A young man had committed a misdemeanor and was appearing before a judge
for the first time. He was fidgety and nervous. The judge, in an effort
to settle him down, said, "Son, don't be nervous. I'll see to it that you
get justice." The young man nervously replied, "Yes, sir, Mr. Judge. That's
what I'm afraid of, but please, could you throw in a little mercy on the
side."
This author pleads with the reader to please throw a little mercy in
on the side as you read this book. Why do I plead for your mercy? Because
this book is different. This, like my books on prayer, the Holy Spirit
and others, comes from a series of Bible studies that I have taught to
the membership of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, on Wednesday
nights. My custom has been to take the outlines from which I taught and
spend many hours dictating them for transcription and publication. Such
is not the case in this book. I simply did not have the time, for many
reasons. There were more demands on my time than ever. Because of that,
I have simply had the Bible studies on Wednesday night transcribed, edited,
proofread and prepared for publication. As you read, please consider yourself
sitting in the auditorium of our church, listening to a Bible study. I
think you will find it easier to forgive me for the repetition of statements
and even illustrations.
I do not claim to be an author; I simply want to leave all that I can
for the following generation. At this printing, I am 66 years of
age, which means that I'm old enough for Social Security. I have been preaching
for over 47 years and pastoring for 45 of those years. During these years
I have pastored hundreds of thousands of people, preached over 52,000 sermons
and had a personal acquaintance with thousands of preachers.
Please be lenient with me as you read. Have mercy on me by avoiding
the position of critique, and as you give me justice, throw a little mercy
in on the side.
Chapter Two What Is a Church?
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and
love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that
ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the
glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty
power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and
set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality,
and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only
in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things
under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. Ephesians
1:15-22
One of the saddest things about our generation is that Baptists are
quitting being Baptists. They are becoming too inter-denominational . I
believe we should treasure our Baptist heritage. Few preachers today mention
anything about the church. It is almost unheard of. They may preach on
being faithful to church and attending church, but not the doctrines of
the church. I am going to cover some things that I believe should be taught
in every Baptist church in America.
I am a Baptist. I have no animosity towards anybody else. There are
saved people in many different groups. I have dear friends who are fine
Christian people, yet are not members of Baptist churches. But, I do thank
God that I am a Baptist, and I love my Baptist heritage.
The word churchcomes from two words. One word is ek which means out,
and the other word is kaleo which means to call. The word
is ekklesiaand it means a called-out group. That is the word for churchin
the New Testament. It is a called-out group. When I refer to the church,
I am referring to a called-out group. In the Bible it is often called an
assembly, but it is not just an assembly. It is a calledout assembly. Let
me explain further.
1. In order to be a church, the people called-out must have been a part
of another group.
2.They must have been called out of that group.
3. They must have formed another group.
The church is a called-out assembly because they were called out from
the world to assemble. So, they must have been in the world, they must
have been called out from the world, and they must have formed a new group
in order for them to be a called-out assembly.
This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel
which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received
the lively oracles to give unto us. Acts 7:38
Israel was called a church in the wilderness, but Israel was not a church
when she was in Egypt because she was not yet a called-out assembly. When
she was in Canaan she was not yet a church because she was not a called-out
assembly. God called them out from Egypt, and they assembled in the wilderness.
They were then a called-out assembly. They were called out of Egypt to
assemble and form another group in the wilderness. So, God calls Israel
a church in the wilderness.
Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was
confused. Acts 19:32a
Paul was in jeopardy because of the uproar of the silversmiths in Ephesus.
People were getting saved and the silversmiths, who made little goddesses
of Diana, were having their businesses hurt. They were upset with Paul.
That word assembly is the word ekklesia. That mob of people assembled from
Ephesus which was trying to do Paul harm was a part of another group. They
were called together out of
that group to form another group. The purpose of forming that group
was to do harm to Paul. So, in the Bible there were many different churches.
I do not mean religious organizations, but groups of people who were called
out to assemble.
But if ye inquire any thing concerning other matters, it shall be determined
in a lawful assembly. Acts 19:39
Once again the word assembly or ekklesia is used. The governing body
of Israel was called an assembly. It was an ekklesia, or a church. They
were not a New Testament church, but anytime there was a group called out
from another group to assemble, that assembly was called an ekklesia. In
the United States, our Senate and our Congress are called out from us to
assemble in Washington, DC. That is what was called an ekklesiaor an assembly.
In fact, in many states the State Legislature is called the State Assembly.
That is exactly what it was in those days.
The word synagoguecomes from a word which means a group of people meeting,
but to be an ekklesia it had to be people of the same kind. For example,
if a group of lawyers come out from the rest of society, meet in some city,
and have an assembly or convention, that is an ekklesia. If there is a
medical convention, it is an ekklesia. There must be a common bond in order
for it to be called an ekklesia. It would be called a synagogue if there
was no common bond.
In the New Testament church our common bond is that we have received
Jesus as the living Son of God. It was upon this that the church was built.
"Upon this rock I will build my church." What rock? Not Peter, but on the
profession that Peter made when he said, "Thou art the Son of the Living
God." We have a common bond. The world knows nothing about that bond. We
have a common Book that we love. We have a common Saviour Whom we love.
We have a common Holy Spirit Who lives in our bodies. A group of people
which assembles because they have a common bond qualifies them to be called
an ekklesia or a church.
Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write... Revelation 2:1
And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write... Verse 8
And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write.. . Verse 12
And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write... Verse 18
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write... Revelation 3:1
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write... Verse 7
And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write... Verse 14
All of these were churches. They were assembled, they had a common bond
and a common purpose, but it was not the same purpose that the church of
Philadelphia had. The Catholic church across the street from our church
in Hammond is a church. It is not a New Testament church, but it is a church
because it is a called-out assembly. That means that the church at Ephesus,
Sardis, Pergamos, Philadelphia, Thyatira, and even the wicked Laodicea
were all churches. So, liberal churches are churches. They are not New
Testament churches, but they are churches.
Jesus started an ekklesia of His own. He did not start the ekklesia.
The word ekklesia was used before Jesus started His ekklesia. There was
an ekklesia in the wilderness back in the Old Testament days. Jesus started
His own ekklesia based on the bond of accepting Christ as Saviour and as
the Son of God. There is no bond like the bond which is in a true New Testament
church, because He is that bond.
When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea of 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; and others, Jeremias,
or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that Jam? And
Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona:
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this
rock! will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. Matthew 16: 13-18
Jesus was building one of the following when He started the church.
1. a church consisting of all believers.
2. a denomination.
3. a congregation.
All three cannot be true, and no two can be true. Either Jesus started
a local assembly, a denomination, or the church is composed of all believers
(an invisible church). Jesus said, "upon this rock! will build my church."
He did not say, "I will build my churches." We must then decide which one
is right.
Some people say that the church is composed of all believers. Some people
say the church is a denomination. Some people say that the church is a
congregation of people. Which is right? Let's reason.
1. It could not be all believers. If it is all believers, what happened
from Adam to Christ? If the church was started on Pentecost, which it was
not (that will be covered in a later chapter), then what happened to all
of the Old Testament people? Were they not saved? If, when a person gets
saved, he is baptized into the church, (an invisible body of all the same
people), then Moses and Abraham were unsaved. Therefore, it could not be
all believers.
2. The church that Jesus started in Matthew 16:8 was not started then.
He said he was going to start it. It was the same church which was mentioned
in Matthew 18:17.
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if
he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and
a publican. Matthew 18:17
The word church used here is the same word ekklesia which is mentioned
in Matthew 16:18. How can you tell something to an invisible church? You
cannot tell it to every Christian if every Christian forms the church.
When He said to tell it to the church, He was referring to a group of people
who have been called out of the world. When you get saved, you are called
out of the world, but God has an institution he wants you to join, so you
can reassemble. It must be a local body of believers. If it is the local
body of believers, then it is not invisible.
The average Baptist does not believe or know this. We do not teach it
any more. Jesus started only one church. It cannot be visible and invisible.
So, if it is the visible church, there can be no invisible church. I take
issue with Mr. Scofield when he refers to the visible and the invisible
churches. The true church is a group of born-again baptized believers,
who have a common bond of having Christ in their lives, having been born
again, made new creatures in Christ Jesus, and trying to propagate that
wonderful message, so that others can receive the message of grace. That
is the true church. This needs to be emphasized. We accepted inter-denominational
teaching, and, as a result, have damaged the true church.
When the invisible church-goers want to raise money, they always go
to a visible church to raise the money. Isn't that interesting? They do
not send their money-raisers out to invisible churches, because invisible
churches give invisible money. There is a mentality that is sweeping this
nation that if you "Grow in grace" you do not need to have a local church.
People have the idea that you can join the Gideons, Youth for Christ, Child
Evangelism, or some other group instead of being a part of a local New
Testament church. Any ministry can do better in a true church than it can
outside of it. The greatest child evangelism program is in the local church.
The greatest youth for Christ program is in the local church. More Jewish
people are reached by the local church than in all of the Jewish ministries
that are operated outside of the church.
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace
of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory,
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For
both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying I will declare
thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will! sing praise
unto thee. Hebrews 2:9-12
Jesus said that He was going to preach and sing in the church. The church
could not have started on Pentecost. It had to have been started in the
personal ministry of Christ because the Bible says that He sang and preached
in it. It is not talking about His invisible presence in the church. It
is talking about the fact that Jesus went to church during His earthly
ministry. He would not start a church, and then not show up when it met.
Often, a businessman will get saved in a church like First Baptist.
He loves it. He teaches a Sunday school class. He gets a bus route. Then
these "super church" believers come in and "promote" him out of the local
church. Because he is a businessman, he thinks he has risen above the local
church. You will never rise above the local church. Men across this country
by the thousands seldom go to their own church, because they have been
given some job in a spiritualservice outside the true church which is the
local church. They eventually die on the spiritual vine.
What America needs is not more telecasts. We need more local churches.
I do not like the phrase, "Electronic Church." There is no such thing as
an "Electronic Church." There will never be anything that can substitute
for a place where people come and have the Word of God taught to them by
a pastor, and a place where they can build their lives. The purpose of
Hyles-Anderson College is to train men to go out and work in churches.
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the
general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect.
Hebrews 12:22, 23
The word church is the word ekklesia. This passage is talking about
the rapture. The church is a called-out group. At the rapture, all believers
will be called out from this earth, meet in the air, and assemble in the
sky. Then, and only then, will we be a called-out assembly. That is what
this passage is talking about.
There is a church being built right now, but it is notyet a church because
it has not yet been called out and assembled. At this moment there is only
one church and that is the local body. All believers are not a church because
all believers have not yet been assembled. At the trumpet, the first resurrection,
all believers will be assembled, and will become a called-out assembly,
or a church. That is not the same as the New Testament church. It is the
church of the first born which will be assembled in the sky.
What about the Scriptures that say the church is His body? That is a
term of ownership. The local church belongs to Him. He is the head of it
in the sense that He is the boss of it. Hyles-Anderson College is owned
by the First Baptist Church. The local New Testament church is owned by
Jesus. It is His possessive body.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate,
them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom
he justified, them he also glorified. Romans 8:28-30
Jesus wills that every person whose name is written in Heaven be part
of a local church. Romans 8:28 is not for those who do not belong to a
true church. You cannot be right with God and not belong to a true church.
A family, who I loved very much wrote me a letter one day, that said, "Brother
Hyles, we have had a wonderful time lately. For months now, we have not
gone to church anywhere. We have just stayed at home and learned to know
God better." No, they did not. Nobody learns to know God better outside
the institution Jesus started than they can inside of it. You cannot be
right with God and wrong with the ekklesia. You cannot be right with God
and not belong to the ekklesia.
Our Baptist brethren in history died for this truth, yet many Baptists
today do not even believe it. Never again talk about the invisible church,
or the universal church. The word Catholic means universal church. Let
the Catholics have that doctrine. There is no such thing according to the
Bible. Jesus started one church. That church is the church in which you
can hear a message. It is a church where Jesus preached and where Jesus
sang. It is a church where people meet. It is a church that has membership
and has people baptized. It is a church that has pastors and deacons. It
is a local assembly of believers.
People write me letters saying, "Brother Hyles, we're moving to a certain
town in a certain state, but we can't find a church there. What should
we do?" I write back two words. "Don't move!" If you cannot find a church,
God does not want you there. God wants every Christian in an ekklesia.
What this nation needs is more soul-winning New Testament churches in
every neighborhood. We need men of God to start ekklesias all across this
nation. That is why the Devil has attacked First Baptist Church so viciously.
The Devil does not want ekklesias. May God in Heaven bring us back to the
old-fashioned doctrine of the true church and not the dreamed up invisible
church.
Chapter Three Church Perpetuity
Since Jesus started the New Testament church, there have always been
New Testament churches. I am not talking about denominational succession.
I do not believe in denominational succession. By succession I mean that
one denomination started another denomination, and that one started another
one, and that continued until you get to the church I pastor today.
I cannot prove local church succession. It may be that every church
was started by a church, that was started by a church, that was started
by a church, that was started by a church, that was started by a church,
that was started by a church, that was started by Jesus. I do not know,
but that is not the issue. The issue is that there has never been a time,
since Jesus established the church in Matthew chapter ten, that there was
not a church that was descended from that first local church started by
the Lord.
In a sense Baptists have succeeded each other, but that does not include
all Baptists. Baptists have existed ever since the New Testament, but that
does not mean that all Baptists are descended from those in the New Testament.
I know Baptist preachers who will take transfers from any Baptist church,
yet there are hundreds of Baptist churches that are completely liberal.
Just because they are Baptist does not mean that they are part of a New
Testament church. I do not care about the denominational tag.
We have the idea of the perpetuity of a denomination, which is not true.
There are some Baptist churches that are not Baptist at all. It is not
the succession of a denomination that has caused the perpetuity of the
church. It is the splitting of the denomination that has caused the perpetuity
of the church. The trail of blood from the time Jesus started the church
until now has not been perpetuated by denomination, but by people splitting
those denominations to start new movements. So, it is not the major denomination
that has perpetuated New Testament churches. It is the split off of that
denomination which has done so..
There are four steps in every Baptist movement. I am referring to the
Southwide Baptist Fellowship, the General Association of Regular Baptists,
the Conservative Baptist Association, the Baptist Bible Fellowship, the
Southern Baptist Convention, etc.. When one of these groups starts, the
four steps in the decay of a Baptist movement begins.
Step 1. It starts with a man. Every Baptist movement is started from
a man. The Baptist Bible Fellowship started with J. Frank Norris. The Southwide
Baptist Fellowship was the baby of Dr. Lee Roberson. The General Association
of Regular Baptists was the baby of Dr. Bob Ketchum. The Conservative Baptist
Association was the baby of Dr. Myron Cedarholm. That is the first step
in every great movement.
Step 2. It becomes a movement. That is the best day of a group. It is
moving. It is virile. It is active. It is starting and building churches.
It is getting the job done.
Step 3. It becomes a machine.
Step 4. It becomes a monument.
Let me show you where some of these groups are on this progression.
The American Baptist Convention is a monument.
The Southern Baptist Convention is a machine. It was a man. Then, for
many years it was a movement. Now, it is a machine. The denomination runs
the churches. Someday it will be a monument.
The Baptist Bible Fellowship is halfway between movement and a machine.
It is just entering into the machine stage from being a movement.
If I started a denomination, it would go the same route. Why? Because
a movement is not of God. Movements are not always bad, but Jesus never
started a denomination or a movement. He started a local church. God is
against denominations. No denomination ever starts off intending to be
a denomination. A denomination is a result of decadence that was never
intended. It was intended to be a fellowship of churches, but it evolves.
Denominationalism is not of God. It is the decay of a movement. That is
why God is not concerned about denominations. God is concerned about local
churches.
A few years ago I was preaching in Erie, Pennsylvania. They had a breakfast
for pastors, and about forty-five pastors came. Nobody was trying to boss
anybody. Nobody was trying to blacklist anybody. Nobody was trying to politic
with anybody. Everybody was on an equal level. It was not a denomination.
It was just a group of churches getting together in fellowship. One day,
somebody may suggest that they elect officers. Then somebody else may suggest
that they have a charter. Somebody else will suggest that they adopt a
statement of faith. Then, somebody is will try to pass some resolutions.
It keeps on going and going until finally it has become a denomination.
It starts off as a group of preachers getting together to fellowship with
each other, and ends up with somebody wanting some authority. God is not
for that.
Let me give you some facts about Baptist churches.
1. Baptist churches existed before the Reformation.
We were not always called Baptists. We did not name ourselves. Our enemies
named us. We were originally called Anabaptists which means rebaptizers.
One of the three great doctrines which caused us to be persecuted is that
we do not believe in infant baptism. When these baptizers got people saved
they baptized their converts again, even though they had been baptized
as babies, so their enemies called them re-baptizers.
When I first went to Hammond, a large number of unsaved people in the
church got saved. We baptized them even though most of them had already
been baptized, so somebody started calling me the double-dip Baptist preacher.
That is why the Baptists were called Anabaptists, or rebaptizers.
There were Baptist churches before the Reformation. The Reformation
was the time when Martin Luther pulled out of the Catholic church and decided
that the just shall live by faith. At that time the Protestant movement
was started. I am not a Protestant. Protestants are those who came out
of Catholicism. Baptists did not come out of Catholicism. When Martin Luther
decided the just shall live by faith and started the Reformation, Baptist
people were in hiding.
2. At the Reformation the Baptists had hope and decided that it was
safe to come out of hiding. Martin Luther began preaching salvation like
they had always been preaching it. They were in for a surprise. Even though
the Catholics and Protestants were fighting each other, they were together
on one issue, and one issue only. They hated the Baptists. The Baptists
thought that Martin Luther's Reformation would bring them out of hiding,
but it did not, because Martin Luther persecuted Baptists just like the
Catholics persecuted Baptists. John Calvin persecuted Baptists just like
the Catholics persecuted Baptists. I believe that Martin Luther was a great
man like Henry Ford was a great man, but he was not a great Christian,
or a great preacher. He was a great leader. Martin Luther would have put
preachers like me in jail.
3. The Catholics and the Protestants united to exterminate the Baptists.
4. Henry the VIII banished Baptists and gave them twelve days to leave
or die.
5. Baptists were slaughtered in the Netherlands just for being Baptists.
6. Baptists were banned in Germany.
7. Much of the blood shed by Bloody Mary came from Baptist veins.
8. Queen Elizabeth gave Baptists twenty days to leave the country.
9. Switzerland killed Baptists by drowning and burning them at the stake.
In our country we have the idea that the Pilgrims came to the new land
looking for religious freedom. They came looking for it, but they also
came denying it. They came looking for their religious freedom while at
the same time choking Baptists' religious freedom.
* In 1669 William Wickendon preached the first Baptist sermon in New
York state. He was jailed for 3 months.
* In North Carolina they passed a law prohibiting the building of Baptist
church buildings.
* In 1676 the first Baptist church building was built in Boston, Massachusetts.
It was confiscated, and the doors were nailed shut.
* In the colonies, Baptists were jailed and whipped.
So, why were Baptists hated? They were hated for three doctrines in
which they believed:
1. Their doctrine opposed infant baptism.
2. They opposed the doctrine of baptismal regeneration.
3. They believed in the separation of church and state.
When the Declaration of Independence was drawn up, England declared
that it was an Anabaptist (Baptist) declaration. It was considered to be
a doctrine of heresy when Baptists said that they were for the separation
of church and state.
How has this perpetuity of the Baptist church been made possible? Not
by denominations, but by churches splitting from the denominations. So,
it is not a denominational perpetuity. It is a local church perpetuity.
Most Baptist denominations are not Baptist at all. They deteriorated from
being Baptist churches. In my opinion, the American Baptist Convention
does not have churches that are true New Testament churches. Church history
courses taught in most of our colleges teach the Baptist succession. Church
history is the history of local congregations. Even the history of the
Baptist denomination is not true church history. In fact, the history of
the Baptist denomination is the history of decay. It is not the Baptist
denomination that has kept the perpetuity of the churches. It is the individual
local churches that have split off others which have decayed, that has
caused the perpetuity of the church.
From the American Baptist Convention came the Southern Baptist Convention.
From those two major denominations have come several other movements. For
example, Dr. Myron Cedarholm and Dr. Lee
Roberson did not come from the same denomination. Dr. Myron Cedarholm
was at one time in the American Baptist Convention. His father was a well
known American Baptist preacher, but when the American Baptists became
too liberal, the Conservative Baptists split off from them.
There is a group of fundamentalists today who split off from the Conservative
Baptist Convention. In the early 1960's the Conservative Baptist Association
deteriorated and split. Dr. Myron Cedarholm, Archer Weniger and a crowd
of older men, most of whom are now in Heaven, formed the Conservative Baptist
Fellowship, which came from their Conservative Baptist Association, which
came from the American Baptist Convention. They made a major mistake. They
pulled out doctrinally, but they did not pull out in relationship to church
government. They kept the old committee idea of running the church.
From the American Baptist Convention came another group called the General
Association of American Baptists. Robert Ketchum was the leader of that
group. They did the same thing. They pulled out doctrinally, but they did
not pull out as far as church organization was concerned, and that has
destroyed them.
The Baptist Bible Fellowship split from the Southern Baptist Convention.
The World Baptist Fellowship split from the Baptist Bible Fellowship, and
then recently split into something else. People sometimes wonder why there
are so many Baptists. That is the way the church has been kept alive. It
is not the main line denomination that has perpetuated the church. It is
the split that has perpetuated the church.
Revelation chapters two and three deal with seven letters written by
the Holy Spirit, dictated to John, and sent to seven different churches
in Asia Minor. In the Scofield Bible above verse eight of chapter two it
reads; The message to Smyrna. Period of the great persecutions, toA.D.
316. Above verse twelve it reads; The message to Pergamos. The church under
imperial favour, settled in the world, A.D. 316 to the end. Mr. Scofield
teaches that these seven churches represent seven periods of church history.
Mr. Scofield is wrong. There is not one single place in the Bible that
gives any inclination of this. These were seven churches which were located
in Asia Minor. I believe God gave us these churches in this order because
these churches are in different places on the line of decay. God used these
seven churches, to show us the decay of every movement.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy
first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent,
and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will
remove thy candlestick out of this place, except thou repent. But this
thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also
hate. Revelation 2:4-6
The word Nicolaitanescomes from two words Greek words -Nicao, which
means to conquer. and Laitans which is the word laity. It means to conquer
the laity. It is denominationalism. It is what happens when somebody outside
of the local church starts to run the local church. It is nobody's business
what a church does. When churches want to get together in fellowship, that
is fine, but when they get together to rule each other, that is not fine.
But, it is inevitable that when they get together to fellowship, they ultimately
will organize and become a denomination, and begin to control each other.
People say that Independent Baptists have no weights and balances, and
no way to check on their ministers. That is exactly right. Jesus established
the church and the church is to take care of its own business.
This church at Ephesus hated the doctrines of the Nicolaitanes. It was
an independent church. It hated denominational control. But, even though
it was independent, it left its first love and quit doing its first works.
Here we have an independent Baptist church that is not soul winning anymore.
That is the first step to decay. In the majority of independent Baptist
churches in America, soul winning is unpopular.
Many years ago I preached at Southern Baptist Convention meetings. I
have preached for many years at the Southwide Baptist Fellowship and Baptist
Bible Fellowship meetings. It is harder now to preach at the Independent
Baptist Conventions than it was thirty-five years ago at the Southern Baptist
Conventions. There is as much politics going on in some of these groups
as there is in the American Baptist Convention. They are independent, but
they are on their way down because they have quit their first love of soul
winning.
Give me a church that keeps on soul winning and I will give you a church
that will stay fairly straight on everything else. As long as you do what
you are supposed to do, you will believe what you are supposed to believe.
So, in the church at Ephesus we see the condition of independent Baptists
today.
And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith
the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; Fear none of those
things which thou shall suffer: behold, the Devil shall cast some of you
into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days:
be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Revelation
2:8, 10
The church at Smyrna shows us the second step of deterioration. The
church quits soul winning, and trials start to come. Satan tries to get
us wrapped up in those trials and quit soul winning. Independent Baptists
have become so enchanted with their trials and fighting their battles that
the main job is not being done. We have become issueoriented. Several years
ago, one of the biggest and best soul-winning churches in America got on
a "kick" concerning freedom for churches. I am for that, but you do not
need to have freedom for churches to win souls if you are not winning souls.
There is no reason for fighting something to exist that does not exist
anyway. This church got off of soul winning and is only a shadow of the
church it once was.
We must not get so wrapped up in battles that we become issue-oriented.
We must not enjoy these trials, because if we enjoy them, we will not want
them to end. We ought to enjoy most the obeying of the Great Commission.
And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; ...I know thy works,
and where thou dwellest, and even where Satan's seat is. Revelation 2:12a,
13a
That word Satanin the Greek is the word meaning throne. Where is Satan's
throne? He is the god of this world, soit is in the world. The church at
Pergamos was dwelling in the world. When you quit soul winning and get
wrapped up in other things, before you know it, you will lose your standards
and convictions.
John 15 says that God will purge those who bear fruit that they may
bring forth more fruit. Soul winners will become separated. Now, we have
in this nation the church at Pergamos.
Notice something else about the church at Pergamos in Revelation 2:15.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine oftheNicolaitanes, which
thing I hate. They embraced the doctrine of conquering the laity from without,
or denominationalism. Churches that quit soul winning get bound in denominationalism.
Churches that get issue-oriented become worldly. If you are not a soul
winner, you will have to get a denomination to help you grow and prop you
up. That is how denominationalism gets such a strangle-hold on churches.
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest
that woman Jezebel. . . . Revelation 2:20a
A bad woman in the Bible is a symbol of false religion. A goodwoman
is a symbol of the true bride of Christ. Jezebel represented ecumenicalism,
or a union of bad churches. The church at Thyatira represents the stage
of a movement when it turns to ecumenicalism. That is the next step in
the progression.
I saw a denomination deteriorate. The Southern Baptist Convention deteriorated
from being an evangelistic and separated group to being almost totally
ecumenical. Just because they elect a man to moderate who is a fundamentalist
does not mean that they are fundamental. Go to Southern Seminary and see
how fundamental they are. Go to Baylor University and see how fundamental
they are. Southern Baptist churches are now ordaining women preachers.
Many are just like the church at Thyatira.
The church at Ephesus quit soul winning. Smyrna became issueoriented
because of suffering. Pergamos became worldly. Thyatira became a false
church through ecumenicalism.
Next was Sardis which had a reputation of being alive but was actually
dead. We see that in the Charismatic movement in this country. They seem
to have life, but spiritually their people are dead.
The next church was at Philadelphia. Why was that church put between
the fifth and the seventh churches? Because the church at Philadelphia
was the good New Testament church. It was a small church. Why? Because
it represented the church that split off from the church that was one step
from becoming the Laodicean church. Before Laodicea comes is the time to
get out. That is why God did not put the church at Laodicea as the sixth
church. God placed the church at Philadelphia between numbers five and
six to show us that it was getting out time. Why getting-out time? Because
my family ought to go to a good church. But, it is more than that. It is
so we can have the perpetuity of New Testament churches.
If New Testament churches continue to exist on the face of the earth,
they will exist because something chips off as denominations deteriorate.
That is what has and will continue to happen.
If you do not take the first step down, you will never get to the bottom
step. Soul winning is the best preventive for decay you can have because
soul winning guarantees that you will remain separated.
There are some things going on in Baptist circles ,that most people
do not understand. There are things going on because God is purging in
order for the New Testament churches to be perpetuated. That happens in
every generation. Every generation has to define itself, and every generation
of Baptists has to be willing to stand alone.
The life of true churches is wrapped up in this willingness to split
when decay comes. Life is that way. As the human body begins to decay,
new babies are born, who come from the bodies of the adults. When the adults
decay and die, there is new life perpetuated on the earth. If no new life
comes from the old life, society will die. If no new life comes from the
old denomination, it will die.
Every movement that is perpetuated has to give life before that which
is decaying has completely decayed. Because of that, we have Independent
Baptists.
Chapter Four Where We Are in Fundamentalism
The Catholic church had what we call a Reformation. The Reformation
was when the Protestants (as we call them now) pulled out of Catholicism.
The Reformation was not a spiritual revival. We have the mistaken idea
that when Martin Luther pulled out of Catholicism there followed a great
spiritual awakening and revival. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In that day the church was associated with the state. Luther and Calvin
were both trying to start another state church. Martin Luther did not believe
in the separation of church and state. Neither did John Calvin.
Consider some facts about the Reformation.
1. The Reformation was not a spiritual revival.
2. It was not a return to the New Testament church. Basically, it was
a hatred for Catholicism. It was not started by
a desire to return to something, but by a desire to leave Catholicism.
In that day there were other groups besides the reformers. For example,
Zwingli's position was not the same as Calvin's, and Calvin's was not the
same as Luther's. In fact, for part of their lives they were bitter enemies
and never became close friends. They did have a common hatred for the Catholic
church and wanted to start another state church.
3. There was a third group of people in those days called the Anabaptists,
which means rebaptizers. The Justinian Code from which we get most of the
framework of our laws had a death penalty for rebaptizing people. That
was the law of the state because the state and the church were one. The
Anabaptists were hated by everybody. Zwingli hated them. So did Martin
Luther and John Calvin. They agreed even with the Catholics in their hatred
for the Anabaptists. Luther, Calvin and Zwingli all either consented to,
or encouraged the death and martyrdom of Anabaptists.
There were three groups of Anabaptists. I will not go into much detail
except to list and describe them briefly.
1. One group of Anabaptists believed in building a local church according
to the Word of God. The Anabaptists never believed in an invisible, universal
church. They always believed in the local church. In fact, that is the
one major thing that separated them, because Luther believed in the invisible
church as did Calvin, Zwingli, and the Catholics. This group was like our
Baptists are today. They believed the Word of God was the final authority,
and built their churches accordingly.
2. The second group was called the Pietists. They got their "word" from
within, in a message from Heaven, or 'a word of knowledge," if you please.
3. The third group of Anabaptists was so militant that they wanted to
take over the government and force everybody to be Anabaptists.
In every generation we have the same basic alignment of Christian people.
I want to show you the alignment of Christian people in our day. Why do
fundamentalists not get along? Why do we not agree on so many things? There
are different kinds of fundamentalists. The word fundamentalmeans a group
that returns to the original purpose. practice and doctrineofaninstitution.
I am going to take fundamentalism as we know it in America and show you
why it is divided.
There are three basic fundamental groups in America. There is an American
Baptist fundamentalism which came from the American Baptist Convention.
There is a Protestant fundamentalism which came from the Protestant churches
or denominations. It could also be called Reformation fundamentalism. Then,
there is a Southern Baptist fundamentalism of churches which came from
the Southern Baptist Convention. These are the three groups that form the
body of what we call fundamentalism today.
These have basic disagreements which have caused an invisible fence
to come between them. That invisible fence is becoming more visible all
the time. Let me show you what I mean.
I. American Baptist Fundamentalists
American Baptist fundamentalism comes from the old American Baptist
denomination which was the original Baptist denomination in America. It
was originally called the Northern Baptist Convention. There are two basic
groups of people in American Baptist fundamentalism. First, there is the
General Association of Regular Baptists, or GARB. They split off of the
American Baptist Convention and formed a group. Then, the Conservative
Baptist Association split off of the American Baptist Convention and formed
another group. Dr. Bob Ketchum was probably the most famous man in the
GARB. Dr. Myron Cedarholm was probably the best known man in the Conservative
Baptist Association. Both of these groups are splits from the Northern
Baptist, or American Baptist Convention. Let me tell you more about these
groups.
1. They were first basically a northern movement.
You will seldom find a GARB church in the south, and you will seldom
find a Conservative Baptist church in the south. Basically, these are northern
groups.
2. They pulled out mainly over doctrines. They did not leave many of
the practices of the American Baptist Convention. They did not change the
church government of the American Baptist Convention.
3. They are also more formal than the Southern Baptist fundamentalists,
or those who came from the Southern Baptist Convention.
4. They are more highly organized than the other fundamentalist groups.
II. Protestant Fundamentalism
Protestant fundamentalism is probably the most impressive of all fundamentalism.
These are the inter-denominational fundamentalists. They are Bible churches,
or IFCA (Independent Fundamental Churches of America). They are not Baptist
churches. They are Bible churches or have names like Church of the Open
Door, Central Church, Fellowship Church or something similar to that. These
are
not bad people. They are good Christian people. They believe the Bible,
but they came from the Protestant group, so they are Protestant fundamentalists.
That is why they usually believe in the invisible church. That is also
why they are not called Baptists. Let me tell you more about these Protestant
fundamentalists.
1. They look like Protestants, in the same way that Protestants look
like Catholics. If you go to a Lutheran church next Sunday, you will have
a hard time discerning whether it is Catholic or Lutheran. They are Protestant.
If you go to an Episcopalian church, you will have a hard time discerning
whether it is Catholic or Episcopalian. I am not being critical. I am being
factual. Lutheran preachers wear robes because they came out of Catholicism,
but did not change everything. Why does a Presbyterian sprinkle babies?
When they came out of Catholicism, that was not an issue. So they still
in some ways look like the mother.
2. They came from Reformation people.
3. From them we get the doctrine of the invisible church.
4. Basically, they are the result of the union revivals that were so
popular many years ago in America. Many churches would go together for
a revival campaign. From these revivals came people who were genuinely
born again, but did not know anything about Baptist churches, Baptist polity,
Baptist programs, or Baptist doctrine. These people started Bible churches,
or inter-denominational churches. They are good fundamental people. They
include men like H. A. Ironside, R. A. Torrey, Dwight L. Moody, and Bob
Jones. D. L. Moody was not a Baptist. He was a Congregationalist. Although
he was a great preacher, he never belonged to the New Testament church.
H. A. Ironside did not pastor a New Testament Baptist church. He pastored
a church that came from Protestantism. These men deserve our admiration.
They did not know anything else. They wanted something that was not Presbyterian,
Reformed, Methodist, Episcopalian, or Lutheran. They wanted something that
believed the Bible, so they came from their Protestant denominations and
started inter-denominationalism. They had a second Reformation.
5. This was largely a northern movement. They are a little more in the
south than the GARB or the Conservative Baptists, but basically it was
a northern movement.
6. It was also more formal. Individuals who came out of the Presbyterian
church to start independent churches would obviously be more formal than
those who came out of Baptist churches to start other Baptist churches.
7. These are good people, but they did not build New Testament churches.
New Testament churches must have pastors and deacons. They must believe
in New Testament doctrine. Billy Sunday did not belong to the New Testament
church because he belonged to a church that came from Protestantism. Billy
Sunday was a Protestant. The same fundamental people who supported Billy
Sunday's meetings went back to their formal services on Sunday mornings.
New Testament churches did not come from Catholicism. They came from Jesus
when He started the New Testament church Himself.
I am not criticizing these people, but they did not build New Testament
churches. They promoted the invisible church doctrine in addition to the
local church doctrine. The only group of people in the history of Christianity
that has promoted the local church doctrine has been Baptists.
III. Southern Baptist Fundamentalism
These are the groups that came out the Southern Baptist Convention.
There are some great leaders of Southern Baptist fundamentalism. I am talking
about men like J. Frank Norris, who started what is now the Baptist Bible
Fellowship; Dr. Lee Roberson, who was basically responsible for the Southwide
Baptist Fellowship; and Dr. G. B. Vick, who became famous by perpetuating
the ministry that Dr. Norris started.
1. This is where the action has been in fundamentalism. These people
are a part of the big circle of fundamentalism, but we have some basic
disagreements. There have been some invisible fences between us that are
now rising up and becoming more visible. We did not build those fences.
They started saying that we are shallow and too evangelistic. They started
accusing us of promoting easybelievism. We have no choice but to say that
they are wrong They criticize us because of our excitement and our informality.
The action in fundamentalism in this generation has come from Southern
Baptist fundamentalists, that is, those who left the Southern Baptist Convention
and those they have influenced.
2. The main issue of difference is on the matter of separation. The
GARB and the American Baptists divided basically over doctrine. When Dr.
J. Frank Norris pulled out of the Southern Baptist Convention, most Southern
Baptist preachers believed that the Bible was the Word of God. The Bible
was not issue in those days. It was an ecclesiastical issue, a type of
worship issue, and a separation issue. They pulled out over mixed bathing
being wrong. They pulled out over social drinking being wrong. They pulled
out over teaching evolution. They pulled out over matters of separation,
and matters of type worship.
Consequently, the hottest group in America over the last forty years
consists of those that pulled out of the Southern Baptist Convention.
That forms the entire circumference of what we call fundamentalism.
If you wonder why fundamentalists do not get along, it is because we are
not all the same type of fundamentalists. When some American Baptist fundamentalists
visit First Baptist Church in Hammond, they may think that we are too wild.
That is because they still have some American Baptist left in them. They
think we should have committees to run everything in the church. They are
fundamentalists in the sense that they became fed up with what they were
in, but, they did not come out totally. They rebelled only against the
things that irritated them.
* Pastor's School Fundamentalists *
Today, there is another group of fundamentalists quietly becoming the
largest group in the nation. I call this group the Pastors' School fundamentalists.
Without anybody planning or organizing a thing, God raised up the Pastors'
School at the First Baptist Church of Hammond. Its annual meeting is larger
than the Baptist Bible Fellowship annual convention. The Southwide Baptist
Fellowship does not have as many preachers as Pastors' School has every
year. Preachers from all over this country who want to do something for
God have come to a Pastors' School and have had their lives and ministries
transformed.
In addition to that, the First Baptist Church Youth Conference draws
the largest group of fundamental young people of any youth conference in
the nation. Other of these groups have copied and have not attracted a
fraction of the young people. Without any effort to organize, God has raised
up this movement.
Let me make several observations.
1. Groups one and two are very much alike. The American Baptist Fundamentalists
and the Protestant Fundamentalists are very similar to each other.
2. Group two provides most of the schools. Consider the schools which
came from group one. Cedarville, Maranatha, and Pillsbury are schools that
came from the group that came from the American Baptists. Now, consider
the schools that came from the Protest ant fundamentalists such as Wheaton,
Moody, Pensacola, and Bob Jones University. That is the group that has
been educating our Baptist preachers. I have nothing against a plumber,
a cabinet maker, a lawyer, an accountant, or a doctor being trained by
those schools, but I think a Baptist preacher ought to go to a Baptist
school. That is why so many Baptist preachers do not know Baptist doctrines.
Group three has allowed group two to train their preachers, and group two
has trained them to believe in the invisible church. Group three is not
the same as it used to be because we have gone to group two to get our
training for our preachers.
I have some very dear friends in groups one and two. I am not criticizing
them. I am merely giving you the history of the fundamentalist movement.
Consider the schools in group three. Baptist Bible College was probably
the best when it started. When Tennessee Temple came along, it was probably
the best. Today, Hyles-Anderson College is known to be the best school
for training Baptist preachers. I thank God for the new Baptist colleges
which are coming on the scene. Dr. Bob Gray has one in Longview, Texas.
Dr. Jim Vineyard has one in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I am glad for these
other Baptist colleges because I believe that group three must train its
own.
3. Another thing that has hurt group three is that group two has basically
provided all of the literature. When you provide somebody literature, you
have a tremendous influence on them. The AWANA Clubs are an example of
this. These were good clubs which came from group two. They ought to be
used in group two churches, but we have put them in our group three churches.
The AWANAS came from churches that were very formal and less evangelistic.
Most of the Christian school books come from Pensacola and Bob Jones.
They are good books. There is nothing wrong with them. I am just simply
showing you that the Protestant fundamentalists have provided most of the
literature for the Southern Baptist fundamentalists, yet the Southern Baptist
fundamentalists are the ones that have been red-hot. Why is that the case?
Because the guy that is redhot does not want to take time to write a commentary.
Most of the literature being used in the group three churches is being
provided by the people in group two. We simply are not providing our own.
4. There has always been an unseen wail that we have not allowed to
divide us. Those of us in group three have not said much about the more
formal services of group one and group two. But, in recent days, groups
one and two have begun attacking group three. As a result, those of us
in group three are going to need to defend those things which we believe
to be important. We must defend altar calls. We must defend the old-time
religion, because groups one and two are basically going back to their
origin of formal worship services. In order to preserve what we have had
through these years those of us in group three are going to have to stand
for what we have had. They are shooting at us, and we have no recourse
but to defend our position.
What about the new evangelicals? They are the soft part of each of the
three groups. They are compromising part of all three groups. The GARB
has deteriorated some. The deteriorated crowd are new evangelicals. The
CBA has deteriorated some. The deteriorated portion are the new evangelicals.
The Southern Baptists fundamentalists have deteriorated some, and they
have some new evangelicals.
When a church in group three calls a pastor from group one, there is
a catastrophe ahead. As long as we stay apart, we can get along. I happen
to think that we are as smart as they are. We have become such a melting
pot that the average church does not realize that there is a difference.
There are some good men in group one, but let them be good in their own
group. They are in their element. There are some good men in group two,
but they will teach our people that the local church is one church and
the invisible church is another. They also will have their formal worship
services. I am not against group two, but let them stay in group two. Let
us continue to be group three.
I am not going to spend my life fighting groups one and two because
I admire them in some ways. I will keep admiring them as long as they do
not try to influence group three, because group three is the hope of the
nation.
Chapter Five The Autonomy of the Church
The autonomy of a church means that a church is supposed to run by itself.
The word automobile means a car that is a self-running instrument or piece
of machinery. Likewise, the autonomous church means that the church is
supposed to be self-running.
But this thou hast, that thou ha test the deeds of the Nicolaitanes
which I also hate. Revelation 2:6
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes which
thing I hate. Revelation 2:15
The word Nicolaitanesis a word which means toconquer the laity. It is
referring to an outside force that takes control over a part of a New Testament
church. When a church ceases to be autonomous it forfeits the right to
call itself a New Testament church. It can still call itself a church because
the word church means assembly. A Catholic church can call itself a church,
but it is not a New Testament church. It is an assembly, but not the one
that Jesus started.
1. Each church is a self-operating entity. Each church is supposed to
be totally self-operating. It is not the business of any other church what
the First Baptist Church does. It is likewise not the business of the First
Baptist Church what any other church does. Every church is supposed to
be a self-operating entity.
There is no mention anywhere in the Bible of a denomination. Denominations
are man-made. Churches are God-made. If a church yields a part of her authority
to any external source, she ceases to be a New Testament church. A New
Testament church is self-operating or autonomous. Denominations have done
more to destroy the work of God than taverns have. In fact, it is tragic
how denominations destroy churches.
2. Each church is a self-operating entity and should stay that way.
Churches are destroyed because they lose their autonomy. The Southern Baptists
like to claim that they have 33,000 independent churches. That is not really
true. They voted me out because I would not support their colleges and
their cooperative program. Their churches are not independent; they are
under the control of the convention.
3. This is the only way a church can claim perpetuity. A church cannot
claim the promise of Matthew 16:16-18 unless it is a selfoperating entity.
Consequently, when a church ties itself to a denomination, it ties itself
to something that is dying, so life joins up with death. The denomination
destroys the life of the church, because life plus death equals death.
God never said, Upon this rock I will build my denomination and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. God did not say, Upon this rock I
will build my fellowship and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. He said, Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. The independent local church was promised
divine perpetuity.
4. When we unite, we lose that claim. When churches unite, the organization
becomes bigger than the church, so it ceases to be a church. It becomes
churches. Since they are united, they cannot claim divine perpetuity.
5. Let us not unite. When I was in the Southern Baptist Convention,
I often heard it said by denominational leaders, "Let's not split." The
Southwide Baptist Fellowship is saying the same thing now. The Baptist
Bible Fellowship is also saying it I would like to say, "Let's not unite."
I am not an isolationist, but if you do not unite, you do not have to worry
about splitting. In fact, every church ought to be its own split. It should
operate itself and run its own business without interference from other
churches.
6. Union brings death because when something that has been promised
life unites itself with something that
has not been promised life, it has attached itself to death and therefore
will die. I have been warning Baptist people across America for years about
the AWANA program. The AWANA is a inter-denominational program for children
that churches use. Because it is not Baptist, it is not right on some things.
I have warned Baptists about AWANA, not because I thought the AWANA Program
was bad, but because every organization like it is eventually going to
die because it is not operated by a church, which is the only organization
promised divine perpetuity. If we get attached to an organization like
that we will die with it.
A pastor went to a church and tried to stop the AWANA. The people threatened
to vote him out. They were more loyal to an outside organization than they
were to their own pastor. Every youth program ought to be local church
centered and operated. Every children's program ought to be local church
centered and operated. A local church should not allow an outside influence
as powerful as the AWANA inside the church because it will create loyalties
outside of the church. Churches all over this nation that have AWANA are
going to have one of three things happen to them.
1. They have a strong enough pastor to get it out of the church.
2. They are going have to have trouble in the church.
3. The pastor is going to have to compromise and stay with the AWANAS.
When living organizations join up with dying organizations, death enters
into the living organization.
For many years I had a high regard for the Gideons, but I was worried
about them because they were not affiliated with the local church. I spoke
at National Gideon Conventions in Canada and the United States. The day
came when I could no longer support the Gideons. One day in a motel room
I picked up a "Bible." It was not the King James Bible. They are now putting
out different kinds of "Bibles."
Let me explain what happens. A man from the Gideons comes to speak in
a church to raise money to help place Bibles in motels and schools across
America; then, that organization changes. While an organization is good,
we join up with it, but in so doing, we build the machinery for self-destruction.
The best philosophy is not to join up with that organization at all. The
local church should operate itself. People often ask me to print literature
for churches to use. I do not do it because some people would become more
loyal to me than to their local pastor. Then, if the pastor decided not
to use my literature, some people may follow me instead of him. The church
would no longer be autonomous. There is not one program at the First Baptist
Church of Hammond that subscribes churches to be a part of it. If somebody
wants to start a Phoster Club, they can start a Phoster Club and call it
anything they want. We do not tell them what to do, nor do we send a representative
to keep their club going. Union brings death. As the other thing dies,
the church dies as well. When churches unite and one church dies, it affects
all of the other churches.
7. Our mistake is that when we divide, we do not have enough sense to
stay divided. The split does not have enough sense to remain a split. Churches
often decide to leave a denomination, yet turn right around and unite with
another organization.
What should be the fellowship between churches?
1. No denomination.
2. No outside interference whatsoever.
Let me give you an idea of how it should be. I preached for a pastor
in Mocksville, North Carolina. The pastor sent out letters to other churches
announcing that I was going to be there, and inviting them to attend and
to bring some of their people. It was one church's meeting. All the churches
in the area did not get together. One church sponsored the meeting. The
pastor did not ask the other churches to do anything. Buses came from all
over the area, but nobody was blacklisted if they did not come, voted out
if they did not cooperate, or reprimanded if they did not bring their people.
That is God's plan. I am not suggesting that we should not cooperate, but
that we should not unite.
Tragically, when we divide, we often do not have enough sense to stay
divided. When we split we do not have enough sense to stay split. We want
to start something else. That something else is a uniting in a fellowship
of churches, and the minute it starts, death sets in, because human organizations
start off dying. The church, however, can always stand. Churches die because
they unite.
8. We unite not realizing that we are uniting. Let me show several ways
churches unite without realizing that they are uniting.
(1) Ministerial groups. I am referring to fundamental
ministerial groups, not liberal ministerial associations. There is a
city in this nation where a group of fundamental preachers organized a
fundamental ministerial group. That sounds good. It is not a sin. There
are groups like that all over the country, so what is wrong with these
groups? Before long, they elect a chairman who is over the ministerial
group. That means that he has been given a title above the title of pastor.
There is a group like this that I used to preach for every year.
Several years ago, in the midst of the attacks against me, one of the
preachers in that group turned against me. I contend that he has a right
not to be for me. But, what happened? Many of my friends blacklisted him.
Even though I felt he was wrong in the position he had taken against me,
they had taken away his freedom. They did to him what the Southern Baptist
Convention does to churches.
It is not slavery we are against, it is our being enslaved we are against.
We do not mind being the boss. We do not want to be in Egypt under Pharaoh.
We want to go out into the wilderness, reorganize, and become a Pharaoh
ourselves. There is nothing sinful about a fundamental ministerial group.
In itself, it is not bad, but it creates the machinery for decay in the
future.
(2) Union meetings. There are fundamental churches that get together
every year and conduct a joint, area-wide revival meeting. I have had preachers
criticize other men because they decided not to cooperate with those meetings
any more. They call him a loner and say he is uncooperative. That is the
same thing the Southern Baptists did to me. A preacher has a perfect right
not to cooperate. This is what causes churches to die. We ought to work
with each other, but we ought to work in a way which maintains our independence
from each other. For example, our Pastors" School is like a cafeteria.
A preacher can take what he wants and leave the rest. It is our own meeting,
and nobody is blacklisted if he chooses not to come. We are supposed to
cooperate with each other when a local church has an endeavor, if we so
choose; but it is always unwise to build a canopy over all of us.
(3) Joint schools. All across America there are schools that are started
by groups of churches. Church-schools ought to be started by a church.
If ten churches start a school, the standards of that school will only
be as strong as the weakest of those ten churches. Eventually, the pastor
of the weakest church may be elected as president of the school board.
One church should start a school and if other pastors want to send their
students they may, but if they choose another school, that is perfectly
acceptable. The inter-denominational, cooperative schools do not remain
useful nearly as long as church operated schools.
First Baptist Church operates Hammond Baptist Schools. First Baptist
Church owns Hammond Baptist Schools. It is on our property, we have our
own principals and teachers, we operate it, and we have our own board.
Other Baptist churches send us students every year, but it is not those
churches' business how Hammond Baptist Schools are operated. We operate
it like we think God wants it operated. If they like that, they can come,
but if they do not like that, they can send their students elsewhere. If
a group of preachers start a school, the standards will deteriorate quickly.
God's plan is the local church.
(4) Self accreditation. Across America many states require that church-schools
be accredited. The state says we must have our schools accredited, yet
many preachers have refused to allow the state to accredit their schools.
In some cases the state has come back with a suggestion of a compromise.
They said that we could set up our own accreditation board and accredit
our own schools. They are basically saying that we must answer to somebody.
We are not to answer to anybody outside of the local church! There is no
divine institution above the local church!
Churches get together and set up a fundamental accrediting association.
It sounds good, but it is machinery that will deteriorate and someday become
just like the accrediting association they could not cooperate with in
the first place. It is not just the accreditation by the North Central
Association that is wrong. It is wrong when any church accredits another
church. Nobody has a right to inspect the local church outside the local
church. Any accreditation leads to death. The only difference between bad
accreditation and good accreditation is how much longer you are going to
live before you die.
(5) Literature. I do not want to determine what is taught at another
Baptist church. I want their pastor to decide. It is not my business what
another church teaches. I could have literature going
out from First Baptist Church of Hammond to thousands of churches all
across America. Preachers beg me to publish materials that they could use
in their churches. I do not feel that it is the right thing to do. I do
not mind them using my materials for ideas to create their own, but I do
not want their churches to become more loyal to me than they are their
own pastor.
There was a day you could trust some publishing houses. Many were fine
as long as they were doctrinally correct, but they have deteriorated and
taken some of their loyal churches with them. Nothing causes the decay
of a denomination as much as its literature.
Many years ago, when I was a Southern Baptist, we had study courses
which met five nights a week. We would study from a book put out by the
Southern Baptist Convention's Broadman Press. Diplomas were given out when
a person finished one of the courses. One day, I decided to teach one of
the lessons straight from the Bible without using their study books. At
the completion of the course, I wrote and asked them to send me the diplomas.
They wrote back and asked me what materials I had used. I wrote them back
and informed them that I had used the Bible. They wrote back to let me
know that they would not send me the diplomas because we did not use Baptist
literature materials. That was the last time I used their materials.
The preacher should decide what materials are used in the church, or
he should write the Sunday school lessons. Let the church decide what is
taught. There is nothing wrong with having outside literature, but you
are subscribing yourself to something that will change you when it dies.
Every church in America needs to stop and realize that the Nicolaitanes
doctrine is creeping in. While we say we are independent and autonomous,
we yoke up with death and do not know it.
(6) Fellowships. Every year at Pastors' School people ask me to start
a fellowship. Fellowship means that we get together to enjoy each other
with no strings attached. We do not need any more organizations. Dr. Jack
Trieber in southern California has a Pastors' School every year. Anybody
who wants to can attend. It is his Pastors' School, so he ought to operate
it without the interference of an organization. I do not tell him how to
run his Pastors' School. If he wants to ask my advice, I will give it to
him, but it is his Pastors' School.
(7) Missionaries. The Southern Baptist Convention calls it their cooperative
program. Southern Baptist churches do not individually decide which missionaries
they will support. The church sends money to the Cooperative Program. Much
of that money goes to operate their neo-evangelical and liberal schools,
but they do not advertise that. They put missions out as the bait.
What is God's plan? When a man decides to go to the mission field, he
should go to New Testament churches and preach, and let the churches individually
decide whether or not to support him. That is the New Testament plan. The
Southern Baptist Convention told me that I had to support the cooperative
program or I would get my walking papers. I took my walking papers. They
told me to support their schools or not be a Southern Baptist. I would
not give a dime to a school that does not believe that the Bible is the
Word of God.
(8) A group gets together to start churches. The problem is that the
group will want to control the churches they start. There is nothing wrong
with a church controlling the start of a church until it becomes a church
as long as they are answerable to a church, and not to a group. Otherwise,
you have the framework of death.
What is the danger?
1. An organization is placed above the church. A preacher in Texas used
to say that there is as much Scripture for having a tavern as there is
for having a denomination. The problem with a denomination is that you
end up with a district superintendent who is above the preacher. Nobody
is supposed to be above the office of pastor. That is the highest office
in the Bible.
2. Teaching from without the church is deadly. Much of the wrong doctrine
that infiltrates our churches comes from these types of unions that never
should have happened in the first place.
3. An office is established which is above the pastor.
Unfortunately, these in the position of helping the pastor eventually
become a power trying to tell the pastor what he can or cannot do.
4. They are formed because of the lack of faith. Union is always caused
by the deterioration of faith. The centralization of power is caused by
the deterioration of faith. The reason a group of farmers form a co-op
is in case God does not send rain. This is a substitute god. America got
along pretty well before there were any co-ops, and before everybody got
together so much.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was a great leader, but he caused America to become
a united movement by starting various co-op programs. The Bible says that
God will supply all our needs according to His riches. So, why do we need
a denomination? I will tell you exactly why. We lose some of our faith
in God.
What more could we want than, Lo, I am with you alway, or, For where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst
of them, or, upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
My heart aches for what has happened to churches across this nation.
Many churches that call themselves Independent Baptists are not really
Independent Baptists.
When Dr. Ironside was the pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, he
decided to form a group of men to run the business of the church. He basically
turned the leadership of the church over to that group of men and decided
that he would just do the preaching. It worked beautifully because these
men loved him, and wanted to please him, but when he died, he had created
the machinery for the destruction of their soul-winning program. What happened?
A good pastor and some good men set up some bad machinery that worked as
long as they were alive, but self-destructed when they died.
Chapter Six A Church Losing Its Independence and Not Knowing
It
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light
with darkness ?And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath
he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of
God with idols ?for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said,
I will dwell in them, and walk in them: and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith
the Lord Almighty. II Corinthians 6:14-18
You do not have to come out from among them if you never were a part
of them. If you do not go in, you do not have to come out. That is a great
statement. More great soul-winning fundamental churches have fallen by
the wayside in the last twenty years as a result of what I am going to
cover in this chapter than over any other reason. These were good churches
that did not intend to become liberal, but they became useless because
they lost their independence and did not know it.
Most fundamental churches do not go liberal first. They go useless first.
Once they go useless they have to find some reason to explain their uselessness.
They end up explaining that growing churches and soul-winning churches
are shallow. Then, they become new evangelical and eventually change their
doctrine and become liberal. The first step is the step to uselessness.
Let me explain to you exactly how this happens.
1. We unite for a good cause. Liberals want to join up with a fundamentalist,
because a liberal wants the fire from the fundamentalist. A liberal can
not start a fire, nor keep one going unless somebody else starts it. So,
he wants all the fundamentalists that he can get. That is one reason why
they have lured Billy Graham through these years. They do not have any
fire of their own, so they need somebody who still believes the Bible to
join their camp to help them.
The fundamental preacher has conviction, so he will not join with a
liberal. When I was a young preacher, there basically were no new evangelicals.
There were liberals and there were Bible believers. When I was a young
preacher, you could not find a Southern Baptist preacher who did not believe
the Bible. Last year the Southern Baptist Convention voted by a small margin
to have a Bible believer as its president. When I was a young man, you
would not have gotten 2% of the people to vote for a man who did not believe
the Bible.
No fundamentalist ought to join up with a liberal. The Bible says, "Be
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." That does not give any
specifics as to what not to link up with an unbeliever to do. It does not
say not to be religiously unequally yoked together with unbelievers. It
does not say not to be politically unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
It simply says, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers."
That includes any type of cause.
The Devil is not finished. He will continue trying to get a fundamentalist
yoked up with a liberal, because he wants to destroy the testimony of fundamentalism
in America. The Devil knows that if he can get the fundamentalist yoked
up to the liberals that this country is gone. So, the Devil invented something
else.
When I was a young preacher, a new kind of person came on the scene
known as the neo-orthodox. A neo-orthodox is someone who believes the liberalism,
but talks like a fundamentalist. He says he believes the Bible, but he
does not mean it in the same way we do. He believes the Bible is inspired
like Shakespeare is inspired. The Devil is trying to get the fundamentalist
and the liberal to join together, so he finds somebody who talks like a
fundamentalist eto deceive many fundamental people.
A preacher says he believes the Bible is a good book and that parts
of it are inspired. He does not believe what we believe. These neoorthodox
people talk well, but the Devil uses them to get the fundamentalist to
join up with the liberals, by putting them in between.
Most fundamentalists did not fall for this trick, so the Devil decided
to take it a step further. He brought someone else into the picture, called
the new evangelical. That is the new neo-orthodox. The neo-orthodox believes
like the liberal, but talks like the fundamentalists. The new evangelical
believes like the fundamentalist, but talks like the liberal. He does not
want to associate himself with the old hell-fire and brimstone crowd.
I was watching an interview with a Nashville leader one day who said,
"I am a born-again Christian. Now, of course I am not a fundamentalist.
I am an evangelical." He did not want to associate himself with the fundamental
crowd. He wants the have the popularity of the liberals and believe like
the fundamentalists. The evangelicals do not want the stigma of the old-time
religion. They do not want the stigma of an altar call. They do not want
the stigma of hell-fire and brimstone preaching. The evangelicals would
rather associate with liberals than with fundamentalists, because they
are more concerned with how sweet you are, than how right you are.
Most of us did not fall for that, but the Devil was still not through.
He finally knocked a home run. He brought in a political campaign. The
fundamentalists fell for it and joined up with the new evangelicals. That
has destroyed more churches than any single thing in this generation. What
the liberal could not do, the neo-orthodox could not do, and the new evangelical
could not do, the political campaigns did.
I was invited to a meeting of about twenty-five leaders in America.
One stood and said, "Gentlemen, it is time that God's people decided to
take over the politics in America. We are going to organize and take over
the precincts of America and the Republican Party."
That sounded good. It would sound good to anybody if you do not stop
and consider what II Corinthians 6:14 says. At first I was all for it.
Later, we were sitting around the table talking. The man beside me had
a tremendous personality. He had charisma and I was really impressed with
him. I was just like a fish ready to bite. I said, "By the way, what church
do you pastor?"
He said, "I do not pastor any church."
I said, "Well, what ministry do you lead?"
He said, ''I am the director of the denomination.''
It was a group that believes you must get baptized in order to get saved.
I was about to join in a campaign to save America by yoking up with a man
who was a leader of a false doctrine. This is exactly what has happened
to churches all over this nation.
What the liberal could not do, the neo-orthodox could not do, and
the new evangelical could not do, the gay rights issue has done. Preachers
have linked up with others who are liberal in their doctrinal beliefs,
but who are like minded in their views on gay-rights. The same thing has
happened with the abortion issue. I hate abortion, but I wonder how many
churches in America that once were great soul-winning churches have lost
their zeal for the lost because they got wrapped up in the gay rights,
or abortion issue. Those issues have joined the fundamentalist with the
liberal when nothing else in this world could do it. I have seen this happen
over and over again.
We worry that our churches are going to lose their freedom and that
we will be forced to get our Sunday schools licensed. We fear that they
will take away our freedom and force us to have a license to preach. So,
we join up with the liberals to fight for freedom. We ought to fight for
our freedom, but we ought not to join up with the Devil to fight for our
freedom. It is wrong to join up with a group of people who think that Jesus
Christ is the illegitimate child of an adulteress, and who make fun of
our Bible, our Christ, the Virgin birth and everything that is decent and
sacred.
We have destroyed fundamentalism in our generation because of these
good things that brought us together when nothing else could. The same
is true about the issue of the separation of church and state. A group
of fundamental Baptists and others joined with false teachers to have big
rallies, because both were being persecuted by the government. Some of
my good friends went to those meetings. They asked me to speak in Washington,
DC at one big rally. When I found out who was involved, I refused.
My Bible still says that we are not to be unequally yoked together with
unbelievers. Not doing so is destroying many of our churches in America.
2. We unite for a good cause; then we discover that we differ on more
important things than those about which we agreed. The man in early American
history who did more to make it possible to have our religious freedom
was James Madison. He was the man who stood, not just for separation of
church and state, but who also said that the church should stay out of
the state's business and the state should stay out of the church's business.
He compared it to two kingdoms, like Canada and the United States. Here
is what happened.
George Washington, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson joined this campaign
and won for us our freedom. When they were through, they found that they
differed on issues which were more important than the issues which had
united them. Let me illustrate. In the Bible days, the Sadducees did not
believe in the resurrection from the dead. The Pharisees did. Paul was
hated by both. The Sadducees and the Pharisees got together on a common
cause, which was their hatred for Paul. That is what is happening in America.
Many years ago a couple visited one service at the First Baptist Church,
and I preached against Communism. They belonged to the John Birch Society.
They joined the church because we hated Communism as much as the John Birch
Society did. That is not a good reason to join the church. You should join
a church because it believes the Bible. You should join a church because
it hates sin. You should join a church because it hates all sins, not just
Communism. You should join a church because it believes that every word
in the Bible is the Word of God. Watch out for one-issue churches, and
watch out for one-issue people.
The Bible says, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble
themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;
then will hear from heaven, and willforgive their sin, and will heal their
land. The way you save a nation is not for God's people to get involved
in politics, but to get involved in prayer and repentance.
Fundamentalists had never before been big shots. We got invited to a
Presidential Prayer Breakfast, where fundamental preachers joined with
Jews who believe that Mary was an adulteress and Jesus was an illegitimate
child, Catholic Priests who do not believe anything, and compromising members
of the National Council of Churches. We became big shots and got our pictures
in the paper. What happened? Churches all over America got wrapped up in
trying to save America man's way instead of God's way. We lost our churches
by the hundreds.
I know of Hyles-Anderson College graduates who became wrapped up in
secondary matters. If we are supposed to come out from among them, would
it not be wisest not to even go in among them?
The Bible tells us not to be yoked up with some things. We are not to
be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. We are not to be unequally
yoked together with worldly denominations. We are not to be unequally yoked
together with darkness or sin. We are not to be unequally yoked together
with infidels. We are not to be unequally yoked together with unfaithful
people. We are not to be unequally yoked together with idols. Once you
have started, there is no stopping.
I received a copy of the program for a film festival program being held
on the campus of a Christian college which was started by a fundamental
church just one year before we started Hyles-Anderson College. They were
promoting Hollywood films on the campus of this Christian college. I spent
a day in Atlanta, Georgia, begging the founder of this college not to run
with the wrong crowd. I have preached against Hollywood my entire ministry,
and I do not intend to stop. That shows you how quickly a college can change.
It started with their affiliation with the world through political campaigns.
Years ago, I was preaching in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Two fine-looking
young men walked in the back. After the service they asked if they could
drive me to the airport. One of those young men was the founder of that
school, and the pastor of a church. He invited me to come to his church
and to give him advice on how to build a great church. I went to his church
and helped him organize his Sunday school. I helped him organize his bus
ministry. He came to Pastors' School, and brought his staff with him. He
built a great soul-winning church. How did he get to the point of allowing
a Hollywood film festival to be held on his college campus?
He decided to join hands with the politicians, who join hands with the
new evangelicals, who join hands with the neo-orthodox, who join hands
with the liberals. When you start speaking well of new evangelicals, you
are in trouble. If young people go to a Christian college to see these
movies, they are going to learn these actors and eventually go to the local
theaters to see R-rated movies.
I am determined to keep soul winning as the main thing at HylesAnderson
College. America must have some old-fashioned rock-ribbed fundamental colleges.
That is one reason why the gates of Hell have not prevailed against
the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. We preach against every sin
known to man. We teach the Bible, warn people, exhort, preach the word,
go soul winning, try to get people right with God, get folks to pray and
to believe in the Bible. It is not a one-issue church, and Christianity
is not a one-issue faith.
Literally hundreds of churches have died because the Devil has succeeded
in getting the liberal joined up with the fundamentalist. He could not
get the fundamentalist to do it, so he introduced the neoorthodox, who
believes like the liberal, but talks like the fundamentalist. Then he introduced
the new evangelical who believes like the fundamentalist, but talks like
the liberal. Finally, he introduced one big issue that every decent person
hates, and started a big campaign. That one issue did what the others could
not do. It broke down the wall between fundamentalists and the liberals.
Chapter Seven Where Most False Churches Lost Their Charter
or Franchise
After these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having
great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily
with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and
is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit,
and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk
of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth
have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are
waxed rich to the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice
from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers
of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Revelation 18:1-4
The church is a family. I do not mean all Christians, but the local
body of believers like First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, is a family.
Do not forget that. I will come back to that thought at the end of this
chapter.
Most churches are really not churches. A church must earn the right
and qualify to be called a real church. Most Baptist churches are not churches.
In fact, there are very few real churches. I will go a step further. Many
of the churches in America called First Baptist Church have lost their
franchise and are no longer churches.
1. A charter or the right to be called a church can be lost. A local
church is like a franchise. God gives us the right to be called a church.
Certain conditions must be met in order for a McDonald's restaurant to
be allowed to keep the McDonald's sign over its building. Certain conditions
also must be met in order to keep the Kentucky Fried Chicken sign over
a building. If those conditions are not met, the right to be called McDonald's
or Kentucky Fried Chicken will be lost. It is possible for a group of people
who once were a church to cease being a church in God's eyes.
The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and
the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven
churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
Revelation 1:20
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy
first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent,
and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will
remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Revelation
2:4, 5
God told the church at Ephesus to straighten up or they would not be
a church anymore. They might still meet and have church services, but God
threatened that they would lose their franchise or charter. In other words,
they would no longer be a church.
There is something that a church can do to cease being a church in the
sight of God. In verse five we see what exactly that it was that caused
them to be on probation with God as a church. Remember therefore from whence
thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works. What are the first
works God gave the New Testament church to do? Jesus was going back to
Heaven, and was on the mount. He met with the disciples and He gave them
the first command.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever Ihave commanded you: and, lo, I am with you aiway,
even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:19, 20
The first command to the New Testament church was soul winning. God
was telling the church at Ephesus that if they continued not being a soul-winning
church that they would no longer be a church, and would lose their franchise.
I was talking to a preacher one day about soul winning. We were preaching
on the same program, and after the meeting was over he said to me, "It
was good to have such a blend on this program. Your church is a soul-winning
church, and my church is more of a Bible teaching church rather than a
soul-winning church. It was nice to have two different types of churches
represented here in this meeting?"
I said, "We do not have two types of churches represented on this program.
Yours is not a church."
He said "Why?"
I took him to Revelation chapter two and showed him what God said to
the church at Ephesus. The truth is, a church that is not a soulwinning
church is not qualified to be called a church.
There are literally thousands of churches in this nation that at one
time were soul-winning churches, but they became enchanted with the so
called "deeper-life" movement, and are no longer winning souls. A church
that is not a soulwinning church is not a church. It can call itself a
church all it wants, but God says it has lost its candlestick, or charter.
2. Often the charter is lost because the church is not coming out of
this world. Most churches cease to be churches or lose their charter, because
they did not come out of the world. That usually happens before they quit
soul winning.
3. So to be coming out is as much a requirement of being a New Testament
church as assembling. You must assemble to be a church, but there is more.
You must be called out of something in order to be a church as well.
The word church is the word ekldesia. ek means out of and Idesis means
called. The word ekldesia means called-outassembly. It is not just an assembly.
It is a called-out assembly. The word paneguras in the Greek meaning assembly.
The word ekklesia is not just an assembly. It is leaving a larger assembly
and going to a smaller assembly.
This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel
which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received
the lively oracles to give unto us: Acts 7:38
This was referring to Moses. The church was in the wilderness. The Israelites
could have assembled in Egypt and not have been called a church. If all
of the Jews had come together and met somewhere in Egypt, they would not
have been a church. They would have been an assembly, but they would not
have been a called-out assembly. God told Moses to lead the people out
of Egypt. Moses went to Pharaoh and said, "Let my people go."
Pharaoh refused, so God sent the plagues.
Finally Pharaoh said, "Stay here in Egypt and sacrifice to your God."
Moses said, "No, we cannot do that."
Pharaoh said, "Then, do not go very far."
Moses said, "We are going to go as far as we are supposed to go."
He said, "Then do not take your wives and your children."
Moses said, "Not one hoof of one animal is going be left here."
If they had assembled in Egypt they would not have been called a church,
because the word church is a called-out assembly. That shows us two things.
1. A church assembled in the world is not a church.
That is why many charismatic churches are not churches. They live like
the world. They are assembled in the world. They dress like the world,
talk like the world, sing like the world, wiggle like the world while they
are singing, and use the beat of the world in their music. They are in
the world. You are not a church unless you come out of the world and assemble.
2. A church that brings the world out with it is not
a church. A church must leave the world. It means that a church must
leave the world's music, the world's dress, the world's lingo, the world's
fun, and the world's pleasures. These unseparated churches and their preachers
like to say that being a Christian does not make you a "dud." It does to
the world. We are not to bring with us the values and activities of the
world.
A man came to my office one time and said to me, "Dr. Hyles, I have
a plan that will save America."
I said, "Let me hear it."
He said, "I am going to go to Hollywood and become a movie star. I am
going to become the idol of the American people and a hero to the young
people. At the peak of my success I am going to announce that I am a born-again
Christian and that I want all my fans to become born-again Christians too.
All America would get saved."
My Bible says that even if one would rise from the dead, they would
not believe. That is not God's plan. Too many big churches today are popular
because they give some Bible and allow the people to stay in the world.
They are not really churches because you must come out of the world in
order to be a church. The out of part is just as important to being a New
Testament church as the assembly part.
It is not an assembly in the world. It is a called-out assembly. so
to be coming out is as much a requirement as being an assembly in order
to be a New Testament church.
No group of people have a right to call themselves a church if they
are not out of the world. People sometimes get a little upset with the
rules at First Baptist Church and transfer their membership to other churches.
Actually, they often transfer their membership to a Baptist country club.
People will hide behind different facades, but the real reason is our soul
winning and separation.
From what are we supposed to come?
1. Out of the world.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. I John 2:15
John 17:6 tells us that we are to come out of the world. Many years
ago I had a young college football player come to my church in Texas and
preach. He was a good fundamental preacher, but he decided to play professional
football. They had a chapel service for about fifteen minutes before each
game and called it "church." That is not church. This man said to me, "I
can become an All-pro football player, and God will use that." God does
not need our athletic talent or physical strength. God does not need our
beauty. God needs us to give Him our lives, but He also demands that we
come out of the world.
2. Out of the Catholic church.
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and
talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the
judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the
kings of the earth have committed fornication... Revelation 17:1, 2a
A whore in the Bible is a symbol of false religion. The tower of Babel
was an effort for man to work his way to Heaven. False religion started
under Nimrod, and was the beginning of what would become the Catholic church.
The word waters in the Bible often symbolizes nations. The word Catholic
means universal.
The Bible tells us that this whore wanted to commit fornication with
the kings of the earth. That means that whatever church this is referring
to is a proponent of not separating church and state. She wants to control
the state. If you go to South America, you will discover that the Catholic
church controls the government. Go to Italy and you will find the same
thing. In fact, in any nation where the Catholic church is strongest, you
will find the union of church and state.
And the woman wasarrayed inpurple and scarlet colour, and decked with
gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full
of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. Revelation 17:4
Go to the Vatican City, and you will see this right before your eyes.
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs
of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. Revelation
17:5, 6
The Catholic church has probably killed more people than all the wicked
kings in the world put together.
And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains,
on which the woman sitteth. Revelation 17:9.
Rome is the City of Seven Hills. This is a church that is the union
of church and state. It is a church that is wealthy. It is a church that
is all over the world or universal. It is a church that is headquartered
in the city of Rome.
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people.
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not her plagues.
Revelation 18:4
I am weary of television evangelists interviewing Catholic priests on
their telecasts. It is of the Devil. The Bible says to come out of the
Catholic church.
3. Out of Protestant churches.
The whore has a bunch of harlots for daughters. At the Reformation a
bunch of little harlot denominations came out of the whore. Who are they?
Methodism. Presbyterianism. Episcopalianism. Lutheranism. No church is
a church that came out of the mother of harlots. The New Testament church
came from Jesus Christ Himself. I dare you to find a person that can prove
that Baptists came from the Catholic church. We did not. Protestant churches
are not churches. For one thing, they do not baptize. How can a church
be a church if it disobeys the second thing that Jesus told it to do which
was to baptizing converts in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Ghost!
I was preaching in Minnesota on a Monday and Tuesday, and I went to
the restaurant next to the motel for breakfast. I got a newspaper, and
in the headlines it read, Catholics and Lutherans join together. That is
one of the daughters coming back home to mama. Eventually all of the babies
will come back home. They are already coming back. The National Council
of Churches is basically a reunion of the children with their mother.
4. Come out of liberal and worldly churches.
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light
with darkness? II Corinthians 6:14
The word unequally is an interesting word. It comes from two words which
means couplingoruniting somethingtogether which isa different sort. God
is saying not to be unequally, or coupled up with a different type, or
in other words, do not be yoked up with unbelievers.
(1) In II Corinthians 6:15, the Bible says not to be coupled with an
infidel. An unbeliever is somebody who is not saved. An infidel is somebody
who is not faithful to Jesus and to the Bible. Do not be yoked up with
unsaved people. Do not be yoked up with denominations that do not think
that Jesus is the son of God, and the Bible is the Word of God. It does
not mean to hate them. If they get hungry we should feed them. If they
are cold, we should clothe them, but we are not to yoke up with them in
the Lord's work. We must not be yoked up with people who are unbelievers.
We must not be yoked up with people who are infidels.
(2) In II Corinthians 6:16, the Bible says not to be coupled up with
idols. The word idol means the likenessof God. We are not to be yoked up
with people that have likenesses of God. We are not to have any likeness
of God and Jesus is God.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a
Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty. II Corinthians 6:17-18
At the beginning of this chapter I brought out the fact that the church
is like a family. God the father said, "I will be like a daddy to you,
if you will come out from among them."
From what?
The world.
From what?
The Catholic church.
From what?
The National Council of Churches.
Among what?
Protestant churches.
Among what?
Liberal churches.
Among what?
The Hollywood crowd.
Among what?
The Charismatic crowd.
God said that if we will do that, that He will come to our house. That
is why they call the church God's house, because the Father is there. He
said that if you do not come out, you are not a church and He will not
be like a father to somebody who has not come out.
A small child from a Catholic family came to the First Baptist Church
one Sunday morning. After church the child went back home and the child's
mother asked, "Did you go to God's house this morning?
The child said, "Yes, I went to God's house, and God was home this morning."
The local priest went to their house and warned them about sending their
children to First Baptist Church. The mother was scared, so she sent the
child back to the Catholic church the next Sunday. When the child came
home, she asked again, "Did you go to God's house today?"
The child said, "Yes, but God wasn't home today."
That child was right, because God said that we must come out from among
them before He would be our father. All across this nation Baptist churches
are losing their charters. They do not believe in soul winning any more.
Something else has happened, too. The Holy Spirit came and took their charter
away. There were signs on the front, but God does not see those signs.
They are not listed on Heaven's directory of churches.
Chapter Eight The Church As a Family
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man
was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. And
there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance
also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred
yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so
that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. And his sons
went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called
for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when
the days of their feasting was gone about, that Job sent and sanctified
them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings according
to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned,
and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Job 1:1-5
God chose a family in the patriarchal age, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
to use as an example of a typical Jewish family. They knew that some day
God would provide a sacrifice, and they looked forward and trusted in that
future sacrifice in the same way that we look back and trust in that past
sacrifice. With that in mind, follow this logic.
The New Testament church is supposed to be a family. I often say at
the beginning of a service at the First Baptist Church, "Welcome to our
thrice weekly family reunion." Every Sunday morning and Sunday night we
have another family reunion. That is a scriptural term because it is in
keeping with the fact that the church is a family.
1. The book of Job is a perfect example of the Old Testament family.
2. The book of Job is a perfect example of the Old
Testament church. There was an Old Testament church. The word church
means, a called-out assembly. In the seventh chapter of Acts, the Israelites
were called out to assemble in the wilderness and were called the church
in the wilderness. The New Testament church was not founded in the Old
Testament, but there was an Old Testament assembly. That Old Testament
assembly was the family. I am not referring to the little unit, of mom,
dad, and the children. I am referring to an extended family that included
grandparents, great-grandparents, as well as mom, dad and, children. The
church unit of the Old Testament was the family.
When Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, there were three things involved
in that birthright, including the right to the priesthood of the family.
The worship or public gathering of the Old Testament was the family.
3. Notice what size these families were.
Job had ten children, which in those days was really not that large
of a family, but I will use it as the average size of a family.
If each of Job's children had ten children, there would have been a
total of one hundred.
If each of them had ten children, there would have been one thousand.
If each of them had ten children, there would have been ten thousand.
If each of them had ten children, there would have been one hundred
thousand.
That is five generations. A Bible generation is usually considered to
be thirty-five years. Five generations would have been 175. In 175 years
there would have been 111,111 people in that extended family. In the Old
Testament patriarchal days, a man who died at 175 was just a boy. The average
man lived much longer than that. For this example we will assume that everybody
died at 175 years of age. That means that each family consisted of over
100,000 people. I am referring to the extended family.
Each of these families formed the Old Testament unit of a church or
a called-out assembly. They were the worship unit. They assembled for sacrifices
and worship to God.
4. The oldest or firstborn son was in charge. The other firstborn sons
in all the individual family units assisted him. In each
family the oldest son held the priestly rights in his own family.
5. Soul winning was within the family. Cities were not popular in those
days. Most people lived in the country. A family of 100,000 people covered
a large amount of land. Many of the children were not going to believe.
Soul winning was to be within the family. They had plenty of prospects.
One family could have been larger than the city of Hammond, Indiana. They
had no cars or buses, so they had to walk or go on a beast of burden to
get to each other. They would explain to the family members who did not
believe that one day God was going to send a sacrifice, and that sacrifice
was going to pay the penalty for their sins. The lambs, bullocks, turtledoves,
pigeons, doves and goats were offered according to God's sacrifice. God
one day would provide Himself as a sacrifice.
God told them audibly that by faith Abel believed, and they passed this
story down from generation to generation. Every person had to believe in
the coming Messiah to be saved, just as we must believe in the Messiah
Who has already come. Somebody had to tell them these things, but there
were some who would not listen. Some people would not even come to the
assembly, just as we have family members who will not come to church. Those
people were human beings also. They had to reach them, so there was Old
Testament soul winning. Somebody had to tell every person in those days
about the Gospel.
I reject the heresy that there is one Gospel in the Old Testament and
another in the New Testament. Anybody who goes to Heaven will get there
by faith in Jesus Christ. God uses human instruments to get us saved. Most
of those human instruments are through the local New Testament church.
Likewise, most of the instruments that got them saved were through the
Old Testament assembly.
When the Jews came to the promised land, God gave them certain places
to live. God not only gave certain land for the tribes, but for their families.
Each family was given a certain job in the tabernacle and lived in a certain
place. They may have gone many miles before they found somebody who was
not in their own extended family. (The Mennonites and Amish have done much
the same thing. They settle by families.) It was a matter of geography,
or of transportation. They could not get to somebody else's family to go
soul winning because they lived too far away. They went to their own relatives
and witnessed to them.
6. The entire life was built around the family. This group of people
or relatives assembled on a regular basis for worship, but their social
life was also built around this extended family unit. Their business life
was together. Their education was together.
7. The family was the city. They did not live in cities; the family
was the unit of organization, especially spiritually.
Something happened.
1. Cities came. Cities have been the destruction of civilization. When
the cities came, it broke down the family life.
2. Families scattered. They went to cities. We are a perfect example
in America today. We have two daughters who live a thousand miles from
us, and a son who lives five hundred miles away. Many families have grown
children scattered across the country.
3. Many families lived near each other. This caused the building of
cities. With the coming of cities, people migrated together and many different
families or portions of families lived together in the cities.
4. They started synagogues. A synagogue was not a patriarchal term.
It came about because of cities. Any time ten responsible Jewish men were
together, they were allowed to start a synagogue. These were not the same
family members. God still wanted His people together.
5. The synagogue became what the big family had been. The synagogue
was an alternative measure started by God to form a family of these people
in cities, so that they would have what they had back home when they were
together in families. The synagogue was started so God's people could have
a family even though they did not have a family.
6. The church became to New Testament Christianity exactly what the
family was to Old Testament Judaism. It is an improvised family. God wants
His people to have what the old patriarchal families had, so He started
a New Testament group
called the assembly, or ekklesia where His people could gather and form
a family.
Did you ever wonder why no rural churches are mentioned in the Bible?
Every church mentioned in the Bible was in the city. With the breakdown
of the family and with the coming of cities, God wanted a family atmosphere
for His people, so they could have the same thing they had when they lived
in the rural areas and all the families lived near each other.
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship,
and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Acts 2:42
That sounds like what Job's family did. Job's family got together to
have a feast and to have a service for God.
And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as
every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple,
and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness
and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people...
Acts 2:45-47a
That sounds like family. The local church is exactly what God intended
to take the place of the Old Testament family. God wants his people to
get together and God wants his people to belong to a family. That is what
the church is to be. We must build our lives around the church. That is
what they did. Our children's activities ought to be centered around the
church and not the world. The same is true for our teenagers.
The church was not primarily started as a place where we come to meet
God. Nor was it primarily started as a place where we preach the Gospel
and get people saved. We are supposed to do that outside of the church.
The church was started so that God's people could get together and have
a family to encourage each other to be stronger. The church is to be as
close as the kinfolks were in the Old Testament because we are the improvised
Old Testament family.
That is why we call each other brothers and sisters. We are in the same
family unit, and that means we should be there every time the doors are
open. We are to support it with our tithe: We are to have our fun through
the church and educate our children through the church.
We are supposed to build our lives around the church.
God did not intend for the people in the Old Testament days to spend
all of their time at the meeting. They had crops to harvest, and they had
work to do at home, but they had regular meeting times.
The New Testament church is not the successor to the Temple. The Temple
was not a place where God's people came to learn in fellowship.
The church is not the successor to the Tabernacle.
The church is the successor to the Old Testament family.
When they came together for their services they were so glad to see
each other. They shook hands and fellowshipped with one another. That is
what it was all about. The church is not a place where we come to worship
God. We can worship God much better alone with Him. The church is a place
to assemble as God's people so we will have a family. We must get born
again before we can join the church just as we must get born before we
can join a family.
What a wonderful institution the local church is! It is the New Testament
family.
Although we are in a church family, it is also important that we train
our own little family where we are. It was not the job of the leader of
the entire extended family to do all the training. Every little local family
unit was also supposed to do training. In our homes, we must teach the
Bible to our children, sing Gospel songs with our children, and should
praise God with our children. Then we come together as individual units
into a big family meeting just like Job's family did in his day.
Chapter Nine The Substitutes for the Church
How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning! how
art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou
host said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation,
in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to
the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee,
and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble,
and did shake kingdoms; Isaiah 14:12-16
1. Satan wanted to become king. Satan was one of the three archangels,
along with Michael and Gabriel. Satan even had authority and rank over
the other two. The Bible calls him the anointed cherub. Lucifer was perhaps
God's deputy. Nobody knew God like Lucifer did. However, he decided that
he wanted to become king. He wanted to be equal with God and take over
God's throne.
2. He fought to be king. The angels were divided into three groups.
Michael had his group, Lucifer had his group, and Gabriel had his group.
Lucifer took his group of angels and rebelled against God and fought a
war in Heaven, trying to take over Heaven.
3. He was defeated and cast out of Heaven.
4. He then wanted to hurt God. Nobody has ever wanted to hurt God like
the Devil. He decided to find God's most vulnerable spot to do so. What
is it that would hurt God the most?
5. He knew that the best way to hurt God was through His children. If
you really want to hurt somebody, hurt them through their children. You
will not find a more painful way to hurt a person than that. Satan knew
he was defeated, and that he was consigned to Hell: Matthew 25:41 says
that he and his angels will be in the lake of fire forever, so he decided
to do as much destruction as he could by striking at God where it would
hurt him the most.
6. Satan does not have a way for you to go. Satan has no plan for your
life. He has no alternative plan that he has devised for your life.
7. He wants you to go any way but God's way. Satan knows that we will
not consciously do what he tells us. The Devil is not concerned about which
way we go as long as it is not God's way. He is not dedicated to making
us do what he wants us to do; he is dedicated to making us do anything
but what God wants us to do. God has a purpose for our lives. Satan has
set out to keep us from fulfilling that purpose. For example, God has a
person he wants an individual to marry. The Devil is not concerned about
his marrying a prostitute or a harlot, as long as he does not marry the
person God has chosen.
8. His best shot is to get you to go your own way.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his
own way Isaiah 53:6a
We go astray when we go our own way. The Devil does not want us to follow
his path. He wants us to follow our own path. He wants us to do our own
thing. He wants us to choose the profession we want, or go to the college
of our own choice. That is the devil's plan. He knows that we are more
likely to satisfy our desires than we are to satisfy his, so he tries to
keep us away from God's plan.
A man came to me and said, "Brother Hyles, I have four children. I am
proud of them. All of my children have turned out good. My son is a coach
in a Christian high school. He always liked sports, so he chose to be a
Christian coach. My daughter always liked music, so she chose to go to
college to study music and is an organist in a church. Another son always
enjoyed working with cars, so he chose to go to mechanics school and become
a mechanic. I am proud of my children."
In each case, his children had chosen to do what they wanted to do.
In that case they did not turn out right. In fact, they turned out for
the Devil because they turned each to his own way. That is exactly what
the Devil wants us to do.
The devil's way is not what most Christians think is. The devil's way
is our own way. The Devil does not care what we do as long as we do not
do what God wants us to do. His best shot is to get us to go our own way.
We are not a success in life unless we find what God wants us to do and
do it.
9. In every area of the Christian life, he makes a counterfeit that
we can choose without having to yield to God's plan. The devil's counterfeits
are not bad. They look good. But, each of them is designed to get us to
do something other that what God wants us to do. Let consider some examples.
1. Baptism. Baptism is to be by immersion after salvation, so the Devil
gives us a counterfeit baptism. It looks sweet. The grandparents are there,
and the godfather and godmother are there. Little Johnny is going to get
baptized or confirmed. That looks and sounds good because church is considered
to be good. But, it is the devil's counterfeit. Satan does not offer a
wicked alternative. He offers an alternative that looks like the real thing.
2. Lord's Supper. God gave the Lord's Supper to the local church. It
was to be a time to remember that Jesus died for us. The Devil made a counterfeit
called the Sacrament.
3. Spirit fullness. God wants us to be filled with the Spirit so we
can be witnesses unto Him. God has given us a power to be soul winners.
That power is called the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The devil's counterfeit
is the charismatic nonsense, where people babble in some unknown tongue
and nobody gets saved. That is the devil's counterfeit. God gives His power
in order to keep people out of hell, not to give us some type of emotional
high.
4. Tongues. God gave a wonderful thing to the church in Jerusalem. Peter
preached at Pentecost to people from every nation under Heaven. Many people
could not understand the language in which Peter was preaching, so God
miraculously gave these people the ability to hear the Gospel in their
own languages making it possible for more people to hear the Gospel and
be saved. That is the purpose of it. Christ Jesus came in the world to
save sinners. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.
The purpose of tongues is to get people saved. Satan has produced a counterfeit
in the charismatic movement.
5. Bibles. The Devil has a lot of Bibles which are counterfeits.
6. Love. Lust is Satan's counterfeit for love.
7. The church. In order for something to be Satan's counterfeit, it
must have several qualities.
(1) It must be something close to the real thing.
(2) It must be something we can choose.
(3) It must not in itself be bad.
The Devil knows that most Christians will not leave a fundamental Baptist
church and go to a Buddhist church. He knows that he must have something
as near to a fundamental Baptist church as possible in order to get us
to leave a New Testament church and go our own way. How does he accomplish
that?
I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich)
and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not,
but are the synagogue of Satan. Revelation 2:9
Notice the words synagogueof Satan. That word synagogue is not capitalized,
so it is not talking about a particular synagogue of Satan.
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan. Revelation 3:9a
The word synagogue means assembly. The word church means acalled-out
assembly. If God's people belong to an institution that is not out of the
world, it is not a church. To be a church it has to be a called-out assembly.
A group of people who are religious and assemble, but are not called out
of the world, are a synagogue. There are two types of groups that call
themselves churches, an assembly and a called-out assembly. An assembly
of people calling itself a church, but is living like the world, is not
a church. It is a synagogue or assembly. No group has a right to call themselves
a church, if it is not separated from the world. It are merely an assembly.
The synagogue of Satan is a religious assembly other than the church.
The Devil is not proud of his worshippers who are killing little babies
on altars. The Devil is trying to make us believe that it does not matter
where we go to church, as long as we go somewhere. He will really try to
get us to go to a church which is not a church at all. The Devil will try
to get us to join something that accomplishes some good in order to get
us out of the local church. These institutions are sometimes good institutions,
but they are not local New Testament churches. I am not implying that these
institutions are of the Devil, but the Devil uses these institutions to
get us away from the church.
Consider a few of the institutions that Satan uses as substitutes for
the church.
1. Non-church organizations. No matter how good an organization is,
there is no substitute for the local New Testament church. It is not bad,
but it not a called-out assembly. The Devil wants to prevent us from building
our lives and the lives of our families around the church. He knows the
church is where God wants us to be, so he will do anything to cause us
to substitute something else in its place. He does not want our children's
lives to be built around the programs of the church. He does not want us
to hear preaching three times a week. He wants us to join something that
looks like a New Testament church, but which is really not a New Testament
church to get us out of the institution that Jesus started.
Regardless of how spiritually mature a person is, he needs to be active
in a local New Testament church. We cannot be the Christians we ought to
be if we are not.
2. Home Bible studies. Wealthy people are especially prone to fall for
these, because they think they have risen above hell-fire and damnation
preaching. Athletes are also big for these. They have
chapel services on Sunday morning to salve their consciences for no
being in church, where they belong. There is some good done a these, and
some people get saved at them, but much more good can be done in the local
New Testament church. The Devil is afraid o the church, so he will look
for any organization he can, including Christian one to keep us out of
the church. He wants us to settle for good instead of best. It is not wrong
to have a Bible study in the home if we are faithful to the church.
3. Radio preachers and television preachers. It is tragic how many preachers
are struggling and having a hard time making ends meet, because their church
members sending money to these nationwide preachers. These pastors are
being bypassed for the glamour boys. Why not put the money in an institution
that Jesus started? There is no such thing as the electronic church.
4. Schools. College students often go to colleges which have their own
Sunday morning services. They require the students to go there instead
of going to a local New Testament church. That is no a church. I am not
opposed to colleges having services. We have five chapel services a week
at Hyles-Anderson College, but we do not cal them church. We do not have
them during church to compete with church. It is a disgrace for a student
to go to college for four years and never darken the door of a church.
The Devil is trying to keep these young people out of the church. Where
we go to get out of the church does not concern him. He just wants us to
go our own way.
There is no such thing as a college church, but there is a church college.
When a college runs a church it is not a church. Jesus is head of the church,
not the college.
5. Non-church churches.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy
first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent,
and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly and will
remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent Revelation
2 :4, 5
. . and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
Revelation 1 :20c
If a religious meeting is not a soul-winning group, it is a synagogue.
It is just an assembly. If it is a Biblical, New Testament soulwinning
church, it is an ekklesia, or a called-out assembly.
What is the devil's church? Any church we choose. We have no right to
choose where we want go to church. God is to lead us to the church. We
are not to join a church just because we like the choir, the youth program,
or the children's activities. That is not in the Bible.
Fundamentalism has left the great doctrine of the church. We have allowed
the inter-denominational doctrine to infiltrate. We go to their schools,
we get their literature and they have indoctrinated us to believe that
the church is not a really important institution.
Many years ago I pastored a little church in the country, outside of
Marshall, Texas. I was still a student in college when they called me.
It was the policy when school opened each year, for all of the local pastors
to come, sit on the platform and take a few minutes to tell about their
church. I was a local pastor, but I was considered to be a renegade. They
saved me until last, hoping that time would run out before I could speak.
The pastor of one got up and said, "We are having a hayride Saturday night.
We want you to come to our hayride. We are going to have hot dogs, barbecue
and baked beans."
Next, the pastor of another church got up and said, "We are having a
big party at the church Friday night. We are going to show some movies,
play some games, and have a banquet."
Every pastor got up and told the students of some fun activities they
were having at their church, trying to lure them to their church. Reluctantly,
they finally came to me. I stood up and said, "I would hike to welcome
you to East Texas Baptist College and to our area. Grange Hall Baptist
church will not be having a hayride Saturday night, we will serve no hot
dogs, we will serve no hamburgers, and we will have no barbecue. We are
not going to have a party or a banquet. I am not going to try to get you
to come to our church that way. But, as far as I am concerned, there is
only one church in this area that you ought to attend. It is the one the
Holy Spirit leads you to attend. Next Sunday morning there will be a bus
here, and anybody who feels that God wants you to attend our church can
come on that bus."
Sunday morning I received a call from the bus driver asking me what
to do. There were enough people waiting to fill three buses. I pastored
more students at East Texas Baptist College than any other pastor. The
wisest thing a Christian will ever decide to do is to build his life around
a true local New Testament church, the only institution other than the
home that Jesus never started.
For many years the Bible belt has been in the south. There has been
just as much religion in the north as there is in the south. What's the
difference? The influence of Christianity in the north during the last
one hundred years has been inter-denominational, not emphasizing the church.
The emphasis in the south has been on the church That is the difference.
Every one of these institutions that try to substitute for the church are
parasites off the church and could not operate if there were no real churches.
Chapter Ten The Church, the Body of Christ
And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.
And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first
day that I came intoAsia, after what manner I have been with you at all
seasons,
For! have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take
heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he
hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing
shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Acts 20:17,
18, 27-29
The word elders is plural and the word church is singular. We know that
the church in Ephesus had more than one pastor. Luke asked them to come
to Miletus to meet with him.
There is a doctrine that teaches that the church consists of all believers
who also form the body of Christ. It is popular because we have listened
to inter-denominational people teach the Bible. The Bible clearly teaches
that all believers do not form the body of Christ. The local church is
the body of Christ. We have developed a total misunderstanding of what
the term the body of Christ means.
There are three titles given in the Bible for the position of pastor.
The fourth chapter of Ephesians refers to the title of pastor, which
means shepherd.
The second title for that position is the title elder, meaning protector
and feederofthe sheep. It implies that a pastor should have experience
and that he should be able to counsel and lead wisely.
The third word is the word bishop, which is the word for overseer. It
is his job as the bishop to oversee all the work of the ministry of the
church.
The church at Ephesus was a large church. It was the church to which
other churches looked for leadership and guidance. It had several pastors.
Paul called for the elders (plural) of the church (singular). This could
not be the invisible church, because it had elders. The flock spoken of
here was the church members. The word overseers, in the Greek, is the same
as the word bishop. God says to feed the local church over which the Holy
Ghost had made them the overseers. These men or pastors could not have
overseen every Christian in the whole world. It is not talking about all
Christians. It is talking about the local church at Ephesus. So it is speaking
in this passage about one church, not a worldwide invisible church.
Note what is said about this church in this passage.
1. Jesus purchased the church at Ephesus with His own blood. That does
not mean that Jesus did not die for everybody. In this passage He is referring
only to the church at Ephesus. There are so many things that happened on
Calvary. We will never know all of them. For example, our healing was on
Calvary. The Bible says: By his stripes we are healed. We know that Jesus
died for all sinners. He also paid the penalty and shed His blood for the
church at Ephesus. You cannot refute that.
Paul called for the elders of the church in Ephesus and told them to
take heed that they feed the church of God, which He had purchased with
His own blood. He was referring only to the one church. Jesus purchased
that local church with His blood. This was not a reference to all Christians,
although He did die for all people. He also died to purchase the individual
church.
2. He chose to call the local church His body.
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head
over all things to the church, Which is his body the fullness of him that
filleth all in all. Ephesians 1:22, 23.
This word church is the word ekklesia, which means a called-out assembly.
All believers have not yet been called out and assembled. They will not
be assembled until the rapture when the church of the firstborn will be
assembled in Heaven and all believers become a church. All believers are
not now a church. He is referring to the called-out assembly or local church
in the city of Ephesus.
He calls it His body because Jesus purchased the church, so He owns
it. He calls it a body. The word body means, a complete instrument. Jesus
was talking about ownership. It is His body. He owns it. He purchased it
with His own blood. The local church is not the body of Christ in the sense
that it is His arms and legs. It is the body of Christ in the sense that
He bought it and owns it. So, the church and the body are the same.
The same thing then is true about each individual local church. Each
church on earth is His body that is to carry out the work of God. That
is why we should do His business. It is His church. We have no right to
organize it like we want to organize it. We have no right to do things
we should not do. We have no to make His church into a social club. It
is a place where God's people come to be strengthened to go out in the
world and tell the people about the Saviour.
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Colossians 1:18
Since Jesus owns the church, and it is His body, He should be the own
who gets the preeminence in all things. He should have preeminence in the
choir. He should have preeminence in the church-school. He should have
preeminence in the college. He should have preeminence in the youth program.
He should have preeminence in every single ministry of the church.
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is
behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which
is the church: Colossians 1:24
This is referring to the church at Colosse, one church. Again in both
of these verses, the word church is the word ekklesia, or acalled-out assembly.
Again, the Bible refers to the church as the body of Christ. He owns it.
Jesus owns only one body. He owns only one organization. He does not own
any other institution except the church. It is His body.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and
gave himself for it; Ephesians 5:25
If anything refutes the invisible church, this is it. Jesus compares
Himself and His church to a man and wife. Consequently, if there an invisible
church, then a man has an invisible wife. Jesus does not love an invisible
church. He could have chosen another relationship to compare it with. He
could have chosen angels because they are invisible to us. He could have
used spirits or souls, but He chose to use the visibility of a man and
his wife. Jesus is talking about a visible organization which is His church
and His body.
Here are several observations in light of these things.
1. His body is His called-out assembly.
2. He purchased it with His own blood.
3. It is His only body.
4. He loves it dearly.
It is a tragedy how many Christians place outside Christian organizations
over their own local church. I have seen it happen all over the country.
If Christ feels the way He does about the church, then each one of us should
likewise recognize its importance. Many Christians are more offended when
their pastor tells the truth about the decay of a parasite organization
than they do when a similar organization criticizes or speaks ill of their
local church. The New Testament church is the institution He loves, and
we are to love it and be an active part of it.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of
that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. I Corinthians
12:12
A called-outassembly is the same as the church. The church is the same
as the body. The body, called-out assembly, or local church has many members,
and all members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is
Christ. We do not belong to the body that He purchased just because we
are saved, because He purchased the local assembly. What difference does
all of this make? It makes a big difference because there are many Christian
people who are not a part of a local church. There are Bible colleges where
most of the faculty and students are not actively involved in a local church.
I am not talking about liberals. I am talking about fundamentalists. They
believe that the church is not as important as the college.
You are as right with God as you are with the institution for which
He died. All over the country there are Christian people who minimize the
importance of the church, His body. Hyles-Anderson College has a right
to continue to live only as long as it stays under the thumb of the First
Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews
or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink
into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot
shall say, Because Jam not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore
not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because lam not the eye, Jam
not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were
an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the
smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body,
as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the
body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot
say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet,
I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which
seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which
we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour;
and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. I Corinthians 12:13-23
What does it mean by one spirit? Are we all baptized into one body?
He is talking to the church at Corinth, and telling them that the Holy
Spirit immersed them into that church.
People like to say that we should go to the church of "our choice."
That is not right. We should go to the church of the Holy Spirit's choice.
The Holy Spirit is supposed to lead us where we go. People choose to leave
churches for the wrong reasons. The Holy Spirit puts
us into the body. The ekklesia, or called-out assembly, is His body.
He purchased that body with His own blood. The Holy Spirit will show us
what body we are to go to and will immerse us into that body.
Each of us has our own place in the body. Each part of the body has
a particular function. Each part is important to the overall functioning
of the body. No part should look at another part as being of less importance.
I cannot say to the PA man, "I have no need of you." I cannot say to the
organist and pianist, "I have no need of you." I cannot say to the custodians,
"I have no need of you." Each of us has been placed there by God. That
means that it is important that we be where God wants us to be. We have
need of every single person in the church. Every person in a church needs
every other person in a church. God has put us there.
The part of the body which is the weakest is the one that needs our
attention the most. If you cut your finger, you will suddenly pay more
attention to that finger. In the church we want to cut off the finger.
If a member backslides, we cut him off. We treat him as if he were not
worthy to be in the body. None of us is worthy to be in the body.
When a part of the body is less attractive to us, we should give the
most attention to that part to help make it more attractive. We should
not ignore it. We do not need to pamper the part that is working right.
We need to pamper the part that is not working right.
That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should
have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all
the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members
rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets,
thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments,
diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers?
are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak
with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and
yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. I Corinthians 12:25-3 1
We have been influenced by this invisible church idea. We need to get
back to the fact that the local ekklesia is the called-out assembly, and
that all believers have never been a called-out assembly. All believers
are not members of the church. If people are going to be reached, it will
be through the ministry of local churches.
The military of this country is a good example. When a man joins the
army, he does not go visit a camp in North Carolina this week, a camp in
Wyoming the next week, and then a camp in Virginia the next week. No. They
put him in a working unit, and that unit is a body of soldiers that belongs
to the United States Government. It is the body of the army, and the individual
fighting unit. If you allowed soldiers to go where they want to go, you
would never win a war. Men are placed in a division, in a battalion of
that division, in a company of that battalion, in a platoon of that company,
and in a squad of that platoon. That is the way you win battles, and that
is the way you win wars.
The church is God's institution, for which Christ died. He purchased
it to be His body. It is that body to whom He has given the responsibility
to take the blessed Book and spread His message to a lost and dying world.
That is the way to get the job done by being a part of the local body,
called the church, for which He died.
Chapter Eleven Why Jesus Started Churches and Not a Church
Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church, and
gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy
and without blemish. Ephesians 5:25
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the
general assembly and church. Hebrews 12:22-23a
There is a very interesting play on words in this passage. There are
two different words used, the word assembly which in the Greek is the word
paneguris. meaning any kind of assembly, and the word church which in the
Greek is ekklesia, meaning a called-outassembly.
I have made it very clear in previous chapters that the word church
is the word ekklesia, and that is a called-out assembly. There is no church
now other than the local church. Over and over again, in the Bible, it
talks about the churches. Jesus did not start a church, He started churches.
When He said, upon this rock I will build my church, in Matthew 16:18,
He was referring to the church at Jerusalem.
There will be a day when all believers will be a church, but not now.
All believers have not yet become a called-out assembly. There has never
been a time in history when all Christians assembled, consequently there
is no way that all believers could be called a church.
Mr. Scofield troubles me when he refers to two churches, but even more
when he implies that the local church is not the true church! The true
church is the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, or any
local assembly of called-out believers. There will be a day when believers
will become a church. That is when all believers a assembled at the rapture.
The word rapture simply means a calling out or a snatching away. When the
rapture takes place, all believe will be called out into the air and will
become the church.
I want to make an issue about something. We often hear people use the
term the rapture of the church. There will not be a rapture
the church except when we are all raptured and form a church in the
sky. Most often it is used referring to the false idea that all believe
already form the church, and that the rapture will be the church that already
exists. That is not scriptural.
Ephesians S speaks of a glorious church without spot and wrinkle holy
and sanctified. No matter how great a church may be, there is n church
that qualifies to be described in this fashion. First Baptist Church in
Hammond is not a holy church without a spot or wrinkle. We have some good
people, but none of them is perfect. We will not be without spot or wrinkle
until we are raptured and receive our glorified bodie Then we will be like
Him, for we will see Him as He is. When it talks about Jesus presenting
to Himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle holy and sanctified,
it is referring to the time when all believers are called up in the air
and given a glorified body. Then we will no longer have sin in our bodies,
and we will be just like Jesus. At that time we will be glorious church,
without a spot or wrinkle, holy and sanctified.
For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all ~e
one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying I
will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee. Hebrews 2:11 & 12
The Bible says there will come a time when all believers will become
a church, and in our glorified bodies will come back to the earth. Jesus
said, I will sing in the midst of the church. Won't it be wonderful to
hear Jesus sing? I believe that in the millennium Jesus will take the Lord
supper with us because in the millennium all believers will be assembled.
We will assemble in the sky and become a church, but we will live all over
the world, during the millennium. It will not be any problem for us to
assemble because we will have glorified bodies.
I was flying over a little town in Idaho. I looked down and saw a little
airport. They have a computer in that little airport, and in a matter of
seconds they can get the schedule of anybody, on any flight, in the world.
I looked down and saw all of the houses. Almost every house down there
had a television set and the people could see a picture of something happening
on the other side of the world. That is man s technology.
I wonder how it will be when we have our glorified bodies. If Jesus
decides to call a church meeting or gathering, all He will need to do is
say it, and we will all be there in a matter of seconds. We will come from
China, Africa and all over the world in just a matter of a few seconds.
All believers will not become a church until that time.
Let me explain the philosophy behind the fact that Jesus has local churches
and not one great church of all believers. God wants there to be a wall
between us in every single human relationship. There needs to be some kind
of a wall between every single human relationship.
Jesus started the local New Testament churches, and each church is autonomous
and indigenous. No church has the right to tell another church what to
do. The devil's most effective idea is union and unity, and that sounds
good. God does not want churches uniting. God is a separation of authority
God. God is a state's rights God. One of the saddest things in America
is that the Federal Government is taking over things that the states ought
to be running. God does not want that.
1. There should be some kind of wall between individuals. Part of that
wall should be the person. Somebody said that every man is an island. In
a sense, that is true. You are born alone, you live alone, and you die
alone. Not many people will totally sympathize with any problems you have.
A husband and wife should have some type of wall between them.
A pastor and people should have some type of wall between them.
Friends should have some type of wall between them.
There ought to be a certain kind of reserve between us and a certain
amount of a formality. I call it mystique, and it needs to be in every
relationship.
Husbands and wives sometimes do not get along with each other because
they know each other too well, and there is no mystique. They have already
conquered all there is to conquer. She is no longer intriguing to him.
She is no longer a little mysterious to him. There s nothing more in her
mind, soul, or heart that he thinks he can pull from her.
I think it is unwise for people to go around the house half naked. do
not believe in a lack of reserve. I am not saying you should wear a tie
to dinner in your own home, but I am saying that there should be some walls.
I have often said that when Sarah called Abraham Lord, he was not running
around the house in his shorts and undershirt. America used to have propriety.
Many years ago, the head of the house sat at the table like a king.
In any human relationship each person ought to have an identity. You
do not have to be together all the time to be best friends. In fact, if
you are together all the time, you will not remain best friends for very
long. Many boys were with their girlfriends too much, and then wonder why
they broke up. They may have been meant for each other, but they did not
get married because they broke down the entire wall between them and there
was no mystique left.
In a marriage, each person is still an individual. The wife is still
an individual. Someday he may die and she will be left. If they were one,
she would die at the same time. He is going to like her better if he lets
her retain her identity. Men should not smother their wives. As individuals
go their separate ways, they are gathering things which they can share
with one another in conversation. She is having things happen to her that
he does not know about, and he is doing the same. When they come together,
they can talk to each other and share those experiences with one another.
I am not talking about having secrets. I am talking about remaining
as separate individuals by retaining some wall of separation. Almost every
time I talk to a couple who have had a third party coming into their marriage,
it is because the person who's been associated with the third party says
that they could talk to each other. The reason some people philander is
because they have nothing to talk about at home. The reason they have nothing
to talk about at home is because their lives are so attached that they
know everything there is to know about each other. Keep a little wall there.
I do not care what the human relationship is, there needs to be a little
wall between it.
I have seen college kids standing around in the hallways at Hyles-Anderson
College groping for something to say. They have already said everything
to each other that can be said.
Friendships are the same way. No two people should always be together.
If they are, they will eventually lose the mystique in their relationship.
It is the mystique, the conquering, the freshness, and the discovering
of something new that causes people to enjoy each other's company. Being
together most or all of the time takes all of that away.
There is such a break down in our country in the relationship between
parents and their children. There ought to be a mild form of worship in
a child for their parents, especially for the dad because he is God's deputy
in the home. It is good to take boys to ball games, or fishing, but that
is not the most important thing about being a dad. We have the idea that
we are supposed to be a child's brother or buddy. There is nothing wrong
having fun together, but there should remain a certain amount of restraint.
A little wall ought to be there.
Do not give all your time to any one person in any relationship. Do
not choose one person with whom you spend all of your time.
Jesus started churches, instead of the church, in order to have a wall
of some kind between us.
2. There should be a wall of dignity between families.
A couple should not spend too much time with one other couple. When
you break down the wall between you, a bigger wall will be built in its
place. Dr. Evans, the president of Hyles-Anderson College, and I are good
friends, but he has a life to live and I have a life to live. Our paths
cross a few times a week. That does not mean that we do not love each other
as much as we would if we were together twenty-four hours a day. We probably
love each other more than if we were together twenty-four hours a day.
Why? Because there are always new things to learn about each other.
A woman who shares with others the intimacy between herself and her
husband is being foolish. That is breaking down the wall. Your personal
life should be kept personal. The same thing is true about a man laughingly
sharing some intimacy between him and his wife to other men. That is betraying
something that is holy and sacred. There ought to be walls in the relationships
between families.
Nobody should be able to walk inside your house without knocking on
the door or ringing the doorbell. Our youngest daughter, Cindy, does not
just come to our house and walk in. That is our house. We live there, and
we need to keep some walls built. Couples should not buddy with the same
couple over and over and over and over again. You should not bare all and
you should not be together too much.
Do you know why people smother a friend? Insecurity. They feel threatened
if another friend comes between them.
Brother Colsten, who is on our church staff is my friend, but Brother
Colsten has other friends and I want that for him. Some men spend so much
time together that they have no room for other friends. The same is true
for women. Often this leads to putting up gigantic walls in their relationship,
as they become too close and begin to lose the delight of the friendship.
In every human relationship there should be some kind of a wall of dignity,
identity and mystique. Without that, there is a danger of the relationship
eventually breaking down.
3. There should be a wall between churches. God believes in a delegation
of power.
I was on the airplane one day, and beside me sat a very nice man. We
started chatting and he told me that he was in the insurance business.
At the time he lived in Chicago, but had moved there nine months earlier
from Salt Lake City. I discovered that he was a Mormon and that his great
grandfather had been the fourth president of the Mormon church. I asked
him many questions about his church, and he told me some very interesting
things. The Mormon church has no paid pastor or staff on the local level.
Although the people tithe, all of the money goes to the main church in
Salt Lake City, Utah, and they tell the local congregations what to do.
The people have nothing to say about who owns the buildings. The Temple
in Salt Lake City owns the building and makes all of the decisions. That
means that one man could become a "heretic" and destroy the whole Mormon
church.
There is freedom in delegation. If you have ten churches and one goes
bad, you still have nine that are good. If you have one universal church
and it goes bad, everything goes bad with it. That is what happened to
the Roman Catholic church.
That is why Jesus started many churches and not just one church. There
is to be a wall between them so that no church has authority over any other
church. The same is true about denominations. The same is true about nations.
There ought to be a wall.
If two churches spend too much time together, they will get to know
each other's weaknesses. If two people get to know each other too well,
they will get to know each other's weaknesses.
I want to make some general statements.
1. When the wall is broken down, a bigger wall is built. Most people
who do not speak to each other were at one time closest friends.
2. A little wall between people, families, couples, and churches keeps
our differences from surfacing. Those differences cause other walls to
be built that are even bigger than the little wall we have kept between
us. If there is no wall of identity between churches, couples, families,
individuals, denominations, and nations all competition is gone.
The reason why Hyles-Anderson College is thriving is because it is different.
You cannot find another college like it anywhere. We have tried not to
attach ourselves too closely to any other group or college. The distinctiveness
is what draws people to us. We have our own identity. We do not dip our
sails. We do not lower our convictions. We do not change our rules in order
to get students. If we decided to break down our walls and become like
everybody else, we would not have enough identity to draw students.
Parents send their daughters to Hyles-Anderson College because of what
we believe, and because they know that we will protect them and not allow
them to run around the area without knowing exactly where they are. It
is our distinctiveness that draws people, and life is that way. We cannot
all be the same. A church cannot be like any other church.
There is no church like First Baptist Church. We are located in the
old run-down section of town. Yet people drive many miles to get here because
they know they will receive something they cannot find anywhere else. Every
church ought to be unique. Every church ought to have its own identity.
3. There is one place where there is no more wall because it was broken
down when Jesus died on the cross. You can know God just as well as you
want to know Him because you will never know everything about Him. He is
always fresh and new. You do not have to be separated from God for God
to learn something new He can talk to about. That wall has been broken
down.
Our daughter, Becky, has lupus. She feels miserable most of the time.
I called her one day and I said, "Puddin,' how do you feel?"
She said, "I feel fine."
I said, "Do not lie to me, tell me how you really feel."
She said, "Terrible."
I said, "Does anybody know you feel terrible?"
She said, "No. My boss does not even know I have had any trouble at
all."
I said, "Why?"
She said, "Because I want him to think I can work as much as I have
always worked. I tell my family sometimes that I do not feel well, but
I do not tell them exactly how I feel, because I do not want
them to think that I am complaining all the time."
I said, "For the next few minutes I am going to be quiet, and I want
you to cry on my shoulder. Tell me every pain you have had since I talked
to you yesterday."
There is a Heavenly Father to Whom we can bare everything in our hearts
and hives.
There ought to be an identity between people, between couples, between
families, and between churches. Jesus starting local churches because the
very nature of God is for us not to be bundled, but to be separated. That
way we will love each other more.
I was teaching our preacher boys one day on how to get potential out
of those who work for them. I taught them that a pastor should allow every
member of his staff to excel him in one area. Because if they can excel
him in one area, it will give him more respect for each person. I may know
more about the ministry of First Baptist Church as a whole, but I want
each person on my staff to be an expert in one area. Otherwise, I would
not respect them as much. I want to see to it that each one of them has
an area where he is my superior. I know pastors who have trouble with their
assistant pastors because they want to keep binoculars on them all the
time.
The same thing is true about a wife. There ought to be an area where
she excels. Mrs. Hyles is an artist, and I am not. She is a singer, and
I do not sing very well. She excels me in those areas.
Life can be so wonderful if we will allow every person in our lives
to be an individual. Christianity can be so wonderful when churches are
individual churches, each with its own identity. That is why Jesus started
churches. This philosophy should spill over into every area of our lives.
Chapter Twelve The Purpose of Going to Church
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when
the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for the fear of
the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace
be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and
his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said
Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even
so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith
unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever
sins ye retain, they are retained.
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with
them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and
said, Peace be unto you. John 20:19-23, 26
Not many people know the true reason why Jesus started the church. Let
me give a couple of things which are not legitimate reasons, even though
most people think they are.
1. The church was not started to be a place of worship.
You can worship God better alone than you can with others. You can also
pray better alone than you can with others. When two people pray together,
their prayers will too often be designed to impress each other. Every Christian
should worship God in the beauty of His holiness. We should adore Him,
worship Him, magnify Him, and honor Him. The idea that the church is a
place to worship God came from Rome, not from the New Testament. There
is only one place in the New Testament where the word worship is connected
to a public service, and that deals with worshipping the Devil. There is
no example in the entire New Testament of a Christian worship service.
God told the people in Amos 5:21-23, 1 hate, I despise your feast days,
and! will not smell in your solemn assemblies.... I will not accept them....
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs.... The church was not made
to be a place of worship.
2. Jesus did not start the church as a place of evangelism. The evangelistic
church is not in the Bible. The soul-winning church is. I am not against
people getting saved at church, nor am I against an occasional evangelistic
sermon. But, that is not the main purpose of the church, nor was it why
the church was started. The New Testament church was a soul-winning institution
where all of the members won people to Jesus.
And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach
and preach Jesus Christ. Acts 5:42
Some people believe that the New Testament church won the lost in the
church and in house-to-house soul winning. That is half true. They did
go house-to-house soul winning. The temple, however, was not the church,
nor did they have church in the temple. The temple was the location of
the big gala occasion when they had their feasts and when all of the people
would gather in Jerusalem. The temple was also the place where they conducted
their daily business. It was like our business district. This was not talking
about witnessing in church, but about witnessing in public places as well
as in people's homes.
And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a
great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were
all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except
the apostles. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where
preaching the word. Acts 8:1, 4
They witnessed everywhere. There was no place they did not go. The jail
is part of everywhere. Downtown is part of everywhere. The street corner
is part of everywhere. Rest homes are a part of everywhere. Neighborhoods
are a part of everywhere. The homes where the poor, the lame, the halt,
and the blind live are parts of everywhere. The New Testament church was
not an evangelistic church. It was a soul-winning church, and they went
everywhere doing so.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature. Mark 16:15
Jesus gave the Great Commission on several occasions. Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and Acts all give different phrasings of the Great Commission. That
does not mean that Jesus spoke it only one time, and that each of them
gave it in their own words. They each quoted Jesus. He did not just give
it once. One of those times was quoted in Mark. It is not talking about
standing behind a pulpit and preaching. It is not directed to a congregation.
It is directed to every creature.
An evangelistic church is where a preacher gets up and preaches on salvation.
I am not against that, but it is not why the church was started. The evangelism
was not to be done at the church. Soul winning was to be done where the
people were.
Paul said For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus
Christ and him crucified. Some preachers take that as a mandate to preach
on nothing except Jesus. That is not true. Paul wrote Timothy and said,
Preach the word, but he said something else. He said to exhort. He said
to rebuke. Sometimes the preacher is to preach the Word. Sometimes he is
to be lovingly stern and rebuke. Sometimes he is to give advice, or exhort.
God wants more than just the plan of salvation preached in the church.
Jesus said in Matthew to teach all nations. That word in Matthew is
the Greek word "ethnos" which means ethnics or races. Mark 16:15 says,
to go into all the world. The word "kosmos" is the word arrangement. When
Jesus started the church, he started a soul-winning church. Soul winning
was not the purpose of the church, it was the fruit of the church and the
result of the church.
In the first century the local churches were soul-winning churches.
They were scattered abroad everywhere with everybody preaching or soul
winning. Peter did not preach the evangelistic sermon on Pentecost as many
think. The Bible says that every nation under Heaven was represented at
Pentecost and every man heard the Gospel. Many people were doing the soul
winning. It was not just Peter. I am not against having an evangelistic
service, but that was not why Jesus started the church, nor was it the
way the New Testament church operated.
In the first century, our churches were soul-winning churches. The people
came to church for the real purpose of the church. Then they went out from
the church and won folks to Christ in the public places and neighborhoods
and brought them back to church. Something happened shortly after the early
church. The churches became evangelistic rather than soul winning. What
is the difference?
A soul-winning church is where the people go out and win them and bring
them back in to make a public profession.
An evangelistic church is where you invite sinners to come and the preacher
tries to get them saved through his preaching. There is nothing wrong with
that except the people go unfed.
For 1900 years the soul-winning church was lost.
In our generation the soul-winning church has been rediscovered. The
First Baptist Church of Hammond has had a big part in that. All across
America preachers are baptizing more converts than Spurgeon did. I am not
nearly the preacher Spurgeon was, but First Baptist Church is a better
church than Spurgeon had because we discovered the soul-winning church
instead of the evangelistic church.
Evangelists have been being forced to change their ministries.
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists;
and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Ephesians
4:11, 12
The word perfecting means maturing. God gave apostles for the maturing
of the saints. God gave prophets for the maturing of the saints. God gave
evangelists for the maturing of the saints. God gave pastors and teachers
for the maturing of the saints. All these were given for the perfecting
of the saintsfor thework of the ministry. Every saint is commanded to do
the work of the ministry. Every Christian is commanded to be a soul-winner.
It is the evangelist's job to mature the Christians so they will better
do the work of the ministry.
For many years evangelists were men who traveled across the country
and preached revival meetings. These were actually evangelistic crusades,
and they basically preached on salvation. I believe that God raised
them up, but I do not believe that God had this in mind for the New
Testament church. Evangelists were given for the perfecting or maturing
of the saints, so the saints could do the work of the ministry. Nobody
in the New Testament went around preaching to great crowds of people in
churches just to get people saved. They taught, exhorted, rebuked, and
perfected them so that the saints could do the work of the ministry.
I am not against the evangelists who went into churches and preached
on Heaven, Hell, salvation, the great white throne judgment, etc. Thank
God for them, but they had to do it because churches were not doing the
job of soul winning. God raised up these evangelists to go to churches
and get people saved.
In our day, the evangelist is a preacher who does more of what the Bible
says he is to do, the perfecting of the saints. We have lived in the age
of the rediscovery of the soul-winning church.
Let us now look at the reasons for the starting of the church.
1. The church was started for comfort.
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when
the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the
Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto
you. John 20:19
These people went to church because they were scared. That is one reason
Jesus started the church. It was the place they could receive comfort in
the midst of persecution.
Jesus met in the upper room the night that he was betrayed. (John13
& 14)From there He went to the garden of Gethsemane where he was betrayed
that night. It was on Wednesday that our Lord was crucified, so the church
meets on Wednesday. Sunday was the day that our Lord rose from the dead,
so the church meets on Sunday.
It had to be a church that met in the upper room because they had the
Lord's Supper, which was given by the local church. It was also in the
upper room that they met when He rose from the dead. (John 20:19 &
26)Consequently, they came to church for comfort. Our Saviour met with
the apostles and said: Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God,
believe also in me. He was comforting them.
The church is a place to dispel the fears of the people. When somebody
comes with an incurable disease, the church is supposed to help him dispel
his fear. When people have a fear of financial reversal, the church is
to help dispel their fear. The reason they assembled in the upper room
was for the fear of the Jews. Coming together gave them more courage and
strength than being alone.
2. It is a place for encouragement. Often people will not come to church
because they have problems or because they are discouraged. That is why
the church was started. That is why we are supposed to come. When you want
to be alone is usually when you do not need to be alone. That is the time
we most need to be in church.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of
some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the
day approaching. Hebrews 10:25
That means we are not to forsake the churching of ourselves together.
It is especially true as we see the second coming of Jesus Christ coming
closer. Why? Because there is a certain element of fear there. You come
to church to be comforted in the fact that we are all going up together.
When we come to church we get encouraged.
For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly
apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have
respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou
here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here
under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become
judges of evil thoughts? James 2:2-4
There is one place in this world where a poor child can go and be just
as important as the children of the Pastor, the deacons or the Sunday school
teachers. The church is a place of encouragement for those who are looked
down upon or despised in this world.
3. It is a place to give tithes to God.
Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order
to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week
let every one of you lay by him in the store, as God hath prospered him,
that there be no gatherings when! come. I Corinthians 16:1
They tithed on the first day of the week, which is when they went to
church. Sundays we are to bring our tithes and offerings to the church
as well. The tithe or tenth is the smallest portion given in the Bible.
Consequently, we go to church to give.
4. It is a place for maturing.
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists;
and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all
come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may
grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: Ephesians
4:11-15
The body of Christ is the local New Testament church. He owns it. God
has given us the church, so that every time someone tries to deceive us
with a false doctrine, we will not fall prey to the error. God has given
us the church in order for us to become mature. He wants us to grow up.
That is what it is all about. We are to come to church to mature. We will
never outgrow the church. The church is there to help us to grow up. The
preacher is there to help us grow up. The evangelist is there to help us
to grow up. The quickest way to be deceived by false doctrines is to become
unfaithful to church.
5. It is a place for inspiration to go soul winning.
And when they were assembled with the elders
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where
Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but
some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All powers is
given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever! have commanded you:
Matthew 28:12, 16-20a
The church is to inspire and instill in us the importance of going
soul winning. Most people will never walk inside the church, but we
can go to them. Most people where we work will never walk inside our church,
but we can take the message where they are. As a pastor, I am to inspire
everybody to go soul winning. Four thousand people go soul winning from
First Baptist Church every week. I am not satisfied with that. I want everybody
to go soul winning every week. It is not the preacher's job to preach the
unsaved down the aisle. It is the preacher's job to preach and inspire
the individual Christians to go soul winning. That is God's plan.
6. It is a place for fellowship, to take the Lord's supper, to learn
the Bible and to learn how to pray.
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same
day there were added to them about three thousand souls. And they continued
stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking
of bread, and in prayers. Acts 2:41, 42
The word fellowship means communion. It is not referring to the typical
fellowship of the church. It is referring to a communing in Christ with
one another. It is a place where we share a "God Bless You" and "1 am praying
for you" as we unite in the work of God. It is a place for the breaking
of bread in the Lord's Supper as we remember together the price Jesus paid
for us on Calvary.
These are the real reasons for the church. When we get away from these,
the church fails to do that which we were called by the Saviour to do,
and we look to church to be something different than what God ordained
it to be.
Chapter Thirteen The History of the Church
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and
talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the
judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the
kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the
earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried
me away in the spirit into the wilderness:
and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast. full of names of
blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed
in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones
and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness
of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY,
BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the
blood of the martyrs ofJesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great
admiration. Revelation 17:1-6
The church was started some time during the earthly ministry of Jesus
Christ. It was not started on Pentecost. They added to the church on Pentecost,
but the church already existed. The church was probably started in Matthew
chapter ten when Jesus called his disciples to a mountainside and named
them as His disciples. For the first time there was a called-out assembly.
It is very plain in the New Testament that the church started by Jesus
had several characteristics.
1. It was independent. Each church was independent of every other church.
2. There were only two offices in that church - pastor and deacons.
Those are the only two offices mentioned in the entire Bible concerning
the church. There are three titles given for pastors - (1) Pastor, (2)
Elder, and (3) Bishop - but the only two offices mentioned in the Bible
for the church are for the offices of pastor and deacons.
3. There were two ordinances in this church - baptism and the Lord's
Supper.
4. These churches believed in the doctrine of the local church. For
the first 300 years, maybe even the first 700 years of the church, there
was no such doctrine as the invisible or universal church. It was a doctrine
that came from Catholicism (the word Catholic meaning universal). The doctrine
of the universal, or invisible church mentioned in the Scofield Bible,
had not been thought of for the first several centuries of the church.
The independence of the local church body and the doctrine of the local
church were maintained until about the third century.
5. Around the third century big city churches came on the scene and
became prevalent. These churches hired men to start churches. The churches
united and hired men to be like missionaries and go about starting churches.
For example, there are many churches in or near Ephesus, Colosse and Galatia
which were started by men who were hired by the churches for that very
reason.
6. As these men began to get some authority, they became the bosses
of the churches. When I was a Southern Baptist many years ago, they had
what were called district missionaries. These district missionaries did
exactly what these men did in the third century. They went out and started
churches in little towns, rural areas, and city neighborhoods which had
no churches. They held their positions for so long that if a church wanted
a pastor, they would contact these men to recommend a pastor. These district
missionaries soon began practically assigning pastors to churches.
When the churches had problems, they would call these district missionaries
to help them solve the problems. Gradually these men became in charge of
groups of churches. In the Southern Baptist Convention, the men who were
called districtmissionaries years ago are now called district superintendents.
There is a big difference between a superintendent and a missionary.
The same thing happened in the third century. Churches got together
and hired people to work for them. Eventually these men gained more authority
and more influence until finally the churches worked for the people. This
is what is called an episcopalian form of government. It increased until
some areas had bishops over them. These bishops had somebody over them
called the archbishop, and by the seventh century it had evolved into the
Papacy.
7. The Papacy came on the scene as a result of the churches hiring people
to start churches. There has never been an office higher than that of the
pastor. It is nobody's business outside of the First Baptist Church of
Hammond what goes on in the church. The Southern Baptists should be ashamed
of themselves. There should not be such a title as a districtsuperintendent,
A church can supervise itself. It does not need a denominational "big-shot"
to tell it what to do from the outside.
8. The true churches retained their independence.
These churches were persecuted unbelievably by the Papacy. They were
persecuted from the first century, but even in the seventh century, incredible
persecution came to the churches that would not submit to the control of
these bosses. The churches that refused to be a part of the Bishopry continued
to operate with a pastor and deacons, with the two ordinances of baptism
and the Lord's Supper, and with the doctrine of the independence of the
local church, not the invisible or universal church.
9. There were now two groups or categories calling themselves churches.
1. The Papacy with the Pope and his Archbishops and Bishops strangling
the churches.
2. Independent churches who would not do what the Bishop said. The line
of the New Testament churches kept going through them. There always has
been and there always will be churches in this world which believe in the
autonomy of the local church; with a pastor and deacons, baptism and the
Lord's Supper, and the doctrine of the local church rather than the invisible
universal church.
10. The true churches fled to valleys.
11. These churches were called the Valenses by the pope and the Catholic
church because they dwelt mainly in the valleys because of intense persecution
against them. The name was changed to Waldenses because a man named Peter
Waldo was given credit by the Catholic church for starting these independent
churches. The Catholic church would like to claim that Baptist churches
started after the Catholic church started. That is not true. The Baptist
church goes all the way back to Jesus when he said upon this rock I will
build my church. The Catholic church doctrine goes back to Nimrod in Genesis
10, but it was not put into practice for hundreds of years.
12. The Catholics changed four basic things.
(1) They changed the doctrines of the church.
(2) They changed the positions of the church.
(3) They changed the ordinances. Baptism was no longer a sign of salvation,
but it preceded salvation. Then they changed it from immersion to sprinlding.
They changed the Lord's Supper from being a memorial supper to being a
sacrament necessary to salvation.
(4) They changed the doctrine of church independence. They taught that
there was one big church and that one man should control it. Consequently,
the doctrine of the universal church became very prevalent. The doctrine
of the universal church, which Mr. Scofield teaches, was started by the
Catholics. I will explain later how he got it from the Catholics.
There was a group of people preaching salvation by grace through faith.
They were baptizing converts, observing the Lord's Supper properly, they
had pastors and deacons, and they believed in the doctrine of the local,
independent church, not the universal church. Then there was the Roman
Catholic church, or the universal church, with the ordinances, the church
officers, and the doctrine changed.
13. Then came the Reformation with Martin Luther and others. During
the Reformation many people pulled out of the Catholic church. Some of
these people did not intend to pull out, they just intended to rebel within
the church, like people today who are trying to clean up the Southern Baptist
and the American Baptist conventions from within. From the Reformation
a group of churches came out of the Catholic church. Revelation 17 and
18 refers to the Catholic church as a harlot. The Roman Catholic church
is also called the mother of harlots. Now, if you are a mother of harlots,
you must have some children who are harlots.
Who are these harlots? A child comes out of the body of its mother.
Out of the body of Roman Catholicism came the Methodists, the Presbyterians,
the Lutherans, etc.. All of the reformed theologians and churches that
came out of the Reformation came from Roman Catholicism. When you come
from the body of a woman, she is your mother. Reformation brought forth
little harlots.
14. When these reform ationists pulled out, they did not pull out in
every way, therefore the protestants inherited some of the characteristics
of their mother, the Catholic church. They pulled out concerning justification
by faith, but they did not pull out concerning formal services. Go to a
Presbyterian church on a Sunday morning and you will get about the same
thing you would get from a Roman Catholic service. It is not exactly the
same, but it is nearly as formal. The children rebelled concerning some
doctrines, but not in the area of formal worship services.
They did not rebel concerning the unscriptural organization. The Catholic
church assigns a priest to a church. The church does not choose its own
priest. The Methodist church does the same thing. They send the preacher
they want a church to have. The church does not have total choice in the
matter. A Baptist church chooses its own preacher because we still believe
in local congregational government. These Reformation Protestants inherited
formal services and unscriptural organization from the Catholic church.
They also continued to believe in the doctrine of the universal church.
15. Eventually, the Protestants had their own Reformation. From each
of these protestant denominations, there came other denominations that
rebelled against them.
16. Each of these new Protestant groups eventually had its own Reformation.
17. From these groups came other denominations until there were many
different denominations. Each of the
groups that rebelled were good, but none of them had anything to do
with the true church. Every group of people on the face of the earth that
calls itself Christian came either from Roman Catholicism or from Jesus
Christ. The Bible of Roman Catholicism as well as all of the Bibles being
interpreted today are coming from the Roman Catholic manuscripts, the Wescott
and Hort, whereas the King James Bible is the one that came from the Texus
Receptus, which are the non Catholic manuscripts.
I am not implying that these groups were all bad. I am merely pointing
out the fact that they came out of the mother. When a group comes out of
Roman Catholicism they are her children and she is the mother of harlots.
18. The harlots had children which are the interdenominational, fundamental
people. I am not against these groups. I am simply showing you that these
groups do not have New Testament church origins, because they came from
the mother of harlots. They may be good kids. They may be good grandkids,
but they still came from the mother of harlots. Notice what they did not
change when they came out.
They kept their formalism, just like their mother or grandmother.
They kept their high church worship.
They kept their high church organization. They did not have just pastors
and deacons like the church at Philippi. They openly organized the church
and often took the power away from the pulpit making the pastor a puppet.
19. All during this time the New Testament churches continued. The New
Testament church was just moving right along. Should it be unusual then
for Baptists to have a loyalty to their name? Should we not have a church
spirit and pride? I thank God that I am an American. I thank God that I
live in Indiana. I thank God that I live in Hammond, and I thank God that
I am a Baptist. That does not mean I hate those who are not Baptists. I
simply do not believe that they belong to true New Testament churches.
20. Now the grandchildren are beginning to go back to the harlot. There
is the Catholic church, there are Protestant churches, and now we have
the inter-denominational movement. Institutions that are inter-denominational
used to fight Roman Catholicism, but now many of them are beginning to
snuggle up to their mother and grandmother.
The harlots have been going back to the mother all along. Lutherans
are uniting with Catholics. Presbyterians are going back to Catholics.
Methodists are going back to the ways of Catholicism. The harlots are going
back to the mother, but now the grandchildren are also going back to the
harlots.
Any organization started outside of a New Testament church weakens with
every generation. Some of our fundamental colleges are allowing things
now that they would not have allowed years ago. I picked up my newspaper
one morning and looked at the basketball scores. I saw the score given
for one of our former fundamental school's girls' basketball team. A Christian
college should not have their girls in shorts running around a gymnasium
while a bunch of people watch them play basketball. Under that was the
score of another fundamental college that was founded just one year before
Hyles-Anderson. Young ladies are supposed to dress modestly and cover their
thighs in public. Why are these institutions deteriorating? Because they
are going back to the harlots and the harlots are going back to the mother.
I picked up a newspaper in Minnesota and read an article about the Lutherans
and Catholics making an alliance. That is the harlots going back to mother.
Most "Christian" television and radio stations are operated mostly by money
from the harlots. They are the children of Catholicism. That is why they
have Catholic priests on a so-called Christian television station. They
are going back because they are operating outside the canopy of God's promise
of divine perpetuity.
The best way to avoid the ecumenical trap is to stay with the local
independent Baptist church. Stay with the First Baptist Church of Hammond,
and I guarantee you that you will never get involved in ecumenicalism in
this generation. I have talked to preachers all across this country who
have their hands tied. The AWANAS have gone to other Bibles besides the
King James. Their churches are splitting because the people are more loyal
to the AWANAS than they are to the local church. AWANAS is carrying them
back to the harlots, and the harlots are carrying them back to the mother.
Somebody has to tell this. If we do not tell people that these things
are gone, they will stay hooked up with them and be swept into the ecumenical
movement by some organization they did not know was going back to the mother.
There are still some good grandchildren. There are still some good inter-denominational
people. Because they do not belong to New Testament churches, and they
do not have the promise of divine perpetuity, they are going to die. What
is the safest thing to do about these good grandchildren? Let me give you
several things.
1. Accept them as brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Thank God for the good they do.
3 Accept them as dear friends.
Accept them as dear friends, but do not join up with them organizationally.
If you do, they will eventually pull you into the ecumenical movement.
You will probably see the day in your generation when the only non ecumenical
people in this world will be independent Baptists. God has promised us
divine perpetuity.
Who is preaching on standards today? Nazarenes? No. Church of God? No.
Southern Baptists? No. Who is preaching against mixed swimming? Who is
preaching on men getting haircuts? Who is preaching that women ought to
wear modest clothing? Who is taking a stand against social drinking? Who
still takes a stand on standards? A few independent Baptists and that is
just about all.
Who is left that believes this Bible? Who is left that believes the
King James Bible has been preserved word for word? Who is left? The Church
of God? No. Nazarenes? No. Children of God? No. American Baptists? No.
Southern Baptists? No. Inter-denominational Bible Institutes? No. Inter-denominational
Bible colleges? No. Who is left? A few independent Baptists. That is all.
It is not getting very popular to be an independent Baptist. It was
not very popular in the seventh century either when they fled to the valley.
Who is still for soul winning? A few independent Baptists.
Who still believes in the doctrine of the local church and not in the
doctrine of the universal church? A few independent Baptist people. That
is all. We do not have a mother or grandmother to go back to. We have a
Saviour Who started our church. We can trace our history very quickly.
It is the New Testament church which was started by Jesus in the book of
Matthew.
Thank God that my mama and daddy moved two doors away from a Baptist
church. My mama was a Methodist until she was forty. That was back in the
days of the old-fashioned shouting Methodists. Mama was baptized in a Baptist
church after she was forty years old. Thank God that we did not have a
car and could not attend anywhere but that Baptist church. Thank God that
I became a preacher in the church that descended from Jesus Christ.
