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

OK, so we're continuing our Sunday morning series called What We Believe, where we've been going through our statement of faith, and we're making it very clear what we believe at this church. So you don't have to spend several months, if not years, trying to work out what we believe, and some of you might have been in churches like that before. We don't really know what people believe there. Well, no, we're going to make it very clear what we believe here. For some, it should just be a good refresher about sound biblical doctrine, and maybe for others you're going to learn something new, and I hope that you just listen to these sermons with an open heart if maybe you're not so in tune with what we do and don't believe here. We've grouped some of the statements on our statement of faith into general subjects. So we've looked at salvation, we've looked at the Bible, we've looked at the Trinity, and we looked at the church. And today we're going to continue looking at the church, but this time it's what we believe about who's allowed in church. What we believe about who's allowed in church. That's our sermon title this morning. I'd like to pray before I get started with a message. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this church, Lord. Thank you for just the clear teachings you give us in your word about the church, about things such as what we're going to look at today, church discipline and things surrounding that, Lord. Please help me to preach this message just very clearly and very boldly and very accurately as well, Lord, just in a way that everyone will really understand what your word's saying. Help me to just preach exactly as you'd want me to, Lord. In Jesus' name, pray all of this. Amen. Okay, so what we believe about who's allowed in church, in case you're sitting there thinking, well, isn't everyone welcome in church? Didn't Jesus die for the sins of the whole world? Yes, he did, and salvation is offered to all. However, getting saved from your sins and being a member of his church are two different things. Okay, they're two separate things. We looked last week at how there is no universal church. That was clear in scripture. There are individual New Testament churches all over the world, and God made it clear through his holy preserved words, and we looked at that a couple of weeks ago, that there are people that aren't welcome in his church. We've just seen that in this chapter. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so basically God wrote this. He said, for what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not you judge them that are within? But them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. So there are people that we're told to put away from among ourselves, and we're going to remind ourselves of some of these. Our first statement on our statement of faith to look at is this. We believe that church membership is a privilege and not a right, and church members are subject to be removed from membership and not allowed to attend the services or church functions if they violate the qualifications of church membership as set forth in the holy scriptures and the bylaws of Strong Tower Baptist Church Our scriptures that we're going to look at on that statement will be Matthew 18, 15 to 17, 1 Corinthians 5, the whole chapter where we are now, Romans 16 and verses 17 to 18. Now we're going to look at, just think about the beginning of that statement for a minute, which was, we believe that church membership is a privilege and not a right. Now, you don't have a right to be in this church, none of us do. None of us have a right to be here. It doesn't matter how holy you think you are, how much you think you've done either here or somewhere else in your life, or how much you think you've done for the cause of Christ, how much soul winning maybe you've done, any of that sort of stuff. And we have had that with previous people that have been kicked out, whether it's what they think they've done in this church or previously, sort of after all I've done. I've heard a couple of statements, we've done nothing but support this church. You'll hear from people that are then kicked out of this church. Translation, we tithed. That's usually what they're talking about at some point. But tithing is paying God for your local church, isn't it? It doesn't mean that you suddenly have carte blanche to behave how you want. That's not how it works. Same with the cereal church gifters who just turn up with stuff, furniture, cookie equipment, we had all that before, didn't we? Just turning up with stuff to almost take ownership and act as if somehow they're just funding the church. Again, it makes no difference. They don't then have a right to be in the church. I don't have a right either, none of us do. We're here because God's given us a blessing and given us a proper New Testament church. Now, it's a privilege to be in God's house, to be able to worship him properly, to hear his word preached, to be able to serve him. That is a privilege, isn't it? Because a lot of people around the world don't have a proper house of God to do that. They have to put up with all sorts of stuff if they can even bear putting up with it. Let alone, I mean, some nations don't even have a church that believes the Gospel. And there are believers around the world in nations where they don't have a church which really believes that it's grace through faith, where they try and add some sort of work to salvation, or where maybe they kind of claim to believe grace through faith, but they don't even have the word of God or something else. Well, look, it's a privilege that we have that. And if we have our hearts right with that, it should help us to be good church members and not to ever have to deal with this sort of stuff. The thing is, it's actually pretty easy not to get kicked out of a biblical church, did you know that? It really is easy, isn't it? Hence why we have around 100 people that attend our church on and off. Some people come from far that have never been kicked out of our church. It is pretty easy. So people act as if they want to act like we're just trying to kick people out. We don't, because everyone here hasn't been kicked out of our church. It's pretty simple. Okay, so with that in mind though, there are some rules which we should stick to if we don't want to get kicked out of a biblical church. What are some of his rules? Well, look down at 1 Corinthians 5, where this church, the Corinthian church, is getting rebuked for not kicking someone out. Believe that, right? They're getting rebuked for not kicking someone out of church. God's not impressed by the liberal compromise who think they're more loving than God. Okay, and there's a lot of liberal compromising churches around that give this fake display of love and holiness, like, oh well, they forgive and love everyone. Anyone could come in church. Well, that's not what God thinks. And God's not impressed by that junk, yeah? In fact, he says here in verse 1, It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. So he's saying about people outside the church, he said they won't even get up to this sort of filth. Okay? Now, the way it's written suggests it's his stepmother, i.e. he said his father's wife, not his mother, and for me it probably took place before his father married her. Hence, it's fornication, not adultery. I think this was something that happened before they got married. That's what I believe. Some people say, well, maybe it was, you know, it was his late father or something else. I think it's more likely it happened before because it does seem to be a bit of a past act. Verse 2 says, Yeah, they're full of it. They think, oh, look how holy we are, look how forgiving we are that we don't mind, okay? So it seems to be a past tense deed might be taken away from among you. So he said you're full of it, you're prideful, you think you're just so liberal, so forgiving, so non-judgmental, oh, aren't you great, you know, that you just let this sort of filth go on in church, yet instead you affect the whole church, is what he's saying. Jump forward to verse 6 where he says, Now leaven is like yeast, okay? It's often used to symbolise sin. Sin spreads, okay? It affects the whole church. It does with time. If it's left unchecked it will affect the whole church. What does open fornication in church do? It just normalises it. So people, you want your, and I'd imagine you want your children to respect the adults in this church, to treat them with respect, to talk to them, and sometimes we need to check our kids with that because they can get over-familiar, can't they sometimes? But what about if half of those adults are just in open fornication? Then you've got a problem there because your kids are looking at that thinking, well, that's okay. And if you're, just in case, you're sitting there thinking, well, what's he even talking about? What is this fornication, right? Well, fornication is just a physical relationship outside of marriage. But isn't that what half the world does now? In fact, probably more than that. In fact, in our nation, three-quarters of our adult nation, probably at some point in their lives, yeah, but it doesn't make it okay. God's Word is our measuring stick, not the world. Not the liberal, wicked world which pushes this filth on our kids. And by the way, that has ramped up in the last few decades, massively. Okay, but that doesn't mean we suddenly think it's okay because God's Word doesn't change. Okay, and we stand on God's Word and God's Word says it's fornication. Now, it does affect the whole lump, and it's not just the kids. So you've got kids seeing that, but adults as well. Adults, the more we're around something, the more we just start to just accept it and normalise it and become desensitised to it. And this is something we're told to flee. We're told in the Word of God to flee fornication. That means run the other way, so we don't put up with it in the church. He said, purge out therefore the old leaven. He said, get rid of it, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed first. He's saying, get rid of this person. Get rid of them. Purge them out. Get rid of them out of the church. He said in verse 9, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for them must your needs go out of the world. So he's not talking about those in the world, otherwise that would include most people in the world and you'd have to live a hermit life, wouldn't you? I mean, how are you going to live in the world if you just have nothing to do with any fornicators? Because that was the world 2,000 years ago and that's the world probably even more so now, isn't it? But it does make it clear that putting them away means cutting off completely, doesn't it? Because he said, for then must your needs go out of the world. So he's not just talking about, oh well, just kind of, you know, don't really hang out with them too much. No, he's talking about cutting them off completely because otherwise you'd have to go out of the world. Because many of you here might not eat and hang around with the unsaved to a great degree, but he's saying, he said, he said, yet not altogether, he's saying not to company, then he said not altogether with the fornicators of this world, etc. For them must your needs go out of the world. So that tells me that not company with, accompanying with them isn't just like going to church. That's about getting them out of your life, okay? If someone gets kicked out of church, they should be completely removed from your life. That includes, by the way, social media and other things as well. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But he's not talking about those in the world, he's not talking about the unsaved, okay? The unsaved we want to reach with the Gospel. If we had to cut off and not fellowship with them and not be around them at all, well then we're not able to preach the Gospel to them, are we? He's talking about brothers and sisters, obviously too, in Christ, fellow believers. That's what he's talking about. A fellow believer, and ultimately here he's talking about in the church setting as well. And just to make it clear as well, if someone comes into our church and they're a new visitor and something else and they're living in fornication, we don't just kick them straight back out, okay? We want to, we'll give them a tiny bit of grace but it's not a long amount of grace. Once we consider someone a brother or sister in Christ and part of our church, they need to get right or they need to get out, okay? He said, in verse 11, Not you judge them that are within, but them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. He's saying a judge, isn't he? Don't the liberal, you know, non-bible believing Christian go on about judge, not judge, not? He said to judge them, yeah? No, no, we're not meant to hypocritically judge, okay? But we are meant to judge, and this is something to judge. You'd better make judgements in your church, is what he's saying, okay? You need to make a judgment. If you want your church to be a healthy church, you need to make some judgements. And just to make it clear, okay, like I said, it's not talking about the new visitor. This is someone called a brother, fellow regular, and then he goes through some sins, some sins where we're to judge that person for that sin and kick them out of the church. Number one is a fornicator, a fornicator. Like I said, that's someone who's engaged in a physical relationship outside of marriage, okay? I think everyone knows what we mean here. Now, how can you tell? Well, here's an obvious one if they're living together. If they're living together, they're a fornicator and they need to either get married or they need to stop living together, okay? And make sure that they're not in that sort of relationship. And if you're going, well, yeah, but how else could you tell? What if someone is and you just don't know? What do you do? I'll tell you what you do. You say, look, if someone really wants to just sneak around in this church committing sins, which means they're going to be kicked out of church, well, they're going to get it eventually, okay? God's going to deal with that eventually and it's going to either come to light to us or they're going to get punished in other ways. And look, just it's clear as day, right? If they shouldn't be in the church, then you need to take that. There's some responsibility that goes with yourself on that as well, okay? However, if we find out, we kick you out the church. Here's another one, covetous. Now, what does it mean to be covetous? Here, talking about the covetous, there's someone who's inordinately, okay? This is irregular, okay? Disorderly, excessive, immoderate, okay, amounts, desirous or excessively eager to obtain and possess, directed to money or goods. And another word is avaricious, which is greedy of gain, okay? So this is someone that basically has a real, just basically took an over, an inordinate and irregular desire for money, wealth, goods, stuff, etc. How do we tell? Well, one way we tell, and we've had this before in the church, is people trying to trade in our church. Now, in the end, some of those people were kicked out for other things, right? But there are people that try and trade in church. They come to church, when they come into church, they're just seeing people as a way of making extra money. That's a covetous person. You're saved, or claiming to be saved, and you're coming in the house of God, and your goal of coming in here is to make money off people and to trade things and get them into your schemes and sell this or get them into your latest money-making scam. That's a covetous person, okay? And we have clear evidence of that. We're going to kick you out, okay? That's the covetous. But there's other things as well. What about someone thieving in the church? Someone's thieving, that's for me, that's someone that's covetous to the point of thieving in church, okay? Again, we kick them out. Now, how about this one? How about adultery? Adultery is covetousness, is it not? Because some would go, well, you kick out the fornicator, what would you do if someone was committing adultery in our church? Well, again, and again, we're talking about unrepentant stuff here, okay, and we'll talk about how we deal with it if someone does seem to be repentant in a minute. But for me, that's covetousness, because what does Exodus 20.17 say? Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife. So for me, if someone commits adultery in our church, I'm kicking them out for covetousness, because they're coveting either someone else's wife or they're coveting someone aside from their wife, okay? And people want to take issue with me with that, maybe they haven't heard that, explained in that way before, well, you're welcome to offer the service. Okay, idolater. An idolater is a worshipper of idols, one who pays divine honours to images, statues or representations of anything made by hands, one who worships as a deity that which is not God. And another word is a pagan. Now, here's the thing on that, because people immediately, we just start thinking about, well, someone maybe saved in India is still going to the temple and worshipping one of the thousand weird graven images or something else. Well, Psalm 96.5 says, for all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. So if all false gods are idols, and they are, are they not, then an idolater isn't just someone worshipping graven images, like crucifixes of some effeminate Jesus or something else, which you'd be amazed, right? But an idolater would include someone with one foot in our church and the other in Repent of Your Sins Baptist. That's an idolater. They're worshipping a false god. Now, again, if it's someone that we've kind of just got saved and we're given a bit of grace to get out of their false church, but if you're coming to our church, considering yourself a member, but you go spend your other, your evenings or wherever else in a clear, blatant, false church, worshipping a false version of the Lord, and that's a work salvation, usually version of God, you're an idolater. You're worshipping an idol. And that would be the same for many other types of churches. Look, if someone was coming here, but then they're still, you know, a month later, still going down at the Catholic Church and bowing before Mary and all that, that's an idolater. Okay? They're not welcome in our church. They need to get right. Now, what about a railer? We've got a railer here. Now, the dictionary definitions of railing, which they claim is to complain, harshly blame, insult, that would make Jesus Christ a railer and probably every prophet in the Bible. Okay? It's incorrect. It's an incorrect definition. Whenever we see railing in the Bible, and I've done this in previous sermons, and you can look back all this stuff if you really want to go into it in depth, I've got a full series on sins that get you kicked out of church, but whenever we see railing in the Bible, it's untrue, it's slander, it's false accusations, false witness to something. Okay? That's what railing is. And it's purposeful. So for example, because people like to throw around the word railing, having the wrong opinion about someone isn't railing. Making up lies to justify your false opinion about someone is railing. Okay? There's a clear distinction there. How can we tell? Well, when someone is proven to have purposely lied about someone, they're a railer. You're just purposely lying about people and that can be proven, you're a railer, and obviously we had that a year or so ago and it was proven beyond any shadow of a doubt. Right? Bearing false witness about people in one way or another, if it's proven, you're railing, you're out. Okay? But it's not talking about someone who's got an opinion. I said something, because people love that one, they try and call every pastor a railer because they've said that this person's a false prophet or this person's wicked or this person's out. But if you make up lies, you're going, I heard them say this or say that and it's a lie, that's railing. Okay? What's a drunkard? Drunkard we've got on this list here as well. That's someone who either regularly drinks or who drinks much alcohol when they do drink, as in the case of the wine bibber. And that's most of our nation, isn't it? So again, it's like, well, how do you even get people into a church? Do you know what? We get people saved and then we preach them the word of God and we want them to get right. So it's not that we just want to kick everyone out and just have a church and our people, no, we want people to get right. And one way they need to get right is on alcohol, because it ruins lives, it destroys lives, it destroys people. It's absolutely crazy how much it's pushed and promoted in this nation. I mean, we just we walked out of here on Wednesday night, guys staggering down the road, trying to start fights on everyone, trying to stare into my van where my kids are and trying to lean in and all sorts of just crazy stuff. And just another drunkard. And you're not going, I just can't believe it. You're just going, just another drunkard, another guy who's just walking down the road telling everyone he's going to fight them whilst kind of stumbling around like he literally, you know, could have got beaten up by a child. It's pathetic, right? And that's just, that's, I mean, that guy, who knows if he got either his head caved in later on by someone who wasn't a Christian and didn't put up with that stuff, well, who knows what else? And let alone all the other stuff, the drink driving, the abuse, all the stuff that goes on around alcohol, yet people still just try their utmost to try and somehow, somehow prove that drinking alcohol is OK. Why would you even want to touch it? Especially when the Bible says that whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise, right? How do we tell if someone's a drunkard? Well, seen out drunk, smelling of it, recent drink driving, conviction, et cetera, OK, stuff like that is ways that we can know for sure that someone is a drunkard. What about an extortioner? What's an extortioner? So using some form of threats or force, including authority, to take from someone or ripping someone off, OK, be it by the price of charging interest or something like that. How do we tell then, for example, so how do we tell that someone is extorting? And just to give you an idea of what would count as extortion, car clampers. They're extortioners. They're extorting people. It's ridiculous the amount of money these people are trying to force out people, debt collectors, sorts of people that go around, old ladies house and put their feet in the door and try and start taking their goods unless they start making payments of like a 500 quid interest on top of like a 50 pound fine or something. That's just extortionate all day long. One I always like to bring up, just because I hate these people, the BBC license collectors. I mean, those people are wicked. They're extortioners. Again, if they don't get right, we don't want those people in our church. People doing jobs like that, that's a completely immoral job, isn't it? Going around just forcing money out of people for some wicked corporation full of all sorts of just vile perverts, everything Unbelievable, isn't it? But how about blackmail as well? There's a lot of people that like to blackmail. Threats of accusations, false or not, if you do or don't do this. So-called secrets reveal threats of violence to family. Yeah, all of that stuff goes on. You'd be amazed what goes on in churches because a church is just, you know, a group of saved people and all sorts of wickedness can go on in churches. And how about another one? If you don't preach this, I'm going to do this. Or if you do preach this, I'm going to do that. That's extortion, isn't it? Full on, that's extortion. And there's a lot of extortioners around, believe me. Coming to church, how about this one, and purposefully pulling on the heartstrings to get handouts from people. Again, if you're purposely trying to pull on their heartstrings, try and basically coerce money out of them, that's extortion. And people do that in churches a lot, professional grifters, they call them. Now, with all of these people, and I'm not going to go into too much depth otherwise, it's going to be a really long sermon. Like I said, if you want to really go into depth and see what, and I've studied out each of these and done four hour plus sermons on every single one of these sins and more, please just go to the series on our YouTube channel, which is Sins That Get You Kicked Out Of Church. Now, with all of these people, Paul said to put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Now, just to make it clear then, if someone is genuinely, the clear word is genuinely. When we see the example in Luke about thy brother, if they repent, it didn't say if they say they repent, it said if they repent. So if we see genuine repentance, we want to forgive and bring those people back. As you're thinking, this is completely hard line, they're just kicking out everyone. No, no, no. We do what God says, right? We kick them out, but if someone's repentant, we'll forgive our brother or sister in Christ. However, often for me, these types of things in 1 Corinthians 5 are signs of a bigger problem. And just hear me out here. The genuine believer, just to make it clear, don't miss this bit, the genuine believer can and will struggle with things on this list. And when doing so, if genuine about wanting to serve God, they will want to get right, won't they? If you want to serve God and you're struggling with things on this list, you're going to try to get right. And you might have slip ups, you might have problems, you might have things that you find it harder than others to give up, to get rid of, to get out of your life, whatever, okay? That's separate, but you're going to be genuinely repentant when you do, aren't you? But these are also ways to kick out the false brethren, by the way, because the children of Belial, filled with all unrighteousness but bragging that they're one of us that we see time and time again talked about in the Bible. Look, they're not always just openly whispering repentant of your sins. It's not that you don't always get that stuff right. Then verse 11 says, But now I have written unto you not to keep company of any man that is, did he say that is a brother? Or did he say that is called a brother? He said called a brother. If any man that is called a brother, okay, so they're claiming to be a brother in Christ, sister in Christ, we would add to that, be a fornicator or covetous, or idolatry or a railer or a with such a one known not to eat. They might not be a brother, but they're called a brother. And welcome to a real biblical church. Sadly, we've put up with that in the past, we'll continue to put up with that sort of stuff. They are called a brother, they're calling themselves a brother, we're calling them a brother, yet they're guilty of one of these things. And thinking about these things, you don't have to turn there, but we're going to turn there later. Romans 1.29 says that these types of people are filled with fornication and covetousness. That they're haters of God. They're idolaters that changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible men. Romans 1.29 says that they're full of deceit. That's your railers. Full of wickedness, that would include drunkenness. Full of maliciousness, such as extortion. Now again, just to caveat again, believers can do this stuff, but false brethren will do this stuff. Okay, just to make it clear. Believers can, false brethren will. Just not often openly. So I'm not saying, oh well they're false brethren, we're just going to see that, clearly. Because no, the idea is that the Bible calls them sheep in wolves, sorry, wolves in sheep's clothing, right? But eventually they're likely to expose themselves and the repentance won't be genuine. And sometimes it's just as clear as day, the repentance, is it genuine? You even see examples of that. We've had that before. People claim to repent, clearly not at all repentant. Okay? Now there are a couple more on our list though. So turn to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew 18. Just to read that statement again. We believe that church membership is a privilege and not a right, and church members are subject to be removed from membership and not allowed to attend the services or church functions. If they violate the qualifications of church membership as set forth in the Holy Scriptures and the Bylaws of Strong Tower Baptist Church. We've just looked at 1 Corinthians 5 and I'd love to know how all these liberal churches explain verses like that. And then just allow all that wickedness in their church. Allow people living together, shacked up together to come into their church. Allowing people who are clear, open, just open drunkards to just walk into their church and everything else who are claiming to be part of their church. And they all just think it's all just a good old laugh, isn't it? All just a big joke. It's crazy, isn't it? You know why? Because they don't really believe the Word of God. They make it up as they go along. But Matthew 18, and we're going to look from verses 15 to 17, is probably one of the most regularly misused passages I've heard when it comes to talk about church discipline. They'll say something like this. To the pastor who's just preached hard on an open false prophet, did you go to that false prophet privately? Like Matthew 18 tells you to. That's what they'll say. Did you talk to that fornicating, covetous, idolatrous, railing, drunk, extortioning church member before you kicked them out? Did you just go to them privately and just say, look, you're ticky everyone on the list, but maybe we can just sort it out between ourselves? This isn't talking about those sorts of sins. This is talking about minor issues between you and someone else. Matthew 18 is talking about personal problems, disagreements, civil matters, like in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. So the next chapter, you don't have to go there, where it's talking about civil matters and why on earth are you going to court and everything else over, for example, the equivalent of someone pranged your car outside. We should be able to sort that out between ourselves and if not go to the church about it and other such things. Someone owes you money for a job between you guys at church or something else. He said in verse 15, Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee. It's talking about a personal issue, not someone who's preaching a false gospel from behind a pulpit, not some sort of wicked sin or something else. Someone trespassing against you, thee, singular. Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. By the way, why it's so important to have the singular and plural yous that we only see in the King James Bible. This is talking about between a singular thee and thy, thou being that person and someone else. If he shall hear thee, that's you on your own, that person, that individual, thou has gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto these and he the man and the publican. So there are some stages to go through if you have an issue, a personal issue with a brother in Christ at church, which hopefully you wouldn't have to go to those stages. But if you did, there are stages to go through before it eventually gets put towards the church. And then they're kicked out when it gets to the point of refusing to respond to the decision of the church being represented by the church leadership. So if they refuse to respond to that pastor's decision on that once it's come towards before the church, then they're kicked out. This isn't someone who's just had a disagreement and then they're kicked out. And although it could be something petty, again, it's a deeper problem of being unable to respond to the authority of the church. If you can't just deal with the fact that the leader of that church has made this decision and said, no, look, you're wrong there. We've heard the evidence. This is it. Well, you're not a healthy member of the church. Look, the church is a serious thing because a real church, what is it? Is it a social club hangout? No, a real church is here. We're here to serve God and we're here to go out and get people saved. We're here to make a difference. And that's why this stuff is in here. Look, this stuff doesn't really, it shouldn't really apply to the social club that's got church written on the billboard outside. They just go there to pat each other on the back and tell each other how great they are and go home and do nothing else. But it does apply when you're really serious about doing the things God is serving, God is going out and preaching the gospel and getting people saved. This stuff's important because this stuff will destroy churches. A real church. Let me just read that statement one more time. We believe that church membership is a privilege and not a right. Okay? A privilege and not a right. Being stubborn isn't a good thing, by the way, in case you're wondering. Get right to appreciate the fact that you're in a biblical church and we don't make it up as we go along. You're not just sitting there going, I don't know how they're going to deal with that. No, we're going to deal with it according to the Word of God. Okay? We're going to deal with things as the Bible tells us to deal with things, so you're not sitting there thinking, well, I just don't really know where I stand in this church. Well, you do if you read your Bible because we stand in the Word of God. Now, Matthew 18 is talking about refusing church judgment. Turn to Romans 16 for the last one in this statement of ours. We've seen supposed believing believers that are fornicators, covetous, idolaters, railers, drunkards, extortioners, those that refuse church judgment. And when I say supposed, I'm not saying they must not be. I'm just saying that, look, it can be either believers or false brethren here, okay, that are kicked out for these things. It's someone that calls himself a brother, okay? Now, Romans 16 and verse 17, we see a last type of church discipline here where it says in verse 17 of Romans 16, Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them. What are we talking about here? Offenses isn't talking about offending someone. It's causing stumbling blocks in their faith. This is trying to divide the church and entice members into false doctrine. So whether it's teaching false doctrine or division causing, which is contrary to a few doctrines in the church, by the way, they're to be marked and avoided. Marked, yeah, to the church doesn't have to be on YouTube, okay, but marked and avoided. And let me give you a clear example of division causing, okay? This is just a clear one. Trying to divide the body of Christ and pull people out of church. That's division causing, okay? However nice someone might seem, okay? Why would they try to pull you out of a genuine church? A church trying to tell you to clean up your life? A church trying to encourage you to follow the Word of God? A church trying to encourage you to win souls for the Lord? Why would someone try and pull you out of there? Why? Because they're trying to divide. Because they're a division causer. Mark and avoid them, okay? Anyone trying to do that to you, they're not looking out for you. You've got to get that through your head. They're not looking out for you, they're trying to pull you out of church. For they that are such, verse 18, serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. They serve their own flesh, basically, okay? They're not interested in you, they're not trying to help you. They're not trying to help the cause of Christ by pulling you out of church. Jesus doesn't tell his people to whisper in believers' ears, okay? That's not how Jesus deals with things. Alright, finally I could get one of those people that have been kicked out of churches whisper enough. One of those people that have left the church, if they could just whisper enough, that'll get my servant out of church. That's the way I do it. Is that how Jesus works? Does Jesus get his servants to make anonymous videos slandering people? Or not anonymous? Is that how he works? To find various guile-filled ways to subtly slander you on social media or some other way. Anyone think that's how Jesus Christ deals with problems in the church? To sow little seeds of doubt. Yeah, Jesus does it with a bit of guile, you know, that's how he wants his people to do it. Just a little seed there, a little thing there, just a little whisper outside, a little comment there, a little railing comment online or something else, that'll deal with it. A little insinuating, a thinly veiled insult. That's not how the Lord Jesus Christ deals with things, is it? In Acts 13, Paul is speaking to the false prophet bar Jesus, you don't have to turn to it, it says in verse 10, and said, O fool of all subtlety and all mischief thou child of the devil. That's what they're filled with. Subtlety, mischief. Thou enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord. These people are so wicked. They really are. Okay, the more you see them behave, the more you just can't get your head around it. They will happily lie through their teeth, yeah, literally accuse you of exactly what you and they both know that they're guilty of. They'll literally accuse you of exactly what they're guilty of and just openly just, again, this is talking about children of the devil. This is talking about the worst type of scum. They love division, any which way to cause it. Whether it's pulling you out of church, causing strife between brethren, between pastors, any which way, they love causing division. And the thing is, you just see it and you just see it so blatant, don't you? But some people don't see it. Who do they target? The simple. By good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. If you're even getting your head turned by that sort of stuff, you're being targeted because they think you're simple. And that's not a good thing in this context, all right? The simple here are unwise, unknowledgeable, because we should know better. We see this stuff time and time and time again, yet they just rinse with a peach. You know why? Because people fall for it time and time and time again. If it works, why change it? We believe that church membership is a privilege and not a right and church members are subject to be removed from membership and not allowed to attend the services or church functions if they violate the qualifications of church membership as set forth in the Holy Scriptures and the Bylaws of Strong Tower Baptist Church. And we see Matthew chapter 18, 1 Corinthians 5, Romans 16. Now, our next statement I want to hit quickly before we move on to the last one is this should be pretty obvious, is this. We believe the Bible teaches us to live a sober teetotalist life. Persons under the influence of drugs or alcohol are not permitted to attend services or church functions. Now, we've got quite a few scriptures, so we're not going to turn to them all, but I am going to read them all. We've got 1 Thessalonians 5, 6, Titus 2, 2-6, 1 Peter 1, 13, 1 Peter 4, 7, 1 Peter 5, 8, Proverbs 23, 31 and Leviticus 10, verses 9-10. Turn to Titus 2. This isn't boozy Baptist, in case you're wondering. We don't welcome in drunkards and drug addicts to prove how loving we are. We go out and we try and preach the Gospel to every creature, but we don't bring them all into our family-integrated church. Because we also love the children here and every other member here that would be negatively affected by such a ridiculous policy. A ridiculous policy that's contrary to the Word of God anyway. But that includes the church member that spent Sunday afternoon drinking at home, by the way. The church member that thinks that smoking cannabis is somehow okay because it wasn't named in the Bible. There are a lot of people out there like that, Well, by the way, he didn't name heroin, he didn't name crack cocaine, he didn't name ecstasy, but is that all okay as well? Oh no, well, you know, because, you know, cannabis is natural, man. Bring your poppies in and everything else then. I mean, it's ridiculous, right? No. He didn't name any of that because the same principle about alcohol applies. Because what would happen if he named that stuff as well, he'd have to name literally every possible thing that idiots will choose to get high on. And they'll always find something new. 1 Thessalonians, your attorney to Titus 2, 5 verse 6 says, Oh no, no, no, see, see, when you go back to the word sober here, that's talking about being regular, calm, not wild, not passionate. So the opposite of drunk then, yeah? Being the opposite of drunk, being sober, because I see a lot of not very regular, not very calm, very wild and very passionate drunk people around. Titus 2 says, This is Titus being told by the Apostle Paul, it's God speaking here, telling him how to basically teach his church. Now, whether or not that's talking about alcoholic wine, or for me being a glutton with fruit juice as well, you go, what are you talking about? Because 2,000 years ago that was a massive luxury, okay? Yes, the word wine, by the way, can mean both in the Bible. I'm not going to turn there, but, and I've gone in depth about this topic many times. 4 verse 23, 31 says, Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself right. That's fermented wine, that's alcoholic wine, okay? That's the fermented kind, not the fruit juice, because it applies to the same thing in the Bible, and by the context we work out whether it's alcoholic or not. He said not to look at that type of wine, the fermented type, the alcoholic type. You get the impression that God wants this to be sober. He said in verse 4 that they may teach young women to be sober, to love their husbands, love their children, to be discreet, chase keepers at home. How are they going to teach young women to be sober if they're boozing? Okay? Good, obedient to their own husbands, the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be what? Sober-minded. Something tells you that God wants to be sober. Turn to Leviticus chapter 10. 1 Peter 1.13 says, Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 4.7 says, But the end of all things at hand, be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer. 1 Peter 5.8 says, Be sober, be vigilant, because you adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Shall I tell you who he devours? Drunk or drugged up Christians that aren't watching. That's who he devours. You say, yeah, okay, but what about those that disagree? They've had a glass of wine because they're so cultured that they wouldn't be drinking it if it didn't have alcohol in it. But they had a glass of wine with their Sunday roast. What about them? Not welcome. Oh, but it was only one. Okay, so how many does it take them to get drunk? Three glasses, so they're a third drunk. Yeah? My Bible says to be sober. And by the way, in case you're wondering, well, Leviticus 10, and I see no reason why this doesn't apply now, and verse 9 says, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee when you go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die. He said, you drink that and go in the tabernacle of the congregation, you go in the presence of God, and this is now the New Testament equivalent, isn't it? The tabernacle of the congregation, you will die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generation. I'm not saying you're going to die, you walk in here and do that, but I tell you what, God wants us to not even let you in in the first place. He said that they may put difference between holy and unclean and clean. He told us to be ye holy and touch not the unclean thing. He told us to be separate. And here's the thing, if they can't stay sober in order to come to church, I say they're a drunkard. Oh, well, they're not addicted. They're not physically addicted. They're still a drunkard. Because tell that to all the people that claim they're not physically addicted and think that it's some sort of high five moment when they do a month in January of not drinking. One month. They're drunkards. Half those guys crack. Some of them try and get sponsorship. You can't make this stuff up. We believe the Bible teaches us to live a sober teetotalist life. Persons under the influence of drugs or alcohol are not permitted to attend services or church functions. Our Russians are told to keep an eye out for that stuff. People stumbling in literally off the street. I've just quoted those verses. 1 Thessalonians 5, 6, Titus 2, 2 to 6, 1 Peter 1, 13, 1 Peter 4, 7, 1 Peter 5, 8, 4, verse 23, 31, Leviticus 10, 9, 10. Now, turn to Romans chapter 1, whilst I read our final statement for today. And this, obviously, I think many people here will know what we're going to talk about here. And if you're unsure, I'll tell you why. Because this sort of thing is so, so now just the opposite, inside out, back to front, upside down in the world. Your turn to Romans 1. Our final statement is this. We believe that the Bible teaches that there are those that have been given over to a reprobate mind and are therefore incapable of salvation. The outward signs of a reprobate mind include perversions such as homosexuality and paedophilia. Persons showing signs of a reprobate mind are not permitted to attend services or church functions. Romans 1, 18 to 32, Jeremiah 6, 2 Timothy 3, 1 to 8, Deuteronomy 23, 18 are the ones that we're going to go to, but we're going to go to more. You say, hold on, how dare you say that people can't get saved. Jesus said that there are people that can't get saved. In John 12, faulty, quoted Isaiah, speaking about God, he said, Don't let it hit you on the way out. In Revelation 22, 19, he said through the Apostle John, The Word of God does that, doesn't it? Are we not reading the Word of God? He said the same about those who take the mark of the beast, the same about those that blaspheme the Holy Spirit. And in Romans 1, we see a combination of rejecting God, a change of glory of God, change of truth of God into a lie, resulting in God rejecting them. Romans 1 says from verse 18, To be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corrupt all man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creepy things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonour their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped to serve the creature more than the Creator is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts, one toward another. That's homosexuals, sodomites, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving themselves that recompense their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. He gave them over to do those things which are not convenient. Being filled, they're filled, they're not just unrighteous, they're filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, hates of God, despite fool, proud, boasters, events of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but have pleasure in them but do them. How do you read passages like that in the Bible and get so upset? I'll tell you how, because really you're angry at God. Because you've been so brainwashed by the world into thinking these sorts of people are somehow these lovely poor little underdogs that are just so put upon by those poor mean people that dare to believe the King James Bible. They rejected and changed God and he gave them up to uncleanness. He gave them up unto violent fate. He gave them over to a reprobate mind. What's a reprobate mind? I have to turn to Jeremiah 6. He says, reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them. It's the mind that's been rejected by God. 1 Timothy 4.2 says that their conscience is seared with a hot iron. Does anyone here fancy having those sorts of people in our church? I think the one hand that might have gone up's gone. She wants those people around her, does she? Around her kids, around her grandkids? What on earth is wrong with people? Unbelievable, isn't it? Being filled with all unrighteousness. In fact, Deuteronomy 23.18 says that we wouldn't want their money either. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore or the price of a dog into the house of the Lord thy God for any val, for even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God. They're abomination. We don't even want their money. We don't want anything to do it. We don't want anything that's confident. How can we tell? Well, other than mincing around and all that sort of stuff because they don't all do that. One way is obviously the open, vile affections. He said for this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections and then he goes on to show homosexuality. If someone is an open sodomite of whatever variety, the latest variety, I don't even know how many varieties they've got the sodomite now, they're not allowed in this church. They're not allowed in this church. Now people go, well what people do in the privacy of their own homes is their business. No. No, it's not. It's vile. It's disgusting. And do you know what it does? It's an outward sign to show that they are filled with all unrighteousness. They're filled with fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. But yeah, we really want him in the church. You say you can't do that. What about discrimination laws? I'm glad you asked. Equality Act 2010 explanatory notes. I read this to our rushers a couple of months ago. Organisations relating to religion or belief. Paragraph 2. Because you know what? The propaganda out there makes you, makes, they want you to think that you just can't do this. You've got to bring them in. Oh, well, we just have to put up with them and just kind of keep an eye on them because, you know, surely we just get arrested and banged up because that's what people think, don't they? You can't say any of this stuff. I mean, what if that woman goes off and tells the police? I'm preaching the Bible, aren't I? I'm preaching the word of God. And let me tell you what the Equality Act 2010 says. It's organisations related to religion or belief, that's what we are. Paragraph 2 effect 990. Paragraph 2 provides, this is like the notes on it, an exception for religious or belief organisations with regard to the provisions in the Act related to services and public functions, premises and associations. 991 says the types of organisation that can use this exception are those that exist to practice, advance or teach a religion or belief. That's what we do, don't we? Allow people of a religion or belief to participate in any activity or receive any benefit related to that religion or belief. Promote good relations between people of different religions or beliefs. Organisations whose main purpose is commercial cannot use this exception. The exception allows an organisation or a person acting on its behalf to impose restrictions on membership of the organisation, participation in its activities, the use of any goods, facilities or services that it provides, and the use of its premises. However, any restriction can only be imposed by reference to a person's religion or belief or sexual orientation. Thanks for adding that in there. In relation to religion or belief, the exception can only apply where a restriction is necessary to comply with the purpose of the organisation or to avoid causing offence to members of the religion or belief whom the organisation represents. Now, another sign of a reprobate is a false prophet, okay? Not welcome either. We're going to have a look at that in a second. So turn to 2 Timothy 3 while I'm reading, but pay attention. 994 says in relation to sexual orientation, the exception can only apply where it is necessary to comply with the doctrine of the organisation or in order to avoid conflict with the strongly held convictions of members of the religion or belief that the organisation represents. Any of our members here got any strongly held convictions that letting in reprobates would conflict with? Only one or two? I hope we've got a few more. No, a few don't, okay? Oh, the hands are going up now. Okay, maybe you didn't hear. Let me just tell you this again. In relation to sexual orientation, the exception can only apply where it is necessary to comply with the doctrine of the organisation or in order to avoid conflict with the strongly held convictions of members of the religion or belief that the organisation represents. Okay, let me ask that again. Do you have strongly held convictions that letting in reprobates would conflict with? That's a lot of hands now. Men, amen me. Okay, right. So basically, we don't have to let them in, because our members have strongly held convictions and we represent our members. No council pride workshops here either, by the way, because it says, however, if an organisation contracts with a public body to carry out an activity on that body's behalf, then it cannot discriminate because of sexual orientation in relation to that activity. The exception also enables ministers of religion to restrict participation in the activities that they carry out in the performance of their functions as a minister and access to any goods, facilities or services they provide in the course of performing those functions. No, they can't come out soul-winning or for meals with us either. Again, if we know someone's a false prophet, that's the same thing. That ain't welcome. Okay, you're like, oh, just come along soul-winning. Anyone can come. Just bring your King James Bibles, right? No, no, no, we actually have some rules on that as well, right? 2 Timothy 3, if you've turned to 2 Timothy 3. So, look, it's clear as day that we're even supported by the law in this country. By the way, if we weren't supported by the law, it wouldn't matter. That ain't coming in. Okay, and we go to court about that because we believe the King James Bible, the Word of God, the preserved Word of God, which says, no, these people are reprobates. They're haters of God. And look, we all know that, don't we? You don't have to be a brain box to know that. You don't have to study the Bible to know these people hate God. 2 Timothy 3 tells us about these people, but because it's not just open sodomites. So there are just open sodomites that, look, I mean, that's handy because they're just obvious, right? Okay, if they just try and mince their way in here, they can mince their way back out, okay? However, there are those that it's not so open, and these are the false prophet types, and some of them, look, are sodomites. They still have vile affections. It's not always obvious. Verse 1 says in 2 Timothy 3, this know also that in the last days perilous time shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truth-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despised of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures, more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive, silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so did these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. So there are those that have a form of godliness but deny the power, they deny the Gospel, they're never able. Did it say that they are able or never able? Never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And it's such a clear doctrine in the Bible, isn't it? It is so clear, but people just, again, they just, it's amazing how many people try and avoid this truth of the Bible. Now there are various types of false prophets, how can we tell? When someone tells you that they're a pastor, a priest, or something of an openly just clear false denomination, church, whatever else, they ain't welcome. We had a guy recently come and he then got out his card and he was like, he actually looked like some sort of transitioning sodomite, and he had a card of, like, he was an evangelist of some Pentecostal church, and I just said, okay, do you preach there? Okay, so you believe people can lose their salvation? Oh yeah, yeah, we preach fine, but if so, I said, get out. And then we kicked him out. I'm ad-libbing slightly, but that's basically what happened. And, look, they're not welcome. These people are wicked people, they're damning people to hell. Why do we have them in our church? Why would we have them on our functures? Why are we having going out and encouraging them to go out and preach their false gospels, or sow little seeds of doubt and everything else, and damn more people to hell? Why would we encourage anything like that? And why would we have known sodomites in our church? I've said this many times, I just always think of it when I preach about this sort of stuff with churches, being at a church where they had some sort of guy in a ministry where they're trying to find the suitable church for ex-child abusers who are coming out of prison to be integrated into without anyone knowing. I mean, what on earth? The Bible says they're reprobates. These are people that they cannot ever get saved. They're never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. They've been given over to reprobate. Why on earth would you have them in our church? What a danger! And look, praise God we have a church that understands that, because the reality of it is, even so-called independent fundamental Baptist churches in this nation, I don't know any of them that stand on the Word of God like this. They're all compromised. And look, I know when we look at them, a lot of them, they're repenting of your sins of some type anyway, they don't really believe the gospel, but regardless, they don't stand on the Word. And whether or not you think that they got a saved pastor or not, do you really want to go somewhere where they're just going to welcome in sodomites, child abusers, all sorts? Oh well, you never know, they might get saved one day. That's madness. But that will never happen in this church. Never happen. If they change the law, it will still never happen. Never. And look, by the way, it's on our statement of faith. We're clearing our preacher about what we believe here, aren't we? We stand on the King James Bible. Why on earth would any of these reprobate types, these various types, want to come to our church, instead of the many liberal, woke, joke, clown churches around this town and others in the UK? I'll tell you why, to cause trouble. The only reason they're coming here because the devil in them's led them here, or they're consciously coming here to cause trouble. And either way, we don't want them in our church. We believe that the Bible teaches that there are those that have been given over to a reprobate mind and are therefore incapable of salvation. The outward signs of a reprobate mind include perversions such as homosexuality and paedophilia, persons showing signs of a reprobate mind are not permitted to attend services or church functions. We looked at Romans 1.18-32, Jeremiah 6.30, 2 Timothy 3, verse 128 in Deuteronomy 23.18. Basically, to put it in a nutshell, we believe the Bible, and we believe that the Bible is the only way to govern our church, is according to the Bible. If it's a real church, God's way, the way the Bible tells us to do it otherwise, we might as well just give up, right? Might as well just go somewhere else. The haters will hate us for it, but really, and that goes across all of this, not just the sodomite haters, the ones that are being kicked out, the ones that will get kicked out in the future, all these different types of haters, of all Biblical jokes, all around the world, they'll hate on us, but really, who are they really hating on? God. You can't just look at that, you can't read your Bible and just go, okay, well I'm just going to not commit any of that stuff. For example, the first stuff we talked about, not talking about the sodomy. How hard is it? You want to be in church, you want to serve God? Sort yourself out. Now, again, back to my original point, there are people that will slip with things like this. If they're genuinely repentant, we forgive, we want to bring them back, we'll forget that stuff. However, there are so many people out there that aren't repentant at all. Instead, they just hate on the church because they got kicked out for being wicked. But that will continue, however, we'll just keep standing on the word of God, and we'll keep doing things God's way, and we've got a great church of people that understand that, and have been in this church now for the best part of three years, and haven't had an issue. And if they ever did, if they're genuine, we want to work things out as well. On that, we're going to finish in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your word, thank you for the clear teachings in your Bible about how we are to deal with members in our church, people trying to come into our church, and how we just do it according to your word, Lord. We thank you that you make it so clear that we don't have to guess and second guess how to run a church. It is just horrendous how many churches just make it up as they go along and not according to the word of God. However, we'll never be doing that, Lord, we're going to just keep believing in what your word says. We thank you for the people that do want to come and get involved in this church, thank you for our visitors, thank you for those that just want to hear the word of God, Lord. Thank you for all our church members here, just solid church members. Look, just understand what the word of God says about these things and they're strong in their faith. Please help us to go and reach a loss this afternoon, get many people saved, Lord, and to return for this evening's service. Jesus' name, pray with us. Amen.