 Hey, man, so keep your place there in 2 Timothy chapter 4. We'll get there in just a minute. It is interesting to note in 1 Timothy chapter 4 that this is, we touched on this in Acts chapter 28 last Wednesday. At the end of Paul's life, he's writing this letter to Timothy, a young preacher who he has trained. He's giving Timothy some parting advice. I believe that Paul knew he was about to be executed here. The Bible doesn't give us that specific detail, that's what I believe and I told you why. I believe that on Wednesday night. The point is this is his last advice and that's interesting. You should always pay attention to the final words of somebody. So whenever somebody is giving you final words, those are probably some important words that you need to listen to. So just keep that in mind. We look at 2 Timothy chapter 4 this morning. So keep your place there, but we're talking about liberal Christian fallacies for the last few weeks. Things that liberal Christians believe and teach in practice today that are not biblical. We looked at some things. The first week we looked at all sin being equal. We looked last week at this idea of unity and that we all need to come together no matter what we all believe. We should all just come together and find middle ground as political approach to Christianity, how that's completely not biblical. He himself said I came to divide. This morning we're going to look at contemporary Christianity. We're going to look at this idea of contemporary Christianity. What is it? Why do people do it? Are we going to do it ever? Are we going to lean that way or not? What does it mean? So the title of the sermon this morning is Contemporary Christianity. The vast majority of Christian churches, I use quotes there, are what you could call contemporary and delve into the contemporary area. Contemporary means, the definition of it is, means occurring at the same time at that time, matching those times. So basically what contemporary means in the sense of contemporary Christian churches or contemporary Christianity is Christianity that matches the times that we are in. Right away you probably just won't like that. Let's actually study it. Contemporary Christianity is Christianity that fits in with the times that we're in. That fits in with the popular culture, I guess you could say. In their worship, in their practice, in all these types of things. When I was Lutheran before I was saved, I was in the most conservative synod of the Lutheran church. The Lutheran church, Missouri Synod, which was the most conservative of Lutheran churches. Even Missouri Synod, Lutheran churches that I was in and went to started to have one contemporary service and then one traditional service. So typically the early service would be the traditional service at 8 o'clock in the morning or whatever it is and then the later service because apparently the young people can't wake up anymore. The later service at 10, 30 or 11 or whatever would be a contemporary service and the messaging is different, the songs were different. It's funny because a lot of conservative people that I knew were really against it because what you did is you basically created two different churches. There was people that never saw each other, some people went to and it just really divided along the lines of age really. So you ended up with the older people church and then the younger people church. But the point is what's the deal? Why are churches doing this? Why do you see it everywhere? The majority of churches today are doing this. Most churches today that you see that are non-denominational churches especially, they're just all contemporary. There's no traditional anything. So the point is Christianity, and I use that word loosely this morning, Christianity is changing today. It's changing with the times, it's changing with the cultures. I mean church services altogether are changing. They don't look or sound like they used to sound. That's for sure. And I guess it makes sense because everything changes. So the first thing I want to look at this morning is you're there in 2 Timothy 4. The first thing I want to look at this morning is why do people do it? Why are churches going contemporary? Why is this happening amongst Christianity or Christian churches today? Look at 2 Timothy 4 and we'll get the first answer here. And there's really two answers and I want to show you both sides. These two answers are really, they're both sides of a single evil coin. So the first one is this. The first reason that churches are becoming contemporary or changing with the times is that the people want it. That's the first thing. Look at 2 Timothy 4 in verse 1. Remember, this is the last words that Paul is saying to a young preacher, someone who is going to be leading a church. Look at verse 1. He says, I charge thee before God. Notice how he says like, hey, don't, he doesn't say do what I say. So he's like, you have a responsibility towards God for the things that I'm going to tell you. And the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Be instant. In season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all alongside you say how? Reprove, rebuke. These words are saying like correct people. To rebuke is to harshly correct someone. Someone that's just doing the wrong things. You're going to have to use the word of God to harshly correct at times. That's a rebuke saying, no, that's wrong. You should not be doing that. And using the word of God, you are to do that with all long suffering and what? Doctrine. Now look at verse number 3. And this is what I'm my first point right here. It says, for the time will come when they, who's they? This is the people. This is the people that Timothy said, this is the church that he will be preaching to. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own loss shall they heed to themselves teachers having itching ears. Boy there's just so much truth in that verse right there. He's saying there's going to be a time when the people don't want to hear what you have to say. What is he saying? He's saying the word of God. The doctrines of God. There's going to be a time when people don't want to hear the doctrines of God. Look folks, people that love sin hate preaching. And he's saying that there's going to be a time when you have a group of people that don't want to hear the word of God. They don't want to hear the doctrines that you have. But he's saying up in verse number 2 he's like, you keep preaching the word. He's like, you preach the word this is why churches go contemporary because they're not doing this. Why do you think Paul had to say this to Timothy? He said it to Timothy because there's a temptation for a church leader to not do these things. Look and it must be a pretty big temptation and a pretty big risk if Paul thinks this is the main thing I need to bring up to Timothy in my last, in my final words to him. Churches change and they go contemporary because people want it to change. That's the first reason. Doctrine, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. Turn to Titus chapter 1. So that's the first reason. Why do churches change? Why do churches change with the times which is the definition of contemporary? Why do they change with the times? The first reason is because the people sitting in the chairs, they want it to go that way. It's very simple. Look at Titus chapter 1, verse number 7. We're talking about the qualifications here for a bishop or a pastor. The Bible says in verse 7, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God. Not self-willed. Not soon angry. Not given to wine. No striker. Not given to what? Not given to filthy people saying it's pointing out that he must be the steward of God, not the steward of himself. And then a further drilled down detail of that is that he can't be in it for filthy lucre. Meaning the pastor, the bishop, the pastor of the church cannot be in it for the money is what the Bible is saying here. Then it goes into several other qualifications, but then in verse number 11, he says, well actually in verse number 10, let's start there, it says for there are many unruly. Now he's saying because there's people that are going to try to be pastors and try to be bishops that are unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. That's for their time. He's talking about the Jews and the Jewish leaders. Look at verse number 11. He's like these people though, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, why? For filthy lucre's sake. So the second reason that churches go contemporary is because it's this church growth movement for what? Because the leader of the church is in it for the money. The leader of the church, the false prophet is in it for his own belly himself for to make money. More people, more money. Look, it's a perfect storm. It's a perfect storm because you think about it you got these people that want that don't want sound doctrine. They don't want to hear sound doctrine and it's perfect because you have these men and maybe women in many cases that want to pop up and they don't want to teach sound doctrine they're just in it for the money, they just want the people. They want to pop up all these people they don't want to teach sound doctrine they're going to gather up all these people and they're in it for the money. So you say what the sound doctrine have to do with worship types and how church music and worship and all these types of things but I'll explain that in just a few minutes but the point I want to make is you will not find a contemporary church that has sound doctrine. I'm going to explain that to you right now. So you see this the first point before we even get started with the sermon is that this is perfect storm it's like two magnets that are flipped the right way where you got these people they don't want sound doctrine and you got this guy over here he doesn't know or want to preach sound doctrine he just wants money so these people don't want sound doctrine they have money and he's like I'm going to gather up all these people click perfect fit. This is how churches become contemporary you say so what does doctrine mean to the church is why can't you find a contemporary church that has sound doctrine and the answer I mean to just give it away for you is the fact that they are contemporary means that they don't care about doctrine and that's what I'm going to show you next look at verse actually go to Romans chapter 12 and they don't want doctrine so it's perfect they won't tolerate doctrine so it's perfect see these are people that want the church to come to them they want the church to match them not the other way around so why is it wrong go to Romans chapter 12 Romans chapter 12 the bible says in Romans chapter 12 and verse number 2 now let's talk about some doctrine about why going contemporary is wrong and then you'll see that the very fact that someone went contemporary means they don't care about doctrine they don't care at all look at verse number 2 and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God so the bible here is saying is that no no no no the church doesn't come to us the bible is not going to come to us we are to be transformed to the bible we are to go to it so no one would argue that this world is changing no one no one who is in their right mind would argue that this world is changing and it's changing quickly but look it's always it's always been changing in certain aspects you just think about I don't know most of you are pretty young but you just think about if you're the older you get the more you'll notice things changing you think about just fashion and just how fashions have changed over time we make fun of how people used to look in the 80s and things that people used to wear in the 80s and things like that you think about just cars that have changed over time cars are constantly changing this is why you'll typically see people that always like a certain era of cars it's because it's kind of that era of cars that they grew up in it's kind of like why I bought an old car because I kind of like that era of cars cars are changing they're constantly changing technology is constantly changing you know the internet was invented in 1995 then you had all these things that come in just technology is just changing very quickly but you're like hey this is all good faster isn't it all good that cars are getting better technologies getting better by the way I predicted that the self-driving car thing is going to go away and it pretty much did right so you know that I just read the article the other day that self-driving cars are kind of like being shelved for now because they've killed like almost everyone that's trying to use the self-driving feature but anyway technologies changing all these things you know our lives are getting easier you know people are being saved through medical you know machines and MRIs and all I mean how is this bad this is good shouldn't the church change too I mean think about this opinions are changing I mean I don't care who you are Democrat or Republican you know they're both going in a certain direction they're both getting more liberal they're both kind of like okay they might be moving together but one slightly to the right of the other but sometimes maybe not but they're all moving they're all changing they're all changing what a conservative is today is completely different than what a conservative was in 1985 it's changing everything is changing here's where it's not good we start getting into these philosophies of life and what's right and what's wrong families are changing families are changing my wife was telling me a story like how you know when she was younger when she was younger and this isn't to beat up on anyone that's ever been divorced but when she was younger like someone being divorced and I remember this too it was like a really big deal when we were kids growing up like yeah like there was a kid in school and like oh yeah their parents are divorced it was like a really big deal that somebody was divorced now it's like whatever I mean marriages are changing you know people are trying to redefine the roles within marriages you preach what the bible says about a woman's role as a submissive wife and a husband's role as a strong spiritual leader and you'll be labeled a hate preacher you know online or whatever because these ideas are changing today so it's not surprising because everything's changing morals are changing look even the bible itself is the bible itself is changing there's more and more versions of bible coming up all the time why filthy lucre sake and there's evil people out there working for satan trying to change the word of god right so look the point is in order to be a contemporary church you would have to just first of all think of the work of this you think about how fast our society and our culture is changing today I mean it makes my head spin to think about how stressful it must be to change with those times just from a mechanics of it all right I found an article I found an article from I won't even mention the website but how christianity is changing and how you would have to change so rapidly it was an article on Joel Osteem and this article this article I know okay so the article was from a far left god hating group okay and I won't even give them the credit of saying the name of the group right but it's ironic by the way that a far left god hating group is trying thinks that they should be able to define what is christian and what isn't but they wrote this article and it just shows you that compromise gets you nowhere but failure anyway I mean even compromising it's not like people are going to love you that the article's title was this Joel Osteem's gay problem the religious right is history if he can't solve it like I said this is a far left god hating site and it says it starts out the article even gelicles need to tone down their views to stay relevant the slick Houston pastor is showing them how it's done well first of all that's exactly what's happening to just show you that Christianity today is being driven by far left god hating philosophies and of course you can go and you can look up Joel Osteem's you know views on gay marriage you know throughout time and how they've evolved so he doesn't get in trouble he never even said anything bad about it really but I mean the point is that he's changing with the times he's changing with the times as is Christianity itself but the bible says don't do it so what do we do right turn to malachi chapter 3 why does the bible say this why does the bible say don't change why does the bible say don't be conformed to this world I mean maybe god knew that societies are always changing and they're not changing for the good right turn to malachi chapter 3 the bible says don't do it and here's the reason why here's the reason why we are not to change with the times I don't care what it is look at malachi chapter 3 verse number 6 the bible says for I am the lord what I change not the bible says that god is the same therefore you sons of jake are not consumed in hebrus chapter you say well that's the old testament god is another weird false doctrine that god has suddenly I mean that literally the old testament literally says that I will never change I am the lord I change not not until the messiah comes and look people haven't even read the bible that believe that because you know people have just invented a new jesus they've invented a mean god from the old testament and they invented a brand new jesus that wasn't jesus hebrus 13 verse 8 says jesus christ is the same yesterday today and what forever god does not change turn to Jeremiah chapter 1 turn to Jeremiah chapter 1 so this begs the question this begs the question what about the people what about the people that want the church to change look at Jeremiah chapter 1 this shows you this shows you that god was having this problem since people step foot on the earth look at Jeremiah chapter 1 let's start at verse 6 Jeremiah this is like the first things that god is saying to Jeremiah he is just a young man and the bible is saying god is calling him to be his prophet then said I Jeremiah oh lord god behold I cannot speak for I am a child god is saying I need you to go and I need you to spread this message and I need you to speak my words to the people and Jeremiah is like I can't I'm just a little kid I can't do this and look what god says god says but the lord said unto me say not I am a child for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak god is like hey it doesn't matter how old you are because I'm gonna tell you what to say he's like I'm gonna give you the words to say and then you're gonna go out and say them and god's like he just stops right there but what's the first thing that god gives Jeremiah he's like I'm gonna give you my words to say and then look at verse number eight he says but be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee say it to the lord and boy doesn't that just define Jeremiah's entire life right there he's saying I'm gonna give these words to say and what god is saying is these people are not gonna like what you have to say they're not gonna like the words that I give you to say so Jeremiah's like I don't know what I would say I'm just a little kid god's like okay but don't worry they're not gonna like it don't worry about their faces don't worry about that I've actually had people that you know have been you know backslidden and ended up fighting against the lord themselves tell me that they don't like this verse like be it not afraid of that but like I said people that love sin will hate preaching and what will they hate they will hate the word of god they will hate it when it's thrown at them when the words of god are read and preached they'll be like they don't want to hear it and that's a common thing for a pastor that's exactly what Timothy was being warned about by Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 4 is like they're not gonna want to hear this stuff but you gotta keep saying it because god does not change and if god doesn't change if god doesn't change actually turn to Romans chapter 1 if god doesn't change and churches change the message churches change what is right what is wrong what is righteous with what is righteous judgment and they change and they go into this we must be unified and they go into all these false teachings if churches change in that way what have they done look at verse 25 of Romans chapter 1 talking about people that literally the Lord has given up people that are rejected by god and look at the first characteristics that is their most serious sin is who changed the truth of god into a lie what contemporary churches have done god doesn't change so they have changed god it is not a small thing it is not like oh they just have a different word no they have changed the truth of god into a lie into something that it is not it is a very serious thing now I hope you recognize a pattern here as we talked about last week about unifying evil we talked about the week before that about this don't judge don't ever judge all these wicked false doctrines and now we are seeing that we need to change god to fit the people we need to literally me as a pastor literally need to change the word of god to fit the people I did a study before I even came to the satellite ministry before I even moved to Fresno I did kind of this exploratory search when I was thinking about going into the ministry and I was just kind of wondering why where did all these preachers go I kind of did this study on like all these you know there are certain preachers and there was several preachers in southern California that were just like fire breathing Baptist preachers and just like where did they you know back in the 80s even into the 90s there was a lot of these preachers and I was just curious because why did I look into this I looked into it because I was like hey they were there they were young they were 30 they were 40 they're not dead and I'm like what happened to them I don't want that to happen to me this is why I looked into it so I looked into it and here was a common thing that I found in one particular one I won't mention any names was actually in California but what happens is you know one of two things either the preacher caves to the people or the people literally kick the preacher out that has happened in a couple of cases and there is this one case where the people literally voted the preacher off the island and like I said we want a contemporary church and we want you know that's why this is not a democracy here you know this this is not a democracy this is that we just go off the Bible here you know we don't take a poll every week on how you if you didn't like the sermon then I'm gonna change so you can like the sermon but I mean this literally has happened to many this is where they all went it's like the people found a way to get rid of these fire breathing preachers and maybe you know a couple of them maybe some of them I'm sure were just like enough of this and maybe they quit they stopped or whatever it was a case with one or two that I found as well but the point is the people don't want sound doctrine and that's why this is moving in this direction and there's plenty of people there's plenty of people there's plenty of these false bits that are in it for their own belly they're in it for the preeminence they're in it for what for ultimately the money who are willing to go to the people and say you know what that guy there he's mean to you he's a meanie head you know I'll tell you what you want to hear and that's literally in a nutshell what has happened to Christianity today this is the contemporary Christian movement right here they've literally created their own God look the real God in the real Bible there's a lot of wrath in there we're going to learn about it tonight we're going to learn about some of it tonight in Revelation chapter 18 there is a lot of wrath in the Bible and that is who God is and we ought to take heed to that and we need to know look we need to know who God is that's why he gave us his word so we would know who he is and he tells us who he is and he tells us what he wants through what through doctrine that's how he does it so look in conclusion just to be contemporary you have to ignore this key doctrine that God doesn't change it's a very simple doctrine when I read to you Malachi 3 verse 6 was that complicated? I am the Lord I change not like oh man what does that mean it's like no the Bible this God is always going to be exactly this God no matter what we think about this doctrine which is a good check for ourselves like is there parts of the Bible that you know I'm fighting against in my life that's a good check and guess what you can't know what's in the Bible if you don't read it if you don't listen to it if you don't go to church and hear preaching from the Bible so the very fact that they are contemporary means that they have a desire they have no desire for doctrine it proves that the opinions of God the doctrines of God mean nothing turn to Ephesians chapter 5 turn to Ephesians chapter 5 and it's a perfect match it's a perfect match between those people and the false prophets who will step in that they just want money you say oh but it's just the music it's just the music I just like the music I know people that literally like will not go to a Bible preaching church just because of the music look that's a problem look at Ephesians chapter 5 Ephesians chapter 5 verse number 19 Ephesians chapter 5 verse number 19 the Bible says speaking to yourselves in Psalms why are we seeing hymns why are we seeing all these hymns that have doctrine and look I'll bring up the words of hymns and sermons many times because there's doctrine in the hymns the Psalms themselves are songs they're written to be sung speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and what spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord and guess what if you listen to contemporary music if you listen to contemporary music you will not have a desire for hymns anymore if you get into that your desire for hymns will go away it's just the flesh taking over the spiritual in just one other area of your life so even the music the music of you know CCM contemporary Christian music first of all it's always been extremely annoying to me CCM I've never been able to stand it even before I was saved I'm just like every song is this really just femi love songs to Jesus I'm just like what in the world there's no doctrine in it there's false doctrine in it it's all wrong and what is it doing it's trying to conform to the world it's trying to be like hey we went to a rock concert on Saturday night now the church kind of looks like where I was on Saturday night kind of looks like the bar kind of looks like the club kind of looks like all these things it's just another way of conforming to the world that's why people like it but guess what if you get out of that and you separate from that and you start just reading the Bible and studying the Psalms and just you'll start speaking to yourselves and Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs you will sing the hymns that we sing so you will say man this is just great doctrine in this hymn there's a couple hymns that we don't sing because they actually you know tend towards the repenting your sins and some false doctrine so we're not going to sing hymns that do that but the hymns contain doctrine and you will start to love the hymns you will start to love those things but look all this contemporary music it feminizes Christianity and what it does is it just it plays to people's emotionalism and that's what people want they want an emotionally high experience when they go into a church or whatever so look what does it produce let's look at what it produces let's look at what contemporary Christianity produces the first thing that it produces is this turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 the first thing that it produces is basically a church full of unsaved people that doesn't mean that unsaved people won't come here or won't visit here but what is the first thing that we do when somebody walks into this church as a visitor you're going to get the gospel someone's going to come up to you and make sure that you're saved because that is what church is for but these churches will be filled with unsaved people but they'll be filled with unsaved people that feel spiritual they'll unsave people that you know they have a form of godliness look at 2nd Timothy chapter 3 in verse number 5 these people have a form of godliness but what? denying the power thereof from such turn away what is the power thereof what is the power of god it's his word it's his what? it's his doctrine so these people they want to feel spiritual but they will reject any doctrine they will reject anything oh that's just judgmental no no no that's the bible I only ran into somebody like this out soul winning yesterday but that's the bible yeah but that person you don't spend too much time talking to people like that when you say but that's the bible and they're like yeah but this yeah but have a nice day because they're denying the power thereof and if they're just rejecting clear scripture clear doctrine they're rejecting the doctrines of god and it's because they're spiritually feeling people they feel spiritual they think they're spiritual they're in these churches where they go and there's a rock concert it's happy clappy it's positive only preaching we'll talk about that next week but they're just denying the power because the power is in the doctrine the power is in god's words look at verse number 6 and notice how verse number 6 which for this of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captivity silly women laden with sins let away with diverse lust doesn't that match what I've been telling you so we see two things here right first thing is we see silly people what that means is just unintelligent people that aren't thinking things through they're easily fooled the bible says other places they're simple simple people that's why you will see people that's the first one you see silly people these are the people in these churches they will sit in church for years they will sit in these contemporary churches for years and they will have no idea how to get to heaven they will have no idea if they're going to heaven no clue and you'll talk to them at the door like do you know if you're going to heaven no you go to church oh yeah they'll talk to you about their church for hours they're super proud of their church they tell you how to get to heaven what can anyone really know that not sure I think if I'm pretty good I'm trying to be as good as I can no idea that's silly silly is kind of a light word but what the bible is really saying here is foolish they're foolish but they feel it's dangerous to them in that case that contemporary church is dangerous because they feel spiritual they feel like they've done something good when they go to church I couldn't stand going to church I couldn't stand it it was boring I just remember standing at the pew there was a prayer at the end of the sermon at the end of the 11 minute sermon there was a prayer I remember this as a kid it was like torture the prayer after the sermon was like 10 minutes long and he had to stand for it but as soon as you leave at the church service you feel like I did something good today you get that spiritual like I went to church today I'm a good person it's dangerous because it makes you feel safe it gives you some sort of emotional comfort at least but there was no power there there was no power at all and the second thing is what I've been telling you is you see these silly, these foolish people who just want to feel spiritual want to get some kind of emotional high but the second thing you see in verse number six is you see the false prophets the people that are creeping in and the people that are leading the silly foolish people you see the false prophets there and you know what it says about the false prophets look at verse number seven to come to the knowledge of the truth and this is one thing that you will notice about false prophets it's false prophets they claim to know all this stuff and they claim to be so smart and they claim to be so spiritual and they claim all these things and they claim that these are the people that you'll meet that they have no idea about the gospel but they're going to tell you how much they know about the bible they're going to tell you even the earliest intro soul winner will know more about the bible than 99.999% of the population today they'll have no idea what the gospel is no idea about any of these things but they want to sound so smart but they do what? they know nothing it's crazy you can definitely tell that it's a spiritual battle that we are fighting here alright so the first thing that you're going to see in these churches you're going to see a bunch of unsaved people and you're going to see these false prophets that are just leading these false, you know, leading these people these silly these foolish people astray and these foolish people they don't know anything about the bible so this person is standing up and telling them how smart he is and telling them how much he knows about the bible and there's no bible used and it's just all about making the people feel good turn to Revelation chapter 2 and you'll see and this is the minority of the contemporary churches but it is still a problem you'll have a church that may be has the right gospel a contemporary church that might have the right gospel and has saved people in it you say well that sounds pretty good but here's the problem you're going to have a bunch of saved people and this is the vast minority the vast majority do not have a correct gospel but say we get a contemporary church that has the right gospel and it does have some saved people in it many churches that by the way have the right gospel on their website will still be filled with unsaved people because they're not preaching anything like I said we'll talk about that next week but even if you have a church that preaches the right gospel and has gone the contemporary route and is not teaching the doctrines that they need to teach the bible says this remember therefor from where whence thou art fallen and repent meaning change meaning stop it and go the other way and do the what the first works or else I will come on to thee quickly and will remove that candlestick out of its place except thou repent in revelation chapter one at the end the candlestick is the church that's what is defined candlestick is a symbolism the church itself the seven candlesticks were the seven churches if your candlestick is gone you are not a church so oh you got a bunch of saved people that aren't doing anything it's not a church well maybe god will give them time I'll come to you when in ten years he says I'm coming quickly he says you better get it right or I'm coming quickly look this is what it is to have a church where people are doing the first works where people are going out this is why soul inning is pushed then always will be pushed and the reason they don't do it folks is because to the general public even the christian public that might even be saved walking down the street with a bible is a terrifying idea you may not even remember how that was for you the first time but it's like that terrifies the general public even the general saved christian public so church leaders are like I can't there's no way people will do that but that's how important it is to have a church that has saved people actually doing the first works this is going out and preaching the gospel to people so look folks it's easy to see why this happens because of the people there's plenty of false prophets to step in the gospel around and this is why by the way if you look at the invitation we're independent we're king james only what's the other word we're fundamental we're fundamental that means that we will never go the contemporary route fundamental means sticking to first principles we are fundamental to the bible many people will look at a church like ours that's old fashioned it's not old fashioned it's fundamental we're just sticking to the principles of the bible in what in all manners of faith and practice everywhere I mean think about just the dress standards that's not something that we just make up because we're an independent baptist church and this is how baptist ladies dress that's not something that we make up I made myself laugh this morning we're just sticking to the fundamentals and you know what I feel bad for women today I feel bad for women today I was just telling my wife about this yesterday we're driving through the line at Chick-fil-A and it's at the mall and we're watching people walk by the mall and I'm just like who convinced these women to wear these things it's no good for them and my wife said she said I think they must know like in their heart and their conscience they must know that it's not good for them and I mean just the feminist idea like women in general like worldly women who do they think is driving these trends the feminist is like the feminist would look at a baptist lady in a dress and dress you know decently as a lady and they would look at that like oh you know she's being controlled like no she values herself she has value for herself because God values her and God is telling ladies that hey you know you're more than your nakedness your nakedness is yours and your husband's and vice versa I mean but the Bible I mean God values ladies God values young ladies it's the feminist today that's driving these young ladies to wear nothing and go out and play in these sports where they have to all play in their underwear and all these different things and it's it must be driven by men somewhere there's a man laughing at all these standards that are being set for the feminist in the world but it is God that values these ladies and look what are we doing with our dress standards why do I preach on dress standards for men and for women why because it's fundamental to the Bible look at Deuteronomy chapter 22 I make notes in my Bible where I have like note sections and they're blank and I make notes whenever I use a verse for a sermon or whatever and look at Deuteronomy chapter 22 in verse number 5 the Bible is very clear about this the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man this is just demonstrating our fundamentalism here how we read the Bible and we don't read this verse in the Bible and say yeah but that's not how things are today no we read that verse in the Bible once that's what we should do so the Bible says here it says the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man it's just talking about clothing here folks we're not talking about perverted vile things the Bible is just talking about what you literally wear does God care what you look like yes look at verse number 5 continue reading so I mean you said it's beaten up on the women just saying they can't wear what a man wears neither let's beat up on the guys neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do so because God's like yeah I don't really think much about that no all the do so are in a combination it is funny because I have a note here in my Bible that must have wrote years ago or something it says tranny I laughed at myself but people think people think that fundamentalism is so bad look where we are today folks look what's going on today look what's going on and it's being pushed on kids today fundamentalist is looking pretty good to me fundamentalist is suddenly looking pretty smart to me so we're going to stick with the Bible we're going to stay fundamental old fashioned we're just going to stick with what the Bible says it has nothing to do with we want to look like somebody from the 30's or whatever you know or we want to look like somebody from you know some other it's just what the Bible says and this is going to get worse this is why you see the pastor up there he's got a Hawaiian shirt and skinny jeans and ripped up pants he's like some 52 year old guy with a belly he's trying to wear stuff that like 18 year old guys wear it's embarrassing you look at that and you're like I'm embarrassed for you I don't know how you can be embarrassed for a false prophet but like I'm embarrassed for you false prophet you look like a fool well people will say well fundamentalism you know it's no fun there's a lot of false things about fundamental baptism especially we're no fun that's not true we have all kinds of fun here I mean we have like youth conventions we just went to youth rallies we have all kinds of activities at the church we go hiking we do all these different activities fun sports all these things that there's nothing wrong with but we hold to the standards of the Bible I mean all these things I mean even people will even push the lines in a church like literally if I wanted this church Pastor Emanuel said years ago and this is one of those things that I never really understood but he's like one of my main jobs is to just say no he's like that's so true because if I wanted this church to get contemporary and to get liberal all I would have to do is just let things happen all I would have to do But anything, I've had to step in on so many different occasions and you know not with you all, but I mean people come people go And I've had to step in and look we're never gonna have somebody come into this church and have a lady You know wearing pants or some lady that you know is not dressing like a Baptist lady or whatever And we're never gonna get on them for that, but if some lady walks in this church, and she's naked Meaning she's showing her nakedness because the Bible never says half naked The Bible never said it like you're either naked or you're not So some lady comes in this church and it's happened and I've had to address it The lady comes in church and they got pants torn up and her legs are hanging out and all this stuff. It's like no No We're not gonna allow that Because why because like this church is fundamental and everything in it is fundamental to the Bible the highest standards The highest standards of the Bible Your home is your home But this church is fundamental and it's gonna remain that way All I'd have to do is just allow the lowest common denominator to happen and this place would be a circus in a year Guaranteed so yeah, I mean is it uncomfortable to have those kinds of conversations. Yeah, but I mean I just can't care That's the whole message to Timothy in Second Timothy chapter 4 that was God's message to Jeremiah like I care about people when it when it comes to holding God's lines You just can't care about the people in those cases. They just have to go with what the Bible says. All right, so look Church growth. What about church growth? We're not one of the church to grow turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 3 and here Well, but but you know going contemporary and having some rock music Pastor Pizarra ski, you know, we would really like get the people in the doors here You know, we would really first of all we could have a rock band up here We could bring a bunch of people in the doors and then I'll get up and preach the same and then they would all leave So it would make no difference So I mean it would be a pointless adventure You literally would have to change the music and the message see because it wouldn't work It wouldn't work to bring a bunch of people in here that are in sin and just like not that we're not all sinners Okay, that's not what I'm getting at but a bunch of people that are just like Just don't want to hear the Bible preach and don't want to hear what the Bible says Don't want to hear anything about sin in their life and and then just have some rock music get them in the door And then just offend them out the door. I Mean we'll we'll all offend people out the door anyway without the rock band. All right Look at 1st Corinthians chapter 3 and verse number 6, but don't you want the church to grow? Of course I do of course. I want the church to grow. All right, but I wanted to grow the right way I want it to grow God's way. So what do I have to do? I have to do the first works I have to preach sound doctrine. I have to hold the fundamentals of the Bible in a church that's not mine This is Jesus Christ is the head of this church And he's literally the word. I mean, can you imagine? Can you imagine coming into a church that is Jesus Christ church and then changing the word of God? I mean that you got some stones to do that kind of thing I mean that is crazy, but that's exactly what happens. Look at verse number 6 1st Corinthians chapter 3 says I have planted Apollos watered, but God gave the increase So all we have to do is plant and water and God will give the increase God will grow this church as he feels this church should grow God will take care of it That's it's just a matter of faith folks. It's just a matter of faith the beginning of contemporary Christianity Starts with a lack of faith like oh man, I need to step in and do things my way In order to know that's that's a that's a false Idea that a true man of God should never have that I need to step in and Change God because God's not doing it good enough. No, no, no, no, that's scary to even say I Must do myself what God won't do Whoa That I mean it's a serious thing what's happening in these churches And ultimately is driven by money, but the funny thing is the contemporary Christian church nullifies the church Even the term contemporary Christian church. It's it's a it's an oxymoron Because being contemporary nullifies the church It nullifies the church because guess what? Families families need doctrine Husbands need doctrine wives need doctrine young ladies need doctrine young men need doctrine children need Doctrine and what they're doing is they're getting rid of the one thing that everyone needs And that's why we will never be contemporary We will always be fundamental meaning sticking to the Bible. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer