Let's go ahead and get back into
our study this morning. We, looking at last week, we
began to talk about a few things of wrong objects to worship.
Get all this stuff situated here so I
can move about freely. We began looking at heavenly
hosts and we got to talking a lot about idols and graven images
and things like that and we ended up and for those who are watching
and listening we ended up not really going much further after
that we got to kind of enter discussion here and we just kind
of stayed with the flow the way that the spirit was leading us
in that and continued on that during our break time and never
really come back into going any further in the The study that
I had prepared, but the study that the Lord had prepared flourished
on. So we will always want to lead,
or let Him lead the way. Let Him lead the way. He's going
to lead the way, but acknowledge that leading and let ourselves
be taught and edified by how He decides to do it. Well, this
morning I'd like to read a couple of verses and some of these verses
are going to be a little bit redundant to you. I mentioned
to you last week that we had a, and it's still out there,
I'm actually going to grab this just because it's already got
a couple of these verses compiled on here where I didn't have to
go back and retype them or anything. But we have this track out in
our deal. We have a problem with Easter.
It's that study that I did with you guys a couple of years ago
or so. And we just kind of broke down
all the stuff here. And this study isn't original
with me. I got this study off of some
things that I found on the internet. And I thought it was a very good
way of putting things together. But anyway, that's out in our
track and book rack and all that junk where all our stuff is found. I didn't mean that. It's just
a saying. It's not junk. It's really good
stuff. That's what happens when you
don't get an educated preacher. Anyway, there was some verses
that I would like to because I because I mentioned last week
that whenever we're talking about graven images and idols and iconery
and things like that, bringing those things into worship, we
see that that was what the pagans, especially the Babylonian uh
religions and all the ones that came out of that are very steeped
in using iconery in their uh in their worship and it's it's
a it's a very important part of the worship if you go into
a catholic church now and you would tell them you know take
all this stuff down and and meet in a room like we're meeting
here with just brick walls and you know plaster and whatever
methamphet here you know to them it'd be hard for them to do anything
because you know they got to have those icons for their uh
for their worship but um We see here, there's several scriptures
that the Bible tells us to be careful about whenever we enter
into worship to not do things like the heathen or like the
pagans do. And that was the thing that Israel
was doing is they were mixing and mingling the things that
they learned whenever they went into captivity into Babylon or
whenever they began to see the people in the land, you know,
that were worshiping other gods, whenever they began to see those
things, they began to incorporate that into what God had given
them. And God was angry about that.
And we're going to read a few verses of that today, but in
Deuteronomy 5, and if you want to turn with me to these, you're
welcome to do so. Deuteronomy 5 and again a couple
of these we've already read, but I'll read them again Just
to emphasize the importance on how God has what God how God
has placed on worship of him again as I mentioned before Worship
is not a thing that is just a is just subject to the worshiper
Okay, we just can't decide I'm gonna worship God this way or
that way or whatever way we want to worship And it's okay. God
has prescribed certain ways to be worshiped and in Deuteronomy
chapter 5 If you'll look there at verse 32, it says, ye shall
observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded
you, ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left,
ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath
commanded you, that ye may live and that it may be well with
you and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall
possess. Now, We see that God has said
here that we are to observe to do the things that God has commanded
us and not to turn aside to the right or to the left. And whenever we look at how God
teaches us, especially in the New Testament, about how we are
to worship him, then we are to not look to the right or to the
left and go that direction. that we are to stay and do the
things that God commanded. And as you'll see here in just
a few minutes, there is a New Testament counterpart to this,
and we are to follow that. I believe if the Old Testament
has things that the New Testament reconfirms or re-issues, that
that is for us today. And so while yet he was talking
about here, they didn't do that, he was gonna kill them. That's
not necessarily the way God does it today. Not that he's changed,
but that we are living in the New Testament time. We are living
according to the new covenant laws and we are to be following
Christ and what he has commanded us to do. And we'll see here
in a minute that he commands us to do what this says. So it
translates over into the New Testament as well. but we are
not to turn to the right side, to the left side, but we are
to follow the way that God has called. So look, if you would,
over to chapter 12 of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 12, and look
down, if you would, at verse 30. It says, take heed to thyselves
that thou be not snared by following them after they be destroyed
from before thee, and that thou inquire not after their gods,
saying, how did these nations serve their gods? Even so will
I do likewise. Now, if you remember what's gone
on before here in Deuteronomy, God has been warning them against
idol worship. about the people that were in
the land and that they were to not follow after the things that
they had done. And here he specifically says
that we are not to follow after them. And we are not to inquire
how they worship their gods. And we're not to do the things
that they do. And if you look, we see that
whenever one is enlightened on how these pagans worshiped their
gods and you see that's how they did that. And yet you still want
to continue that in your worship. You know, you might wanna cut
that out. You might wanna stop that. Look
at verse 31, it says, thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God,
for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they
done unto their gods. For even their sons and their
daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What
things soever I command you, observe to do it, thou shalt
not add thereto, nor diminish from it. Okay, so God was giving
instruction to Israel here that I have prescribed a certain way
for you to worship me. Everything out there is false
gods. It's not a real God. I am the
only true God. I'm the real God. I'm the true God. I'm the only
God. And what they're doing out there is idolatry. And so whenever
you look to see what they're doing, they are not giving worship
the way that I have commanded them to give worship. They are
not worshiping me. They are worshiping a figment
of their own imagination. And he says, I am the true God. And I am your God. And you're not gonna worship
the way they worship. But yet we find today in churches
all over the place that people are just bringing in all these
things from all these different religions and wanting to tack
that on and say, well, hey, you know, let's just worship God
this way. Well, let's worship God this way. I'll show you a
good example. You look at a lot of charismatic
churches, Pentecostal churches and charismatic churches. In
the past, you know, I sang in many of those churches whenever
I was traveling and singing. And we would go into a lot of
those churches and a lot of those charismatics and everything,
they would have these, you know, prayer, Coverings these prayer
blankets they put up these Hebrew Israelite prayer blankets and
they'd have the shofar and they would blow the shofar and they
would have all these elements of Hebrew worship That they would
bring into the worship in the New Testament quote-unquote New
Testament Church okay, and they would talk about all these things
that the Israelites do, the Jews do, and how they worshiped. And
they would try to incorporate that into their worship. And
even now, the Hebrew Roots Movement's doing the same thing. They have
all their feasts and the festivals of all of the Israelites and
everything. The very things that God said, I've left to you a
house that's desolate, okay? I've torn down all of that, and
it is being replaced with this. And to tell them that their religious
rights and things are. are a worship that he does not
desire anymore. He said, you know, I do not desire
the worship and sacrifice of bulls and goats. Even though
God prescribed the killing of bulls and goats and doves and
whatnot, he did that to always point to Christ. And he said,
I'm not looking for that. I'm not looking for man's service.
Okay, that's not what I'm looking for in worship. What I'm looking
for in worship is a broken and contrite heart. What I'm looking
for in worship is those who have gathered in my name and by faith
give glory and honor and praise to Christ and for all that he's
done. That's what worship is all about. Worship is, again,
worshiping God in spirit and in truth. And Jesus began, as
we've seen whenever he was talking to the woman of Samaria, said,
all of what you have seen and known about worship, whether
it be in Jerusalem, whether it be here in your mouth that you've
decided, all that's gonna go away. All that's not the way
God desires to be worshiped. God will bring forth his own
worship from his people, and that worship will be one of a
spiritual worship and a worship according to truth. not according
to fables, not according to traditions. At that point, all the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, all the scribes and the teachers of the law had
built for themselves a religion based upon man's traditions.
What we've seen in that time of Jesus was not what God prescribed
to Moses for their worship. They were had added. So whenever
we look at all those things that those Pharisees were doing and
putting on those people and you know, you say, well, yeah, they
should have been following that. That was the teachers of the
law. No, the teachers of the law were leading them. The blind
was leading the blind. The people didn't know what God
had taught them. And the teachers weren't teaching them what God
had taught them. They were adding traditions upon themselves. And
that's exactly, brethren, listen, that's exactly no different than
what we see today. We have blind guides leading
blind people, people that don't know their Bible being taught
by men who are twisting the Bible or bringing and putting things
upon the word of God that is not in the word of God. And so
they have traditions of man and they have people that don't know
the difference. And just as a side note on that,
whenever we come into the house of God and meaning as we come
to worship as a body here, as the church, whenever we come
and worship together, it isn't you coming and me telling you
what to think and do. Okay? It's never that. A pastor or a preacher is never
to be in the place of God's Word. You yourselves are to go and
to see whether the things I say are to be true. Okay? Does God
raise up men to lead? Yes. Does God give men gifts
to preach and to exhort and to teach God's Word? Yes, He does. But as with everything, man is
fallible and can go astray and can lead you astray and can teach
you wrong. Sometimes willingly or intentionally,
sometimes inadvertently just because of his ignorance. And
so that's where what's good about fellowship is there is a reciprocity
of accountability. Me to you and you to me. And
so it works like that's how churches are to function. We are to submit
ourselves one to another. And so as we see in here, what
they're doing is they have totally disregarded what God has said
and they've looked and said, hey, you know, I kind of like
how the Jebusites are doing things over there. Maybe we can incorporate
in that and maybe a little more Israelites would get more serious
about what we're doing here, you know. I mean, doesn't that
sound a lot like, I don't know how much experience you guys
have had, and as I've seen, and been in a lot of this stuff,
you know, let's canvas the community and see what would they like
to, you know. I read the Purpose Driven Church,
and seen, you know, the concentric circles, and we have the core,
and we have the, you know, all this kind of stuff, and we canvas
that area, and find out what everybody likes, and, then we
bend God's worship to appeal to a heathen society. Now brother, I don't know about
you, but just saying that. not even getting into God's word
and reading all these things, just saying that we are going
to bend the worship of God to suit the heathen society. If
you know anything about scripture and you know that the natural
man doesn't care anything about God. So any worship that he would
do of God would be an ignorant worship of the flesh and not
derived from the spirit of God and the truth of God, which God
says that's the only way he's going to be worshiped is in spirit
and in truth. So there's a downfall of looking
outwardly, whether it be here in Israel looking out to the
other nations, or whether it be Sovereign Grace Baptist Church
looking out into Joplin and finding, hey, what's the new fad? What's
the new ways? What are the things that people
are interested in? Okay, right now people love entertainment. They love a big show. They love
the music. They love the lights. They love
the fog. They love a coffee shop. Now,
we got a coffee shop over here, but it's very subdued for those
who's watching. It's just a Keurig. But they think we ought to have
a mall. We ought to have banks and ATMs
and movie theaters and all that kind of stuff. It's all about
crowd pleasing. Where worship is the complete
opposite. Worship is not intended to be
a pleaser of the crowd, but a pleaser to God. Worship is an inward
thing that comes out from the child of grace who has been saved,
who has been converted, who has been infilled with the Holy Spirit,
giving praise because of their God and the goodness that He
has bestowed upon them, the salvation that He has brought to them.
And that praise comes from a genuine love and adoration and extolling
from the person to their God, irregardless of what's going
on around them. And I always go back to this,
I think whenever David came into Jerusalem with the ark and he
danced before God, he didn't care about what everybody else
thought. Now, everybody else had their
opinions about David, didn't they? Remember, was it his mother,
his wife that commented about him coming in and acting like
a fool? You know, David didn't care about
that. Now that's not to say we're to
be like, you know, Pentecostal charismatics and start flopping
around on the floor and, you know, just the spirit of the
prophets are subject to the prophets. But listen, whenever one is given
to worship the Lord, we're not looking around to try to figure
out how to do it because worship is not a prescription. It doesn't
come from literature that tells you how to worship. God has prescribed
ways in which to worship Him, but they're not a laundry list
that we follow, and if we say, okay, I did this, I did this,
I did this, okay, we've worshiped God. No, again, we must worship
Him in spirit and in truth. And as I mentioned at the very
beginning of the study on worship, we can worship Him in truth all
day long and miss the spirit part of it. And in doing so,
we've not worshiped. and vice versa. God says here,
He says, what thing soever I command you observe to do it, thou shalt
not add thereto nor diminish from that. Okay? So we should
be very careful about adding anything or taking away anything
from what God has prescribed as part of worship. But we should
be very, very quick to understand that we're not to look around
at the way the heathens do things. Okay? The Catholics want to have
their idols. We don't need idols. The Catholic
wants their long robes. We don't need long robes. The
Catholics want their incense and their candles and their big
puffy hats. We don't have to have those. We don't have to have all the
gods with all the different faces and the eyes and the things as
the Hindus have. We don't have to have a little
chubby Asian man half robed giving alms and all that kind of stuff.
We don't have to have all that. We don't have to enter in to
worship. Matter of fact, this is what's
great. Here we are today. And you have a pastor standing
at an old wood pulpit in jeans and t-shirt. And I'm looking
around here, everybody's dressed just regular. We're drinking
coffee. We don't have a fancy building
at all. Smells musty and stuffy in here,
this old building. But yet we can come and worship
God to the utmost because we're not reliant upon other things.
See, whenever we're not idolaters, we don't need idols or the lack
thereof to hinder our worship. See, our worship comes from God
and God alone. And this is what God is saying.
I'm giving you certain things that you should be aware of.
But again, the worship isn't something that is acted out.
It's lived and experienced. And I think brethren in our society
and in our culture, that worship has become a scripted thing. I know it's become a scripted
thing. I remember gathering sets as a musician, and let's put
our tear-jerky songs at the end. Let's put our soul-stirring songs
at the end so that we might come into the invitation time with
a very moving piece of music, okay? That's scripted. The highs and the lows and the
highs and the lows that keeps people's emotions like this. See, that's not worship. That's
entertainment. Okay? That's manipulation. That's
my manipulation. That's not worship. Worship is
where, just like this week, in the busyness of my schedule,
I was at a hotel and was reading some verses and just a couple
of verses and I read that and God just breaks that upon my
heart and I begin to weep about my inadequacies. And I'm thanking
the Lord because of what he's done for me. In the scatter of
work from dusk to dawn, and the hurriedness of it all, and the
miles being driven, God was able to, not in a palace, not in a
royal place of gold and grandeur, not with robes and regal dress,
there in a stupid hotel, where the air conditioner wasn't working,
by the way, brought worship to my heart by
reading a few verses of scripture that I've read thousands of times
but all of a sudden out from my heart comes worship to God.
Wondering why he could have even thought about choosing me whenever
I've been so unfaithful to him. That how grievous my sin is and
my continual failings and yet he was faithful to the end. Faithful is He that will call
you. He will do it. Whenever I don't
do it, He will do it. Oh, I see I wasn't worthy of
that. He's faithful. I'm not faithful. And that just
bothered me. That I am not faithful to God. Last week conviction fell upon
me from my own words about things in my own life that I put before
God. And worship comes in some of
the most inopportune times. Sometimes worship can come in
the middle of the night, being woke up out of your bed. Sometimes
worship can come. See, that's not scripted, brethren.
That is not something that we can get a book down at the bookstore
and tell us how to do that. No, that is God's work within
his people to bring forth out of them glory and praise. Is that not why we were created?
And for thy pleasure, we were created. Is that not the reason
that He has brought us to Himself as a people, sanctified, so that
we might bring praise and glory to Him? Well, if that's the truth
of Scripture, if that's what it is, then doesn't that mean
that the worship, the praise, the honor, the glory, the adoration,
the extolling of God that the Bible talks about coming forth
from those people, doesn't it make sense that that too comes
from the sovereign hand of God as He moves within our heart
and He moves as He wills? See, it isn't a time that we
set aside at a certain point of week. We call this in our
vernacular, we say, hey, let's go to worship. Let's go to church. Let's go to the meeting place.
You know, we talk about that. But brethren, listen, this isn't
where and only where worship takes place. This right here
can happen and worship never take place. We can be out there
and worship can take place. And so it's all about the work
of God in us to bring that worship. Worship is real and it's genuine. And God has given the Israelites
and said, listen, there are things that I've told you about worship
and you're looking out to all these other things that are flattering. They're flattering to the eye.
You know? I mean, I'll be honest, whenever
I went into that Catholic church that one time and looked up and
I seen all that stuff, yes, I mean, I was a little put off at first,
but whenever you look at that, it's beautiful. I mean, those
sculptures are beautiful. Some of those paintings are beautiful.
Those stained glass windows are beautiful. All those graven images,
when you look at them, they're beautiful. They're beautiful
to the human eye. They're beautiful. But whenever
our God says that he abhors those things, when our God says that
they are a stench in his nostrils, when our God says, don't look
at those things and follow after those things because those aren't
the things that are pleasing to me, then they ought to not
be pleasing to us. They ought to not be the things
that we pursue and look after. Look with me, if you would, at
Jeremiah chapter 10. Start in verse one, Jeremiah
chapter 10. Hear ye the word which the Lord
speaketh unto you, O house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord,
learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs
of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs
of the people are vain. Take that to heart. The customs
of the people are vain. For one cutteth a tree out of
the forest, the work of the hands of the workmen with the axe.
They deck it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with
nails and with hammers that it move not. They are upright as
the palm tree, but speak not. They must needs be born because
they cannot go. Be not afraid of them for they
cannot do evil. Neither also is it in them to
do good. For as much as there is none
like unto thee, O Lord, thou art great and thy name is great
in might. Now, what's he saying here? He's
saying, look, these people go out and they fashion all these
things and they can't do anything. And all their customs that they
do for these things are vain. But what's the warning? He says,
learn not the way of the heathen. Now, I'm all for researching
things out and knowing how everything works on the other side and everything
like that. But brethren, listen, you don't
have to do that. If you get to know this right
here, well, you'll know what's wrong and what's right. The Lord
has given these things for everything for life and godliness right
here. I don't have to know the intricate works of the Jesuits
or the Catholics or the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons. I don't
have to know all their rituals. I don't have to know all of their
gods and how it leads all the way back to Babylon. I don't
have to know all that stuff. Now, that stuff's interesting. But I don't have to know that
to be able to worship God or rightly. because he's placed
in our hearts the way to worship, and then he's given us his word,
and that's enough for us. Again, we go back to that illustration
my grandpa used to always give, you know. The monetary people,
they don't study the counterfeits to know what's real. They study
the real so much that whenever there is a counterfeit, they
know it right away because they know what's real. And that's
how I think we are here. We can tell what's genuine worship
and what's not. I can go into a church and I
can see what's going on and tell whether that's genuine worship
or not. I think our spirit bears witness with that. I think there's
discernment given to the child of grace to know that's not worship. Whenever somebody's flailing,
when the Bible says that we are to be modest, and that we are
to be, that we are to do all things decently and in order,
and whenever you walk into a place and there is a woman flailing
on the floor with her dress flying up where everything is exposed,
and guys are having to go over there covering her with a blanket
to make sure that there isn't no immoral thing being shown
there, I could probably say that's not worship. I think I'm safe
to say that. That that is paganistic, heathenistic,
psycho-babel junk that is not godly at all. Look with me now, if you would,
in Matthew chapter 28. I said that there was a New Testament
parallel to the first verse we read. Matthew 28 and verse 20. Again, Jesus talking to the church
here. We'll just go up to verse 18. Jesus came and spake unto
them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And
here it is, verse 20. Teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you. Is there a place within the gathering
of the church whenever we need to teach the things whatsoever
Christ has commanded? Yes. When we have one who professes
Christ, a new believer that comes into professing Christ, and they
don't know the Bible, and they come in among us, and they want
to bring in things that are not prescribed by Christ. Don't we
have that place that we need to teach them all things whatsoever
Christ commands? It's not just an offensive, and
I mean that in a, not in a, being an offense, I'm talking about
in taking the attack, that we do this offensively as well as
defensively. We defend against those things
by the word of God, but we also offensively take those to those
who do not know by the word of God. So we not only rebuke, but
we instruct, right? There's the positive part and
the negative part. We train in righteousness, we
reprove the two sides of the coin. There's
the negative side and the positive. There's the responding side,
but there's also the engaging side. So Christ has commanded
that we do these things. Look with me if you would in
Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, start in verse
7 if you would. Well, we'll start in verse 6.
Jesus is quoting here. He answered and said unto them,
Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written,
This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. How be it in vain do they worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men? For laying
aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men
as the washing of pots and cups, and many other such like things
ye do. And he said unto them, full will
ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own
tradition. For Moses said, honor thy father
and thy mother, and whosoever curseth father or mother, let
him die the death. "'But ye say, if a man shall
say to his father or mother "'it is Corbin, that is to say a gift,
"'by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, "'he shall
be free. "'And ye suffer him no more to
do aught "'for his father and his mother, "'making the word
of God of none effect "'through your tradition, which ye have
delivered, "'and many such like things do ye.'" So here we have
an admonition of the Lord that there are teachings of doctrines
of men and a tradition that can be bestowed or pushed upon somebody
and that tradition can override the commandments of God and not
consider the commandments of God. And so in those things,
Jesus is saying that we should not be like those hypocrites
that do those things. Look at 1 Corinthians, or 2 Corinthians
6, excuse me, 2 Corinthians chapter 6. We'll read one more. We'll read one more right after
this and then we'll take a break. 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Look at verse 14, it says, be
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God, and God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk
in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore, come out from among them and be separate, saith the
Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you,
and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty. Now, brethren, this is Paul's
instructions to the church. A lot of times whenever we go
to this, do not be unequally yoked together, we immediately
want to attach that to marriage. At least that's how I've heard
it mostly, most of my life, if someone wants to bring that up
with marriage. Or maybe, and not as popular, but business
arrangements. You know, don't go into business
with an unbeliever. Okay? But this is the instruction
of Christ to the church. Paul was telling the church at
Corinth, he's saying, listen, you, church at Corinth, are the
temple of God. You are where God dwells. And what agreement do you have
with idols? Paganistic things. He says, don't be unequally yoked
with unbelievers. Now, I think we need to kind
of step back and think about some of these things as it pertains
to church, church discipline, and things such as that. You know, there's a lot of churches
that just, you know, come one, come all, and just continue to
allow people to come that express and exhibit beliefs and practices
that are not according to God's word. And they just don't deal
with that. And, you know, while we are to
be seclusive, I think we are to be open as long as somebody
comes and they think they need to come and worship and they
profess the gospel that we believe to be the gospel of scripture,
to be patient with them in teaching. But brethren, there's also instruction
and quite a bit of it in scripture where we also are to be careful
and not allow that to continue on if that's not so. that God
has restricted the worship together in the church for those who believe
in worship. How can they come among us and
worship who know not God? How can they lift their hearts
in worship if they don't know God? How can that part of worship
that they would come and bring be anything that is genuine and
true in spirit and in truth when they don't know God. Now, we
don't know their hearts. We don't know who's who. We don't
know that. And so that's why we have to
be very careful and patient and take the time to visit with them
and see where they're at with their understanding of the Lord,
and I'm not talking about take a test to see whether or not
you can be a part of us or not, I'm not talking about that, but
there is some interaction and engagement that needs to take
place before you open up worship to those who are not of God.
And some people like to just dismiss that and think that we're
just being judgmental and that we're just being, you know, that
we're trying to be seclusive or lording it over people, but
we're not. We're trying to be what scripture tells us to be.
We're trying to be honoring to God. And so whenever we look
here and God says that we are not to be unequally yoked with
unbelievers. It says unbelievers. It says
what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness. But yet
there are those who want to say, well yeah, come on in and fellowship
with us and maybe the fellowship among us will change their mind
and get them saved. Is that how people are saved?
Is that what church is for? Is this the evangelistic hub
where we got to get everybody in here so that they'll get saved?
No, again, those Armenian tendencies keep getting into our mind. And
sometimes they even cloud the mind of those of us who believe
in predestination and sovereign grace. And we think we just need
to be open and accepting and not disciplining. Listen, we've
had people that's come in here, that's come from other churches,
fundamental, independent, Baptist churches with KJV only mindset,
and a lot of things that appeal to them that are here. We're
a small congregation. We believe in local church. We
believe in King James only. We believe in exposition of God's
word. But yet when they come in and
find out the gospel that we preach, it's not appealing to them, but
they somehow want to stick around. Well, once we find that out,
we need to confront them about that. And if they do not, repent
of that false gospel, then they don't need to be included in
our fellowship and our worship. And that's not being mean or
hateful or saying that we're better than you and we have God's,
you know, you know, that we're judging the authority over everybody
and it's Christ church, not all, you know, we're not saying all
that kind of stuff. We're just saying that, what
does this say? Don't be unequally yoked with
unbelievers and not have fellowship with unrighteousness and what
communion have light with darkness. What concord hath Christ with
Belial, and what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? And so what
does he say? He says, come out from among
them and be separate. Paul's instruction to the church
at Corinth was not mix and mingle with them. Ministerial Alliance,
mix them in. We watched a thing the other
night, we was watching through the TV and they was having a
benefit out in San Francisco for the fires and everything.
And they had all these interfaith group come up to pray before
this concert began, to pray. And they had Jews, and they had
Episcopalians, they had Catholics, they had Charismatics, they had
Muslims. And they had Buddhists and they
had Hindus. They had them all come up there,
you know, and they thought they were representing everybody,
but they weren't. Matter of fact, I was telling my kids, I said,
because they were talking about how it's great to have all these,
you know, people coming up and gathering together and stuff.
I said, listen, any true preacher of God wouldn't have even been
in that group to begin with. So none of them, I was telling
them, they were all false preachers, they were all false teachers.
Because any of them will not get up there alongside of somebody
else and saying, we're doing the same thing. But anyway, they
came through and they read all their prayers, for the most part,
except for this Hindu woman. She got up and wanted everyone
to do a community Aum. Aum. Aum. And actually, what was funny,
and I don't mean to get off on a bunch of things, but what was
funny is, and I was pointing this out to my kids, this woman
was up here trying to lead everybody in this Aum. and standing behind
them was all these other people and all the ones that fell under
the auspice of christian religions you know the episcopalians the
catholic uh whatever the other ones were that was there all
of them were just back there joining in with the om but the
muslim nah they weren't omen the israelite
the jew that was up there person no they weren't omen No, they
said no, they knew, this ain't, no, that's not God. So at least
they had the wherewithal, even though they were in this ecumenical
council, they knew, no, I'm not joining in and doing the same
thing that my opposite here is doing. Now that's sad in the
fact that behind there, I don't know how many people was there,
25,000 people, but 25,000 people and whoever was watching on TV
was watching people quote-unquote Christian, owing with a Hindu,
holding hands with a Muslim, holding hands with a Buddhist.
And probably the majority of them thought that was all right,
there's nothing wrong with that, ain't that what we're all supposed
to do? But what does this scripture right here that we just read
say? It says come out from among them
and be separate. Mike, why don't you join the
ecumenical council here in Joplin? Because God says come out from
them and be separate. Why doesn't your church host
the ecumenical church gatherings? Because it says, come out from
among them and be separate. Why don't you just open your
doors to all the heathens that come in and just hope that they
get saved? Because it says, come out from among them and be separate.
See, we're coming apart to be separate to worship God. We're
coming to be separate to be taught of God, the instruction of God,
and the edifying of God's people. That's not for them. That's not
for them. God has sanctified and set apart
his people to meet together for his purposes and for his worship.
And that's not for them. Now that doesn't mean that we
don't minister to them as we can, share the gospel with them
and teach and instruct and minister to them. But brethren, whenever
we come to worship, the worship is for the people of God to do. And so he says, Wherefore, come
out from among them, and be separate, sayeth the Lord, and touch not
the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a
father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith
the Lord Almighty." And that thing is almost reverberated
in Revelation chapter 18. Revelation chapter 18, and this
is one of the reasons why I couldn't stay in the Southern Baptist
Convention. any longer, and why even to this
day, whenever me and my family, we go on vacations or something
like that, and we're not here, that I just don't go to church
just to go to church, if you allow me that phrase. I don't
just meet just because we meet. I've heard and I've been pressed
upon that, don't forsake the assembling of thyselves together.
And so every Sunday you need to be in church. You can only
forsake the assembling of yourselves together whenever there are those
who are of yourselves that are assembling. See, if you're living somewhere
where there is not the people of God with the gospel of God
assembling, how can you forsake that? See, if you go down to
the local whatever church that is preaching the false gospel
and meet with them, you're still forsaking the assembling of yourselves
together if you're wanting to put it that way. See, just to
go to a place that's called a church does not make you an assembler.
An assembler is one who gathers in spirit and in truth around
the gospel of Jesus Christ. But look in Revelation chapter
18. Now, with that being said, those who are on the outside
that don't assemble, that have no place to assemble, we don't say that they're unsaved
because they're not in a church. We know that there are people
of God out there all over the place that don't have a New Testament
church to gather with. And Revelation 18 makes that
very clear, but he also gives us another warning here. Look
at verse one, it says, And after these things, I saw another angel
come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was
lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a
strong voice, saying, Babylon, the great, is fallen and has
become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit
and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Now let me just
stop right there, brethren. Let's take into account what's
being said here. Babylon is the habitation of devils, every foul
spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful birds. The picture here is that this
false harlot church that's out there isn't just misguided, isn't just
in need of more meat. Okay, I hear that argument all
the time. But all these Armenian churches and stuff like that,
well, they're just on milk and they just need the meat, you
know. If it doesn't have the gospel, remember what Paul said,
they're anathema, right? There aren't two gospels. There
isn't a milk toast gospel and a meat gospel. The gospel is
the gospel. And this here is saying that
these harlot churches, these harlot religions, they're all
one and the same. They all make up one harlot.
And it's the habitation of devils. It says, for all nations have
drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings
of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of
the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her,
my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive
not of her plagues. So there are people of God that
are in these places. And God is calling them out of
those places. And I truly believe that they
will come out. Because whenever the Lord calls
you out, you'll come out. You won't stay in there. And
so if you see somebody who professes to be Christ, but yet they continue
to stay locked in to these harlot organizations year after year
after year after year, and continue on in their worship and their
idolatry, brethren, that is probably not a child of grace. I mean,
I don't want to presume anything, but I can say that he's calling
them out of the harlot. And whenever he comes and we
become that church completely gathered around him, that church
is going to be presented to him as a chaste virgin. It's not
going to be mixed and mingled with other things. It's not going
to be with one eye on God and one eye on the world. And so, God here is saying, come
out of her and not be partakers of her sin. And my admonition
would be to anyone listening or watching or here, that if
you're in a place and worshiping in a place that doesn't preach
the gospel of free and sovereign grace, which is the gospel of
grace, if you're in a place that's not preaching those things, that
you need to get out of those things if you're a child of grace.
If you profess Christ Jesus and you're not in those places, you
need to come out and be separate and not be a part of those things.
It has to do with right service unto God, right worship unto
God. It has nothing to do with their
eternal salvation. They're eternally saved because
of what Christ has done for them. They're converted by what Christ
does for them. The Brethren, it's about obedience
to Christ's command and following him in proper service and worship
that they come out and be a part of a church that preaches and
teaches the gospel of grace. Anybody got any comments or anything
you'd like to add to this or any scriptures that you might
want to bring up? You brothers got anything you'd
like to add? Well, let's bow and have a word.