Latest / The Immutable Word / EP061 Why Baptist? Saved, Regenerated Church Membership - Part 7

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EP061 Why Baptist? Saved, Regenerated Church Membership - Part 7 · The Immutable Word

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Welcome to The Immutable Word. We're back for yet another round of the Baptist
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Acrostic series that we've been covering over the last several weeks.
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We've covered, I think, more than half of what we're supposed to be going through already.
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And just as a really super, super brief recap, we're just covering,
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as I said, the Baptist acrostic, we'd covered the first five, I think?
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Six. Six, yeah. So, biblical authority is the first one, autonomy, the local church.
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Second one, priesthood of the believer, two ordinances, and then individual
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soul liberty, which was the last one we just covered.
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So, if you're now just, if anybody listening here is just now just joining us
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and trying to figure out what we're talking about, I highly recommend, or we highly recommend,
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just going back to the, we have an introduction that's explaining what this
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is and why it's really a critical foundation for any believer to understand,
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well, why are they Baptists?
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As in, you know, the name of our episodes.
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And it goes through a lot of the key doctrines that we should just know offhand.
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So if anybody comes to you and asks, what distinguishes you between everybody else that's out there?
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You are grounded in the doctrines behind this.
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And so it's something that, you know, Robert, you've mentioned,
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writing this in the flap of your Bible, just having it there, even memorizing it.
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I've used it on a couple of occasions when people have asked me.
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What's the difference between you and the whole slew of other Baptists that are out there?
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And using this framework, this acrostic, really helped me organize my thoughts around it.
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So it's really powerful, and we haven't gone through the whole thing yet.
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I think we've gone through some of the key ones here in the last several episodes.
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But yeah, I encourage you to go back and listen to the introduction and then
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work your way out from, as I mentioned, Biblical authority, autonomy of the
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local church, priesthood of the believer, two ordinances, and individual soul liberty.
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So, we're going to be covering another doctrine here of saved, regenerated church.
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And it really just defines the local New Testament church not as a social gathering.
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It's not something that you're born into.
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And we're just going to cover some of those details, you know,
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bottom line without going through too much of it. Sorry, I can't talk.
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But, yeah, it's just going to be explaining the,
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local church, that it's exclusively for a called-out assembly of born-again
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individuals who had been baptized by immersion upon evidence of their salvation.
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So, I'm ready to get into this one, too.
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Yeah, so just to kind of cap that off, as a reminder, you know, we call it Why Baptist?
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And Baptist is really the denomination that we're a part of,
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and historically we talked a little bit about it last week on the individual soul liberty,
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and then eventually we'll talk about it again as well with separation of church
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and state. But these are distinctives.
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And so, you know, I want to stress that it's not, you know, why Baptists necessarily,
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but why Baptist distinctives?
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You know, that might be a little bit more accurate term to use.
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You know, why Baptist distinctives? And the reason why is because these distinctions.
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Right, the Bible, soul authority, autonomy of the church, priesthood of the
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believer, two ordinances, individual soul liberty, and so forth.
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These were the common,
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New Testament principles, this is the framework that the New Testament church was patterned after.
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So as we go through each one of these distinctions, the idea is that these aren't arbitrary, right?
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This isn't, oh, the church has
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decreed these, you know, since the third century or something like that.
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Or, you know, we follow the Apostles' Creed or the Baptist London Confession.
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That's not why we're Baptists. We're Baptists because each one of these distinctions
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are attributed to the New Testament church.
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These are the patterns that the church in the New Testament,
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largely after the resurrection, were Acts 2 dispensationalists.
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I think that's important to understand. We're not mid-Acts dispensationalists,
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which are hyper-dispensationalists.
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We are Acts 2 dispensations, meaning we believe the church was born after the
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resurrection because it represents the body of Christ.
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Baptism is relevant because even Paul was still baptizing in 1 Corinthians,
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even though baptism is not a gospel. There is a distinction.
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So anyway, saying all that, we just want to remind people that we're not trying
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to argue to be Baptists. So we're saying that Baptists have generally,
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historically held these distinctions, right?
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Historically, at least over the past 1500 plus years, they just weren't always named Baptists.
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So we're not trying to argue for being labeled Baptist.
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Just because you show up at a Baptist church doesn't mean they're going to emulate these principles.
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I guess that's probably a better way to put it. If you go to a Baptist church
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that has a label Baptist, but it does not exercise or demonstrate or exhibit
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these principles, I'd leave the church. I wouldn't be a part of that church.
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So anyway, I just want to make sure that we're kind of emphasizing that because
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we don't want to mislead people and think, oh, I'm just now I'm part of a Baptist
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church. I'm part of the New Testament pattern.
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Well, it may not be the New Testament pattern.
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You know, that's why the distinctions matter. These distinctives,
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you know, hey, look for, do they put the Bible as their sole authority?
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If they put the pastor as their sole authority and they're legalistic, well, guess what?
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That's not a New Testament pattern of Christianity, you know, the Christian church.
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So this one that we're doing today, saved, regenerated church membership,
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really, here's a simple way to put it.
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Whoever joins your church needs to have a profession of salvation.
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They may be baptized you know
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meaning that they followed believers baptism not because baptism
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saves them but because they made a profession of faith they
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trusted jesus christ and then were baptized those are
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the only eligible members of a new testament church that's the argument so the
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doctrine of savior generated church membership dictates that a local new testament
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church is not cultural gathering right it's not a mixed multitude of people
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it's not it's just you know They all have the same religious convictions,
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but it's a called-out assembly consisting—because that's what the church means.
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The Greek word for church is ekklesia, but that means called-out.
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And there are three types of churches in the Bible, and we'll talk about that in just a minute.
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But a called-out assembly, a church, consisting strictly of born-again believers
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who have subsequently been baptized by immersion upon evidence of their salvation.
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Okay? So...
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You know, basically the theological definition, what's the biblical model?
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The biblical model is real simple. The local body is formed exclusively of those
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who've exercised personal faith in Christ.
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They've professed it. They've put their trust in the finished work of Jesus
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Christ. They're not trusting their works, right?
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They're not trusting their church membership. They're not trusting a sacrament.
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They're not trusting their confession to a priest.
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They're not, you know, trusting a prayer. They are putting their faith and trust
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in the person, the object of their faith, which is Jesus Christ.
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So scripturally, a local church is never described as containing unbelievers
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in its sanctioned membership.
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So in Acts 2.41, for example, the Bible says, then they that gladly received
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his word were baptized, right?
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They received the word, that's the condition, that they were baptized.
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And the same day, they were added unto them about 3,000 souls.
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Verse 47, Acts 2, 47 says, and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be said.
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So people, they had to receive the word of God. That's volition.
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They had to be willing to receive the message. And upon receiving the message,
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they had to willingly agree to baptize them.
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Then 1 Corinthians 1-2, the Bible says, for example, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth.
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It's a local community of believers.
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The local church, which is at Corinth, to them that are number one sanctified
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in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.
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So you never see a church in New Testament scripture, Thessalonica,
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Ephesus, Colossae, you know, Corinth.
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You never see anybody addressed there as not being a saint or sanctified or
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being part of the body of Christ.
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So the Bible indicates right off the beginning, anytime a church is addressed,
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a New Testament church specifically, under Pauline doctrine.
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That they're always saved believers.
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So that's the principle. That's the evidence. That's what we see in Scripture. That's the pattern.
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Okay. So the theological foundation of this is that you have to have a church of.
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Sanctified saved believers who profess their trust
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faith in christ because you need to maintain purity
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and unity right so a regenerate
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membership at least a professing regenerate membership that means having a clear
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profession and testimony of salvation so one of the things i'm like our pastor
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does it you know you don't immediately just join the church because you showed
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up yesterday you know what i mean and you don't join the church just because
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you've been there for six Sundays in a row.
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That's not how it works. What our pastor does is he observes them.
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He sees their faithfulness. He gets to know them. He wants to hear their testimony.
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He wants to know what their background
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is, what they understand about salvation, and so forth and so on.
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And he also wants to make sure that they're cognizant of the statement of faith of our church, right?
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What's the doctrinal position of our church.
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And he wants to know, do they agree with that doctrinal position?
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Or do they have a clear testimony of salvation? So it takes time.
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It's not just an immediate thing, because we want to ensure that whoever joins
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our church is saved, at least from profession, right?
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That we know what they're trusting for salvation.
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Why? Because that That regenerate membership requirement ensures the church
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is pure, the purpose of the church is retained, and there's unity of doctrine within the local body.
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That is the reason why you want to regenerate church membership.
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You can't, you know, like say for example, like some churches do this,
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you know, they don't have a piano player, so they'll hire somebody from outside
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their church to be a piano player.
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Well, the problem is, is now you just introduced a person that may not believe
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what you believe doctrinally.
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That person may not have the same perspective on music doctrinally, right?
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They may not even be saved at all. They may be trusting in work salvation.
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They might be Catholic, right?
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So, allowing unregenerate individuals into your membership that it risks compromising doctrine.
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You could introduce incompatible spirits, right? The Holy Spirit versus unclean spirits.
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You can empower unsaved leadership, and you can destroy biblical conviction.
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There's a slippery slope.
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It's a valid slope, right? It's not a fallacious slope.
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We're saying that this is actually a true slippery slope outlined in Scripture.
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So the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6.14, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
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I mean, the Bible is very clear. You're yoking is like you would take two oxen
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and an oxen would plow a field, right?
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Well, guess what? If you had one oxen that had three legs, I mean,
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had one with four legs, they would struggle and there would be some problems.
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If you had one of the oxen that was sickly and one that was strong,
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he'd be dragging the other oxen.
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Or if you had one ox that didn't want to work and one that did want to work,
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there would be no effectiveness and efficiency in the work, right?
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So, obviously, you can't be unequally yoked with unbelievers for the same reason.
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And the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6, 14, For what fellowship hath righteousness
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with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness or incompatible?
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So that's why you want your church to consist of professing
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saved regenerated believers so
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the bible says in first corinthians 1 10 paul had a ton
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of problems at that church you know there's division am i apollos am i as you
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know um of peter and so forth and so on there's all these divisions he had he
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said this he goes now i beseech you brother that you all watch speak the same thing Well,
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how are you going to speak the same thing if you all have different Bibles?
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How are you going to speak the same thing if you all have different views on baptism?
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How are you speaking the same thing if you have different views on eternal security,
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or dispensations, or the pre-tribulation rapture, or the King James Bible?
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Right? So, I mean, you can't just let any willy-nilly off the street to join your church.
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You need to vet them. And guess what? It is the pastor's job to make sure that
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wolves don't enter in among the sheep.
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And this is what Paul says. He says, now I beseech you, brethren,
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that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you.
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So division is the opposite of unity.
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So these passages, obviously established to the unity of the church,
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is only possible when all the members show the same regenerated Holy Spirit.
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They're all baptized in the same spirit.
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And they share the same doctrinal foundation. That's it.
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I mean, Alan, you're a boss. You tell me, are you going to let somebody under
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your team that doesn't have the same vision, the same work ethic,
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the same character? I mean, what do you think?
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It'll just simply cause division. It might even cause impact on others on the
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team and undermine the overall focus
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and mission of what you're trying to accomplish. Same thing goes here.
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So, it's very practical what's being preached here by Paul.
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And everybody needs to be of the same mind and consistently focused on the same vision.
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And it makes sense. But yeah, you can apply it in a secular place,
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too, if you're leading a team or if you're a manager or what have you. Yep.
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That unity principle, it's a true principle because it's biblical, right?
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Whether or not, you know, obviously the purpose of your business isn't to preach
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the gospel, but the principle still remains the same.
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Any kind of breakdown in unity is going to force that entity,
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whether it's a business, whether it's a church, whether it's a family, to disintegrate.
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They will not align. If you don't align, you cannot fulfill the given purpose of your church.
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Remember we said, what was the given purpose of the church?
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It's three roles. Number one is to exalt the Savior, right? Number two is to evangelize the sinner.
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And number three is to edify the saint. Well, guess what? if you have.
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Dissemblance and you have division and you have disunity, you're not going to
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be able to function, you're not going to be able to fulfill those three functions
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effectively or efficiently.
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And worse yet, you're going to introduce an evil spirit into your congregation, right?
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So that's why the requirement, not only is it biblical because you want to have
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saved, regenerated, and that's the pattern you see in scripture,
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you always see it addressed in saints, but it's necessary for doctrinal unity.
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One of the things we've read it before, but in Ephesians 4, for example.
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Talked about the gifts given to the church.
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In Ephesians 4, verse 11, it says, And he gave some apostles,
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some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
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verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
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for the edifying of the body of Christ. Why? Verse 14.
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That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with
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every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness,
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whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
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Verse 13, he says, why did he give these offices?
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Till we all, I mean, for the perfecting of the saints, right?
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The work of the ministry, for the edifying body of Christ. Why?
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Till we all come in the unity, unity, unity of the faith. And this is what the
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Bible describes as the faith once delivered that we're supposed to contend for that faith in Jude.
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Well, that faith that was once delivered is saving faith.
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Paul defines it in Romans 10, verse 17. He says, faith cometh by hearing and
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hearing by the word of God.
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Our faith is predicated upon what scripture says.
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So guess what? If you have a church that doesn't follow the Bible,
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right, that doesn't rightly divide, that doesn't study, that doesn't seek to
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be approved of God, guess what you're going to have? You're going to have chaos,
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and God's not the author of confusion.
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So there's a lot of reasons. There's a lot of systemic reasons why it is necessary
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to have people that have a clear, clean profession of faith.
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Right so now because you know we talked about you know we talked about baptism right but baptism.
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Salvation these have to precede church membership baptists historically have
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rejected the concept of hereditary or automatic membership through infant rights
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how many people have you talked to you know we i mean i used to say it but you
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know how many people talk to you well you know i was born i was born a roman
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catholic i'm always going to be a roman catholic,
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You hear that all the time. Yep. I was brought up this way. You're sprinkled.
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You're born into the church, and that's all you've known all your life,
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especially in the Catholic faith, you hear that.
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And that's the idea. The idea is that, you know, well, if I'm born into it,
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that's what's going to guarantee, or that's part of my sanctification.
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So that's obviously, it rejects biblical salvation, which is Titus 3, verse 5.
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It says, not by works, which we have done, but by his mercy, he saved us.
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So going to church, being a member of a church, following the human tradition, that's all works.
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That all rejects the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
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So two things about this prerequisites and the rejection of what we call sacramentalism.
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We talked about that a little bit in the two ordinances.
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But sacramentalism means that you rely on works such as the Lord's Supper,
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or they would call it the Eucharist,
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transubstantiation, or baptismal regeneration, that baptism saves you. Those are works.
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That's sacramentalism. That those ordinances, which they call sacraments, have saving power.
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Okay? Okay, so the church has a responsibility to reject any kind of sacramentalism
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and to make sure that the prerequisites are met, meaning that you're saved.
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Before you're baptized, and before you join the church.
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So the church has to discern the candidates, people that want to join it.
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The local church has a responsibility to discern the eligibility of a candidate for membership.
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How do they do that? Well, through clear, credible, scriptural testimony of salvation.
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They have to observe their life. They have to maybe even transfer a letter from
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a previous pastor or previous church.
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These aren't guarantees you're saved, right?
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But you and I, we've talked to people enough in our lifetime You know,
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I've been saved since 1988.
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And I can tell you that if I talk to somebody And I ask them enough questions,
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probing questions I can be pretty confident whether I know they're saved or
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not At least what they're trusting for salvation You know.
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People, there's a lot of Christian ease terminology that you hear Like you talk
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to a Mormon Oh yeah, we trust Jesus Christ, he's our sacrifice He died in our
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place But what they don't tell you is that Jesus Christ is the spirit brother of Satan,
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he's a created God, and that he's attaining Godhood, just like the Father God is.
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Oh, wait a minute, that's two different things.
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That's Christian. So, people could use Christian language. You have to ask questions.
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You need to investigate. You need to find out, do they actually have a clear testimony?
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So, for example, I work in the prison, and there have been a couple times where
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I ask somebody, so are you saved?
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You know Oh yes I'm saved I mean I said Well how long have you been saved Because
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usually I'm trying to pinpoint A time A time frame When they They chose to accept
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Christ Right Oh I've been saved Since I was you know 16 years old And so it
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sounds better Like okay There was a point in time That they made A decision to convert Right,
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And so I'll keep asking. So what led you to that decision?
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What was it that finally convinced you to trust Jesus Christ?
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And I said, you know, tell me the circumstances of your salvation.
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And this one lady, she told me, one prisoner, she said,
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well, I was 16 years old and our house was on fire and an angel pulled me out
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of bed and saved me and put me outside the house. That's what she meant by saved.
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Okay. Now, if I would have just on the surface said, are you saved? She would have said yes.
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That's why it's the church's responsibility if you're discipling somebody.
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If you're helping somebody make a decision to join the church,
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you better do your diligence and ask enough probing questions to hear a clear,
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viable, and credible scriptural testimony of salvation.
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Sometimes I'll even ask a person, somebody will say they're saved,
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and I'll say, okay, well, let me ask you a simple question.
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If you died tonight, God forbid, but if you died tonight and you're standing
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before God and God said, why should I let you into heaven? What would you say?
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And man, whatever comes out of their mouth in the next few seconds will tell
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you, they'll give you a pretty good, you know, clear evidence of whether that person stayed or not.
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Like I've heard, well, I'd tell the Lord I've done the best I can and I've really loved Jesus.
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And, You know, I've been going to church my entire life. Works, works, works.
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You know, if somebody would ask me, hey, you know, if you were standing for
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God, God said, why should I let you into heaven?
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You know what I would say? I'd say, God, because you said if I trusted your
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son for salvation, you'd save me.
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Because it has nothing to do with me. There's nothing I could do in and of myself to save myself.
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I couldn't be good enough. I couldn't go to church enough. I couldn't pray enough.
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Matter of fact, my prayer needs repentance of.
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I mean, I'm so sinful in my heart and backslidden and against the will of God
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that I'm sitting there falling.
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There's no way I could save myself. I had to throw myself at the mercy of Jesus Christ.
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So it's important to ask those types of questions to
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hear the answers and so we
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insist so this we have to discern the candidates we
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have to know are they really saved well the second one is
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destruction of sacerdotalism or
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sacerdotalism however you want to say it but sacerdotalism is
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really a priestly system you know that
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they would administer sacraments for salvation so when we
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insist that salvation precedes the ordinances like
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baptism or lord's supper the
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doctrine that doctrine by insisting that
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salvation precedes it the doctrine protects the church from error
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and you know that water or the church itself might convey saving grace it doesn't
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there's a there's a baptist historian b.h carroll he said this concerning salvation
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essential for membership he said this principle eliminates not only all infant
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baptism and membership,
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but locates the adult's remission of sins in the fountain of the blood instead
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of the fountain of water.
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Salvation must precede ordinances. Does at one blow smite and blast those two
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great enemies of religion, which is sacramentalism and sacerdotalism?
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So, because sacramentalism and sacerdotalism represent human works.
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It represents human tradition. That does not replace what Jesus Christ did.
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So, sacerdotalism, again, it's just a religious doctrine or system that emphasizes
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that ordained priests are basically your mediators between God and humanity.
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And they hold exclusive power to dispense sacraments and divine grace.
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So, the liturgical traditions like the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox,
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Anglican, where spiritual mediation is believed to be channeled through a priesthood.
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That's what sacerdotalism is so we reject the
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priesthood the roman catholic priesthood we went
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over priesthood of the believers remember every individual believer is
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a priest that's not true in the in
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the eastern orthodox anglican or roman catholic traditions then you have sacramentalism
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which is the theological belief that the sacraments such as baptism in the eucharist
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or the lord's supper the way we understand it are outward physical signs that
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intrinsically convey divine in grace and are necessary for salvation.
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So Catholic, Orcanarchs, and some Anglican and Lutheran traditions,
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they all emphasize that these rites, these sacraments, directly bestow God's
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grace rather than just acting as symbols.
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So Baptists historically have rejected those two systems, sacerdotalism and sacramentalism.
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So when we talk to somebody and we're trying to find out, hey,
26:20
what do you really believe about salvation? We need to pay attention to those
26:23
things. That's what we're trying to target.
26:26
So, here's one other thing here I'll add before moving on to the next thing
26:29
is that, well, someone might ask, that should be the job of my pastor.
26:33
Why is that my job? Why should I know?
26:35
Well, the question is, how do you answer that question about knowing if you're
26:40
unequally yoked with an unbeliever?
26:42
We should know this. And we should be asking those questions.
26:45
And if somebody has a different definition of being saved, for example,
26:51
or being a believer, because that's the terminology that's being used in Christian
26:57
circles, then there's an opportunity there to clear that up or maybe lead somebody to the truth.
27:06
But it's just something I thought about as you were going through it.
27:08
It's not just the job of a pastor to determine if somebody is saved or not.
27:13
You ought to do that as an individual Christian, too.
27:16
Yeah, and I'll add scriptural evidence to that.
27:19
So, 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is rebuking the Corinthians there because believers
27:25
were taking matters of civil law that they should have been able to judge and
27:31
handle amongst the brethren.
27:33
And they were taking it to the outside civil courts.
27:37
So he says this, verse 1, 1 Corinthians 6, 1.
27:41
He says, Dare any of you having a matter against another, go to law before the
27:45
unjust and not before the saints. Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world?
27:51
And if the world should be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
27:56
Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to
28:01
this life? Then he says this, verse 4. Here's the rebuke.
28:05
If ye then have judgments of things pertaining to this life,
28:08
watch what he says, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
28:14
So he's basically saying that a teenager or a child should be able to judge
28:19
between right and wrong.
28:21
And there's a lot of other verses, like, for example, the Bible says in Isaiah
28:25
8, verse 20, you know, they speak not according to this loss because there's no light in them.
28:30
1 Corinthians chapter, or 1
28:32
Peter 4, verse 11, he says we're supposed to speak as the oracles of God.
28:37
Okay? So that means an individual believer has the right and the obligation to make judgments.
28:44
It is their responsibility. But here's another way to look at it.
28:48
In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is rebuking them about certain doctrines, but this is what he says.
28:55
He says in 1 Corinthians 11, 18, For first of all, when ye come together in
29:01
the church, I hear there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it.
29:06
Verse 19, For there must also be heresies among you, watch what he says,
29:11
that they which are approved, they which are approved, may be made manifest or revealed.
29:19
So he says, the reason why you have heresies in the church is so that they that
29:23
are approved. Well, how do you seek, how do you get approval?
29:27
The Bible said in 2 Timothy 2.15, study to show thyself, what? Approved.
29:34
Oh, so approved Christians are ones that are studied.
29:39
They're the ones that can discern between wrong and right.
29:42
So he says in verse 18, or 19, 1 Corinthians 11, 19, for there must be also
29:50
heresies among you. Why?
29:52
That they which are approved, that means Christians who have studied their Bible
29:57
and know the difference between wrong doctrine and right doctrine,
30:01
who are able to identify heresies.
30:04
He says that they may be made manifest among you. That's not the job of the pastor.
30:09
That's not the job of the associate pastor.
30:12
That's the job of the individual Christian. Remember, the priesthood of the
30:15
believer demands that every single one of us should know what the Bible says
30:20
in our duty and responsibility to God.
30:23
So, yeah, you're right. We should be able to identify whether somebody's saved or not.
30:29
We should be able to ask enough probing questions to determine what somebody's
30:34
trusting. Yep. So, yeah.
30:37
Before we go to the next part about hereditary membership, I do want to say this about churches.
30:42
Now, churches, you know, in the Bible, we talked about, you know,
30:45
we talked about it before, but churches really constitute two things in Pauline doctrine.
30:52
Number one is an organization, which is a physical body of believers.
30:55
And number two is an organism, which is the body of Christ.
30:59
That's the, that's, I would say universal, but I think heavenly church is probably
31:04
the better term. And we talked about that before.
31:06
So every saved person that has truly trusted Christ is part of his body.
31:11
That's every believer in the world, but not every believer of the world is part
31:15
of the same church locally.
31:16
So you also have a physical representation of those saved believers,
31:20
which is the local congregation, a local church.
31:23
But the word church is tricky in your Bible.
31:28
For example, in Acts chapter 7, the Bible says in verse 38, And this is,
31:34
you know, Stephen is preaching here to the Jews, trying to convince them of who Christ was.
31:39
But he says this, in verse 37, he says, this is that Moses which said unto the
31:43
children of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
31:48
brethren, like unto me, him shall you hear.
31:50
Verse 38, this is he, watch what he says, that was in the church in the wilderness
31:58
with the angel which spake to him. Wait a minute, you're talking about, so the church?
32:03
Who was in the wilderness when Moses was being spoken to by God, the nation of Israel?
32:08
They're called a church. Isn't that strange?
32:12
Yeah, so they're called a church. But get this, Acts chapter 19,
32:16
Acts chapter 19, and look at verse 37, Acts 19, 37.
32:25
Verse 36 says, seeing then, and these men, you know, they're in Ephesus,
32:28
okay? And you have the great, the temple.
32:31
Let me start in verse 35. And when the town clerk had appeased the people,
32:34
he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the
32:38
city of the Ephesians is a worshiper of the great goddess Diana? Ready?
32:43
And of the image which fell down from Jupiter. This is not Christian worship.
32:48
It's not a Christian temple, is it? Watch verse 36.
32:51
Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against. You ought to be quiet
32:56
and do nothing rashly, verse 37.
32:58
For ye have brought hither these men.
33:01
Watch what he says. And this is the town clerk of Ephesus. He's not a Christian.
33:07
He says he's a worshiper of the goddess Diana, right?
33:10
Verse 37. For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of
33:16
churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.
33:21
He just called the temple of Diana a church.
33:25
So, you got to be careful. Church doesn't always mean church.
33:29
This is why it matters when you read your Bible to pay attention to words.
33:34
Distinctions matter in Scripture. So, and then, of course, you have the heavenly church.
33:38
So, there's three meanings for the church in Scripture. Number one,
33:41
it's any religious assembly.
33:45
So, that's what he talked about in Acts 7.38, the church in the wilderness.
33:49
It was an assembly of Jewish believers that constituted the nation of Israel
33:56
that were called out of Egypt. That's a church.
34:00
Then you have Acts 19.37, the goddess Diana, and her churches,
34:09
her religious pagan places of worship, were called churches in Scripture.
34:13
So a church can be any religious assembly
34:17
which is jewish christian or pagan and number
34:20
two the local new testament church so
34:23
second corinthians 11 28 romans 16 1 first
34:26
corinthians 1 those new testament body of believers that trusted christ and
34:31
have ordained members and leaders of those churches like a pastor and elder
34:36
you know and or and deacons that church structure that is following New Testament
34:43
Pauline doctrine is a local New Testament church.
34:45
And then, of course, the heavenly church, Colossians 1, verses,
34:49
you know, Colossians 1.24, Romans 12.5, Ephesians 2.6, so forth and so on.
34:53
So a church can be any religious assembly, whether it's Jewish, Christian, or pagan.
34:57
It can mean the local New Testament church or the heavenly church.
35:01
So it's important to understand that distinction because people will say,
35:05
well, you know, I see church,
35:07
you know, this is called a church and there's a church in the Old Testament
35:10
and therefore Israel and the church are the same one body if you don't make
35:14
the right divisions then you're going to get caught in the wrong doctrine.
35:20
Need to make a quote, bumper sticker that says yes. If you don't rightly divide,
35:24
you'll believe in the wrong doctrine.
35:25
You'll be able to find that. You'll find that on our streets.
35:30
Yeah, exactly. Or coffee mugs. We had coffee mugs.
35:34
So, what we'll basically establish at this point is the church needs to have
35:39
saved, regenerated believers because of unity of doctrine.
35:42
Right? We need to have a clear testimony. We're not introducing unsaved potential leadership.
35:48
We know that by requiring a
35:52
candidate to be saved, we are rejecting sacerdotalism and sacramentalism.
35:58
We're rejecting, you know, any works hierarchy.
36:02
Okay. Now, the other side of this is what, you know, we call hereditary membership.
36:07
So, the historic Baptist position stands in stark contrast to the Roman Catholic
36:12
Church, which utilizes, obviously, state church alliances, infant baptism,
36:17
and so forth. But they create a mixed church of unregenerate members.
36:22
I mean, matter of fact, like, for example, if you go back to World War II,
36:27
Hitler and all of his leadership were dyed-in-the-wool Roman Catholics.
36:34
And Pope Pius X was considered the pope of the Roman Catholic Church over Nazi Germany.
36:41
They were all good—I mean, all of them—Joseph Goebbels.
36:46
Adolf Hitler, heimler heimler like all
36:49
of his leadership were all roman catholics and
36:53
they were good standing roman catholics because the pope
36:56
at that time never denounced national socialism never denounced nazi germany
37:02
never renounced the brown church yeah so they were all good roman catholics
37:08
you ever heard that they called sorry but they always called well killer was a christian Mm-hmm.
37:14
And they try to make that association with Christianity and why it's… They'll
37:19
equivocate, right? Exactly.
37:21
They'll say, oh, well, if you're a Roman Catholic, they'll automatically assume
37:25
all Roman Catholics are Christian.
37:28
But that's the danger. If you do not ensure that you have saved,
37:33
regenerated, baptized members of your church, then you're going to have a whole
37:39
church of unregenerate members.
37:42
And in that case, a bunch of Nazis. So Rome teaches that infants are made members
37:47
of the church, and they receive salvation entirely apart from their personal faith or regeneration.
37:54
So we talked a little bit about that with infant baptism. so
37:57
here's some of the things that they believe here's their
38:00
this is one of their writings in 606 the
38:03
end of crydion and i can't remember i don't know how to say the last part but
38:06
this is what it says holy baptism holds the first place among all the sacraments
38:11
because it is the door of the spiritual life by it we are made members of christ
38:17
and his end of his body the church See that?
38:20
Your main, how are they made members? By infant baptism. By baptism.
38:25
Unless we are reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
38:30
And then the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Article 1, Section 4,
38:34
says this, The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly
38:40
manifest in infant baptism.
38:41
The church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God,
38:48
Were they not to confer baptism shortly after birth So basically they're saying
38:53
Your child is in danger of going to hell If you don't baptize him As soon as he's after he's born.
38:59
Then the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Article 1, Section 6,
39:03
says baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the gospel has been proclaimed.
39:10
And then the Council of Mila, 416 AD, says infant baptism by immersion commanded of all infants.
39:18
So that's hereditary membership.
39:22
That means as soon as they're baptized as a child, you become a member of the Catholic Church.
39:27
That's the exact opposite of the scriptural pattern. You'll notice they're not quoting scripture.
39:33
They're quoting articles of the catechism that they wrote up.
39:37
And that's because they argue that the church is the final and holy interpreter of all scripture.
39:43
And they're the ones that gave us scripture, by the way.
39:46
Which makes the Catholic Church, according to the law of non-contradiction,
39:51
because you can't have the Bible and Catholic tradition as both being the final
39:57
authority, because one contradicts the other.
40:00
So they both cannot be true at the same time.
40:02
So the law of contradiction demands that only one of them can be true, and one of them false.
40:08
So they say it's the Roman Catholic Church, ultimately that's their final authority.
40:13
So that's the Catholics. The Catholics obviously say, hey,
40:16
as soon as you're baptized, you're immediately made a member of the church,
40:19
which is the exact opposite of the doctrine that we're, you know,
40:24
we're asserting is that the church requires a candidate to have a clear testimony
40:30
of profession of faith means that they intellectually and emotionally and willingly
40:36
put their trust and faith in the person of Jesus Christ. A baby can't do that.
40:41
So, here's the historical Baptist position. We mentioned B.H.
40:45
Carroll. Here's another.
40:46
We already quoted him about the principle eliminates, this principle of preceding,
40:52
salvation precedes membership.
40:54
That destroys the two enemies of religion, sacramentalism and sacerdotalism.
40:59
Francis Whalen says the church is a society of believers.
41:05
He said this, We hold that each church is a Christian society on which is conferred
41:10
by Christ the entire power of self-government.
41:13
Every church, therefore, when it expresses its own belief, expresses the belief
41:18
of no other than its own members.
41:21
That means that they're not professing a creed of a synod of churches,
41:29
or a group of churches, or an archbishop, or an arch church,
41:35
or any other organizational structure.
41:38
It's the individual members of that church, is what he's saying.
41:42
When they express their own belief, they're only expressing the belief of those
41:47
individual members of that local congregation, period.
41:50
The Waldensians, which were a Baptistic group, especially from about the 4th
41:57
century all the way to the 1500s, the Waldensians, this is what they said the
42:02
prerequisite of repentance was.
42:04
So, rejecting the Catholic practice of infant baptism, which historically obviously
42:09
filled state churches with unregenerate non-believing members,
42:12
they argued that one
42:15
must be capable of salvation and repentance before
42:19
entering the water's baptism this is what they said he who
42:21
comes to baptism either repents or does not therefore baptism has no power of
42:28
remitting sin for him so they basically said before you're baptized you have
42:33
to repent well what is repenting consistent repenting the simplest way to defined
42:39
it, it's a change of mind.
42:41
Basically, they acknowledge their sin before God, their guilt before God,
42:45
and they realize that they must put their faith and trust in the finished work
42:50
of Christ. That's repentance.
42:52
So, what the Waldensians argued is before you're baptized, you have to acknowledge
42:55
that. You have to repent.
42:57
Therefore, baptism has no power of remission.
43:00
So really when
43:03
it comes down to it There's four logical arguments
43:06
That basically prove And
43:09
demonstrate that the church Must consist of
43:12
saved Regenerate members So
43:16
number one is the argument From apostolic pattern
43:19
I'll say it formally But this is basically What it's basically saying is believers
43:24
baptism only So because the New Testament explicitly Demonstrates that only
43:28
those Those who first gladly received the word and were subsequently baptized
43:34
were added to the church. Acts 2.41.
43:36
The practice of incorporating unregenerate individuals or infants lack any scriptural mandate.
43:43
So the apostolic pattern that we see in the beginning of the book of Acts,
43:47
that's when the apostles were active, right, is that it requires believers' baptism only.
43:56
Sometimes we might call it credo, just meaning that we make a profession of
44:00
faith before we're baptized.
44:02
So, number one, the argument is from the apostolic pattern. Number two is the
44:05
argument from spiritual compatibility.
44:08
So, because the true Christians—and again, who should the church consist of?
44:13
Saved, regenerate, Holy Spirit-filled, right?
44:18
Holy Spirit-baptized believers. So, because the true Christian,
44:21
true Christian unity, the doctrine of unity, right? The purity of those believers,
44:27
meaning they have to be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ.
44:31
It requires that believers to be equally yoked and of one spirit.
44:35
That's 2 Corinthians 6.14.
44:37
And it admits that unsaved members introduce incompatible spirits.
44:42
They invite worldly compromise, and they have the potential to destroy the doctrinal
44:46
integrity of the local body.
44:48
So purity requires believers.
44:51
That's the argument from spiritual compatibility.
44:54
If you're going to join a church You better be compatible Doctrine You better
44:59
be compatible As far as the spirit of Christ is concerned,
45:03
So, argument from apostolic pattern, argument from spiritual compatibility,
45:07
and then the third argument, the argument against sacramental efficacy.
45:13
Okay, the argument against sacramental efficacy. Say that three times fast. I'm not going to try.
45:19
So, this is the argument. Because salvation must precede, and it's come before,
45:27
all church ordinances, establishing a regenerate-only membership effectively
45:33
destroys the heresies of sacramentalism and sacerdotalism by locating the remission
45:40
of sin solely in the blood of Christ rather than waters of baptism.
45:45
So faith must precede membership.
45:50
Before a person can join a church, they must have a clear testimony that they
45:55
put their faith and trust in the person of Jesus Christ.
45:59
Therefore, inheriting all the benefits of being sealed by the Holy Spirit,
46:04
inheriting the benefit of being washed in the blood of Christ,
46:07
and making an atonement for our soul, and being given the spirit of adoption
46:11
whereby we cry, Abba, Father,
46:14
and where the spiritual circumcision where our flesh is separated from our spirit
46:18
and soul and so forth and so on.
46:20
All of that happens upon receiving Jesus Christ.
46:24
That's what is required before you join a church. So the argument against sacramental
46:30
efficacy, it's not efficacious.
46:32
It's not effective enough to say sacraments don't.
46:36
And then number four is the argument of soul liberty. So we talked about individual
46:40
soul liberty before, right?
46:41
Which means that a person must have a free will choice to trust Christ.
46:46
So because true saving faith fundamentally requires a voluntary obedience to
46:51
God's revealed will, Romans 14, 12, the hereditary membership models created
46:56
by infant baptism violate individual soul liberties.
47:00
It forces religious identification without any personal conversion at all. There's no repentance.
47:06
So faith requires volition. That's the argument from soul liberty.
47:11
So the four arguments are the argument from apostolic pattern,
47:15
believers baptism only, the argument from spiritual compatibility,
47:19
purity requires believers, and then argument against sacramental efficacy,
47:25
faith precedes membership, and the argument from soul liberty,
47:28
Faith requires volition.
47:31
So again, the Bible says in Acts 2.47, And the Lord added to the church daily,
47:36
such as should be saved, because the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the exclusive
47:40
agent who adds to the church.
47:43
Human ecclesiastical institutions, Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox,
47:48
Protestant, you name it, right? Even Baptists.
47:51
They possess no authority to artificially expand the church roles through biological lineage,
47:56
through state mandates only Christ
47:59
has the authority to add members so the
48:03
doctrine of saved regenerated church membership stands
48:06
as a historic Baptist conviction and pattern and distinction so the local New
48:13
Testament church is a called out assembly of born again believers baptized upon
48:18
credible profession of faith whose membership is granted by Christ alone not by birth not by right,
48:26
or by any human institution.
48:28
And that is saved, regenerated church membership. That is the S.
48:33
So, that's it. Yeah, that's it. And we're...
48:38
First of all, another good one. Thank you for covering all these details in here.
48:43
It's an important doctrine to understand, and we want to hear from our listeners
48:49
if we've mentioned this, I've mentioned this before, if you're using this tool or as a tool,
48:57
knowing the Baptist across, whether it's this specifically or any of the other
49:01
ones, has helped in your, one, your understanding and being confident and grounding
49:07
yourself and, as you had mentioned.
49:10
Knowing the distinctives specifically, and if it's also help when you've talked
49:15
with others and are able to distinguish between us and the other groups that
49:22
are out there. So we would like to hear from you.
49:24
I would also add to that, Alan, I would say I would love to hear how many have
49:29
been Baptists their entire life and have never really codified or organize their
49:34
beliefs like this, like knowing why they're actually Baptist?
49:38
Like, has this helped you solidify your faith and conviction of being a Baptist
49:43
today? I would love to hear that.
49:45
And it's probably not a question that a lot of people really get. It's,
49:50
You know, you probably ask a lot of, you teach a lot of the younger college
49:54
students, and I think you've asked that question before.
49:59
And a lot of times people respond with a blank look on their face because they
50:03
don't know how to articulate why they might be Baptist.
50:06
And they'll usually refer to, well, but this is how my parents raised me,
50:11
or I've been in church all my life, or something to that effect.
50:16
But that's not really anything rounded into what distinguishes you as a Baptist
50:20
between everyone else that's out there.
50:23
So, it's a powerful thing. One of the things I had them do as homework was to
50:30
ask, basically, why they were Baptist.
50:35
And I was trying to see if I could pull up some of the responses. Yep.
50:39
So, it's interesting, some of the conversations, I was just looking at some
50:44
of the responses. You're looking at some of the survey responses.
50:46
Okay, that's interesting.
50:49
Let's call them out by name. Let's see who we have here. Just kidding.
50:54
Just kidding. We're not going to do that. Don't worry. Don't give it to come back to our class. Yeah.
50:59
But like, for example, like this one person, you know, I'm trying to see,
51:04
You know, for example, you know, because Baptists are the only one that teaches
51:09
you can have a personal relationship with God.
51:12
Well, I mean, it's partly true, but that's not really sufficient as an answer,
51:16
right? Like, here's one.
51:20
Why are you a Baptist? Because I was born into it. Literally.
51:23
Herenity. Here's another one. I like this one. Why are you a Baptist?
51:26
Because I don't have a choice.
51:29
This is a survey that my students did. They asked somebody, either somebody
51:34
in the church It could have been a family member It could have been somebody
51:38
that just started visiting to the church And so forth and so on, right? Let's see.
51:46
Now, mind you, these are people that have been,
51:52
Have had a profession of faith Have been saved for a long time They've been
51:55
in church for Yeah, some of these people have been members Probably members
51:58
of our church for decades Yeah, and these are the kind of answers that you get
52:02
I answered, grew up in the church. My parents are Baptist.
52:05
Here's another one. Why are you Baptist? I was born in it and used the KJV. Okay.
52:12
I mean, some of them are decent. Like, it's the most biblically accurate church
52:15
that we see in the New Testament.
52:16
Our foundation is the Bible, is the sole authority, and we try to imitate exactly
52:21
how a biblical church functions. And that's the Bible.
52:23
That's the first acrostic, right? So, that's a good answer. Yeah. Yeah. So...
52:28
Yeah, some of these are pretty funny. You know, why are you a Baptist?
52:30
That's what I've been my whole life.
52:34
Here's another one. Why are you a Baptist? I know this person.
52:39
I'm not going to say his name.
52:41
Because it's the best religion out there, and if you can find me a better one, I'll change.
52:47
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
52:53
And I know this person. We know this person. Yes, we both know this person. Yeah.
53:00
Oh, man. Anyway, so here's a good one, because my dad is a Baptist pastor,
53:06
so I don't have any other option, pretty much.
53:10
Forced into it. Got it. All right, moving on. I mean, but listen, I say this and I laugh.
53:15
I'm kidding. We're trying to protect the guilty here. We're not going to tell people's names.
53:20
But I just, you know, we read some of these. I mean, to us, it's funny,
53:24
but it's also sad. Well, it's revealing.
53:27
This is pretty accurate. This is where the – and this is probably representative
53:32
of the general populace of Christians that are out there today is the lack of knowledge.
53:37
And you know what the Bible says about a lack of knowledge.
53:40
And this is why – Why am I Baptist? Here's one.
53:45
It was just the first church I found when I hit rock bottom.
53:49
Again, there's not good reasons.
53:52
Here's the thing. This is what I would say. Listen, and there may be some of
53:56
our listeners that would have these same responses.
53:59
Here's the thing, that's not fair to the person that's seeking the truth.
54:03
You know, our tagline is that, you know, we're supposed to be stewards of the truth.
54:08
That means you actually have an obligation to have a good reason for why you
54:13
believe what you believe and need to be biblical.
54:16
That's why we're covering these distinctions, so that you have a good biblical
54:21
reason. I'm a Baptist because it matches and emulates the pattern of the New
54:27
Testament church revealed in Scripture.
54:29
They put the Bible first. The Bible is their foundational standard of truth.
54:35
It is the document by which their faith and practice is determined by, is defined by, right?
54:41
Because the New Testament church was autonomous.
54:44
They were self-governing bodies of believers. Each of the believers had a clear
54:49
testimony and profession of faith.
54:52
Right because they believe that each christian had
54:56
a responsibility a direct mediation between them
54:59
and god through jesus christ that they
55:02
had individual soul liberty that they had the free will to choose
55:05
what god had revealed i mean that's why
55:08
you use these these baptist distinctions when somebody
55:11
says hey why are you baptist and and i mean
55:14
you can you can use any one of those right the bible's our sole authority because
55:18
i believe in autonomy the church i don't i reject the church state system right
55:23
i believe that there's only one mediator between god and man the man christ
55:26
jesus and that every person that trusts christ immediately becomes a priest before god,
55:32
And I like that you said that because any one of those things is enough, is a good answer.
55:40
It's like, well, let me remember the entire Baptist acrostic and run through the list.
55:44
It's like, no, you just, one of them is more than sufficient,
55:47
is a great answer to answer why you're a Baptist.
55:51
And just to circle back, I know we were looking at these, we're not here to,
55:54
we're not making fun of anybody here. No, it's just, but I want,
55:58
you know, the reason why we read them out, because I want people to hear what
56:02
people's answers really are.
56:04
I mean, here's one that says, why are you a Baptist? And the answer is, I don't know.
56:08
It's literally, I'm seeing this too. It literally says, I don't know.
56:12
Here's one. Why are you a Baptist? It feels right.
56:17
Yeah. But there you go. I mean, that's, this is a survey. This is a sample of
56:24
what we're seeing out there today.
56:28
And these are the next generation of Christians that we often emphasize as investing
56:35
into, as these are the folks that are going to be coming in and going to be
56:39
the leadership in churches,
56:40
going to be going to ministry, that are going to be missionaries in the field.
56:44
And this is a very basic, very simple question about who they are, their identity.
56:51
And, you know, our pastor just preached a message about John the Baptist having
56:57
doubt about Jesus Christ being the Christ.
57:00
You know, he was in prison, Matthew 11.
57:03
And, you know, he basically had his preachers. When John heard it, he was in prison.
57:08
He sent two of his disciples and said, and they asked him via,
57:12
you know, John asked via these two disciples to Christ, art thou he that should
57:16
come or do we live for another?
57:17
And Jesus said, don't. And this is watch what Jesus said.
57:21
Going what? Show John. Again, those things which you do hear and see. Testimony.
57:30
Evidence. Watch. The blind receive their sight. The lame walk.
57:33
The lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up.
57:36
The poor have the gospel preached unto them.
57:38
And he says, and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.
57:42
So when Christ says, look, you want to know, you want proof that I'm the Christ?
57:48
Did he rebuke John? He said, John, you should know better than that.
57:51
You should just feel it. You should have a burning in your bosom.
57:54
John, you should know automatically that I'm the Christ. Come on, man. You baptized me.
57:59
You saw the Holy Spirit come down as a dove. Yeah, man. Have some faith.
58:03
You heard the voice from heaven.
58:04
Didn't you feel that in your bones? No. You know what Christ did?
58:08
I'm going to give you clear, testimonial evidence.
58:13
Evidence, evidence, evidence, evidence. Christ used evidence to prove that he was the Christ to John.
58:21
Yeah, it's fact-faith-feeling, man. That's the order, that's the sequence.
58:25
So, Christ did it over and over again. He used evidence, evidence.
58:28
You know, I'm wanting to write, there's another article I've been wanting to
58:31
write on doubting Thomas, because there's a lot of misconception about doubting Thomas.
58:37
The idea is that, oh, he doubted, and then there's a statement that Christ says,
58:41
blessed are those that do not see but believe.
58:44
So some actually argue that blind faith is the reasonable faith.
58:50
That's not what's being argued there.
58:52
And so, you know, one day we'll have to cover that, but I'm going to write an
58:56
article on it and we'll cover it later. But I think it's important because people doubt their faith.
59:00
People are going to become skeptical about the things that they've been taught.
59:06
And these people that say, well, I've been a Baptist my entire life,
59:09
but I don't really know why.
59:10
What you're doing is You're opening the door To destroying and deconstructing
59:16
Your own faith and worse yet Creating a stumbling block For somebody else If
59:22
somebody comes to you and says Why are you a Baptist? And you go,
59:24
I don't know, it just feels right.
59:26
You really think that's going to be sufficient enough to persuade that individual
59:30
to trust what the Word of God says when you can't even defend it?
59:35
Yeah, I mean, that's actually a good point, is the testimony factor.
59:39
If you can't answer that with certainty, that's not a good testimony,
59:45
especially to those that are maybe baby Christians that are new to the faith
59:51
and they hear something like that.
59:53
What does the Bible say in 1 Peter 3.15? be ready
59:56
always to give an answer always to give
59:59
an answer to some men to give an answer of the reason of
1:00:02
the hope yeah that's what they need to everybody to every
1:00:05
man yeah that's every man supposed to be able to
1:00:08
give an answer to every man not only that the bible says in
1:00:10
colossians uh chapter four it's it's
1:00:14
basically kind of the same thing hold up oh
1:00:17
it's gonna be butchering it Colossians chapter
1:00:20
4 I mean there's a lot of verses That
1:00:24
demand that we have to be We have to
1:00:26
provide evidence in our faith But here's the Bible says in Colossians Chapter
1:00:31
4 verse 6 Well verse 5 It
1:00:34
says this Walk in wisdom toward them that are without Redeeming the
1:00:38
time verse 6 Let your speech always Be
1:00:42
with grace Seasoned with salt Watch That
1:00:45
ye may know how you ought
1:00:48
to answer every man there is a requirement for
1:00:52
the christian to answer the objections
1:00:55
and the skepticism of their faith they are required
1:00:58
to defend their faith they are required to contend for the faith and that means
1:01:03
you got to bring the unbiblical worldviews to bear and hold them accountable
1:01:08
the bible also says in the book of ephesians that whatsoever does bring light or manifested by light,
1:01:15
whenever you reprove and rebuke people.
1:01:18
It manifests the wickedness and the unbiblical worldviews that are unscriptural,
1:01:25
that are diametrically opposed to what we believe. A Christian ought to be able to do that.
1:01:30
Blind faith is not a doctrine in Scripture. Sorry. It doesn't exist.
1:01:36
Yeah. No, it hits home.
1:01:40
But we hope that this is encouraging. Again, if you're here and maybe you're
1:01:47
listening and you can't articulate very well, right?
1:01:52
The fact that you're here and you're trying to figure that out and you're seeking
1:01:55
the truth or you're provoked to see the truth is a lot more than a lot of other
1:02:01
Christians and churchgoers are doing today.
1:02:04
So i hope it's
1:02:07
encouraging and edifying and as i said earlier we
1:02:10
hope that we can can hear from you and just to see if it's helpful
1:02:13
and in your ability to articulate and ground yourself in this truth and this
1:02:20
important doctrine helping others edifying others as well and when it comes
1:02:24
to your your testimony and being able to share why you believe what you believe again hopefully this
1:02:31
across the coast so yeah hopefully it's helping and you know we we try to stress
1:02:36
here you know the middle word and we're going to constantly do that is you know it's not the what,
1:02:43
we we grow up with the what hey you're a baptist hey you're a king james bible leader hey you're.
1:02:49
Dispensational it's not the what that matters it's the why
1:02:52
it's true and that's where that's where us as
1:02:54
christians as bible students and bible teachers and people
1:02:58
that disciple others where we fail probably
1:03:01
the most is we do not adequately teach the
1:03:04
why it's true behind the what yes
1:03:08
you believe jesus christ is god but why is it true yes you
1:03:11
believe in the trinity that it's doctrinally that it's doctrinally a fact and
1:03:15
it's true but why is it true yes you teach that it's not by works it's not by
1:03:20
religious tradition it's not by it's not by baptism it's not by sacraments but
1:03:24
why is that true so don't don't just focus on the what that's what baptists are really good at.
1:03:30
Fundamentalists are really good at. This is what you ought to believe.
1:03:33
You know, bless God, you better believe that King James Bible. But why?
1:03:37
Can you explain to me why? Well, how dare you ask the man of God that?
1:03:42
All right? I mean, that's unfortunately, unfortunately, that has been the pattern that we've seen.
1:03:48
And that's what's produced the generation that we have of kids that have grown
1:03:52
up in Christian churches and have basically walked away from our faith.
1:03:56
Yeah, we see that happen. I mean, not to drag this on any longer,
1:04:00
but just the one response said,
1:04:02
well, this is the best religion until somebody can show me a better one.
1:04:06
It's not going to take much for somebody to show them a, quote,
1:04:09
better one, if it makes more sense.
1:04:11
Or somebody who's better studied in their belief than they are,
1:04:15
who can quote scripture better than they can and draw them away.
1:04:20
And, you know, unfortunately, we see that.
1:04:22
We've seen a lot of people drawn away to false doctrine because they knew their stuff and we didn't.
1:04:29
And it's really unfortunate. I guarantee you, we did the cults early on,
1:04:34
an admittable word, and I guarantee you they study, they find out exactly what
1:04:39
we believe, and they learn how to systematically dismantle what a Baptist believes.
1:04:44
Jehovah's Witnesses are trained specifically to deal with Baptists,
1:04:49
and a lot of them, well, guess what, are ex-Baptists. Are ex-Baptists. That's what you find.
1:04:55
And they'll study the King James Bible so they can talk to you and convince
1:04:59
you otherwise and confuse you and draw you away.
1:05:03
And it happens all the time.
1:05:06
That's it. That's it. Don't be deterred by not having an answer for every question,
1:05:13
but also don't quit learning how to answer every question.
1:05:19
That's my challenge to believers out there is study that book. Study that book.
1:05:24
You ought to be able to hide that Bible in your heart, and you should be able
1:05:28
to give good spiritual reasons for why you believe that you believe.
1:05:31
That is what's going to make you effective in reaching other people.
1:05:35
Not only that, that helps other people strengthen their faith.
1:05:38
Because I remember one time I was at a state university, and I was responding
1:05:43
to this evolutionist, and I was providing an answer after answer after answer.
1:05:48
And I remember there was a group of girls, about six or seven girls,
1:05:52
and they came up to me afterwards and asked what church I went to, and so forth and so on.
1:05:57
And they said this, they go, we're Christians, we grew up in church,
1:06:01
but we have never been able to respond to objections like that.
1:06:04
From what you know like what you said today and they
1:06:07
said we we were really encouraged by your answers and
1:06:11
it really it really challenged us you know i tried to invite him to
1:06:14
church and all that stuff but the point was is it challenged them in their faith
1:06:17
to grow more that there is somebody that you know there are people out there
1:06:22
that do want to explain the truth and do hold that stewardship of the truth
1:06:26
you know honestly and seriously so that's what every every christian should strive to be,
1:06:32
every Christian should strive to be able to defend the faith and to give answers to these objections,
1:06:38
to help others, at the very least, help other Christians. That's right. Amen to that.
1:06:43
And the last thing I'd like to say before we wrap it up is.
1:06:48
We've all been there, we experience it all the time where you might be discouraged
1:06:53
because you can't answer somebody or maybe they have one over you because maybe they've studied.
1:06:59
And it really shouldn't discourage you It should really provoke you to be ready next time,
1:07:08
And you get questions or maybe you've been put in a corner and you don't have
1:07:13
to know how to answer something, stick with it and, and, and learn search the scriptures.
1:07:19
And I know you got story after story and I've, I've been there multiple times
1:07:23
where I just, I couldn't answer cause I didn't know.
1:07:26
And yeah, it was discouraging, but it was, it was provoking though.
1:07:29
Like, okay, I need to get in there and study. A really good way to think of
1:07:34
this. Cause I, and you know.
1:07:37
Here's the reason why I'm able to present some of the things I can and argue
1:07:42
the way I can and defend the Bible is because I myself was backed into a corner. That's right.
1:07:48
What I've looked at, this is how I looked at it. If you come across an objection
1:07:52
or a problem with the Bible that you can't respond to, here's what's helped me over the years.
1:07:58
I've always looked at that as, okay, God is telling me I need to study this
1:08:01
out. I need to organize my thoughts and establish biblically what the doctrine
1:08:08
is concerning this particular subject.
1:08:10
That's the reason why I've come across it.
1:08:12
Maybe it's, you know, baptismal regeneration. I got nailed to the wall by a
1:08:17
Church of Christ guy one time when I was in my 20s.
1:08:20
And you know what I did? I spent the next two weeks studying everything I could about baptism.
1:08:26
And God really helped me solidify that. Eternal security, you know,
1:08:30
the Roman Catholic issue, canonicity of the Bible, inspirations.
1:08:34
I mean, every single one of these, you know, and of course, if you've been,
1:08:37
you know, preaching on the street 30 plus years, you're going to come across all kinds.
1:08:42
And there's a lot, some of these questions I couldn't answer.
1:08:44
Day one, I could not answer them.
1:08:46
Now, I may not have ever run into that person again, but I guarantee you I did
1:08:51
my I was diligent in researching and studying the scriptures and making sure
1:08:59
I can give an explanation as to why I believe it.
1:09:01
So don't be discouraged by a question you can't answer. Be encouraged.
1:09:05
Yeah. As maybe God's trying to point it out. Maybe you need to spend some time
1:09:08
solidifying this doctrine. Right. Yeah.
1:09:11
Keep on learning. Keep on studying. It's like, that's the best thing you can do. All right.
1:09:16
As always, good stuff. We got two more. And the next one we're going to cover is the two offices.
1:09:23
Two offices, yeah. Yeah, the two offices. And then the last one is going to
1:09:26
be separation of church and state. I had a blank moment there for a second.
1:09:32
So, we touched upon that a little bit when we were talking about individual soul liberty.
1:09:37
But we're going to cover that in more detail. in the last section.
1:09:41
It should be really interesting.
1:09:42
Like we said before, they overlap and there's, you know, it's kind of a synthesis, right?
1:09:47
The separation of church with state, you know, we, it's really covered in individual
1:09:52
soul liberty and priesthood of the believer a little bit. So,
1:09:55
and autonomy of the church.
1:09:56
So, it's just kind of a combination into that last point.
1:10:01
Yeah, looking forward to it. It should be good. So, stick around.
1:10:04
We're almost through the entire series. We're going to organize this too.
1:10:07
I'm going to make sure to organize this And if you're a YouTube subscriber or
1:10:10
listener, I like to try to put them into a playlist.
1:10:13
So that way it's easy to group everything together and you can always go back
1:10:16
and listen to a particular playlist.
1:10:19
And I've got a graphic, an infographic on the acrostic.
1:10:23
So if you guys, if somebody reaches out to us, let us know. We will send it.
1:10:27
Email us at theimmutableword at gmail.com.
1:10:31
If you email us, we will send you this infographic and you can print it up, put it in your Bible.
1:10:37
You can use it, you know, when you're witnessing or discipling,
1:10:40
but reach out to us. Let us know that you want a copy of it.
1:10:43
We'll send it to you. We want to hear from you.
1:10:45
All right. And we got the meetableword.com. That's we finally got that site
1:10:50
pretty much up and running. It's not complete.
1:10:52
We're still a work in progress, but we're starting to put push content out there.
1:10:55
So it's got our podcast information. It's got your articles that you've been
1:10:59
writing for The Immutable Word, as well as links out to our partners like Randy
1:11:04
Keener, too, because I know you contribute to them as well.
1:11:06
So, check it out. Let us know what you think.
1:11:09
And if you have any questions for us, again, email us, like you said.
1:11:13
And we'd like to hear from you about future content or anything that you'd like
1:11:16
us to cover or just feedback about the series.
1:11:19
So, we appreciate it. You have a like, thumbs up, like the episodes. All the typical stuff.
1:11:26
If you're not subscribed to us, subscribe to us. But I know we got like 80-some
1:11:30
subscribers, or at least by number, something like that.
1:11:33
Yeah, yeah, plus 80 for sure. Sometimes we only see one or two thumbs up.
1:11:37
So please like a subscribe.
1:11:39
That's what drives the content, and it puts it. YouTube will add it to the algorithm,
1:11:43
and it will pop up in other people's searches and stuff.
1:11:46
Yeah, it does help. So we want to try to put as much truth out there as possible.
1:11:49
Yeah, for sure. And we appreciate the listeners. So thanks for being there and
1:11:53
listening, and Lord willing, you've been getting a blessing out of it.
1:11:59
All right. Well, thanks, Robert. We'll see you on the next one,
1:12:04
the two offices, hopefully here next week.