And we will be reproducing disciples
that are united in the very same doctrine and practice that we
are in, that Christ has taught, okay? And of course, we saw that's
the model of the New Testament church that we saw in Acts. They
reproduced after their own kind. Matter of fact, that's actually
kind of the law. If you go back to the book of Genesis, everything
reproduces after its own kind. New Testament church reproduces
after its own kind. But I've mentioned right before we
left that if the commission is a three-part commission to make
disciples, to baptize them, to teach them all things whatsoever
Christ commanded, and if we are diligent and faithful to teaching
and teaching by not only expositional word of mouth teaching, but also
teaching by example, those things that Christ has commanded, then
what we will be doing is we will be producing people of like faith
and order. And so I mentioned right before
we took the break though, what does that mean in practical terms?
What are we looking at whenever we do that? Well, one thing it
means is that Christ is not authorizing us in the commission. He has
not authorized us to make any different kind of disciple. The
only disciple that we are to make is the kind that follows
this pattern of what Jesus has commanded. This disciple must
follow what Christ has commanded. And if that person does not follow
what Christ has commanded, then they are not a disciple. And
at that point, then they cannot be a member of the Lord's church.
Okay? Because the only ones who are
the members of the Lord's churches are those who repented, were
baptized, and were added to the church and continue daily in
the apostles doctrine, which was the doctrine of Christ, okay? So if they don't continue in
that doctrine, then they are not a member of the church. They
should not be a member of the church. So they should be corrected,
rebuked, corrected, reproved, instructed with the scriptures,
given time for repentance. But if that repentance doesn't
come, then that's when we must exercise church discipline and
they will no longer be considered a member of the Lord's Church
because they have denied the faith. Okay, they have denied
the faith that was delivered to the saints. So, Christ has
not authorized us to make any kind of different disciple. So
if anyone preached another kind of gospel, administered another
kind of baptism, instructed in any other kind of faith and order,
then what would they produce? Another kind of disciple, right?
If somebody produced another gospel, and they produced another
kind of disciple, and had another kind of baptism, they would be
making another type of disciple than the one that Jesus made. And so if that's the case, then
they are not a disciple of Jesus, they're a disciple of some errant,
zealous religious group. Another thing that this practically
means is it means that Christ is not giving this commission
just to any kind of professed Christian. The commission is
not given to just any professed Christian. He's only given the
commission to those who have the doctrine and the practice.
observing all things whatsoever He's commanded. It also means
that Christ is not authorizing the administration of just any
kind of baptism. Okay, we just can't administer
any kind of baptism that we want. If that person isn't a disciple,
follower of what Christ's gospel is, then we can't baptize
them. Okay? If they've not believed
the true gospel, of Jesus and they've not been scripturally
baptized, we can't add them to the church. They must first believe
the true gospel. Now if they're believing an Arminian
gospel and being zealous in good words, that does not qualify
them to be a disciple. A disciple is one who believes
the gospel, Christ's gospel. Not the Southern Baptist gospel,
not the Church of Christ gospel, not the Church of Latter-day
Saints gospel. I mean, we're talking about the
gospel that Jesus preached, and we were very clear. We went through
what Jesus preached, remember? Just in the book of John alone,
we've seen that Jesus preached a very explicit gospel, and that
explicit gospel entailed all of the doctrines of grace. And
so if they do not believe that gospel, they're believing another
gospel, so they are not a disciple. They've not been made a disciple
yet. So that first point of the commission has not yet been cleared
for them to be baptized. It's only whenever they believe
that gospel that we are to administer baptism to those folks. That's
why we're very slow in administering baptism to people until they
profess that faith. They don't profess that faith
then we cannot baptize them. We don't have the authority from
Christ to baptize them. We'd be baptizing them in our
name, not in the name of Jesus. And so we must be very careful
of that. We cannot administer any other
kind of baptism. We can't sprinkle, we can't,
you know, do any kind of other thing. Only that which was given
by Jesus. Another thing that this means
is that Christ is not authorizing the teaching of any other kind
of faith and order. So that phrase, whatsoever I
have commanded, limits disciple-making for Christ within the boundaries
of light, faith, and order. That's what we are to make disciples
in, in all three areas of the Great Commission. Now, we can
say that in another way. We can say it this way. Sorry, I was getting a phone
call. We can say it this way. What this means is that he is
commissioning only those who preach his gospel, who administer
his baptism, and teach what he has commanded. Only them are
the ones who have been authorized with the commission. It means that he is commissioning
only those who submit to administer this. Only those who are following
in not only mouth, but in practice, those things that Jesus taught. It means that he is only commissioning
those who teach the same faith, the same practice that he taught. That faith once delivered to
the saints. This is a commission that Christ
has given us to reproduce other of like faith and order churches. Now, this means that all the churches
found in the pages of scripture were of like faith and order. All the churches that would be
brought into existence by the obedience of that first church
would be churches of like faith and order. Now you know why Paul
corrected the Corinthians. Now you know why Paul corrected
the Galatians. Now you know why Paul set an
order and told Timothy to preach the Word and to hold to those
things which he'd been taught. Now you know why Jude wrote to
earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.
Now you see why Jesus in the Revelations warned those churches
about not being what He had called them to be. Jesus limited the commission
to administrators who were of like faith and order with Him
and designed the commission to only reproduce those of like
faith and order to Him. See, we're not going to go out
and reproduce a Presbyterian church. We're not going to reproduce
a church that's going to sprinkle babies, that's going to teach
that their children are covenantally under grace because of their
parents. We're not going to teach a church,
or we're not going to go out under the commission and bring
disciples in and teach them that Baptism in water is what washes
away your sin. That unless you're baptized,
you can't be saved. We're not gonna go out and start
a church or we're gonna see disciples being made and teach them that
the gospel is that you must receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior
and ask him into your heart. See, we're not going to reproduce
after an unlike kind, but after a like kind. if we're faithful
to teaching whatsoever Christ commanded, right? So this is why true New Testament
churches refuse to accept baptism administered by churches that
are not of like faith and order. Have you ever wondered that?
You wonder why we here don't receive baptism by churches that
don't believe the gospel that we believe and hold to the ordinances
that we hold to? It's because we are not authorized
by Christ to do so. Now, I'll be honest with you,
it grips our heart. We want to sometimes, don't we?
We do want to accept baptisms from people who we love and have
grown to cherish and to love and everything because they have
a different baptism than of like faith and order. We would love
to receive that. Oh, please come, be baptized. You don't want that? Well, you
know, we can't make any exceptions on that. And brethren, listen,
to be a New Testament church and to teach all things whatsoever
Christ has commanded is going to be tough sometimes. We are
going to come up against oppositions. There are going to be truly wonderful
people that are going to come here that we're going to love
and learn to love that whenever confronted with these things,
they may not receive them and they're just going to go away.
We're going to try with all we can to teach them, but they're
just going to go away. But we cannot make any other
kind of disciple, nor can we be authorized to make and teach
any other kind of order than what Christ has given. And so
we must be diligent in that. We can't change our theology.
We can't change our practice for the emotional tug
that we have with friends and relatives. See, Christ never
authorized the administration of anything other than of like,
faith, and order. So therefore, true churches of
Christ cannot accept anything but like, faith, and order. And
they cannot fellowship with anyone but of like, faith, and order. Turn with me, if you would, over
to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. We'll see that
this was the case with the churches throughout
the New Testament. The churches in the New Testament
corrected anyone who was within their membership or anyone who
claimed to be a child of grace They corrected those who did
not adhere to this light, faith, and order. Acts chapter 20, look with me
at verse 29. For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing
the fly. Also of your own selves shall
men arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after
themselves, after them. Okay? So, one of the things that
Paul warned the church is that there would be wolves that would
either come in or come up from within themselves who would try
to draw away disciples after them. Now, we've had some very
wonderful people that have attended here in times past. And our heart
goes out to them. We still pray for them. We love
them. And definitely don't have any,
you know, ill regard to any of them. But some of them have not
conformed to scripture in their baptism, in the Lord's ordinances
or to the gospel. And so in doing so, you know,
that's where we see that rising up among us or coming in among
us, There are gonna be those who are gonna come with another
gospel, with another practice. And we must stand our ground
on what the Lord has given for us as the keepers, as the administrators
in the kingdom, okay? The only authority that we have
been given is the authority that Christ has given us. It's a delegated
authority, and we don't have any authority to re-delegate
that authority, nor do we have any ability to change what that
authority has laid down, right? Look with me, if you would, at
1 Timothy. 1 Timothy, chapter 4. Now listen, I want you to pay
close attention, brethren, even those people that are listening
and watching. This is a hard saying. I know
this isn't popular. And I know that there are a lot
of brethren that are out there that are not part of New Testament
churches, and it can get a little squeamish when it comes to that
because, you know, we're trying to love them and to not castigate
them, and we most certainly aren't. I would warn that they find themselves
no matter what they need to do to find the Lord's New Testament
church. And we're definitely not throwing
any light upon their salvation whatsoever. But I know this is
not popular. I know people are going to try
to make excuses for their circumstances. OK, but we are not to change
the order, the faith, You know, everyone is pretty clear we're
not to change the gospel, right? But yet we're not to change the
practice either. That's just as important to Christ
as the gospel is. And so anybody that preaches
that in a different doctrine, there's only two places that
that can fall into. It's either the doctrine of Christ
or it's the doctrine of the devil. It's a satanic doctrine. And
some would say, now wait a minute, preacher, you're going a little
overboard there. You're kind of being dramatic. You're trying
to scare people. I'm not trying to scare anybody.
Nobody can scare anybody to do things that's right. Okay? You can scare people to make
people do works, but you can't scare anybody into right understanding
and thinking of God's Word. You can't scare anybody into
conversion. The Holy Spirit can only do that
and the Holy Spirit can only reveal truth. So I can't scare
anybody into nothing. So I'm not trying to scare anybody.
I'm stating the fact that the Bible teaches that it is either
the truth of the scriptures and anything else is the doctrine
of the devil. Look if you would, 1 Timothy
chapter four. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly
that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith,
remember? This is of like faith and order,
the faith once delivered to the saints. Some will depart from
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. So if it's not the faith and
order of Jesus Christ, then it is the faith and order of seducing
spirits and doctrines of devils. Look, if you would, with me at
2 Thessalonians. Chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians 3. Again, these are the words of
God, not the words of Mike Smith not the words of a denomination,
not the words of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, although we acknowledge
this is the Word of God and we submit to what the Word of God
says, but this isn't us making up our own theology and practice
here. 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 6. Now we command you, brethren,
this is Paul writing to the church in Thessalonica, And he says,
now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that ye, there's the ye, that he's speaking to the
church there, brethren, speaking to the people of God, the believers,
and the ye, meaning the group, them as a whole, that ye withdraw
yourselves, that's plural, from every brother that walketh disorderly,
and not after the tradition which he received of us." Of course,
we know that the tradition that was received from Paul was the
tradition that was given by Christ. There's nothing wrong with tradition,
long as that tradition is the tradition that was given by Christ,
okay? And I will say, there's nothing
wrong with traditions in general if they don't go against what
Christ has said, okay? We have a tradition here that
every Thanksgiving time, we have a Thanksgiving dinner with the
church, okay? That's not prescribed in the
New Testament or anything, but it's not against anything. We
know that the brethren met together on many occasions to eat and
fellowship together and to give thanks. Well, there's nothing
wrong with us meeting together and having a Thanksgiving dinner
together, okay? But here he says, look at that,
that's strong language, don't you think? He says, withdraw
yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not
after the tradition which he received from us. For yourselves
know how ye ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly
among you. Look at verse nine, not because
we have not power, but to make ourselves an example unto you
to follow us. For even when we were with you,
this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should
he eat. Well, that's going into some
other things, but if you'll look there, he says that if anybody
walked disorderly and not after the tradition which he received
of us, that we are to withdraw from them. So there goes ecumenicalism
right there. The world and the world's churches,
the world's churches as opposed to the Lord's churches, the world
and their churches will always preach ecumenicalism. Let's all
just get along. Let's all hold hands. We're all
preaching the same God. We're all underneath the same
God. You know, where many spokes in the wheel get to the same
place. Okay, we all are teaching Jesus. We're all teaching love,
the gospel of love, okay? Ecumenicalism says that we can
put our differences aside and hold hands together and minister
together. That's what the, here in town,
the Ministerial Alliance does. They are an alliance of ministries
from different, varying doctrines and churches of different faiths
and orders. Okay, they are of unlike faith
and an unlike order. But they're saying, hey, we're
gonna lay aside our differences and get together and do some
common good. And don't that sound wonderful?
That sounds good, don't it? Humanly speaking, that does sound
fine. You know, it is nice to, is it
not nice to help people? Absolutely it is. Is it not nice
to, you know, let differences be differences and put them aside
help each other, be kind one to another. Absolutely, there's
nothing wrong with some of that stuff. But as far as the gospel
fellowship and ministry is concerned, the Bible doesn't give us room
to do that. I'm not to say that me and the Church of Christ across
the town here are fellowshipping and serving in the same gospel.
That me and the Catholic Church are fellowshipping in the same
gospel. and serving in the same gospel. Matter of fact, we do
not acknowledge them to even be legitimate authorized administrators
of the gospel. They have a false gospel. So
ecumenicalism is a worldly thing. Now ecumenicalism among of like
faith and order, nothing wrong with that. Matter of fact, that
happens all the time, that churches of like faith and order, they
get together for a common cause. Matter of fact, a lot of the
men that have gone over and are preaching in other countries,
the churches that send them, they provide for that man and
his family to go and to help them in the cost of their living
and ministering that gospel. and other churches of like faith
and order who recognize that that man is, you know, a preacher
of the gospel and holding to the order of Christ, what do
they do? They also send money to help.
And so there is a coming together and helping in the ministry of
the gospel between autonomous churches. But each church is
autonomous and it does its own thing, okay? I'm not under the,
we're not under the guise of another church. anywhere. Which,
matter of fact, it shouldn't be much different, though, because
all of us are under the head of Jesus Christ, and we're following
His faith and order. But here Paul says that we are
to withdraw. So what does that mean? Well,
number one, that means that if there's any brother that's not
walking orderly according to the tradition of Christ, we shouldn't
be fellowshipping with them in the gospel, in service. Okay? And exactly that. I have some
friends who are preachers. but yet they do not hold to the
gospel and the order that I do, and so we do not fellowship in
them. We don't recognize them as a New Testament church. Does
that individual man maybe have some qualities that we agree
with? Absolutely. Do we love that man? Absolutely.
Will I go out and have coffee with that man? Absolutely. Will
we have good conversations over the internet and different things? Absolutely. But the Bible says
that we are to withdraw and not walk with that person or serve
with that person, that we are not to receive them into our
membership. Look with me, if you would, at
Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16. We read this when we're talking
about what the gospel of the church is. Verse 17. Now, I beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the
doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them. Now again, brethren,
that is not Sovereign Grace Baptist Church's theology that we made
up. That is not old school Baptist
theology that we made up. That is not primitive Baptist
church theology that we just made up. That is not Baptist
denomination theology that we just made up and now we're administrating. No, what are we administrating?
We're administrating whatsoever Christ commands. Christ commanded
to mark them, which caused division. Now let me ask you this, and
everybody watching and listening, understand this. How can you
mark someone who causes divisions and offenses contrary to the
doctrine which you have learned, unless there be confrontation?
Do you see any way to mark them that cause divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrine that we were given by Christ without
there being any confrontation, it's going to take confrontation. Now, let me also fill you in
on another thing. It's not just the preacher's
place to confront. You as the church have that place
to confront. those who come amongst us, to
stand for the truth. It's the church who stands for
the truth, not the pastor of the church by himself. Surely
the pastor should be leading the charge, but the charge is
to all of the membership of the local church. He said, I beseech
you brethren, not pastor. He didn't say I beseech you pastor.
He said, I beseech you, brethren. In the verse that we read in
2 Thessalonians, the address was to the ye, not to the you. It was to the ye. So whenever those that come among
us that have divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which
we have learned, we should After the time of correcting and rebuking
and reproving, if there's no repentance, what do we do? We
mark them, not with a magic marker or anything like that. We just,
we realize this person is not repenting, is not coming around
to what the Bible teaches on this. And so we've tried after
much talk and prayer and admonishment, then we must exercise
church discipline and avoid them. Again, that's hard, brethren.
I'm not saying that's easy at all. It's definitely not easy. And it's gonna be tough. And
the only way that makes it harder It's whenever the whole church
doesn't get behind this and does it, and does leave it up to the
pastor. Whenever the pastor is left for
himself to burden the whole bearing of this ministry, then it is
hard. It does become very hard and
very difficult. And I'm not just saying that
personally for myself, although yes, it is. I've experienced
that. It is hard. I'm saying that in general. no
matter what church there is. If the pastor is left to bear
the burden of these things, and the church doesn't come alongside
as well and back the faith and the order that Christ has given,
and especially back the pastor who is trying to stand in those
things and everything, then that church is doing a disservice
to their pastor. I mean, for the very least, we
should be praying for our pastors. so that they might be able to
carry these burdens. But we ourselves shouldn't leave
him to flounder by himself, taking the heat from, I mean, because
listen, whenever it comes to confronting people about their
doctrine and about their baptisms and about things like that, listen,
those are heated situations. People are very particular about
their baptisms. I mean, I've learned that just
since we've been here. You tell somebody that their
baptism, we don't recognize their baptism as a valid baptism. Listen,
buddy, the tempers flare. Friendships are severed. But truth is truth, and the pastor
shouldn't be the only one to bear that load and that burden.
It's the burden of the whole church. I mean, that should be
the conviction of the whole church. If they have been made disciples,
meaning that they have come to believe the things taught by
Christ in the gospel, and been baptized, and then been taught
all the other things that Christ has commanded, then they too,
if they're followers of that, they too ought to be just as
zealous to defend and uphold that very thing. You, as the
church, should be just as offended if someone come in here preaching
another gospel or teaching another order. That should bother you
and you should stand and defend that. So that's why true New Testament
churches will not fellowship and work with churches that are
not of like faith and order. It's not because we think that
we have the corner on the market and only this church in Joplin
has the answers. No, it's because we have to follow
what Christ has told us to do. Now, why are we to not do this? Well, we've seen in 2 Thessalonians
3, 6 that those who are following after seducing spirits and doctrines
of devils, that is an apostate doctrine. Those who follow after
that are apostates. They're not disciples, they're
apostates. Look with me if you would, we're
just about through. Look with me if you would at
1 Timothy. Chapter 4, verse 1. 1 Timothy, chapter 4 again, verse
1. We just read this a few minutes
ago, but look with me again. It says, Now the Spirit speaketh
expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from
the faith. That means that the faith is
there, they at once either acknowledge it or put up with it, one or
the other, but yet they departed from it. That is the very definition
of what an apostate is. One who leaves the faith or turns
from the faith. That's what an apostate is. So
anybody who turns from the faith or denies the faith, once delivered
to the saints, they are an apostate. Now, here again, it's hard teaching
that's not easy for us. But why would we want to coddle and make provisions and beg and
plead for an apostate to stay? Now, again, don't get me wrong. We're talking about after the
time of reproving, rebuking, instructing, correcting and there
is no repentance after we, and I don't know how long that time
is to be honest with you, okay? I'll just be flat honest, I don't
know how long that time takes. Sometimes it may be very short.
Sometimes it may be very long. As long as the person is receptive
to continuing to talk about those things, we with long suffering
continue to bear that burden of going to them and reproving
and rebuking with correction and scripture. But if that person
is just always so adamant and nope, I do not want to have anything
to do with that. Nope. What do we do? We don't
cast our pearls before the swine. We do not just keep letting the
dust collect up on our feet. We knock off the dust and we
go on. And at that point, we give them over to the Lord. Okay? But it says here that they shall
depart from the faith. That is an apostate. So God is not the author of confusion. The Bible says that correctly,
correct? God is not the author of confusion.
That being said, then God is not the author of multitudes
of conflicting Christian denominations. God is not the author of conflicting
faith and orders. If he is the author of the faith
and the author of the order, okay, then it's not gonna be
conflicting. If there is only one faith, there's
not many faiths. If there's only one baptism,
and brethren, that baptism is not spirit baptism. It is water baptism. The context
and all scripture shows that. One faith, one baptism is not
spirit baptism, and it is not receiving of the truth, okay? It is not that inward trust in
Christ. The faith that is talked about
in there is one body of doctrine and one ordinance of baptism. Not that there's only one ordinance,
but the ordinance of baptism. There's only one faith and one
kind of baptism, right? God is the only one way of salvation
and the only one way of service. God has only one way of salvation
and one way of service. And brethren, that's restricted
to a light, faith, and order that's found in the Great Commission. So, can those faithful to the
Commission be identified today among the professed people of
God? Can we, under the term of Christianity,
can we look out there and see those who are faithful to this
Commission? I think it can be done. I think it can be known which
of them that are true to the commission and those that are
not. Compare their gospel. Compare their gospel. Is their
gospel the gospel that Jesus preached? If their gospel is
not the gospel that Jesus preached, then they are not a New Testament
church and they are thus not keeping the commission. They
cannot, they don't have the authority to. Compare their baptism. Is their
baptism the baptism that Jesus administered and taught? If not,
then they are not a New Testament church, they are not the Lord's
church, and they are not following in the commission of Jesus Christ.
Nor can they because they don't have the authority to. Look at
the essential doctrines that they are holding. Are they the
same essential doctrines that Jesus taught and the apostles
taught. If they are not, they are not
the New Testament church. They are not the Lord's churches. If they are significantly different
than they cannot possibly be a New Testament church. Compare
their practices with that of the commission. The commission
limits by saying all things whatsoever I have commanded. So if their practice doesn't
follow the practice of Christ, the explicit commands of Christ, then we are to separate ourselves
from them. Those who depart from the faith and the practice once
delivered, we are to depart from them. We're not to have anything
to do with them. Any church that is ecumenical
in practice and receives the ordinances and ordinations from
any other kind of faith and order cannot possibly be a church of
Jesus Christ. Why? Because they were instructed
of no other faith and no other practice. So if they accept somebody
of another faith and another practice, then they can't be
a New Testament church because they have yet to learn the faithfulness
of light, faith, and order. If you remember, I give you an
example of this a while back, whenever I first come to Joplin
here, I was asked to come and teach at another church here
in town, who, inside that church, they had a group of people who
believed in the doctrines of grace. And they asked me to come
and to teach to those men for a few weeks. And so I came, and
those men, and especially some of the elder men, as we went
through, especially talking about baptism, and the Lord's Supper,
a lot of those older men that was in there, they said, listen,
this church originally was set up with this same belief system. They believed that baptism was
by immersion and that they did not receive into membership those
who had baptism outside of light, faith, and order. They said that
the Lord's Supper was leavened bread, unleavened bread and wine. and that no one was allowed to
take the Lord's Supper except the members of the church. And
they said, that's what this church originally believed whenever
it was constituted. But they had gotten away from
that. And even at the very beginning, they said that they believed
in the doctrine of grace in that church whenever it was first
constituted. But it had gone away from that. The pastor of the church now
was an Armenian, preaching Armenian and rejected the doctrines of
grace. They had open communion that
anybody who just professed to be a Christian could take the
Lord's Supper with no disciplinary part to it at all. And that they
received, they said that they even received into membership
of this, and it was a Baptist church, by the way, that they
received into membership people from other denominations who
had different doctrines, and some that had even been sprinkled
and not immersed. But they received them into their,
membership. Now, if a church does that, we
can't fellowship with that kind of church because they are not
holding to the faith and order once delivered to the saints. So any kind of ecumenicalism
that's like that, then we cannot be a part of. True churches of
Christ will fellowship only with churches of like faith and order
and will separate themselves from all other kinds as the scriptures
command us in 2 Thessalonians 3. So that is a restriction that
Christ give us in the commission, whatsoever I have commanded you. Now, Lord, we're gonna continue
in this next, well, not next week, but the week after that,
and we'll move on in the phrase And lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. And so we'll look at that and
what that has to do with our commission. Anybody have any
questions or comments before we dismiss? Want to make a announcement
again. Remember that this coming weekend
is our Bible conference. We will be having on Friday night,
we will have dinner here at the church. Brother Ray Hoggard,
Brother Tom Tanquary, and Brother Tom Armstrong will be coming
to minister to us over the course of the weekend. And on Friday
night, we are gonna have a dinner together. That way we can all
kind of meet each other, get to know each other. And we'll
feed them. They'll be coming in that evening.
Of course, Brother Tom Armstrong lives in Seneca, so he won't
be coming too far. Brother Tom Tankwater will be
coming from Delaware, Oklahoma. And Brother Ray Hoggard will
be coming from the Jonesboro, Arkansas area. I'm not for sure
if he's actually in Jonesboro or around that area, somewhere
around that area. But anyway, he'll be coming in. We'll have
dinner with them, get to know them a little bit. And then on
Saturday, we will start, services will begin at 9 o'clock. We will
meet together. and we'll sing some hymns and
then we'll have three messages and we'll interlace hymns in
between each message, give an opportunity also for people to
take a break and use the restroom and things like that. But we
will have three messages and hymns, then we'll have lunch
together and a time of fellowship for an hour, hour and a half,
however long that we want to fellowship. We're not making
any really strong time constraints. Then we're going to come back
after that and have three more messages with hymns. And then after the end of those,
then we'll have dinner together and fellowship as long as anybody
wants to hang around for fellowship. Then we'll meet back on Sunday
at 10 o'clock, our regular time, and we'll have two messages and
hymns. on Sunday and then we'll have
lunch together and fellowship as long as anybody wants to fellowship.
So we'll have a total of eight messages over the course of two
days and hymns and if there are any other preachers that end
up showing up, we may ask them to take one of the slots of the
other preachers and preach in their stead on one of their messages.
So we will give them that opportunity if they come. But looking forward
to this, be praying for this. Hope everybody comes and supports
it. It's going to be a long day,
a lot of service that will be done here. But you know, we don't
do this very often and we definitely need to hear the word of God.
And I pray that that's your heart's desire as well. So looking forward
to next weekend. So if you want to invite anybody
that you know, have them come out, anybody that's watching
that's close, drive on over and join us for the weekend and come. But that'll be next weekend,
September the 13th, 6 p.m. dinner, September the 14th, 9
a.m., September the 15th at 10 a.m. And we will have our conference
and pray with the Lord Jesus will be exalted in all we do.
All right, anybody got any questions? All right. Well, let's bow and
have a word of prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we thank you again for this