Baptist Distinctives: Safeguarding the Faith for Future Generations

Not all testing. What a blessing. I appreciate our the talent

that God's given our church. And those who play the instruments

do a fantastic job. Appreciate that so very much. We go to your

Bibles. Turn to Matthew, chapter 16. We'll start a series

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

of messages tonight on the Baptist Distinctives. Some of these

will be simple for a lot of you, and then again, some of them

won't be. Tonight will be the introduction again, encouraging us

as church, as a church family, that God has entrusted us with, with

the doctrines and with the truths of the Bible, the faith. So

look with me. Matthew 16, verse 13. We read this particular

Matthew 16:13

group of verses on Heritage Sunday last November. So let's read

them again. Ready? Matthew 16, verse 13. And when Jesus came into

Matthew 16:13

the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples

saying, whom do men say that I, the son of man am? And they said,

some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias

are one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, but whom say

ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ,

the son of the living God. Peter just amazing man. Amazing courage,

strength, understanding. Yeah, sometimes. And then other times he's

sticking his foot in his mouth. But thou art the Christ, the

Son of the living God. Verse 17. And Jesus answered and said unto

him, blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood hath

not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. Verse

18. So such an important verse. And I say also unto thee that

thou art Peter. And upon this rock I will build my church. And

the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give

unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever

thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever

thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged

he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus

the Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, again we come to

you thanking you for your word. Pray Lord, that you would bless

tonight the reading of your word, the preaching in Jesus name.

Amen. Verse 18. I know we have gone over this verse many, many times.

But it should never get old. And it. It's good to be review as

the best teacher. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.

He was indeed the Messiah who was to come. And he said to Peter,

thou art Peter, a little rock. But upon this rock. He's speaking

of himself. Petra. A boulder. I will build my church. He's not

saying that Peter's going to Build the church. Peter is not the

first pope, but upon this rock. Jesus Christ himself established

the first church. The first church. The church there in Jerusalem.

He started it. He established it somewhere around John Chapter

three, when you see the apostles who are already there in

place, and they began to baptize somewhere around there, at

least before Luke chapter six, because that's when he chose the

apostles. When the Bible says and Corinthians that the apostles

were chosen out of the church. Well, you can't choose the apostles

out of the church if there's no church in existence. And so pretty,

just a few cross references and you get all of that. And emphatically,

without a doubt, emphatically, the church did not begin in Acts

Chapter two. And there are so many books that you will pick up

good commentaries. You'll pick up Warren Wiersbe, I mean, even John

Phillips, one of my favorite commentaries that put the book of

Acts, Acts, Chapter two, as the birthday of the church. And that

is just simply not the case. Jesus said, I will build my church

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It's important

as we go forward in this lesson for you to kind of get that

in your brain and understand that Jesus Christ himself. Have I

said that yet established the church? The Baptist distinctives

are the backbone to unity and the stability of the church, of the

church. In other words, doctrine matters. And I know, for

us, we know that. But again, if you take the churches of America

and you were to do a survey and you were to go to their websites

and look through their websites, you'll find. You'll find

phrases like core teachings, or you'll find phrases like essential

doctrine. So I'm just telling you, if you find a church that puts

that in their deal, and they're referring to. This is what

they're referring to many times, not all the time, but most

of the time they're referring to is these are our core doctrines.

And, and as long as you believe in these core doctrines,

we're fine. Or as long as you believe in these essentials, it's

okay to be a member here, even though you may believe something

else, because these are the essential doctrines, which means

that the others are not. Now, they don't say that in their website,

but when you say these are the essential doctrines and the other.

Anyway, I can go on and on. There's. There's just many other

phrases that are used a lot by the modern churches today. And I'm

telling you independent Baptist churches as well, I know

several of them. The Metroplex who have adopted these. Core. Like

the core. They say this is the core as long as you have these four

or five things. Now, we believe in the fundamentals to salvation,

but we're not discounting any doctrine. What they're doing is saying

these are the doctrines we believe that are essential or that

are core. And if you believe something else besides those, we're

good with that. Have I said that yet? I'm just saying all doctrine

is essential. Every truth in the Bible is essential in light of

what we're fixing to teach. Because Jesus said and well, Paul

tells Timothy that we're to pass on this truth to the next generation.

Part of the truth or just the ones you think are the core or the

ones we think are essential? No, all truth, because all truth

is essential. Christ founded the first church and commissioned

it. Not just. We talk a lot about, and we preach a lot about

how that the church was commissioned by Christ to spread

the gospel. And that is paramount, isn't it? I mean, that's

the purpose of the church. The primary purpose of the church is

to spread the gospel, to share the good news of Jesus Christ. But

I'd like to remind you tonight that we're also commissioned. We're

also commissioned to pass on the faith. To pass on the faith.

In other words, we are to be caretakers of the faith. That we

are to be stewards of the body of doctrine found in the word, stewards

of it. And that we are to pass that on to the next generation. Two

thousand years ago, Christ founded and commissioned the church

to pass on truth to the next generation. 2,000 years now. And

yet look, we have it still. We have the truth still. We still have

it. Isn't that amazing? It's been passed on to us and we're to

pass that same truth on to the next generation. In Acts 17:6 it

Acts 17:6

says, it alludes to or refers to, or at least inference is made

that the first church reproduced itself. And by 50 AD the

verse says in Acts 17, verse 6, that they had turned the world

Acts 17:6

upside down. And we would say that the then known world was reached

with the gospel. That's amazing thought, isn't it? Amazing

that one generation, if you would, if you say generations 25

or generations 40, but almost one generation turned the world upside

down. The truths passed on ideally were to have the same effect

on future generations. Think about it for a moment. So the truths

of the first century church that were given to them by Christ

himself, that we find in the word of God and then written by the

apostles or written by some of the apostles, written in the New

Testament. Truths that were written and given to the first century

church as it continued to reproduce itself, the impact it had

on them should have the same impact on us. What it produced in

them, it should produce in us. Does that make sense? The truths

passed on ideally should have the same effect on us that it had

on them. Our theme verse for the study will be second Timothy

chapter two. So turn over there if you would. Second Timothy

chapter two. You will know the verse once you get there. And I am

adopting some of Brother Stewart's lessons on this. So if

you're, if you come across something and you say, hey, that

looks like Brother Stewart. Yep, good job. Always give honor

where honors do. First Timothy, chapter two, verse two.

I'm sorry, verse 22. Didn't I write a wrong verse on that down

the other day? Second Timothy, Chapter two, verse. Don't get me

going now. That's because I was looking at the wrong it. Actually

I said it right the first time. Let me say it again to you

guys. Ready? Second Timothy, chapter two, verse two. And the things

that thou hast heard of me, among many witnesses the same commit

thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others. Also. We've

heard this verse many, many times. When we had our theme continue

a few years back, we used this verse many times, as well as others

continuing in the faith, committing that faith to the next

generation, passing that faith on to the next generation. It says

the things, if you could put quotes around that, the things which

thou has heard of me. What things? Well, the body of doctrine,

the body of truth, the teachings that thou hast heard of

me. Paul's saying, the Apostle Paul, among many witnesses the same.

So the things are now those same things commit to faithful men

who shall be able to teach others. Also, Paul is saying to Timothy,

your responsibility is to take that body of truth that's been taught

to you and to teach that same body of truth, the things that have

been committed to you. To teach that to others, to teach that,

to pass it on, to preach that and teach it to others. We're to

preach and teach today. Again, what we preach and teach today should

be the same as what Christ taught, what Christ preached, what

the apostles taught, what the apostles preached, what Paul taught,

what Paul preached. It should be the same. Amen. And we should

search the scriptures that they are and make sure they're the

same. In other words, we're not going by tradition of men. We're

not taking the apocrypha or we're taking some other writings

of somebody else or whomever it may be, and putting them alongside.

No, no, no, no. The body of truth found in the Word of God. The

same that Christ taught, the same that Paul taught, the same that

the apostles taught. Those truths are to be taught again and

passed on to faithful men, to be passed on to the next generation

again. When it says it's saying mankind, it means everyone.

It's to be passed on, passed on. And the Bible actually, it guarantees

not only the Bible preservation, that we'll always have

a Bible until Christ returns, but that there will always be true

followers as well. There will always be a remnant. There will always

be a remnant of true, distinct those standing on the Word of God,

standing on the truths of the Word of God, true churches until

the Lord returns. Think about that for a moment. Churches still

in existence, still linked to the first century church, the first

New Testament Church. That church was given authority. Now turn

back over to Matthew 28, a verse again that you know so well.

We call it the Great Commission. As we think about teaching

others also or passing on these truths to others, this verse

comes to mind. Now we use this verse again, just like we used the

other verse, mainly to teach about the church and its existence.

But here we mostly use this one about spreading the gospel as

well. Well, it's not that we were just commissioned to spread

the gospel. We're also commissioned again to be a steward

of the truths found in the Word of God. But here definitely

we are commissioned to spread the gospel. So look back with me

and at the Great Commission. Matthew, chapter 28, verse 18. And

Matthew 28:18

Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given

to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy

Ghost, teaching them to observe. What does it say there?

All things whatsoever. I have commanded you all things. And lo,

I am with you alway even unto the end the world. And even though

we emphasize here the Great Commission, that we're to share the

gospel with those in our community, and we're to share the

gospel with those in our state, and we're to share the gospel

with those in America, we share the gospel around the world.

It's also saying that we share all things. Again, it goes back to

the second Timothy, that all things that thou has heard of me,

all things should be taught to others also. And so we take this

as a commission. It's a commission. It's a commission from

Jesus Christ, commanded Again, primarily to the churches. And therefore,

because it's commanded to the churches, of course, churches are

made up of peoples. And so that commission comes down to you

and that commission comes down to me, that we are to again, share

the good news, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But we are so to share

all things, all the teachings. And let me remind you, I didn't clarify

the word doctrine just means teaching all the teachings in the

Bible. We're to share those, by the way, as they are in the Bible.

Not what some others think. But what does the Bible say, the

literal interpretation, what does the Bible say? The church, again,

is given authority and ability to carry out the Great Commission.

And again, that commission is not just spreading the gospel, but

it is to teach all things, share that body of truth. So think

about this again, as we think about an analogy, we can think about

dominoes. Dominoes are not just for playing. I'm talking about

playing dominoes. But dominoes are also fun to set up and knock

down. Isn't that cool? You set them up in a line for 3,000 miles,

push one, and just a chain reaction takes place, doesn't it?

The domino effect, Right? And we think about the illustration here

that brother Stewart uses in his material is a nuclear bomb. We

think about a chain reaction. When the first nuclear bomb was put

together, invented, ready to go, there were many scientists around

the world who thought that if they detonated the atomic bomb that

it might cause a chain reaction and literally blow up the

Earth. You can go read about it. I got it written down somewhere.

But a chain reaction, blow up the entire Earth? Well, we know that

didn't happen. But there was scientists, real scientists, who

believed that. I'm telling you, the effects of the Bible have

a chain reaction. And if we're not careful, that chain reaction

can be broken. In other words, we want the domino to fall to the

next group. We want the domino to fall to the next group. Have you

ever set up a bunch of dominoes and then your little brother

takes one out? Stinking little brother, and they all don't fall?

Never happened to y'all. Maybe a little sister. Well, that's what

happens when we, a generation doesn't share the truth with the

next. Then the dominoes don't fall no more. There's no longer any

chain reaction. A generation's lost. And I can tell you, I think

that's. We've seen that somewhat. We, as the Church of the

Living God, must understand that we're caretakers of the truths

of the Bible and that we are to share Those truths to the next

generation. I know, I'm preaching to the choir. Our church,

I believe, is one of the greatest churches in the nation.

Amen. I mean, if you compare. If you just take and said, okay,

our church compared to blah, blah, blah, oh, man. Because we are

teaching the truth, because we are sharing the truth. We are taking

the body of faith and sharing it. There are churches who do not

teach the Bible anymore. I mean, there is a large group of churches

that don't teach the Bible as it is. And then we'll cover that.

But you guys know that I'm thankful for a church that stands

on the truth of the word of God and passes that truth on to others.

We as a church are to be again passing on the truth. Passing on

the truth, passing it to the next generation. By the way, we're

supposed to be passing on that truth till the end of the age, till

the Lord comes back, till the millennial kingdom. We're just passing

on the truth. And we as a church are to guard the truth. The

Bible says we are to strive for the faith. We are to. And there's

many other. The Bible references protecting the truth and

keeping the faith. The faith, that body of truth. Again, our responsibility

is to teach all things just as it is. And here's the crux of it,

not to reduce or ignore them in light of the world we live in

today. And that's the key. That's what's happened, and that's

what happens in history. We find Christianity is popular for

a while and then comes back down, and popular for a while and

then comes back down. And when it's at its low point, you see churches

compromise. We see churches compromise the faith compromise the

body of truth because it's not accepted by the world out there or

it's not politically correct. Let me put it that way, right in

America and around the world, is the biblical home readily, readily

accepted today by the majority? You may say, well, maybe

it's 50, 50, I don't know. But I'm saying there is a huge portion

of the world today who would not adhere to the truth and laugh

even at the truth of the biblical family that God ordained

that God instituted a man and a woman marrying each other for a

lifetime, having kids, or the role that each one has given by God,

that the man is the head of the house. The feminists go, well,

it's Bible. It's what the Bible says. When you go against the

authority of your husband, you're going against God. I'm just

saying what the Bible says, don't shoot the messenger. By the

way, Paul says that. He says, because I tell you the truth, you're

gonna. Right, See, even in here I can see it. Right? I mean,

again, but in society as a whole doesn't want to accept those

things. And so what happens is the church kind of. It kind of shrinks

back and says, okay, if society isn't going to accept the

biblical model, the biblical institution that God set up and the

role that God ordained for the man and God ordained for the woman

and God ordained for the children, then we'll just. We'll

just teach family light. We won't teach it the. We won't give

it the fullest biblical sense. We'll just. We'll just. We'll just

skim it. Is that right, Man? I know, I'm just going to hammer it

some more because got people praying and everything, but this

applies. You could. I mean, you. I could sit down with you and

you could come up with 10 biblical truths that this applies

to in our society today. Easily. The gender issues and all

the other things going on in our society today. Homosexuality

and many of the churches accepting sin. Let me say too, when

we address homosexuality and we address some of these others,

just to be reminded that if a man and a woman live together, it's

just as much a sin as two men. Everybody with me, we got churches

accepting that they won't call anybody out because they shirk back

from the truth. Sometimes as individuals, we do this because we

don't want to seem as though we're being mean to someone as we

present truth to them. We need to be careful. Of course we ought

to preach the truth in love. But also, you don't do that to the

extent of giving up the truth or diminishing the truth. Not anywhere

in your authority to diminish the truth. Amen. I need to stay some

more on this one. I know, again, I'm preaching to the choir.

But understand that it's not just impacting the churches out there.

It impacts us too. It impacts us too. I believe the Bible gives

us two ordinances, by the way. I'm not the one who just believes

that. Historically, the church has only had two ordinances. Baptism

and the Lord's Supper. I mean, that means our forefathers believed

it that way. Our forefathers forefathers believed it that way.

Two ordinances. And if those ordinances were given to the churches,

not to an individual, so that means the Lord's Supper. You can't

go to your home and pass out Grape juice and unleavened bread

to your kids and take the Lord's Supper. You have no authority

to do that. You don't have the authority to go home and baptize

your children in the pond, in the backyard, or in your bathtub

because the churches were given that authority by the Lord

himself. But I'm telling you, that's a. That's a hot issue today,

especially the baptismal part. I don't know how many people we have

had not join this church because they were not scripturally

baptized. And I went to them and said, in order for you to join

our church, you have to be scripturally baptized. There are

dozens, maybe even a hundred over the last 25 years who haven't

joined our church because we've stood and said, the Bible makes

it clear that only churches have the authority to baptize and

that baptism has to be done by immersion and has to have the proper

authority, but also the proper mode. In other words, if you got

baptized before you got saved, that baptism is meaningless. You

gotta get baptized after you get saved. So that's what I mean.

We are all affected by pressure from society outside these

doors who do not feel and do not hold to the biblical truths.

But we are required, we are commissioned by Jesus Christ himself

to safeguard. It's a good way to put it, safeguard the truths found

in the Bible, whether we think, whether we like them or not.

Amen. Amen. Help me out, everybody. Good. So if we're not

careful, a chain reaction will happen. And that is, one generation

will not get the truth. And therefore the next generation, the

next generation, the next generation won't receive the truth.

And so we have to be a steward of that truth. We have to safeguard

responsibility to teach the things to that next generation. The

Bible says there's one way to heaven. Jesus said himself, I am

the way. And that truth alone causes much friction out there in

society today. They'll call you a bigot. They'll say mean things

to you like, well, you're telling me that everyone who doesn't

put their faith and trust in Christ is going to hell. And your

answer is yes. Yes, I am telling you tonight and again, most

of you know this, that there were many who willingly gave their

lives and to pass on the biblical truth. The apostles, all

of them, except one, history tells us, were martyred for the faith.

And John, who was the exception, was exiled to the Isle

of Patmos. The torch has been carried and carried forward by many

true believers throughout the first, second, third century and

on and on and on up until the day and hour in which we live. And

I'm thankful for those who stood by the stuff and stood for

truth and biblical truth and were willing to give their lives.

BH Carroll we passed out and gave the trail of blood free to everybody

on Heritage Day. And BH Carroll says, and you can historically

go back and look at this and you can surmise what the numbers

were like, but 50 million that died for the cause of CHRIST between

the first century and the 1500s when the Reformation started,

50 million, those men and women and children came, gave their

lives standing for the faith, standing for the truth of the faith,

standing for this body of truth. And we need not take that

lightly. So the role of the church is to be a steward of the

New Testament revelation to steward the truth, to pass that truth

on to the next generation. We are commissioned to pass that on.

The Red Cross isn't commissioned to pass it on. The Salvation

army isn't commissioned to pass it on. We are commissioned to

pass it on. We represent the cause of Christ. The church is the

instrument in which God chose to temporarily replace Israel as

the mouthpiece for spreading the gospel around the world. And

as the conservator, the. The one who again stewards and safeguards

the body of truth, the New Testament body of truth. By the way,

one day Israel, God's chosen people, will be put back on track

and they will see Christ as their Messiah and they will be restored.

But until that time, we as churches are to be the light. So

in conclusion, we, Heritage Baptist Church should seek to be

a first century church. Are we a first century church? I was just,

again, I'm a YouTube guy and other things, I just, I hardly even

like Real TV anymore because you can go on YouTube and pick out

what you want to watch or what you want to learn about. So I saw

one of them come across there and somebody said, well, you know,

let's go back to the first century church. And this is a preacher.

He said, if we went back to the first century church, what would

that look like? Well, he said one of the first things he said is

there'd be no music. Pardon me. They sang psalms and hymns and

spiritual songs. You just don't. Here's a preacher doesn't

know his Bible, but what would the first century church look like?

What would they be teaching? And I'm telling you I'm a Baptist

because I believe Baptist. Historic Baptist faith is the closest

to what the first century church taught. And that's why we're

teaching the Baptist distinctives. It's not that some

other denominations don't teach some of these things, but Baptists

exclusively teach them all and we'll cover all 12 of them. Say it's

when you put them all together that you say that's what makes Baptists

distinct from other denominations. That's why I'm a Baptist.

I'm Baptist, born Baptist bread. When I'm dead, I'll be Baptist,

dead Baptist. I'm Baptist with a capital P. I don't like when churches

put change their names number one and take Baptist off. But I also

don't like it when they put their Baptist name down in little

bitty letters at the bottom like you can't hardly see it. Like,

I'm ashamed to be a Baptist. Well, preacher, you know, if you

didn't have Baptist on the sign out front, there'd be some people,

you know, who would come because they wouldn't be offended.

I get that. And that's why we don't have King James 16:11, you

know, out on our sign and some other things that to me doesn't need

to be like the forefront or the focus, but Baptists, 50 million

true believers giving their lives for the Baptist distinctives

that we're going to be teaching. 50 million who were burned

at the stake, torn asunder, boiled in oil, stretched out. I mean

literally stretched apart. Go read the Fox's Book of Martyrs. It

will light your fire. You'll be so like, why in the world did

all that happen? Simply because they wanted to, you know,

read the Bible in their own language and just on and on and on.

I'm proud to be a Baptist and I believe over the next 12 weeks

or so we'll show you. Hey, this is why we're Baptists and this

is why it's important to keep the name Baptist on the sign out

front and hold it dear, not worship it. Of course. And I've said,

and I said, Sunday we get to heaven absolutely 100% there are

going to be some Baptists who are really shocked because there's

going to be other denominations up there. Again, salvation

is not found in being a Baptist or Methodist or whatever.

Found in Jesus Christ. Amen. But I am proud to be a Baptist and

proud to carry on and to safeguard that body of truth which

has been entrusted to us. The truths of the Bible are timeless.

Our God is unchanging. The Word is incorruptible. And for us

to drop any of it as non essential has eternal consequences.

We need to keep the faith. We need to strive for the faith. We

need to safeguard the faith. Let's all stand and we'll have verse

invitation hymn 163 only trust him.