If I were to ask you, could you identify one of the Lord's churches? if you can identify one of the Lord's churches. Now, we have all kinds of places all over town that have such and such, such and such church. And they're called churches, and they consider themselves to be churches. But how do you know that whenever you go into one of these assemblies, and you sit down, that you are actually involved in the worship with one of the Lord's churches? Anybody know? Is there, is there, or is it just, as long as they say church there, is that, is that good enough? Okay, Larry says the doctrine they teach, I would kind of lean that direction pretty heavy. as long as God believes, like as long as God gives them the proof that that is an actual church. Okay. So God would give some things to look at so that we might know, right? Okay. I think that's true too. I believe that's true. I think the Bible does tell us the things that are indicative of a church of Jesus Christ. What about the notion that we hear often, and I'm asking these questions not, you know, to put just anybody on the spot. I'm asking questions, and a lot of times I'll ask you guys questions, for one, to kind of wake you up, so you can start to fall asleep. Sometimes I'll ask questions, though, to kind of get your mind thinking about some things. Because like I was telling Larry a while ago, sometimes we don't think about things, we read over things in scripture, we run through things in scripture, and we don't really stop and contemplate either what that said or why it's saying what it said. And so a lot of times we miss out on that until the Lord, and of course all of it, anything that we've learn and retain and believe and hold true is because the Lord has given us that illumination. But a lot of times whenever we're reading our Bibles, and I hope we are, if we're reading our Bibles and studying our Bibles, that a lot of times we just kind of skim through it, we run through it. If you're just doing it to get your Bible reading in for the day, you know, you're probably not stopping and studying it, looking at it, contemplating on it, chewing on it, whatever. It's not the amount of verses that you get through as much as it is the, not the quantity, but the quality, right? Spend some time and think about some stuff. I always remember my grandpa, and I've heard other preachers say this before, approach it like a cow chewing the cud. You know what I mean when I say Chewing the cud. Cows, they have more than one stomach. They'll eat grass and it'll go in that stomach and then after a while they'll bring that back up and they'll chew on it and bring it back down again. And they do that to get all the flavor and the nutrients and all that stuff out of them. Well, that's kind of what we're talking about. Whenever you're studying God's Word, chew on it like cud. You don't have to get through a whole bunch of verses, just look at a few verses and think about it, the context that it's within, and see what it's saying, especially whenever you are reading these things, because these are letters that were written to people at a specific time for a specific reason, and kind of get the idea and the gist of why he's saying the things he is. So, I would agree with Andrew. I would say that God has given us some things to find out what church is a correct church and which one is not a correct church, a false church, a harlot church. The Bible calls it a harlot church. And some people think that we're being harsh when we say that, but actually the Bible calls it a harlot church. That if it's not the true church of Jesus Christ, which the Bible calls the bride, Okay? If this is my wife right here, right? She's my bride. If I would go down the street somewhere else and hook up with another woman, that woman is not my wife, she would be a harlot. Okay? She would not be my wife. So, the Bible has clearly taught that the people of God are the bride of Christ. Okay? And if, not to get off into another study, which I've done extensively in the past and will probably do again in the future at some point, but whenever you talk about the people of God, they're always visibly gathered together, usually together. Okay? The Lord has some instances where people are not around assemblies, The word itself means an assembly, they're assembled together. So the bride of Christ is the assembled people of God, wherever God has them, okay? Okay, wherever they're at and wherever they come to assemble, and the Bible says that where two or three of them are gathered in his name, there he is also, in their midst. Not the indwelling that every believer has, But there is a special presence that the Lord has whenever his people gather together for worship. He is there in their midst in a special way. That's what we're talking about. Where is that found? How do we know that we've entered into that? And is it okay for us to go somewhere that is not that? That's the case. Well, in Revelation, And I was just trying to look at it on the fly here. I can't remember the exact... I can't remember the exact verse here. Let me look. Yeah, in Revelation 18, in verse 4, the Bible says, And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, And this is speaking of the harlot, the harlot church. It says, come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. So there is a, let me turn this fan off here. There is a church that is considered to be harlot. There is a church that is considered to be the bride. And there is something that distinguishes between which one is the bride and which one is the harlot. The one that is the bride is the one that Jesus built. The one that Jesus started. The one that Jesus began. The one that Jesus instituted. The institution of the church. began with Jesus Christ, and he said, I will build my church. Now, if you go out, that's one of the reasons. And again, there's a lot of things here that ramifications that some of y'all may not be privy to, unless you follow and study after church history and do things like that. And I would encourage you to check those things out and everything. But one of the things that the Baptists have split over in times past is over some of these things. they've split over whether or not a church is something that men build or whether Jesus builds them. A lot of times men build churches. How do they do that? Well, they go out into all the world and they start, you know, whenever I first came to Joplin, I had a Sovereign Grace outfit in New York that contacted me, sent me a little DVD of all their plans on church planning. and they were gonna plant all these different Sovereign Grace churches all around the New York, all around the state of New York, and particularly the city of New York. They wanted to start these Sovereign Grace churches. There were no people that were gathered. There just was men who wanted to go and find a building, open that building up, and start advertising to get people to come and preach to them Sovereign Grace. and everything. Now I don't have any problem with a man if he feels called to go preach to some people to go preach to some people. But that's not how churches are started. That's not how churches are gathered. The Lord doesn't gather churches by men just getting a notion to open a building up and start calling people to come in. That's not how churches gather. Gathered churches are believing baptized people who love the Lord Jesus Christ and have what we're fixing to talk about here today the doctrine of Christ and the practices of Christ gathered together in unity and they are worshiping the Lord under the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who begins churches. He builds the churches, not men. So there's been a misunderstanding of how these things are done and a lot of people want to start a church. The cowboys want to start a cowboy church because they want to be around cowboys. and they want all their stuff to look like cowboys. You got the millennials starting their churches, and they want their coffeehouse churches and everything. You got, well, tell them what other kind, biker churches. You got biker churches. There's a few of those around town and everything. There was another church that was here in town. I can't think of what it was now. It was something special, some group of people, but anyhow, The fact remains is that there are some indicators on whether or not a church is a true church of Jesus Christ. And that's the one where His presence will dwell, and that is the one that the Bible says is the pillar and the ground of truth. The Lord's church is the pillar and the ground of truth, and if you're not in the Lord's Whatever assembly that you're going to is not the pillar and the ground of truth, and His presence isn't in that place. And I'm not saying that to be mean. There's a lot of wonderful people, well-meant people, very zealous people who are zealous for the Lord, just like the Apostle Paul was. The Apostle Paul was zealous for God before he met Christ on the Damascus Road. He was zealous for God and loved God and had a zeal for God and was following and serving Him as much as he could, but he was serving and following a false system. He was following Judaism and not Christianity or even the Old Covenant Jewish system. There's a difference, by the way. Judaism is not the Old Testament service of God. So how do we know that we are in one of the Lord's churches? Well, Brother Larry said part of it. Doctrine. And I would say first and foremost, doctrine. Doctrine, and the word doctrine just means teaching, but doctrine is what separates the Church of Jesus Christ from everything else. But along with it, and I say doctrine first and foremost because the second part that we always talk about is also under the heading of doctrine because you don't get it without doctrine. Doctrine and practice. The doctrine of the church is the teaching that is within the church and the practice is how we conduct the worship of the church And within the conducting of the worship is included the two ordinances that Christ has commanded for us to continue to keep until His return. And that's the Lord's Supper and Baptism. So Baptism and the Lord's Supper is to be kept by the members of the church until the Lord returns. Baptism is an ordinance that is given if anyone claims to be to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and has come and realizes that they are a sinner and that they are in need of Christ and have felt they have been given a hope in that salvation which is of Christ and everything the Lord commands them to be baptized and that baptism is a water baptism that is to be fully immersed in water not sprinkled or poured on not you know anything else but to be fully immersed in water And that's how we identify the gospel. That's our gospel declaration. That's our gospel testimony of our salvation. It's following him in obedience. And also that is a prerequisite to be a member of a local assembly. And we'll see that here in just a few minutes. And then the doctrine, that is, or the Lord's Supper is an ordinance that we a take that the members of the church takes together, where we have bread and wine, and that is a symbol of Jesus' body and blood that was shed for us. So, those are the ways that we identify doctrine and practice. If the doctrine and the practice is not according to Christ, then we know that that's not of Christ. It's anti-Christ, right? So let's look at some things through scripture, and I think a lot of people say, well, you're making more out of something than it really is. As long as somebody loves Jesus and believes in the gospel that Jesus died and was buried and resurrected, then that's a church, right? And then you can have the Lord's Supper. As long as you have the Lord's Supper, that's fine. But there's a lot of ways of having the Lord's Supper, right? I mean, I don't know how some of y'all have had it growing up. In the church that I was in, we had what was called open communion, or open Lord's Supper, meaning that anybody who just stated that they were a Christian could partake of the Lord's Supper. Whether you were a member of the church or not, you could just take the Lord's Supper. And we had some little wafer and some grape juice. Okay? Some people say, well, that, it don't matter. As long as you do that, you're fine. Well, that's not what Jesus taught, and that's not what Jesus told us to do. That's not what Jesus did. So that was wrong. There were some people that have all kinds of different elements that they use nowadays. I've heard of youth groups doing soda and snack cakes, Twinkies, cupcakes, whatever. I've heard of that. And they're saying all that matters is that you're remembering Jesus Christ. That's the main crux. I agree that the reason that we do that is for memory, and I didn't mean to even get into all this today, but here I am now. But there is a reason why you do things according, for one, to Scripture. But just like in the Old Testament, everything was given to Moses to follow after the pattern because it spoke of and represented something specific. and any deviation from that would be a deviation from the meaning behind that. Well, the ordinance that Christ has given us in the Lord's Supper and in baptism, he'd give us to do in a specific way with specific elements because behind that is something specific that it is pointing to. And the essence of everything is is messed up whenever you use something that is not representative of that. And we can talk about that some other time and I can maybe preach on that again, on the Lord's Supper again. I preached on that extensively several years ago. Some of the, all the sermons are on sermon audio, but it's like 42 weeks of church sermons. So anyway, if you want to go back and listen to all of those, you can. If not, hopefully soon we'll maybe do some smaller stuff. Acts chapter 2 and let's look at verse 42. The Lord had began to gather his assembly when he walked along the shores of Galilee and he began to call his apostles out. The Bible says that the apostles were laid first in the church. So that tells me that whatever Jesus instituted was different than what was in the Old Testament. The Old Testament church that was in the wilderness is not the same as the New Testament church. It's called a church in our King James Bible because it was truly an assembly. It was a gathered group of people. However, the church of Jesus Christ, the New Testament church under the new covenant, is something different than what it was back then. Now back then, it was made up of God's people, truly. But the church that is the New Testament church, the church that Jesus built, is something completely and totally different, and it has a new doctrine. It has, and when I say new, I don't mean new in the fact that it wasn't true in the Old Testament. It's just that it never was manifested and preached in its fullness in the Old Testament, because it was hidden, it was veiled. We've learned that even from the New Testament, that even though the Gospel was preached in the Old Testament, it was preached under veil of type and shadow. It was preached not knowing the full range of what was going to happen and take place when Christ came. And so what we know in the Old Testament is not the fullness of what we know now in the New Testament. So the New Testament has shed light and opened up the manifesting of the Gospel to us in a fuller, broader way that the Old Testament saints didn't have. And so that's why I say the Church of Jesus Christ and the New Testament Church is built upon the New Testament principles, upon New Testament doctrine. And we'll see as we go along here, this is something that Jesus had given and the apostles were the ones who was chosen by Jesus Christ to teach and to hold fast these doctrines during this formative stage of the Lord's churches. Because if you remember, they're coming out of this mosaic era, this law era, the old covenant. They're beginning to transition out of this old covenant. AD 70 has not yet happened. The destruction of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, all that has not yet happened. So the full ending of the old covenant had not taken place yet. So during this time of Jesus coming in his ministry and that destruction in AD 70, we have a transitory time where the Lord's churches are beginning to form and something is changing from the old covenant worship to the new covenant worship. And Jesus through John the Baptist paving the way, coming forth first to make way for the Messiah. Then as Christ came, was pointing people to the Messiah and Christ began to preach the kingdom of God. He brought his apostles into the church first. Those were the first ones he gathered. The people of John didn't start coming and gathering with Jesus until Jesus had already gathered the apostles. He went around and gathered the apostles and that was Because the scripture said that the apostles were to be first laid as the foundation of the church and then built upon that a slightly stone. So the apostles were brought in first. Well, that tells me it couldn't have been the Old Testament because the apostles weren't the apostles in the Old Testament. The apostles were the ones that Jesus called. So this began with the apostles. So the apostles had the authority to preach what Jesus had taught them. and was given the task to make sure that this is what was being established when other churches were being. That's why you see a lot of times that those men who were in Jerusalem were going down to some of these other assemblies as they were popping up in other places as the gospel began to spread at the dispersion. These places where people began to believe and began to gather, those apostles were sent down there to put into order those things to make sure that they were established in the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the ordinances that he had given. So there is a rhyme and a reason for the way churches to be conducted and to be ordered. Now, I don't think we have to be liturgical. We don't have to follow strict, you know, religious things, but we do have to preach the doctrine of Jesus Christ. We do need to follow the things that Christ has given for us to follow as the church, and specifically the two ordinances that he has left for us to Remember him by. I couldn't think of what I was trying to say. In Acts chapter 2, though, we see the birth, so to speak, or the explosion, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Where the Holy Spirit that was promised to come down, I believe that it was a one-time thing. I don't believe that it continues on today. I believe it was a one-time thing. and that this was a baptism that God did to give credence and credulity to the New Testament church. That this is where he was meeting with. This is where he was coming down. We see the things in Revelation where it talks about him dwelling among his people in the tabernacle, which is not made with hands. And so I believe that Pentecost was the time that that took place. It was the time that Jesus had spoken of that this fire that would come, that they would be baptized with, would come. And this was a signification that correlated with all of the Old Testament times where a new tabernacle was built and the glory of God would come down and that glory of God, whenever it would come down, it would give legitimacy to that tabernacle. So all three of the old tabernacles in the Old Testament, every time that that was to be dedicated, the Lord came down in His glory, filled that place, and that give us the knowledge and understanding that God was dwelling here. This is the place where God dwells. Well, God did the same thing on Pentecost, not in a building made with hands, but a people that was gathered together, the lively stones that he had gathered together. He came down and the glory of God came down and rested upon them. The Bible says that there was a mighty rushing wind and that it came down and that there were tongues of fire that was over their heads and they began to speak in other languages, not in babble and not in gibberish, but they began to speak in other languages. So it'd be like coming down here and if there'd be people that spoke Spanish, people that spoke German, people that spoke Russian, people that spoke, you know, Swahili are amongst us. I began to preach and they began to hear me in their languages. That's biblical tongues, not shaman. That's not biblical tongues. That's demonic. It's what that is. So, so there you go. If you go to a church and they're doing that, get out. God came down in a special presence, just like He did in all those Old Testament dedications of those tabernacles. He did at the day of Pentecost, whenever Christ sent His Holy Spirit back to His people, and He endued them with power, and now from century to century to century to century, everywhere that God's people meet his presence is with them just like his presence was with those old covenant people in that building tabernacle that they carried around with them all throughout the wilderness and then finally Solomon built a permanent one and then it got rebuilt a couple of times but every time God's presence came down in there Now, Jesus has said, my presence isn't going to be in tabernacles built with hands. That's why this church that's right here in this house, it isn't this house that's dedicated. It isn't this house that's sacred. Whenever we were meeting on 32nd Street, there wasn't nothing special about that building there. Whenever we were meeting over there in Rolling Hills, was it Rolling Hills? Is that what it was called? Anyway, North Joplin and that building over there, nothing special about that building. Before I came to pastor here, they were meeting in a realtor's building over off of 15th Street somewhere or something like that. It don't matter where you meet now. Jesus said it's not gonna matter where you meet. Whether we meet at my house or we meet at Larry's house or we meet out there in the yard or whether we go down to the park Wherever we are, the presence of the Lord is with us. And the presence of the Lord came down at Pentecost this day, and Peter stood up and preached. And after Peter stood up and preached, all those people that were there from other countries, from other places, with other languages, heard Peter preach, and the Lord began to call out His people out of those places, out of all the world. From the four corners of the world, God began to pull His people out right here in Jerusalem as they came from all over the world to be in Jerusalem at this time. You remember last week I said Christ had to die at a certain time because it had to fulfill certain things? And you remember me talking about that the day of Pentecost was a day that was specific because it was a day of what? Feast of Firstfruits. Feast of Firstfruits. Why did it have to land on that day? Why did God choose that day? Because it aligned with the Old Testament, Old Covenant, Feast of Firstfruits. Here was the day that God brought forth the firstfruits. And so we have this coming forth. And in this time, Christ was bringing people out from every nation. from every place. And notice if you would, look with me if you would down to verse 37. It says, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and he shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Now rather than that, that verse there has been misinterpreted, misunderstood, and preached in so many different ways that it's just, you can probably fill a book of all the different interpretations of that verse. Number one, we know that whenever Peter said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for the remissions of sin does not mean that if you repent and get baptized, then Jesus will remit your sin. Because so much of other scripture contradicts that understanding. What does that word for mean? Look at that in your Bibles. He says, for the remission of sins. Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Now someone could say, there you go preacher, you gotta repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins. I used to preach that in my Southern Baptist church that I grew up in, but you know what I used to say? But it's not talking about baptism. Baptism don't have to be for the remission of sin, it's just repent. You have to repent and believe for the remission of your sins. Well wait a minute, he says repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins. So what does he mean there? Well the word for there doesn't mean in order to get, it means because of. Let me give you an example that my grandpa taught me when I was a little kid. Whenever someone goes off to war and fights and does something heroic and brave, whenever they come back, they give them what? A purple heart, right? They give them a purple heart medal. Okay? And the president comes and gives them that purple heart. Okay? That person is being decorated for bravery. Now, was that man given a medal? so that he would go be brave? No. Why was he given the medal? Because he was brave. That's the sense in which this is being said here. Repent and be baptized because you have your sins remitted. So Jesus is saying repent. First and foremost, what was he telling them to repent of? Well, all these people that was before him, the majority of them were Jews and Jews that were coming from other countries, but they were Jews who were up there to worship the old covenant system. And Jesus, starting with John the Baptist, then with Jesus, and then the apostles, all preached repentance. But the repentance they were preaching is not the repentance that most preachers are preaching today. You need to repent of every one of your sins. They were preaching, repent from your doctrine. Repent from your doctrine. Religious system. Repent from your way of thinking about how righteousness is obtained and look to Christ for your righteousness. That's what John the Baptist was preaching. Look at every place where John the Baptist was preaching and he was preaching repentance. But look what he was telling them to turn from. Turn from this system and turn to Christ who takes away our sins. It's not Moses who takes away your sin. It's not your Pharisees and Sadducees and Scribes who can help you. It's Christ. Turn to Christ and follow Christ. When the Pharisees came to John the Baptist and said, hey, what do you think about Jesus? He's over there making more disciples than you are. He says, well, great. The bridegroom has his bride. The friend of the bridegroom, John, He says, He must increase, I must decrease. He's what it's all about. It's not about me, just like it wasn't about you, scribes and Pharisees. And who told you about the judgment that is to come? And why are you here now, wanting to be baptized? Show forth fruits of repentance before I'll baptize you. Wait a minute. You mean John didn't baptize anybody that just wanted to be baptized? Do you mean that we're to be discriminatory when it comes to baptism? Absolutely, brother. Absolutely we are. We're only to baptize those who believe the gospel. Do we make mistakes sometimes? Absolutely we do. Absolutely we do. We're just people that can't see into the hearts. We can't see the role of election. We can't see none of that stuff. All we can go on is by what we see in outward appearances. But one thing's for sure, if they don't believe the gospel, if they haven't repented from other religions, if they haven't repented from law keeping and looking only to Christ and looking and hoping in Christ alone for their salvation, then we have no grounds to baptize them. If they're continuing in open sin, we have no grounds. to continue. Not that they don't keep sinning. I still sin. I've been baptized. That don't mean my baptism was a null and void. But I'm saying they don't continue in open sin. And we continue to say, OK, well, we're going to baptize you. There are some sins that need to be repented of. But brethren, the main jest is that we turn from thinking that I can perform something of righteousness by keeping something that I think is righteous. And then looking to Jesus Christ. That's the repentance that he's talking about. So repentance and baptism, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remissions of sin. And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and right there, let me stop there, that's where the Presbyterians and the Methodists and all those who baptize babies say, see there, this baptism is for those children of those parents who are being baptized. That doesn't say that. That doesn't say that at all. It says, for the promises unto you and to your children so it's to you and to your children not to you and your children because of you it says to you and to your children but notice what it says after that it qualifies who he is talking about and to all that are far off As many as the Lord our God shall call. See, your children don't get baptized because you're a Christian. I've seen that in the Presbyterian churches, Methodist churches, Catholic churches, any church that has children baptisms, baby baptisms. sprinklings, pourings, whatever it is, whether it's full immersion, partial immersion, sprinkling, waving a damp cloth on, whatever it is that you do, which I found out this week the Amish don't fully immerse. That's weird. I always thought they fully immerse, but they don't. They pour water three times. Anyway, the promise is to all that the Lord shall call, whether it's you or your children, So the qualification for baptism isn't I have a parent who is a Christian and been baptized. No, the qualification is they have to be called by God. When God calls you to himself and draws you to himself and you begin to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says you're commanded to be baptized by immersion in water by a New Testament church. That is who has been given the authority to baptize in Christ's name, in Christ's stead. He is the head of the church and he has commissioned the church to preach his doctrine and to baptize those that he gives faith to. And so that is how church works. And verse 40 says, And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Now this doesn't talk about salvation in the legal sense, in the eternal sense. Right? It's not talking about that. This is saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Who is Peter talking about here? He's talking about the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, the religious leaders, the Jewish leaders of the time who had abandoned God, who had abandoned Moses. They thought they were keeping Moses, but they had abandoned Moses and had brought in a Babylonish mixture of Moses and Baal. That's what they brought in. They brought in a mixture religion, and that's what the Jews of today that you're seeing on TV that everyone wants to give land to, that everyone wants to give money to and weapons to, and you have to back or you're going to die and go to hell. Those people are the same people that Jesus called a brood of vipers. That Jesus called whitewashed sepulchre. That he said, you are the seed of Satan. Because they were out of that Babylonish thing. Now brethren, there is no difference in that and any other religion that is not the church of Jesus Christ. They all are part of the same harlot churches, they just have different names. And so here he says, save yourselves from this untoward generation. Christ had already been warning that there was going to come a destruction on that tabernacle, on that law system, on those Pharisees and those people and that it was about to come soon. Matter of fact, he said, there's some of you that are here today that are living that will not die until you see this take place. And so he was telling these people, save yourselves from the coming impending judgment that's about to take place upon all of what you have been seeing here in Jerusalem. meaning repent and be baptized. Verse 41, then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. So already there was a church. So that tells me the day of Pentecost wasn't the birth of the church. That's what I used to preach growing up as a dispensational Arminian. is that the church was born on the day of Pentecost. No, the church was already in existence before the day of Pentecost because Christ started it when John the Baptist started gathering people and that was given to Christ and then Christ took those people and began to teach them after he gathered his apostles. And there was added unto them, if we read back in Acts chapter 1, we find out that there was quite a few. There was gathered in that day 120 in the upper room. of those people. There was added unto that group of people that were already assembling in Jesus' name about 3,000 souls. But here's the one that I really wanted you guys to look at. Look at verse 42. I got so sidetracked this morning that I've not even got to exactly what I want to talk about. Verse 42, and they continued, who's they? Who's the they referring to? The ones who already were and the 3,000 that was added to them. The church. The church of Jerusalem there. And they continued steadfastly in recreation, in revivals, in concerts, youth events. Is that what it said? What did they continue steadfastly in? What did the first church, the original church, the church that Jesus built, the church that Jesus himself delivered his doctrine and practice to, what did they do? They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, which is Jesus' doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayer. That's what they continued in. Look if you would with me while we're in Acts chapter 14. Acts chapter 14, verse 21. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch. Here it is. Confirming the souls of the disciples meaning confirming, meaning that they were strengthening. They were there to strengthen them. And it says, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of God. That they should continue in the It didn't say continue in faith, it said continue in THE faith. What happens whenever there's a definite article THE in front of a noun? Or in front of a word? That makes it a noun, right? Now the word faith is a noun, it's not a verb. Whenever we have faith in Jesus Christ, or belief in Jesus Christ, that's a verb. When you put a definite article in front of that, that makes it a noun. So what is a noun? You kids that are in school, what have you learned in English as a noun? You remember what a noun is? A person, a place, or a thing, right? It's not an action. It's a person, place, or thing. Right here it's saying that he is exerting them to continue in the faith. It's a noun. A person, place, or thing. Well, faith's not a place, but it is a person, and it is a thing. Faith is Christ, but faith is also a doctrine that he has given to his church. So we are to strengthen ourselves, or strengthen each other, in what? The faith. Why does the preacher always preach about the gospel? to you about what you need to go out there and do to be a better person. Because that's not the faith of Jesus Christ. That's not the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Why is he always talking to you about what Christ has done and not what you're supposed to do? Because what you're supposed to do was of the old covenant that has passed away. What Christ has done is the new covenant That's what I'm supposed to preach. I'm to preach to you the new covenant, not the old covenant. I only preach to you about the old covenant so that you might know what it was, and what it cannot do, and what it tells you you are. The old covenant tells you that you're a sinner, but you can't do anything on your own. The new covenant tells you that Jesus Christ, because you can't do the old covenant, came and did it for you, fulfilled it for you and there's nothing that you have to do to be the recipient of it. He gives it to you freely because grace is free. Grace is free. The New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant. So we don't preach the Old Covenant. That's why we say there is a difference in what people teach in their doctrine and we need to listen to what they're saying. Are they preaching the doctrine of Christ? Or are they preaching the doctrine of devils? Which the doctrine of the devils in Jesus' time was preaching Moses. Adherence to Moses. Look at chapter 16. Start at verse 1. It says, Then came he to Derbe and Lister. We're talking about Paul. or excuse me, Paul. Then came he to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed, but his father was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren that were there at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him, and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek. And as they went through, verse four here, and as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches, plural, so were the churches established in the faith. There's the definite article there again. So this is talking about doctrine, not established in faith, okay? It wasn't because they had faith and churches sprang up. It wasn't that they had faith and they became Christians. No, they were established in THE faith, the doctrine, and increased in number daily. So the churches were established in the doctrine of Jesus. Look at Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, look at verse 17. It says, And God bethink that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. So here we see there was a form of doctrine. That word form there, that word form there kind of means different things in English, but that word form there means pattern. It means a pattern. So it would say that you have obeyed from the heart that pattern of doctrine which was delivered to you. That same Greek word that's behind that word is also translated for us in our English Bibles in Titus chapter 2 and verse 7. If you'll turn to Titus chapter 2 In verse 7, we'll see how God defines that word in another place. You'll see that it's the pattern here. Titus chapter 2 verse 7 says, In all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works in doctrine, showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity. So in all things, showing myself a pattern of good works. How do you do that? In doctrine. Showing uncorruptness. Meaning, don't preach corrupt doctrine. In your doctrine, showing uncorruptness, gravity, there needs to be some seriousness to your doctrine. When we hold the doctrine, we're not holding to this just a flippant thing. It's not a flippant thing. It's a serious thing. Because whenever I stand up here to preach, listen, let me just kind of open up a little bit about some things. Brethren, listen, when I prepared before coming to preach in prayer, it is a troubling thing to stand here and to say, this is what God says. to stand here isn't me just up here rambling off some stuff that I've memorized over the years. No, me standing up here and preaching comes from studying God's word, being moved in my heart to believe that this is the truth of God, His words, and then coming and conveying to you for your encouragement, for your exhortation, for your hope, for your joy, whatever else, to deliver these things and to tell you this is what God says. This is the truth. It's a fearful thing to stand up here and say, thus saith the Lord, when the Lord didn't say it. So that's why I always have to pour out my heart to God to please give me utterance. Please keep me from error. Please let me preach to your people what you want them to hear and not what I want to say. Sometimes it happens that way. But it says here that we are to show thyself a pattern of good works. That word pattern there is the same word that we seen back in Romans that was the form of doctrine. It's a pattern of doctrine. If something is a pattern, it means it's already, it's an established thing, right? Now I don't know, y'all women don't do this any today probably, but whenever I was growing up, women used to go to Walmart, or whatever store at the time before Walmart, they used to go and they had a section in the store where you could buy patterns. So they would go and they would look on the outside of the package, it would show a beautiful picture of a dress, or whatever, a blouse, or whatever it is they were wanting to make. And then inside of that thing, you would open that thing up and unfold out, there would be a pattern. And they would buy a bolt, they called them bolts, you know, of material. They'd buy a certain amount of bolts of material, and they'd go home, and they'd lay that material out, and then they'd take that package and open it up, and inside of that would be a pattern. They'd unfold that pattern, and they'd lay that pattern down on that piece of cloth, and then they'd just cut around that pattern. And then they would sew it together where it says to sew it together. And once it's all done, if you follow the directions, what would you have at the end of it? You'd have a new dress, or a new blouse, or something like that. People actually made their own clothes back in the old days, folks. We didn't just go to Walmart or Dollar General to get them. That pattern, if you adhere to that pattern on this purple cloth, and you apply that on this red cloth, that red dress and that purple dress are going to look just the same, right? If you put that pattern on some blue cloth, you're going to have a blue dress that looks exactly like the red dress and the purple dress. See, the pattern is a form set, and it doesn't change. It doesn't change with the times. Guess what? If I go to my mom's house, and she still has them old patterns that they used to make. Listen, the women back then, in the 70s, they made these dresses that kind of look like moo-moos. You know what a moo-moo is? Oh, y'all know what I'm talking about? You all know what I'm talking about. It's not just a cloak-weave thing from Bristol, Oklahoma, right? Okay, you know what a moo-moo is, Heather? Women made dresses, and dresses looked like moo-moos. They were just like a tent. It was like someone had robbed an Indian teepee and made a dress out of it. I could go today, if my mom still had that pattern, and that pattern would still produce the same thing because it's set. That pattern is set and it doesn't change. And if I made that pattern, guess what? I'm going to come out with a 70s dress. Christ's doctrine doesn't change with the times. It doesn't change with the way churches are made. It doesn't change with the way people begin to dress or not dress in most cases nowadays. It doesn't change with society's norms now. What's wrong back then is still wrong today. What God has prescribed for His worship back then is how God desires to be worshipped today. So God doesn't change. Why? Because it is a form of doctrine which was delivered to the saints and those saints were called to perpetuate that doctrine and that practice. And that was the way that they were to worship their God and to worship Him that way and that way only. So that's how you find where a true church is. Find the true church, you will find the same doctrine, you will find the same ordinances. Look if you would in Romans 16, Romans 16 verse 17. Paul enters in this letter and says, Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them, not this mark, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them. Now people have often called our church a sectarian church. Y'all are just sectarian. Y'all know what the word sectarian means? Seclusive. It means you won't join in with anybody else. Again, an example, whenever I come to pastor here in Joplin, I was approached by some other men in town, one specific who professed to believe the doctrines of grace, But I was approached by some men and they said, well, hey, welcome to Joplin. Hey, our ministerial alliance meets on this day and you're welcome to join us. Well, what's a ministerial alliance? That sounds weird. Well, a ministerial alliance is pastors from different churches all get together and they meet together and they talk about how they can either worship together or how they can work together to make the community better, to get Jesus into the hearts of other people, okay? So they invited me to their ministerial alliance. Then they began to invite me to their ministerial gatherings, their ecumenical gatherings. Ecumenical means that it's just everybody gets together, okay? That's a poor man's way of saying it. Ecumenical means everybody gets together together, right? Well, they began to ask me to come to those things and I had to turn them down. I said, I'm sorry, I'm not going to be part of a ministerial alliance. Number one, I believe the Lord's churches are under the head of Jesus Christ and not pastors. Pastors are not the heads of the church. They are servants of the church. Christ is the head. The church is the governing body. Some of you guys have churches that the church is not the governing body, you are. I didn't say that to them, but that was back then when I was trying to be nice and not be liked by everybody, but nowadays I probably would say that to them. Not when my wife is around, though. Anyhow, I had to turn them down. Then whenever they asked to come to their ecumenical meetings, just even to preach, I turned them down. And they wanted to know why, and I said, well, because we have different doctors. Well, we all believe in Jesus and love Jesus, and we all believe that, you know, He died to save everybody. And I said, see, there's where our doctrine changes. I don't believe Jesus died for everybody, and I don't believe that He wants everybody to be saved, and I don't believe that you guys are worshipping the way that Jesus has prescribed it to be worshipped. Some of y'all are baptizing babies, some of y'all are sprinkling babies, some of y'all are sprinkling adults, all that kind of stuff. Some of y'all have open communion. Some of y'all are believing that we're saved by our will and all that kind of stuff. I said, we have a different doctrine. And I said, you know, I have to be, I have to be committed and faithful to the doctrine of Christ. And so here we see, this is exactly what this is talking about here. It says, I beseech you, brethren, mark them that cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and it says, and avoid them. If they're not following after the doctrine of Christ and His ordinances, His practice, that we are not to meet with them, we're not to hold hands with them, even for the good of the community, because it's really not for the good of the community. You know why? Because they're telling a lie about Christ, and that is not good for the community, for a pastor to go out and lie to the community about Christ and not His salvation. Ecumenicalism is to make people feel good. That's what ecumenicalism is. It's to make people feel good that they have done their duty for their God. That's what ecumenicalism is. Look if you would with me at 1 Corinthians 16. We've got a bunch of verses to look at. We're probably not going to get to them all. 1 Corinthians chapter 16 and look with me as we go down to verse 13. It says, Watch ye stand fast in the faith. Quit you like men, be strong. So it says stand fast in the faith. What does stand fast mean? Does that mean jump up out of the chair real quick? Stand fast? No. It means be diligent. Hold on. Continue in. Be strong in. Stand fast in the faith. There's that word the again. Look at Ephesians, or excuse me, Philippians. Philippians 127. It says, Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. that word the is in front of faith again that's not believing the gospel it's standing for the body of doctrine which is the gospel I used to hear all the time when I first started preaching because even as an Armenian who believed in free will and all that kind of stuff Even at that point, I was very, very concerned about doctrine. I was very, I preached doctrine a lot. I can't say that I did never preach feel-good stuff to make you feel good, and law stuff, and all that kind of stuff, because I did. But I was pretty strict about preaching doctrine and not old shit stories, okay? But doctrine, the doctrine, is a specific doctrine. You can be gung-ho about doctrine and not preach the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1 and 23. Paul writes this to the Colossian believers. He says, continue in THE faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I call and made a minister." So he's telling them to continue in the faith grounded and settled. Not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but settled. not moved away of this gospel. Let's go to chapter 2, verse 7. He says, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as He had been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving. Rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith. 1 Timothy 1, verse 3. Paul writing to the young preacher says this, As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia. So why did Paul tell Timothy to stay at Ephesus while Paul went on to Macedonia? That thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith, so do." So Paul here is instructing the young preacher Timothy that he needs to tell the churches that he is sent to establish Don't teach any other doctrine except the doctrine that the apostles have given us. Because the doctrine that the apostles gave us came from the lips of Jesus. It's His doctrine. We're not to preach any other kind of doctrine. Look at chapter 4, verse 16. Paul says, Take heed unto thyself. Take heed unto thyself means check yourself. check yourself and the doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou hath both saved thyself and them that hear thee. So does that mean if I have correct doctrine and I preach correct doctrine they're going to be regenerated? People see me smiling on camera they know what I'm talking about because there's a big there's a big flurry of debate among sovereign gracious over gospel regeneration. That it's the gospel that regenerates. God uses the preaching of the gospel. If the preacher ain't preaching the gospel, true gospel, then people won't be regenerated. Because they're only regenerated by the true gospel. So that means you have to have the right gospel. You gotta have the right understanding, the right knowledge. Preach the right knowledge. Otherwise, poor people aren't going to get saved. God just can't save anybody unless they have the right doctrine. Is that what this is saying? that if you have the right doctrine and you continue in them, that you're going to save not only yourself, but you're going to save others because of your right doctrine. Well, it's not talking about salvation in the sense of justification. Okay? It's not talking about justification here. It's not talking about eternal salvation. It's not talking about what Christ has done on the cross now becomes yours because you preach this. No. That's not what that's talking about. And by the way, we do reject and deny gospel regeneration. We believe in immediate Holy Spirit quickening, that the Spirit gives life to whoever He wants, whenever He wants, without any means. Will they believe the gospel? Absolutely. I'm not saying that they won't. I'm just saying that the gospel doesn't have to be preached and someone to hear it. for them to be given life. Life precedes everything else. If we don't have life, we can't hear the gospel, to understand the gospel, and believe the gospel, and to trust in the gospel, and to hope in the gospel. But, it does say here, take heed unto thyself and to the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee from what? from hell? Nope, because right doctrine doesn't keep anybody out of hell. Christ's blood does. It keeps them from wrong doctrine. We preach right doctrine so that they won't believe wrong doctrine. We preach right doctrine to save them from the misunderstandings that come from wrong doctrine. That's why That's why Paul, he used that phrase, I do not frustrate the gospel of Jesus Christ, or I do not frustrate the grace of Jesus Christ. He didn't mean that he stops it or confuses it. He meant, I do not frustrate the grace of God, meaning I don't cause chaos by preaching one thing and preaching another over here. I don't preach, wrong doctrine, I only preach what Jesus told me to preach. So that's what he's saying here. Look at chapter 6, verse 3. This one right here really is a kicker for me. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to the wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself." There comes a time when you just quit arguing with people, debating with people, philosophizing with people, okay? If it's not according to the doctrine of Jesus Christ, don't continue to go on. After a little while, you just have to shut that off. Look at his second letter, 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 7. Paul here about to die. writing this letter. Verse 6, he says, For I am now ready to be offered, and at the time of my departure is at hand. And he says this, I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept, he didn't say I have kept faith, or I have kept my faith. What did he say? I have kept the faith. You know what, I can't always be sure that I have kept faith. I can't be sure of and most often times I am very for sure that I have not kept my faith. But we can know whether or not we have kept the faith, the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Tell you what, I've got a couple more here. Look if you will at Titus. Titus chapter 1, verse 9. Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. See if you don't know doctrine, the doctrine of Jesus. If you don't study your Bible and you don't study the Scriptures, How are you going to know what the doctrine of Christ is? And if you don't know what the doctrine of Christ is, how are you going to be able to tell whether or not you're in the right church or not? How are you going to be able to tell whether or not the preacher that you're sitting under is telling you the truth or not? Now I'll say this, the Holy Spirit that has been given to you, He'll teach you. he'll convict you, but whenever you're looking at this scripture, how do I know whether or not that guy is telling me the truth? Does it align with the doctrine of Christ? Because the Holy Spirit is always, always, always going to be telling what Christ said. Always. verse 13 he says this witness is true wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith some people say well i just aren't controversial i ain't gonna correct them every time well there comes a time and a place where you ought to and there comes a time when you need you just stop but we do need to be sound in the faith If anybody comes within our midst and begins to preach something that is not, and I believe this is what this debate is mostly talking about, I don't think he's telling Titus to go out to the streets and start barking at everybody about the wrong doctrine. He's talking about those within the assembly. Whenever you come within the assembly and somebody comes in and they start preaching something or talking about something or saying something that is contrary to the doctrine of Christ, You need to correct that. And we need to do that in a loving and kind way, with long-suffering, with meekness and long-suffering, that peradventure to God will grant them repentance according to the truth, the Scriptures say. 2 John chapter 1. 2 John chapter 1. Look at verse 9. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Did you hear that? Anybody that hath not the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. So how do I know if I've gone to a church that's not a true church? If they have not the doctrine of Christ, they don't have God in their presence. They don't have God in their midst. And they very possibly don't have God in their heart. Look at verse 10. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed for he that bid him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deed you remember that time that I told you about that Jehovah's Witness that came to the door that old man and young woman that came and He's wanting to come in and visit I wouldn't let him come in the house, and I told him that I can't Have him come in fellowship, and he asked me why I said told him because he had a another God another Jesus another Bible, and he wanted to know why. I said, well, because you don't believe that Jesus is the one and only God. And he handed me his Bible, which is a corrupt version of the Bible, by the way. He handed me his New World Bible and said, prove to me that Jesus is God. I wouldn't take his Bible, although I did turn in his Bible to a couple of places that I knew was in that kind of Bible and read a couple verses but I haven't had my Bible in on that banister right over there and I picked it up and I just started going through and I started reading several verses in the New Testament that talk about Jesus being God. Then I went into the Old Testament and showed where Jesus was talked about about being God as well and as I was doing that the man physically began to shake and So anyway, he finally just said, well, I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree. And I said, well, I'm not agreeing with you for nothing. And then I told the young lady that was standing with him. I said, and that's for you, young lady. I said, if I were you, I would get as far away from this doctrine as you can get. This man is preaching a false gospel, a false Jesus. Everything about this is unbiblical and that you should get as far away from that as you can get. At that point, the guy just stuck out his hand and he says, well, I'll just wish you a good day and everything will be on our way. And I said, I can't shake your hand either. The Bible says that anybody that comes without the gospel or without the doctrine of Christ, that I'm not to wish them Godspeed. So I can't wish you Godspeed. I didn't wish him have a good day. I didn't tell him thank you, but no, I just said, that's it. And so he walked up and I said, my Lord, That's what this verse is basically kind of getting at, brethren. If anyone comes and receives them not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. Now, I think probably first and foremost, that is talking about the worship of God. Whenever they come into the house of God, the gathering, the assembly, that's the house of God. When they come into the house of God, we're not to allow that. So that tells me I'm not to have a preacher that has a different doctrine come and preach in my church. And I see it on Facebook all the time. friends and family that I know that they're going to, they're having all kinds of ecumenical services. I know it's true because I used to be in and we used to do it. We used to have race relations Sunday and all the black churches in town came and then all the white churches came all together to have one day where we all get along. We had the Methodist, we had church of God, church of Christ, the Nazarenes, we had the Pentecostals, we had the All the black churches, some of them were more conservative than others. Some of them were Pentecostal. I mean, we had a whole bunch of different people all beaten together under one roof, all proclaiming to worship the same God, the same Jesus, and have the same gospel. And yet every one of them churches are different denominations because they have different doctrines that disagree with the other church's doctrines. That's why their church is there and not over here with the other people. So someone was letting somebody into their house that did not have the doctrine of Jesus Christ. And at that time, all of them didn't have the doctrine of Jesus Christ. So I guess we're all a bunch of, you know, a bunch of harlot churches all gathered under one roof. Here we are, the Bible is instructing us not to do that. Jude chapter one, Jude chapter two, excuse me, Catch and see if anyone caught that. Would catch that. There's only one chapter in Jude. Jude chapter one, verse three. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contained for the faith, not for faith, for the faith, which was once, did you hear that? Once delivered unto the saints. When was the doctrine delivered to the saints? When Jesus Christ walked this earth and taught those apostles and those people and entrusted into the hands of the apostles to continue in that doctrine and to instruct all those churches that were going out into the Gentile world that would be starting together, instruct them that everywhere that they begin to meet, they are to follow this doctrine. The faith wants delivered to the saints. There is a body of doctrine that is christ doctrine and it is the doctrine of his churches and if that is not found then they are not his churches and in revelation chapter fourteen and verse twelve it says here is the patience of the saints here are they that keep the commandments of god the faith of Jesus. Not keep faith in Jesus, keep the faith of Jesus. Who are the ones that are sitting around the throne of God? Who are the ones who will be those who are in heaven? Who are His saints? Those who keep the faith of Jesus Christ. That's pretty tough, ain't it? That's pretty... Is that sectarian? Is that seclusive? Is that narrow-minded? It's definitely not broad-roaded. It's almost as if Jesus is saying, It's my way or the highway. It's my doctrine or no other doctrine. If it's not my doctrine, you're not mine. My children hear my voice and they follow me. Another's voice they will not follow. Now, does He download all that into us immediately? No, He doesn't. That's why we, with patience and long-suffering, try to oppose those who think they know what they're saying, but take God's Word and we give them God's Word. As the Spirit gives them understanding, gives them belief, then... But does that mean that we just let anybody and everybody into the membership, even though they don't? knowing that we need to wait until, you know, we need to wait, they might be taught later and everything. No, no, we don't just let them all in. We don't just let them all in. We are not to let anybody in that doesn't have the doctrine of Christ. See, that's why I say we don't just baptize people willy-nilly here. Just because someone says, I'm a Christian, can I be baptized? Like John, we need to find out, is there a place for repentance there? Just like Peter said, is there a place for repentance there? Repenting of what they believe? To what Christ has said? Alright, anybody got any questions or comments? Corrections? Was that the doctrine of Christ? Is that the doctrine of Christ? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day and thank you for your mercy and grace upon us once again. Thank you for gathering us again in this house. We thank you for your mercy and your blessings that you have promised upon your people as they gather here together. And I pray, Lord, that today that you have encouraged your people by your word, and I pray, Lord, that you've given them to see the importance of the doctrine of Jesus Christ. I pray, Lord, that You might keep us in the faith that has once been delivered to the saints. We are thankful for all the churches that you have preserved throughout the centuries, that your gospel and your doctrine, your ordinances have been kept. Not because people were so strong and so persevering, but because you give them grace and bless them to believe and to continue in that faith that was delivered once by your own hand. And so, Father, we pray that we might be found as your true church, that we might be found as your people following after you in your way. Lord, I pray for everyone that is here. I pray, Lord, that if there's any that you have called by your name, that you have drawn them by your gospel, and that they are believing and hoping on you, that have not been baptized, Lord, I pray that you would put it within their heart. for their need to confess their faith through the ordinance of baptism. Lord, I pray that if there are any here that believe upon you, Lord, that you would give them the grace and the mercy to make that profession. Again, we pray, Lord, that you would just guide us, direct us. We need your help. We need your presence. Every time we meet the Father, we also need you whenever we leave this place, that you might control us and keep us in your will, excuse me, in your understanding of scripture, in your knowledge of things of Christ. All these things we need your presence within us, your Holy Spirit to teach us. And so Father, Lord, I pray that you be with each and every one of these brethren as they leave this place, that you might be with them throughout the week, that you might give them personal physical safety. But Father, that you might guard their hearts and their minds, and that you might grow them in a spiritual understanding and knowledge of you. Lord, again, we are grateful for Christ, for his work that he's done on our behalf. And Father, we just pray for all of our friends and our family, that do not hold to the doctrine of Christ. Father, we pray that by your sovereign hand that you might grant unto them repentance, grant unto them faith on the Lord Jesus Christ and in his doctrine. Lord, I pray that you would draw them out of those harlot churches and that they might find and fellowship with those that you have called together in your name. Again, we pray for all those brothers and sisters in Christ that you have scattered throughout this world who have not in assembly to meet with Father. We pray that you would gather up and raise up people around him, if that be your will. Lord, we again, we praise and honor the Lord Jesus Christ because it is by him and through him and to him that all things for his glory. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.