The Importance of Separation

All right, take your Bibles tonight, if you will, and turn

over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6.

Second Corinthians chapter 6, and you get a second to switch

2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

over to this here. Tried to do it early this

morning, and I ended up having to redo it again anyway, so I

figured we'd just try to tell me when we're ready back there.

All right, very good. All right, I'm going to, this

is, I shared this at camp and I, I, I was going to change it and

do all the different things to try to make it different for

church. And I said, you know what this

is, this is good because this is, this is exactly why I'm

doing this. Ask for the old paths.

That was our that was our theme for camp this year.

And so our young people have heard at least a portion of this

already. I don't think it's going to hurt

for them to hear it again, but I, I was up here trying to

switch over to my other, my smaller iPads.

I realized that I'm, I'm doing a split screen here.

I've got my notes on one and then the PowerPoint on the other

and I realized I can't really see it all that well, but so

we'll see what happens. Hopefully it'll be fine, but I

just, I wanted to try to see if I could use it on both.

But let me give you a little bit of a background to how I came to

what we're going to talk about tonight.

We had a, a men's group in this area that came and asked me if

they could use their use our facility.

They didn't want to use the inside, They just wanted to use

the outside. And kind of their model is they

would do like a 30 minute workout type thing.

They'd start a fire and then everybody would get around the

fire and, and have a little bit of a devotional type thing.

And the whole purpose of the ministry is to strengthen men

and to, you know, try to, to try to help men understand their

role in the home and try to get men to take the leadership

position in their home and, and a lot of other things.

And they wanted to use our outside facility.

So I gave it a lot of thought. They, they were hoping that,

that some of our men would be able to be a part of it and that

our men would, would be able to help theirs and, and challenge

them and kind of, you know, help them as they discuss the Bible

and things like that. But after digging into a little

bit, I had, I had some of the men that I had mentioned this to

that actually shared some things with me that they found on the

on their website that I hadn't found up to that point.

And so we decided against joining them or allowing them to

join us. Maybe it's the way I should say

it, but it was a difficult decision.

I'd gotten to know some of the guys that were in that group,

just through different things. It wasn't, it wasn't because I

was taking part in this men's group or anything like that, but

I had gotten that I met them in some other, some other avenues.

They're nice guys. I had a couple meetings over

lunch with them and, and got to talking about the importance of,

you know, helping our men to leave their homes because the

men in the homes are the ones that are going to leave the

church. And as the church goes, so goes

the home. As the home goes and and, and

vice versa, as the home goes, so goes the church.

And as the churches go, so goes the nation.

And so it's very important that that we do have a ministry for

men and we do have something that helps direct men and guide

men to take that leadership role, to take their Bible study

seriously, to take their their role in leadership seriously

and, and to to guide their family and the way that the

family ought to go. And it was a difficult decision,

but I think it was the right decision.

And so it was, you know, it really was, it came down to the,

the, the night before they were supposed to meet for the first

time is when I called them and said, look, I know you're

planning to meet tomorrow. And you know, this is what you

were planning to use the facility and everything else.

I said, but I just can't do it. I can't do it.

And they were very disappointed because they were looking

forward to using our facility. They were looking forward to us

being a part of it and everything else.

And I said, let's get together for lunch.

And I want to explain to you why we can't.

And so I, I wrote down 5 things and there was more, but these

are the five main things that I shared with this, this guy, very

nice guy. And I, you know, I think they

have the best intention. And I think some of the things

that they're doing are fine. But for us, it's important that

we separate from those kind of things.

And the Bible says this in Second Corinthians chapter 6 and

2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

verse #17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye

separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and

I will receive you. Now we always use this as a way

to say, stay away from the world, stay away from all of

those things. And I think it's a great verse

for that. But he doesn't say come out from

among them, be separate, and don't jump into the world with

both feet, and I will receive you.

If you said that, then I think we could allow some things that

may not be exactly what we are, that may not be exactly what we

should be doing, but it's OK because he said don't.

I didn't. I'm not jumping in with both

feet. I'm just touching it a little

bit. But he says touch not the

unclean thing, right? When Aza touched the Ark of the

Covenant and God smote him dead, he didn't smite him dead because

he jumped into the ark or jumped on the cart that the ark, you

know that the ark was on. He touched it to try to

stabilize it, to keep it from falling.

Great intentions, but he touched something that he was not

allowed to touch. He touched something that he

should never have touched and God smote him dead.

And so when God tells us touch not the unclean thing, I think

he takes it seriously and we ought to as well.

So what I want to talk to you tonight about for, for a little

bit here is the importance of separation.

And I'm going to actually use some of the different things.

I'm going to use some examples from this men's group.

And if you find out what it is, I, it's, it's not like I'm

trying to hide their identity. I just don't think it's worth

pointing them out in that way because I do think there's some

good men that are involved in that.

I do think they have some good intentions.

I think they're mis, misinformed, misdirected maybe

would be a good way to say it. And I think some of our

conversations have helped. At least I hope it has, because

I've noticed that several things that that that used to be up on

the website are not on the website anymore and specific

things that I actually addressed and, and, and, and this guy in

particular said, you know, those are some things that some other

people have brought up as well. And I said, well, good.

At least I'm not the only one that has a problem with it.

And so let's talk about it. Let's have a word of prayer and

then let, and then we'll jump into this tonight.

Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.

We thank you for an opportunity we have to be here tonight.

I pray that this would be a help to us and that it would come

across in the way that it's intended and that we'd

understand the reason why we need to separate from the things

that would keep us from being as pure as we possibly can be as a

church. God, may you use it to help us

tonight. We thank you again for all you

do for us in Jesus name, Amen. First thing I told this fellow

was this doctrine matters. You can write these things down

tonight. I think it will help help you.

Of course, we had Brother Spencer Smith in earlier this

year and he's got a whole YouTube channel, a whole

ministry called Doctrine Matters.

And I think it's very, very important that we understand

that. But here's what we have to

understand. Many times people say, well,

doctrine does not matter. We can, we can bring everybody

together. It's the gospel that's

important. As long as we're preaching the

gospel, as long as the gospel is getting out, then we can, we can

join together and do these things to get the message of the

gospel out. And what you have to understand

is this. The gospel is the central thing,

but it's not the only thing, obviously, if, if it's not if,

if, if the gospel is not being preached, then then it's it's,

it's dead in the water from the very beginning.

The gospel is the most important thing.

It's essential thing, but it's not the only thing in the Bible.

And that's why you have the entire rest of the New

Testament. God wouldn't have given us the

rest of the New Testament if all he wanted us to know was the

gospel. He would have given us the

gospel and he would have ended it right there.

But there's a lot of things in the rest of the Bible, Acts, 1st

and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians,

Colossians all the way through them.

And we've been through a lot of these books.

It's just filled with doctrine and filled with things that

matter. And the, the gospel is central,

but it's not the only thing. And it's an important thing.

It's a very important thing, but it's not the only thing.

And the founder, the leader of this group, and now I don't know

how many men they have county wide.

I know they're, they're actually this group is expanding and

they're in different states. They're in, they're in, but you

know, other parts of the country now as well.

And you know, this, this guy has a podcast that he does and I

don't know how often that he does it, but he interviews

different people about different things and, you know, things

that he thinks will be a help to men.

His choice of interviewees, the people that he's interviewed

proves that that they have a very low view of doctrine and

the importance of doctrine. And I just pulled out a couple

that I'll highlight here. This is this is an interview

that he did with a guy called from a, from a heavy metal band,

heavy metal Christian band called Saved by Saved by Scarlet

is the name of the band. And the whole thing is how God

built a metal band. I can tell you one thing, God

didn't build that metal band. Something else did.

And they're blaming it on God, but God didn't build that metal

band. And I'll tell you, you know what

what's happening is, is as they have these interviews and

things, essentially what they're saying is all of these things

are OK. And by me allowing our church to

be a part of it. And this is kind of really what

did it for me. The the first thing that I

noticed on their website is Mount Victory Baptist Church,

new location here where everybody we're meeting here,

there's a new location. I said, I'm not going to be

associated with this kind of stuff.

God didn't build no heavy metal band that he wants us to be a

part of. He didn't, he didn't build these

things. They, they, they're, they're,

you know, blaming God for it. I'm saying they're giving God

credit. I'm blaming, you know, they, the

way I see it, they're blaming God for building this metal

band. But God didn't do that.

God didn't do that. And he's having an interview

with this guy and basically telling everybody, hey, it's OK

if you want to go listen to heavy metal music, it's not OK

to listen to heavy metal music. That music is not of God.

And we'll talk a little bit more about that.

Here's another one. He had a he had a guy on there

named Keith Nester. And this guy is a Catholic.

And the whole point of the podcast is why I left

Protestantism, why I left Protestantism.

And kind of the whole idea behind it was, well, we're just

kind of giving everybody a different view, letting them see

it from another side. But essentially what he did in

this podcast was he gave this Catholic guy an entire platform

to explain to everybody why they should become Catholic.

And he doesn't know his Bible well enough to even know how to,

to disagree with this guy. So there was no disagreement.

It was a platform for this guy to say why I left Protestantism

and why you should leave Protestantism too, you know, And

of course, we're not Protestant anyway.

So leave Protestantism, I don't care.

But don't become Catholic, right?

We're Baptist and we want you to become a Baptist, not a

Protestant. We were never protesting

anything. We were never part of the

Catholic Church to begin with. That your Methodists and your

Presbyterians and your Lutheran's and all of those,

they were all Protestants. The Baptist Church was never

part of that. We were always separate from all

of those things. And so you know why I left

Protestantism. It's a great platform to share

with everybody else why they should leave Protestantism too.

Had another guy that came on there and talked about the

Enneagram and, and if you look on that far left side, you can

kind of see a diagram of what an Enneagram is.

But only 13% of people are truly self aware.

Are you one of them? Well, I looked into, I had heard

of the Enneagram before and I knew a lot of its roots.

But let me tell you a little bit about the Enneagram.

The Enneagram is a personality typing system with 9

interconnected types based on core motivations, fears, desires

visualized on this nine pointed diagram.

But this, this Enneagram actually was brought to the West

by, and I don't know if I'm going to get this guy's name

right because it's really weird how it's spelled.

But GI Gurdjieff, I think is how you say it.

He was a Mystic. And there was another guy that

came along that was associated with these personality types.

The guy's name was Oscar Ichazo. He claimed that an angelic being

actually taught him about the Enneagram.

And so those who defend this enneagram, they're going to say

that, well, it's just a, it's just a harmless personality

assessment tool, but it's very deeply rooted in new age and a

cult. It has all of those origins and

the historical roots of the Enneagram are tied to Mystics

and occult leaders who incorporated occult and

spiritual teachings into their work.

They and they did not try to hide it at all.

It's not like they were doing something and, and pretending

that it was a good Christian thing.

And then, you know, they were, they were, they were, you know,

kind of coming in the back door with their occult and, and

rituals and magic and all of those other things.

They were full blown occult leaders and, you know, Mystics

and everything else. And a few years ago, this whole

idea kind of took the Christian world by storm.

But it has, you know, this syncretic worldview because it

blends and harmonizes religious, spiritual, and occult ideas all

into one single system. And it's pretty similar.

If you're looking for something to compare it to, it's pretty

similar to like the astrological signs, which obviously astrology

is not the study of the stars that God intended us.

He astronomy is perfectly fine. In fact, astronomy is a good

thing. There are many, many times in

the Bible when the stars are mentioned.

In fact, you read through the book of Job and there's a ton of

constellations that are named in the book of Job, and obviously

they study the heavens. That's a very big difference

between astronomy and astrology. We're not looking for our

astrological signs. And when you start getting into

that, you're delving into that, into the occult, into the

mysticism, and into all those other things that come along

with that. And this Enneagram has got the

same exact base. And guys like Richard Rohr ROHR,

they're proponents of this enneagram, but they often

promote this universalist worldview where all the

religions share the same truths. We're just saying it a little

bit different way, but we all share the same truth.

These are the kind of guys that are that are promoting this.

And of course, the Enneagram is, is a gnostic path to self

discovery. That's why only 13% of people

are self aware. Are you one of them?

Right. I mean, I don't need to be self

aware. I know who I am.

I'm a Sinner before God and I'm saved by grace.

I don't need self discovery. You know, you hear people say it

all the time. I, I just had to take some time

off to go discover myself. What are you, what are you

trying to discover? Right?

There's nothing to discover. The Bible tells us who we are,

tells us who we can be in Christ.

My identity is not in myself. My identity is in Christ, right?

And, and I don't need to go become self aware.

I don't need to self identify as, as you know, whatever it

happens to be. It's all about self discovery

and it puts all the emphasis on you and not on God.

We don't need self discovery. We need God.

And so the reason you're seeing a falling away in many, many

churches is because you have a huge faction of denominations

are saying that doctrine doesn't matter.

It's not important as long as the gospel is being preached.

And by the way, most of these churches who say that doctrine

doesn't matter, it's this, it's the gospel that's the most

important are not preaching the gospel either.

The gospel is central to the entire Bible, but it's not the

only thing in the entire Bible. And there's many things that

matter. And one of the things that that

this guy, the founder bragged about in one of his podcast was

that there were represented 9 different denominations are

represented by this, by this men's group.

We have 9 different denominations that that, that

are hosting these, these men's groups.

That's not a good thing. That's that, that's something

that pushes me away from that. I am different in my

denomination for a reason. I'm trying to separate from

those that are not preaching the truth.

I don't want to be joined together with them.

And, and here's what happens. OK, now we're going to do this

men's group and we're going to have Catholics and, and

Presbyterians and Pentecostals and Lutherans and all of these

people come together. Now we're associated with all of

those people. And essentially I'm giving my

stamp of approval to them because I'm praying on the same

stage or in the same Bible study as a Catholic guy.

And I have to pretend that he's a Christian too.

And I hear these people calling him, hey brother, you know this

and that. You're not my brother.

You're, you're a fellow human, but you're not my brother

because you don't know Christ as your savior, right?

And there's a huge difference and there's a huge necessity

for, for a separation when it comes to doctrine.

And it's necessary. It's important.

Doctrine absolutely matters. But I'll tell you what happens

when you, when doctrine doesn't matter.

That's how you end up with homosexual pastors.

That's how you end up with transgenders on, on the on the

stage, singing in your music group and and leading your

worship services and everything else.

Because doctrine doesn't matter. As long as you say Jesus, as

long as you talk about God, then that's the only thing that

matters. No doctrine matters.

It's important. There's a lot I could preach, AI

could preach a message about every single one of these

things. Tonight, I'm not going to do

that. I'm going to move along.

So the first one is that doctrine matters.

But the second thing, the second main issue that I have with this

group is that they're not local church.

Turn over to Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

They should be a ministry of a local church.

You have to have that guidance in that direction.

You end up trying to be so broad that you'll accept anybody when

you're not a ministry of a local church.

I would much rather have this guy be a Lutheran who is trying

to promote Lutheran doctrine, that I would have him be

everything to everybody and promote nothing and have no

doctrinal standards when it comes to any of those things.

Now, if he was Lutheran, I still wouldn't do it, but it's much,

much better for him to be under somebody and have a pastor who

is directing him and guiding him and leading him in those things.

Is it wrong for a guy to have a ministry that he leads?

Absolutely not. But that ministry needs to be a

ministry of a local church the same, the same way that these

ministries that we're working together with to reach these

college campuses, they're ministries of local churches.

They are under a pastor and they have a pastor who is helping to

direct them and lead them and guide them.

Same way that a missionary ought to be, missionaries ought to be

under a local church. If all you are is under a

mission board, then you don't have that authority that you

need to have on the mission field.

You need to be under a local church.

And obviously, you know, this Catholic guy is now connected

with this organization and he's going to try to get people into

the Catholic Church. And this Pentecostal guy is

connected to this organization. He's going to try to get people

to become Pentecostal and all of these other things.

If you have no direction, if you have no guidance because you're

not under of the ministry of a local church, then you try to be

everything to everybody. And I know Paul said I made all

things to all men, but that's not what he meant.

So you're making men stronger. That's their that's your goal.

We're making men stronger. But I asked the question

stronger in what? Stronger in the Catholic faith,

Stronger Pentecostal, stronger Lutheran, stronger Methodist.

Is that what you're trying to make them stronger?

What if you have no direction from God's word and you have no

direction from your local church?

Then what are you making men stronger in?

You want them to take a leadership role?

Then, then, then go sit under John Maxwell and listen how to

be a better leader. There's no difference.

If, if, if that's all you're going to do, then you are not

leading men to be stronger in in Christ.

You're leading men to be stronger as leaders and that's

it. And that doesn't count for

anything when it comes to spirituality.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 25.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Husbands, love your wives. Even as Christ also loved the

church and gave himself for it, it doesn't say as Christ also

loved the ministry and gave himself for it.

He loved the church and the church is central to everything

that we do. And every ministry that we have

ought to be a ministry of the local church.

Every ministry that we are part of ought to be a ministry of a

local church. Maybe you've heard this term

before, but it's a term. It's called para church

organizations. A para church organization is an

organization that is not under the authority.

Of a local church. This men's group is not under

the authority of a local church. And that's one of the reasons

why they're all over the place. And you have Catholic guys on

and doing interviews and guys teaching about the Enneagram on

to do interviews and all of these other things because you

have no direction and no guidance because you're not

under the ministry of a local church.

Let me give you another issue that I have and that is CCM,

contemporary Christian music. There's a lot that I could say

about this, obviously that I'm not going to, but I'll tell you

this. CCM is the bridge to everything

else that pulls you away from God.

CCM is the bridge to everything else that pulls you away from

God. Let me, in fact, let me give you

this quote. This is by a guy named Corey

Asbury. And, and I, I couldn't tell you

who he was until I looked him up, but apparently he is a chart

topping artist. He's part of Bethel Music.

Bethel Music is obviously a huge music producing machine, but he

said this on TikTok. Marketing yourself is

antithetical to the way of Jesus.

Every Christian artist has a camera on themselves or a camera

crew team videoing everything they do.

Scripture tells us don't let your left hand know what your

right hand is doing and yet we hire entire promo teams to tell

the world how great we are. A lot of what pushed me away

from the Christian music industry was people writing

worship songs knowing that they're going to get a big fat

CCLI. Check if it does really well and

I'll have another video on CCLII.

Personally have made tons of money, I mean millions and

millions of dollars from CCLI, which is when churches put your

lyric up on the screen and they sing your song.

But what happens is people see that success or they hear about

that success and they go, I want to do that.

I need to write a worship banger and it becomes formulaic.

It's not from the heart inauthentic garbage drivel, not

from God, but from man. This is from a contemporary

Christian artist who was, in a moment of honesty at least,

willing to admit what the whole contemporary Christian music

industry is about. It is all about writing the next

banger so you can make a lot of money.

It's not about pleasing God. It's not about Christ being

glorified. Oh, they would say that they're

going to lead the worship and they're going to say that, but

look at their lives. Look at the lives of most of

these people, man. I'm not going to think of the

guy's name, but he was really, really popular of a group called

Newsboys, I think. And I can't remember the guy's

name who was the lead singer of this group just came out that he

has had all kinds of affairs and and by the way, it looks he's

going to end up in prison from some of the things that he's

done that have finally come to light.

These are the guys that are writing your worship music if

you're listening to contemporary Christian music.

These are the guys that are leading these large mega

churches today because it's not the pastor that's leading it.

It's being driven by the music and the money for all of these

massive places is being driven by the music.

Bethel Hillsong Elevation, there's there's, there's several

of them that are kind of at the top of the of the contemporary

Christian music industry. And everybody that's there wants

to write the next song that's going to bring them millions.

And that's the only reason that most of them are doing it.

And it's proof because as soon as they get good enough that

they can crossover into pop music and everything else, they

do it. And all the sudden everything

that was about Christ is not about that at all anymore.

Now it all becomes about the music industry and making money.

By the way, when you call it the contemporary Christian music

industry, you know it's a problem.

And that's exactly what they call it.

It's the contemporary Christian music industry.

That's exactly what it is. It's a way to make money, and

that's about it. But I'll tell you this, when

contemporary Christian music is introduced in a church,

everything else begins to go in the wrong direction.

When you bring in that kind of music and you turn the lights

off in the auditorium and you turn the lights up on the stage

and you have a band up there behind you with everybody that's

dressed exactly like all the rest of the world bands are

dressed. And if you didn't have a sign on

the front that said something church, you would have no idea

that it was anything different. And if you didn't hear Jesus

every once in a while, you had no idea that you were at a

different type that that, that you were at any other concert

than something that you can go down to at Innsbruck after hours

and listen to. You have no idea about the fog

machines and the strobe lights and the, and the, the graphics

that are coming up on the screen behind the musicians.

If you, if you didn't hear Jesus every now and then, you would

have no idea that it was anything different than what you

could go down to and listen to on a Friday night with everybody

drinking beer and smoking and doing pot and all of those other

things. You'd have no idea that there

was anything different because they look and act and dress

exactly like the world. They sing like the world because

that's what they're trying to produce.

And if you're not giving the world something different, why

do you think they're going to want to come to Christ?

If I can go to a concert and pay for it on Saturday night, or go

to a concert and sit in there for free on Sunday, which one do

you think I'm going to do? Most of the people are going to

go sit there on Sunday because it's a free concert, but that's

the only thing that they're looking at it as.

It's a free concert. It's a way to sit there and

listen to music and feel spiritual.

Most time you walk out of there on this high for a little bit,

but it doesn't last very long. And contemporary Christian

music, when you when you bring that into the church, doctrine

becomes less important. When you bring that into the

church, the Bible that you use becomes less important.

You bring that into the church and all the sudden standards of

dress become less important. It doesn't matter what you wear

anymore. You can wear anything you want

as long as you're worshipping God in the way that God wants to

be worshipped, right? That's what they say.

You can't take the world's music, mix it with Christian

words, and expect God to bless it.

Rock music, by the admission of all of those who were the

founders of rock music and have written rock music for years and

years, was written to be sex music.

And I'm being blunt, but that's exactly what they say it was

written for. And they have no problem telling

you that. And you're going to take that

music and try to mix it with Christian words and expect that

God's going to be OK with that. Expect that you can bring that

into the church and expect God to say, that's something that's

pleasing to me. You expect, expect God to say,

now that's music that that that is for worship when it was

designed to be the exact opposite of that.

You cannot take the world's music and put it with Christian

words and expect that God's going to bless it.

And further, you cannot take the world's standards and put it

into a church setting and expect God to bless that either.

But that's exactly what's happening.

We're dancing around on the stage and hopping around and

doing all this kind of stuff. And you got your guys with their

long hair down their backs and their little beanies on and

their, and their chains around their necks and their pants

sagging down. And you know, they're, they're,

they're $500 tennis shoes that they want everybody to see and

that you can't tell any difference between them and

Justin Bieber. And you expect that God's going

to bless that. You're going to bring that into

the church and say God bless this.

God is looking at that and I think even worse than what he

said to the church at Laodicea. I want to throw up when I see

that because that's not music that is pleasing to the Lord.

There's no way that that music is pleasing to the Lord when you

are doing everything you can to imitate the very world that God

says. If you are a friend of them, you

are the enemy of God. And you're going to bring that

into the church and try to pretend that it's OK because

it's in a church setting or because you put a couple of

church words with it. That's not pleasing to the Lord

and God's not going to bless that.

You are becoming friends of the world.

And in becoming a friend of the world, you are becoming an enemy

of God. And they have no problem.

This men's group has no problem playing this contemporary

Christian music. They have no problem promoting

this contemporary Christian music.

They've had many of these CCM artists on to their podcast to

interview them and talk about how great God is doing things in

their life and how much God is blessing them.

And you might look at that from the outside and say, we'll look

at all the success. Yeah, but Justin Bieber had

success, too. Is God blessing that?

You know, all these other artists who are at the top, you

know, top charts, you know, top 100 or whatever it happens to

be, they're being blessed by God, too, right?

Because they're making millions of dollars and everybody knows

who they are, and their songs are popular and everything else.

God's blessing that too, right? Or just because something is

popular doesn't mean that God's blessing it.

God allows it, but it doesn't mean that he is blessing.

It doesn't mean it's there because of God's blessing.

So you don't, you don't judge it by that.

You don't judge. You don't judge the value of

something by its success. You judge the value of something

by how closely it is to the Word of God.

That's the standard, and that's why doctrine matters.

That's why it's important that we do not bring contemporary

Christian music into the church. You should fight with everything

you have to keep CCM out of this church.

As long as I'm the pastor, we're going to keep it out.

But there may be a day when I'm not, if I'm ever not the pastor

of this church, You ought to fight with everything you have

to keep contemporary Christian music out of the church.

Because the day that that music walks down the aisle and sings

on the stage or plays on the stage, everything else is going

out the window. And this will be a church that

God can no longer bless because you give it five years, maybe

10, and everything that we've ever stood for will be gone.

That's what contemporary music is.

It's dangerous, it's a poison. And we ought to fight with

everything we have to keep it away from our church.

Let me give you another one, another issue that I have when

it comes to the idea of separation, and that is a casual

attitude toward church. Now, let me give you a caution,

because there's a lot of people who associate the way that you

dress with godliness. And in other words, I can live

how I want. I can think how I want to think.

I can do things that nobody knows that I'm doing.

But as long as I dress the right way, then I'm a good Christian.

And I believe that dress is very, very, very important.

That's why we have the dress standards that we have.

Dress is important. But many times people have put a

huge emphasis on the wrong thing and they put a huge emphasis on

dress. And as long as I dress right,

then I'm a good Christian. I can live my life how I want

to. And that's wrong.

That's wrong. But the way you dress does

matter. And I'll tell you this, in fact,

let me give it to you here. The way that you dress for

church sets the tone for the way that you present yourself before

God as you sing the hymns, as you listen to the message, as

you do everything that you do at church.

The way that you dress matters. And that's why, that's why I,

especially everybody that's doing something as, as, as, as

part of singing or playing or whatever it happens to be, we

dress in a suit because I am coming before the King of Kings

and I want to act and dress like I'm coming before the King of

Kings. I don't want to dress like I'm

going on a, on a, on a sloppy beach day and just being casual

in a T-shirt and flip flops and shorts.

I'm going before the King of Kings.

If you had an opportunity to go meet the President of the United

States, I can promise you that 99.9% of the people who dressed

that way in church would wear their best suit that they had to

go meet the President of the United States.

Well, God doesn't care. He's looking at the heart.

No, God is looking at the heart, but he also cares about how you

dress. He cares about what you look

like. And it's not just what you're

wearing. It's an attitude change, right?

I'm going to meet the King of Kings.

I don't want to be sloppy and casual when I do it.

It changes the way that you do look.

I'm not going to get out there in a suit and tie and play

baseball, all right? I'm not going to go throw a

baseball or football. Then maybe I'll toss the ball

here and there, but I'm not going to play football in a suit

and tie. I act differently when I'm

dressed in a suit than I do when I'm wearing shorts and AT shirt

and tennis shoes, right? When you put on shorts and AT

shirt and tennis shoes, your attitude automatically becomes

casual because that's what you wear when you're casual, right?

Or a pair of jeans and AT shirt, that's it's a casual dress.

And so your attitude becomes that way.

And when I show up at church in a casual dress, my attitude

automatically is a casual attitude toward everything

that's happening, including the way that I'm going to worship

God. I remember this when I was when

I was in school, any time we played, we played soccer, we

wrestled, we played basketball. And on the days that we had a

game or a tournament or something like that, we had to

wear a suit to school. Now, I always, we had to wear a

shirt and tie. We could wear khakis, but we had

to wear a shirt and tie. Once you got in 9th grade, 9th

through 12th grade, had to wear a shirt and tie to school every

day. And that changed the way that

you acted. But you got used to that.

But on days when we had a game and you came in in a suit,

everybody acted differently because you're not going to do

things in a suit that you would do in shorts and AT shirt.

Your attitude changes. I'm on the soccer team and I got

a game today and I want everybody to know it.

You know, your attitude changes, and it's the same when you come

to church. You're dressed in a suit.

You're carrying your Bible instead of scrolling your phone

and answering text messages and looking at Facebook during the

message because you're distracted, right?

It changes everything about your attitude in church.

That's why we dress up. That's why we wear a suit.

And this guy in particular that I was talking with and sharing

that with him, he said, man, you know what, I've never thought

about that before, but you're exactly right.

That's exactly what happens at church.

Everybody's, everybody's just casual and the whole attitude is

casual in church. And listen, that's exactly what

contemporary Christian music does to the atmosphere.

You're just at a concert, you're not at church, You're just,

you're just hanging out with your friends and join the music.

All right, go bring your bring your coffee in there and sip on

your coffee during the service. It's just, it's just the another

event. It's not church, right?

Bring your snacks in there and if you get hungry, just dig in

there and eat them because no, I mean, the music is so loud,

nobody can hear the rappers anyway, right?

But that's what it does. The attitude changes completely

when you dress differently. And I'm telling you that all of

it starts when you bring in contemporary Christian music.

And I'm not, I'm not just keeping harping on that, but I'm

telling you, the entire attitude becomes casual.

And the dress, the way that you dress for church has a lot to do

with that. Now, let me share this last one

with you, and I'll give you this.

If you want to pull your phone out, you're welcome to do that

because you can follow along with me.

I'm going to put them on the screen here for you to see this.

But there's a reason we hold to the King James Bible.

And it's not just that this is the version that we decided was

the best. This is the version that God

preserved miraculously and gave us God's Word in English, and

He's promised that He would preserve His Word forever.

If he will preserve His Word forever, then that means all of

the words are preserved. And that means they didn't get

it wrong when they translated our Bible into English.

And for 250 years we were scrambling around trying to find

the right version. And now all of a sudden in 1990,

they wrote the right version of the Bible, and now we have it.

Now, God promised that He would preserve His Word, and we've had

God's preserved word from the time that He wrote it until

today, and we will have it for all of eternity.

I do believe that there are other versions of the Bible in

different languages that are also the preserved Word of God

in their language, but we have the preserved Word of God in

English in our King James Bible. It does not need to be changed.

There is nothing wrong with our Bible, and I'll tell you this,

Things that are different cannot be the same.

It's just another way to say the same thing.

No, it's not. Things that are different cannot

be the same. And when you start messing with

God's word and you start changing the version of the

Bible and you start adding different things and taking

different things away, you are changing things that matter.

You are changing doctrines that matter.

And I want to show you some examples, OK?

The ESV the ESV and the NIV are probably two of the most popular

versions besides the King James Version of the Bible and the NIV

and the ESV are very similar to each other.

So what I want to do as we close here is just give you some

comparisons. Let you see some of the

differences between the King James Bible and the English

standard version of the Bible. Tell me if you notice that

there's anything different. Here's what the Bible says in

Mark chapter 10 and verse 24. I would highly recommend that

Mark 10 · chapter mention

you write these verses down. It's a great comparison for you

to look at these things and, and really, if you're trying to show

somebody else why you believe the King James Bible is the word

of God, these are some great verses to take them to.

All right, Mark chapter 10 and verse #24 the Bible says, and

Mark 10 · chapter mention

listen, I want you to pay attention to these.

I want you to watch these because I'm going to ask you

what the difference is here, OK. And the disciples were

astonished at his words, but Jesus answereth again and said

unto them, children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches

to enter into the Kingdom of God?

That's the King James Version. Here's what the ESV says in Mark

Mark 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10 and verse 24. And the disciples were amazed at

his words. But Jesus said unto them again,

children, how difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of God.

You notice the difference? Let's go back children.

How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into

the Kingdom of God? Is it hard to get into heaven?

Absolutely not. Christ has made their way to

heaven very easy, but not according to the ESV.

According to the ESV, it's very difficult to get into heaven.

Children, how difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of God.

You think a doctrine has been changed in those different

translations? No, no, it's just a different

way to say the same thing. Doctrine hasn't been changed.

No, it absolutely has. It's not difficult to enter to

heaven, but that's what the ESV says.

John chapter 6 and verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you,

John 6 · chapter mention

he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

And see what the ESV says. Truly, truly, I say unto you,

whoever believes has eternal life.

See any difference? How about on me, which is the

central port point of the entire Bible?

No, whosoever he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

This one you're allowed to believe anything you want to.

He that believes has everlasting life.

How many times you've heard somebody say I'm a believer?

What does a believer mean? If you're not believing on

Christ, then it doesn't matter what you're believing in.

You think doctrine has been changed in that verse?

Absolutely it has. Acts chapter 8 and verse #37 Now

Acts 8 · chapter mention

let me give you a little bit of context here.

Acts chapter 8 is the story of the Ethiopian eunuch.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

Philip meets this Ethiopian eunuch in his chariot and he

finds him there reading the reading the book of Isaiah.

Yes. In fact, here's what I want you

to do. Turn over to Acts chapter 8,

Acts 8 · chapter mention

because I want you to see this. OK, Acts chapter 8, he comes up

Acts 8 · chapter mention

to him and the Ethiopian eunuch is reading the book of Isaiah.

And Philip asks him, hey, do you understand what you're reading?

And he didn't say, hey, but that's, that's my version of the

Bible, Philip. So so verse 34 the eunuch

answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the

prophet this of himself, or of some other man?

Philip opened his mouth and began at the same Scripture, and

preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way,

they came unto a certain water. And the eunuch said, See, here

is water, what does hinder me to be baptized?

Here's verse 37. And Philip said, If thou

believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to

stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip

and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

So verse 37, Acts chapter 8, verse 37 is where I'm drawing

Acts 8:37

your attention. Philip said, if I believe it's

with all thine heart, thou mayest.

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. Here's what it says in the ESV.

Nothing. That verse is gone.

The entire verse is missing. And so I asked this guy, this is

what I was doing. I sat down, I had this list of

verses, and I said, hey, I want you to read Acts 837 and tell me

what it says in the ESV. And he started reading and he

commanded the chariot to stand. So I said, no, no, that's verse

38. Read verse 37.

It's not there. I said exactly.

Now here's what the Bible says in the King James Version tell

me that that's not important doctrine to tell us that it's

not baptism that saves you. It's believing on the Lord Jesus

Christ and if you believe on him with all your heart, then you

can be baptized. No, they skipped over it

perfectly. Here's water.

What did hinder me to be baptized and he commanded the

chariot stands to stand still. They went down in the water and

he baptized no mention I believe in Jesus Christ with all of your

heart. No mention of a testimony of I

believe with all my heart that he Jesus is the Son of God.

Here's another one. Romans chapter 8 verse #1 There

Romans 8 · chapter mention

is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ

Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Let's see what the ESV has to say.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus. Do you think that's a doctrinal

change? Look what it took out.

It took out the whole second-half of the verse, who

walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

It completely eliminates holy living.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are

in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the

Spirit takes it completely out. First Corinthians chapter one

verse #18 This is what the Bible says in the King James.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish

foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of

God. See if you notice a difference.

It's subtle, but this is what it says in the ESV.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are

perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of

God. You think there's any doctrinal

change in that verse? Is being saved a process or is

it something that happens the moment you accept Christ as your

Savior? And here's what the Bible says

unto us, which are saved. It is the power of God.

Here's what they say it is to us who are being saved.

It is the power of God. No, no, it's not a process.

It's a one time single moment event.

Colossians chapter 1 and verse 14.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

In whom we have redemption through His blood.

Even the forgiveness of sins. Let's see what the ESV has to

say. In whom we have redemption, the

forgiveness of sins. Any doctrinal changes in that

one? Let's just take the blood of

Christ completely out of it. It's not necessary, it doesn't

matter. No, no, the Bible says it does.

In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the

forgiveness of sins. Micah chapter 5, verse #2 But

Micah 5 · chapter mention

thou, Bethlehem Efrata, though thou belittle among the

thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me

that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been

from of old from everlasting. Let's see what the ESV has to

say. But you, O Bethlehem Efrata, who

are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall

come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming

forth is from of old, from ancient days.

Hang on, what does the Bible say whose goings forth have been

from of old, from everlasting? Is there a difference between

everlasting and ancient days? Everlasting means he's God,

means he never had a beginning. From ancient days means he had a

start, means he's not God. You are changing dramatically

doctrines that really matter in God's Word when you change the

Bible version. Daniel chapter 3, verse 25.

Daniel 3:25

This is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And they got thrown into the fiery furnace.

And once they got into the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar looked

inside and he didn't see three men.

He saw 4. He answered and said, LO, I see

four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they have

no hurt. And the form of the 4th is like

the son of God. Let's see what the ESV has to

say. But I see four men unbound

walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt.

And the appearance of the 4th is like a son of the gods.

Why do you change that? Well there's no way that

Nebuchadnezzar could have known what the son of God looked like.

The only thing that he would have had as a reference is what

the a son of the gods might have looked like.

So that's why we changed it and said son of the gods.

You're taking the miracle away from what God did there and

showed Nebuchadnezzar that it was not just a son of the gods.

What he was looking at was an pre Incarnate appearance of

Jesus Christ and you completely changed that because of your own

finite understanding and because you don't believe in the

miracles that God can do. Let me give you this one.

This is the last one. First John chapter 5 and verse

1 John 5 · chapter mention

#7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,

the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.

It's one of the greatest verses that we have on the Trinity

because it puts all of those in the same place and very clearly

says that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit

are all one. Here's what the ESV and the NIV,

by the way, I'm saying ESV, the NIV does the exact same thing on

all of these verses. Here's what the ESV says, for

there are three that testify. You think we changed some

doctrine when we change the version of the Bible?

Absolutely. Things that are different cannot

be the same. And they're very clearly not.

And there are many, many, many more examples.

There are, there are, and I'm going to get this wrong, but I

know there's, there's over 8000 changes between the King James

Version and the ESV, the NIV and many of these other versions.

And I, and I'm going low. I believe it's much, much, much

higher than that. 8000 changes and not just inconsequential

changes, not just changing thee and thou to you, by the way, you

take those things out, you take out meanings as well.

Thee and thou is singular Ye and you are plural, right?

It's it went. Oh, we got to update it because

people just don't speak like that anymore.

They didn't speak like that then either.

They didn't speak like that. Read the read the, the, the,

what do you call it? The preface to the King James

Version? They don't, they didn't speak

like that. They didn't say thee and thou

and all this stuff in the preface that the translators

wrote. They didn't write like that, but

they gave the Bible that language because it's a

beautiful language to use and it's very specific language that

they used. That's why they used it.

It wasn't just because they, they decided that, you know,

we're going to give this old Victorian English and leave it

there. No, it's because God gave that

to them. There were 55 men that God used

to give us an accurate translation of God's Word in our

English language to perfectly preserve His Word as He promised

that He would do. When you start messing with

God's word, it's not just a different way to say the same

thing. You are taking things out of

God's Word that matter very, very much.

And you know their argument. If you were to talk to somebody

who defends the, the ESV or the NIV, their argument would be,

well, it says the same thing in other places.

Then why do you need to take it out?

Why do you need to change it? You're taking away the things

that are important, the blood of Christ.

You take the blood of Christ out.

You take the Trinity completely out of the Bible.

By the way, the whole second-half of the last chapter

of Mark is missing in all of those Bibles as well.

Many of your translations take the whole second-half of Mark 16

completely out of the Bible, and if they have it in there, it

says the oldest and more most reliable manuscripts remove this

portion of the Bible. If you can't trust God's Word,

that you have God's Word in your hand in the English language,

then you can doubt any part of God's word that you don't feel

like taking a hold of. And it's exactly what we're what

we see happening. You see a lot of most of it's

happening in your Methodist and you Universalist churches and

things like that. And they're saying, well, God

was a bigot. And these men who wrote these

things and you know, they said that God gave them those words,

but these men were bigots because that's the that's the

age that they lived in. And so, you know, the things

that they say. I mean, I heard, I heard a

woman, it was just a little clip.

I'm not watching women preachers.

I can promise you that much. But I saw a little clip and this

woman said Paul was really a bully.

The things that Paul wrote. I mean, you know, we have to

take everything that Paul wrote with a grain of salt because he

was a bully. That's that's the way they view

God's word. But when you start messing with

it and you start giving translations of God's word that

don't say anything because you're trying to be everything

to everybody, that's when you end up with that women

preachers, homosexuals, people who are an abomination to God in

the pulpit, getting up and trying to lead people down a

direction. I was going to say God's people,

but I don't think they are. Most of them, if not all of

them, are not saved. They don't understand the truth.

And it's sad. It's really sad.

But all that to say that that it's that, that there is a

necessity for separation. We're not just separating

because we want to be different. We're not just separating

because we don't feel like being like them or they decided to do

it this way. We just decided to do it that

way. No separation is necessary if

we're going to keep God's church pure and the Bible matters, and

doctrine matters, and music matters and the way we dress

matters. All of those things matter

because those are the things that are helping to keep God's

church pure the way that He told us we should be keeping His

church pure. I don't want any of the world in

this church. I don't want any influence of

the, the, the rottenness of the world to come into this church.

And we get comfortable with it and we accept it.

And if you're going to accept some, then you got to accept all

of it because there's some things that certain people like

and some things that other people like.

And you like the music. And so we accept that.

And you like the dress. So we accept that.

If we start accepting some of it, we end up accepting all of

it. So how do you keep the church

pure? You keep it all out.

You keep it all out. I don't even want a drop of mud

in my water, right? How many would would say that?

Give me give me a drink of water.

OK, Let me just put one drop of mud in it.

I don't want that cup of water. It's got a drop of mud in it.

Well, it doesn't have a whole scoop of mud in it.

It's just a drop. Why don't you do?

Why can't you drink it? Well, I don't want it because

it's got dirt in the in the water, right?

And the same thing is true with the church.

I don't want even a drop of the impurity of the world.

Well, it's not a ton of the world.

Can't we just have a little bit of it?

No, I don't want any of it. I want it pure the way that

Christ wants it pure. So separation matters and it's

and it's important. And these are just a few of the

reasons why. Let's pray.

Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us,

and thank you for the opportunity that we have to be

here together tonight. I pray that this is a help.

God, may we help. May we keep the church pure the

way that you want the church to be pure.

May you help us to stand strong against the onslaught of not

just the world, but of the churches who are trying to bring

the world into the church and trying to pretend that all of us

have to do the exact same thing. God, may you help us not for the

sake of pride, but for the sake of purity and for the sake of

the truth. May you help us to stand strong

against the things that would come into our church and make it

impure. God, may you help us to be what

you want us to be. Thank you again for all you do

for us in Jesus name, Amen. If you stand at your seats with

the heads bowed in your eyes closed, I want to give you an

opportunity to respond. I know this is more of a

teaching type message than a preaching message, but maybe you

need to ask the Lord to help you stand strong.

Or maybe, maybe some of these things are new to you.

You need to make some decisions to change some of these things

yourself, because they matter. They matter.

However, the Lord spoke to your heart.

Tonight, as the piano plays the invitations open, you come.