♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ Is the name he gave me ♪ ♪ O my God, hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea ♪ ♪ Hear my plea � ♪ The truth will be known ♪ ♪ God with me ♪ ♪ God with me ♪ ♪ When I go to bed ♪ ♪ God with me ♪ ♪ God with me ♪ ♪ God with me ♪ ♪ To the land of the free ♪ ♪ O say can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ He is risen today ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Elizabeth, standing for prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this time of year where we can take a moment to count our blessings and the many blessings that you give us. Let us be very thankful for everything you've done for us this year. This is a time to reflect on that and a time to really thank you for all that you have come and done for us. Thank you for all the blessings given to the church, too. You have abundantly blessed us for our finances and labors. But Lord, we still need more labors, so if there's some out there that can help us, bring them forward, Lord, whether they're from within the church or without. All this I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated and keep your hymnals open and turn to 226. 226. Oh, how I love Jesus. Love lifted me is our previous hymn. And now we'll sing about the application of that love in our life. Now we love Jesus because he first loved us. Remember 226. Let's sing together. I love you, dear. I love you, dear. I love you, dear. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? ♪ God of Jesus, we worship thee ♪ ♪ We bow before thy Fatherland ♪ ♪ In song of every day ♪ ♪ We love thy people, our hearts and minds ♪ ♪ We worship thee all the day ♪ ♪ God of Jesus, we hold thy hand ♪ ♪ To tell the wonder of his heart ♪ ♪ With his body and soul ♪ ♪ To make it stronger with the heart ♪ ♪ That none can ever be the whole ♪ ♪ Oh, how I have dreamed of him, oh, how I have dreamt of him ♪ Thank you for your testimony of your love for Christ. It is a joy, a privilege, and a great blessing to know the Lord. The choir is going to sing a song of testimony. as to how God has undertaken for us, changed our lives. And because of what he's done for us, he deserves all of the credit, all of the glory, all of the honor, and all of the praise. One of these days, we'll get to sing with perfect voices and in a wonderful round together in the presence of the Lord. And there, together, we'll give him all the glory. We rise down at the feet of Jesus for the happy, happy day that my soul found peace in believing and my sins were washed away. Let me tell thee, O Lord, sorry, Of His grace so full and free. Let my heart keep giving Him the glory, For His One has loved to me. It was down at the feet of Jesus Where I found such perfect rest. Where the life first dawned on my spirit, And my soul was wholly fled. Let me tell thee, O God sovereign, How His grace so full and free. Let my heart keep giving Him the glory, For His one best love to me. It was down at the feet of Jesus, where I crossed my guilt and sin, that he paid my debt and forgave me, for he died my soul to win. Let me tell thee, O love starry, Of His grace so full and free. Let my heart be giving Him the glory For His wondrous love to me. Delighted to see you all tonight. I trust you've had a good day. If you will, pay close attention, please, to all of the various items of information that you have in your bulletin. Especially, if you will, note that our nominating group meets this Tuesday evening at 7 o'clock. The names are enclosed in the bulletin for your information. If you have any suggestions, please see them. If you will also, notice ahead of the looking ahead at the various meetings, very important meetings of the church. As we mentioned this morning, we have a little extra business nature to take care of. It's a delight to see what the Lord is doing through the ministries of this church. And so it's a real pleasure to be a part of what God is doing. Don't forget also, give attention now, we have just until the 10th of December, as far as the next step effort is concerned, Christmas effort is concerned. So if you will, give this your immediate attention, please. Also, remember there's a good quantity, I believe there are still some there. We have others I know that are not out of the new calendars, church calendars to give to your friends. your loved ones, those at work, your work associates, or schoolmates, whatever, whoever it might be. A lovely picture from Thomas Kincaid. How many of you like Kincaid? He's a pretty famous guy. Beautiful picture. And so, there's a Thomas Kincaid picture with the scripture passage from Psalm 27, The Lord is the strength of my life. Marvelous painting, or a picture of a painting, I should say. Wish it were a painting, but it's a picture of a painting. And so these are available for you, and we have a good quantity of them available. The book of the month, Be Ye Holy, by Dr. Fred Moritz. Marvelous, marvelous book. It will help you, it will bless you. Do any of you read books? I know some of you do. And may I suggest that if you read the right kind, you'll be more edified than if you read the wrong kind. And some, they take up a lot of time, but they don't do much for you. And this kind of a book will help you to grow and to give you a perspective on Christian life and testimony and ministry. I'm delighted to see you. As the ushers come, we always take this opportunity during this time of service to Give a word of welcome to those who are guests in the service. We are delighted that you've come. Our ushers have a welcome folder and a registration card we'd like you to receive. If you're here as a guest for the first time, would you lift your hand as they come by? Anyone here as a guest for the first time? Did he miss you guys? You've been before? Been before. That's my shame. Get a camera. Take their pictures. Take their pictures. I know one of you there. I'm just trying to remember. That's exactly right. Okay. Very good. Delighted to see you again. My Alzheimer's kicks in and now I'm getting over it, so that's good. Delighted to see you. And the rest of all of you, may the Lord give us a great time together. Do we need to get refreshed? Oh, do we need it? My, my, my. This whole world needs people that have something to offer and need people who've got a wellspring inside of them that, you know, help and bless those around them. Delighted to see all of you tonight. Ashes come, please, and wait on us now, if you will, for our tithes and our offerings. May the Lord make this, again, a time of great blessing. It's such a joy to see what the Lord has done financially this year. I want you to continue to pray. We're not there yet. We've got a ways to go before the end of the year. And so I encourage you just to pray urgently about the needs. It's not that God hasn't supplied us with the needs of mushrooms and what a year it has been. So may the Lord help us in a special way. Father in heaven, We praise you that you're with us always, and you never fail. And not only are your promises secure, but you always fulfill those promises. And we're so grateful for all you've done. We look to you, dear Lord, for that which only you can do. And pray, Lord, you'll do it through your people in a way that is so direct and definite that we'll know it's in direct answer to prayer. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen. Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nations, hope of God and land of the sun. me will I honor, thou my soul's glory, joy, and crown. Fair is the sunshine, fair is still the moonlight, Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer, than all the angels have been born. Lord of the nations, Son of God, and Son of Man. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Do you have a favorite hymn? When you see it, you're just happy that it's time to sing that hymn. I don't have one favorite, but this is one of my favorites. Number 494. Oh, that will be glory for me, glory for me, when by His grace I shall look on His face. That will be a glorious day when we get to see our Savior face to face and when our faith has become sight. Amen. Let us all stand, please, and sing 494. ♪ What a day, what a day, what a day, what a day ♪ ♪ I'm glad you came, I'm glad you came ♪ ♪ I'm glad you came, I'm glad you came ♪ ♪ I am a warrior, never afraid ♪ ♪ I will be brave, I will be brave ♪ ♪ I will be brave, I will be brave ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪ We are here to pray, we are here to pray, we are here to pray, we are here to pray, we are here to pray. but now we have a chance to do it. Let's give them a little more handshake, a big smile, and a big thank you to my wife, to my mother, to my sister, and to my brother. Ushers, you have more of these pages. There are two sheets for the message tonight. There are two different pages. One page has printing on two sides. The other has one side. And if you don't have both of them, please lift your hand. The ushers will come right away and get to you. You need to have two sheets of paper tonight. I don't want to say this on the tape, they are taping these messages. And I don't want to insult my preacher friends. But most preachers haven't figured out what fundamentalism is all about, even though they claim to be fundamentalists. And it takes a little while to digest this. Actually, a lot of the material I'm giving you came out of questions that preachers asked me and lay folks asked me at conferences in various places. Well, what about this? Well, what about this? Well, how does this fit into the picture? And I began to say, well, there must be some reasonable answers to reasonable questions, because the questions were indeed very reasonable. And so these charts are coming out of that, and they're in process of development yet. I'm trying to figure out how to make them even more clear. And as I explain them, I think the charts are better explained than they are unexplained. They don't explain themselves completely, and I have difficulty explaining them, even trying to explain them. But we have tonight, you have two papers, and you'll notice that one of them has two sides to it, should be printed on both sides. One of them should be, have on one side of it categories of truth we teach and preach, and the other side should be clear biblical teaching. And the other piece of paper is something I just put together this week. because I think we'll help to answer questions about the categories of truth we teach and preach. And so we'll do our explaining there, if you will, please. So tonight we want to talk about categories of truth we teach and preach and how we define fundamentalism in view of the things that are on these particular charts that you have. before you. Now you will notice that you have four columns in this categories of truth we teach and preach. From left to right, column number one deals with truth and you'll notice that column one is titled Very Clear. Very Clear. Will you turn over the page and look on the back of the page because the back of the page is an explanation of column one truth. Very clear truth. Look please, if you will, at the bottom of the page entitled Clear Biblical Teaching. The truths referred to here are so clearly set forth in scripture that to deny them is to deny the meaning of words, and may I say the obvious meaning of words, and the integrity of language. In other words, if you deny what we call the very clear truths, you're really denying that the Bible has any authority at all. You're denying that it means what it says. I mean, there are some things in the Word of God that are so clear that if you deny them, you deny the very things that were the very meaning of words and the integrity of language. So, some things are stated very, very clearly. Let's read on this note on the bottom. In other words, to deny them is an outright denial of the Word of God. Now, anything that is this clearly set forth in Scripture, therefore, must be both fundamental and essential. How do we define a fundamentalist? We define a fundamentalist in terms of very clear biblical teaching. This is the kind of truth and teaching upon which every fundamentalist without exception agrees. There is no disagreement in Column 1 through. It is very, very clearly set forth. Now you'll notice that note down there. There are many things that we teach, preach, and practice that are not in this very clear category of But when we are going to answer ultimately this question, what is a fundamentalist? We can only define a fundamentalist in view of Column 1 truth. And I think you understand what I mean by Column 1 truth, very clear truth. Now, you will notice that Column 2, this truth is not as clear, but to us it is quite clear. But we look at this and there's some interpretation involved here. It's not all just as clear as we think it is because we may have some statements over here and some statements here. And you read the two and you wonder how you can reconcile the two and they come together. And then you have another thing over here that seems to indicate something else. But you look at it and you say, well, now it's pretty clear. This is what it's got to mean. Your conclusion is from putting it together in your mind, not from the obvious meaning of the words and the language. These truths in column four are very important. We teach and preach many of these things, and we'll go through and we'll take a look at what's in this column by way of what is taught and believed in our churches. Column three. Column three is speculation. A lot of what is called prophecy preaching goes in column three. It's just mere speculation. Somebody thinks, well, this is happening in Europe, so this has got to be for the fulfillment of this particular passage of Scripture, or something's happening in the Middle East now. That must be this over here. Well, it's pure speculation. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the guys that preach that way become fools because they miss it by a mile. History proves them wrong. A lot of speculation, and may I say that in evangelical churches, column number three, psychological babble, all kinds of need-oriented stuff is in column three. There's a lot of column three stuff that's taught, and I use the word stuff advisedly, that's what it is, it's stuff. It's taught in our Bible studies and taught from pulpits. And in my opinion, Column 3 stuff has very little place, ought to have very little place in anybody's teaching ministry or pulpit ministry. I think it's all right for discussions in classrooms and we can speculate and we can think about things, but these things are not the gut issues of Christian life and service. They're really not. And then Column 4. Now Column 4 is where churches are split. Column four are where churches are split. There's not a word of it in the scripture. But man, are we insistent that it's got to be this way in our church. It's just amazing what goes on in column four. Column four is full of mischief. It's just petty personal preference. I like it this way. I think it ought to be this way. My grandfather thought this. My great-grandfather thought this. My great-great-grandfather thought this. And this is the way it is. But you've got this. Now again, I want to emphasize that in my humble opinion, almost all of our ministry ought to be centered on Column 1 and Column 2 truth. And the other two columns ought to be largely absent. And you will notice, and I think we've got to be honest with this, that We have no business getting up on a Sunday school class or a Bible study group or getting up before a congregation at a pulpit like this and saying, Thou sent the Lord! And it's my personal opinion and it's not something clearly stated in the Word of God. That's dishonest. Look at my note at the bottom of the page on categories of truth. Bottom of the page, categories of truth. Look at that special note. These categories of truth should never be taught or preached with the same level of authority. And they should not. If it's in column 1, the Lord says it, God says it. If it's in column 2, I'm pretty sure God says it. If it's in column 3, I think God should have said it, but I don't know if He really did. If it's in column 4, it's me saying it. Notice the next sentence in that paragraph. Truth must be preached out of or out from the Scriptures and not into the Scripture. We do not come to the Bible with our ideas and try to prove them with proof texts of Scripture. That's dishonest. The question is, what does the text say for itself? And I spent hours in the preparation of my message asking this question, what does God say? What is the text of Scripture saying? Let it speak for itself. What does it say? Notice we read on in that paragraph at the bottom of that page, it is dishonest to preach our own logical conclusions and speculations with the same thus saith the Lord as we would with truth, which is very clear. Our preaching and teaching should be confined, for the most part, to columns one and two. So, when we come to what is a fundamentalist, we must realize that there are different levels of authority in our preaching. There are different categories of truth that we teach and preach. Fundamentalism is not defined by what's in column two. It's not defined by what's in column three. It's not defined by what is in column four. It is defined by what is in column number one. And then we're going to talk about the clear biblical teaching that is on the back of this page. But before we do, take the other sheet, if you will, please. I don't plan to get through all of this tonight. I'll see how things go as we move along. But I want to get into this column one. We want to take a look at that. It is interesting to me as to the things that people believe. I taught a graduate class in homiletics, and I told them to go home, and I gave them this chart on categories of truth, and I told them to go home as an assignment and bring me back a list of things that were in column one that they believed and preached. Then they had a list of about 50 things, many of them. They had all kinds of things that belonged in columns two and three. I mean, if I could argue and I know enough about the Bible, I could tie you in knots over some of those things. And they had them in column one, it's very clear. Well, if it's very clear, you can't tie somebody in knots over it by making arguments from other scriptures. You just can't do that. So the things that are in column one are few. There are not that many things that belong in column one. I have most of them. I don't think I've missed many of them. There may be a few that I've missed. And by the way, this list is not intended to be what we call exhaustive or complete. It doesn't mean there isn't anything that belongs in that column. But in column one, I've listed most of the things that belong in column one through very, very clear truth. For instance, the inspiration of the Old and New Testament scriptures. God breathed. from God, infallible, inerrant, inspired. The Bible is very clear about that. The Bible claims inerrancy for itself. It claims inspiration. Every scripture is God-breathed, Paul said. Without question, if language means anything, if words mean anything, if grammar means anything, the Bible is indeed the in-breathed Word of God. It's the inspired. Inspired means to breathe. It's the in-breathed Word of God. And therefore, it is inerrant. It's infallible. And therefore, when it speaks, God speaks, and it has absolute authority in all of that which it clearly speaks. That is column one truth. Every fundamentalist embraces this without exception. There's not a fundamentalist in the world in the sense of historic Christian fundamentalism that does not believe that. Secondly, the preservation of God's word. Heaven and earth will pass away. My word shall not pass away. Not one jot. Not one tittle. In any wise, that's little parts of Hebrew letters. That's the yo, the smallest letter, and the tittle is the little thing that distinguishes the daleth from the resh. Just a little teeny little tip off the top of that thing that makes the difference in the letters. And not one jot or one tittle will in any wise pass away until all is fulfilled. God's Word will be preserved. We taught that in the Word of God. That's clear. Very clear that man is created by the direct act of God, by a direct act of God. That is very, very clear. We are not the product of the process of evolution. The Bible is very, very clear. God created man directly, personally, in God's own image and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Man is the product of a direct, personal, creative act by God. How all men are sinners. Every fundamentalist believes that, without exception. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ. It is the liberal that denies this. There are many that deny this. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ. Every fundamentalist believes in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. It's fundamental. It's basic. It's clearly taught. You can't argue that he was virgin-born. If words mean what words mean, if grammar means what grammar means, Jesus Christ was virgin-born. That's simple. The deity of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was God. He was the creator. Took upon him the form of a man. Tabernacled, tented in human flesh. And He was truly God and He was truly man. He had true deity and true humanity. Now you may not like that, you may not agree with that, you may not understand that, but if words mean what words mean and language means what language means, the Bible teaches that. And to deny that is to deny that the Bible says what it says or to deny that the Bible has any sense of authority in what it says. You have to attack the Word of God to deny these things. Now there may be some things you deny, But I can show you I'll disagree without attacking the Word of God. I'll just disagree with your idea of what the Bible teaches. But not this. The substitutionary death of Christ for our sins. It's indisputable. It is very, very clear throughout the Word of God that Jesus' death was a substitutionary death. He, in our place, as our substitute, died for paying the complete penalty of our sins. Every fundamentalist without exception who's ever lived believed this or believes this. Let's keep going. The vicarious atonement by the shedding of the blood of Christ. And there's this big theological thing going on that the blood of Christ is equivalent to the death of Christ. It is not. The death of Christ, apart from the shed blood of Christ, does not atone for sin. And the shedding of Christ's blood without his death will not atone for our sin. It is a blood-shedding death that atones for sin. Biblical. And that's very clear. The bodily resurrection of Christ was not a spirit that came out of that grave. It was a body, a physical Christ, raised from the dead. If words mean what words mean, language means what language means, Christ came out of that grave. Now, you may not believe that. But the Bible says it in very clear language. You can debate whether you're going to believe it or not, but you can't debate as to whether or not the Bible says it. Somebody says it's all in the way you look at it. Baloney! There are some things in the Bible that are not in any way interpreted except in an obvious way. The body came out of the tomb! Words mean what words mean. Language means what language means. That's not subject to interpretation. It's an obvious statement of fact. Again, men may deny it, but the Bible says it. That's what we're trying to establish here. Salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, totally apart from works. This is a very, very clear teaching of the Word of God. If words mean what words mean, language means what language means, there's only one way to heaven, and that is by faith in Jesus Christ, based on the grace of God, apart from works totally. Now, you'll notice I put the baptizing of believers in here. Jesus said, as you go make disciples of all the nations, Baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. There's no way you can get around the fact we are commanded to baptize people. Somebody said, well, you Baptist, you emphasize baptizing. Well, Jesus said to do it. And it's very clear in the Word of God we are to baptize those who become disciples of Christ. We do it because He says to do it, not because it's a Baptist tradition. There's nothing to do with Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian. Absolutely nothing. Jesus said to do it in obvious, plain language and in very clearly stated words. And you have one choice. You have two choices. Obey or disobey. That's the way it goes. The discipling of believers. Make disciples. That's again mandated. The observance of the Lord's Supper. It's very obvious in the scriptures that this is to be done. Preaching the gospel to the entire world. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. And you'll notice we've got both things that we believe and things we're supposed to do. And it's important to make that note. We'll look at that when we look at the back side of our chart. Separation from disobedient believers and apostate unbelievers. Folks, this is just as clearly taught as salvation by grace. Just as clearly taught in the Word of God. If words mean what words mean, and language means what language means, then we are supposed to separate from disobedient believers under certain conditions and apostate unbelievers. We are not to make common cause and tell each other, look at them. This is just as clear, as my dad used to say, as clear as the nose on your face. You see, because it's clear, it's essential, it's fundamental, it's foundational. The personal return of Christ for his own. I didn't put a space between that and the last one, but the personal return of Christ for his own. Jesus said, I will come again and receive you unto myself. If words mean what words mean, language means what language means, he believes in the first and the eternal Christ. And then biblically mandated morality. This is not an option. It's very clearly stated. Thou shalt not commit adultery. There's nothing in the word of God that interprets that or there adds any difference of meaning to that statement anywhere. So you have various things that are very, very clearly taught. Now, let's go to Column 2 for just a minute. This is where it gets interesting. This is where it gets interesting. Because in Column 2, somewhere down here, where does it say it? Yeah, the second one down. Denominational Distinctive. You see, the Presbyterians have the same Bible that you and I have. Methodists have the same Bible that you and I have. And the Lutherans have the same Bible that you and I have. You say, can there be a fundamental Lutheran? Yes, if he believes everything in Column 1 Truth. Oh, yeah. What about a Presbyterian? Can there be a fundamentalist Presbyterian? Oh, yeah. Yes, well, how come you guys don't agree because the Bible isn't quite so clear on some other things and we draw different conclusions But we agree on column one truth You don't have to be a Baptist to agree on column one truth Now You have denominational distinctives, then, in column two. I put something in here I think is very, very important. There is a raging debate today among those who call themselves King James only. Some call themselves only King James. And some say there isn't any modern translation that isn't apostate, wrong. And there's a lot of ignorance flying all over the countryside. And maybe I need to bring a sermon or two on that. May I say, there is nothing in the Word of God that tells you how God is going to preserve His Word. The Bible says God will preserve His Word. His Word is inspired. But there isn't a word anywhere in this book. Now, you tell me if I'm wrong. I've been reading it now for years. Read all of it, I think, at least 50 times. I've never found the verse that says, you must beware of the Alexandrian Greek manuscript. Or the Western family of manuscripts is the way God will preserve His Word. Look out for this set of manuscripts. You read anything in there about manuscripts? Anybody here? Anybody here? See, what happens is Bible scholars look at the manuscripts and they say, well, this looks like it's better than this one. But it's subjective. They study it. It's subjective. It's an opinion of theirs. They know God will preserve His Word, and they're trying to figure out how.