(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) First Kings chapter 18, another just great chapter of the Bible. I kind of say that every time I get up here, I think. What a great chapter of the Bible. But that is a great chapter of the Bible, isn't it? OK, first Kings chapter 18. And I just want to look at a passage from verse 17. So first Kings 18. And we're going to look from verse 17. I'm just going to read a few verses again where it says, And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim. Now therefore, send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. And the title of my sermon today is Baalim's Baptist Union of Great Britain. Baalim's Baptist Union of Great Britain. Let's let's pray before we continue. Father, thank you. Thank you for your word. Thank you that you just make it clear what we should be looking out for. And and just you give us so many, well, ways we could just apply what we see today in our life, you know, or what we see in the word of God to things that we see see in our lives today. And right now I'm going to be preaching on this wicked organisation. Please help me to just preach it clearly, preach it loudly, preach it accurately, Lord, and help everyone here to just have attentive ears and to just be edified by what I've got to preach today in Jesus' name. Pray all of this. Amen. So what is the Baptist Union of Great Britain? Anyone heard the Baptist Union of Great Britain here? Anyone? We've got a few hands here. Not everyone has. Well, the Baptist Union of Great Britain is recently rebranded as Baptists Together. So you might have seen this outside so-called Baptist churches, this sort of Baptist Together slogan outside. In their own words, the term Baptist Together is used to describe the movement of nearly 2000, that's a lot of churches, 2000 local churches supported by staff in 13 regional associations. That's basically around Great Britain, five colleges and three specialist teams, excuse me, based in Didcot, Oxfordshire. So it's a movement of nearly 2000. 2000 so-called Baptist churches, which is then broken up into regional associations. Now, they're basically also alliance with what's known as the Baptist World Alliance, which is a huge organisation. But this is basically the Great Britain version of it. Now, the 13 regional associations, I think it is, are these, a Central Baptist Association, the East Midlands Baptist Association, Eastern Baptist Association, Heart of England Baptist Association, London Baptist Association, North Western Baptist Association, Northern Baptist Association, South Eastern Baptist Association, West Baptist Association, South West Baptist Association, Southern Counties Baptist Association, West of England Baptist Association and the Yorkshire Baptist Association. Now, apparently our area here, Essex, falls under the Eastern Baptist Association. Now, this Baptist Union of Great Britain partner five Baptist colleges in England and Wales. So you've got the South Wales Baptist College, Regents Park College, Northern Baptist College, Bristol Baptist College and Spurgeon's College, the big one in London, all partnered with the Baptist Union of Great Britain. There are actually two further colleges, sorry, that they say are in membership of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. They've got the Scottish Baptist College, which helps prepare people seeking accreditation with the Baptist Union of Scotland, a simile, I'm going to say this completely wrong, but something like Ecolleguin, or basically the North Wales Baptist College, which trains those seeking accreditation with the Baptist Union of Wales. So the three specialist teams that they run are the Faith and Society, Ministries and Support Services. And these are all fairly large teams of so-called Christians here involved in all the work of this, what they call a union. Now, this is a huge organisation, make no mistake about that. And the vast majority of Baptist churches in this country seem to be a part of it. But it's very hard to get a total number because if you just try and look for number of Baptist churches, just start stating how many Baptist Union churches there are, it's actually quite hard to find out. But there doesn't seem to be much, many more churches aside from what are Baptist Union churches, barring independent churches like ourselves and a few others around. And when I say independent, I mean truly independent. Now, you might be sitting there thinking, well, it can't be that bad. It can't be that bad, could it, brother Ian? What could be the problem? You know, they're all just part of this nice, merry union. You know, it doesn't sound that bad, does it? Well, just like Elijah stood in his own against 850 prophets of Baal here, in 1 Kings 18, and obviously the groves as well, majority opinion is usually a bad sign in the Bible, OK? That's usually a bit of a giveaway, a bit of a red herring when you see majority opinion. And here with our so-called Baptist churches, and I use the word Baptist churches very loosely here, it's no different. Now, why am I preaching about this? If you're sitting here going, what on earth has this got to do with anything? Well, obviously, and you don't have to turn to Ephesians 5-11, it says, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. We should be reproving the unfruitful works of darkness. But many people here just might not be really that aware of the sorry state of affairs of the Baptist churches here in this country and why there are so few acceptable ones left. And hopefully this is going to shed some light on why that is a situation, why we stand in churches like this and say there are hardly any churches, why people travel to this church from all over the country, which they do, and in fact, from other countries as well, travel to this church, from as far as Scotland we've had people that come to this church consider themselves a part of our church is because of what I'm going to show you today. Now, look down at 1 Kings 18, because there are some similarities here between Israel under Ahab and the false prophets, and I would say spiritual Israel in this nation. Look at 1 Kings 18 and verse 1, where it reads, And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year. Saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth. And Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab, and there was a sore famine in Samaria. There was a sore famine there, often in scripture being a kind of picture of a lack of the word of God. Yeah. And there's a sore famine here, too, isn't there? There's a sore famine here for the word of God. Most of these Baptist churches wouldn't know the word of God if it came to slap them around the face. And sometimes it would be tempted to slap them around the face with the real word of God, because they don't seem to have a clue. Basically, none of them believe in God's promise to preserve his word. That's really what it comes down to. None of them believe God when he promised, he promised to preserve his word. Promises like in Psalm 12, verse 6 and 7, where it says, The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the furnace of the earth, purify seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. OK, that's a clear promise there, isn't it? Yeah, that's the Holy Spirit speaking through David. The psalm is saying that God's going to preserve his words from this generation forever. Words, plural, not just some general gist of what he was saying. No, his words are preserved. Instead, they choose to believe that we were all basically waiting 1,900 years for better manuscripts, basically, after Jesus Christ. It took about 1,900 years for us to finally get the better manuscripts. Yeah. Oh, but it's only inspired in the original. And they just come out with all this sort of nonsense to basically justify picking and choosing which version of the Bible is the flavour of the month, the flavour of the year. They might preach a little bit from this one, a little bit of that one, so basically they could just decide what they feel God says. But that's not what God wants us to do, does it? That's why Jesus said in Matthew 24, 35, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But obviously, he just left out, they'll just be hidden for, you know, well over a century. Of course not. Well, like in Israel 2,800-odd years ago, thank God you've always been able to find the pure words of God, OK? There's always been, he's always preserved them, there's always been the pure words of God. Jesus said in Matthew 4, 4, It is written, Man shall not live by breadline, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. And if he said we need them to live, we have to have them, don't we? Where are they? Where are they? Because according to these clowns, they're nowhere. They're nowhere to be found. We've just got some OK-ish translations, they can pick and choose which ones they prefer. But no, Jesus said that man shall not live by breadline, but by every word. We have to have every word, don't we? We have every word. Thank God we have every word in our King James Bible. Ahab and Obadiah here, they go looking for physical food and water, and Obadiah finds Elijah, but he's scared of his overlord. He eventually tells Ahab and then sends him to Elijah, OK? Then we're going to jump forward to verse 17. And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? So there's a famine due to Ahab's wickedness, OK? And what does he do? What does he do? Blames the man of God, yeah? The famine is due to his own wickedness. There's a famine there, like there's a famine here for the word of God. And what does he do? He blames the man of God, doesn't he? He says, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? It's all your fault, Elijah, basically, saying, you preach too hard. You put people off church. You cause division with your Masoretic text-only stance type thing, yeah? You can see that's the sort of thing they're saying to Elijah. Well, we, funnily enough, we had one of Baelim's Baptist Union church clowns from down the road at Shotgate Baelim Baptist Church down the road, come in here to basically, in a way, say the same thing. Apparently he came here just to check out what we're doing here. He just came here just to see what's going on. And within five minutes, he's trying to argue with us about the word of God. Within five minutes, he's trying to debate about the preservation of the King James Bible. That's what he came here for. But I'm sure that was our fault. We're divisive. We're the problem, right? We're the problem because we stand on the word of God. And that's how these people think. Art thou he that troubleth Israel? How dare you stand there and say that God preserved his word? What sort of horrible division-causes are you? Well, we just preach the truth, don't we, here? And that's the sort of attitude we see. But basically, as far as these sorts of people's view goes, it's that any stand is fair game, OK? Anything they believe, any sort of belief's a fair game, as long as you don't stand on the word of God. That's what really gets them wound up. And we're going to see why they hate you standing on the word of God in a minute. The title is Balaam's Baptist Union, Great Britain. And point number one is it is an ecumenical disgrace, OK? It is an ecumenical disgrace. They call themselves a Baptist union, but there's nothing Baptist about them. Basically, as long as you don't trouble so-called Christianity here, you're OK, is how they see it. Turn to Psalm 119. I'm going to read what their website states. Their website states, well, you turn to Psalm 119. Baptists also play their part ecumenically through membership with churches together in England, churches together in Britain and Ireland, CITON, which is churches together in Wales, the Conference of European Churches and the World Council of Churches, WCC. And they say the Baptist way of being the church is living together in community in a family, if you like. So you can see they're obviously part of this ecumenical push many different ways, even though Psalm 119, where you are in verse 104, Psalm 119, 104 says, Through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Verse 128 there, 128 says, Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way. That's what the Word of God says. That's what the Psalmist said. But apparently the Baptist Union don't agree with that, do they? They don't agree with that. As far as they're concerned, it's kind of living together in a community, in a family, if you like. They go on to say... Well, no, in fact, let's have a look at what churches together in England say. Churches together in England, which is part of their member, they're a member, yeah, so Baptist Union, and like I said, this is a vast, vast majority of so-called independent Baptist churches in this country, a part of this organisation who are members with churches together in England. What do churches together in England say? Churches together in England is a national ecumenical instrument supporting and encouraging churches from a wide range of traditions to work together in unity. Sounds so lovely, doesn't it? With churches drawn from the Anglican, Catholic, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Orthodox and Lutheran traditions, as well as free churches, Quakers and others. We unite one of the broadest range of churches in the whole of Europe. Our vision is to create the space in which fruitful collaboration and mutual understanding can grow so that we as churches work more closely together in our great task of sharing in God's mission and making the gospel of Christ known in our nation. Our strap line is, our strap line is, one in Christ Jesus, engaged in God's mission, empowered by the Spirit. Which spirit is that then? Anyone have any idea which spirit? I've got a fair idea which spirit that is. It's known as a familiar spirit. Yeah, it's known as a lying spirit, it's known as an evil spirit, because every one of those wicked false religions there teach work salvation. Every single one of those, from the Anglican, Catholic, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Orthodox, Lutheran, free Quaker, you name it, and others, and I suppose it don't really matter who, just anyone, anyone will do, they all teach work salvation. So they're all teaching, basically, that you can work your way to heaven, which is damning people where? To hell. They're damning people to hell. Yet these people are proud members of this. They're unbelievable. Well, so you might be sitting there thinking, but what does Baelim's Baptist Union believe then? I mean, surely they have a statement of faith. That would be pretty simple, wouldn't it? Can we not just go to their statement of faith and just clear this up now? What do they believe? Well, they basically have a shorter statement of faith than a non-denom church, okay? Their statement of faith is basically, it goes down to three statements. Three, when I say statements, basically three very short paragraphs, or even sentences. Number one, that our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh is the soul and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, okay? As revealed in the Holy Scriptures, okay? And that each church has liberty under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to interpret and administer his laws. Basically, if it feels good, do it, yeah? You interpret it how you like, we're not fast. You just say that it's the Holy Spirit, you know, and that you're just interpreting it as an individual church there. Even though 2 Peter 1-20 says, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scriptures of any private interpretation. What about number two? Number two, that Christian baptism is the immersion in water into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of those who have professed repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried and rose again on the third day. Now, at first glance, doesn't sound too bad, does it? It's a little ambiguous though, isn't it? A little ambiguous. So Christian baptism, yes, is the immersion in water, yes, into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, okay, of those who have professed repentance towards God. What do they mean by that? That kind of gives you a lot of leeway there, doesn't it? And faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, yeah, for baptism. But what's salvation? Oh, well, forget, I mean, baptism's the important bit, isn't it? Is that for salvation? Is salvation eternal? Is salvation, could you lose your salvation? Is there anything else you had to do to get, oh, well, we don't really care. As long as you've kind of claimed to have repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, get baptized, that's the important bit, isn't it? Is it? I'll tell you what the important bit is, going to heaven, isn't it? But no, apparently not. I mean, that's the important bit. We've got to make a clear statement on that. Basically that, well, as long as you've professed repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, that you can get baptized. Well, luckily we cleared that up. Okay, well, that was number two. So surely now we're going to see, right, what's the statement on that? What's the big stuff here? Okay, who's the Lord Jesus Christ? You know, what about, you know, what does it take? What does it take to be saved? Number three, that it is the duty of every disciple to bear witness, personal witness, to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to take part in the evangelization of the world. It might be quite handy if they told us what the gospel was. No, as long as you just kind of preach some form of gospel. Yeah, and that's it. That's the statement of faith. Job done. Well, you can be part of the Baptist union as long as you agree with that stuff. Well, hopefully you're starting to see why they don't have a problem with a load of work, salvationists, religions damning people to hell. Because all of those people could claim some degree of that. Well, okay, so they sprinkle the babies, but you know, maybe they don't agree with that particular part of it. But hey ho, it's all the same, is it? We all believe in the gospel. What is the gospel? No one really cares. Yeah, just the good news, Jesus coming, stuff like that. You know, all that sort of stuff. Well, maybe, maybe they're respecting the fact that they're just a union. Oh no, that's what it is. They're just a union, aren't they? They're just a union. They're not there to force any sort of conditions on the churches. They say this, Baptists are grassroots people with a particular emphasis on the local church. These local churches are self-governing and self-supporting, ranging in size from 20 or so members to many hundreds. Although each Baptist church is an independent entity, Baptists nonetheless have always believed and associated with one another. And so the churches come together in regional, national and international spheres to promote and support the fellowship of Baptists everywhere. Self-governing, self-supporting, independent entity. Looks good, doesn't it? Sounds good. However, to be a part of the union, your pastor needs to be accredited by them. Did you know that? To be a proper part of the union, to be accredited, to be listed, to be part of the Baptist union, your pastor has to be accredited by the Baptist union. Now, is that by just checking the agrees of the very small statement of faith? Maybe it's just that. Maybe it just has to go, yeah, I agree with that stuff. Don't disagree with any of that. Maybe he agrees to some of their principles or something like that. No, he has to be trained in one of their partner colleges. Ah, the plot thickens, doesn't it? Independent? Don't I? It doesn't sound so self-governing and independent to me now, does it? He could have been pastoring apparently 30 years, but he would still have to retrain. He would still have to retrain to be part of one of their Baptist union accredited pastors. It says this, you may already exercise pastoral oversight within a church, but not have the theological diploma or degree necessary to become an accredited Baptist minister. Didn't say Baptist union there, does it? Baptist minister. Because basically they are now a denomination, okay? However, you can still work towards becoming a nationally recognized Baptist pastor. And again, nationally recognized Baptist pastor, yeah? Notice the language here. The academic requirement is to complete the assignments for all 12 modules of the Baptist Training Partnership, BTP programs run by the colleges. Please see local church leadership for more details. These will give you a basic grounding in biblical studies and preaching, spirituality and leading worship, pastoral care, evangelism, church history, and especially Baptist church history and church leadership. Training is usually offered on selected Saturdays over a two or three year period. Please note that recognition is dependent not only on completion of the BTP modules. That's not enough though. You will also need the commendation of your church, okay? And be interviewed by your regional association at both the beginning and end of your training. So apparently the regional association from the Baptist union decide whether or not you're fit to be a pastor. And that's based on one of the criteria of you going and training at one of their special colleges. Not really just a fellowship of like-minded churches, is it? Is it? It's not really just a union, is it? That's why they're rebranding as Baptist Together. They are a denomination. They're more than a denomination because these people are basically now controlling who is and who isn't a so-called Baptist pastor. In fact, forget pastoring. To preach, just to preach at their churches, sorry, I mean the fellowship of churches, it says this, successful completion of eight assessed modules fulfills a learning component required by the Baptist union to become a nationally recognized preacher. All 12 assessed modules are required should you wish to become a nationally recognized pastor. Elijah wouldn't have qualified, would he? Would the rest of them? Makes you wonder what it is that they're brainwashing, sorry, not brainwashing, teaching them, training them in, because it sure isn't the gospel, is it? It's not, who's knocked the door with one of these churches before and spoken to people that go to a Baptist union church? And by the way, if they say they go to a Baptist church, the vast majority of them are going to a Baptist union church. How many of these people are saved? Never, very rarely. Now, do you know what? I actually had one recently because they were pretty elderly, because they were elderly and somehow they were still languishing in one of these wicked dens of iniquity. But the rest of them, you knock on the door, they all believe in some sort of work salvation, all believe you can lose your salvation, that they had to do something to get their salvation, there's some way they could lose their, they're all work salvationists, the whole lot of them. So what are they getting trained in in their colleges? Unbelievable, isn't it? Well, it's not really. Verse 18, back where we were, go back to verse 18 and 1 Kings 18, it says, And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, and that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and thou hast followed Baalim. So Elijah said, no, it's you, it's you, ruining the Baptist churches across this nation by ignoring God's commandments and following Baalim. Okay, these people, they're just another one of the many, and when we say Baalim, it's just another word for the devil, for Satan, just another satanic religion, another work salvation religion, they're an ecumenical joke. And the title is, Baalim's Baptist Union of Great Britain. Number one, it's an ecumenical disgrace. Number two, it forsakes the commandments of the Lord, okay? They forsake the commandments of the Lord. Let's start with the most obvious one, the qualifications for leadership. In fact, we're just gonna focus on the qualifications for leadership. Turn to 1 Timothy 3. So whilst Baalim's Baptist Union is forcing the leadership in member churches to get brainwashed at their colleges, they openly ignore God's clear commandments for church leadership. So their qualifications happen to have a cute acronym called marks for ministry. One of these like five point acronyms, I've seen those somewhere before. Okay, called marks, yeah? And the M is, these are the qualifications, okay? This is what's needed for ministry, okay? What are we gonna see here? We're gonna see some good biblical principles here. We're gonna see something coming from the word of God. M, mature as a disciple of Christ. Sadly, most of them are unsaved, so that wouldn't count. A, accountable to others. They mean probably the Baptist Union. R, relational in approach to leadership. I mean, what's that even mean? K, kingdom focused. Such a load of liberal claptrap, isn't it? And S, servant-hearted and sacrificial. They added in a bonus one there as well. Servant-hearted and sacrificial. Well, let's look what 1 Timothy 3 says about the qualifications for a bishop, also known as a pastor. 1 Timothy 3 says, this is a true saying. If any man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good word. Just quickly on that, they also say that you have to have had an obvious calling. Okay, there's some calling that you've gotta display and show that calling in your life. Well, 1 Timothy 3 says, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good word. Says in verse two, a bishop then must be blameless. The husband of one wife. Oh, this one seems to be completely ignored amongst these churches. The husband of one wife. Funny because, and we're just talking about the men for a minute here. A lot of them, just Bible college from young, come out into ministry, whether it's kids ministry or whatever it is, they're not married. They're not even close to being married. The husband of one wife, vigilant. And by the way, it said a bishop then must be blameless. And I would include the must there. The husband of one wife, vigilant, sober. And yeah, they ignore that one a lot as well. Of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. And if you ever heard some of these people try and teach the Bible, they're certainly not apt to teach. It goes on to say, not given to wine. Not given to wine. Yet, how many of these so-called pastors are boozers? Vast majority. No striker, not greedy of filthy lucre. All of this just missed out. Missed out in their qualifications. Yeah, not greedy of money. We're gonna see why that's a problem in a minute. But patient, not a brawler, not covetous. Similar to the not greedy of filthy lucre. One that ruleth well his own house, having his children, plural, in subjection with all gravity. Okay? Not just having children, but having them in subjection with all gravity. Okay, that's seriousness, et cetera. Okay. Again, clearly missed off of their marks acronym because again, a lot of their new pastors and these guys coming out of Bible college and everything else aren't married, let alone have children. And let alone have children in subjection. For if a man, and why is that? Why does the Bible tell us that we should have that? Well, it says in verse five, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Because if you can't control and rule your house, how are you gonna rule the church of God? And because also it's such good training for ruling the church, the house of God. It's, look, trying to lead a church has so many, so many aspects to it beyond just preaching from the word of God. And so much of that is practiced by having children, by having a family, by trying to rule, by trying to police, by trying to be that judge in situation, by trying to keep them in subjection by all the different things you learn from having a family. Yeah, they don't care about that. They say not a novice that's being lifted, sorry, the Bible says not a novice that's being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. You could say they've at least gone with that one with the mature bit. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest you fall into reproach and the snare the devil. Now Titus 1.6 says when setting out the same qualifications for an elder, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of right or unruly. Okay, this isn't just something that was slipped in the first Timothy, we didn't really, no, it's repeated. It's repeated for a good reason. It's very clear in the word of God, isn't it? It's very clear, married with children, plural. Okay, and by the way, the deacons are supposed to be married with children too. First Timothy 3.12 where you are says, let the deacons be the husbands of one wife ruling their children and their own houses well. Husband of one wife ruling their children plural and their own house well. And I say that because shot gay clown Baptist church up the road has two female deacons. Well, are they the husband of one wife? No, so how do they qualify? It's ridiculous. And that interestingly is one of the, probably let's go with a main commandment here that they completely disregard amongst all these Baptist churches. They forsake the commandment of it being a man. Okay, that's a big one. A husband because they openly seek females, openly. Okay, it's not, oh, well, we just kind of got, we kind of didn't really want to disqualify this one member church. No, they say other characteristics looked for. Okay, this is in their list of things for ministry. A lot of them are learning, in fact, they're all learning nonsense, but this one we're gonna focus in on. A sense of belonging to the body of Christ in all its diversity. We should expect ministers and leaders to come from a wide range of ethnic, gender, socioeconomic and other backgrounds. Those shaped by their own life experience and worldview, they should show they value and include people who are different from themselves. They should not display prejudice and inappropriate value judgments in their perceptions and interactions with people. We should expect them to welcome difference and diversity as an opportunity to grow and learn from others. They should demonstrate a commitment to work collaboratively in covenant relationship with others within Baptists together. Sounds like clever, double speak to me, doesn't it? You could read a lot into that, couldn't you? Read a lot into that. Well, let's see what the commandments say. So go back to chapter two of 1 Timothy there. Chapter two, 1 Timothy chapter two and verse 11. We're just gonna focus on that one obvious one there. 1 Timothy 2, 11 says, Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. They must have some pretty quiet services, eh? Well, can you imagine that poor female teacher at the front then, if she was following what the Bible said. That's supposed to be more time for the rock band, wouldn't it? More time for, you know, which does go on in a lot of these churches. But turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Because you might be sitting there going, wait a minute, brother Ian, are you saying that women aren't the same as men? Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Women aren't the same as men. Shock, horror. What sort of an outlandish opinion is that, eh? Women aren't the same. I mean, you know, could you believe it? Looking out across these women and men here that they're not the same. No, they're not the same. Yeah, how hard is that for people to get their head around? No, they're not the same. The Bible makes it clear, doesn't it? No one's saying anyone's a lesser being. No one's saying that men are more important or that women are somehow these, you know, these poor pitiful creatures. No, we just have different roles in life. We have different roles. We have different skills. We have different abilities. We are suited to different roles in life. And in the church, men are suited to leadership. There I said it. Men are suited to leadership. Women aren't. That's what the Bible says. And it says there in 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 34, let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. Okay, that's clearly talking about church services, isn't it? Okay, women shouldn't be up here teaching, preaching, women shouldn't be back there calling things out, amen's and everything else. No, they're told to be in silence. The Bible's clear about that, isn't it? How hard is it? Look, where does our faith come from? The word of God. Or are they going to pick and choose bits that, look, it might be uncomfortable for them in their feminist world that they want to be in, that so many of them are seeking after, but that's what the Bible says. And these are claiming to be Bible believing churches. It's just amazing, isn't it? Pretty clear, isn't it? Romans 12, 9 says, let love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. We should hate this sort of evil, okay? We should hate this flaunting of the word of God, this femi-Nazi pushing on our society, which is just ruining families, ruining women, ruining men, just ruining the whole lot. You've just got this joke of a world now. Divorce rates way up there, marriage rates way down there and the rest of it. We should hate it. We should abhor that which is evil and let love be without dissimulation. There's nothing loving about putting some, basically unfair expectations on the women in this world. There's nothing loving about telling your daughter that she could be anything she likes, that she could be the next church pastor. That's not loving. That's wicked. That's evil. That's a fake love. And is it any surprise then that the General Secretary of Bailems Baptist Union of Great Britain is a woman called Lynne Green? And when I say secretary, in case you've kind of just picturing someone sitting there on the phone doing her hair curlers and everything else. No, the General Secretary is actually the big boss. Oh, strange, isn't it? The General Secretary, it says on their website, serves the union by offering spiritual leadership within the context of the word and prayer. The General Secretary, context of the word, you can't make this up, can you? The General Secretary is a leader of Baptist together, both internally in supporting guardian and encouraging our associations, colleges and churches in mission, and also externally in representing our union in the UK and abroad in both Christian and secular settings. In exercising spiritual leadership, our General Secretary seeks to model a prayerful dependence on God and enable our movement to be attentive to the Lord's leading so that we can keep in step with the Holy Spirit. What a lying bunch of scoundrels they are, aren't they? The Holy Spirit, you can't even listen to what the word of God says, you liars. Then check out this bit, it says at the end there. Please contact Lynne's PA, Angie Bryant. No, she has her own secretary. If you would like to invite our General Secretary to come to your church or gathering, she can answer the phones and stuff. No, it says, Lynne has a particular heart to listen to God in prayer with others and to encourage leaders. Sorry, say that again. Lynne has a particular heart to listen to God in prayer with others. So apparently Lynne says they're in prayer listening to God. I could give her a real good point as to how to listen to God. Open your Bible, Lynne. Open your Bible at 1 Timothy 2. How about 1 Corinthians 14, Lynne? You can listen to God and then you could jack in your job and do something God-honouring. But apparently she listens to him in prayer. Maybe she's listening to the other people praying, the other feminists. She loves to do that and to encourage leaders. And then it says, but this is just the damning indictment on the state of so-called Christianity in this country and even Baptist churches. It is a privilege to receive so many invitations. So people apparently inviting Lynne to come along and do this sort of listening to God in prayer with others, but Lynne is not able to accept them all. Thank you for your grace and patience as she has to make decisions in planning her time. Broad is a way that leads to destruction and many there be which go in there at, right? Okay, so that's the secretary, but maybe, maybe, no, that's the secretary, but really there's some old Baptist minister really calling the shots, yeah? He's probably calling her secretary. Really, she's like, you know, writing stuff for him and answering the phones for him really, yeah? So who's the president? Here we go. The president, Mr. President. No, it's actually Mrs. President. Probably Ms. President, in fact. It's another lady. The Reverend Hayley Young. The Reverend Hayley Young is the president of Bailems Baptist Union. She said this, I have been in local pastoral ministry for 13 years, serving in churches in SCBA, CBA, so these are all like different Baptist Union associations, SWABA and now NBA, which is I think the Northern Baptist Association. I was called into ministry in my early twenties and was ordained when I was 24, after studying at Spurgeon's College. I believe that the local church should be about people who are hungry to live out the way of Jesus. I believe in the power of God's word to change lives. Yes, of course. Forget the saving bit. Change your life. Change your life. Probably not enough to not be brainwashed by feminism, but so I had a look at Hayley Young's social media. This was hard viewing. You need really, you probably need some sort of age certification to even go on her social media. No husband, obviously, openly masculine and is wearing a vicar's dog collar in one interview and they're calling her a vicar. So I don't know what happened if there's some sort of transition from vicar to Baptist minister. All the same really, isn't it? She's openly pro-baby murder. Openly pro-murdering baby. She said after Roe versus Wade being overturned, I am angry that choice and access to healthcare for women in America has been removed. That will inevitably impact those already from marginalized communities. Because they always love to group it all together, don't they? Everything like if you believe what the Bible says about sodomites, you're basically a racist as well. If you believe that the baby murder is wicked, you are a racist as well, because it all kind of just goes hand in hand, doesn't it? Marginalized communities. She went on to say, I am praying for those in America that are continuing to work fight for a just society where women are able to make choices about their own bodies and have access to healthcare. So not only is she some wicked false prophetess standing there claiming to be a preacher, she obviously is completely scientific illiterate as well, isn't she? The lady seems to think that it's about their own bodies. Choices about their own bodies. Newsflash, that little baby is not your body, okay? That's a baby and their own body. But she thinks that they should have access to murder. Access to murder. And obviously, as you could see, and when you go through it, there's not one bit of scripture in there because there really is with these people. What does God have to say about that? Oh, we're gonna have to find a lot of verses here, aren't we? Really explain it. Because she said something like, I know different people have theological views. How about Exodus 20, verse 13? Thou shalt not kill. There we go, job done, solved, yeah? That's it, isn't it? Thou shalt not kill. That's a life, and these people are murdering babies. It's a pretty simple commandment, but apparently not for the president of Balaam's Baptist Union of Great Britain. Now, look, we could really go to town on something like that, but I don't think any of it would be shocking to you. Absolutely bizarre, anyway, around this lady, but I'm not even gonna go into that. All of this begs the question, though, doesn't it? Okay, it begs the question. When you look into something like this, you see that there's 2,000 so-called Baptist churches. Some of these churches were probably, at some point in the past, actually preaching the right gospel. Some of these churches are probably out-souvening. Some of these churches are maybe thundering forth the word of God from the pulpit in those churches. They're now Baptist Union of Great Britain churches, and it begs the question, how on earth are 2,000-odd so-called Bible-believing Baptist churches part of this wicked organisation? Doesn't it? You must... I'd assume... I mean, for me, I've always just thought just the state of churches in this country, just amazing, isn't it? And obviously, quite a few years back, I just got to the point, got the realisation that if it says Baptist Union, I think it originally said on it, there's no point even looking. There's no point even wondering if they use the King James Bible. There's no point even wondering if their gospel's right, they're a right of. But for many, that might not be the case. For many, they might think, well, there is this church in town. You know, I'm not really sure. I might go and visit it. They're not very clear about their statement of faith, right? Not really very clear about what they use. Just to make it clear, you know, and this is a very good benchmark for churches, is if it's a pillar and ground of the truth, it has to have the truth, and that's the preserved word of God, OK? And if you're in any doubt as to the King James Bible being the preserved word of God, come and see me afterwards. I could show you many, many reasons why that's the case. OK, number two, OK, it has to have the correct gospel. It's not a church if they believe in any form of repent of your sins for salvation, any form of you can lose your salvation, any form of you've got to keep working for your salvation. Anything like that is not the gospel, OK? The gospel is grace through faith alone. It's a gift of God. It's not of works to any man should boast. Once you have it, you have everlasting life. It's eternal, OK? OK, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. OK, the Bible's very clear, right? So anything like that is not a church. And number three, they have to go and preach the gospel. I mean, in Revelation, we see a warning about removing the candlestick from a church that's not preaching the gospel, that's not doing the first works, OK? The first love, that's preaching the gospel. If they're not going out in one form or another, and yes, it would be great if they were going out and knocking doors like the Bible clearly commands us to, but, and going to basically every creature and preaching the gospel, but if they're not doing anything at all, then again, they're not a church. It'd be great if they were doing that, but look, if they're going out and doing something, great. Without that, they're not churches. Now, that writes off all of these Baptist Union churches. I don't know, is there such thing as a Baptist Union church that use the King James Bible? Anyone know of any? Not that I know of. So anyway, why then? Why have 2,000 odd churches in this nation ended up being part of this wicked organisation? Look at verse 19, back in 1 Kings 18. Verse 19 says, "'Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel and the prophets of Baal 450 and the prophets of the groves 400, which eat at Jezebel's table.'" So Elijah said, go and get all these false prophets together. And like I said, the vast majority of these churches, they all preach some form of work, salvation. They're false prophets. He said, go and get them all together. The title is, Bailems Baptist Union of Great Britain. Number one, it's an ecumenical disgrace. Number two, it forsakes the commandments of the Lord. And number three, it controls through money. Okay, it's all about the cash. It controls through money. Elijah said, get all of these false prophets together, which eat at Jezebel's table, which is another way of saying that they're in her pocket. She provides for them, okay? She provides for them. They eat at her table. That's what that's saying. Okay, and that seems to be how it works with Bailems Baptist Union. They all seem to eat at Jezebel's table. Now, aside from the obvious perks of being on their church database, okay, and you could imagine how that would be a good perk, having their logo as some sort of accreditation for the idiots that look for that. Because I knocked on the door and I had a guy tell me that if we're not part of the Baptist Union, we're not a Baptist church, apparently. And there are obviously people that believe that. In fact, they have now seemed to have become this sort of denomination where people just list their church as that's what a Baptist church is. Okay, which by the way, being a Baptist was never a denomination. Okay, we're just individual churches. Now, being able to access their specialist teams, okay, which includes the support services team. What's that about? Well, it says the support services team offers practical support and advice to our member churches across a broad range of topics, including finance and accounting, property, legal issues, church governance, and church trust. We also operate the Baptist Together deposit accounts, loan scheme, and the pastoral fund. So you could see there, there's a bit of ways that you can have the kind of cash thrown at your church one way or another. But on top of that, the regional associations offer grants to churches. Okay, this is the clever part of it. So under grant eligibility, they state on the Eastern one, which is the one that we fall into in Essex, normally the grant is to help pay the stipend of an accredited minister or a minister in training. Now a stipend is basically like a wage, yeah? So basically you can apply for a grant as a minister of a church to then be trained up to be a Baptist union pastor, to then be part of the Baptist union, but you can basically get paid by them while you're training up. In fact, I think you could just carry on anyway. So you're getting some, cause you could keep applying for grants and get paid by the Baptist union. You become part of the Baptist union. Your church gets recommended to people. It goes on their database and everything else. You get the support and the help with how to make more money and how to avoid certainness and how to make better use of that. And you can apply for other grants as well. But the main one is the pastor gets a grant to become one of their pastors. They eat at Jezebel's table, don't they? That's how it works. You can see why that minister might be a little bit more inclined to yoke up with them, right? Because they're going to pay his wage. He's in some little church of 20, you know, they're probably half the church, you know, don't even know what tithing is or reject it or something else. He's sitting there going, what do I do? I don't know. I'll just yoke up with the Baptist union. I'll get paid a stipend. I'll, you know, I'll get paid by them through the grant. The church might get bigger because of that. They'll show me ways of growing. I'll get recommended. I'll have other people come to the church. I'll have big preachers come along now and again and the rest of it. They all eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. So that was a shorter point there. Obviously that was what it would eventually come down to with these false prophets, money, money, and look, they don't really care as long as they're being paid one way or another, but it's pretty wicked, isn't it? Pretty wicked. Now, look at verse 20. So where it says here that he gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel is, so these false prophets that eat at Jezebel's table, they gathered together unto Mount Carmel, which made it pretty easy to discern for Elijah, didn't it? So he's got them all gathered together. He said, get all these prophets of Baal together. They all come together. And that's what the Baptist union on the plus side of Great Britain, it's made it pretty easy for us to discern a false prophet in this country, isn't it? Like I said, I've got to the point where I realized if it says Baptist union, or now it's Baptist together is their new slogan on the front of a church, false prophet, avoid it. Got no interest in going there. Now, okay, you know, maybe every, very rarely there might be one there somehow that's not, I very much doubt that. I really do. I don't see how you'd be a part of this wicked organization, not be preaching out of the word of God, be preaching, be part of an organization that basically allows all sorts of ecumenicalism and be a serious man of God. I can't see that. I can see maybe some of these guys. I'll give some, I'm just going to give some caveat that maybe, because you've got to bear in mind that a lot of these churches are sort of elder led or they're like, they're congregational led. So if you can brainwash enough of the congregation, they pull the shots, make the decisions, which is completely unbiblical anyway. And then basically you could see how they would vote or get involved with this. And some, maybe some old pastor that was still saved is just kind of almost kind of pushed into it. But I would say that's very rare, okay. Basically all the prophets of Baal are gathered together in the Baptist union of Great Britain, which makes it quite nice for those who are looking for churches, those who are looking to recommend churches to people around the country and everything else, because they're all gathered together under one brightly colored umbrella, aren't they? And you don't have to kind of trawl through the 2000 odd statements of faith there and everything else. You could just look at their slogan on the front and go, it's a write-off, it's a write-off, it's a wicked false church of really and now a new false denomination of false Baptist churches, which is what they are. They train them, they finance them, they stipulate basically what they can and can't teach to some degree and how they have to qualify away from biblical qualifications for ministry in the first place. The whole thing's an absolute mess. It's a joke. And there's nothing independent about any of those churches. Look at verse 21, Elijah came unto all the people and said, how long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. And that's the challenge for any of God's people out there in these wicked places, isn't it? And I know that no one here, I don't think is kind of on the side going to a Baptist union church. I hope you're not. But you never know in the future, maybe there are kids here that might at some point in the future think that it could be a good idea, but basically if the Lord be God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him. And because there might be people watching online or maybe in the future that maybe would say something like, it's my local church though, or maybe my family go there, or I just love the rock band or whatever it is that's keeping them there, drawing them to it. Well, Elijah said in verse 22, then said, Elijah unto the people, I, even I only remain a prophet of the law, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. And the truth is those same people that would say that would have probably persevered with Baal's prophets at this point. Even with Elijah, they're saying that, well, for whatever reason, well, you know, yeah, but that one of Baal's prophets is nearer to my house. It's a bit of a long distance to get to Elijah, bit of a trek, I'm just going to stick with the prophet of Baal. That's what people are basically saying, aren't they? That's what people are saying around this nation. There are safe people in these churches, they're few and far between. There are safe people out there, okay, who just sit there and make do. I knocked on one the other day up the road. From what I could tell was saved, recently moved in the area, going to Shockgate, wicked, you know, Baalian Baptist Union Church. And why is she there? Because it's across the road, because it's easy, because, you know, that's where I'm going to go. But that was a safe load. I spoke to another one, a couple of weeks back, somewhere around the corner here, again, seemed to be, I would say saved, had obviously had a lot of full-stop training, goes to, again, to Baalian Baptist Union Church. Why? Because it's easy, because that's where she's been going, because it's not really challenging, because you're not really going to get your sins preached at, because you're not really going to get encouraged to go out and preach the gospel, because you can just sit there and give yourself a pat on the back and feel like a good Christian, or whatever other reason. But like I was saying, people would be sitting under whatever prophet or bell, even with, because if they hear the truth, and a lot of them, I think, deep down know it, they have no excuse anymore, do they? These people here have no excuse. They've got Elijah, they're going, who are you going to follow? And they don't answer a word, do they? They go quiet. Well, what happens after that? They get exposed for the frauds that they are, okay? And I hope that a sermon like this, and maybe more in the future, will expose these people for the frauds that they are. If you open up your King James Bible, these people get exposed for the frauds that they are. Verse 38, jump forward, it says, then the fire of the Lord fell, verse 38, then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their face, and they said, the Lord, he is the God, the Lord, he is the God. And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape, and they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. And if this was Old Testament Israel, that's what would be happening to all of these wicked false prophets out there. And Lynn, and whatever the other woman's name was, Hayley, I mean, they would be getting slayed first, I think, and they would be having their heads cut off in front of everyone, because they are wicked witches, really, okay? They are wicked, wicked people, fronting this wicked organization, pushing all their wicked false doctrine, pushing their feminism, pushing all these things that should just wrecking families, wrecking society, wrecking the young ladies in this country, wrecking their lives. These people are wicked, wicked people. And if it was a few thousand years ago, they'd be having their heads cut off. Well, regardless, it's eternity that really matters, and they're gonna split hell wide open, aren't they? They're gonna split hell wide open and be burning in the lowest part of hell, and I have no argument with that, okay? These are false prophets. They can't get saved. They will not get saved. They're done. They're haters of God, really. They're just very sucky about it. But in the meantime, how do we respond to something like this? What's our response? So men and women have got out here. Children of God, you listen to a sermon like this, you realize, well, no, it is a straight and narrow path, isn't it, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. I mean, look at the state of those churches out there. Look at that wicked organization, the way they control them, the way that they're all a part of this, yoked up with these people, basically for money. How do we respond? We go out and preach the gospel, don't we? We go out and we get people saved. We go out and we try and undo some of the work that these false prophets are doing with their work salvation, with their subtle work salvation, with their claiming to be Baptist, giving a bad name to the Bible, to the word of God. We go out and we undo that damage while going out and preaching the gospel. We go out and we get people saved. We preach the word of God loudly from this pulpit, and we encourage that remnant, that remnant to come to a real church and to want to serve the Lord as well. And that is Baelim's Baptist Union of Great Britain. Oh, now let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for just those stories, and obviously that's a 100% true story there in 1 Kings 18 of how Elijah dealt with these wicked prophets of Baal. And obviously we can't be cutting people's heads off, Lord, but we can be preaching the gospel and just showing them, showing other people what they are by just preaching the truth loud and clear, Lord, and preaching about these sorts of wicked people and just helping people to know what they are, helping people to make that choice, to know that they're making a choice between you and Baelim. And Lord, help us to present that choice to people, help us to encourage them as much as possible to make the right choice. Put their faith in you, Lord, put their faith in you alone, not you plus some amount of works or some other wicked false doctrines. Just help them to want to just trust in you alone for salvation, Lord, and help us do that this afternoon, going out and preaching the gospel, Lord, and to return this evening for this evening's service. In Jesus' name, for all of this, amen.