Baptist Distinctives: Baptism and Church Membership

Open your Bibles tonight turn to Acts 2:41, the book of Acts 2:41, and continue our series on the Baptist distinctives.

I did a Brother Stewart thing, and actually it's Brother Stewart's chart on the Baptist distinctives. There a paper back there at the bookstore here on the right side of the bookstore on the counter. You can pick that up.

And it has the 12 Baptist distinctives that again, that Brother Stewart has. He has. He kind of expands it a little bit. I think normally if you were to Google this and look this up, you'll find that most.

Some of these categories, other preachers put them together. And so usually there's around eight of them and the same distinctives. But sometimes they incorporate some of these together.

But if you would like to have those, they're back there in the back. It gives you all 12 of them, and it gives you kind of a view of what that is and then what it is not. And so it's a really a good little chart.

Brother Stewart's always good at that. My friend Brother Stewart. And these lessons, I want to remind you, these lessons are based off a series that he. That he has.

So I want to give credit where credit's due. So. But I will say again, you can literally Google this. You can Google Baptist distinctives.

There'll be multiple places in which you can go look and study if you would like to. And tonight's a really kind of a simple one.

At least we take it for granted that if you're going to be a member of the church, then you ought to be saved and baptized. But that's not always the case in other denominations and other organizations that say they're a church.

But we believe, and we know the Bible teaches that in order to be a member of the church, you need to be saved. You need to know Jesus Christ as your personal savior, and you need to be baptized. So look at Acts 2:41.

This is the verse I use when I am dealing with in my baptismal class with those candidates for baptism. And if you'll remember, Acts 2:41, Acts chapter two, it's Peter Standing up and preaching there on the day of Pentecost.

And he's preaching to a very, very large crowd, thousands and thousands of people. This is one of the feast days of Israel. And. And so the Israelites were required to come back to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Pentecost.

And as this group from all around that area came back for that feast, it's 50 days after Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. So 50 days later, after Peter had denied Christ three times, he stands up and he preaches full of the Holy Spirit.

It was the power of the Holy Spirit, the feeling of the Spirit that gave him the power as he preached. And he basically said, here, this is what's going on. You murdered the Messiah. That crowd, he calls him a murderer, murderers.

You missed out that he was indeed the Messiah. And he gives examples of how he was the Messiah. And then he says, you have missed out on the prophecy from Joel. And so.

And after he had finished speaking, after he finished preaching, the Bible says here in Acts 2. 41. And with other. Look at verse 40.

And with other words, and with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word. All right, so if I was to come down the stairs and hand my wife a pen, she would receive it.

She received it, she took it, she accepted it. Those who heard Peter preach and accepted the message. What was the message? Jesus was the Messiah. You killed him. And he rose from the dead.

He preached the gospel to them. Good stuff.

Those who received the message, those who believed the message, those who by faith trusted that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, that he lived, he died, and he rose again. It says, look at there again. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day they were added unto them.

The them is the church there in Jerusalem. About 3,000 souls. How do we know that them is the church in Jerusalem?

Well, we've already established that there is only one kind of church described in the Bible in the New Testament, and that is a local, visible church. And there is no universal and visible church described in the New Testament.

There's no visible, universal church, as the Catholics believe found in the New Testament, but only local, visible. Local, visible. I'm glad I'm a member of a local, visible church, an autonomous church.

There's no hierarchy out here that's telling us what we can and cannot do. We follow the head of the church, which is Jesus Christ, and we follow him as the head by his Word. His word leads us, the word of God.

And so, so thankful for that. But so again, they accepted the Word, then they were baptized, then they were added to the church. That is the progression.

That is the pathway to being a member of a church, saved, baptized, added to the church. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for. For your love.

And we just pray tonight as we look at this most important subject, though for us, very familiar to most. I pray, Lord, that it would become fresh to us again and that we'd see the importance of a saved and baptized congregation. In Jesus name. Amen.

The Baptist distinctives are a collection of biblical truths unique to Baptists. And I know I clarify this every Wednesday.

We're not saying that some of these doctrines are not taught in other denominations and other churches, but what we're saying is the collection of these 12, and I've given you the list back there at the bookstore, you can pick those up. The collection of these 12 are unique to Baptists only. And so we think again about this. The theme is Second Timothy, chapter two, verse two.

And Paul says to young Timothy, the things that thou hast heard among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. The churches, the true New Testament churches are to be the caretakers. Right? If you would.

The protectors, the caretakers of biblical truth, of biblical truth. And they're cheating. Everybody's cheating a biblical truth.

And then we're to take that biblical truth and pass it to the next generation and there to protect that truth and pass it to the next generation to teach others also the things that were committed to them. So we as a church are to again be a caretaker of the truth, biblical truth.

The Bible says there, we used it the last three Wednesday nights, that the church is the what, pillar and ground of the truth. And so we are to be caretakers of that truth. Now, again tonight, the Baptist distinctive is world number seven. That is that it's.

We believe the Bible teaches in a saved and scripturally baptized church membership, saved and scripturally baptized church membership. And we take that for granted as Baptists, that that is what the Bible says, because it is what the Bible says.

But that is not practiced in other denominations as far as being a member of that church or some of these churches. And so defining this, of course, defining salvation's easy. We all know that.

One believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, putting your faith and trust in him and him alone, his life, his death, his resurrection, being rescued from the wrath of God for our sins by way of faith, trusting in Jesus Christ and him alone and then baptized. That means those immersed under the authority of a true New Testament church. That's important too.

Number one, it's not a baptism, a true baptism, unless you are scripturally baptized. And by that we mean by the, by what the Bible says. Have you been immersed? Have you been plunged under? Or did you get sprinkled or poured on?

Being sprinkled or poured on is not a true New Testament baptism. It's nowhere found in the New Testament. And so therefore it's not a true baptism. It's not Bible. It's not true. Right?

Amen.

Help me out, everybody. Be awake. I'm awake tonight. Just drank one of them fancy coffees. I could feel the caffeine and sugar rushing through my veins. It's amazing.

Both salvation and baptism are required in order to be a member of a church. Again. I've already said it. We take that for granted. But that is not the case in so many other churches and denominations.

Another thing we take for granted, and we believe because the Bible teaches it, is in order to be baptized, you must be saved first. So we believe in what? We believe in believer's baptism. That you can't dunk a baby and call that a baptism.

A person, a child, has to come to the realization that they are a sinner in need of a savior and accept Christ as their Savior personally before they can be baptized. Right. And so because baptism does not save you, baptism is simply a picture of the life, death and resurrection.

It's an act of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, it's acknowledging that I'm a Jesus follower and it's a passageway into the church.

But baptism requires a saved person immersed again under the authority of a local church. And we have spent three weeks on this. But understand that the church is true. New Testament churches are the only ones with the authority to baptize.

You can't go home and baptize your grandkid and in the bathtub. You don't have the authority to do that. Only the church does. By the way, and I did clarify this. The pastor doesn't have the authority to baptize.

It's the church that has the authority to baptize. We could have a meeting tonight. We could decide and we could vote.

And any one of the men in the auditorium we could vote on to baptize somebody if we wanted to. Everybody see that? Because the church's authority. We talked about ordination. Who truly ordains? We've ordained many here at our church.

But who really did the ordaining? Was it the presbyter? Was it all these preachers sitting up here in the choir that we tricked into being here to. I'm just kidding.

To help qualify this individual to be ordained. No, no. It was the presbyter, the preachers who line up here and ask lots of questions to the man who's being ordained to make sure he's qualified.

All we do is recommend to the church for his ordination and the church votes on it. That's good, isn't it? That's the way it's supposed to be. The church is the one with the authority, not an individual, not the pastor.

And so again, as we think about the requirements in being baptized is that it be a saved person. The requirement is the understanding that it's in a church. And by the way, also the meaning.

It really is meaningless if you get up in the baptistry and you're dunked and you come back up and you don't know even why you did it or what it meant. It's nothing more than a ritual. If that's the case, that's why we do. And we have practiced since we started heritage of having a baptismal class.

And very few have slipped by without going to the baptismal class. Because I want them to know what they believe and, and why. I want them to know why they're being dumped. I want to know why.

And again, mainly it's the picture of the death, burial and resurrection. The church is more than just a gathering place of professing Christians. Say that again.

The church is more than just a gathering place for professing Christians. You say, well, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, I want to. Well, it's more than that.

Again, the definition of a church, what's the biblical definition of church?

It's a called out assembly, ekklesia, the Greek word, a called out assembly of born again baptized believers fulfilling Christ's commands and in this case, fulfilling the Great commission of what? Evangelizing the world, baptizing those who accept him as Savior and then discipling them. That's the Great Commission.

The Great Commission is threefold. That commission was given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. It was given to us, to his churches.

And so again, by definition, the called out assembly of baptized believers fulfilling the commands of Christ to the church, given to the church is what makes a church, what makes a church. And without that, in other words, if organization is not fulfilling their purpose, then it's no longer whatever that is.

And we use the tire shop as the example.

So the church is a people called to holiness, called to separation, commissioned to bring others to salvation, commissioned to bring others to service, to serve the Lord.

And this is why we were directed all that, in other words, that commission, that purpose, reaching others with the gospel preaching, baptizing the discipling, all that directed and empowered, if you would. The Bible says by the Holy Spirit, directed by the Spirit of Christ by the Holy Spirit. In other words, to fulfill its function and by.

The church's function is primarily spiritual. The church's function is primarily spiritual. Just had the discussion with the Jameses. We talked about it a little bit.

It's wonderful to be able to do some help physically for people. It's wonderful to be able to do some charity work, as the world would call that. But that is not the primary purpose and function of the church.

The primary purpose and function of the church is primarily spiritual and that is to give people the gospel. Now what we do in medical missions is we do what Jesus did. Jesus met their physical needs and then.

But his primary purpose was to meet their spiritual needs and to give them the gospel. To give them the gospel. That is the work of the churches. It's primarily spiritual. Okay, so now this is where we can kind of get into some stuff.

I hope that'll be a blessing to you. If the church's function, and we know this is true because the Bible makes it true.

If the church's function is primary spiritual, then the church needs to be made up of spiritual people. By that I mean people who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

If your, if a church is not, if a requirement for a church is not to be saved, then those who are in the church potentially could be there and not have a new nature. In other words, you could end up with people in the chairs and in the pews who do not have the Holy Spirit living in them. Everybody see that?

So it's very important because the church's function is primarily spiritual, very important that that church be made up of people who are saved. Because it's only through salvation that we receive the Holy Spirit. It's only through salvation that we receive a new nature.

That old man is pushed to the side to become a new man, a new creature in Christ. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Amen. We have a new nature. We have a new appetite, a new appetite.

We had an appetite for the things of the world before salvation, after salvation, the Holy Spirit gives us an appetite for the things of God. You as a Christian, you as a born again believer, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, should have an appetite for this.

Now let's say you don't and you still profess to be a Christian. Well, that means you might be a little spiritually sick. When I get physically sick, sometimes I lose my appetite.

Notice I said sometimes I can still be sick and sometimes still be hungry. It's a weird thing, isn't It Sometimes I can be nauseated and still hungry. But most of the time when you get really sick, you lose your appetite.

And sometimes as Christians, we can get in a position in our life where we're not walking with God as we should. And maybe our spiritual appetite is not what it should be. But you still have the Holy Spirit in you if you're saved. It's important.

It's very, very important. In other words, without the Holy Spirit, God cannot lead you because it's the Holy Spirit who leads us. Some of y' all are jumping to conclusions.

You're jumping to the right conclusions that I'm heading that way. So keep on trucking.

Romans, chapter 8, verse 7 says, the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. In other words, you can preach to that person all day long.

And until they get saved, they're not going to receive spiritual things because they're carnal. They don't have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is there. What?

When we get saved, the Holy Spirit comes and indwells us to illuminate, to give us understanding concerning the word of God. It's an amazing thing, isn't it? When you read your Bible as a Christian and the spirit of God shows you something that you didn't see before.

I don't know how many times I've read through my Bible and I still read through it. Every time I read through it, I find something else. Holy Spirit illuminates it for me. The Holy Spirit is there to illuminate us.

He's there to empower us. Empower us as he fills us. He's there. So many different functions that the Holy Spirit does for us.

And if a person is lost, if they're not saved, then how is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is not there to lead them. So now we're just going to another conclusion in light of that.

Unity in the church is derived from or the result of being taught the word of God, being taught the word of God about God and all wanting and all its membership wanting all of its membership, desiring to willingly live what the Bible teaches. I wrote it out because I want to make sure I said that right. Did y' all get that one? Let me say it again.

So when we think so, there's a lot of talk about unity. And we did that the last three weeks.

We talked about the church being local, visible, and that if it's invisible, universal, and the Bible makes it clear there ought to be unity in the church, that we ought to be unified as a body of Christ. We ought to be unified together. The hand shouldn't tell the other hand what to do. The mouth doesn't tell the brain what to do.

No, the body functions together. I don't choke myself right because my hand does what I tell it to do most of the time, unless it hurts real bad. Every member is important.

No member is more important than the other. Again, we're talking First Corinthians 12 and Romans chapter 12. Everybody has a place, everybody has a function given to them by the Holy Spirit.

And unity is not some universal, invisible concept in which all the saved and all the world are to be unified together. That's not what the Bible's saying. Because there is no universal, invisible church made up of all the saved. It's talking about each individual.

Church is the body of Christ and ought to be unified in that body.

Amen.

There ought to be unity. Well, how does that unity happen? Unity in the church is derived from or results from being taught the word of God. Right.

Sunday school, your teacher's teaching you the word of God. Maybe you are a Sunday school teacher. You're being taught the word of God as you study.

Amen.

Come on Wednesday nights, you get preached too. Come on Sunday nights, you get preached to. Sunday morning, preach to.

And as you are taught the word of God, unity happens because it's the result of being taught the word of God about God and the willingness of that person who is filled with the Spirit to apply that word to their own lives. They're willing to do it. In fact, I would tell you, because of the Holy Spirit living inside of us, we want to do it.

Paul described this in Romans chapter 7. He said, the things I don't do, those are the things I do. The things I want to do, those are the things I don't do.

And he says, oh, wretched man that I am right. We have this war in between us. But because of the new nature, we want to do right. We want to live right. We want to follow God's law.

In fact, as we grow in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says we'll delight in the things of God, that our duty will no longer be a duty, but a delight. That's the way we ought to grow in Christ.

Amen.

But think about this. If a person's not saved, they don't have the Holy Spirit inside of them.

So the Holy Spirit, the Lord can't direct them, and they are members of the church. What's going to happen? Well, how can you have unity if you have part of your membership who are not saved, who don't have a spiritual appetite?

So what happens? This is important. Again, Acts 2:41, we have this picture.

So not only is the primary purpose of being baptized, according to Romans, Chapter six is picturing the life, the death, the burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

You go up in the baptister, you come down to the water. The water's a picture of a grave.

You're put under the water, you're put into the grave, and you come out of the water picturing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You're picturing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You're telling the congregation, those who watch to be baptized, that you're identifying with Jesus Christ, that you believe he lived, he died and he rose again, or else you wouldn't get baptized. Baptism again. The most important thing about baptism is the picture. And that picture is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But can I tell you that the Lord's Supper and baptism can serve as a filter for the church?

This has been the case in every ministry that follows the Bible, that follows the biblical basis for baptism and the Lord's Supper, that both ordinances can serve as a filter. In other words, it keeps out those who are not ready for membership.

If they're not going to submit to baptism, they're not going to submit to the authority of the church. Let that sink in a little bit.

Submitting to the authority of the church by baptizing them, it identifies with the church because a person who does, let's say that we'll just use our church as example. A person who gets baptized at our church is identifying themselves with Jesus Christ, primarily the picture of his life, death and resurrection.

But he also, that person is submitting to the authority of that local church, also identifying with the church's doctrine. In other words, you're saying when you get baptized at Heritage, you're saying, I believe what y' all teach is the Bible. That's true Bible doctrine.

I'm identifying with the doctrines of Heritage Baptist Church. By the way, any church you get baptized in, you're identifying with that particular. Particular churches.

We would call it Articles of faith, their Bible doctrine. What do they believe, you're saying? That's what I believe. It's also, again, an evidence that they're committed to Christ.

Again, First Peter says those who do not get baptized, that the Holy Spirit will prod them. It's an answer of a good conscience towards God. Everybody know the verse?

And so it's Saying that I am going to submit or I am committed to Christ, but I'm also committed to his church, committed to his church. So baptism is again in keeping those out who don't need to be members because they don't want to submit to the authority.

They don't necessarily want to identify with the doctrines of that church. They don't want to be a committed Christian and therefore they're not ready to be baptized.

Some churches teach, and I can remember even as a kid a lot of push was that they would use a phrase that baptism is the first act of obedience. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that baptism is the first act of obedience for a Christian.

And I don't believe, I personally don't believe. It's my opinion that when you get saved that you have to be baptized right away.

Now, I think as an adult, I think that you should be able to make that decision again.

First Peter says if you don't get baptized, the Holy Spirit's going to bother you because again, you're not submitting to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not being a committed follower of Jesus Christ because he's commanded us to be baptized after we get saved and we ought to get baptized.

But we're not saying again that it's the first act of obedience. I might obey some other command of Christ before that and it might be the first act of obedience. I'm just, I'm just parsing words now. Everybody good?

All right, so to fulfill the purpose, a member needs to be on the same page.

All right, so to fulfill the purpose, the church is a called out assembly of born again baptized believers fulfilling Christ's commands, fulfilling the Great Commission. And therefore all members need to be born again believers. Fulfillment indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

And that again would allow for all of us to be on the same page. That is the basis for unity. The basis for unity in a church is spiritual in that we each have the spirit of God in us.

And therefore because of that, we're going to be taught the word of God. Follow the word of God and be on the same page.

Amen.

Doesn't mean. No, I'm just kidding. I'm not going to go there.

So the Bible gives us three examples or pictures of those people or individuals who are, who can and will and do harm the church. All right, so here's the picture. The Bible refers to the church as a flock. We're a flock.

And then there are three animals that are Illustrated for us in the New Testament, that can do harm to the flock. So the pastor, again, is the under shepherd again, Christ being the chief shepherd. But there are threats within.

There are threats also without, to the church, to the congregation, to the flock. We have goats at our house, a bunch of them. But we also have a Great Pyrenees. We have two of them, those big white dogs.

And they are guardian dogs, and they're amazing. Just the other night, I may have already said this, but just the other night, we heard a commotion outside.

It was dark, couldn't see, but we did hear a dog. And we heard a yelp. And in fact, it was so loud, our neighbors across the street heard it. And they came out of their house.

And sure enough, a coyote had jumped our fence. And our Great Pyrenees did his job, went over there and roughed up that coyote. That coyote ran for his life.

And I got out there just in time to see a lot of it with my spotlight. Y' all don't want me to go there. Cordless spotlights. Why didn't we always have them? 2,500 lumens. I can land a plane at my house.

Brother Collins would just land a plane at my house with that big old spotlight. Anyway, I shined the light over there. I could see the coyote. I saw our Great Pyrenees still trying to crawl through the fence to get him.

And the coyote was limping. Thank the Lord, didn't get any of our goats. Our Great Pyrenees was protecting his flock, doing his job.

And that's what the Bible refers to as the pastor shepherding, watching over the flock again, Christ being the chief shepherd. Because we do have these. Number one is vipers. I don't have time. We're already almost out of time to look up all these scriptures.

But most of you will remember the references. John the Baptist referred to the religious leaders, the Jewish religious leaders, as a generation.

Religious but theologically poisonous vipers. Oh, religious, but a serpent that bites and messes you up.

I'm astounded by how many preachers come across my social media who seemingly outwardly look very, very religious, speak and talk the language. If you see them, maybe they're not in a podium like this.

Maybe, you know, a smaller podium, and they're speaking to a big crowd, and it'll come across my feed Maybe it is the King James. It comes across my feed, King James Version. And man, I'm kind of interested in that. Pop on it.

And sure enough, it's a very, very intellectual, very religious person teaching on the King James. And nine times out of ten, why, it's not the best translation, but they seemingly have authority. They come across as very professional.

They got a great crowd in front of them. This could go along with. And one that's become very popular here in the last few years is the pre Trib. You know, it'll come across my feed.

Mid Trib or post Trib or Mid Trib, Post wrath. Preliminary. I don't know, there's all sorts of silly titles and it'll come across my feed. I'll pop on it. The guy looks very professional.

He's got a big. Maybe even has a big church and he's teaching. And it looks very religious and so wrong. So wrong. Poisonous. A viper. By the way, we're pre Trib.

I'm thankful the church is not appointed unto wrath. The trumpet will sound before the great Tribulation, before the seven years we are out of here. Oh, you say, well, that's only 19th century theology.

No, no, no, no, no.

That's a lie from the pits of hell. Go look it up.

By the way, when it comes to prophecy, as time goes forward, we receive more light because more prophecies come about and more prophecies are fulfilled. We know more about prophecy today than we did 10 years ago. And so. Okay, I'll get off of that grace. Grace is another one.

A subject that really has become such a subject that's being maligned and misused and abused.

And so all of these things I would put under the heading or the picture here of a viper, a serpent again, outside the church, not somebody inside who seemingly has their act together, preaching. Very charismatic, many of them. And you have to be careful. Please don't be carried about by every wind of doctrine. Number two is goats.

I won't go into that one. No, I'm just kidding. Primarily, this speaks of in Matthew 25, that at the end of the tribulation, God will separate the sheep from the goats. Right.

But it is referring to the churches and that there are those who are in the churches whom are goats. What does this mean? Well, it means they're not saved. By the way, Jesus said himself that many will come to heaven.

Say Jesus said, depart from me, I never knew you. And they'll say, didn't I prophesy in your name?

Didn't I do all these things in your name, but they never truly trusted in Jesus Christ, his life, death and resurrection. Somebody can profess to be saved but not possess salvation. Goats are headstrong. I have lots of examples. Goats love to headbutt each other.

The little bitty ones. Pow, pow. I mean they just. Man, it is something to behold. You got to come to our house and watch them. It's cool. Goats are not as docile a sheep.

So the picture here is again, the goat is a picture of an unrepentant person. Unsubmissive, self willed. Yes, herd animal, and we call them that. They are. Goats are herd animals, but doesn't mean they get along at all.

Our goats constantly fighting each other, constantly hitting each other in the head. They love to hit each other in the head. It's so funny. It's awesome. Gotta come watch it. Flock life. The life of a flock.

Again, somebody who is a goat is somebody who has no spirit of God, no appetite for the things of God. And they just love headbutting people. They just love disagreeing with people and just, they want to be the catalyst behind, you know, the disunity.

That's a good word. Everybody's getting quiet. Everybody stay with me. We need to be careful. Every flock has them. And then lastly, wolves.

We know this, we ought to be aware of this, that there are those who sneak into the church, those who, who come under and become members of the church in disguise, who truly do not believe and practice the word of God, especially as this church sees it, identifying with this church. And that's why we need to be careful. And that's why you got a pastor, hopefully, who will stand up and say that's not right or this is not right.

Bible. This is what the Bible says. Preach the Bible just as it says amen. And you want a preacher like that, whether it's me or someone else.

And by the way, those wolves in sheep clothing has happened at Heritage Baptist Church many times. I don't know how many times I've had people walk in who believe just some weird things.

And then they'll trap some of our members out here on the sidewalk and talk to them about it. And you got to chase them down and say, you know what? We don't believe that way. You know, probably be better if you didn't.

Maybe you should go look somewhere else for a church. And so, you know, protecting the Flock, right? Amen. More I could say about that. But we're out of time.

A flock of sheep have enough problems getting along with each other than it has to do with dealing with the wolves, the vipers and the goats. Again, every member is on a different spiritual level and we need to all take that into account.

Sometimes we will judge a member by what they've done, but again, not taking into consideration that each member of the flock is on a different spiritual level. Be careful. Be careful. Just because you may be here or there and they may be here. We're all one body working together.

We ought to love every member of Heritage Baptist Church if you're a member here. Now, we always make the illustration. The illustration works.

That my family, my biological family, I have a brother, older brother, who's four years older than me. I love my brother, love him. Him and I don't agree on everything, but I love him.

Amen.

Nobody has siblings like that, huh? Yes, we all do, Right? We all have family like that, but there's still family. I have family. Outer perimeter family, you know, cousins, whatever.

That I would even say that don't even practice the Bible. But I love them. If they called me at 2 o' clock in the morning, they were broke down on 8, 20, I'd go help them.

Amen.

1 why? Because they're family. It's the right thing to do. We love each other. Take into consideration the various stages and levels of Christian growth.

Plus understand there are vipers and goats and wolves. The church's programs need to remain spiritual because the church's function is primary spiritual.

Again, we need to be careful about not feeding the flesh. I'm not talking about having a potluck after lunch.

I'm talking about feeding the flesh as it pertains to what comes from this platform and what comes from the teaching in their Sunday school and what comes from the teaching in the children's church and what comes from the teaching over in the youth department. What the youth department teaches should be nothing different than what they're getting in here.

In fact, I would tell you we have practiced at Heritage for many, many years that even the music that they get over there, for the most part, is the same they get here. That the youth don't have their own music and their own band and their own. That I'm telling you, go ahead.

And I'll warn you, if you want the modern music and that whole thing, it nearly always starts. And that's a good English. It nearly always starts. It's another good English in The youth department. Be careful what happens in the youth department.

If you start doing it over there, it eventually ends up here. I'll stop. I have some strong opinions. Not feeding the flesh. It's sermons, it's songs, it's activities, it's ministries.

All should be Christ centered and being careful that our ministries, whatever they may be, pertain unto spiritual, spiritualness, spirituality.

Amen.

It's easy and sometimes we cross the line. I'll tell people I love our music. I believe we do our very best to have Christ honoring music at our church. We do. Sometimes we cross the line.

Everybody's going to do it from time to time. Lastly, we must continue to grow. We must continue to offer green pastures to our church. Family still waters places for them to grow.

Romans, chapter 16, verses 17 through 18. Why? Because if the church is made up of born again believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they will be receptive to spiritual things.

What's happening a lot out there in other denominations and churches is the appeal is not spiritual. The appeal is physical.

Coming to church is not primarily a spiritual function, but primarily to meet the physical appetite, the fleshly, the physical maybe not the right word, the fleshly appetite of a person. May we never cross the line. May we always, always believe in the primacy of preaching in every service.

May we always believe in the primacy of the Gospel being presented at every function. Every ministry's primary purpose is to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every special day, every special event.

If that's not the case, then we shouldn't be doing it. Heritage Christian Academy exists primarily to reach kids with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Every ministry, if that's not the primary purpose, don't need it. Because the church's primary function is spiritual and we need to keep it that way.

Let's all Stan, I just kept hitting the same nail tonight and it is important that we understand that the church is made up of born again believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit so that we all can be led by the Spirit and be unified together as the Body of Christ. And may we always work together to fulfill the Great Commission.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you've clearly defined for us what a church is in the Bible and you've clearly defined our purpose. And Lord, you have made it abundantly clear that as a church we should be led by the Spirit and God.

I pray that as we continue to go forward as a church that we continue to function on a spiritual basis, continue to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ May we always keep the main thing the main thing In Jesus name, Amen. All right. Hymn.