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You You You You You got in the man, all right Welcome back to the manual. I know what am I? We got to go cut that What in the world that thinking Pastor go restart the Well good evening everyone welcome back to a mountain Baptist Church Take your songbooks and turn to song number 66 Yeah I will sing At Calvary good night if you will stand We'll sing song number 66 Years I spent in vanity and pride Carry not my lord was crucified crucified knowing not it was for me he died on Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free Pardon, there was multiplied to me there my verdant soul found liberty at Calvary By God's Word at last my sin I learned then I trembled at the law I spurned Till my guilty soul imploring turned to Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free Pardon, there was multiplied to me There my verdant soul found liberty at Calvary Oh the love that drew salvation's plan Oh The grace that brought it down to man. Oh the mighty golf that God did spent at Calvary Oh Mercy there was great and grace was free Pardon, there was multiplied to me there my verdant soul found liberty at Calvary Now I've given to Jesus everything Now I gladly own him as my king now my rapture soul can only see of Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free Pardon, there was multiplied to me there my verdant soul found liberty at Calvary Let's pray heavenly father what we just want to thank you God for just a beauty beautiful day to hear Preaching from your word and to also be a witness for you I pray Lord now that you would just meet with us fill their pastor with your power and spirit for it's in Jesus name We ask all of it. Amen Alright, if you would turn in your songbooks to song number 30 Song number 30 will sing nothing but the blood Song number 30 What can wash away my sin nothing but the blood of Jesus What can make me whole again nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh Precious is the flow that makes me white as snow No other Fount I know nothing, but the blood of Jesus for my pardon this I see nothing, but the blood of Jesus for my cleansing this my plea nothing, but the blood of Jesus Oh Precious is the flow that makes me white as snow No other fount I know nothing, but the blood of Jesus Nothing can for sin atone nothing, but the blood of Jesus Not of good that I have done nothing, but the blood of Jesus Oh Precious is the flow that makes me white as snow No other fount I know nothing, but the blood of Jesus Jesus This is all my hope and peace nothing, but the blood of Jesus This is all my righteousness Nothing, but the blood of Jesus Oh Precious is the flow that makes me white as snow No other fount I know nothing, but the blood of Jesus Amen so welcome back the Mountain Baptist Church on this Sunday evening afternoon. Whatever you want to call it And I want to get the before we do announcements give the soul wanting numbers for the week I think brother Jim had to earlier this week Let me check on that. Oh Wait, he's here. Why am I? Yeah. Sorry, brother two on Saturday, okay I saw you too. I even said hi to you So we had two on Saturday. Was there any on Monday or Wednesday? one on Wednesday So and then today what we have today Day two so that's five six seven Yeah, seven eight, okay, so eight then for the week It's a good job with the soul winning Keep up the good work there Was there any was there any on the Tuesday with the Salem They go out at Salem this year this this week anyone remember? I Think that was last week that there was some numbers there on that. Anyway, if so, we'll get it later And then just announcements everything is normal as far as the church times here so we have Our service this afternoon, but don't forget about the Wednesday evening We finally did resume our Exodus series and so we'll be continuing through the book of Exodus should be in chapter 29 this week and then The soul winning this week, don't forget about brother Charles leading up Monday time brother Richie leading up the Wednesday time and then now brother Matt is leading up a Tuesday time out the Salem area and and then Upcoming events. We had the men's prayer meeting this Friday We have the women's prayer meeting the next Saturday, and then we have the soul winning marathon Kind of our church anniversary sewing marathon if you will on the 17th And then that'll be up in Wheeling and then we have we'll have a fellowship for our church our our anniversary service on the 18th and so Being your place is there for that five years. So do we get five layer cake? Is that how we do it like each year we get another layer? Kind of like that idea as long as the layers don't get thinner as the years go on, you know, so but Anyway, we're gonna have something we'll have a fellowship and so excited about five years can't believe it's been that long but And then the retreat we had that coming up in October so that'd be here before you know it again there's a sign-up sheet and on the refrigerator if you Know you're coming or maybe you can't come just let us know But hopefully everybody can make it out to that Including Those that are in college You know So a chapter memory for the month is 2nd John and then our verse for the week is Colossians 1 18 and At the birthdays got the anniversaries be in prayer for my wife pregnancy list there and offering boxes in the back And then the mother baby room so the mothers and babies only It's about all I got for announcements unless there's something I'm missing But I think that's all what we got going on at the moment. So but they was gonna come and sing one more song Who's reading tonight? But David so brother David's gonna be reading. I told you first collage first Colossians Colossians chapter 1 Yes, right first first, you know, it's not a second Colossians. We're gonna be first Colossians Colossians chapter 1 is what I told you Right. Okay, so it'll be reading Colossians chapter 1 for us after we do one more You All right, take your songbooks and turn to song 39 Song number 39 in your songbooks will sing how beautiful heaven must be Song number 39 We read of a place that's called heaven It's made for the pure and the free These truths in God's Word he hath given How beautiful heaven must be how beautiful heaven must be Sweet home of the happy and free Fair haven of rest for the weary how beautiful heaven must be and heaven note nor piney No washing for elsewhere to be God's lightest forever. They're shiny how beautiful heaven must be How beautiful heaven must be sweet home of the happy and free Fair haven of rest for the weary how beautiful heaven must be Pure waters of life there are flowing And all who will drink may be free Where jewels of splendor are glowing How beautiful heaven must be how beautiful heaven must be sweet home of the happy and free Fair haven of rest for the weary how beautiful heaven must be The angels so sweetly are singing up there by the beautiful sea Sweet course from their gold harps are ringing how beautiful heaven must be how beautiful heaven must be sweet home of the happy and free Fair haven of rest for the weary how beautiful heaven must be All right, take your Bibles and turn to Colossians chapter number one Colossians chapter one. We'll have brother David read that for us Yeah there in Colossians chapter one the Bible reads Paul and apostles of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Demetrius our brother to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ to resurrect Colossi Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have to all the saints For the hopeless is laid up for you in heaven Wherever you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel Which is coming to you as it is in all the world and bringeth full fruit as it doth also in you Since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God and truth As we also learned of Epaphras our dear fellow servant who is for you a faithful minister of Christ Who also declared unto us your love in the spirit for this cause we also since the day we heard it Do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of Israel in our wisdom and spiritual Understanding thing that you might that you might walk worthy of the load and our priest pleasing Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power and to our patience and long suffering of joyfulness Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son in Whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins Who is the image of the invisible God the first one of every feature? For by him are all things created that in heaven and that on earth Visible and invisible Whether they be thrones or dominions and principalities or Paris all things were created by him and for him And he is before all things and by him all things consist and he is the head of the body The church who is the beginning the first one from the dead then all things he might have the preeminence For it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell and having made peace to the blood of his cross By him to reconcile all things unto himself by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven and you that was sometime Alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and an unreproveable in his sight If you continue in the faith granted and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel Which he have heard and was his priest to every creaser which is under heaven Whereof I Paul and made a minister who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions Of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake which is the church Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God Which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God even the mystery which have been heard from ages and from generations But now has made manifest to his saints to whom God would make known What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory? Whom we preach whom we preach running every man and teaching every man in all wisdom That you may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus where unto I also labor striving according to his working which worketh in me Mightily, let's pray. Dear Lord. Thank you for this opportunity to come back to church I pray that you be with pastor and pray that you help us to pay attention Jesus name. Amen Amen Were you there in Colossians chapter 1? we're gonna get back to that, but I want you to go to Ephesians chapter 1 and I'm continuing my series through And I have be or that acronym a new independent fundamental Baptist What this means why we hold these terms and so we already hit on Baptist You know why we call ourselves Baptist that really is kind of the the the most basic term as far as understanding that we believe It's salvation by grace through faith We do believers baptism we do baptism by immersion and that's there's a lot that goes into that name of Baptist But then we hit on fundamental. Why are we fundamental Baptist and that's because we take the Bible literally we believe the Word of God is perfect without error and we take these stories literally and Getting into also just standards taking hard hard having strict standards because we take it literally So we hit on being a fundamentalist But then the I and NIFB would be Independent. Okay, so I'm getting into the idea of why are we an independent Baptist? Okay, and you say what's the difference? What what's the big deal with that? Well, there's basically Baptists that are part of conventions denominations. So actually the biggest Baptist or group of Baptist is Southern Baptists So that makes up a huge number of Baptists and there's the Southern Baptist convention So essentially the Southern Baptists have a denomination. They kind of go all back to a head Okay, and the point I want to make is that I am NOT the head of this church Jesus's okay so the idea of being independent or why we want to be independent is so that Jesus is Actually the head of this church and not some other Group of people or some other person somewhere else or even me because I'm the I'm the pastor I'm the leader, but I'm not the head of the church. Okay, that's that's Jesus to be the head of the church so You have like the Southern Baptist which make up a big group of our big portion of Baptist But then you have like American Baptist Convention you have American Baptist Association. So you probably have heard the ABC the ABA There's like just different Baptist Denominations if you will, okay Independent is not a denomination independent just means that we we are completely autonomous Okay, so this is on our website, you know as far as it if you look at our statement It says we are an independent Baptist Church and have no affiliation with any type of denomination or convention. We are completely autonomous Autonomous means like we're completely cut off from any other church There's no church that supports us like obviously people maybe give us gifts and stuff like that But we're not getting supported by some other church we are completely autonomous the umbilical was cut the day that I was sent out to start this church and yes, Emmanuel did you know help us a little bit financially to get off our feet and Helped us a little bit to get that first month's rent, you know of the building that we're in but There's no like I don't go back to Pastor Huggins to see. Okay. Are you okay with me preaching this? You know and get my marching orders from any other person Actually, the only person I get marching orders from is from the Bible and so that's being independent whereas Obviously in Baptist from there's there's denominations, but think of Methodists, you know, even United Methodist Church of Christ You know like the Nazarenes like all these different The Catholic Church, let's use that as an example the Catholic Church. It all goes back to the Pope right and You know, basically it goes back to some head somewhere and That means Christ isn't the head of that church now, obviously a lot of those aren't legitimate churches Anyway, they're false churches as it is, but there are churches out there that are legit churches that have salvation right maybe even have the right Bible, but they're associated with some convention somewhere or whatever Those are gonna be few and far between because let's just be honest the finest church is King James Bible only and That's soul winning. They're probably gonna be an independent Baptist Okay, but there are churches out there that maybe don't even have the name Baptist, but they're associated with some group or you know Convention or something like that, right? And there may be other Denominated there may be other, you know groups of churches that are independent in their own, right? So that's why all these terms together is what shows us what we are, right? We're not just an independent church We're an independent Baptist Church. We're not just an independent Baptist Church. We're an independent fundamental Baptist Church Okay, and that independent is important because we hold the Bible to be our final authority Jesus is the Word of God in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God Jesus when he when he seated sitting on the white horse coming down from heaven It says that he had on his thigh and aim written which is the Word of God So Jesus is literally called the Word of God. He is the Word made flesh and He is our final authority. If you have some convention or some like tier of authority that's going up outside of this church then Then Jesus isn't the head Okay, and so go to Ephesians chapter 1 and I just want to show you some verses here on this subject of Jesus being The head over the church. Okay, so that's what it really comes down to when when it comes to being independent We don't have any other head besides Jesus, we don't have anybody that we answer to besides Jesus Okay, so when it comes to all faith and practice and doctrine The Bible the Bible is our final authority And it comes down to this too Let's say I would just go off on the rails somewhere and I just started preaching work salvation and all this other stuff Listen, the Bible is a final authority not me okay, now obviously that would be crazy if that happened, but It's not gonna happen But at the same time like if it happened and you had some pastor that just completely went AWOL on you and just went Off the rails on their doctrine then you hold to the Bible Okay now go to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 20 You can do a little tour de force through Ephesians and Colossians here on dealing with the fact that Jesus is the head of the Church. Okay, look at it. It says in verse 20 here It says which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might in Dominion and above and every name that is named not only in this world But also in that which is to come and I've put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over All things to the church which is his body the fullness of him that filleth all in all You may say well, you know the church that's this universal church. We don't believe in a universal church. We believe in local churches and Here's the thing though What are we getting to is the fact that Jesus is the head of every legitimate church at the same time? Okay, but Just to show you that there's not one all-encompassing churches because there's the the Galatians was written to the churches in Galatia We'll get to the churches in Asian the set the seven churches in Asia, so there's there's plurality of churches But he's basically stating here that It'd be kind of like if you're saying the the husband is the head of the wife. Well, there's not just one wife, right? now in the case of Being the head of the wife. There is only one head when it comes to the church is and that's Jesus Okay, but Jesus is God so he can be everywhere at the same time okay, so Don't blame him for being omnipresent because he can be it all these different churches at the same exact time And it doesn't matter if we're on the East Coast or West Coast You know, there's East Coast churches that are going on right now Maybe I don't know We do have it like a different time than maybe most but I know pastor burzins was on for unless he changed it I think he's gonna change it to five But he was had the same exact time as us. Guess what? Jesus can be the head of that church The same time he's the head of this church okay, now I'm gonna get to that but but you see that that he is far above all principality and He is he has made him to be head over all things to the church all things Okay, go to Ephesians chapter 5 Ephesians chapter 5 verse 22 this kind of shows you the relationship between husbands and wives and and Christ in the church and And obviously later on it bases. This is a great mystery, you know, like it's almost like don't take it So literally that Christ and the church is like a husband and a wife But the idea is that they're definitely things that the roles of a husband to a wife and the roles of Christ of the church Is very similar, okay Ephesians chapter 5 verse 22 it says wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ So let the wives be to their own husbands and everything Now usually we're preaching this passage to talk about wives being submissive to their husbands but let's talk about how this is talking about how the church is submissive to Christ and So we're to submit to Christ in all things Okay, keep reading there in verse Verse 25 says husbands love your wives Even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might Sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish So our job as a church is to try to be as pure and holy and separate, you know from the world To where we're this basically to present us like a chaste virgin to to Christ And it kind of picturing that husband wife a spousal thing and obviously The saved in general are the bride of Christ and that's another sermon for another day go to Colossians chapter 1 Colossians chapter 1 Colossians chapter 1 verse 12. So this is the our Chapter we read at the beginning here You may think that you're well you're just beating the dead horse here by Mentioning I just want it to be very clear that the Bible says that Christ is the head of the church and To try to put anybody else's the head is is wrong Splasphemous to think that anybody else could be the head of the church besides Christ. Okay, and Colossians chapter 1 verse 12 It says giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son in whom we have redemption Through his blood even the forgiveness since who is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of every creature for by him We're were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth Visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him And he is before all things and by him all things consist notice this and he is the head of the body The church who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence And preeminence is dealing with basically Surpassing I mean he's above all principalities and you think about principalities think about being a principal of a company, right? Who's the principal of the company the people that are the high-ups, right? They're the ones that are like the owners of the company They're the leaders of the company or it could be just one principal of the company the principal of the school, right? I mean you kind of think of that When you're in if you're in public school or something like you have a principal but They're the leader They're the ones that are the highest up right and he's far above all principalities that in all things He might have the preeminence meaning that he is the superior ruler over the church and When it comes to being independent It comes down to the fact that I believe that's the best way to have Jesus being the head of the church now could there be a Nominate, you know a convention church somewhere that that really does hold Jesus as being the head. I guess it's possible for a time maybe What you have to understand though, is that? When it comes down to these conventions, maybe they started off and it was okay, but they're eventually Bared out on that church to say what they want to say do what they want to do or they're gonna cut ties Because you start preaching something they don't want to be associated with then you know what they're gonna say either you don't preach that anymore or You're no longer supported by us and it really comes down to it You know why people want to be in these conventions because they get support from the convention. I Used to go to a liberal church up in Morgantown that was an ABA Church and They literally just I mean the the the preachers there were full-time even though the church was Extremely small at the time and was not being supported by the church. They're being supported by this convention Now the church was awful anyway, but at the same time like How can you make it any worse? Because this is liberal like CCM music, which I couldn't stand back then still can't stand now But they used every version of the Bible except for the King James Except for like maybe once when they would like deem it convenient And we thought we could change them, you know, because we were young and naive That didn't work out but They were basically just being supported by this convention Now obviously, I'm all for church supporting a pastor and the pastor being full-time but not from an outside source and When you have that all that does is just breed corruption from above I'll be getting into the trickle-down effect that that that a Denomination can do to a church, but let's just stick on the fact that Jesus supposed to be the one that has preeminence not anybody else and You notice what it says in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 10 Colossians chapter 2 and verse 10 it says and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all Principality and power go down to verse 18. Let no man begow you begow you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels intruding into those things Which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind and not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment Ministered and knit together increases with the increase of God, it's basically stating that you're You're not holding the head to be the authority in what you're doing. Okay, and so These are just some verses on that as far as Jesus being the head Go to go to Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians chapter 4 I am a pastor of the church, but I'm not the head of the church Okay There is a difference and I'll end with kind of the big difference between those two As far as being the pastor and being the head of the church. Okay, so if anybody ever, you know says well Pastor Robinson's the head of our church There's difference between heading up something and being the head of the church Right because you can have like the head that would have other people kind of heading up other stuff that's below That right and when it comes to is that I'm the pastor, but I'm under the pastor the shepherd right and so I take my orders from him and That in turn is the Bible. Okay. I'm not audibly. Well, you don't have conversations at night and he's talking to me audibly okay, so unless it's scorby, you know, like reading the Bible to me and you know that's different, okay, but Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 here says and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ so He gave to the church pastors teachers evangelists Prophets now apostles we know, you know that that Paul was the last to be called an apostle. So You know, obviously the apostles are no longer people that are around it, but we still have the Apostles Okay, because we have the Word of God they pen down holy men of God's spake as they're moved by the Holy Ghost We just don't have them in the flesh walking around at the moment, but you can think of prophets as being preachers okay, and You can have people that are preachers that necessarily aren't pastors and you can have obviously pastors should be preachers, too Okay, I think that that's something that needs to be there Have a pastor and then he just doesn't preach He has someone else preach for him, you know Like brother Dave or something like that that would just preach for me It'd be like if I just like said I'm gonna pastor the church brother Dave's gonna do all the preaching That would be a little strange Okay, there's nothing wrong with other people preaching but it'd be strange if I'm if I'm the leader of the church and I'm not preaching any sermons and I'm just Handing that off to someone else But down at verse 15 there it says but speak the truth and love May grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ. Okay, so we're talking about the body of the church The congregation. Okay. So when we're talking about the church, we're talking about the congregation. It's not about this building It's about the people When we're congregated together, that is the church. That is the congregation. That is the assembly and Christ is to be the head of that church now go down to go to Revelation chapter 1 And the thing I want to hit on is that there's separate churches Separate independent churches that are out there and Christ can be the head of all those at the same time Okay, and a good way of explaining this is understanding what it states here about these seven churches in Asia Now you may have like looked at these churches and said hey, you know These are seven church ages and this is the dispensation of Laodicean age, you know, and and all that No, these are seven churches that existed at that time when John was writing this. Okay, and he said send it to them so If he's sending this letter to these seven churches, but Laodicean isn't until right now You know, you must I mean, I know the post office is slow But that's getting to another level right? I had to see a sorry We didn't get that to you until 2,000 years later But in Revelation chapter 1 I want you to see about these seven churches and I'll show you Prove to you that Jesus can be in the midst of each one of those churches at the same time. Okay? Revelation chapter 1 verse 10 It says I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying I am alpha and Omega the first and the last and What thou seest write in a book and and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia Like I said, if they don't exist at that time, how can he send it to those seven churches? Okay, but let's keep reading unto Ephesus and unto Smyrna and unto Pergamos and unto Thyatira and unto Sardis and unto Philadelphia and unto Laodicea and I turned to see the voice that spake with me and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man Clothed with the garment down to the foot and girded about the paps with a golden girdle so he turns and he sees seven golden candlesticks and in the midst of them of All seven of these candlesticks is one like unto the Son of Man Well look down at verse 20 of Revelation 1 and it explains what these seven golden candlesticks are Verse 20 it says the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand in the seven golden candlesticks The seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches and the seven golden candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches Okay, so very clearly this is like when you have that a equals, you know Something and B equals something and then you plug in the numbers, right? Okay, seven stars and seven angels the seven golden candlesticks are the seven churches that means when he's in the midst of the seven candlesticks He's in the midst of the seven churches All right, well look at Revelation chapter 2 and verse 1 Revelation chapter 2 and verse 1 So in Revelation 1 it says he's in the midst of those seven churches Notice what it says in Revelation 2 and verse 1 it says unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, right? These things saith he that holds the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks So notice that he's walking in the midst of each one of these churches At the same time So Obviously Jesus is God he can do that and this means that he can be the head of every single church a legitimate church at one time and It's not bound to where You know, he can't be there at the same time Okay, and obviously this gets into so many other avenues that God can be everywhere at once You can you flee from the presence of the Lord, you know If I'm if I send up into heaven behold thou art there and make my bed in hell behold thou art there It's wherever you go. He's gonna you can be there. Okay, and So when you're dealing with being independent one Christ is to be the head and have fun Trying to make Christ the head of the church when you're part of some convention some denomination, okay, and Where they're basically giving you sermons down the line. They're telling you what you can and cannot preach They're telling me what you can and cannot do You imagine if let's say let's say we got the cops caught on us for going out soul winning and then the convention is like That kind of looks bad on us. You know, you need to stop going door to door Well, who's the head You're gonna listen to you're gonna listen to the Bible are you gonna listen to them? You start preaching hard on sin and then you know, that doesn't look good on the convention So, you know, we're gonna change that and that's where you get into like these conventions They they vote and like oh, okay. It's okay to have women preachers It's okay to have queers working in the church and they have these conventions and guess what every church is part of that convention needs to follow walk and step or they're gonna get in trouble or they're gonna be Basically cast out of that convention So my recommendation to all those churches that are in the convention get cast out then and be independent, okay so being independent is I believe gonna be the best way to make Christ the head of the church, okay? Here's another problem with having a convention or some kind of denomination is the trickle-down effect of sin Okay and bad doctrine Go to Galatians chapter 2. Let me give you an example of this and we've seen this happen with the old IFP, you know Even with Jack House who was I believe a good preacher But there were things that trickle down because Jack House wasn't right about everything There's actually a lot of things that you know I would disagree with Jack House on even though he did have a great movement of soul winning and all this But there was things that trickle down and just because of who he was and in that school That was there and everything that's involved with that It had a big trickle-down effect and you can think about Jack Scott, you know, but Dave and I were talking about how Jack Scott Obviously he you got found out to be a pervert that he is but at the same time like how many churches Followed him down that rabbit trail of the King James Bible has 22,000 errors, you know, and and basically there was this big schism This is what back in 2009 or 10 or something like that where basically you had Jeff Fugate and you had other people RB OLED and like all these others that were basically broke off from that and Basically said no we're holding to the King James Bible it's perfect and then you had other people that didn't and they stuck with Jack Scott on that and You know, I remember going to a church brother brother Brother Scott was there, you know the church that we went to where they were holding the Scott We left that church after that night that we had a nice little throw down with with the pastor I did not cuss out the pastor brother Scott can first I can attest to that Because there's some rumor out there that I like got up and cussed out the pastor and then walked out but Brother Scott did I cuss out the pastor? No, okay No, I wanted no So but but think about this If you didn't have that School that's sending out all these pastors and I'm just using it as an example. Okay, that's sending out these pastors that are loyal To this school and this church that's off in the distance somewhere Think about how much that affected all those churches whereas let's say Scott was his own independent church and Basically, it was just him and that fell. Well, it's horrible for that church, but it kind of ends there, doesn't it? Okay, well that that's bad but you know, it's that church let's go to all these other churches are unaffected That's the idea being an independent. Is that this church over here fails doesn't affect us We can pray for that church and we could be sad for that church And hopefully that church gets back on its feet and gets rid of the wickedness that's in there or whatever but in the end You know what it doesn't affect It's not gonna affect you. Okay, when you have ties to that church and and you're Basically making yourself almost in the denomination with that church. Then that's where it can bring you down to and Like I said these these terms these add this acronym of NIFE you may say well, you know There's bad connotation with Baptist because there's the Westboro Baptist Well, there's bad connotations with everything, you know, like I mean it doesn't matter what name is out there There's someone that's trying to taint it at some point. Okay, so in the end That's different though of having like some moniker or some kind of label and basically Following lockstep with another preacher or another church no matter what and Not thinking for yourself and getting stuck into this fraternity mentality Okay, and in I I remember going to church where it was kind of this fraternity mentality They can't like get off the pre-trib because then they'll lose all their friends And all that when it comes to doctrine and we need to be independent when it comes to that If the Bible says that we're gonna believe it and if we lose all our friends over it then so be it. Okay, and Obviously if no one believes it then you need to probably check yourself as far as why you're believing that you know You don't want to be this crazy fringe person. That's basically coming up with new doctrine but in the end You know, we need to be independent and not be tied to others now Let me give you an example of this with these churches or I'm sorry with Galatians chapter 2 Dealing with this trickle-down effect. Okay, because this actually was going this happened in first century AD with the Apostles So lest you think you're like, oh this could never happen to us You know wherefore let him to think if he stand to take you lest he fall You know how it's not gonna happen to us is that we think it could and we don't do it, okay So don't think that it's impossible to happen because it happened with the Apostles and with chief apostles at that Peter got affected by this Notice what says in Galatians chapter 2 verse 9 And when James Cephas John who seemed to be pillars perceived the grace that was given unto me They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship That we should go unto the heathen and they unto the circumcision only they would that we should Remember the poor the same which I also was forward to do So basically they're in Jerusalem. There's people that are bringing in false doctrine. They nip that in the bud and Basically James Cephas and John it's not talking about James the brother of John it's talking about James I believe the Lord's brother. Okay chapter 1 of Galatians It talks about how Paul didn't see anybody say Peter and James the Lord's brother Okay, so I believe that's James we're dealing with because in the timeline James the brother of John has already been killed by Herod Okay, I believe this is James the Lord's brother and I believe he was the chief Pastor of the church in Jerusalem. The reason I say that is because in Acts chapter 15 It all came down to him making the decision of what was going to be done and he wrote that letter basically saying don't need anything sacrificed on the idols or things strangled and fornication and It's kind of this random list that he put out there and he ended up being Wrong because he was he was saying that's only for the Gentiles. I didn't mean that to go to the Jews Because when Paul comes back to Jerusalem James rebukes him and says no that was for the Gentiles But you know those that are Jews should be keeping the law and all this other stuff, right? Meaning like not to be saved But that they should still tell people to be circumcised still tell people to do these sacrifices and stuff which was wrong But here's an example you say well, I don't know if James was actually wrong there because we don't really know It's just a story. We're not sure which one is right Well one if you're doing a sacrifice an animal sacrifice after the resurrection of Christ you're wrong Okay test number one, but to Galatians 2 hits on this subject with James and it shows you that he was wrong about his Separation of Jews and Gentiles, which is what he was doing. He was trying to put that middle wall partition between the Jews and Gentiles Which was broken down in Christ. Okay now Galatians chapter 2 in verse 11 But when Peter was come to Antioch I Withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed. So Galatians Paul is the writer. He's the you know, he's the one penning it down under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost This shows you that Peter was wrong because Paul rebuked him to the face Because he was to be blamed. So Peter Peter. I'm sorry Peter with Paul rebuked Peter to the face and Peter was in the wrong here Verse 12 for before that certain came from who James For before that certain came from James he did eat with the Gentiles, but when they were come he withdrew himself Withdrew and separate himself fearing them which were of the circumcision And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him eat in so much that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation But when I saw that they walk not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel I said unto Peter before them all if thou being a Jew liveth after the man of Gentiles and Not as do the Jews why compels thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? So he's rebuking Peter to the face before them all saying what are you doing? You know like You've been living with these Gentiles and living with them. But as soon as someone comes down from James, it's not even James It's just like someone that's associated with them, right? It's like his entourage comes down and and He's afraid that they're gonna bring word back up to James like all Peters hanging out with Gentiles He's eating and drinking with Gentiles See a problem here We have a problem where there's being a separation between the Jews and the Gentiles and it's coming from Jerusalem Where did where did the false doctrine came in when they were in Antioch, how did they even hear about this? There were people that came down from Jerusalem now I don't James obviously wasn't teaching that and the apostles weren't teaching that but there was problems coming down trickling down from Jerusalem Here's a problem. Don't look at Jerusalem as being the head Because they got people coming out of there preaching false doctrine not saying the people that are running it But there are people coming down saying hey, you must be circumcised to be saved Should I just listen lock and step to what's going on in Jerusalem? There's people coming down from James and making it to where Peters afraid to even eat with the Gentiles even though he was before and You see this trickle-down effect that can happen because you want to be in the in crowd Even so much Peter was one of the three the top three apostles James the brother of Jesus didn't even believe in John chapter 7 yet If you remember John chapter 7, it says his brethren were like are you gonna go up to this feast? It's either 7 or 9 So forgive me if I get the chapter wrong But they say are you gonna go up to this feast and he says my time has not yet come your time is all the way Ready because then it goes on to say that they had not yet believed now They did believe and I believe that James the brother of Jesus was an apostle Saul Jesus in his resurrected state and all that. Okay, but At the same time it doesn't matter if it's the brother of Jesus the half-brother Obviously of Jesus is telling you to do something that doesn't make me to follow it Okay, you need to follow Jesus and this is an example of a trickle-down of bad doctrine a A Big reason why you're in the we're independent is because we want the doctrine to come straight from the Bible and we don't want to be trickling down this trickle-down effect of bad doctrine or Blind loyalty to any type of doctrine or any certain person. Okay, and listen, I have friends in other churches and and all that and You know old IV new IV and more so new IV, let's just be honest Like probably my send-out pastors of like one old IV friend that I would claim but When it comes down to it if they were preaching something, I don't agree with I'm not just gonna follow the walk and step with it and When it comes down to it most of the time when it comes to my pastor friends, it's miniscule stuff, right? It's nothing like to worry about anyway, right? It's not like man. That's a really bad doctrine there I'm gonna stay away from that. It's usually like they they believe this about How to do this over here and I'm like now I think this is better to do over here like this Okay, and it's more of a subjective type thing in a lot of cases anyway, but but that being said is that we don't want to get caught into that trap of having some kind of denomination and Convention and we don't even have it doesn't even have to be called bad. It could still happen though, right? It didn't say the Convention of Jerusalem came down Right, you don't have to have the name for it to have the same effect okay, so when it comes down to it, we are an independent Baptist Church and I'm going to preach what I believe the Bible teaches And if I have friends that disagree with me, I'm gonna preach what the Bible teaches If there's church members that disagree with me, I'm gonna preach what the Bible teaches because I'm the pastor Now if you disagree show me chapter and verse and if you say well, I see we were coming from but I take this great But I'm gonna preach what I believe the Bible teaches on that and you know what? I'm not gonna be right about every little thing that I preach but I'm still gonna preach what I believe the Bible teaches on that subject and Not to say I can't take advice from somebody or glean off someone else's understanding because I have Isaiah 9 6 is one of those examples where I preached and I preached that this is what I believe. It's stating and Then pastor Burgin show me you know, like hey Have you thought of this and I'm like, you're right and I preached another sermon basically saying this is the right interpretation of that Both were fine doctrinally but one was actually what the text was saying right and So that's an example where I can glean off a pastor but I'm not just gonna be like pastor Burgin's whatever you say I'm going with it and I'm just be like You know thus says pastor Burgin's and he's I'm gonna hold on to everything He says and we're just gonna do everything. He said he's moving his church time from 4 p.m. To 5 p.m. We're doing it, too You know because you know reasons So No, I'm we're gonna we're gonna do what we believe is gonna be the best thing to do here And we're gonna stick with that now look at Revelation chapter 2 because I want you to think about this I'm not gonna go through every church in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 here But I want you to when you read through Revelation 2 and 3 notice How he doesn't bring up anything about other churches to that specific church He addresses that church their problems and leaves it at that Does that make sense like when when when he addresses Ephesus notice that he's talking to Ephesus and not about Smyrna not about Philadelphia It's directed at that church in their their issues or their Good things, you know Now I think we can learn from all these churches, you know I think it's good to see what was said to all these churches and just learn from it Okay, but in the Revelation chapter 2 verse 1 it says unto the church and I'm to the angel of the church in Ephesus Right these things said he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand Who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks? I know that works and I labor and I patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars and has born and has patience And for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted. So at this point, it's basically just a praise and that you know It's like I know what you've been doing and basically doing good things, right? Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love remember therefore from whence thou art fallen And repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee Quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent But this thou hast thou hatest that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. I Love how he's rebuking but he's like but you have this too You hate the needs of the Nicolaitans So notice how that's specific to that church, right? It doesn't say anywhere in here about them having to deal with like Being dead or having a name that thou art dead thou thou live is but thou art dead like Sardis, right It's just here's your problem you've left your left your first love do the first works And I believe you know, the first works are dealing with soul winning the Great Commission And that's how you're gonna get your love for God It's by doing the work. Okay, but But you have all these other things you got some good doctrine, you know, you know how to rebuke bad doctrine you're doing good in that but you better start doing the first works and But then look at Smyrna the next one on the list here Notice how there's no rebuke here. It's just it's more of an exhortation It's not even much as a praise as much as it is. Like keep going like you're doing this keep going That's what it says in verse 8 It says and unto the church The angel of the church in Smyrna write these things set the first in the last which was dead and is alive I know thy works and tribulation and poverty But thou art rich and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not but are Are the synagogue of Satan fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer behold The devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried and you shall have tribulation ten days be thou faithful On the death and I will give thee a crown of light. So here there's no real rebuke. It's more so Here's what you're doing. Keep going Keep being faithful right The idea I'm getting across here, you know what the great thing about being independent is we don't have to worry about other church problems Right, I mean, let's just face it We have our own problems right? Not that we have a lot of problems and be like what's going on pastor I'm just saying that we have our own Hardships of dealing with things the church building. We got things that we're dealing with internally with church stuff, you know Persecutions will come tribulations will come like we have our own problems That's what we need to focus on and worry about if some independent Baptist Church or any other church for that matter is Like dealing with some crazy issue Or maybe there's some like crazy false doctrine. There's some crazy people in that church They're having to like they're having a church split there, you know, whatever the case may be You know what we can pray for them But ultimately we don't have to worry about it Not our problem Okay That's a great ease of mind that hey, let's just let's just focus on what we're doing here. Everybody else is on their own They got to worry about themselves we can help people out but in the end we're not obligated to Go over there and like fix their problems and go over there and do this and I'm not against people that do try to help out churches and all that stuff But in the end the great thing about being independent is that we worry about our own problems And my goal of our church is the fact that we are not getting reviewed that we are doing what we should be doing and That it's more of an exhortation We I'd love for the Lord to be praising our church me like oh you're doing great exploits you have great doctrine You know and and just kind of praise, you know that but I I'd be fine with Smyrna like hey I know that you're going through all this keep going But I don't want to be like nevertheless I have a few things against you right that's the thing I don't want to hear nevertheless So when it comes to this, I believe that the seven churches in Asia, they're they're independent churches clearly There's nowhere in there. Do you see like I you know Smyrna over here because of what Smyrna did. I'm sorry I'm gonna have to do this to you Smyrna and Philadelphia are not going to be punished for the sins of the other churches And Even the sin of the other churches they may have some problems over here They're not gonna be punished for the sin of those other churches that are messed up over in some other area okay, and So it's great to be independent for that reason you don't go down with the ship okay, if you get anything out of the sermon is that being independent means you don't go down with the ship of all these churches That can mess up Now if you go down you go down alone But at the same time at least then you're not I'll say this if we're gonna go down at least we only affect us Right. We're not just like bringing everybody down with us, right? I mean Do you think Jack Hiles would have loved to see what happened after he died? You think you think he would have that wanted that to happen? to where like all these churches just went down this horrible path because of Jack Scott and You know being independent Should if you're truly independent which really shows you that a lot of those churches they weren't really independent they claimed it They have it on their sign But ultimately they have they have a head somewhere Their head was at First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana. Now. I'm using them as an example, but obviously there's other colleges that do the same exact thing You don't think that's happening at Jeff Fugate's church and his college. Give me a break I'm sure it happens to some extent at that college You know listen to my sermon on why I'm against Bible College But but at the same time like that's the type of stuff that we need to stay away from and go to Hebrews chapter 13 Hebrews chapter 13 when it comes to these churches in Asia I take great solace in the fact that we're independent because You know what One we don't we don't have to suffer the consequences of what some other church messes up with But to I have to answer For what this church does okay as the pastor look what the Bible says here in Hebrew chapter 13 and verse 7 Hebrew chapter 13 verse 7 says remember them which have the rule over you who has spoken unto you the Word of God Whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation? So I want you to know obviously you're dealing with the pastor ruling over He's not the head, but he is the ruler in the church right talks about it If you don't know how to rule your own house How shall you take care of the house the Church of God and the idea of ruling and go to Hebrews chapter 13 in verse 17 And this is what I want you to see here and and before you we read that in first Timothy chapter 5 It says in verse 17 let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor Especially they who labor in the word and doctrine Okay, so we're talking about elders of the church The bishop elder the pastor okay that they're ruling well, okay and then you have the fact that it says here in Hebrew chapter 13 verse 17 it says obey them that have the rule over you and Submit yourselves for they watch for your souls Notice this as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief But that is unprofitable for you Think about when you think about those churches in Asia, who is Jesus addressing? The angel of the church Now angel just me can mean just a messenger and I believe you're dealing with the pastor the messenger of that church The preacher, okay It says unto the angel the church of Ephesus Right, and then it says I have a few things against thee That's singular And each one of those churches notice that when you read through those churches, it's a singular pronoun So when it comes to our church if we do great things well It kind of looks good on me, doesn't it? Now, obviously it looks good on you, too It's not that you don't get rewards for it, but I am the leader But if everything goes downhill, guess what? It comes on me Like I in a buck stops here when it comes to whether our church does well or not And I believe our church will do well as long as we keep Christ ahead Here's how it's simple simple for our church to excel Keep Christ ahead of the church The Bible is the final authority and we just do what he says to do It's not complicated, but it can be hard Because soul winning is hard You know getting in the deep doctrine that can be hard But it's not complicated to just do what he says to do Okay Now and go to 1st Peter chapter 5 and I'll end with this 1st Peter chapter 5. So hopefully that makes sense It's very simple sermon. We're independent. We have no affiliation with any other church. We're not supported by any other church We don't get doctrine from any other church. We don't get sermons from any other church I Couldn't even do that Like if someone sent me a sermon I'd be like I can't do this Like if you see my if you see my notes, it's just Bible verses. Like I can't read off a sermon anyway So like if someone were to send me a sermon I'd have to rewrite it anyway, so but How lame is that though? I want you to think about that Someone writes you a sermon and you just read it off how lame You wonder why people don't have any like excitement when they're preaching because you didn't write it like how could you be excited about some sermon that someone else wrote I Feel bad for you preaching a subject. I've already preached on and I feel like I'm like retreading ground and like copying myself I'm a plagiarizing myself because I preached on the same subject, you know, I Brought the same point twice, you know But you know, could you imagine just be like hell that's a great sermon pastor. Yeah, it was great, you know For you know Methodist dot-org or something you get your sermon from Now first Peter chapter 5 and verse 1 it says the elders which are among you I exhort who I'm also an elder So Peter stating here, he's exhorting elders, but he's saying he's also an elder Now notice that this is Peter not Paul. Okay. I know that you have all these epistles of Paul We were like, I didn't know he was married Peter had a wife his wife's mother was sick So if you have a mother-in-law, then you're you're married. Okay, that's uh, but I believe he had children actually at the end of this Chapter I believe Marcus is his son meaning like it's his actual physical son. So I Personally believe the book of Mark was written by Peter's son mark. That's just my personal thought on that I believe mark was an actual apostle just as much as Luke even though they weren't of the twelve But I believe they were there from the beginning. Okay, so No, sir another day But I believe Peter had children He was married and also says here in a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory That should shall be revealed feed the flock of God Which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre But of a ready mind neither as being lords over God's heritage But being in samples to the flock and when the chief Shepherd shall appear You shall receive a crown of glory that fate is not away. Here's here's the the key the chief Shepherd The chief Shepherd now, what's another term for Shepherd pastor, right? so Christ is the chief Shepherd. I'm the under Shepherd I'm to rule over the church, but I'm not to be a lord over his heritage I'm to take the oversight right which Bishop is means an overseer. Okay, I'm overseeing it I'm ruling over it, but I'm not a lord over it. Does that make sense? Like he is the Lord So there is there is an aspect of ruling but at same time the Bible is a final ruler I'm the Shepherd but Jesus is the chief Shepherd right, he's above me and So that's how you're to be independent and For that to be the case of where Jesus is the chief Shepherd and where the I'm the under Shepherd For that to really happen. I believe you need an independent church It needs to be autonomous from any ties from any other church or you're gonna have problems. I Think you could start I think you could have a church that it does have Jesus's head and they're a part of a convention But I don't think it's gonna last long For Jesus to stay the head. I think that they're gonna get kicked out Just facts they're gonna get kicked out of that convention They're gonna have to make a choice whether they're gonna keep Jesus as the head or whether they're gonna get out of that convention Get out of that denomination. Okay, and so I don't see how a church that's a part of a denomination is actually gonna last because You get that corruption that goes up to the top trickles down Just the way it works. Okay, so we're independent fundamental Baptists and there's one more label to have that it's more of a recent label And we'll be getting into why we would put new in front of that and that's more so dealing with doctrine Soul winning and just another way to delineate between independent fundamental Baptist Okay, because now we were we're Baptist, but we've taken it a step further. We're fundamental Baptist or fundamental Baptist But we're taking a step further because we're actually independent fundamental Baptist We're not part of any convention or anything like that and then new Gets into okay, what? Differentiates us from other independent fundamental Baptist. That's where that new comes in that okay There's there's other areas where if you say independent fundamental Baptist Someone may be like I have still a lot of information they need to know like I said the point of having this acronym is for the point of In four words describe to me what you stand for If you're looking for a church What do you what are you looking for? You're looking for an independent fundamental Baptist Church But if you if you if you if you're at this church and you believe what we believe You're going to an area you want a new independent fundamental Baptist Church That's what you're gonna be looking for, right? Because there's gonna be certain things that are at this church that you don't find at an independent that typical independent fundamental Baptist Church There's gonna be certain stances that are taken at this church that you're not gonna find at that type of church Okay, but I'll say this There's a lot of people that are going to just independent fundamental Baptist Church churches that are going out So winning that are doing what they should be doing and I say amen to that Okay But I do believe our church is the best in the area, I mean Why would I be here if I thought there was a church that was better around us I'd be like Larry everybody. Let's pack up everything and go over there There's a reason why I believe our church is better Than the independent Baptist churches that are around here And not because of me But it's our church There's doctrinal reasons, but there's other reasons too that we'll be getting into and You say I can't believe you say your church is better Well, you know what go to go to some church that you don't think is better than the rest But we'll get into that next week Lord willing Because you know, who knows I'll get some sickness But they've you got sermon ready for next Sunday Just kidding, but let's end with a word of prayer the Heavenly Father we think of today thank you for our church and Just pray that you'd help us to keep you as the head of this church Lord if there's anything that we are Having problems with or that you would not be pleased with what prayed you bring that to light Well, we definitely would not want to be a church where you have something against us And just help us to see any types of problems that that we have or maybe in areas Maybe we're doing all right, but we can improve Lord just pray everything we do would be glorifying to you We want to be a glorious church without spot without wrinkle and just help us to do that and help us to have you As the head because only through you can we do great things and Lord We just pray that you'd be with us as we go back home and throughout the week We go to work, but we love you and pray also in Jesus Christ's name. Amen Everybody able come sing one more song and that will be dismissed All right, take your song books and turn to song number 64 Song number 64 in your song books we'll sing shall we gather at the river If you would stand we'll sing song number 64 Shall we gather at the river? Where bright angel feet have trod With its crystal time forever Flowing by the throne of God Yes, we'll gather at the river The beautiful the beautiful river Gather with the Saints at the river That flows by the throne of God On the bosom of the river Where the Savior King we owe