Transcription
Okay, last last time I was talking to you about our statement of faith, and this is probably, like I told you before, the most important teaching, the most important teaching, one of the most for those who are new to Bible believing truth and doctrines. And this will give all the fundamental doctrines, even some of the deep ones, basically every belief of a Bible believing Christian and church. That way, you can see clearly what we believe in, and it'll easily distinguish from all other beliefs out there.
Now, like I've emphasized to you before, is that the problem with churches and Christianity nowadays is that they make their doctrines, their beliefs, abstract, so that people cannot tell the difference or find out what they really believe in. Pastors act like politicians, and then they cover up the things that they really believe in in their churches, and people assume that all denominations or even all religions are the same. Now, that's getting on dangerous grounds, because definitely Islam is not the same as Christianity, and it's not, it's Christians don't even have to tell you that. Even lost Muslims know that and emphasize that better than Christians. Muslims can emphasize that better than Christians. So, it is a shame toward our testimony as Christians where we don't clarify our beliefs and distinguish ourselves from other denominations and religious groups. So, we've got to be doing that. This will help you immensely where when you listen to other preachers and go to different churches, you can find out, "Oh, that's wrong," or "Oh, when they say that, that's an important doctrine that Christians believe in."
Okay, so let's continue from the church. The doctrine of the church, as I've explained to you before, which I spent a lengthy amount of time on the church, is that there are two scriptural uses of the word church. It's universal and local. And there are two extremes that you got to avoid. That's the Catholic church that claims universal, and then the Baptist writer who really restricts to denomination, to a denomination, even almost to the point of your salvation, even though they don't mean to. The best type of local assembly, and that's what a church means. The best type of an assembly that you can attend in your local area is an independent fundamental Baptist church that strives for perfection in doctrine and practice, becoming real Bible believers. That's very important. So, we are by denomination, independent fundamental Baptists. However, we have to understand that it's not just this type of church group. It is those that strive for perfection in doctrine and practice. The reason why, and this is understandable, is that when you give it, uh, time, and as history keeps on going, every church group, even ours, one day, if the Lord carries and the rapture don't happen soon, if compromises, and will fall into apostasy, that's inevitable. You study history, every civilization, every movement, every group that starts out in its prime and glory falls apart. That's inevitable. So, even our group. So, even though we are independent fundamental Baptists, that group did compromise. So, for example, they don't, some of them no longer hold to the King James Bible being perfect. Like I've taught you in our statement of faith, is that we do believe every word in the King James Bible is perfect. Not only that, the independent fundamental Baptists have not grown in doctrine. So, they don't teach all the right doctrines. Now, maybe fundamentals because they're called independent fundamental Baptists, but not all the right doctrines. As a matter of fact, it's getting to a bad testimony where modern schools, modern churches, and even those who are wrong denominations that teach wrong doctrines, they're growing more in knowledge. They're growing more in knowledge of doctrines that if they teach wrong doctrines, an independent fundamental Baptist church can be deceived by that very easily. It's a crying shame. They don't know much. They wouldn't be able to witness to an atheist successfully. They wouldn't be able to debate with a Calvinist successfully. Instead, they'll cave in to either or. There's a growing number of independent fundamental Baptist churches becoming atheists because the, uh, independent fundamental Baptist churches have not armed their members in growing in right doctrine. But Calvinists are. So, there are there are IFBs, that's the acronym for independent fundamental Baptist, that are falling into Calvinism as well. Not only that, when you do not grow more in knowledge of the truth, it's also inevitable that your very own living will also not grow. And when your own living in the Lord does not grow, that means sin will find a way in there. And it is very true. Independent fundamental Baptist churches, you can find a bunch of scandals. It's a crying shame, a crying testimony. You can find that very easily. Sometimes people, uh, might label me with other independent fundamental Baptist churches, but I have nothing to do with those guys. I separate and in fellowship with those guys because they have ruined the testimony of Bible believers. So, what you're going to find out is those who strive, independent fundamental Baptist churches, by denomination, by denomination, they're going to strive for perfection in doctrine and practice. That makes us what? Real Bible believers. So, you're going to see that more often, this label from our group. Those who are trying to do the right thing are mostly known as Bible believers. Some of them don't like to be called independent fundamental Baptist, but by denomination, they are, because you're going to find out that when they have to sign some legal documents or they have to publicize the name of their church, the Baptist church is still there. And that particular Baptist is an independent fundamental Baptist church. So, they all know that.
Now that you understand the history of it, let's, uh, go to the ordinances. Did I talk about the ordinances or no? Do any of you recall? If not, then I'm going to cover the ordinances. Now, we believe in only two ordinances for the church. Now, an ordinance is something that we practice. It's, I hesitate to say ritual, but to most people, they'll see it as a ritual. Okay. So, basically, what we do is that we observe, there are certain practices in the church that we observe that we believe is mandatory, that we believe is very important for the church to practice. Now, the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, God help it if you're both of those groups, they got a whole bunch of, uh, they don't call them ordinances, obviously. Some of them will call them sacraments. Some of them won't hesitate to call it rituals, etc. Even different cultures around the world, they have some sort of ritual, right? But it's a whole bunch that's laid out. Bible believers do not believe in that because that's very legalistic. It's very legalist. We don't believe in that. Jesus Christ, there's tons of scriptures that he doesn't go by the tradition like normal traditions that other people do. He only observes biblical tradition. That's what Jesus would do. When he was a Jew that time observing Judaism, now it's Christianity. So, it's different. In Bible believing Christianity, there's only two for the church that is mandatory. Now, this does not mean that we ignore other traditions. So, for example, we're not going to ignore a wedding and a funeral. Okay? If I say, "No, we don't do funerals in here," you might go, "What's the matter with you?" Right? But here's something to understand is that if, let's say, we're in a different time period or a different culture, there are people who don't do the kind of funerals we do here in America, right? Yeah. And the Bible doesn't mandatory, doesn't make it mandatory or require it. So, we're very free. We can observe whatever cultural practice or tradition that we want, as long as it doesn't contradict scripture, or we don't even have to observe them. All right? We have the freedom to do it. But there are two that we do have to practice in scripture. The two is the Lord's Supper is one of them. Uh, the verse that you want to go to is 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians 11, verses 20 through 34.
Now, there are a group of mid-Acts churches that believe the Lord's Supper does not have to be practiced. So, you have to beware of mid-Acts churches. This is the group that will highlight, overtly emphasize, and abuse dispensationalism. They abuse dispensationalism. That's why they're infamously called hyperdispensationalists. We do believe in dispensationalism, but we don't believe in abusing it like the hypers. So, some of them, and probably even Bullinger himself, who's probably the most respected hyperdispensationalist, does not require the Lord's Supper to be practiced in churches. Now, that is wrong, because in verse 1 Corinthians 11, and I think I said verse 20, yeah, verse 20. "When ye come together therefore into one place." Now, remember, that's a church, right? That's the definition of a church. What does a church mean? Called out assembly. And remember, if you're going to assemble, it can be in your local area, right? So, this context is church. That's why, what does a church do? "This is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating everyone taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not?" Uh, what is he talking about right here? He's talking about that when we meet together as a church, it is necessary to practice the Lord's Supper. But people have been treating the Lord's Supper like their home, their very own home supper. And Paul is rebuking them. You got your own houses to eat your own suppers. The Lord's Supper is sacred and holy. You shouldn't ruin that, disgrace that by treating it like a hometown buffet. Notice in verse 23, 24, 25 that he's giving the background behind the Lord's Supper that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ observed the bread and then the grape juice. That's why we're doing it. In verse 25, the last words, "in remembrance of Jesus." That's very important. That's why we do the Lord's Supper. It's to remind us of what Jesus did when he died, buried, and resurrected. The bread is supposed to, unleavened bread is supposed to represent his body being broken for us. And the grape juice is to represent his, uh, blood. Now, notice right here, what's very important to understand is that it's done in remembrance. It's done as a show. At verse 26, it's done as to show. You'll notice that word, exact wording, show. So, that means it's not literally the body and blood of Jesus. The Catholic Church treats it like it's the literal body and blood of Jesus. And even believe it or not, probably half, if not majority of Christian denominations treat it almost literally as well. Now, uh, that's why you have to be careful. I think it's possible Presbyterian, Lutheran churches, a huge number of them observe the Lord's Supper like it is his body and blood in there, but not physically speaking, but spiritually it's in there. Uh, no. It's simply done as a show. There's nothing of Jesus's blood in that grape juice when you drink it. I mean, I think it's irreverent when you pour it down the toilet, right? You think that's Jesus's blood? I don't think that that's irreverent when you treat it like that. It's simply done as a picture, as a show of it. Okay.
Now, the verse says in verse 26, "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup." Did you notice that? So, in other words, this is practiced. This is practice. Now, the Bible never says what, what timeline you're supposed to do it. There are some churches who do it every week. I think that's really weird. There, there's probably very few Bible-believing churches that I met who almost do it every Sunday. Uh, but there's no specific time length on this. But the point is, is that you can tell from the word "often" that this is to be practiced. This is to be practiced. It's not something that you should put it off, right? Or ignore. You'll notice verse 27, 28, 29, and 30 that if you don't observe the Lord's Supper, if you don't practice it, or you treat it irreverently, you can, uh, get judged severely by God. Now, some people confuse that verse to talk about being damned or judged or condemned in the sense of going to hellfire, but that's not what it means. The word, if you look up in any dictionary, the word damnation, condemnation, and judgment simply means to be punished. That's it. Now, obviously, the Lord's punishment is not solely hellfire. I mean, there are many Christians who are saved, going to heaven, but let's be honest, the Lord punishes you by other means when you're not living right. Amen. Amen. If you don't say the Lord never punished you, then, uh, I think the Lord's not doing his job well enough. Okay, now that we understand this, you'll notice the evidence is given. So, the verse is 1 Corinthians 11:20 through 34. The evidence that's proven in is verse 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 that this condemnation, damnation, and judgment is not hellfire. I mean, if you read those passages, it has to do with you getting sick, you getting killed. That's pretty serious. I had some people in our church who were taking the Lord's Supper. They took it so seriously that they're like, "I don't want to die." So then they didn't take the Lord's Supper. And I'm like, "No, no, no. You're supposed to do it." But that's how serious it is. Uh, notice right here that verse 32, it's important to judge yourself. And this judgment we receive from God is very different from the judgment that lost people receive. That's very important to understand. Verse 32 is very powerful to prove that the condemnation that we Christians receive is very different from the condemnation of the lost world. So, that means we're not going to hellfire. Okay. So, verse 32 is very strong to prove that point. 33 and 34, uh, will show that this Lord's Supper is to be observed, uh, by Bible-believing churches.
Okay, now that we understand the Lord's Supper, uh, the next one right here is baptism, water baptism. Now, this water baptism, notice right here it says, "And baptism by immersion in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." So, we, uh, go to Matthew chapter 3 and Matthew 28. Matthew 3, Matthew 28. Now, R.C. Sproul, he's considered to be a very well-respected theologian, philosopher for the body of Christ and Christians. Um, but that's all a cloak. He's Calvinist. Oh, yeah. And me, I don't care if you use fancy words, or I don't care if you have a high IQ. That don't make you right. How many, uh, IQ smart alecks have you met that are not right? That have said stuff that just made you mad, right? That don't mean that don't make them right. You can have a stuffed up head, but you have a bad heart, right? So, you have to understand that R.C. Sproul, it doesn't matter about his intellectual communication or delivery. That don't make him right. The Bible is the one that's right. And it's, uh, I say that it's very ridiculous that a man of his caliber, if he's that smart, that he would believe in sprinkling for water baptism. That, that is that is pitiful. If you read the Bible, baptism is very obvious. It's immersion. Now, you can go by church history where people talked about sprinkling babies for baptism and stuff like that, but when you look at the Bible, it's way more apparent that it's immersion. And historically, you can pull up stuff where people got baptized by immersion. Anyway, now, uh, let's look at Matthew 3, verse 16. I don't think Jesus was sprinkled when he got baptized. Matthew 3:16. "And Jesus when he was baptized went up, what? Straightway out of the water." You think he got a sprinkling? It's very obvious. By the way, the word baptized, you know what that means? It means to be immersed, covered under. I mean, that's the very definition itself. All right, let's go to Matthew 28. Matthew 28.
Now, there is a heresy called oneness. And what they believe in is that there is one God. But what they teach is that this one God switches roles. Like all of a sudden, he'll become the Father in one day, another moment, I guess depending on his mood, he'll become the Son, and then another time he'll become the Holy Spirit. You know, it's like this weird gender fluidity thing that the Lord wants to do. I don't know. But, uh, you have to realize, no, we believe in three separate persons. So, the Son is not the Father, and the Spirit is not the Son. They are one God, but they are three separate persons. Now, I'm not nitpicky, okay? So, even though I joke about gender fluidity, there might be a certain level of truth, uh, where you can pull up verses where the, where Jesus is known as the Father at Isaiah chapter 9. So, I am open to that. But there are other arguments from Bible believers and even non-Bible believers that that's not true. You don't make the Son as the Father. So, but I'm not going to get over there. I'm just trying to point out that I am open to the other side because me, I'm the type that's very open-minded toward all sides. So, when I'm talking about this statement of faith, even though it's very strict and it seems narrow-minded, I am very open toward other sides. All right? So, you'll notice that as well. That was the point of all of that.
Now, when we look at Matthew 28:19, that's why when we do baptism, we make sure we do it in three separate persons. And the oneness group, because they only believe in this one person that's taking up three different roles, what they'll do is that they'll emphasize, "We baptize them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." So, when you hear that, you got to put that as a red flag. You got to be careful of those groups. So, they're going to say, "I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." They won't believe in saying, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Why? Matthew 28:19 demands to be done in the Trinity, not one person. Matthew 28:19, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name, notice, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
Now that we talked about the two ordinances, let's talk about the two offices of the church. Uh, as you know, again, the Orthodox Church and Catholic Church, they're guilty of putting so many different ordinances, so many different rituals, so many different things. I mean, it's becoming very legalistic and unnecessary, even to the point of being unbiblical and pagan if you honestly trace its history. But besides all that, the Bible points out that we don't need these number of offices. There's only two. And these are pastors and deacons. There's no pope. There's no cardinal. Okay? That's a bird. Okay? There's no cardinal. And there's no other offices. All right? There's only two. These are pastors and deacons. Now, the, the more biblical word is actually bishop for pastor. So, there were bishops that time, but what happened is when the Catholic church started, uh, started to be birthed from the genuine Christian churches, the genuine Christian churches were compromising with paganism, especially the Roman culture that time. Now, that ain't no secret, you can trace that history very easily. So, when genuine Christian churches were compromising with pagans, Catholicism was getting formed and burned, uh, born little by little. It will one day burn, but that's a whole another story. All right? But it's getting birthed. As it was getting birthed, they started to add more offices. So, everyone was called a bishop that time. They weren't called pastors. Today, we call them pastors. And it's just a matter of semantics. So, it's not a big deal. It's the same thing. Okay? But anyway, back then they were called bishops, and the Bible calls them bishops. But then they started to add more offices. So, then like a head bishop, or an archbishop, or a bishop of bishops. So, then they had popes. But then when the kingdom got really big, you just need, it's just common sense, you add more offices, right? If you don't add more offices, you can't keep track of everybody. So, that's inevitable. So, then that's why they start to add more offices. Now, it sounds, uh, logical and understandable why they would add more offices. But you have to understand this is that's the reason why there's a danger of being a universal church, because you're growing a kingdom so big that you have to keep track of everybody. But remember, the Bible-believing definition of a church is not restricted to universal. It's local. Why is that so important? Because there are other churches that can compromise, that can become evil. That's why it's so important to not be a part of that. Universal only in the sense of salvation. That's it. But then as far as doctrine, as far as them living in sin, compromising, falling into apostasy, no, we have no part with you on that. That's it. All right.
Now, uh, when we look at these two offices, it's mentioned in 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy 3. And by the way, all right, uh, this is culturally inappropriate, but this is biblically appropriate, so who cares, right? The offices are restricted to men only. Sorry, if I'm a, uh, shave and stuff like that, so be it. All right. By the way, those things are just labels. Okay? I don't like labels. Let me repeat that again. I don't like labels. If I have a CNN media and I just make up a label, it can be any label that I want to, and then all of a sudden the whole world believes like it's gospel truth. Just because it's, uh, just because it's a label doesn't mean that it's true. How you find out it's true is from the scripture. All right.
Now, 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. So, the Bible says that there are no women pastors. There are no, uh, women deacons. These are male. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 3:1, "This is a true saying. If a what man desire the office of a bishop, he, he, it's not zair, right? Right. It's not they, it's he, desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the what? Husband of one wife." So, this is very apparent. It's a male. Now, notice right here that the Bible says that this is a bishop. So, there's your one office. Modern terms, we call them pastors. Now, it's the same meaning. All right? So, you don't have to freak out about that. All right? The word rapture is not even in the Bible, but we use rapture. What's wrong with it? Because it's the same meaning. Bible. The word Bible is not in your Bible. It's called scripture. Okay? The word toilet is not in your Bible. It's called the drought. Okay? There's nothing wrong with modern terms of words. If, if, here's the point though, okay? The point is if it's the same meaning, if it's biblical, then that's important. So, bishop means like someone who's an overseer or someone who's like a shepherd role, and pastor literally means an overseer or a shepherd. So, there's nothing wrong with that. But anyway, you can tell that this is a pastor because, uh, he's apt to teach. At verse two, you'll notice in verse three, he doesn't get involved in violent things. Uh, verse four, he makes sure that he takes care of his house well, that he's in charge. Verse five, he's in charge, taking care of his house. That way, he can take care of his church as well. So, you can see right here, this is definitely a male role. This is not a female role. If it was a female, uh, if the person was a female, then the female would be the one in charge of her own house, not the husband. See? So, notice right here, this is not a 50/50 thing. All right? This is someone who is in charge, a leadership role. Look, if the person's a woman, then the woman has to take charge of the house. If you believe in women pastors, listen to me. If you believe in women pastors, then you got to make sure that that woman, that that wife is in charge of her own house, not the husband. But if that woman is not running her house, she's not following the Bible. See, the point is, the point is, is that this world wants to get rid, get, get this point. The world wants to get rid of a leadership role. That's the bottom line. It's not about gender inequality. That's not the point. That's a label. I don't like that. Okay? The point is a leadership role. Even today, every business, look, I don't care how they're trying to promote equality. Every business, every job has some sort of inequality level. They have some discriminatory rule boundary somewhere. No, they don't. Yes, they do. You don't have 50-year-olds running for political office. They put an age limit. What are you going to do? Argue for age inequality? Look, I studied at Berkeley. I, I took those classes, too. All right? You know why? I want to be fair. I want to be open-minded. It's so ridiculous. It's so ridiculous. By the way, that class is the class that I got the highest grade out of all other classes in Berkeley. That must show how open-minded I was. Okay. All right. So, don't tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about. I do. Okay. All right.
Now, let's continue on. Uh, verse six, "Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil." Uh, we see right here, verse eight, "Likewise must the what? Deacons be grave." So, there's a deacon, and obviously, uh, the deacon is a male because of verse 11. "So must their wives be grave." Verse 12, "Let the deacons be the husband of one wife, ruling their children and their own house." Well, okay. So, we now understand the offices of a church. Now, of course, we're not nitpicky. So, uh, when the church gets bigger, there is such a thing as a pastor and then there's a junior pastor, they would call them. And then there are Sunday school teachers, there are secretaries. So, we're not nitpicky, but the point is, is that you notice the religious titles that churches add with popes, cardinals, uh, archbishop, to bishop. I mean, there's a limitation. Okay? There's a limitation.
Another thing about the church, this is very important. The church is separated from the state. That is extremely important because one should not have control over the other. Now, this is very important because that's, you can obviously see again the fault of the Catholic Church is that they were mingling that, uh, back then in the past. Oh, come on. Eraser. Why does it keep going highlighter? Eraser. Okay, there we go. Thank you. Okay, so the Catholic Church during that time, they were, uh, getting so much into building a political kingdom that religion was telling people what to do with the matters of the state. Now, when you do it that way, that's very dangerous when you mingle, uh, religion with state affairs. So, that's the reason why a lot of people don't know this, but this is a quick side note. America would not have been born had it not been for the Baptists. And I'm talking about independent Baptists, not just Baptists by name. These Baptists were independent because they needed to get a license to become a minister. But there's a good number of them who didn't have licenses. So, they were very independent. The, uh, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, the founding fathers, even George Washington, they were, uh, very empathetic. They got their beliefs from Baptists. A lot of people don't know that. They got a lot of their beliefs from Baptists. That's why that First Amendment, why is it the first? So, news media tout about freedom of speech, but they don't realize this. Their freedom of speech, the news media, is secondary. Religion was primary. Just read it, just read the First Amendment. The primary thing for freedom of speech was a religious context. Secular was secondary. Amen. So, CNN should be thanking Baptist churches. Why are they criticizing Baptist churches? Come on. They should hold a memorial thanking Baptist, uh, pastors and churches. Why aren't they doing that? They wouldn't get their freedom if it weren't for the Baptists who sacrificed and gave up their lives during the American Revolutionary War. A third of the chaplains there were Baptists. They don't tell you that kind of stuff. Anyway, that's a side story. Okay.
So, the point is, that's that's our history. That's why we're independent Baptists. Do you understand why we are independent Baptists? It has to do, believe it or not, even secular, real living in life, political matters. It's very important to have an independent mindset because we don't want to become a kingdom builder where it becomes a dictatorship eventually. We do not trust mankind with the rule. Only Jesus has that right as one ruler above all, because he never sins, but nobody else. We don't trust them. But then now, there's an abuse. There's an off-balance that the devil has used where we don't want church control the state, and that's what atheists, that's what liberals, that's what people have been doing, right? So, then they've been arguing that you can't, uh, have religious matters be dabbled with political affairs because we want to keep it strictly secular. So, they've been doing that, but they don't realize what they're doing now is where secular affairs, uh, it goes the other way around to for us Bible believers. When we say we don't mingle, uh, church and state, the church is separate from the state, this does not mean that church should not interfere with state matters. It also means the state should not interfere with church matters. Amen. A lot of those liberals and secular people, they, you know what they've done now, right? They tried to put the burden on churches where we don't want to mingle religion with secular stuff because we don't, we separate church from state. Well, hey buddy, uh, by their, uh, by the results, you notice what's going on? The state is dabbling with church affairs. The state is telling churches, controlling churches, telling them what to do more and more. See that? So, when they use that line of reasoning, the result actually shows the opposite. You notice? So, they can have a good line of reasoning, but the end result is very evident. The state is controlling, dabbling more and more with church affairs. Shouldn't the church have the freedom? I thought we're independent. Shouldn't the church have the freedom where in their political affairs, in their terrain, that they can say and do what they want to see what they're doing? They don't like that. They don't like that. The end result, the evidence speaks for itself, not the line of reasoning. People can give very good line of reasonings, but in the end, I mean, it's even a, a scientific point. You can have a very good reasonable scientific hypothesis and theory, but when, when the evidence shows at the end, or when you do the actual experiment and the end result shows something very different or the opposite, you better revise your theory, no matter how much of a good idea it is. Okay.
Now, anyway, uh, let's go back to, uh, church separating from the state because one should not have control over the other. John 18:36. That's the verse. John 18:36. And I'm still stuck at the church. Wow. Okay. Hopefully, the other ones will go much faster. I'm sorry. John chapter 18, and then we'll look at verse 36. Notice what Jesus says. Notice that his kingdom is not of this world. As a church, we are part of Jesus's spiritual kingdom. Obviously not earthly kingdom, because when you look at the earthly kingdom, it's a mess. It's obviously not of Jesus. It's all wicked. It's of the devil. It's of mankind's, uh, flesh. But when we look at John 18:36, Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world." See that separation of the spiritual from the physical. Uh, "If my kingdom were of this world, then would my what servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews? But now is my kingdom not from hence." So, we're not kingdom builders. We're not kingdom builders. One must understand this. So, let me give even the extreme example that way you can make things more clear. So, let's even give the extreme confusing example of the American Revolutionary War. So, Baptists were fighting for their freedom, right? So, doesn't that seem like the church trying to control the state? That's what people are thinking, right? So, then that's the confusing deep example that I could give to you. The Catholic Church was very infamous for doing the Crusades. And why? Because their excuse was, "We're building the kingdom of God on this earth." So, we need to fight for Jerusalem. No, you can't do that. So, uh, what's the answer to this? The answer is this, is that the Baptist church is not fighting to build a Baptist church kingdom. Otherwise, the founding fathers would have disagreed with those independent Baptists. Thomas Jefferson did not like Catholics because he knew what the Catholic Church was capable of. But when a lot of them were immigrating to the States, you know what Jefferson, Jefferson said? He said that for the sake of the principles of independence, we got to let them in. But he was warning about those immigrants from the Catholic Europe coming in. He's like, "I don't like it." You know, because their religious influence is rubbing off on us. So, see, that's the answer. The answer is when the Baptists, uh, were fighting, it was for, get this now, when the Baptists were fighting, they were fighting for freedom. They were fighting for freedom so that they can practice their religion freely. They don't have to work hard to get a license or something like that from the state. That's all it was. That's completely different. This is, believe it or not, a secular matter. See that? That is a completely secular matter. But if Baptists were saying, "All of you need to be water baptized or you're killed," that's bad. See, that's enforcing something religious over there as your kingdom building and making people in the kingdom do something what you want to do. By the way, the Catholic Church was that group that did that. So, our Baptist forefathers, all the way back to Anabaptist. Yes, sir. So, Anabaptists may not be directly connected to the Baptist line, but they're connected because of their distinctives, their principles. That's how we trace our heritage. So, the Anabaptist, that's why they were persecuted heavily because they weren't practicing the water baptism that the Catholic Church was doing. So, they were tortured to death for that. It was horrible. All right.
Um, now let's go to civil government. Civil government, we believe. Can every one of you read that or should I? No, I'll zoom in. Okay. Civil government. What do Christians do about this? So, you can already guess. We're not kingdom builders, right? So, then what can we get involved regarding civil government? We believe that God has ordained all authority consisting of three basic institutions. Number one, the home. Oh, it's more than what you thought. Listen, uh, government is not restricted to the sense of, uh, a country or a society. See that? It's basically what you govern, an area that you govern or you're in charge of. So, see the point is, our country with this equality garbage, they're taking away government. In other words, they're taking, let me make it more plain. They're taking away leadership role. Yeah, that's very important. There's got to be leadership role. There are three. There are three. And you don't take them away with your equality garbage. You don't do that. Otherwise, there's chaos in the home. There's chaos in the church. And there's chaos, yes, obviously, in our government, in our country. Three, one's the home, two is the church, and three the state. So, what do we do about that? That's why you notice church-state is separated here. Amen. The way you govern the state is not the same way you govern the church. Separate the two. It's the same thing where the way that I lead the church is not the same way how I lead my home. I'll tell you one thing. You're a psycho if I'm going to treat my wife the way that I treat a regular church member. Amen. You are a psychotic pastor. I said it. Sorry. All right. And it's vice versa, too. I ain't going to treat a regular member like I would treat my wife. You're a psycho for doing that. I ain't going to kiss you, bro. I ain't going to patch your hand. All right? I'm not going to give you more of a break compared to my wife. Well, why'd you treat your wife better than how you treat me? Because she's my wife. That's right. All right. You didn't say hi to me, pastor. You didn't give me a hug like you did with your wife. Cuz you're not my wife. And thank God I'm not your wife. Okay? I ain't going to get offended if none of you said hi to me. All right? I kind of would, right? Cuz we love each other. I consider you my family, but a different family. You know what I mean? As a church family. All right. Anyway, uh, I'll have to end it here for time's sake. I spent a lot, a lot of time in the church, but I hope that made sense to you and that, uh, this brought some sanity within your lives. Let's go close with a word of prayer. Uh, Father God, I pray that today's teaching has been eye-opening, very helpful, uh, to the hearers here, and that they'll be able to apply it well to their lives and be able to see the clear differences and also see how helpful these distinctives, these beliefs are from our statement of faith. Dismiss us now with your blessing. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.