Speaker A
00:00:35Not all testing. What a blessing. I appreciate our the talent that God's given our church. And those who play the instruments do a fantastic job.
Appreciate that so very much. We go to your Bibles. Turn to Matthew, chapter 16. We'll start a series of messages tonight on the Baptist Distinctives.
Some of these will be simple for a lot of you, and then again, some of them won't be.
Tonight will be the introduction again, encouraging us as church, as a church family, that God has entrusted us with, with the doctrines and with the truths of the Bible, the faith. So look with me. Matthew 16, verse 13. We read this particular group of verses on Heritage Sunday last November. So let's read them again. Ready?
Matthew 16, verse 13. And when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I, the son of man am?
And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias are one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.
Peter just amazing man. Amazing courage, strength, understanding. Yeah, sometimes. And then other times he's sticking his foot in his mouth.
But thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Verse 17.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. Verse 18. So such an important verse. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter. And upon this rock I will build my church.
And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, again we come to you thanking you for your word. Pray Lord, that you would bless tonight the reading of your word, the preaching in Jesus name. Amen. Verse 18.
I know we have gone over this verse many, many times. But it should never get old. And it. It's good to be review as the best teacher. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.
He was indeed the Messiah who was to come. And he said to Peter, thou art Peter, a little rock. But upon this rock. He's speaking of himself. Petra. A boulder. I will build my church.
He's not saying that Peter's going to Build the church. Peter is not the first pope, but upon this rock. Jesus Christ himself established the first church. The first church. The church there in Jerusalem.
He started it.
He established it somewhere around John Chapter three, when you see the apostles who are already there in place, and they began to baptize somewhere around there, at least before Luke chapter six, because that's when he chose the apostles. When the Bible says and Corinthians that the apostles were chosen out of the church.
Well, you can't choose the apostles out of the church if there's no church in existence. And so pretty, just a few cross references and you get all of that.
And emphatically, without a doubt, emphatically, the church did not begin in Acts Chapter two. And there are so many books that you will pick up good commentaries.
You'll pick up Warren Wiersbe, I mean, even John Phillips, one of my favorite commentaries that put the book of Acts, Acts, Chapter two, as the birthday of the church. And that is just simply not the case. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
It's important as we go forward in this lesson for you to kind of get that in your brain and understand that Jesus Christ himself. Have I said that yet established the church? The Baptist distinctives are the backbone to unity and the stability of the church, of the church.
In other words, doctrine matters. And I know, for us, we know that.
But again, if you take the churches of America and you were to do a survey and you were to go to their websites and look through their websites, you'll find. You'll find phrases like core teachings, or you'll find phrases like essential doctrine.
So I'm just telling you, if you find a church that puts that in their deal, and they're referring to. This is what they're referring to many times, not all the time, but most of the time they're referring to is these are our core doctrines.
And, and as long as you believe in these core doctrines, we're fine.
Or as long as you believe in these essentials, it's okay to be a member here, even though you may believe something else, because these are the essential doctrines, which means that the others are not. Now, they don't say that in their website, but when you say these are the essential doctrines and the other. Anyway, I can go on and on. There's.
There's just many other phrases that are used a lot by the modern churches today. And I'm telling you independent Baptist churches as well, I know several of them. The Metroplex who have adopted these. Core. Like the core.
They say this is the core as long as you have these four or five things. Now, we believe in the fundamentals to salvation, but we're not discounting any doctrine.
What they're doing is saying these are the doctrines we believe that are essential or that are core. And if you believe something else besides those, we're good with that. Have I said that yet? I'm just saying all doctrine is essential.
Every truth in the Bible is essential in light of what we're fixing to teach. Because Jesus said and well, Paul tells Timothy that we're to pass on this truth to the next generation.
Part of the truth or just the ones you think are the core or the ones we think are essential? No, all truth, because all truth is essential. Christ founded the first church and commissioned it. Not just.
We talk a lot about, and we preach a lot about how that the church was commissioned by Christ to spread the gospel. And that is paramount, isn't it? I mean, that's the purpose of the church.
The primary purpose of the church is to spread the gospel, to share the good news of Jesus Christ. But I'd like to remind you tonight that we're also commissioned. We're also commissioned to pass on the faith. To pass on the faith.
In other words, we are to be caretakers of the faith. That we are to be stewards of the body of doctrine found in the word, stewards of it. And that we are to pass that on to the next generation.
Two thousand years ago, Christ founded and commissioned the church to pass on truth to the next generation. 2,000 years now. And yet look, we have it still. We have the truth still. We still have it. Isn't that amazing?
It's been passed on to us and we're to pass that same truth on to the next generation. In Acts
17:6 it says, it alludes to or refers to, or at least inference is made that the first church reproduced itself.
And by 50 AD the verse says in Acts 17, verse 6, that they had turned the world upside down. And we would say that the then known world was reached with the gospel. That's amazing thought, isn't it?
Amazing that one generation, if you would, if you say generations 25 or generations 40, but almost one generation turned the world upside down. The truths passed on ideally were to have the same effect on future generations. Think about it for a moment.
So the truths of the first century church that were given to them by Christ himself, that we find in the word of God and then written by the apostles or written by some of the apostles, written in the New Testament.
Truths that were written and given to the first century church as it continued to reproduce itself, the impact it had on them should have the same impact on us. What it produced in them, it should produce in us. Does that make sense?
The truths passed on ideally should have the same effect on us that it had on them. Our theme verse for the study will be second Timothy chapter two. So turn over there if you would. Second Timothy chapter two.
You will know the verse once you get there. And I am adopting some of Brother Stewart's lessons on this.
So if you're, if you come across something and you say, hey, that looks like Brother Stewart. Yep, good job. Always give honor where honors do. First Timothy, chapter two, verse two. I'm sorry, verse 22.
Didn't I write a wrong verse on that down the other day? Second Timothy, Chapter two, verse. Don't get me going now. That's because I was looking at the wrong it. Actually I said it right the first time.
Let me say it again to you guys. Ready? Second Timothy, chapter two, verse two.
And the things that thou hast heard of me, among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others. Also. We've heard this verse many, many times.
When we had our theme continue a few years back, we used this verse many times, as well as others continuing in the faith, committing that faith to the next generation, passing that faith on to the next generation. It says the things, if you could put quotes around that, the things which thou has heard of me. What things?
Well, the body of doctrine, the body of truth, the teachings that thou hast heard of me. Paul's saying, the Apostle Paul, among many witnesses the same.
So the things are now those same things commit to faithful men who shall be able to teach others.
Also, Paul is saying to Timothy, your responsibility is to take that body of truth that's been taught to you and to teach that same body of truth, the things that have been committed to you. To teach that to others, to teach that, to pass it on, to preach that and teach it to others. We're to preach and teach today.
Again, what we preach and teach today should be the same as what Christ taught, what Christ preached, what the apostles taught, what the apostles preached, what Paul taught, what Paul preached. It should be the same. Amen. And we should search the scriptures that they are and make sure they're the same.
In other words, we're not going by tradition of men. We're not taking the apocrypha or we're taking some other writings of somebody else or whomever it may be, and putting them alongside. No, no, no, no.
The body of truth found in the Word of God. The same that Christ taught, the same that Paul taught, the same that the apostles taught.
Those truths are to be taught again and passed on to faithful men, to be passed on to the next generation again. When it says it's saying mankind, it means everyone. It's to be passed on, passed on.
And the Bible actually, it guarantees not only the Bible preservation, that we'll always have a Bible until Christ returns, but that there will always be true followers as well. There will always be a remnant.
There will always be a remnant of true, distinct those standing on the Word of God, standing on the truths of the Word of God, true churches until the Lord returns. Think about that for a moment. Churches still in existence, still linked to the first century church, the first New Testament Church.
That church was given authority. Now turn back over to Matthew 28, a verse again that you know so well. We call it the Great Commission.
As we think about teaching others also or passing on these truths to others, this verse comes to mind. Now we use this verse again, just like we used the other verse, mainly to teach about the church and its existence.
But here we mostly use this one about spreading the gospel as well. Well, it's not that we were just commissioned to spread the gospel.
We're also commissioned again to be a steward of the truths found in the Word of God. But here definitely we are commissioned to spread the gospel. So look back with me and at the Great Commission. Matthew, chapter 28, verse 18.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe.
What does it say there? All things whatsoever. I have commanded you all things. And lo, I am with you alway even unto the end the world.
And even though we emphasize here the Great Commission, that we're to share the gospel with those in our community, and we're to share the gospel with those in our state, and we're to share the gospel with those in America, we share the gospel around the world. It's also saying that we share all things.
Again, it goes back to the second Timothy, that all things that thou has heard of me, all things should be taught to others also. And so we take this as a commission. It's a commission. It's a commission from Jesus Christ, commanded Again, primarily to the churches.
And therefore, because it's commanded to the churches, of course, churches are made up of peoples. And so that commission comes down to you and that commission comes down to me, that we are to again, share the good news, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
But we are so to share all things, all the teachings. And let me remind you, I didn't clarify the word doctrine just means teaching all the teachings in the Bible.
We're to share those, by the way, as they are in the Bible. Not what some others think. But what does the Bible say, the literal interpretation, what does the Bible say?
The church, again, is given authority and ability to carry out the Great Commission. And again, that commission is not just spreading the gospel, but it is to teach all things, share that body of truth.
So think about this again, as we think about an analogy, we can think about dominoes. Dominoes are not just for playing. I'm talking about playing dominoes. But dominoes are also fun to set up and knock down. Isn't that cool?
You set them up in a line for 3,000 miles, push one, and just a chain reaction takes place, doesn't it? The domino effect, Right? And we think about the illustration here that brother Stewart uses in his material is a nuclear bomb.
We think about a chain reaction.
When the first nuclear bomb was put together, invented, ready to go, there were many scientists around the world who thought that if they detonated the atomic bomb that it might cause a chain reaction and literally blow up the Earth. You can go read about it. I got it written down somewhere. But a chain reaction, blow up the entire Earth? Well, we know that didn't happen.
But there was scientists, real scientists, who believed that. I'm telling you, the effects of the Bible have a chain reaction. And if we're not careful, that chain reaction can be broken.
In other words, we want the domino to fall to the next group. We want the domino to fall to the next group. Have you ever set up a bunch of dominoes and then your little brother takes one out?
Stinking little brother, and they all don't fall? Never happened to y'all. Maybe a little sister. Well, that's what happens when we, a generation doesn't share the truth with the next.
Then the dominoes don't fall no more. There's no longer any chain reaction. A generation's lost. And I can tell you, I think that's. We've seen that somewhat.
We, as the Church of the Living God, must understand that we're caretakers of the truths of the Bible and that we are to share Those truths to the next generation. I know, I'm preaching to the choir. Our church, I believe, is one of the greatest churches in the nation. Amen. I mean, if you compare.
If you just take and said, okay, our church compared to blah, blah, blah, oh, man. Because we are teaching the truth, because we are sharing the truth. We are taking the body of faith and sharing it.
There are churches who do not teach the Bible anymore. I mean, there is a large group of churches that don't teach the Bible as it is. And then we'll cover that.
But you guys know that I'm thankful for a church that stands on the truth of the word of God and passes that truth on to others. We as a church are to be again passing on the truth. Passing on the truth, passing it to the next generation.
By the way, we're supposed to be passing on that truth till the end of the age, till the Lord comes back, till the millennial kingdom. We're just passing on the truth. And we as a church are to guard the truth. The Bible says we are to strive for the faith. We are to.
And there's many other. The Bible references protecting the truth and keeping the faith. The faith, that body of truth.
Again, our responsibility is to teach all things just as it is. And here's the crux of it, not to reduce or ignore them in light of the world we live in today. And that's the key.
That's what's happened, and that's what happens in history. We find Christianity is popular for a while and then comes back down, and popular for a while and then comes back down.
And when it's at its low point, you see churches compromise. We see churches compromise the faith compromise the body of truth because it's not accepted by the world out there or it's not politically correct.
Let me put it that way, right in America and around the world, is the biblical home readily, readily accepted today by the majority? You may say, well, maybe it's 50, 50, I don't know.
But I'm saying there is a huge portion of the world today who would not adhere to the truth and laugh even at the truth of the biblical family that God ordained that God instituted a man and a woman marrying each other for a lifetime, having kids, or the role that each one has given by God, that the man is the head of the house. The feminists go, well, it's Bible. It's what the Bible says. When you go against the authority of your husband, you're going against God.
I'm just saying what the Bible says, don't shoot the messenger. By the way, Paul says that. He says, because I tell you the truth, you're gonna. Right, See, even in here I can see it. Right?
I mean, again, but in society as a whole doesn't want to accept those things. And so what happens is the church kind of.
It kind of shrinks back and says, okay, if society isn't going to accept the biblical model, the biblical institution that God set up and the role that God ordained for the man and God ordained for the woman and God ordained for the children, then we'll just. We'll just teach family light. We won't teach it the. We won't give it the fullest biblical sense. We'll just. We'll just. We'll just skim it.
Is that right, Man? I know, I'm just going to hammer it some more because got people praying and everything, but this applies. You could. I mean, you.
I could sit down with you and you could come up with 10 biblical truths that this applies to in our society today. Easily. The gender issues and all the other things going on in our society today. Homosexuality and many of the churches accepting sin.
Let me say too, when we address homosexuality and we address some of these others, just to be reminded that if a man and a woman live together, it's just as much a sin as two men. Everybody with me, we got churches accepting that they won't call anybody out because they shirk back from the truth.
Sometimes as individuals, we do this because we don't want to seem as though we're being mean to someone as we present truth to them. We need to be careful. Of course we ought to preach the truth in love.
But also, you don't do that to the extent of giving up the truth or diminishing the truth. Not anywhere in your authority to diminish the truth. Amen. I need to stay some more on this one. I know, again, I'm preaching to the choir.
But understand that it's not just impacting the churches out there. It impacts us too. It impacts us too. I believe the Bible gives us two ordinances, by the way. I'm not the one who just believes that.
Historically, the church has only had two ordinances. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. I mean, that means our forefathers believed it that way. Our forefathers forefathers believed it that way.
Two ordinances. And if those ordinances were given to the churches, not to an individual, so that means the Lord's Supper.
You can't go to your home and pass out Grape juice and unleavened bread to your kids and take the Lord's Supper. You have no authority to do that.
You don't have the authority to go home and baptize your children in the pond, in the backyard, or in your bathtub because the churches were given that authority by the Lord himself. But I'm telling you, that's a. That's a hot issue today, especially the baptismal part.
I don't know how many people we have had not join this church because they were not scripturally baptized. And I went to them and said, in order for you to join our church, you have to be scripturally baptized.
There are dozens, maybe even a hundred over the last 25 years who haven't joined our church because we've stood and said, the Bible makes it clear that only churches have the authority to baptize and that baptism has to be done by immersion and has to have the proper authority, but also the proper mode. In other words, if you got baptized before you got saved, that baptism is meaningless. You gotta get baptized after you get saved.
So that's what I mean. We are all affected by pressure from society outside these doors who do not feel and do not hold to the biblical truths.
But we are required, we are commissioned by Jesus Christ himself to safeguard. It's a good way to put it, safeguard the truths found in the Bible, whether we think, whether we like them or not. Amen. Amen. Help me out, everybody.
Good. So if we're not careful, a chain reaction will happen. And that is, one generation will not get the truth.
And therefore the next generation, the next generation, the next generation won't receive the truth. And so we have to be a steward of that truth. We have to safeguard responsibility to teach the things to that next generation.
The Bible says there's one way to heaven. Jesus said himself, I am the way. And that truth alone causes much friction out there in society today. They'll call you a bigot.
They'll say mean things to you like, well, you're telling me that everyone who doesn't put their faith and trust in Christ is going to hell. And your answer is yes.
Yes, I am telling you tonight and again, most of you know this, that there were many who willingly gave their lives and to pass on the biblical truth. The apostles, all of them, except one, history tells us, were martyred for the faith.
And John, who was the exception, was exiled to the Isle of Patmos.
The torch has been carried and carried forward by many true believers throughout the first, second, third century and on and on and on up until the day and hour in which we live. And I'm thankful for those who stood by the stuff and stood for truth and biblical truth and were willing to give their lives.
BH Carroll we passed out and gave the trail of blood free to everybody on Heritage Day.
And BH Carroll says, and you can historically go back and look at this and you can surmise what the numbers were like, but 50 million that died for the cause of CHRIST between the first century and the 1500s when the Reformation started, 50 million, those men and women and children came, gave their lives standing for the faith, standing for the truth of the faith, standing for this body of truth. And we need not take that lightly.
So the role of the church is to be a steward of the New Testament revelation to steward the truth, to pass that truth on to the next generation. We are commissioned to pass that on. The Red Cross isn't commissioned to pass it on. The Salvation army isn't commissioned to pass it on.
We are commissioned to pass it on. We represent the cause of Christ.
The church is the instrument in which God chose to temporarily replace Israel as the mouthpiece for spreading the gospel around the world. And as the conservator, the. The one who again stewards and safeguards the body of truth, the New Testament body of truth.
By the way, one day Israel, God's chosen people, will be put back on track and they will see Christ as their Messiah and they will be restored. But until that time, we as churches are to be the light. So in conclusion, we, Heritage Baptist Church should seek to be a first century church.
Are we a first century church?
I was just, again, I'm a YouTube guy and other things, I just, I hardly even like Real TV anymore because you can go on YouTube and pick out what you want to watch or what you want to learn about. So I saw one of them come across there and somebody said, well, you know, let's go back to the first century church. And this is a preacher.
He said, if we went back to the first century church, what would that look like? Well, he said one of the first things he said is there'd be no music. Pardon me. They sang psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You just don't.
Here's a preacher doesn't know his Bible, but what would the first century church look like? What would they be teaching? And I'm telling you I'm a Baptist because I believe Baptist.
Historic Baptist faith is the closest to what the first century church taught. And that's why we're teaching the Baptist distinctives.
It's not that some other denominations don't teach some of these things, but Baptists exclusively teach them all and we'll cover all 12 of them. Say it's when you put them all together that you say that's what makes Baptists distinct from other denominations. That's why I'm a Baptist.
I'm Baptist, born Baptist bread. When I'm dead, I'll be Baptist, dead Baptist. I'm Baptist with a capital P.
I don't like when churches put change their names number one and take Baptist off. But I also don't like it when they put their Baptist name down in little bitty letters at the bottom like you can't hardly see it.
Like, I'm ashamed to be a Baptist.
Well, preacher, you know, if you didn't have Baptist on the sign out front, there'd be some people, you know, who would come because they wouldn't be offended. I get that.
And that's why we don't have King James
16:11, you know, out on our sign and some other things that to me doesn't need to be like the forefront or the focus, but Baptists, 50 million true believers giving their lives for the Baptist distinctives that we're going to be teaching. 50 million who were burned at the stake, torn asunder, boiled in oil, stretched out. I mean literally stretched apart.
Go read the Fox's Book of Martyrs. It will light your fire. You'll be so like, why in the world did all that happen?
Simply because they wanted to, you know, read the Bible in their own language and just on and on and on. I'm proud to be a Baptist and I believe over the next 12 weeks or so we'll show you.
Hey, this is why we're Baptists and this is why it's important to keep the name Baptist on the sign out front and hold it dear, not worship it. Of course.
And I've said, and I said, Sunday we get to heaven absolutely 100% there are going to be some Baptists who are really shocked because there's going to be other denominations up there. Again, salvation is not found in being a Baptist or Methodist or whatever. Found in Jesus Christ. Amen.
But I am proud to be a Baptist and proud to carry on and to safeguard that body of truth which has been entrusted to us. The truths of the Bible are timeless. Our God is unchanging. The Word is incorruptible.
And for us to drop any of it as non essential has eternal consequences. We need to keep the faith. We need to strive for the faith. We need to safeguard the faith.
Let's all stand and we'll have verse invitation hymn 163 only trust him.
