Okay. Amen. Amen and amen. Good afternoon, Central Park Baptist Church. Good afternoon to you all. We're doing okay? Amen, amen. Well, if you're able to rise, we'd like for you to join us in singing hymn 392. Hymn 392, I believe we'll do all the verses of hymn 392 is our opening hymn, 392. Sing along. I tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise, just to know the sin, the Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus Oh, for grace to trust Him more Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus Just to trust His cleansing blood Just in simple faith to plunge me Near the healing, cleansing flood Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust Him more. Yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self to seize from Jesus, simply taking life and rest and joy and peace. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust Him more. I'm so glad I learned to trust Him Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend And I know that He is with me, will be with me to the end Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you today for the opportunity to show up to church today and to get here safely. Lord, be with those that are not feeling so well. Let us pray for them. And Lord, let us have a good day today at church. Be with the pastor in his preaching. Lord, be with us all. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen and amen. Hymn 207, hymn 207. I believe we'll do all verses of hymn 207. Sing along. A pilgrim was I in a one dream In cold night of sin I did roam When Jesus the kind shepherd found me And now I am on my way home. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of, the days of my life. Well, in the house of the Lord forever, thy shall feast at the table spread for me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Verse two, that last part is my fault. He storeth my soul when I'm weary. He giveth me strength day by day. He leads me beside the still waters. He guards me each step of the way. Surely goodness. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the day, all the day. Let's go back to verse 3, verse 3, last verse. When I walk through the dark, lonesome valley, my Savior will walk with me there, and safely His great hand will lead. me to the mansions he's gone to prepare. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days. OK, the special chorus, special chorus. Here we go. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And I shall feast at the table spread for me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. All the days, all the days of my life. Amen Central Park. At this time you may be seated. All right, welcome to our two o'clock service. That should be a Texas Christian song. I can just see somebody riding their horse, singing that song as they're going through the prairie, amen. But hey, praise the Lord. Welcome back. We're glad that you're here to our afternoon service. I want to remind all the ladies about our ladies' Bible study on Tuesday at 10 o'clock in the morning. Reflecting his glory. I want to encourage you if you're able to be here, please come and be a part of that It'll be a blessing to you. Amen. Listen Bible studies never occurs It's always a blessing. So I want to encourage you to be able to be there if you're able to. Don't have to be a member. Just come be a part. Amen. All right. Just a couple extra things. Don't forget about Tuesday night. Those who want to come to our equipping the saints, we are studying church history. It's very important for us to know where we came from. We are not Protestant. I'm going to say that one more time. We are not a Protestant church. Protestant means to protest. They were protesting the teachings of the Catholic Church. Methodists are a Protestant. They changed partially from the Catholic history and went to their own doctrine, adding their doctrines together. That is not what we are. We are an independent, fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist church, and we go all the way back And it's traceable for us to go all the way back to 31 AD when Jesus established the church. Amen? And Jesus did not start the church at Pentecost. Jesus did not start the church at Pentecost. They added to the church that day. They didn't start the church that day. There was already 120 members there. Amen? Jesus didn't start it there. Upon this rock, I will build my church. Matthew 16, 18. That's when Jesus' work was beginning. Amen? With 12 apostles and the disciples. Amen? Just to let you know. I want to encourage you to be a part of that. Amen? If you want to hold an office in our church one day, you need to know this. and I wanna encourage you to come to the class at 7 p.m. on Zoom. If you need to know how to get to the class, how to actually get the information, please see me after the service and I will email you or text you the information. Brother Ewell knows how to get there as well, so if you need some help to do that, listen, it's important that we know what we believe and what we stand for. Thank you. I'm glad y'all are here, too. I mean, it's getting better. Let's keep it up, amen. Getting better. I appreciate your faithfulness, and I appreciate you being back this afternoon. I want to try to be a help and an encouragement to you, so you might want to, if you have a pen, I might actually say something this afternoon that you might want to write down. Get all that ready. Amen. If you need a piece of paper, ask Brother Aaron. He's got a whole thing over there, and he'll share it with you, okay? But let's have a good offering this afternoon, and let me encourage you, please pray for one another, and please pray for the ministry of this church, amen? Please pray for one another, and then please pray for the ministry of this church. Amen. Father, thank you, Lord, for our people. Lord, I do believe you want to do something here in this ministry, Lord, and through this people. So, God, if we'll just position ourselves, Lord, to be in that role, God, then you'll bless through us. And so, Lord, I pray that you'd please help us to do that, help us to position ourselves in a right relationship with you so that we might receive the blessings of God. Lord, bless this offering. Bless the gift and the giver, and we give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. If you have an offering, you please come. Amen. Amen. If you're able to rest upon your feet, we'd like for you to join us in singing hymn 327. Hymn 327. Hymn 327. We'll do all verses. Sing along. Do you know that you've been born again? Do you know that you've been born again? Does the spirit dwell within, bearing witness that you've been cleansed from every sin and stain? Are you? ready if the Lord should come? Or today your soul should claim? Can you face eternal years free from doubt and dread and fear? Do you know, know, know that you've been born again? Yes, I know that I've been born again. Yes, I know I've been born again. For the spirit dwells within, bearing witness that I've been cleansed from every sin and stain. I am ready if the Lord should come, or today my soul should claim. I can face eternal youth, free from doubt and dread and fear. Yes, I know. Know, know that I've been born again. Amen. Now, if you know that you've been born again, then you know that every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. Hymn 535. Hymn 535. Let's do the chorus. Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. After we sing this chorus, please briefly greet each other. Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. Every day with Jesus, I love him more and more. Jesus saves and keeps me, and he's the one I'm waiting for. Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. Amen. Please greet each other at this time. Amen, amen. Without him, I could do nothing. Without him, I'd surely fail. Without him, I would be drifting like a ship without a sail. Jesus, oh Jesus, do you know him today? Do not turn him away, oh Jesus. Oh Jesus, without him how lost I would be. Without him I would be dying. Without him I'd be enslaved. Without him, life would be hopeless. But with Jesus, thank God, I'm safe. Jesus, oh Jesus, do you know him today? Do not turn him away. Oh, Jesus. Without Him, how lost I would be. Without Him, how lost I would be. I'm going to talk about that next week. He didn't have a clue, but that's kind of what we're going to talk about next Sunday morning. Anyway, Matthew chapter 16. I almost had to tell Brother Marco to sit down while I go, because he started talking about Matthew 16. I didn't want him preaching my message. Matthew chapter 16, if you would please. Let's read beginning in verse 13 and we'll read down through verse 18. Everybody found your place? Amen. When Jesus came into the coasts 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, and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? You know, the Lord has a way of getting straight to the point. You know, I like people that get straight to the point. You know, it's kind of like buying a car. I want them to get straight to the point. I don't want them going back and say, well, I need to go talk to my manager. I'll write down how much, you know, they have on that piece of paper and go back there. Y'all know what I'm talking about? I usually tell them, listen, I'm here to buy a car today. It's been a long time, but I'll tell them, you get one shot at me. So you better give it to me first. Well, that's kind of what Jesus is saying here. He says, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Old Peter put his foot in his mouth a lot of times, but this time he got it right. 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. And I say 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 all God's people can say, Amen. Father, help me, Lord, today. Lord, we're beginning a new direction, if you will, Lord, on some things this afternoon about who we are. why we believe what we believe, and help us to really grasp what these next several weeks are going to bring us, Lord, and why we believe what we believe, and why we are who we are. And Lord, I pray that you would help us, Father, solidify us in our conviction about why we believe what we believe. And so Lord, I pray God that you, dear Holy Spirit, will fill me and help me, Lord, to rightly divide your word of truth, and I'll be mindful to give you the praise, because in Jesus' name I pray, amen. You may be seated. God's Word makes it clear that Jesus Christ Himself instituted the local church during His ministry. And we can all say Amen. And it's here in this passage and in the book of Acts that we see Christ as He establishes the church and also from this point on we see what it is that constitutes the local New Testament church. All through these portions of scripture we see this institution, the church, that the Lord Christ established and developed. You're sitting here today in Central Park Baptist Church, established in 1960 for the purpose of reaching lost people with the gospel of Christ in this area. And by the way, not only in this area, but also in foreign fields. Because every New Testament church ought to be a mission-minded church. And I personally believe that if a New Testament church is not mission-minded, they're really not a New Testament church. So we're put here for the purpose of reaching people with the gospel. But why are we Baptists? And not just any Baptist, but why are we independent Baptists? Well, is it a name of convenience, or is it a name that gives us some sort of advantage? Some people don't think so. Some people think that if you have the name Baptist on your church, it's a disadvantage. That's why many have taken the name Baptist off their church. Because they say, well, I don't want people to think that we're narrow-minded, you know, and all this kind of stuff. So, you know, and if they see Baptist on our church name, they have a tendency not to come. Well, that's funny, the Lord Jesus himself said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto myself. So, why are we Baptists? Why have we chose to call this church? Why have you chosen to call you, by being a member of this church, a Baptist? Well, as Baptists and, uh, Baptists have never claimed to be perfect. You know, are y'all still here? Say amen. Uh, we've never claimed to be perfect. I don't know of a perfect church. In fact, if we, uh, I forgot, I can't find my piece of paper. Oh, here it is right here. Uh, if, if you do find a Baptist church that's perfect, don't join because you'll mess it up. I mean, we are not perfect. And it's obvious that as you and I are part of this local body, we understand that we're not perfect, we are not, the church is not perfect, but the badge we wear as Baptists, now I want you to get this, the badge that we wear as Baptists We take that badge because of the distinctives of the local New Testament church that are consistently found, now listen, consistently found throughout history in various groups of people who today claim to be Baptist. Now, we have not always been called Baptist. If you go do a search in history and you search that written history about Baptist, you're not going to find it. Okay? Are y'all still with me? There's no... Now, let me read it so I don't mess it up. There is no complete written history of Baptist in that name. Okay? There are certain periods of time that much of the history of any religious group was destroyed, for example, during the Dark Ages. Much, if not most, of history was destroyed and burned up. We have not always been called Baptists. For example, and I went and got this, and I have a college class that Brother Marco does that I've taught, and on the history of Baptists, we've been called Christians. We were called Christians first at Antioch. Through the history, we've been called Martinists. We've been called... Novationists, I get it right. We've been called Donatists, Waldenses, Anabaptists. We've been called all those things through history. But listen, but we've not always been called Baptists. But if you'll go and do a search in history on what we believe, and all these people that I've just mentioned their names, you will find that they believe the same things that you and I believe today. And you'll be able to take that history of our beliefs and you'll be able to trace them all the way back to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's those distinctives, these New Testament distinctives that we, Central Park Baptists, believe, and it's those distinctives that we hold on to today. And you can do a study, again, of those beliefs. Not the name, but the beliefs, and you can go back to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, by a simple way, I don't want to try to get all bogged down in all of the details of of all the things that I want to teach you. Because if I did that, I think maybe you might get bored, you might not. But I don't want to bore you with all of the details of what we're going to get into. But I want to give you some of the main points of why we are what we are and why we believe what we believe. And so I want to start, and a great way to start is with the name Baptist itself. And I want to take each letter and I want to show you from each letter some of the things that we believe. First of all, I want you to take the letter B and the letter Baptist and we will use that for the Bible itself. Now when I talk about a Bible, I talk about our King James Bible. The King James Bible is not a version It's the Bible, okay? All the other things are versions. We have our King James Bible. And so as the Bible, our King James Bible is held as the only authority for faith and practice in this church. Baptists have held through the ages that the Bible is our only authority. We do not have an ecclesiastical hierarchy, if you will, that tells us what to do and how we can do things. That's why we're not Southern Baptists. That's why we're independent Baptists. We are our own church. If we rise, it's because of what we do here and what we allow Christ to do through us. If we fail, we fail on our own merits. So scripture, the Bible, is our own authority. By the way, it's not what I think as a pastor. I've had people say, well, preacher, that's just what you think. No, it's not what I think. It's not my opinion. I get all of my opinions right here. I get all of my convictions right here. I can give you scripture for all of them. I've had people come say, well now preacher, can I talk to you about such and such? And I'll say, yep, bring your Bible. Because that's our final authority. Psalm 119, 105, it says, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. So we get our answers from the Word of God. And if we get our answers to spiritual matters from any other source than the Bible, then we do not have light and we do not have the mind of God on what we're trying to do. No matter what we... Listen, when we try to do things, we need to have the mind of God on the matter. And we have the mind of God right here in written form in our King James Bible. Jeremiah chapter 8 and verse 9, it says, The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord. And what wisdom is in them? Listen, if we reject the words of God in this Bible, then we've literally rejected the wisdom of Almighty God. When you turn away from the Bible as your authority for answers, then you're not going to have the wisdom to live your life the way God wants you to live it. So when we do things here, we take our Bible as our sole authority. And we do that because of the accuracy of the canon. Now, when I say the canon, I'm talking about the 66 books that are here in our King James Bible. We believe that God has given us, in His Word, exactly what we need to live and practice so that we can please Him. Now, let me ask you this. Did any of y'all meet Mary when she said, I have conceived of the Holy Spirit of God? Anybody here? So in order to believe that, you have to exercise faith. Amazing thing. We're going to talk about that next Sunday morning. So if we have to exercise faith that the Lord Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit of God in Mary's womb, we have to exercise faith. Right? We have to exercise faith. You know, for without faith, the Bible says it's impossible to please God. So in our beliefs, when we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sin, I didn't see him crucified, anybody? No? You know what happened? But I can see him through the eyes of faith. My salvation. For by grace are you saved. So we have to exercise faith. As believers. So why cannot... Listen, I was talking to a preacher the other day. There's been a young man that's preached in this pulpit. Years ago. You wouldn't know his name, even if I called your name. But he preached at one of the church camps that we went to. Strong, independent, fundamental, Baptist, young preacher. Preached right here. Preached the revival, I think, didn't he? And you know where he's at today? He is way off out here in the left field, and he thinks that if you believe that the King James Bible is the inspired, preserved Word of God, that you're crazy and ignorant. Yep. You know, and I thought, I was talking to a preacher and I said, you know, if we have to exercise faith that Jesus Christ was virgin born, we have to exercise faith that in order to please God, we have to exercise faith in order for you and I to be saved, then why can't we exercise a little bit of faith in that God said that He would give us the infallible, inerrant, inspired, preserved Word of God? Why can't we exercise a little faith about that? Instead of turning around and saying, because you believe that, you're ignorant. Well, I guess I'll be ignorant, because that's what I believe. Numbers 23, 19 says, God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent, hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Listen, the Bible declares that the Word of God is true from the beginning to the end. John 17, verse 17, it says, Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Hebrews 6, 18 tells us that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, that we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge till they hold upon the hope set before us. So we take our Bible as authority because of the accuracy of the canon of Scripture. It's accurate because it was inspired by God to man. God breathed. The Bible is not man's book, okay? It's not a collection of man's stories or man's ideas and philosophies. The Bible declares real plain in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, all scriptures given by inspiration of God. We either believe that or we don't. I mean, it's given by inspiration. God breathed. In other words, God said, John, Write these words. Even the book of Revelation, remember we talked about that? He got so excited about what God was showing him, God had to remind him and say, Hey John, write this down. So he wrote. And it says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction of righteousness. So we take the Bible as our source because of its accuracy. Let me throw in another deal here. We're independent Baptists because there's some independent Baptists that do not believe this. There's some independent Baptists that do not believe that I've had preachers of independent Baptist churches tell me that, listen, there's other versions beside the King James Bible. Well, it might be for them, but not for me and not for this church. Listen, that's another reason why we're independent. Y'all do know what the word independent means, right? Independent. We believe the Bible is our source because of its accuracy. Also, the Bible because of the authority of the church. Now watch this, Baptists have always believed that the Bible is the constitution of the local church. We have a constitution and bylaws, you have to have them. But the Bible, listen, I had a man in the church there in Pampa, just happened to be the treasurer there at one time, and they got all upset about some things that we were doing, and I was talking to him on the phone, and he said, well, preacher, don't be throwing the Bible up in my face. I thought, what do you want me to use? I mean, that's all I know. Listen, the Bible is the only authoritative code for what we call ecclesiastical law. Why do we govern our church the way we do? Why do we have a pastor, deacons, and services where the Word of God is proclaimed and taught? Well, we go to the Word of God to see how the church is to be ordered. Now, there's nothing in Scripture that tells us when We ought to have church. OK? But I do know it tells us that we ought to do it on the first day of the week. Now the first day of the week is not Monday. This is not the weekend. Sunday is the week beginning. And so Sunday, the first day of the week, listen, all day, it belongs to God. So we go to the Word of God to see how the church is to be ordered. The church does not get that authority from man, but we get it from the New Testament. It's the authority for the local church. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the originator of the church and the head of the church. I'm not the head. Colossians 1.18, it says, And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and in all things he might have the preeminence. Listen, that's not talking about the pastor. That's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So He's the head of the church. I have folks very often say, Preacher, we really like your church. And I'll tell them, it's not my church. God allowed me to pastor it, but it's not mine. It belongs to Him. Matthew 28, 19, and 20 gives us the purpose of the church. And the purpose of the church is the Great Commission. That's to go and win people to Christ and baptize them. Listen, there's three ways to become members of the church, and only three. Okay, y'all listen. One is through salvation and through the baptistry. okay we see we baptized Jordan the other day because Jordan got saved and then because he trusted Christ as his Savior we we put him right in the baptistry and I buried baptized in him in the likeness of Lord Jesus got baptized and I can't think of how it goes now He was buried in His likeness, raised in the likeness of His resurrection to walk in the newness of life. And through salvation and baptism, He became a member of a church. He was baptized into membership of this church. Another way is through someone that's coming by letter. And listen, and when I say by letter, that means that they are coming from a church of like faith, one like this one. Now it's coming to the place where we've got to be a little more picky about churches of like faith. Amen? Because listen, some Baptist churches don't believe like we believe. You know, some will tell you, well, we're Baptistic in doctrine. Well, put your name back on the sign. Amen. Listen, I'm not ashamed of being a Baptist. You know, and I'm glad I'm one. Our history, listen, our history goes way back, and a lot of people have died for the name Baptist, and I'm not willing to take it off. But listen, the second way is by letter, and another is by statement of faith. Statement of faith means that they've been baptized in a Baptist church, and they're born again, child of God, and we accept their statement of faith. If they come by letter, then we send for their letter of membership from that church of like faith, and we bring them into membership of this church. Those are the only three ways to become a member. Only three. Three. Are y'all still here? Say amen. I've had people say, I've had people, listen, we had a couple years ago. A husband and a wife that came. They sit right back here in the back. Sweet lady, sweet man. And she came to me one day and she said, Preacher, we would like to be members. And I asked them the question, are you born again? They said, yes. I said, have you ever been baptized in a Baptist church? And she said, yes, I was baptized in First Baptist Church. I don't remember the city. I said, okay. And I said, what about you? And I looked at the husband and he said, no. He said, never been baptized in a Baptist church. And he said, I'm not going to get baptized in a Baptist church. He said, I'm a Methodist. I said, okay. I said, he said, she said, well, can I still be a member? I said, yes, you can. I said, but, and I called him by name and I said, but you can't. He said, well, can I come? Yes. You can come in here every... And they did. They were faithful. They were givers. But he wasn't a member. And when it came to the business of this church, she voted every time. But he did not. Do you know why? Because he was not a member. And he was faithful to come, one of the sweetest men you'll ever meet. But he wasn't a member. Why? Because there's only three ways that scripture allows us to accept members. Listen, so the purpose of our church is to go and win people to Christ and baptize them and then disciple them. Listen, when we lead people to the Lord, that's just the beginning of our responsibility to that person. We've got to teach them. What are we teaching them? About what we believe? No, we're teaching them about what the Bible teaches. We just happen to believe what the Bible teaches. Amen? And that's by design, by the way. The purpose of the church was designed not by me or some other self-proclaimed church guru. There's all kinds of books out there that tell you how to reach people and build a great church by people that don't even know the Lord as their Savior, but they're selling books. Listen, if I need to know how to reach people, listen, I'm going to go to our sole authority, the Word of God, and God has plan A, and He doesn't have plan B, and that plan A is to go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in and reach them with the Gospel. Amen. And so the Bible alone is to be followed as to the practices and guidelines of the local church. The Bible is the authority for faith and practice. And if you look at our constitution, I'm telling you, everything that we believe, it's backed up by scripture. Not just one either, but several. So the letter B would start out with the word Bible. The letter A, and I'm just gonna give you this one, it talks about the autonomy of the local church. Now, this might be a new word for some folks, but in reality, it's not a difficult word to understand because it just talks about, one, the beginning or the genesis of the local church. Brother Marco was talking about this a while ago when he was almost preaching the message. I mean, and so, if you look in verse 18 of our text in Matthew 16, You'll notice the Lord said, upon this rock, I will build my church. Now, I'm telling you, there's a lot of misunderstanding about this, about this verse. And let me explain this as simple as I can, and I'll just read it for the sake of time. But for some, probably 1,500 years plus, the Roman Catholic Church has maintained that this passage of Scripture teaches the church was built on the person of Peter. who became the first pope and bishop of Rome, and from whom the Catholic papacy has descended. Now folks, let me just keep on, and because of this supposed divinely ordained apostolic succession, the pope speaks what's called ex cathedra. okay and that is that in his official capacity as head of the church he is said to speak with divine authority equal to that of God and scripture let me tell you that that that interpretation is absurd No two-legged man speaks with the authority of God or His Word. Why? Because flowing through his veins is sinful blood. He is just like you and me. They say that when he speaks and what he says it is infallible. Listen, there is only one infallible Word and we hold it in our hands in our King James Bible. What he says is fallible. Why? Because a man said it. That is just ridiculous. It's presumptuous. It's unbiblical. Because all the rest of the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that Christ alone is the foundation and the only head of the church. Peter, if you read that verse, The Lord says, and let me put my glasses on, it says, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. Now, without going into a lot of detail, that word, Peter's name means Petras. It means a small stone. But the Lord Jesus Christ is the Gibraltar stone, if you will. He is the chief cornerstone. And the Lord says, You're Peter, but on this rock. The Lord's talking about this Gibraltar stone, that one that cannot be moved. Upon the chief cornerstone, the Lord says, Upon me, I will build my church. It's not built by some man. Listen, I want to encourage you. We're not here to build a church. We're here to do our part. We're here to go out soul winning and reaching people with the gospel. But the Lord himself declared, I'll build my church. Peter had just confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And God, we read it, who cannot lie or be mistaken. Therefore Jesus said, I'll build my church. Listen, if he said he's going to build it, you can count on it. It'll be built. No matter how liberal, how fanatical, how ritualistic, how apathetic or how apostate its outward supporters, I'm talking about the church might be, and no matter how corrupt the rest of the world might be, listen, Jesus Christ will build His church. No matter how oppressive or how hopeless their outward circumstances may appear from a human perspective, listen, God's people, we belong to a cause that cannot fail. Amen. That word church, it comes from the Greek word, which is ekklesia. That is actually two words, ek or kleo. EK means from or out, and the word kaleo means to call. So ecclesia means call out from. The church or the ecclesia is a called out from group. Listen, when you got saved, guess what? You got called out. That word denotes a company or an assembly of persons who have been called out, selected, or chosen, or separated from a larger company of people. Listen, when the Lord Jesus Christ went and He began to gather to Himself His disciples, you know what He was doing? He was calling out. He was bringing these men out of, and they became a called-out group. Listen, they had everything that they needed for a church. They had the Word, the Lord Jesus Himself. They had those men. They had a treasurer. No matter how corrupt he might have been, listen, those men formed the first church. And I believe, just as Brother Marco was talking about, the church was already in existence. Before Pentecost, there was 120 of them, and when the Bible speaks, it says they were added to. And if you're gonna add to something, you already gotta have something already going. The word Ekklesia is found 115 times in the New Testament. 110 of those instances, it's talking about the church. Watch, a local called-out group. At least 90 of those 110 times it's talking about a local church or a local body of called-out believers. There are some instances, for example, if you go to Ephesians chapter 5, where the Bible talks about the husband and wife relationship, and the Lord instructs the husband to love his wife even as Christ loved the church. In this context, it's not referring to an individual local church, but everybody who's saved. Some people call that the true church, but that's not right. Some people, listen, the true church is the local body of called out believers. Everyone who is saved can be referred to as the family of God. Amen? But some people like to call that the universal church. Careful! I read a story about a preacher, his name was Vance Havner, and a lady came to him one time when he was pastoring, and she said, preacher, can I sing in the choir? And he said, well, are you a member of the church? She said, no, I'm a member of the Universal Church. And he said, well, then join the Universal Choir. There are some instances where God is speaking about all who are saved, and we do not take the position that Baptists are the only ones who are saved. I don't believe that. I think there's a lot of saved people in a lot of other denominations. Just because they're in them doesn't mean they're not saved. I think they ought to come out of them. I think if they're saved, they ought to come to a place that will teach them the truth of the Word of God. But they do not. The thief on the cross didn't have time to get baptized and join the church. But the Lord told him, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. So there's some who would hear the gospel, get saved, and not come into a Baptist church and become a member. And we've had those folks. With that thought, we can say, you know, they're a part of God's family. They're a part of God. In some instances, we're talking in general about everybody who's saved, but they are not part of the church. And there's other areas we can go into, and I'm not going to get into all that. But there's three times in Scripture where the Bible, it talks about ecclesia, and it's used in a secular fashion. In Acts chapter 19, there are three instances, verses 32, verse 39, and verse 41. The word ekklesia, or a group, a separated group from normal society. They raised up against Paul and tried to kill him. There's two times in Acts 7, verse 38 and Hebrews 2, verse 12 where it's used in reference to the Jews as a nation from the Old Testament. The Jewish nation would be called a called out group. But the Genesis or the beginning of the church is the Lord Jesus Christ established the church. And much of the New Testament was written to the local church at Philippi Rome and Ephesus. The church receives its authority from the Word of God and governs itself by God's Word, period. I had somebody tell me one time, a preacher, well, the bylaws say, and I said, I understand what the bylaws say, But listen, those bylaws will never usurp authority over this book, over the Word of Almighty God. And if your bylaws are right, they'll go right along with the Word of God. And we've spent some time trying to get our bylaws right. And I believe that we've done that. I believe we've got some good bylaws. But our Constitution, listen, was taken right from the Word of Almighty God. Listen, we are an autonomous church. We take care of ourselves. I'm not excluding the Lord by any means. God takes care of us first and foremost. But listen, if we'll do the right thing, God will build His church in this place. A local, called-out assembly of born-again, baptized believers. That makes up the local church. If you want to be a part of a local church, you've got to come those three ways. Letter, statement of faith, or baptism? And all God's people can say, amen. Listen, I'm a Baptist through and through. I had someone ask my dad one time, they said, what would you be if you wasn't a Baptist? And he said, ashamed. I thought, amen. I'm a Baptist by choice. I'm not a Baptist because my daddy's one. You know, I've been there and done that. I'm a Baptist by choice. I am an independent Baptist by choice, simply because the Bible teaches that, that we ought to be an independent local body of baptized believers, not part of any hierarchy, not part of anybody else. It tells us how to do things here. Listen, we govern ourselves by the Word of God. The Bible and autonomy. We are our own church. You are the church of separated, called-out believers. Well, that's just a start. I don't even know how to give an invitation. But listen, if you'll pray and ask God to help us to lift up the name of Jesus, the name that's above every other name, Jesus said, He said it, I will build my church. Can we just let God use us and let's just be a hammer or whatever in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and let Him use us to do the building? It takes everybody. It takes all the tools. It takes me, it takes you. So God help us to do that. Father, help us. Lord, I don't know how to give an invitation But Lord, you know the hearts of people here, and God, I pray that you'll take the message, Lord. I've tried to be...