Week 6: Why Biblical Christianity Is Different | June 29, 2025 Sunday School

Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Thank you for being here for our Sunday school hour, for those

joining us online. Thank you for being here as well

as we continue a lesson that we started last week looking at why

biblical Christianity is different.

And of course, this is a little different from other lessons

that we have done before in the sense that we don't necessarily

have a text. Her text is going to be those

verses that we are talking about as we go through these about 25

other points here this morning as we really try to cinch up the

difference of biblical Christianity to any other cult

that is out there. It is important that we

differentiate biblical Christianity because remember

the cults are those that say that they are Christians but yet

are not biblical Christianity. I think particularly the Jehovah

Witnesses and the Mormons, those who would claim to be part of

the Christian faith. Yet just by looking a little bit

beneath the surface, you find out that there is really nothing

Christian about them because they would not hold too many of

these tenets of what biblical Christianity is.

And although we are going through these very quickly, I

would also say that this is not an exhaustive list, nor are we

covering them in an exhaustive way.

I might be exhausted when it's done because there's just so

many we're going through so quickly.

But we're not trying to cover each of these points in a way

that would really expound all the depth of the doctrine.

Because really, we could do a lesson on each one of these 50

and probably go through a pretty serious series if that's what we

were to do. But that is not what we're doing

here. We're just giving you the

different differentiation between Bible, Christianity and

what the world has to offer as well.

And then we looked at several questions last week and the

first that we looked at just by way of review was who is God?

We wanted to see who he was and how is he active in the world.

And then the second question that we saw was who are we and

where do we come from? And of course the word of God

gives us the answer to that. We saw what is the Bible and how

is it different from other religious texts?

And certainly we could talk at great length about that as well.

And then question four, who is Jesus Christ and what did he

accomplish? Well, we do have three more

questions that I want us to look at here today.

And getting right into it, we were looking at question #5

which is this? What is Christ doing now by the

Holy Spirit? We saw that Jesus Christ died,

was buried, and that he rose again.

But Jesus Christ is still active today.

Why? Because he is alive and he lives

forever more. And So what is His ministry

today and how is that ministry accomplished through the Holy

Spirit? The Gospels record what Jesus

began to both to do and to teach, but his activity did not

cease when he ascended into heaven.

That he is still quite active today.

And through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of

us, there are still many things that he is active in doing and

will be active in the future. And so the first is this.

The Spirit convicts sinners of their sin.

The Spirit convicts sinners of their sin.

And Christ said that He was going to convict.

Send the Spirit, John 16, verse 8, to convict the world of sin

John 16:8

and of righteousness and of judgment.

I don't know if you remember that.

That was in those three chapters where Jesus is talking to His

disciples in the upper room and He says the Spirit will come and

He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of

judgment. And this promise was given.

And then we see at the day of Pentecost what happened, that as

the Spirit descended and as the disciples began to preach, what

happened? The Bible says that they were

cut to their heart and they basically asked the question,

what shall we do? What?

What do we do with this message that you have preached?

And Peter told them to believe on Jesus Christ.

Well, how did that happen? The Holy Spirit convicts sinners

of their sin. That happens before you get

saved, by the way. That still happens today.

You know, when we are saved, we are saved from the penalty of

sin forevermore, and all God's children can say Amen to that.

But yet we still sin, don't we? We still transgress against the

Lord. First.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

John chapter 1 makes that abundantly clear.

So what do we do when we do wrong?

The Holy Spirit still speaks to us and tells it.

You shouldn't have said that. You shouldn't have done that.

You shouldn't have thought that. For what purpose?

To remind us that we need to confess that sin before the Lord

so we can be saved again? No, of course not.

But so that we can resume a right relationship with God.

And that's what the Holy Spirit does for us today.

And the Spirit of Christ is active in that.

But we also see that the Spirit causes sinners to be born again

by grace alone. Conviction of sin is not just is

not necessarily salvation of sin in and of itself.

Why? Because someone can feel

convicted about their sin and then do nothing.

I think of Agrippa who said almost that has persuaded me to

become a Christian. Remember that he was on that

edge but then pulled himself back.

Conviction of sin does not necessarily mean confession of

sin. Conviction, student conviction,

is necessary through the Spirit, but at the same time, it's the

Spirit that leads people to understand that their need in

their life is to be saved. Sinners are dead in their

trespasses and sins. Only God can make them alive by

His grace. God does not do this in response

to any good thing or any merit that there is within us.

It's a gift of mercy to us. And we talked about mercy this

morning. We just heard a few minutes ago

in our men's charge the idea of the mercy of God, that that he

would even be willing to convict us of our sin and to draw us to

Jesus Christ. And we see that that's what the

Spirit does, is he draws us to Christ.

That spirit testifies to our spirit that we are the children

of God. That's, that's what the Spirit

does for us, that it's Jesus drawing us unto himself.

And again, we can't find God on our own.

We, we, we can't just ascend to the heavens and find him.

But what does he do? He reveals himself to us through

his word and then convicts us through the power of the Holy

Spirit saying this, you need to. But then we also see this, that

Jesus made the gift of salvation possible.

Now that's talking in past tense.

Jesus made the gift of salvation possible.

But we're talking in the present tense, right?

What What is Christ doing now by the Holy Spirit?

So I would say, not only did Jesus make the gift of salvation

possible, which means that it makes the gift of salvation

possible in the present. Aren't you glad that salvation

wasn't just for those who lived during the time of Christ or

those who had heard the words of Jesus Christ, but that he made

the way for all by the way, he made the way for all of those in

the Old Testament who were waiting for his appearing that

by faith looked, remember Abraham, that he knew there was

a better promise and looked ahead.

And those Old Testament Saints that we find in Hebrews Chapter

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

11, they were looking ahead to their Messiah.

We look back to our Messiah, Messiah knowing that he is Jesus

Christ, but through the Word the Holy Spirit offers Christ and

promises that whosoever believeth in him should not

perish but have everlasting life.

That's John 316, that we have that available to us because of

what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

When God regenerates A Sinner by the Spirit, Christ draws that

Sinner to himself by the power of his saving death.

And So what Christ did on the cross had enough efficacy that

all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

That there is not a limited amount or a limited atonement in

the sense that God chose certain people.

And it's not limited in the sense that it's only, well,

144,000 people, as the Jehovah Witnesses at once taught, that

those first 144,000 get the ticket and everyone else,

they're on their own. Now after there were more than

144,000 Jehovah Witnesses, they had to change that doctrine

because it wouldn't seem to make sense what it that there was

more than and what they had accounted for.

But I'm thankful that we don't have to keep changing our

doctrine to match what we see out here in the world today.

We can just say the Lord the same, the yesterday, today, and

forever. And Jesus made the gift of

salvation possible. But we also see that God unites

people to Christ by the Spirit. When God saves sinners, the Holy

Spirit dwells in them as his temple and lives within him.

As a result, they become one with Jesus Christ.

This is first Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

Know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost,

that he lives within us. By the way, that's why we have

to be careful what we yoke up with.

That's what the end of that chapter is all about.

What we have fellowship with, what we have concord or

communion with. Why is that important?

Because we got the Holy Spirit living inside of us and that the

Comforter was to come. Jesus said it is good that I

depart because the Comforter will come and His ministry now

isn't to indwell the believer. Not like the Old Testament where

he would come and go. And sometimes people think that

the Holy Spirit just appeared in the New Testament, that he just

popped up. Nope.

He always has been and always will.

He didn't just appear in the New Testament.

He's very active in the Old Testament.

But we see that His ministry was different and that he would fill

and then leave, that he would come and go.

And Saul certainly is a great example of that, one who was

filled by the Spirit, but then had done enough that the Lord

removed that from him. And of course we saw that he had

a much different life after that.

But you and I, the moment that we trusted Jesus Christ as our

Savior, we were sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise, the

earnest of our inheritance. The Spirit lives within us.

And, and that's something I, I don't think that we truly

comprehend to the length and the breadth that we ought to, that

literally believers have the Holy Spirit living inside of us.

What an incredible joy, what incredible blessing, the

comfort, the peace, the guidance, the conviction, all of

that that comes along with that, that that before, you know,

listen, we're not Jiminy Cricket, you know, let your

conscience be your guide. You know, that may make for a

great song, but you know what, It's not a great way to live

your life because the Bible says our conferences can be seared

with a hot iron. There are some who are so far

departed that God has Romans chapter 1 allowed them to

Romans 1 · chapter mention

descend into their own foolishness.

He's made that very clear. Well actually mentioned that

this morning during the message but when the Holy Spirit is

within you, he can lead you and he can guide you and he can

comfort you. He can help you, He can convict

you and it God is is active Father, Son and Holy Ghost to to

ensure that that same Holy Ghost lives within us.

But we also see this in this question what is Christ doing

now that God justifies sinners by faith in Christ alone.

This cannot be understated. Salvation is in Christ by faith,

not through works. It's not faith and works.

We talked about this a few weeks ago.

It's not, well, the sacraments. Well, no, it's not about the

sacraments. Do you know what it's about?

It's about Christ and what He did on the cross and trusting in

Him to be your Savior. Nothing else say, well, well, I

have to stop as soon as you say that you've already messed up

the gospel, unless you're about to say I have to trust him as my

savior. Because if it's something that

you have to do, remember that means that there's something

within us that we can boast of. There's something within us.

Well, I was good enough because I spent enough hours in church.

I was good enough because I gave enough money.

I was good enough because I took the sacraments every week.

I was good enough because I sat across from a priest.

I, I, I, I, I and you know who said that?

You know who had that eye problem?

We can go all the way back to Isaiah chapter 14.

Isaiah 14 · chapter mention

Satan talked a lot about I, I will be, I will be, I will be.

And he wasn't. And there's a lot of people who

will think that what they have done in the name of good works

will, even in the name of Jesus Christ will be enough to get

them to heaven. And they have so backwards

gotten everything when they don't realize that.

James chapter 2 says this. Your works come from a heart

James 2 · chapter mention

that belongs to God, not that you have good work so that you

can belong to God. And so God justifies sinners by

faith in Christ alone. That word, justification, it's a

wonderful Bible word. It's not often talked about.

It's not often preached about, but justification has always

been explained to me in a very easy to understand way, that

it's just as if I never sinned. That when God looks at us,

justification means it's just as if I never sinned.

And that is what salvation is all about.

When God joins believers to Jesus Christ by faith, he

becomes their righteousness. We'll see that on Wednesday

night in First Corinthians one, verse 30, that God credits them

with the righteousness of God because they are in Christ and

Christ took upon Him the penalty of their sins.

First John chapter 2 tells us that He is the propitiation of

1 John 2 · chapter mention

our sins. He paid the debt that we could

not pay. And I love that word.

Again, just like justification, propitiation, certainly not a

word that rolls off the tongue in 2025.

No one's out there usually using the word propitiation.

But that doesn't mean we should take it out of the Bible because

it is so important to understand what Jesus Christ did.

The debt was so large you couldn't pay it, and I couldn't

pay it, but Jesus Christ paid it with the precious blood that was

shed there on the cross. And so God justifies sinners by

faith in Christ alone. Just to try to talk about each

of these for like 3 minutes is almost impossible.

All right, because I want to just preach on it, but that's

all right. We understand.

We're giving an overview of it. Holy Spirit makes people holy.

This is part of the ministry of the Spirit.

He makes people holy. That that's probably a good

thing to say because it's a Holy Spirit, right?

He's a Holy Spirit, I should say.

And so we understand that joined to the Lord Jesus, believers

also find that Christ is their sanctification, which I just

mentioned. And the Spirit of Christ is

within us. The Holy Spirit is within us.

To do what? To make us more like Christ.

That is the desire that we are in the process of our

sanctification, that we are in our life.

Every day we're trying to be a little bit more like Jesus

Christ. Every day we're trying to be a

little bit more like Him. How do we do that?

Well, again, it's the same way that you got saved.

It's through the Spirit who helps you and He guides you.

You remember the Galatians, that the Galatians got saved, but

then they got all mixed up about works and all these things.

And basically Paul says this in Galatians, I believe it's

chapter #4 and he says this, you foolish Galatians.

Now you talk about some hard preaching.

That's probably a good way to start.

I've never tried that, don't plan on trying it.

But you foolish Galatians, he says, are you going to continue?

It works. Basically, it summarizes it.

He says this, He says why would you change the way that you came

to Christ in the 1st place and then moved to a different method

when this was the way that God brought you to him in the 1st

place? Why would you go to works when

it was the Spirit? So if we are saved by the

Spirit, then we're also perfected in this life in the

sense of purging ourselves from the old man and living in our

new life in Christ. We're also it's done by the

Spirit. The Bible says walk in the

Spirit. You may not fulfill the lust of

the flesh. We'll be using that verse this

morning as well. And our message walk in the

spirit meaning this well, I'm trying and I can't, I can't seem

to live the Christian life that I want to live.

Well, stop trying. That sounds weird, but the the

idea is this stop trying within your own power.

Stop trying within your own flesh.

That's why just using brute willpower is not a way to

conquer the flesh. What is it?

By praying and asking the Holy Spirit to help you and listening

to the Holy Spirit when he says don't do that, don't say that,

don't, don't think that. And then when that happens, what

do we do? We should be quick to confess

our sin before the Lord. I shouldn't have thought that.

I shouldn't have said that. By the way, this is probably a

good time to mention this as much as any.

You know, it does say in first John chapter one that if we

confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive our sins and

to cleanse us from all righteousness.

And I do think that when we get this idea of confession,

especially because a lot of us came from a Catholic or a

Sacramento background, if you will, like I was a Lutheran, not

a Catholic, but the same idea is that we feel like confession of

sin is an event. I've got to do it at the end of

the day or I've got to do it, you know, at a certain time in a

certain place, You know, the best time to confess your sin is

when you do it and the Holy Spirit convicts you about it.

Could you imagine, you know, my wife and I'm getting ready for

to come into the church and, you know, she's just getting ready

for the morning. And I say something to her.

That's probably not the best thing to say.

I know none of you could imagine me doing anything like that.

I know this is such, this is such an outrageous illustration

that it's hard for you to say it.

But I said something to her that's a little bit, you know,

unseemly. Shouldn't have said it to her.

And but then I leave and I think, you know what?

I'll see her tonight. I'll take care of it when I get

home. You'd say, you know, you'd

probably be better to maybe when you say it or at least a few

minutes later when you chew on a little bit to say you're sorry

before you left, or even if you hadn't really thought about it,

maybe to send a text or to call would be even better.

You know, texting. That's the way, you know, people

do things nowadays for all kinds of things, but just call and

say, you know what? I don't know what I was thinking

this morning. I lost my mind.

I I'm so sorry that I said that and just be done with it for,

for her sake as well As for mine.

In a marriage relationship, we would say, why would you wait?

Like why would why would you wait till the night?

And so often I find that Christians do exactly that is

that they're going to wait till their confession time.

But listen in the meantime that there is this blockage between

you and the Lord where you've not listened to him and you're

not obeying what he's telling you to confess.

And that's going to affect you in other ways throughout the

day. Just keep short accounts with

God, keep short accounts with him and confess your sin when

soon as that Holy Spirit says don't do it, say I shouldn't

have done it. And that's where David is our

example, because when David was rebuked over and over again, he

said, Nope, I shouldn't have done that.

He didn't argue, he didn't fight, he didn't say, but God, I

had my reasons. He just said, no, I know I

shouldn't have done that. And so consider that it's the

Holy Spirit who makes people holy and that we need to submit

ourselves to that process, that he's not going to force it upon

us, but we need to submit ourselves to that process.

Got to move. I got to move here.

All right. And then the Spirit also gives

believers assurance. The Holy Spirit gives believers

assurance by enabling them to trust in God's promises or

salvation and by sealing us with that Holy Spirit of promise.

And I'm thankful for the assurance that we have of

salvation. I'm thankful that the Holy

Spirit can testify within us that we do know Jesus Christ as

our Savior. And I love being able to take

people to 1st John chapter #5 after they get saved.

He that hath the Son of God hath life.

He that hath the Son of God hath not the Son of God hath not

life. That is very simple, that's very

clear. If you trusted Jesus Christ as

your Savior, have you asked Him? To come into your heart then

well according to your profession of faith, you know

Jesus Christ as your Savior that you don't need to doubt that.

Now we all go through periods of doubts and difficulties and I

was just talking with someone recently about this, but I

always go back to John the Baptist.

John the Baptist had a period of doubt as well.

I mean, John the Baptist saw all the things that he saw.

John the Baptist witnessed, preached, did all those things

and even he said his disciples to Jesus says art thou the one

or should we be looking for another?

And what did Jesus tell John the Baptist?

By the way, Jesus didn't rebuke John the Baptist.

I think that's interesting. Not that he was without faith at

that moment or not that he was doubting.

He was doubting at that moment, but he didn't rebuke him.

He sell told his disciples go back and tell John and tell him

again everything that's happened.

He said just just go back and remember what you've seen.

Go back and see how you have seen me work and the things that

you have seen God do through you.

You just remember those things. And I believe that John died

with his faith and integrity intact.

Why? Because he knew the Lord.

But the Spirit gives us assurance today that the Spirit

bear with witness to our Spirit that we are the children of God.

And the Spirit of Christ moves God's children to pray to their

Father. Prayer is an essential, as

essential to the life of a Christian as breathing.

And we are to utilize, if you will, all three parts of the

Trinity. We are praying to the Father, we

pray in the name of the Son, and we pray through the power of the

Spirit. And then the Romans tells us

that there are times that the Spirit helps us pray because we

don't even know what to pray. We don't even know how to

articulate what's in our heart because it's so deep or because

it's so painful. But there are times when

literally I've been praying or I want to pray and I can't.

And I don't know what the issue is.

Or maybe I very well know what the issue is.

And I just say, Lord, will you help me to say what I need to

say? Will you help me to pray?

By the way, you want to pray something that's really extreme,

pray something like this. Lord, will you reveal to me the

sin I need to confess? It's amazing to me.

That's almost like turning on a spicket.

And it's like, all right, Lord, turn it off.

All right. Because I'm thinking, you know,

I did pretty good yesterday and then I started.

The Spirit says, oh, did you now?

Oh, did that just all of a sudden pop up in my memory?

I don't think so. I truly believe it's the Spirit

reminding us. But but that's why the Spirit

moves us to be able to pray to the Father.

He ushers us into that throne room and as we pray in the name

of Jesus Christ, who is our advocate with the Father.

And it's interesting, John Bunyan, you know, John Bunyan

wrote Pilgrim's Progress, the second most published book in

history after the Bible. And John Bunyan said this, and

this was in 16. He lived from 1620 to 1688.

And by the way, I just need to make clear John Bunyan.

Paul Bunyan, not the same person, All right?

Just want, always want to make that clear.

All right. Paul Bunyan not so real.

John Bunyan, very real. OK, But he said this.

He said that he confessed that when he went to pray, he found

that his heart was so reluctant to go to God that he must first

ask God that he would take my heart and set it on himself in

Christ, and when it is there, that he would keep it there and

help him to pray by the Spirit despite his weakness.

And this was one of the greatest Christians, I think, that maybe

ever lived. And he's saying, you know what?

There are times it was hard to pray, and I just need the

Spirit's help to be able to pray.

And then we also see here with #5 that Christ empowers his

people by the Spirit to serve him to the glory of God alone.

And so are we able to serve on our own?

No. Can we do anything?

Well, no. It's the power of the Spirit

within us that's able to help us, to embolden us.

That's why first John 18, or rather Acts 18 rather, when they

were compelled by to go to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria

and the uttermost parts of the earth, the Bible says that they

were to be given power to do that.

Well, what does that mean? On your own you can't do it, but

you will have this power, this dunamis, the Greek word dunamis,

dynamite, like power to be able to go and do those things.

And that's why you look at 11 disciples that were pretty

inept. I mean, let's be honest, you

take the end of the book of John and you run up into the 1st

chapter of Acts. And these people, they were

afraid. They were scared.

They weren't out there testifying of Jesus.

They were locking themselves away in the room.

They were afraid of the culture. They were look the same people

that were shouting crucify him were still out there and they

probably wanted to go after the disciples.

They didn't want any part of that.

They were afraid they, they didn't want to go do those

things. But yet as Jesus ascends into

heaven, they were told they will receive power.

And from Acts chapter 2 on, you're looking at different men.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Well, what's the difference? It's the Spirit working within

them and them allowing the Spirit to work within them to go

do those things which they were called to do.

So that's question #5 what is Christ doing now by the Holy

Spirit that the ministry of the Triune God is active even today.

But then we see number six, what is the Church of Jesus Christ?

There's a lot of questions about the church today, what it is and

what it is not. But I do want to remind you that

we're looking at the church. We're not looking at a church

universal. We're looking at A local church

or looking at local churches because this is how God works.

That the word church in the Greek literally means ecclesia.

It means a called out assembly. It's people that are meeting

together in a place that they're meeting together in a place, in

our case to be able to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

Interestingly enough, in the book of Acts, the word ekklesia

has used more than once, not only to talk about a church, but

just talking about an assembly of people.

They are people who are together.

And I say this because there are some people who say, you know, I

don't really need a church because I'm part of the church

universal. And I will say to them in these

situations say, well, how do you get in church encouragement from

the church universal? How are you, you know, how do

you tie the church universal that that could be an

interesting question. How do you how who visits you at

the hospital when you're in the church universal?

And there are times that the Bible talks about church

corporately as in churches. But at the same time, God truly

deals with his local churches, each institution being able to

be there so that they can be the witness that God has called them

to be. So we see first that the church

is organized into local congregations where Christians

are members. The church is organized into

local congregations where Christians are members.

There's, I believe over 100. I think it's 103 times that the

word church is used in the New Testament.

Actually 106. A hundred and three of them all

distinctly pointed to the fact of local churches.

The church at Laodicea, the church at Ephesus, the church at

Smyrna, the church at Thyatira, the church at Corinth, these are

local churches. And this is how God is working

and this is how God has instituted his people to be

together in this time that we have, this period of history

that we have, that he is using the church to be able to bring

us together, to be able to be encouraged, to be able to help

one another. And also to be commissioned, as

we'll see just a second as well, that there are people who are

coming together to these churches to be part of these

churches. And we see in First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12 that there are different parts of the body and

all of those people have been baptized into one body, that the

Spirit is the one who's done that.

Spirit place people into these bodies to be the eyes, the ears,

the hands, the feet, every single part, all different, but

yet all working in one common goal, to be able to glorify our

Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see that first, but we

also see the church is 1 body with many diverse members.

And going back to First Corinthians chapter 12, you are

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

different. We are different.

We have different callings. We preached on this a little bit

on Sunday night. We have different personalities.

We have different ways of looking at life.

We have different ways that we handle ourselves.

And as long as it's biblical, it's good for us to be

different, that we're not all trying to be the same, that

we're not trying to be carbon copies of one another.

Why? Because God takes the diversity

of who we are. He takes the diversity of our

life experiences. He takes the diversity of how we

grew up. He takes the diversity of the

mistakes that we made that God has forgiven us up.

He's taken the diversity of the talents and the abilities that

we have, and he's put us together into one church.

And here at Liberty Baptist Church, He's put us together so

that on our own, any one of us would be woefully inadequate.

But together, He has made us into an organization.

You could even call it an Organism because it's alive.

He's made us into this Organism that's come together to be able

to further the gospel message. And I love the fact that he

makes us so different and that's OK.

That we don't have to be the same or carbon copies of one

another, that we are one body. There's one goal, but they're

diverse members and and we do have to have the same goal.

We have to be pulling the same way.

There are times in our body where one part of the body is

wanting to do something that is not helpful for the rest of the

body. If someone has diabetes, guess

what, There's one part of the body that's not really helping

the other parts of the body at times or seasons.

Do you have an infection? There's one part of the body

that's not necessarily helping all the other parts of the body.

You have a heart condition, Guess what that's going to

affect all the other parts of the body isn't.

I watched my dad have a heart attack when he's 38 years old.

I can tell you that it affects all parts of your body, not just

the heart. It's the same way for us is that

yeah, we may be different, but we all need to make sure we're

pulling the same direction. And that's truly what fellowship

is about. It's not just fellowship.

Having a meal after church. But fellowship is that we're all

together going the same way for Jesus Christ.

And so the church is 1 body with many diverse members.

But we also see that Christ has given pastors to equip and to

edify his church. In the New Testament, you find 3

different terms for the pastor. You find pastor and you find

Bishop and you find elder. These are the three terms that

you find that would all constitute the New Testament

pastor. Now you could call me a Bishop,

I'd prefer you not. All right, you could call me an

elder, I'd prefer you not. But pastor is the term that we

use here. By the way, reverend isn't one

of those terms. I, I don't take any quibbles or

I don't have any quibbles with any other pastor who used the

term reverend. I prefer not to use the reverend

because the Psalms tell us that holy and Reverend is, is his

name and my name is not Reverend.

You don't need to Revere me by any say.

I mean we have Rivero, but not Rivero OK or anything like that.

Don't, don't do that. Sometimes people call me Rivero

and that's OK, but but no, it's what am I supposed to be?

A pastor, a Bishop, an elder, a leader, that I'm to devote

myself to the ministry of the Word of to be able to know that

every week that I can be able to preach to you and teach to you

from the Word of God. And also that I am in the

ministry of the Word throughout the week to other people as

well. That my ministry is not just

behind the pulpit, but it's also with the people that I meet, the

people I come in contact with to be able to show them Jesus

Christ. And also that I have some level

or semblance of leadership as well.

I mentioned I believe is on Wednesday night, that thing that

has more than one head is a monster.

And so there has to be a head. Well, we know the chief head was

Jesus Christ. It's His church that He shed his

blood for us. He died for the church.

Ephesians chapter 5. But I will tell you that God has

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

laid the calling upon me not to Lord over the flock, but to be

able to be the shepherd of the flock.

There is a difference. There's a large difference.

I'm supposed to be the helper of your joy, not to be able to Lord

over you. But at the same time, pastors

are given for that purpose. And so this is what God has

called me to do here. And I'm thankful for that

calling. And I'm thankful at the same

time for the pastors that God has placed in my life.

Over the years. I've had three different

pastors, well, Baptist pastors, I should say.

I've had three different pastors over the years.

And even now I can tell you that I have what I would consider my

pastor, which is another pastor who is about 20 years older than

me, that if I have some issues or some problems, I call him and

I say, what do you think about this?

Or you know, how would you, you know, to get counsel that I

need, just like sometimes we all need that.

So God has given us pastors to edify and equip the church, but

we also see that God commands his church to keep the moral

law. Hold on a second pastor, the

moral law. Now you this is now this is not

right though the law is abolished through Christ.

This isn't right. Well, well, well, yes, we we

understand that Christ was the fulfillment of the law.

And I think this is sometimes where we have to really be

careful because the Pharisees were very good at keeping the

letter of the law, but they were not actually good at keeping the

law in its spirit, if we could put it that way.

Listen, Jesus said you could take all the all the law and the

prophets and you could condense him down to this love God and

love others. Now, does that mean we still

need to fulfill those? Of course we still do.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, you know you,

you've just gotten this down to thou shalt not commit adultery.

He says, but I'll tell you something.

He says the fulfillment of that is don't even in your heart

dwell on the ACT itself. Well, what is Jesus?

You've, you've not murdered anybody.

I had a sermon years ago called so, So I've not murdered

anybody. That's what the title was.

I haven't murdered anybody. It almost seems like a

confession nowadays. But I haven't murdered anybody

because sometimes people they'll, they'll do something

sinful. And it's like, look, it's not

like I murdered anybody. You know, it's like, well, I'm

not that. This is what they say.

I'm not that bad. But Jesus says, well, yeah, you

haven't murdered anybody, but you had hate in your heart

towards someone, maybe wish they were dead and that God would use

use the vessel to help him get there.

You weren't going to do it, but you were thinking about it.

He says that's the fulfillment of the law.

That's understanding. Listen, it's not just about the

outward appearance. What does God look upon the

heart as a church, we want to be able to encourage you.

We want to preach and we want to talk about.

The fact is, listen, we want to live holy as God is holding.

This is what God has called us to do.

In the Old Testament, they looked at it through the lens of

obedience. In the New Testament list of

this, we look at it through the lens of love, and love makes all

the difference, doesn't it? Do I have to keep the law?

Well, technically I, I don't. But why would I even go there in

my thought process? Because I love the Lord and so I

want to be able to please Him because I love him, just like

I've talked about in the marriage relationship before.

Well, well, I mean, well, do I have to do I have to stay with

my wife? What does the law say?

Why you even go in there? Just maybe I just love her, you

know, and do right for her because I love her.

And you don't have to worry about all those other things.

And that's the heart that we should have today.

I love God like I should. I love others like I should.

And all these other things just naturally fall into place.

And God's church ought to be a good place for people to live

like Christians, and we ought to be a good place where we can be

a lighthouse and testimony to the people who are outside.

Got to pick it up. All right.

God calls the church to submit to civil authorities.

And of course, we had questions over this over the last few

years. You know, we're called to be

able to obey the government. We are called to listen.

When do we stop obeying the government?

Well, the apostles gave us a good example of that when they

said this. We must obey God rather than

man. Anytime the government gives a

edict or a law and it's contrary to the word of God, we must

follow the Lord 1st. And because he is our ultimate

guy, he said, well what is that? Some kind of dual loyalty,

single loyalty? It's loyalty to God and every

other loyalty falls under that because I'm being loyal to him.

And so when the government says you can't do something, but the

by word of God says you must do that, I must do it.

And if it's vice versa, then we must do what the Lord tells us

to do and not what man does because government has its

authority from God. It flows from him.

Romans chapter 13. Christ blesses the church with

Romans 13 · chapter mention

Christian freedom. Christian freedom that we have

been called unto liberty. Great place for that.

We've been called unto liberty, but not to fulfill lust of the

flesh, but as an answer of a good conscience towards God.

Galatians chapter #5 and we do have Christian freedom.

Listen, I can't go to your house and tell you what to do.

God be honest with you. I have no desire to go to your

house and tell you what to do. I think sometimes think that's

what pastors want to do it Just go around and just tell everyone

you know, do this, do this, don't do this, don't listen.

I got enough trouble with that in my own life, All right?

I don't need to be going to your houses and telling you what you

ought to do, what you ought not to do.

You have Christian freedom and Christian liberty.

Now I will say this is that should we be obeying God?

Of course we should. Am I going to preach and teach

that we should obey God? Of course I should and of course

I will. But at the same time, God has

given us liberty and that's liberty between churches as

well. Now our liberty does not extend

beyond what the word of God tells us to do.

We have to follow the Word of God.

But churches are different. Some of you have come to from

churches before that will have communion once a month and we

have it usually two or three times a year.

Some of come from churches where where in in the way that they

function in a service is different.

They don't have a time of worship.

We do have a time of worship. Some churches will maybe sing

songs, you know, that are older, you know, newer than 1950.

We'll sing songs that are are newer today, as long as they are

songs that have, you know, a pleasing sound that are not

worldly. And so because that's a biblical

issue, but there's also freedom between us as churches and even

as individuals that Christ has given it.

You know why there's that freedom?

Because we're all personally accountable towards God.

We all must give an account to the Lord for ourselves.

And so I think sometimes we get a bent out of shape with some of

those. Well, I wouldn't do things that

way. Well, just OK, then you don't do

things that way. OK, just leave that to the Lord

and allow him to work in them in the Holy Spirit.

Maybe it's something the Holy Spirit needs to work on in their

life. Maybe it's something that that

it's just you can do one thing and someone else can do another,

and neither of them are wrong and we have the liberty to do

so. Whatever it is.

God blesses the church with Christian freedom.

And then COD also calls the church to public worship.

And of course, that's talking about us gathering together, I

believe for a time of worship. But it also means the fact that

we need to gather together so we can gather together.

God has called us to gather together.

And I'll say this again, I've said this many times, I'm

thankful for our live stream. I'm thankful for the people who

are ill, the people who are out of town that they can still

watch. I think we've all been there

before and we're thankful for the live stream.

But I try to be careful that I don't say we're having church

online because you can't have church online.

A church means a gathering place.

Again, you can't have that online.

We can have online service. We can be able to preach and

teach online. And again, I want to be very

careful how to say this. I'm thankful for this.

There are people right now that I'm thinking of that are in some

very difficult positions with their health, that if they

didn't have this, they will be so totally disconnected.

It would be like, like they weren't even a part of us

anymore. And I'm thankful that they have

it. And I say that sincerely.

But I do also recognize this, that God calls us to be

together. And I made a decision a long

time ago that as long as the doors were open, that I was

going to be in the House of God, as long as the church was open,

unless I was providentially hindered from being there, that

I was going to be in church. And I will tell you, of course,

now, well, you know, I'm the pastor, so I kind of have to be

in church. But I'll tell you that decision

was made before I had to be at church.

And I will tell you this, I've never regretted that decision.

Well, you're not going to have any life.

You're at church how many times a week?

You're going to have no life whatsoever.

I feel like I've had a pretty good life.

I feel like I've been very fulfilled.

I feel like God has blessed beyond measure and I've learned

so much and I've grown so much. And some of my favorite people

in life, the closest people I have in life, I've met from just

being around them in church. I'm so thankful for that.

And so don't rob yourself of that.

But God has called us to be able to meet together for public

worship. All right?

And then God has provided 2 ordinances, the baptism, baptism

in the Lords Supper. Aren't you glad we got to have

baptism a couple weeks ago? And but hey, Christian liberty,

you can have a horse through, you can have a, you have a

Baptist St. and go out to the pond.

You go out the lake, you know, whatever you want to do, go out

to the Atlantic Ocean. That's fine.

Just make sure to go down deep. That's all I ask because that's

what baptism is. But they're ordinances.

They're not sacraments. Sacraments give salvation.

So we don't call them sacraments.

We call them ordinances. And Paul told the Church of

Corinth to keep the ordinances. So we have the ordinances of

baptism and the Lord's Supper. These are things that Jesus has

told the church to do, that we are to baptize the Father, Son,

and the Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of his death,

raised in the likeness of his resurrection, and then to be

able to have the Lord's Supper. Not that we are drinking the

blood of Christ or eating the body of Christ.

There's nowhere taught in the Script but that this due in

remembrance of me. It's a memorial feast where we

gathered together. We said feast.

It's not really a feast. If you're coming for food,

you're going to be sorely disappointed if you come to the

Lord's Supper. But I will say it's a memorial

where we get together and we just soberly and somberly

remember, wow, this is what Christ did for me.

And it's powerful. It's so powerful.

It doesn't need to be the body and actual body and blood in

Christ to be powerful. Just the literal remembrance of

it brings great power. And then quickly, I'm just going

to run through these. Christ commissioned the church.

What does that mean? He gave us a job to do.

This is not a Country Club. This is not a social club.

This is not a supper club. You know what this is?

It's a place where God has called us to reach the World

with the Word of God. And so we must always keep the

Commission at the forefront. But then we also see how will

Christ bring his Kingdom to earth?

Christ is coming back, Amen. And I'm so thankful that He is

coming back and He will come again in visible glory that when

we talk about the Kingdom being set, this is not something that

is just mentioned in the Word of God that has happened in the

past, or it's something that's really more metaphorical.

No, Jesus Christ will return invisible glory to set up his

Kingdom. Christ will ways from dead all

who have ever lived. For what purpose?

Well, to judge the Son will judge everyone.

He will damn the wicked to the lake of fire, and Christ will

bless the righteous in heaven. And I know I went through that

very quickly, but there is a judgment to come.

It's been appointed unto man wants to die.

And after this the judgment that there will be resurrected into

the great white throne judgment or the judgment seat of Christ.

If you're the great white Throne judgment that you will have to

prove your own worthiness through your own works.

And we know that is impossible. But yet for those of us the

judgment seat of Christ, we will be going to heaven.

But our works will be tried with fire, whether they be good or

whether they be bad. Some will be wood, hay and

stubble and they'll be burnt. Some will be gold and silver and

precious stones and those gold and silver and precious stones

will cast back at Jesus feet and we'll be able to live with him

eternally. There is eternal judgment, but

there's also eternal life with Jesus Christ.

And so we must call upon him to be saved.

Well, over the next couple of weeks, next week we will be

having brother Rocky Harold. He will be the, he is the

sponsor for Glory Bound, the music group from Heartland

Baptist Bible College. He'll be doing Sunday school

because I'll still be preaching during the morning service, but

he'll be in Sunday school the following week.

I will not be here. I'll be preaching out of town.

So be out of our our series 2 weeks when we come back, we're

talking cults. Who's ready?

It's been 6 weeks and we've not really talked about any cults

yet. I see that hand.

Thank you. It's invitation already, so it's

good. Bow your heads and close right

now. I'm just kidding, but we're

ready. We the table has been set.

It's time for us to get into what some of these groups

believe. And so we'll be starting that

here in the next couple of weeks.

Our very next lesson? Thank you for listening to the

sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.

If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we

can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at

[email protected]. Or you can visit us this Sunday

at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.

May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.