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

Alright, look down at verse number 2, Psalm chapter 8, look at verse number 2, it says out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, as thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. Now keep your place there, but turn to Ephesians chapter 2 real quick, Ephesians chapter 2. So the title of the sermon this evening is ordained, ordained, we're going to talk about what that means, what that does not mean in the Bible, but before we get fully into that, we're going to get some context here off of Psalm chapter 8, but you know, when you hear the word ordained, it means different things to different people when it comes to religious aspects, if you will. For example, obviously I was ordained to be a pastor, brother Oliver just got ordained to be a deacon at Verity Baptist Church recently, you know, but the word, when you study the word ordained, you know, in the Bible has different meanings, you have to really pay attention to the context, now that applies to me, but how does it apply to all of us? Well, I'll show you that, look at Ephesians chapter 2 in verse number 10, it says this, so we get criticized a lot before I read this verse, we get criticized a lot for just going over Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 and then stopping there, right, and they're like, you never want to address verse number 10, well, the reason why is because we use verse 8 and 9 to explain to people the gospel, you know, that we're saved without doing works, without the deeds of the law, but after that, you know, does it just mission over, you got saved and you know, you're just good to go and you know, you shouldn't have to do anything for God, of course not, there are things that we should do, in fact, God has ordained something for every one of us to do, and that's explained in verse number 10, so look at verse 10, it says, for we are his workmanship, right, he did the work, we, as in a new believer, so after you've gotten saved, you know, you've realized that your salvation is not of works, it says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, right, it's not saying that we are saved or maintained, we maintain our salvation by good works, but he's saying that we are saved unto good works, now look at the rest of the verse, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them, and so this does apply to every single person in here, every believer has been ordained to do good works, we should do them, not to stay saved, not to be saved, it's very clear, you know, and obviously I wouldn't read that, I wouldn't read verse 10 to a believer unless they had a question about it until after they got saved, and it makes sense, you get saved first, you understand the Bible, you get born again, and then you explain to them the mission, now go back to, actually, on your way back to Psalm, stop over in Matthew chapter number 21, Matthew chapter number 21, so people hear the word ordained, they go, well that's just for like leadership, just for a pastor, well no, we've all been ordained unto good works, and so we need to understand what that means exactly the way that the Bible teaches, now going back to Psalm chapter number 8, verse number 2, I'll just read that for you again, this is out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou hast, or it says, hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger, now you should say, well what in the world does that mean, well Jesus refers to this verse here in Matthew chapter 21, so if you're not familiar with it, in Matthew chapter 21, it's the passage where Jesus kicks out the money changers, overturns the tables, and then immediately after that he starts to do miracles, he starts to do healings, and then after that, the Bible says that the chief priests and the scribes, they were sore displeased, they got upset, and they're like, don't you see what people are doing, so look at verse number 14, it says this, let me turn that on myself, actually look at verse number 15, it says, and when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying Hosanna to the son of David, they were sore displeased, and so they're like, hey Jesus, don't you see what you got these kids doing now, you're doing all these miracles, and now they think that you're something special, now they're saying Hosanna to the son of David, and they're ascribing that unto you, and the response that Jesus gives to them is in verse 16, and he says this, and said unto him, here is thou what these say, I'm sorry, and Jesus saith unto them, yea, have ye never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou has perfected praise? Now go back to Psalm chapter 8, and we will continue on here, and so if you compare Psalm chapter 8 verse 2, and you have, maybe, let's say you have a question, you're like, well what does it mean that he ordained strength, well, if you compare Matthew 21, 16, where it says, where Jesus is quoting that, but he says thou has perfected praise, you can put two and two together, and realize that the strength that Christ has ordained involves even children, you know, because people, let's face it, they have this attitude like, well, you know, the children, they just kind of need to go off and play, they don't need to hear this, they don't need to hear the hard truths of the Bible, you know, they don't need to go out there and preach the gospel even though they might have a zeal to do so, and that's wrong, you know, there's nothing wrong with the children, you know, singing hymns and reading their Bible and learning to preach the gospel, playing the piano or what have you, you know, the Bible says that God has ordained this as strength, so there's something peculiar in the praise of God that involves even the babes and the sucklings, and that's what Jesus was teaching these chief priests and scribes here in Matthew chapter 21, so look at the verse again with that in mind, it says, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest steal the enemy and the avenger, and so, you know, Jesus left that up to them to figure out in Matthew chapter 21, it doesn't quote the whole thing, but yet that is there for those people. Now look at verse number three, it says this, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, now don't miss this, which thou hast ordained, and so I just wanted to read these to not only give you a little bit of a context, but also to provide you with a definition, so the word ordain means to appoint, or it means to set into position, to place into position, so you can see here in verse three where David says, you know, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, so you look out and you see the planets, you see the stars, you see the sun, you see the moon, you have to realize that it's God who set those things in their positions, right, and he set them up for times and for seasons and things, you learn about that in Genesis, now you say, well why is that important, well turn to Second Chronicles chapter number eleven, Second Chronicles chapter number eleven, so ordain means to appoint or to place into position, this is important because people just misuse this all the time, you know, especially when it comes to ordaining leadership, you know, people will say, I think there was a guy who messaged the church a while back and you don't have, you don't have formal garments, investments and all this stuff, I think some of you guys might have seen that comment that he made on our, I think it was on our Facebook channel, but he also followed up with an email saying, you know, you need to explain why you don't have the formal investments, you know, you're not ordained unless you have like this guy in a robe over you and you've proved to a board of directors that you've, you know, understood certain things and how to go back to the original, it was just this long paragraph, it's insane, I mean, it was, I don't know how long it was, but on my phone I was having to like do this, like several times to get to the bottom of it and I didn't read the whole thing obviously, but you know, that's the mindset that a lot of people have out there today and we will squash that this evening. Now 2 Chronicles chapter number 11, look at verse number 15, it's talking about Jeroboam the son of Nebat says this, and he ordained him priests for the high places and for the devils and for the calves which he had made. Now go to 1 Kings chapter number 12, so go back in your Bible to 1 Kings chapter number 12. I always like to use this to people that say, well, you know, you don't have to be ordained to be a pastor, somebody could basically just get up into a congregation and just start being the pastor, that you could basically, if you feel called and you feel that that's your lead in life, that God's given you that calling, then you have every right whatsoever to get up and start your own church, you don't need anybody's blessing, you don't need anybody to lay hands on you, and nothing can be further from the truth, because if you read 2 Chronicles chapter 11 about Jeroboam, even he had enough sense to actually ordain the lowest of the land to be priests for his false gods that he set up in Bethel and Dan, and so I like to throw that out there to those people and it gets them pretty upset. Now 1 Kings chapter 12, look at verse 32, it says this, it says, and Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made, and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. So not only did he appoint or place into position priests of the lowest of the land, which is a direct violation of the word of God that he understood and had, but he also ordains a feast to these false gods or these calves that he sets up here. Now look at verse 33, it says this, so he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month. Now look at this, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart, right, the Bible's being very specific here to let us know that he didn't, you know, just find a loophole in the law. He's definitely not following the law here. These things that he did, they were of his own heart as a result of pride because he did not want to lose the kingdom. He didn't want people to go back to Judah and follow Rehoboam. So he says, you know what, I'm going to set up my own state religion here and it's going to be wonderful. It's going to be great. And so he's ordaining, he's placing into position leadership, religious leadership for the land to follow. But look at the rest of the verses, and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel, and he offered upon the altar and burnt incense. Now turn to Acts chapter number one, Acts chapter number one. Now again, I will show you the importance of why we need to understand these things in the Bible here. And so just like how Jeroboam set up his own feast, he ordained himself his own priests of the lowest people of the land. The Catholic church has done the very same thing. And many of you know this. Now I just typed in to Google, how do you become an ordained priest? What does that look like? What does that mean? And I took this off of, I think it was catholic.org or something like that. But just listen to this here. It says Catholic priests are ordained by bishops through the sacrament of holy orders, right? You click on that little link there that says holy orders and it takes you to just a whole slew of paragraphs and paragraphs about stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with the Bible, but this is their mindset. This is what they do. It goes on to say this, the Catholic church claims that the Catholic bishops are ordained in an unbroken line of apostolic succession back to the 12 apostles depicted in the Catholic Bible, right? Because you've got to have the Catholic Bible to be true according to them, which includes all the apocryphal books that we've destroyed in sermons of the past. And it goes on to say this, the ceremony of Eucharist, which Catholics believe can only be performed by priests in particular derives from the story of the last supper when Jesus Christ distributed bread and wine in the presence of the 12 apostles in some versions of the Gospel of Luke, commanding them to do this in memory of me. It goes on to say some Protestant critics have challenged the historical accuracy of the claim of unbroken succession, okay? So if anybody tells you that you need to be able to trace your lineage or your pastor needs to be able to trace his lineage all the way back to the apostles, you need to understand that you're dealing with a Jeroboam, you're dealing with a Catholic, i.e. a heretic. You're dealing with false doctrine because the Bible does not speak of that whatsoever. And we'll show you that again as we move on here. It goes on to say this, Catholic tradition says that the apostles in turn selected other men to succeed them as the bishops, and then it goes into the Greek word for that, or overseers of Christian communities, okay? And so there you have it, Catholic tradition says the apostles in turn selected other men to succeed them as bishops, which is kind of weird when you think about it because the Catholic church needed to have priests and then above them they have bishops, they have archbishops, archdiocese, and it goes all the way up to the so-called vicar of Christ who is actually the vicar of hell, because we don't need a mediator between us and God, that's very clear in the Bible. But their main thing there is that they say, they teach, they believe, they can trace their ordinations all the way back to the apostles, absolute garbage, not true. Now if you're there in Acts chapter one, look at verse number 22, it says this, beginning from the baptism of John and to that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. So when somebody says hey our church has apostles, okay, our church is apostolic, we believe in the ministry of apostles, I would submit to you maybe you should ask them, well, has your apostle been a witness with the other apostles of the resurrection? And if so, the dude's probably pretty darn old by now, and I'd like to know what kind of supplements and vitamins that they take so that I can take some so that we can kind of get on board with that. And so it's just not true. I mean do you really think that you can trace these lineages all the way back to the apostles? You couldn't even trace my ordination back there. I mean you would run out because a lot of us, let's face it, preach a message that the world doesn't want to hear, and what do they do to us? They censor us, right? They try to remove us from history. You don't think they didn't do that to them back then? How in the world would we follow that? It's insane. How many Baptist pastors have there been since the apostle Paul, you know, or since Titus or Timothy? Nobody knows. Tons of them. Now listen to this, because I'm just going to go through some of the different denominations here on how they ordain their pastors. And so as I was doing my research, I stumbled upon the old Nazarene manual. If you don't know anything about the Nazarenes, they're a large denomination in Idaho at least, not too large worldwide, but they're large here in the Treasure Valley. They've got their college every once in a while. We run into them. I probably run into one, maybe one or two a month, I would say, and I have a history going to the Nazarene church as a young adult. Jessica grew up in the Nazarene church, and so I've always been a little upset that as I began to read and study these things in the Bible that they don't believe or teach or preach these things, but I figured, you know what, what does the denomination require of their people to be ordained or to be placed into position of authority? Here's what they say. Here's what their manual says. It says, a person called by God in the Christian ministry is called to prepare, and you're going to hear that a lot in reference to people wanting to be pastors. They'll say, you have to be called. Okay. Well, I agree with that, but I may have a different explanation than you. We definitely have a different explanation than these people do. He goes on to say this. It says your preparation process will include formal education, ministry experience, and a variety of assessments. Your formal education will provide a vital foundation of knowledge and skills for the ministry. That is very interesting because every time, every time, every time we knock on one of their doors, whether they're a pastor, a deacon or whatever, they cannot, they absolutely cannot give you the right answer to salvation. Very rarely. And I will stop right here and say that I have met two Nazarene pastors in my life that I can guarantee you are saved. They have the right answer. They know about the King James Bible, but you know, as circumstances are, they're scared of the board. They're scared of the superintendent. They're scared to actually come out about that. And so I will say there, that's definitely the exception, not the rule. They're not the majority. And it's interesting there that they say, you know, a person called by God, you know, they right away, well, you're also called to prepare. And now conveniently, they have a college for you, especially in Idaho. I think there's another one in Canada, but look, these things aren't cheap. You know, some of us have been over there too, gotten kicked off of the Nazarene College over in Ampa. I mean, you know, somebody's got to pay for those dorms, you know, somebody's got to pay for that facility. And they're adding and building and constructing over there all the time. And so I'm just trying to tell you, it's not cheap. But I mean, from what you know already, is that in the Bible? Obviously you should be prepared. You should be prepared. You were not supposed to be a novice, you know, give me a break, but does that mean I need to go $100,000 in debt to get an education to really, I mean, settle down and submit my ordination? I mean, that's ridiculous. That's absolutely absurd. But they have a little Nazarene College section under there because that's where they would prefer that you go. It says ordination committees are looking for ministers who are capable of leading an extremely exemplary and holy life and have a thirst for the word of God, who have the ability to communicate the gospel and who demonstrate the presence of gifts and grace as needed to fulfill God's call. Again, very interesting because when we're on the campus over there, nobody has given us the right answer. In fact, we came this close to getting a young lady saved and their little security team kicked us out. I don't even know if they're having classes over there now, but I mean, you know, they're saying that you have to have a thirst for the word of God. Well, I mean, that should go without saying. You know, I mean, you could pull that out of 1 Timothy 3 and out of Titus chapter 1. Absolutely. You should. You should have the ability to communicate the gospel. Is that where it stops? So as long as you can speak the English language, it doesn't say, but it's definitely going downhill. It goes on to say this, completing your ordination requirements through the Nazarene Bible College demonstrates a commitment to the call of God and to a lifelong learning. Now, did you know that your Bible apparently somewhere says that completing your ordination requirements through the Nazarene Bible College demonstrate a commitment to the call of God? I don't know. Maybe you guys could do your own research and, you know, get back to me, but I don't know how they came to that conclusion because they didn't attach any Bible verses over here as a reference to support that claim. It goes on to say this, what is an ordination? And it goes on to say the process of preparation in which you engage first as a local minister and then as a district licensed minister is a journey of candidacy for ordination. Ordination is the authenticating, authorizing act of the church that recognizes and confirms God's call on the lives of women and men to ministerial leadership as stewards and as proclaimers of both the gospel and the church of Jesus Christ. So there you have it. Now they say that if you're a woman and you feel called to be a preacher, you're good to go. You are allowed to hold the office of a bishop. Now our women, like I always say, we get to preach, you all get to preach the gospel. You're ordained to preach, you're commissioned by God, there's nothing wrong with that. You know, our ladies go out and they get people saved and they teach them doctrine and stuff like that, but does God have a position in the church for that, for a woman pastor? And you already know the answer to that. It goes on to say this, when the board believes you are ready to be interviewed regarding ordination, they will invite you to such an interview. If invited, you will also be asked to complete the ordination recognition questionnaire in advance of the interview. So it's kind of sounding like the old Mason's Club, you know, we'll contact you, you don't contact us. And when you're invited, you'll get to come in to our meeting. It goes on to say, if you're currently an ordained minister in another denomination or have been ordained by an independent congregation in which to serve as an ordained minister of the Church of the Nazarene, you may ask that your existing ordination be recognized. I'm going to go down there and try that and see what they say. It says, this request may be considered if you have met all the requirements for ordination in the Church of the Nazarene as outlined in manual paragraphs 225, 527, 4.4, 3.0.2, and 5.3.0.4. I read all of them and I almost passed out, okay? That is the most absurd thing you could ever read in your entire life. It says, you must demonstrate competency in your understanding of the Nazarene manual. First, that is what is required first. That is, you know, not you need to be able to tell us the order of the books of the Bible or be able to explain Matthew chapter 21, or hey, what is John chapter 16 about? Can you tell me anything about John chapter 16? Just pick a chapter, right? What's Colossians chapter three mentioned? Can you do that? There's none of that. It's their manual, okay? Number two, the history of the Church of the Nazarene. And number three, Wesleyan holiness theology. And there you have it. They are against once saved, always saved. That is what Wesleyan holiness theology is. They believe in this holiness doctrine where a person can attain to sinless perfection, okay? What's that guy's name then? Jesse Peterson, is that him? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Guess what? Not happening, okay? It goes on to say this, if you are invited to interview for recognition of your ordination, you will be examined by the district board as to your conduct, personal experience, your spirituality, as well as in the ministry and soundness of doctrine. So there you have it. I would really, you know, I wish I could just be a fly on the wall in one of these interviews, okay? Where they're asking a short haired, you know, woman where half her head's pink and the other half's blue, you know, about Bible doctrine. Says you will be required to complete the ordination recognition questionnaire in advance of the interview. If you're still in Acts, go to Acts chapter number 14. Acts chapter number 14. Now I read about the Southern Baptists. A lot of them, you know, you gotta submit to the Southern Baptist Convention Organization, you know, and what they did was a little bit different. They came right out with the salaries. These guys at least were a little bit better and just say, hey, we just don't believe the Bible and do whatever the heck we want. So, yeah, and we have a manual, by the way. The Southern Baptists, they came out and were like, hey, so, you know, your salary will go up at least $9,000 in, you know, your lifetime, and you can make anywhere from like 40,000 to 70 and on up, you know, they didn't, yeah, on up depending on the size of your congregation. And, of course, they have different colleges and things that you can go to where they recommend and so on and so forth. Again, none of this stuff, as I will show you, is in the Bible. So Acts chapter 14, look at verse 23. And we'll look at an example here. It says this, and when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. And so what I wanna do now is just give you a picture of this. What does this look like here? So you read this here. It says, and when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter number one. So what does that mean, that they ordained elders in every church? Well, right off the bat, you should understand that it's obviously important to God, it was important to the apostles, that every church have an ordained person in charge here. Now, I think I might have told this story before, but I was speaking with a guy who goes to the Mars Hill Church one day, and this was before Mark Driscoll got fired or whatever happened to him. He used to go there every week, and we were talking about church and stuff like that, and he's saying, you know, my wife, or my fiance rather, is, she desires to go into the ministry, and someday, you know, she might be up there with Mark, and she might, oh my God, I was like, are you serious? And he's like, well, why not? You know, she's good at explaining Bible stories to kids, and I was like, well, that's great, but are you saying she should be a pastor? And he's like, well, if that's what she wants, you know, we're kind of thinking that God might have that calling, oh, her dad's a pastor. That's what he told me, her dad's a pastor. I said, no, no, no, no, I said, look at this. I pulled my Bible out of my backpack, and I went over 1 Timothy chapter three, and here's what he does. He goes, look, I'm gonna stop you right there. I'm calling my girlfriend's dad right now. All right, he goes outside. First, he calls her. He's all shook up, and then I guess he talked to him, and came back in with the old you don't know the Greek, okay? But let's look at it in English here, because that's what we speak. 1 Timothy chapter three, look at verse number one. It says this, this is a true saying, right? This is from the Bible. This isn't from some manual. This isn't from some Catholic garbage that's written on the internet. It says this is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work, right? The reason why it doesn't say call, you're gonna see that here momentarily, but notice what it says there. It says he desires a good work. So if somebody desires the office of a bishop, if somebody desires to be a pastor or an overseer in a church, the Bible says, hey, that's a good desire. Now here's a list of things that you must meet in order to hold that position here. Verse two, a bishop then must be blameless, right? It's not talking about being sinless, right? I shouldn't be out gambling and doing all this crazy stuff to where somebody or the world or you guys could blame me for that and it'd be true. It says the husband of one wife, okay? Now this, unfortunately in today's day and age, this cuts out, I don't know, maybe more than half of what's called New Evangelical Christianity. Even a lot of these liberal churches that are out there that don't have women pastors, they will still say, you do not have the right to make a judgment on those that do, okay? Well, I'm sorry, but I believe the Bible and the Bible says a bishop then must be blameless and then everything he says after that is also must be obligatory, mandatory, not up for discussion, not up for negotiation. These things absolutely positively have to be met. You know, just like how we started off in Psalm chapter eight verse two where it says that God has ordained strength, meaning he is appointed, he has placed into position strength regarding his praise. Nobody can change that. Nobody can modify that. Nobody can say you didn't really mean that, right? These things absolutely have to be met to fulfill that desire. So he goes on to say, husband of one wife. Well, it's hard for a lady to be the husband of one wife. Now, I know there's people out there that are trying to do that who will tell you they are and we happen to run into them often, which is sad, but you get the idea here. The husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior given to hospitality, apt to teach. Notice that word there, vigilant, okay? Vigilant, what does that mean? Somebody who looks well to their going, somebody who is aware of their surroundings. I can't tell you how many of these pastors and Sunday school teachers and youth group leaders, right? These youth pastors that are out here in this community that we talk to on a weekly basis and they are not vigilant. They don't even know where 1 Timothy chapter three is at. They don't know these things. You're not gonna read these things in a lot of these other churches. It says sober, and you know what else that means? It means not being drunk on pride. Of good behavior given to hospitality, apt to teach, verse three, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, okay? Very self-explanatory, very cut and dry. Now, why doesn't the manual for the Nazarene church say that? Why didn't the Catholics come out and say that? What do the Catholics do? They say, well, the husband of one wife, oh, that's right out the window, we don't need that. We'll just ordain people of the lowest, which are pedophiles. There's a lot of priests today are pedophiles. I won't say 100% of them, right? But it's probably pretty close. Maybe even in the 90 percentile, I don't know. But you can see what they do regarding these must-be's. They just toss them right out the window. So guess what else they probably toss out the window? The praise of God, right? Psalm chapter eight, verse two. I mean, why would you believe any of it? Look at verse number four. It says, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children, in subjection with all gravity, meaning all seriousness, okay? How does a Catholic priest do that? How does your, you know, if someone said, well, you know, a female Nazarene pastor, she could do this. She has kids and this and that, and not all of them. I've met some that aren't even married. Look at verse five. For if a man not, I'm sorry, for if a man not, no, not how to rule his own house, how should he be able to take care of the church of God? You know, I met a guy one time, he had no kids, and he was trying to use his wife's, like, 17, 18-year-old stepson, who he didn't raise, as a justification for this. You know, and it's like, well, how could we prove verse five? How could we measure you up to verse number five? Not gonna happen, right? Well, I met him when he was 17, you know, and I still gave him advice, and I still talk to him. Look, there's churches out there that will ordain you, but you're in violation of scripture, and it's a big deal, and it's a problem. Look at verse six. Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Now, if you look at our church and other, you know, our French churches, like Verity Baptist Church, there's autonomy here, you know? Some pastors might say, you know, you need to be saved for seven years. Some might say 10, some might say five. You know, the point being, you can't be somebody right off of the street, because let's say, let's just be honest here, some people, they get saved, and they get on fire, and they get zealous, and they wanna do everything, you know? We would love to see that, and that's great. You know, hopefully you don't get burnt out, but you know, that's a great thing, but you're still a novice. You know, people will often come and get saved, and come into a church like this, and they're well-spoken. They're just very smart people. I mean, they would be great at preaching. They would be great at pastoring, right? But you're still a novice. These things are in here as a safeguard, so that people don't fall into sin, and like it says, fall into the condemnation of the devil. Verse number seven, it says, "'Moreover, he must have a good report "'of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach "'and the snare of the devil.'" Now, what does that mean there? Well, he's supposed to have a good rapport with the people that are outside here. You know, I have a good rapport with people that aren't saved, that are without the church, without the body of Christ, if you will. You know, we try to live peaceably with all men when possible. You know, it just so happens in today's day and age, it's not possible to live with a lot of people peaceably. Right, we have people that attack us constantly. You know, somebody will send an email or a text message, hey, you know, you need to have charity in your heart, because you're just so rude, and you're just so angry, and you know, it's like once a week, I get something like that now, and it's just ridiculous. And somebody sent me this verse here, I think it was NIV, basically saying that I don't have a good reputation with the community outside, with the world, because we go around and we pound on people's doors, and we bother people, and we pester people. You know, that's just your interpretation, that's just your point of view, because we're commanded to go out and preach the gospel. I mean, you'll see that here, go to Titus chapter one. Titus chapter number one. In Titus chapter one, you'll see a very similar list here. Titus chapter one, look at verse number five. Titus one, verse five, he says this to Titus, it says this, for this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee. As I had ordained thee, saying, so you do likewise, in verse number six, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. So just in case you thought that 1 Timothy chapter three was a mistranslation, they didn't get the Greek right, he says it again in Titus, okay? Don't you think that this is pretty important? You know, there's not a whole lot of passages that talk about ordaining, you know, pastors. I mean, you got 1 Timothy three, you got Titus chapter one, I mean, you can see a little bit of verbiage in 1 Timothy four, and then in 1 Timothy chapter five about not laying hands suddenly on any man, and so on and so forth, but this is it here. But it's in here twice, meaning it's important, it's a must be, it has to be this way. Now, look at verse number seven, it says, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, verse number eight, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, and temperate. I've met a lot of pastors that are not lovers of hospitality, in fact, they are very arrogant and rude, and basically just want you to hit the road as soon as church is over, and they don't want to talk to you, why, because they don't have the courage, they don't have the aptitude, they don't have the love for the people, you know, because when you pastor people, you're pastoring problems, because people have problems, and part of my job is to help you in any way that I possibly can with your problems, and some people, they just can't bear that load, they just can't bear that burden. And sometimes I look at them, I'm like, why? You don't go soul winning, you don't preach hard against anything, you got one service a week, and you kind of oversee a little, a small group, right? They'll oversee a small group on Wednesdays, it's like, your life can't be that hard. You know, John Hagee's excuse, because he dips right out the back door after his services, his excuse as well, somebody tried to shoot me back in the day, and so it's been protocol in this church now, after the service, I'll even get into an armored vehicle and go home, you know, must be nice. We have to say, you know what, safety's of the Lord. So verse number nine, look at this. So this one here goes without saying in 1 Timothy 3, but it's written here in Titus chapter one, verse nine, it says this, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught. So what is that implying there? Well, if you're gonna be an overseer, if you're gonna be ordained, you have to be taught. Where's the Bible college? Where's the school? No, the idea is that you learn from those that are already overseers of a church, you learn in church, you study on your own as well. Now does that mean you can't have a spiritual leadership class? No, of course not, of course we can, you know. I thank God that mine was free at Verity Baptist Church. I didn't have to pay a dime, I just had to pay with time, and that was it, that was enough. And you know, I get this all the time, you know, people will be like, well, how long have you lived here? They're always trying to find out if I'm from California. You know, right, a lot of people around here do that. And I'll tell them I've been here for almost two years, you know, February would be two years, and they're like, oh, what made you move here? Oh, you know, I try to like, if I can, to sidestep it, because I don't wanna get involved in this discussion that could go back and get me in trouble. But a lot of times people just press and they just wanna know. So I'll tell them, you know what, we started a church here. Oh, where'd you go to Bible college? I had a lady over in Meridian. Where'd you go to Bible college? I said I didn't. Well, how you gonna learn the Greek? I said, where do you go to church? And she says, well, I go to this one and that one. And she didn't name like five churches around here that she's, you know, going back and forth yet. She hasn't made up her mind. I was like, oh, okay. I said, did all those pastors, do they speak Greek? And she goes, they go back to the Greek a lot, and they teach what those Greek words mean. I said, do they speak it fluently? Could I take them over to Greece right now and drop them off in a city and expect them to order food, you know, preach the gospel, and basically function in that society? She said, of course not. They're not fluent in the language. I said, so how are they gonna teach you what those mean? She's like, that's a good question. I don't know. I was like, yeah. And that's why I'm not gonna waste 70, $80,000 not learning a language, you know, at some college. And she's like, but you still gotta know it. I was like, are you saying I still have to speak the language? Because I don't have anybody that speaks Greek in my church. I've never ran into one Greek person here in Idaho. Maybe some of you have, but I have not. And she's like, well, it gives you a deeper understanding. I go, are you saying that you can't trust English? And I'm literally having this conversation with her in her living room while I'm trying to fix her fireplace. She's like, you can trust it, but it's not as deep as the Greek. I said, do you speak Greek? She says, no. I said, well, how do you know that? She's like, that's a good question. I don't. And at this point, I'm like, I need to just go work at a normal job with other dudes. But you know that, I mean, she's just one example of thousands and thousands and thousands that are out there. You just misunderstand this, but it says very clearly here, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught. So when you knock on someone's door and they say, hey, I'm a youth pastor, they cannot give you the gospel. They can't give you the, step one. Have they held fast the faithful word? No. Were they taught it? No. Are they teaching this at Northwest Nazarene University? No. Do they teach you this at the Vatican? No, they don't. This is a problem. So he says, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught that he, see, this is what they don't like. This is why they don't do this, that he may be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers, right? So we're supposed to be able to have enough knowledge, enough wisdom to be able to change people's minds. We should be able to be smart enough every once in a while, convince a gainsayer. Somebody who's like, you know what? That's not right. You gotta know the original language, you have to. Now that lady, I wasn't getting anywhere. And it wasn't because I didn't have the knowledge, it's because somebody else went in there and really stirred that brain up and it's gonna take a month or two to really break through that thing. She's like, you know what though? She's like, for you not going to Bible college? She's like, give me a card to your church. I wanna check it out. I was like, I don't have a card. I was like, here's a pen, I did have a pen. Here's a pen, come visit us sometime. She's like, yeah, I'm gonna have to do that. As far as I got with her. And I'm walking out the door, I'm like, I pray to the Lord, please Lord, not that one. There's a whole other thing with that I don't have time to get into. But looking for summer 10, it says, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the Nazarene denomination. I was just kidding. Especially they of the circumcision, which is another thing that modern Christianity does not like to admit, right? We're supposed to say, or believe rather, that you know what, the Jews are God's chosen people. They're the apple of God's eye. And we should just look the other way, because when he comes back, they're all just gonna miraculously get saved, even though that's not what happened the first time, right? But I mean, think about this first time. Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught. You know, we read all of these things here. Now, let me ask you a question. Where does it say that he must be able to trace his lineage back to the apostles? Why doesn't it say that? Yeah, avoid genealogies. It's impossible. I mean, think about that. In 2020, almost 2021, you know, it's virtually impossible. Look at verse 11. It says this, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. So the Bible's saying that, you know, a pastor, and this is not just for a pastor. I believe all of us need to have this knowledge. We all should be able to convince the gainsayers. We should all be able to battle with those who subvert whole houses. That lady that I was talking to in her living room about the Greek, somebody has subverted her, meaning they overthrew her mind. They overthrew her mentality. That's what it means to subvert somebody. And guess what? We're stuck, and thank God we are. We are stuck with the job, the responsibility to try and overturn that, right? But how are you gonna do that spending 70, 80, $100,000, you know, pretending to learn a language that you will never speak? Or how are you gonna do that by just tossing out 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 completely out of your Bible, because that's exactly what these people do. And I'm not just only picking on the Catholics and the Nazarenes. There's tons, I mean, the Presbyterians. We could start there. The Episcopelians, the Apostolics, the Pentecostals. You're saying you're the only one that's right? No, but I'm saying we believe the Bible, okay? And if you throw these things out, you are in violation of Scripture. You have no idea what it means to be ordained. So what you need to understand is this. By these things, an ordination is valid or invalid, not by the lineage of the appointor. You notice there's very little said in the Bible about the person doing the appointing. I mean, obviously we see the apostles, they ordain, they lay hands. You know, Paul told Titus, he told Timothy, hey, you know, lay hands, not suddenly on anybody, meaning, you know, just because you meet somebody and you like them, you know, don't just lay hands on them, because then you're stuck with that burden when they fall into the condemnation of the devil, right? He's saying, hey, let these first be proved. Need to have a method to prove these people. So by these things, an ordination is valid or invalid. Nothing in there regarding, well, what if the person doing the appointing backslid? So what? Once you're placed into that position, once you're appointed, there's a severance right there. It's a done deal. Now you're an independent, local body of Christ, Bible-believing church. I mean, if there was a process in the Bible of what to do, you know, if like four pastors ago messed up, we would be reading this here. If that somehow made an ordination invalid, it would be on one of these lists here. Does everybody understand that? It's very clear. Go to 1 Timothy chapter two. Just a couple of bonuses here regarding ordination, regarding the word ordained in the Bible. 1 Timothy two, look at verse number seven. So Paul tells us, so before he even gets into chapter three, chapter four, chapter five, you would have already read chapter two where he says this. It says, we're into, I am ordained a preacher and an apostle. So Paul's saying, hey, look, I was ordained a preacher and an apostle. It doesn't say pastor, it says preacher and an apostle. I speak the truth in Christ and lie not, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. What did we read in the beginning of the sermon in Ephesians chapter two? That we are all ordained into good works and who did that ordination? Who set up that appointment? Who set up that position? It's God, it's the Lord that did that. You know, and so when you go out there and you preach the gospel, guess what? You need to realize you're fulfilling that ordination. You've decided to comply with that position, that appointment. And so you should never let anybody make you feel subhuman or like you're doing something wrong because your mission is appointed by God. It is very clear. Last thing I'll have you look at is Jude. Go to Jude. And so again, just like with baptism, just like with repentance, just like with all these different words in the Bible, when you read the word ordained, you have to understand what it means. And it means, you know, point or to be appointed or to place into position. So you have to understand the context, meaning you need to read the passages before and the passages afterwards, okay? Here's a just, I just want to leave you with this one here. Jude verse four, it says this. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. And you say, why does he say that? Because it's true and it happens. And look, it's not over here. There will be people who creep in to this church and try to overthrow it and try to subvert people's minds. And so, you know, we're all ordained onto good works and studying is a good work. Learning the Bible is a good work. You know, Paul told Timothy to be an example, you know, that he was supposed to be an example of the believers, meaning that all believers need to strive to do these must-be's on these lists here. These are also part of your ordination, not just mine. But I also find it funny, you know, you take a look at the word ordained, you type in ordained in the Bible and you're not gonna find anything, any specific process where it says you have to trace your lineage back to the apostles. God can do that. God could absolutely do that. Because if that's true, then you need to, I mean, everybody in here who's saved got saved by somebody who was saved and, you know, you can just go all the way back that way. But you need to realize this. What if the person who got you saved backslides? And they get out of church. Does that mean, well, my ordination's valid, you know? My Christianity's junk now, I guess I better quit. Better tap out, just better stop. No, you just keep moving on, you keep marching on. It's the same thing when a person is ordained an overseer of a church. Case closed. It's a done deal. Not a hard concept to understand. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church. I just pray you continue to bless us, Lord. And thank you for the year that we had and the victories that we had, Lord. And thank you for the lessons that we learned. Just pray you bless the fellowship after the service, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, we'll grab your pinholes. One more time. We'll be sending in 420. 420, the song of the air. That's all right, finish. ["O Come All Ye Faithful"]