Please take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1. How you doing, Matt? Good. Matt had a car accident Sunday night on the way home, right? Told your car? I believe so, not yet assessed. But it's good to see you here, all assessed. Amen? Amen. Praise the Lord. God answers prayer. Amen? Amen. Alright, if you need a study sheet, just lift your hand right up and the ushers will see that you received one. Paul said in the book of Acts, he said that he ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears. I am so thankful for any soul that trust Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. It doesn't matter who leads them to the Lord, I'm happy when they get saved. And, you know, I was telling Brenda the other night, I said, you know, that sometimes when someone gets saved, I rejoice, but yet I agonize a little bit because I'm afraid of what comes with the rest of the package. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is concerned about us being conformed into His image. And when we talk about the image of Christ, it's more than just being a babe in Christ. It's actually growing in the knowledge and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I can remember when we first came to Canada, September the 12th, 1988. You know the story where I was going to live in Winnipeg for about six, seven months, and then we were going to move to Brandon and start a church. And then because of the evangelistic services, the Lord directed us here. Remember one of the first pastors I met came into town, and after we'd just barely moved into town, we had this pastor meet at Chicken Delight. And he sat across the table from me. He was a little bit concerned because some of you can remember back then. You're not quite yet in your forties. You can remember back then. That is several of the churches here in town had been split because of a movement called the Vineyard Movement. The Vineyard Movement was a movement that sort of took the conservative churches by storm. It was a hybrid, Pentecostal, charismatic movement, believed in speaking in tongues and signs and wonders. And several of the churches here in town had been split because of that doctrine. And it originated in this province, most people believe, from a Baptist church in Winnipeg. And so they were afraid because here was this Baptist preacher moving down from Winnipeg that I was part of that and I was looking to leech off the other churches. And so I sat across the table from this pastor in town and expressed to him that I was against that doctrine, that I believe 1 Corinthians chapters 12, 13, and 14 really hit the nail on the head and lays that issue to rest. And he was relieved about that. We got on the subject of salvation. And he said, you know, he said, I'm really concerned about some of the older people in the congregation that I pastor. And he said, because a lot of them, if you ask them when they trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, they will not be able to tell you when they got saved, but they'll rest the assurance on their baptism. They'll give you the date of their baptism. They know they're going to heaven because of the day they got baptized. And folks, you know very well from being here that the moment you trust Christ as Savior, you're on your way to heaven. Baptism is a step of obedience. Baptism is something we ought to do, but it has no bearing on our eternal destiny. Amen? It's something we ought to do. And I told that preacher, I said, you have a great opportunity as the senior pastor of your church, of one of the largest churches in town. I said, you can get up in the pulpit and you can express to them the clear plan of salvation. Then not too long after that, I went to a ministerial meeting. I went to a ministerial meeting because I heard that they were working on the statement of faith. So there at the Statement of Faith, as we were having this meeting, they were working on the Statement of Faith, and we were hammering out some issues, and I couldn't believe my ears. One of the pastors in town, to his credit, was really laying it out. I mean, it was a good Statement of Faith. And he was more or less spearheading this drive to get everybody on the same page, as far as the Statement of Faith was concerned, for the ministerial. And then one of the pastors said, you know, I have a real problem here. And the first issue on the statement of faith was the authority of Scripture. It was saying that we believe that the Bible is our rule for faith and practice. And he said, you know, we don't want to be offensive. We would hate to have people turn us off as a ministerial because we have this point listed as number one. And he began to try to water down some of the language, and he said, and we ought to not have it number one, we ought to put it a little lower down in the statement of faith. And he actually said about number four or so. And after that, he said, in the matter of salvation, he said, he goes, you know, some people are going to have a real problem with the word that Jesus Christ was our substitute. We would like Him, He said, I would like to have it worded that He was our representative. You know, I'm sitting there and my temperature is just going... You know, because I've got a real problem, because Jesus Christ was not just our representative. He was our substitute. And folks, you're not saved if you don't believe in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross. In other words, it couldn't be that Jesus just represented me. He took my place. It should have been me dying that death. Because He died for my sins. And if He hadn't died for my sins, then I would have to die for my sins. That's Scripture. That's the first point of really coming to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I said, you know, I don't want to be a stick in the mud, but I said, I'd like to read a portion of Scripture to you. And I turned to Galatians chapter 1 and I read the first few verses of scripture down to verse 6 or 7 where it says, if any, if an angel from heaven or any other man come and preach any other gospel than that which I preached unto you, let him be accursed. And I said, you know, there has to be some non-negotiables as far as Christianity is concerned. I can see where we may disagree about some things, but when it comes to the doctrine of salvation and the authority of Scripture, how can we vary on that? We can pretend that we have common ground. Just because we can sing songs and hold hands, I didn't tell them all this. But I did read that portion of Scripture. And I did say that there were some non-negotiables. And then I just shut up. And I went to one other meeting. And that meeting, There was, if you remember, there used to be the Esso gas station on Main Street. You remember that? They started selling videos and some of them were X-rated pornographic videos. And some other businesses in town started also marketing those. And it came before the ministerial to Try to do something about that. And someone said, well, you know, we ought to approach those businessmen and tell them that this is unacceptable in our community, that we're against pornography in any way, shape or form. And it's not entertainment. It's degrading and on and on. And it's against scripture. And so what happened is the same preacher who raised his hand and was concerned about the statement of faith said, well, we don't want to turn the business community against the ministerial. Folks, I'm not just telling you what someone told me. I was there. And so, he said, we want to make sure that we approach these businessmen with the attitude that we're concerned for them and their bottom line. And so, he suggested that we do a study. And what we ought to do is study exactly what's going on in our community in the realm of pornography And then think of a way to approach the businessmen to where we'll be more palatable to them as Christians. I think they're still studying it. Because there was no, and I get the minutes every single month that they have meetings, I get the minutes to those meetings. And as far as I know, nothing was ever in print. Nothing was ever sent, no one ever approached those businessmen in regards to the Christian community being against pornography there on the ministerial level. It used to be that the pulpits in our land was the moral conscience of our land. And now for some reason we've been silenced because we want to be inclusive of everyone and we want to be liked and who wouldn't want to be liked? Now, as you know by coming here, and I hesitate in preaching messages like this when I know visitors are present because they may get the wrong impression of our church. I want you to have a right impression of our church. You know very well that our church is looked at as being narrow-minded in the community. We're being seen as straight-laced. We're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and I never want to give the impression or give the spirit that we are haughty, that we are proud, that we think we're the only ones that are right. But I do say this, that we do take very seriously 1 Peter 1.16, and we have plenty of room to grow when we look at this verse. Be ye holy, God said, for I am holy. So I recognize that there are certain and differing levels and standards of holiness. However, God's only got one standard, and it's Himself. So as we become conformed to the image of Christ, then that means we ought to be more holy, not less. We ought not to see how we could be more inclusive in the world. In fact, I believe that the closer you get to the Lord, the further away you'll get from the world. I give you those examples at the beginning because of our lesson tonight. Controversial subjects among Christians. It says, what definite circumstances keep us from having cooperative fellowship with other truly saved believers? Just because someone knows Jesus Christ as their personal Savior does not mean that there are people that we ought to embrace saying, hey, let's get together for a common religious good. And I hope to prove that from the Scriptures. You get all kinds of opinions in this matter. And we'll see in regards to the differences, and I think grace has to be exercised. And we're going to give some points on that through this study as well. But remember, we started this series with the idea that you put on some 3x5 cards, Some things that you get bombarded with on a regular basis that you get questioned about. So that's why we went into this study. I am not a negative guy. I'm a pretty positive guy. In fact, I was talking to Brother Donnelly today at breakfast and I said, You know, there are some folks that have the same standards I do, but yet some people use the standards as a way of saying, look, if you are going to be spiritual, you've got to have these standards. And I say that the standards ought to be a reflection of our spirituality. Some people don't have the standard because they've not been taught the standard. It's a big difference. And so I believe where the problem comes is when someone has been instructed in the way of the Lord and they've rejected it, then that's what makes them unspiritual. Okay? Makes them wrong with God, right? Because any time we see something from the Scriptures and we flip our nose in the air and say, no, I'm not going there, then of course we're saying no to God. And Jesus Christ told the disciples, He said, look, understand, if you live for me, you're going to suffer persecution. All they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And it doesn't mean persecution is not necessarily that they crucify us upside down or pull our fingernails out by pliers and things of that nature. There's other forms of persecution. And when you take a stand for right, sad to say it's going to happen even in the Christian community, you're going to be misunderstood. And I've also found that sometimes when people say no to a certain issue, that they've been instructed in, then to try to receive some sort of popularity amongst their friends, they add a whole lot of other baggage with it, or they don't mention that at all, and several other things to try to throw disrepute upon those who actually brought that one particular issue or those two particular issues to their minds. Follow me? It's what the rumor mill is made of. And so we talk about that there are some circumstances where we cannot have cooperative fellowship with other believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we find that very scriptural. It says in 1 Timothy 1, verses 18-20, this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, According to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare, holding faith in a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning faith, had made shipwreck. Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." Here are two professed believers who are not willing to abide by separatist positions and doctrine and dogma. And so Paul said, look, we've had to take action against them. Number one in your study sheet, if the believer teaches false doctrine and refuses to be corrected, then we can't get together with those folks on any kind of an amicable basis, especially in what we would call a cooperative meeting of some sort. if they're not right. Amen? If they're teaching or holding to false doctrine. And of course, 1 Corinthians 5, verse 5 says, "...to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." And then dropping down to verse 13, "...but them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person." And you know if you jump right on up into that chapter, he says, But now I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a one know not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within?" So there is a place in the local assembly for there to be what we call righteous judgment. Now, these are the verses that are really downplayed today, especially in our new evangelical crowd, because everyone's seeking to embrace one another for a common cause. But if you're not in agreement in your basic Bible doctrine, then you have no basis for fellowship. Amen? I mean, when you have a family gathering, it's for the family, right? Right? Amen? Or it's not a family gathering. Okay, and so we've got to care, we understand the principle when we talk in the secular realm, but we have to also view this thing from the spiritual realm as well. So if the believer teaches false doctrine and refuses to be corrected, then we can't have fellowship with them. Alright? So a lot of people say, oh, obviously if someone's in immorality, we shouldn't do that. But how about all these other things that have been mentioned? See, there's more to it than that. Right? I'm not trying to be obnoxious here, and I'm not trying to be mean, spirited. I'm just trying to be safe. And I think we can do more good by a separatist position than we can an inclusive position. Jesus Christ didn't embrace everyone. Amen? Alright, number two. If the professing believer is walking in immorality, then that's pretty obvious, right? That's where we cannot have cooperative fellowship with other truly saved believers. Number three, if by cooperating with a Christian leader who is walking contrary to Scripture in some vital area, we would become partakers of his wrongdoing. Okay? We cannot have cooperative fellowship with other truly saved believers if by cooperating with a Christian leader, be helpful if I can read, who is walking contrary to Scripture in some vital area, we would become partakers of his wrongdoing. 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 22. It says, "...lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure." Keep thyself pure. So we have to look at leaders. Leaders' lives are under scrutiny. And you know, when you go and look at the qualifications of a pastor and those of deacons, it mentions about the word blameless. It doesn't mean perfect. Who's perfect? No one's perfect. I'm not perfect. I never claimed to be perfect, but what it means is that when the accusations are made, that once the smoke clears and the facts are checked out, there's nothing to hang on to. There's nothing to grab hold of is what it's talking about. And so that behooves us to analyze some of these other preachers and your own pastors and your own preachers' lives to see that they are meeting the biblical qualifications and that they're not involved in walking disorderly. And that leads me to number four. If the professing believer is walking in a disrupting manner, a disrupting manner, 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verses 16 to 15, it says, Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always. By all means, the Lord be with you. I don't know if that's the passage. Oh yes, I started with verse 16, I'm sorry. I started with verse 6 through verse 15. Boy, helps to look right too, eh? 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 6. It says, Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. Now understand, Paul is not elevating tradition on the same level of Scripture. You see how words change in our usage with the day. It's talking about the teaching from the basic foundation that they had been instructed in, which of course was based upon Scripture. and the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the tradition he's talking about. He's not talking about whether you meet Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. He's not talking about whether you start the service with a song and end with a prayer. That is also a tradition. We have certain traditions that we practice in our way of thinking. But that's not what Paul is talking about here, alright? And it says in verse 7, For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. So there's that thinking today that we ought to never follow anyone, and yet every single one of us follow someone. You know, that's an amazing thing. But what we do is we try to discount sometimes the human leaders that God places in our lives, because many times when we're discounting that, we want to be our own boss, and we don't want anybody else to follow that guy either, because then we'd have to. It's an authority problem. And you notice it says here that there are brothers who walk disorderly. So that means there are some Christians that are not doing right, not living right, and we need to be careful. We need to be careful of our associations. Verse 8, neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail, night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you. Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat." Oh boy, you know, so Paul commanded people. He told people, you know, you don't work, you shouldn't eat. You know, what happens many times when a Bible-believing preacher or teacher gets up in the pulpit and says, don't do this, don't do that. Ooh, there's just something sometimes that just rises up within us, especially if we're doing what he told us not to be doing, right? Amen. I don't like someone telling me what to do. And I know you don't either. But yet, we are not just to give out the truth, we are also to make the application of that truth. That's basic to Bible preaching. Nehemiah chapter 8, they read in the Word of God distinctly and they gave the sense of it. So a preacher's job is not only to give the Word, he's also to give the sense or the meaning behind the Word. That means if you're going to really know the Bible, you have to have a proper application. Don't just tell somebody what to do, but tell them how to do it. Amen? So it's one thing to say, keep your mind pure. It's another thing to say, hey, don't go down to the beach when the women are half naked. Right? See, that's what gets a Bible-believing preacher, a fundamentalist preacher, in trouble. Because not only does He say, keep yourself pure, He tells you how to keep yourself pure. Don't go by the magazine rack and look at those magazines. Don't do that. See what I'm saying? That's where the rubber meets the road, and that's what makes people mad at Bible-believing, fundamentalist preachers. See, because we not only give the principle, but we apply the principle. And people don't like that, you see. People say, oh, you've just got a dirty mind. And there are some times where I have to preach on something and I say, Lord, I know what people are going to think. And that's why if guys would be honest to their wives and to their daughters as to what excites a man, then they'd watch how their women dress. And they ought not fight that when they come to the church of Jesus Christ. We ought to be able to come to church and keep our minds pure. Right? Why should we have men struggling with impure thoughts? If they struggle with impure thoughts, it ought to be because of their own wickedness, not because they've been allured that way. Right? See, so, I know some people may be mad at me right now. I've mentioned the beach. Can you go to the beach? You find yourself some isolated beach somewhere and swim all you want. But I don't think you can keep your mind right, guys, and go down to a public beach with public women, with public apparel on. Do I hear any amens? You know, if you've got red blood flowing through your veins, I mean, my! But see, that's what we're talking about. It's about time we started getting honest. It's about time we started, you know, saying, this is black, this is white, this is right, and this is wrong. But today, we're saying, well, it's right for you, but it's not right for me. That's wrong to you, but I think it's okay. Every man does that which is right in his own eyes. You know what it sounds like to me? The days of Noah. Oh, those are the last days. Jesus is getting ready to come. Why? The thoughts and imagination of a man's heart was only wicked continually. I think we're just about there. The only thing that keeps us in check is the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. Amen? And we believers, once the salt and the light's taken out, then the Antichrist will move on the scene, and there we go into the tribulation time. I believe it's almost here. But we have to be careful. Let's keep reading. It says here, verse 11, it says, For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing." What's he doing? He's saying, look, I know this is going to be tough. I know this is going to be hard. I mean, it's never easy to take a stand against your own brothers and sisters in Christ. It's hard to look at somebody and say, you're not doing right, brother. You're not doing right, sister. You need to do this. You need to quit doing that. And here Paul says, I command you and I exhort you, and that word exhort is encourage. That means you stay after it. You not only lay out the rules, then you get down in the trenches with them and you keep encouraging them to do right. And it says, don't be weary in well-doing. And let's face it. What I have realized as a pastor, that the longer I'm saved and the longer I work with folks, and I see folks coming on board for such a time, and then all of a sudden they start shrinking back because they hit some hard bumps in the highway, so to speak, some issues they're not willing to deal with, and what happens? They want to quit. They want to wash out. They come up with this reason or that reason. We can't be weary in well-doing. Who's given us this encouragement? The Lord Jesus Christ. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. God is saying, hey, believers trying to do right, don't get tired in the battle. Don't be weary in well-doing. And Galatians chapter 6 says, don't be weary in well-doing because we'll reap if we faint not. We just stay at it. Amen? It's always right to try to do right. Amen? Praise the Lord. So let me keep reading here. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing, and if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man. Note that man. How do you note a man? Make him wear a dunce hat? Make him wear a placard sign on front and back? Note that man. You put a little sticky note on him? I'm being facetious, but at the same time it says, if some man doesn't... We think, oh, we shouldn't fellowship with someone if they're shacked up with somebody. Or if they've just robbed a bank of a million dollars and shot somebody with a gun. Oh, that's so obvious. That's not the context of this passage at all. It's talking about somebody who can work that doesn't work. That just leeches off the government and the church. Right? Isn't that what it's talking about? Busybodies, gossip, running here and there, spending all their day in the coffee shop just talking about other people. Busybodies, going house to house. If any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man. Note him. How did Paul note those two individuals? In 1 Timothy chapter 1? How? By name. Note that man. That's why sometimes a movement, when you are trying to point out a principle that's being violated in the Word of God, sometimes you have to link a name with that. Because that public name is so connected with that falsehood. or that principle that's been violated. So you have to name the name, just like Paul did in 1 and 2 Timothy, and he did it many times in other places as well. It says here, "...and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." So you say, well, how in the world does that work? I'm not supposed to keep company with him and yet I'm to admonish him as a brother. You don't keep company with him. That's pretty straight. How do you admonish him? When you see him, you say, hi, how you doing? Been praying for you. Trust you'll get right in this matter here. You know what happens when you do that? Oh, who do you think you are? You think you're Holy Joe? You think you don't have some faults? And folks, that's not the issue, is it? It's not the issue at all. You see, if someone were to approach, say I was one of these who wanted all the charitable handouts, but I wasn't willing to work to get them, and someone came up to me, say Pete Cronelson came up to me and says, Brother, you need to work. And before we give you anything, why don't you come over to my shop and we'll put you to work. We'll put you on a grinder real quick like. You can make $11.05 an hour. Amen? I don't know if that's a starting wage or not. It is? I've been reading the Juan ads. Amen? But $11.05 an hour, you know, so I mean, and yet I don't want to do that. Instead, I'm mooching money and sitting in the coffee shops and I'm talking about everybody under the sun and how everything could be better and why I'm in the predicament that I'm in. He comes to me and he says, brother, you're not doing right. And I say, well, who do you think you are, Pete? You think you're a man without sin? You think you're perfect? See? It's so easy to get. And yet, the issue is not Pete Cornelison and his life. The issue is my disobedience. Follow me? See, and so I need to take care of my disobedience. We need to keep it germane to the topic. We need to keep it on topic. Amen? Amen. So if the professing believer is walking in a disrupting manner, we shouldn't have fellowship with them. We admonish him. When we meet him, we're nice, we're kind, because that's a Christian thing to do, right? You know, an enemy, I mean, you don't want anything to do with. A brother, you admonish him. That means you encourage him. You mean with a verbal rebuke, you say, look, you need to get right, brother. And you don't need to let him off the hook. But if you wine and dine him and take him golfing and go out to eat and sit across the table and play games with him, then you know what they say? It's alright what I did. It's not that big of a deal. Folks, when anytime you add a schism to the body of Christ, it's a big deal. And Jesus Christ takes that personally. Right? Isn't that what He said in 1 Corinthians chapter 8? Romans chapter 14, remember? He said, if I make a brother stumble or fall, then I sin against Christ. Pretty powerful, isn't it? Serious, serious topic at hand. Questions to ask in determining boundaries in fellowship. Questions to ask in determining boundaries in fellowship. Number one, am I honoring God by my fellowship? Am I honoring God by my fellowship? 1 Corinthians 10.31 says, Therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Amen? That means in business. That means in our family life. That means also in our church life. That also means in our cooperative life. We ought to be doing everything to the glory of God. If we're going to be true to the Great Commission, we have to teach people the way of salvation. But baptism is also important. And teaching them to observe some things, no, all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Jesus gave that command. We're great at being able to say, and you'll hear the New Evangelicals say it all the time, oh boy, we're just concerned about souls. That's the main thing. Folks, Jesus Christ told the disciples to go after souls. But He also told the disciples to baptize those converts and then to teach them all things. So that means if we're going to have a well-rounded ministry and we're going to do right by Christians, we can't just lead them to the Lord. We've got to encourage them to be obedient in the waters of baptism. We've got to encourage them in faithfulness to the house of God where they'll learn the whole counsel of God. That means every area of life being addressed. Every area of life being conformed to the image of Christ. Not leaving a stone unturned. That's why we take a book and preach through it. And that's why we emphasize more than just everybody being happy because we're Christians. Because He said that we're created in Christ Jesus unto good works. So the same passage we run to to say, hey, it says here in the Bible, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Oh, then it goes right on and says that we're to do good works. Right? We're created in Christ Jesus unto good works. We don't work to get saved, but because we are saved, we work. And we're not going to be pleasing in the sight of God if all we do is say, I'm happy that I'm saved. I'm happy that you're saved. Let's just get together and sing. If that were all there was to it, Why does it ever talk about being ashamed when we stand before the Lord? See, there's more to it than that. And so many times in our willingness to embrace and be included and not be perceived as being obnoxious or separatist or being exclusive, what we do is we just sort of discount other biblical principles. And it's to our detriment. And it confuses a lot of people. Because what happens in the life of a new convert, or one who's just rededicated their life to the Lord, you know what happens? The Holy Spirit of God just has gripped their heart and their mind, and they're very sensitive to spiritual things. And so you know what they're doing? They're coming around the more seasoned Christians, and they engage them in a conversation, and they may just ask a leading question, just like you do. They may ask a leading question like, what do you think about this? What it is, the Holy Spirit of God is saying, you know, I want you to make a change here in your life. But, you know, they've asked a more seasoned Christian that question, and so that seasoned Christian says, yeah, you know, that's how so-and-so believes that and so on, but, you know, that's not really a big deal, and they discount it, they downplay it. Why? It's an issue that they've squelched in their own life. And misery loves company, as the old saying goes. Disobedience loves the same thing. You look at people who wrestle with the same issues, they hang together. You look at people who have some of the same issues, I mean, just really nailed down, it's not an issue to them, they hang together. Right? The old saying, birds of a feather flock together, you do it. Hey, I've seen people who are critics, all of a sudden a non-critic being with them, and inside I'm going, oh no, and it's not too long before they're a critic. Right? Amen. You get a hundred well people and put one sick one in there and it's not long before you've got a hundred and one sick people, right? Birds of a feather flock together. So you have to ask yourself, am I honoring God by my fellowship? Number two, am I aiding or encouraging someone to continue a walk of disobedience? If you go to Galatians chapter 2, And the reason I put all these scriptures in here is because then you can see that it's not just me having an ax to grind. Galatians chapter 2 we have. I encourage you to read the entire chapter. I'm just going to give you a recap. But here, Peter's fellowshipping with the Gentile Christians. Now, Peter's an apostle to the Jew, and Paul is an apostle to the Gentile. But Peter, because they're one in Christ, and he's meeting with these Gentile believers, they're one in Christ, and so he's having a good time of fellowship. But you see, Peter's been sucked up into this hypocrisy. You see, the Jews had this idea after they got saved that, hey, if these Gentiles are really saved, then they're going to do everything like we do it. In other words, they need to make some changes. The Jews were still carrying some of their baggage with them, which we all do have a measure of baggage when we get saved. We have our worldview, they call it. Okay, it comes with you. So here is Peter talking to the Gentiles, and all of a sudden his Jewish brethren hit town. Peter goes, uh-oh, they'll get mad at me if they see me talking to this group here, so I'm going to disassociate myself and I'm just going to talk to this group here. He was causing a division. The Bible goes on to say that Barnabas, the son of consolation, Barnabas was also led away by Peter's hypocrisy. See, now Barnabas, it's interesting to note in Acts chapter 9, it was Barnabas who actually encouraged the church to receive Paul, remember? So Paul and Barnabas were close friends, but yet Peter was also a good friend of Barnabas, and Barnabas sided with Peter in this, and he disassociated from the other believers as well. And Paul comes on the scene and says, hold it, hold it, hold it. As far as salvation is concerned, we're all one. Amen? We are all one. And so, as we say here, am I aiding or encouraging someone to continue a walk of disobedience? You have to ask yourself this question. Paul said, I can't allow this to continue on. Because if this doesn't stop right here, there's going to be more and more of a division in the body of Christ. And so he stepped in and said, Peter, you're not doing right. It says in the Scriptures that he was stood into the face. And you know what Peter did? He got right. He got right. Isn't that good? When faced with truth, as Christians, we ought to just get right. If we're wrong, get right. Amen? Number three, will my cooperation with a person or organization give the impression that I condone a lackadaisical attitude toward apostasy and compromise? Will my cooperation with a person or an organization give the impression that I condone a lackadaisical attitude toward apostasy and compromise? Proverbs 8, verse 13. The scripture says, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate. And notice it says it's the fear of the Lord. If you have a proper fear of the Lord, you're going to hate these things. And that's probably the basic problem amongst we Christians is we don't have a proper fear of the Lord. We don't understand really who he is. Will my cooperation with a person or organization give the impression that I condone a lackadaisical attitude toward apostasy and compromise? Will others under my leadership or influence be tempted to further compromise or be confused or weakened in their testimony because of my actions? I'm going to read that again, it's rather lengthy. Will others under my leadership or influence be tempted to further compromise or be confused or weakened in their testimony because of my actions? 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 12 says, Let no man despise thy youth. But be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." So it's much more important to have the whole package, not just one aspect of it. And see, what we're great at doing today is we're good at, say, preaching the truth. It's another thing to implement it and then hold ourselves to it, right? It's that consistency in the Christian life. And that's difficult for all of us. But see, we have to understand, as it says, that no man lives to himself, no man dies to himself. Right? No man is an island unto himself. We influence others. And you see, the more you move up as far as position is concerned, then you set yourself up for a greater degree of scrutiny. It comes with the territory. Right? And so that's why it behooves us because that's why when we first got the deacons, we look at that office as a very critical office. It's an important office. Why? Because people are looking at the deacon with a fine-toothed comb. Not just a brush. Fine-toothed comb. The devil does too. And if we fall, then it influences a lot more people. Amen? It's not saying that one's better than another. I'm no better than any man here in this room. But because of the position I have, if I, if a devil, and if he were to lay out a temptation and I were to succumb to it, I would say yes, I would sin. Do you realize what happens? They not only discount my life, But they discount my message. Follow me? And a lot more people are influenced when the preacher falls than when the usher falls. Does it mean the usher is not as important? Oh, it's just as important. But the influence is different. Follow me? When we talk about cooperative fellowship with other organizations and other believers, you have to look at it this way as well. You have to understand the influence and the long-range effects that it's going to have on others. Amen? Alright. Number five. What long-range effects will cooperation have? I get a book from time to time. It's a paper that comes out every month. It's called Old Timothy. How many of you have heard of Old Timothy? Okay, well most of you have. And I'm going to read some articles to you just in the few minutes we have. And I know I've still got page two there, don't I? To go through. Well let me just give you, I'll close with those three points, but I want to read some of this because I think it's important and I'm not trying to belabor the issue with you, but I want to just let you see where we're coming from and why we don't go along with all the services and all the ecumenical movements that are going on. We want to give as pure focus to the Gospel and to the Word of God as we can. We don't want to muddy up the waters. And so we don't believe in getting with a lot of other churches for ecumenical and cooperative efforts simply because we take stands in some other areas that maybe they don't take a stand in. Yes, they may preach salvation by grace through faith. But when you lump all the other issues together, it sends a wrong signal. You see what I'm saying? And so we'll get into more of that as the weeks go on. But Christianity Today is one of the flagship publications for the New Evangelical Movement. And it said here, let me just read it, in his musings on contemporary Christian music of October the 2nd, Russ Brameyer, he's co-director of ChristianityToday.com music channel, exalts the Beatles. He describes his recent attendance at the Paul McCartney concert in the following terms. Last week I also fulfilled one of my lifelong dreams and got to see Sir Paul McCartney in concert. What an incredible show. It was simply awesome to hear 20,000 plus people sing along to Let It Be surrounding a beautifully lit stage. Folks, the flesh likes. worldly music. And some who grew up in that era of time and you were into that scene, you know you could get right back and sing some of those songs and know those lyrics with no problem. But when you start matching that up to Scripture and new life in Christ and giving a clear-cut testimony how that God delivers from the world, how could you by any stretch of the imagination yoke up with the Beatles. I mean, if you've watched their films, listened to their underlying messages to their songs that are really drug, immoral type songs, I mean, what in the world are we thinking? And here is one of the co-directors of ChristianityToday.com, their music division. I'm sorry. I don't want my boys, my girls to listen to that stuff. And when you put Christian on it, then everybody says, oh, must be okay. It's not okay. Consider the words of this simply awesome song, Let It Be. When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be. And in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be. Whisper words of wisdom, let it be." What does that mean? You know what it means. And see, I get into trouble because I get up and say, Folks, we're not going to allow contemporary music to be played here at the church. We don't even want the sound coming out of our instruments. We don't want, even if someone's singing a good gospel song, we don't even want that style used here. Why would we want a bar room sexy style where they're scooping and sliding and all that kind of stuff and kissing the microphone Why would we want that in the church of Jesus Christ? He's the one who said, come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing. But then we're narrow, say. We're exclusive. We think we're better than everybody. That's not it, is it? No, it's not it. It's just that as we look at the Word of God, we say, This is just not compatible. It's sending wrong signals. Here's something else. Jeff Royal of Florida rightly observed, some Christians view country music as a safe alternative to rock. But I think it is more dangerous because of the family image many within country try to portray. A recent example of the moral degradation of country music is Andy Griggs' song, How Cool Is That? Note these lyrics. She's the last girl I thought I'd ever see here. But there stands the preacher's daughter holding a beer, a tattoo of an angel on the small of her back. Huh? How cool is that? She probably don't remember me. It's been a long, long time. About then she turned around and kind of stared at me and smiled. She said, I had the hots for you in Sunday school class. Now tell me how cool is that? How cool is a hot summer night when the stars line up and everything feels just right? How cool is it knowing inside that I'm the one she's looking at with that look in her eye? Folks, that's wicked. That's wicked. Why would you want to have anything in your house? Why would you want your radio tuned into that? Why would you want that playing at work? Why would you want that playing in your house? And so, you know, the preacher gets up and says, don't do that. And he's a fuddy-duddy. I wonder if you took some of your favorite songs. And folks, to my shame, when I worked in Tennessee and I used to put up American steel buildings and Gerard pole barns, and that guy that I went to work with, He'd throw open the half-ton doors and that music would be playing all day long. I could recount the lyrics to a number of those songs. And when I'm walking in the store and those things are playing, it's hard to keep my mind under control. And I guarantee you that if I were to write those lyrics down and look at them and analyze them as a Christian, I'm appalled. You see, I want to keep my mind right. And I can't fill my mind with junk. Because garbage in, garbage out. I've learned that working with computers. And sometimes you get more garbage out than you think you ever put in. Right? I said, you think. You got it in there. Where it came from, you're not always sure. But it comes out sometimes, doesn't it? Doesn't it? My. I'm going to read one more, and then I'll give you those things. And this is something I know I'm going to ruffle some feathers here, and I don't mean to ruffle feathers, but at the same time, I think it's something that we have to be very, very careful about, and it really illustrates the lesson tonight. The following is from Foundation Magazine, January-February 2001. James Dobson and Charles Colson. Two of the world's most renowned evangelical leaders recently participated in a three-day conference at the Vatican and met briefly with Pope John Paul II. Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, and Colson, president of Prison Fellowship. And folks, both those organizations have done a good job in some areas. I mean, I'm not going to wrestle with that. I'm not going to argue about that with you. But that's not the issue. Okay, look what it says. It says, joined other business executives and Catholic politicians, scholars, and lawyers at the meeting which addressed the world economy's impact on families. The Colorado Springs Gazette noted that the personal meeting between the Pope, Colson, and Dobson was a special moment because evangelicals and Catholics have disagreed with one another for centuries concerning the role and infallibility of the Pope. And rightly so, because the word of God teaches. There's only one infallible person. Jesus Christ. The Gazette stated the significance was not lost on Colson, who, according to one conference participant, noted that there would have been a time when he would not have been invited and he would not have come. The newspaper article added that evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics have become closer in recent years as a result of ecumenical dialogue and common political and social causes such as the importance of the family. One conference participant, Robert Sirico, a Catholic priest and president of the Action Institute said that Vatican officials could not recall a similar meeting involving such high-level evangelical Protestants taking place at the Vatican. Sir Rico said, this kind of communication, this kind of dialogue is not an attempt to negotiate the truth, but to approach it together in a bond of fraternal love. He added, part of the thing is to get over the hump of knowing each other. I think that's what's beginning to happen here. Now folks, let me say, the Roman Catholic Church preaches another gospel. And so when you get together like that and hold hands, and you start bringing those kinds of walls, what do you mean fraternal love? You see, what I say so often, we can disagree on a lot of issues, but we cannot disagree. what constitutes salvation. If we're wrong in salvation, we're wrong. We've missed it, see. And it says here, according to the Gazette, the Catholic News Service reported Dobson praised the Catholic Church For his efforts to protect the family, and said that while he has some theological differences with the Roman Catholic Church, he often agrees more with the Roman Catholic Church than with other evangelicals on issues such as abortion, premarital sex, and homosexuality. Now, you know what? I know what he's saying. And when you look over the evangelical spectrum, you look at the differences, and there's so many differences within the evangelical camp about the position of abortion and homosexuality. Some for it, some against it, some take a moderate approach. Then what happens is, that's true, the Catholics take a hard line on that. So on those issues, we would probably be more in agreement. But by Dobson saying that, people take it to the next step. And they say, well, there's not much difference between the Catholics and the Protestants anymore, right? Now, folks, one thing you have to understand is that we're not Protestants. We're part of what we call the free church. We've never been part of the Catholic church. Protestants protested in the 1500s. They came out of the Catholic church. There's always been a pure line from the time of Christ all the way through. We've not always been called Baptists. Donatists, Waldensians, Paulicians, and so on. And on and on it goes. But we're part of the free church. But we're saved by grace through faith. In the Lord Jesus Christ, plus nothing and minus nothing. And I never want to be on a platform like this where I've got me here, a Catholic priest here, and a Mormon here. Because you see, when we all get together, maybe one praise, and even if I have the opportunity to preach the sermon, somebody says, you know, I think I'll go to the Baptist church this week, and I'll go to the Catholic church the next week, and I'll go to the Mormon tabernacle the next week. I like their music. And you see what happens? It all gets watered down. And then there's that idea that it's really not important what you believe, just so you get along with everybody. And folks, that's heresy. If you take a stand for Christ and the principles of this book, understand, they hated Him before they hated you. And if you stand for Him, then they're going to hate you. It's going to happen. Because they can't get to Him right now. They can only get their hands on you. And so that's what they'll do. Amen? I could go on and on. I've got a lot of documentation here, but I won't. Let me give you this. General considerations, and I'm five minutes over as it is. Number one, some issues are complex. Some issues are complex. Number two, personalities differ. Personalities differ. And this is where we have to give ourselves some grace in dealing with people. There are some folks, they can smell a skunk a mile away. And others, it takes a little bit longer time. And a lot of the division that's happened in Christianity is sometimes the people have arrived at the right position, but they haven't all arrived at the same time. So if you meet somebody who smells a skunk right away, points it out, but you're not there yet, then what happens is those two have the tendency to conflict one with another because one thinks the other's too hard, and the other thinks that one's too liberal. Follow me? Okay. And so that's why we have to be gracious with one another. And this is why it behooves us all to pray for our leadership so that we are heading in the right direction all at the same time. Personalities differ. Number three, contexts differ. Contexts differ. Your implementation of that. And then I've given you some things, there's no blanks to fill in on this other portion, but let me encourage you to read that and you can see a little bit more where we're coming from. What definite circumstances keep us from having cooperative fellowship with other truly saved believers? There are some. There are some. And when we're seeking to give the clearest message that we possibly can, as we have searched it out and studied it in the Scriptures, it means that we're going to be able to fellowship with some, and we're not going to be able to fellowship with others. Amen? You see where we're coming from? Don't just swallow hook, line, and sinker. People say, oh, you know, you guys are just so tight there at the Baptist Church. We're not being tight for tight's sake. We're trying to be biblical. And I trust you know that. Pray one for another. Amen? Pray for our church. Pray for those who make up the church. That we understand these biblical guidelines and principles and be willing to live and suffer reproach for them. Amen? It will be worth it all. Don't be weary in well-doing. Let's all stand with our heads bowed, our eyes closed. We'll have no music tonight. A crowd like this, I never know who's here that may not have the issue of their salvation settled. But you'd say, Pastor Sullivan, tonight I want to get saved. I'm not saved. I know you spoke to Christians, but I'm not a Christian. And I need to be saved. And while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and there's no music, but you'd say, Pastor, I'd like to be saved. Would you come right now? Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed, Christians are praying. And you'd say, I'd like to be saved. We'd love to have the privilege. to take the Word of God and show you what it means to be saved. Would you do that tonight? Just come right now. Christian, I'm going to ask you to do something in light of the message. I want us to take a strong stand as a church, but I want us to pray that we as individuals and as a church that we have a good spirit, the Spirit of Christ, as we take our strong stand. Would you just ask God to give you that backbone you need to stand for right, stand for the Lord Jesus Christ? Would you do that? Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your Word. Lord, the messages on Wednesday night are definitely meat. And I just pray that everyone's being able to assemble it in light of your word. Lord, I pray that they would take it in and Lord, that they'd be able to understand. And Lord, I pray that you would just help each and every one of us to walk in accordance with your word. Give us grace one with another. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to be firm. Lord, as one preacher said, that if people are going to disagree, may it be because of his position, not his disposition. I pray that we would exhibit the love of Christ. Lord, I pray that we'd stand like Christ stood. Lord, as we leave this place tonight, pray that you'd take us safely to our homes and give us a good rest of the week. Pray this in Jesus' name. And when you come, may you find us faithful in Jesus' name. Amen. You're dismissed.