoiding making children instead of murdering them once you do? Pretty simple, right? And there's ways, look, look, because some people think, oh, any form of avoiding to have as many children as God gives you must be wicked. No, it's not. OK, look, that's not the case at all, OK? That's why people in the Bible don't have 30 kids, OK? Not all of them. And you could choose, OK? It's your choice. God gives you that choice. No, he doesn't give you that choice to murder children. No, he doesn't give you that choice to use things which have a backup mechanism of murder. But ultimately, it's pretty obvious. Fertility calendars, et cetera, and ways, if you choose not to have many kids between you and your wife, that's your choice. And no one in this church, I hope, will ever try and make little comments and digs. It's your choice. And people don't really know. People have no idea why someone might have lots of kids or someone doesn't or anything else. It's none of anyone's business. And people go crazy with this stuff as I go too far the other way. Look, people will look to, you know, for example, they'll look to men like men of God and everything else who will use a certain form of birth control, basically, in terms of the co-sleeping breastfeeding on demand is a way of basically spacing out the gap to a couple of years. And they've made that choice, and good on them. It's their choice to make. It's not wicked to make a choice about that. However, it is wicked if you're murdering the baby. It is wicked if you're just doing, like, weird stuff, OK? Like weird, like, stuff that comes from probably Egypt originally and stuff. However, look, there's a fertility calendar, there's ways that you can choose and you can make that choice between yourself and your wife and no-one in here thinks you're holy if you've got 20 kids and you're unholy if you've got three kids, OK? It's got nothing to do with it, OK, just so you understand that, because people go off in the weeds with this stuff, OK? It's your choice. Ultimately, children are a blessing, aren't they? Children are a blessing. If you choose to not receive that blessing for whatever reason, that's your choice. But don't go murdering, OK? We believe that abortion is murder and oppose all forms of birth control that end life after conception, which is fertilisation. Matthew 1.23, Isaiah 7.14. And finally, and one other way, OK, that we separate from all these unbelieving Bible deniers, turn to Genesis chapter 1. Turn to Genesis chapter 1, because we believe the creation account given in the Book of Genesis, that God created the heaven and the earth over 6,200 years ago and that they were created in six literal days. Genesis 1.1, Genesis 1.31, Exodus 20.11 are our proof text for this. Now, you might be sitting there going, hold on, what about all those science experts? You mean those same experts that change their minds every few years? Are they the ones, if anyone's trusting those so-called experts that seem to disprove each other every year or every few years? Can someone remind me, is it millions? Billions? Is it zillions now? Is there such a thing as a zillion? I'm sure there is. I don't know. Because they do change it every, what, several years. The numbers change all the time. What are the official numbers? Oh, but I just trust that it's not what the Bible says, right? Maybe they'll start bringing it down soon. Maybe it'll go down to like a couple of thousand. They've got to just bid history. Put it in the bin. We've got a new theory. It was started by aliens a thousand years ago. Look, people, honestly, if they said it enough, people would believe it. They believe anything they're told. It's nonsense. But those same experts, by the way, that claim that cows farting are destroying the world. It's the same people. The same people that claim that the farting cows are destroying the world, and the same sorts of people that are telling you that actually you're wrong, it was like billions and zillions of years ago because we proved it. Really? I didn't know time machines were invented. But those same experts that think that everything made itself. So they're so clever, though. Everything made itself. I mean, why would I question them, right? That nothing exploded into a perfect world. It's because it is laughable. Just because a load of people that want to pretend they're clever spout it doesn't mean it's not laughable. It is laughable. The so-called ways of disproving God and disproving the word of God, most of them are laughable. They're ridiculous. I'll go with the Bible that got everything else right. Genesis 1 says in the beginning, in verse 1, God created the heaven and the earth. God created the heaven and the earth. Call me crazy, but a creation with no creator is more ridiculous than even the most obscure false religions of, you know, the earth being on the back of a turtle or something. I'd prefer to go with that, that actually the world's on top of a turtle's back. Seriously, then I would that nothing created all of this. That's ridiculous. I'll go with the turtle all day long. Because we laugh at the... These same people... No, they probably don't laugh at the turtle. Because they're like, oh, well, it's so cool, it's indigenous and everything else. Poor thing. How silly. Oh, they're just not intellectual enough. They don't know that actually nothing exploded into everything. That's how they behave, isn't it? But that's more ridiculous. Nothing exploded into this. You're having a laugh. Ridiculous. And really, what is it? It's just a handy way to deny God's existence. Whilst pretending, whilst puffing yourself up that you're just too intellectual, you're so intellectual to believe that the creation needed a creator. Imagine it. Imagine a creation, you know, that needs a creator to have created it. And that's how they act, don't they? And when you talk to these people... We had one the other day on the door, you know, that's just... I've just done too much for a scientist. Too much for a scientist so you think that no one created this creation. Nice science there, man. Ridiculous. But we don't just believe in the creator and then not the account that he gave us of the creation, no. So it's not that we just believe the creator and then we're like, yeah, well, there is a creator, however, probably the rest of that was nonsense, right? We believe that he wasn't only capable of creating our world and everything in it, but funnily enough, he was able to preserve his holy words too. Yeah, amazing. Please see what we believe about the Bible if you're unsure about that, OK? We have a sermon on what we believe about the Bible in this series. But basically, if you tally up the numbers in the Bible, you end up with creation being over 4,200 years before Christ, if you tally them up. Now, when I say over 4,200 years, you go, why haven't you given us an exact time? It's impossible to be exact, OK? Because when ages, when genealogies are given, for example, they only go to the nearest year. So if I say I was 39 when James was born, I could have been 39 in one month, but I could have been 39 in 11 months. And over many, many generations, that makes quite a big difference, right? And there are certain parts which we're not exactly clear. So look, some people are pretty sure that it's somewhere coming up to now 4,300 years. I know that it's over 4,200, but I can't say for sure what that number is. And I'll tell you why as well. Because I don't think God wants us to know for sure. Because if we did, what would have happened when we're coming up to the 6,000-year mark, which some still want to claim we haven't got to yet? People would have been going mad. They would have been doing all sorts of weird stuff, because they're like, all right, this is it, it's a big one, it's 6,000. It's 6,600 years. I mean, 6,000 is 660. If we get that far, people would be going nuts. And any world leader would probably be getting assassinated by false Christians and everything. So the reality of it is he doesn't want us to know, I don't think, exactly to the day. But we do know that it's around about, it's over 6,200 years. Now, you say, hold on, what about the fossil record, carbon dating? A load of circular reasoning based on false premises to start. Because everything they do is based on trying to disprove God. It's based on coming up with a false start so that there is no God, that they've already decided it's millions of billions, so anything they try and do is to try and prove the millions of billions. Guesswork from people desperate to disprove God, that will not accept, for example, a worldwide flood. They just can't, they'll never be able to work it out. Until they get right, and until they put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then they'll be able to read the Bible and just take it for what it says. And these same people, they won't consider, for example, in the same way that Adam was a fully grown man at one day old, that possibly the earth didn't look a day old when it was a day old. For example, that those mature trees and everything else, well they wouldn't have been looking at and someone wouldn't have cut them down and started looking at them and going, oh well it's a day old. Okay, for example, things to consider. But call me crazy, whatever it is, because I just believe the inspired preserved words of God above any of these freaks and weirdos in the so-called science community. And let's be honest, their spokespeople are pretty much all perverts, aren't they? We were talking about it the other day. What was that guy we were talking about the other day? Lawrence Krauss pervert, Richard Dawkins pervert, Stephen Fry pervert. All these spokespeople, Ricky Gervais, if he ain't a pervert, I don't know who he is. And how does he even qualify? He's a comedian. And if you notice how all the comedians, they want to make it in comedy, just slag off the God of the Bible. They love you. And look, most of them, at least a lot of them, have been proven to be hanging around with Epstein. It's all the same bunch, all just false prophets, in one way or another, given over to a reprobate mind. My faith is in God as opposed to the so-called intellectuals. I don't know about you, but I have faith in God. And we believe the creation account given in the book of Genesis, that God created the heaven and the earth over 6,200 years ago, and that they were created in six literal days. Verse 31 of Genesis 1 says, And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Day, yeah? Not period. Not six days aside from the billions of years in the gap between day whatever and whatever. Just six days. And do you know who wants to try and add in gap theories and all that? Compromises. Wicked compromises. But can't just take the Bible for what it says and have to somehow merge in the latest world's reasoning into the Word of God, right? How about you just come out from among the granddad was a rock nutters? How about you come out from among them and be he separate? How about that? Well, I'm happy to stand here and say, no, I believe what the Bible says. I don't care if they want to call me stupid. They want to call me whatever. They did worse to men of God in the Bible, right? The monkeys sailed across the oceans. Lunatics. I mean, that one's ridiculous. I don't think anyone ever stopped to think about that. We all came from monkeys in Africa. Wait a second. How did they get across the ocean? Oh, they surfed. Surfing monkeys. Oh, yeah. Because, of course, because they probably had wetsuits on as well, right? People believe this stuff. And then they're like, why don't you want about the coming out of Africa theory? Theory? It's lunacy. It's completely ridiculous, isn't it? But how many people just repeat it and go, well, I'm into science. No, you're not. You liar. You put your faith in someone that says that they're a scientist. That's all you've done. And it just happens to get a lot of column inches as well. Well, turn to Exodus 20. There is no compromise. You either trust God or you don't. I trust God. And God said in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 11, Exodus 20, 11, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. He made it in six days. He rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day. Not the Sabbath period. Not the Sabbath, you know, hundreds of millions of years, OK? Days. The Sabbath day. Pretty clear. I believe what God says, whether it's in season or out of season, right? So that was what we believe about separation from the world. I think they kind of went together, those last statements. That was, that is our whole statement of faith covered now in that series. I hope it's going to be a help to, has been a help to some of you. Hopefully it might be a help to people in the future. People ever ask you or wonder, well, what do they believe at that church, right? What do they, do they believe like, you know, liberal Baptists? Do they believe like clown Baptists down the road? Do they believe like nom-da-nom, you know, nom-da-nom? You know, we just make it up as we go along, you know. What do they believe? Well, we believe the Bible, basically. We believe everything and anything in the King James Bible. And that hopefully has just explained some of those clear statements, what we consider to be important things that we believe at this church. We, well, I'll make it into a playlist series on our YouTube channel, however long that lasts, I'm not sure. But we will, we will have, it is all going on to our Rumble channel as well. And just, just to mention, if anyone's watching here, please add our Rumble channel. And also any of you in here that maybe can't always get here every week, please add that because if and when we're given a, you know, a strike and we're down, then it will be a Rumble and it, and we are currently able to livestream to our Facebook. That will change with time as well, sadly, but for now that's how it's going to be. So yeah, please, please make sure you do that. Hopefully this series will be something that we can look back to in time as well. And on that, we're going to finish in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for just the clear teachings in, in your word, Lord. Help us to just have more faith in what you say, Lord, and not what, you know, the so-called intellectuals of the world say, the false prophets in the various, various sort of spheres of influence, Lord. Just help us to just put faith and trust in your word, Lord. Thank you for preserving your word, for helping us here to just live right, to live holy, to live a separate life. Help us to all just do better with that. Help us to all just be more successful in coming out from among them, Lord. But then help us to also be among them to get them saved, Lord. Help us to go, go, go out this afternoon, preach the gospel to the lost and, and Lord, just help us to get many people saved in return for this evening's service. In Jesus' name, pray all this. Amen.