Well, hello, everyone. Good morning. Welcome to church. Good to see you guys. I have got a new daughter since you last saw me. So that's very exciting. Pretty cool. She's perfect. She couldn't be better. She's healthy. She's happy. Mom is really good. Your prayers worked for sure. That's truly what we prayed for is the fastest, literally, I think she had like, we went to Sam, she wanted to go to Sam's. And so we went to Sam, she's nesting of course. We wanted to get everything ready and we got some stuff and she just sat the whole time and she was having contractions I think. So maybe two to three hours of like, contractions or like official labor, but from the time it was like time to the time we had a baby, less than a minute, less than a minute of pushing. Amazing. Just amazing. So good grief. Just what a blessing. And Emily's doing great. She looks like she's never even pregnant and it's amazing. Just amazing. What a blessing. So I want to preach a message. I've called it God knows best and you know that but I'm gonna give you a few examples two or three or maybe four depending on how much time I've got of Ways that just God knows best and if we just listen to God, we wouldn't have to know all the details I think about the verse and it's not in here but commit thy works unto the Lord and I thought shall be established there is a time when you just know what's right and And you don't exactly know why. You probably couldn't explain it. You probably couldn't teach it. But you just know what's right. And if you just do it, then God would bless you and you know it. That's kind of what I want to talk about. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 14. Deuteronomy chapter 14. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy. Is that right? Or is it Numbers, Deuteronomy? Deuteronomy, Numbers, Deuteronomy. See, look, I don't even know. There you go. You'll find it. Deuteronomy chapter 14. Turn there. I'm going to read a little bit of it, and then we're going to go to 1 Timothy, and then we will go to Titus, and we'll talk about just some of these points. I've just got a few points. Deuteronomy chapter 14, look at verse one. It says, ye are the children of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves nor make any boldness between your eyes for the dead. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. And the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations that are upon the earth. Thou shall not eat any abominable thing. These are the beasts which ye shall eat, the ox, the sheep, and the goat, the heart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pig-arg, and the wild ox, and the chamois. I'm going to say all these like I know them. I don't know. And every beast that parteth the hoof and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat. Nevertheless, ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof, as the camel, and the hare, and the coney. For they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof. Therefore they are unclean unto you. And the swine, because it divided the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud. It is unclean unto you. Ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass. These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters. These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters. all that have fins and scales shall ye eat. And whatsoever hath not fins and scales, ye may not eat. It is unclean unto you. Of all queen birds ye shall eat. But these are they of which ye shall not eat, the eagle, and the ossifridge, the osprey, and the gleed, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind, and every raven after his kind, and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cacao, and the hawk after his kind, the little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, and the pelican, and the gear eagle, and the cormorant, and the stork and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing and the bat, and every creeping thing that flyeth is unclean unto you. They shall not be eaten, but of all clean fowls ye may eat." A little bit random thing for me to be preaching about, but I've got a point. That's the first kind of chunk I want to stop and talk about, but let's go to the Lord and pray before we begin. Dear God, thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much for blessing us. Thank you for blessing me, particularly, Lord, my wife and my family, and of course, this church as well. Thank you for giving us all you've given us, Lord. I pray that we wouldn't neglect or think little of any of it, God. I pray that we'd appreciate everything we get from you and know that everything we get is from you and all good things are from you, Lord. Again, thank you for your word, thank you for your parameters and your standards, and I pray that you help us to understand them and apply them to our lives. I pray that you'd be with each person here, help each person to receive this message and apply it just the way you want, Lord, and I pray that you'd help me to preach it just right. Lord, soften my heart and use me now. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so from these simple parameters, which this is 20 verses, it's really simple, and there's probably half of them, kind of describe the parameters, we get a really clear, precise picture of what God's people were to eat. Now, you know that it's said in the Bible multiple times, and most recently in Acts chapter 10, you know, eat all these things. Don't worry about it. And so I'm not preaching that there's some kind of unclean foods or clean foods. That's not what I'm preaching. But I want you to see that God didn't list off every single animal that exists and say clean, unclean, good, bad, eat it, don't eat it. He didn't do that. He gave some parameters, He gave some examples, and God didn't need to list out every single animal on earth. Instead, He just gave us these precise judgments, His judgments, that were to be applied. And simply following these judgments would keep God's people eating good. and not following these judgments. Disobedience indicates that a people is not God's people. These judgments not only were to keep God's people eating good, and I could have, probably I couldn't have, but somebody could go through and explain each one of these, and you know, this is a bird of prey, and this is a bird that eats carry-on, and this is a bird that, you know, and we wouldn't eat the things that it eats, and so we're not going to eat it either, and we just go through and figure out all the details. But the point is that if you just applied God's standard and God's judgments just across the board, you wouldn't need to map it all out and know all the details, but in the end, the animals that you wanted to eat and should be eating, you'd be eating. And the animals that you really didn't want to eat and shouldn't be eating, like a bat or whatever, you wouldn't be eating. And you don't need to know all the details, you just need to know what is God's judgment, what has He said, what are the parameters that I should apply to this, and then move on down the line. 1 Timothy chapter 3. Turn there with me. 1 Timothy chapter 3. God knows best. That's the name of the message. That's the point. God knows best. He really does. First Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, it says, This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Likewise, must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be approved, then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children in their own house as well. for they that have used the office of a deacon well purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." Wow, big deal. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. All these things, and I put the very last part on here because I think it just shows the weight and the gravity that these things right under you, you know, keep all this in order. You know how to behave yourself. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. It's to hold up and prop up and exalt the truth is what the church is to do. And then it even says in verse 16, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. A mystery in the Bible is something that is true that we just don't fully understand yet or that's not been fully revealed yet. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. This is the truth that we're supposed to be the pillar and ground of right there. I want to look at the qualifications of a bishop and I'm not just necessarily preaching on that but just I want to look at some of them as we go through going back up to verse 2 it says blameless then it says the husband of one wife vigilant and sober I listed all these out like just from top to bottom just a list And to me, if I should have tried to put him up on the board like Pastor Turk does, but to me, blameless is kind of a category. And then we can go from there and say, well, he needs to be the husband of one wife. I mean, if he's got six or eight wives all over town, he's not blameless. You know, he's probably got a bad reputation. In order to be the husband of one wife, he's going to need to be vigilant and sober. So it's almost like these things just go down in categories. And then the next thing he says of good behavior. You know, maybe that's under blameless, maybe that's a whole other category, but then it says given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine. These things all portend behavior and have something to do with behavior. Given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine. I'll just say a couple of things and I don't know if this is exactly how Pastor Turk believes on these, but this is how I believe and it's not just resting the scripture either way. But I believe when it says not given to wine, I don't, don't think that means that he doesn't like to drink alcohol. The Bible says wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. It says, look not upon it when it color itself right, when it moveth itself in the cup. The Bible is really clear that we ought not drink strong drink or wine as far as alcohol goes. Very, very clear. but it says, not given to wine, and then the deacons, and it's not even in here, because it's not really what I want to make the point of, but the deacons, it says, not given to much wine. So if you were to think that that just meant, you know, wine-bibbers, just drinking a bunch of alcohol, then you would presume that, well, the deacon can drink a little alcohol, right? But that's not true, because the deacon should be at least an exemplary Christian, and a Christian ought not drink any alcohol, no wine, no strong drink in that way. So I believe that when it says not given to wine, here's what I think it means. I think it means not given to the finer things in life. If we look in the Bible, and I'll just give you a couple of examples. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7, and real quick I'm going to read from Proverbs 23 verse 17. It says, Let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. For surely there is an end, and thy expectations shall not be cut off. Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. I believe that given to wine means he's just got to have all the best, all the finest, all the nicest, the best clothes, the best house, the best food. He's just given to the best things in life. and he's going to succumb to his flesh in that way. Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 9, it says, Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy on them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, and repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him that hateth him. He will repay him to his face. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I commanded thee this day to do them, which I command thee this day to do them. Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers. And He will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee. He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, and the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which ye swear unto thy fathers to give thee. I'll stop right there. Here's the point. Wine goes with corn, and oil, and the fruit, and the kind, and the sheep, and the increase, and it's just finer things. And wine doesn't always just have to mean, oh, they're getting drunk. It's a picture of the finer things in the Bible. It seems like the last couple, three weeks, I've had wine in my message, and I don't know much about wine, but the Bible speaks a lot about wine because it's a common analogy that the people understood. There was preservation involved. There was maturation involved. It could spoil and go bad. It could become something that's poison. It could become something that's fine. And it's all about how it's going to mature and age. And anyway, there's a lot in the wine. But I believe when the Bible says not give it wine, I believe that it just means that the man of God cannot be given to the finest, most opulent things in life. He can't be. The deacon can't be given to much wine. And I've said it this way, maybe he's got a boat and he goes to the lake every now and then on the weekend, the deacon does, but the pastor, he probably can't afford to be taking a whole bunch of time off. He needs to be here running the show. And I believe the pastor's first ministry is his family and that he should rest and all these other things, but the point is, if you're gonna follow a man, he ought not be given to wine. He ought to have these behavioral characteristics that he's given to hospitality, he's apt to teach, and he's not just given to all the finer things in life. That rules out most preachers today, all right? My point is that I'm going to get to here is that there's a lot of things that we judge by God's men and God's church and God's word and all kinds of things, but rarely do we judge by God's judgments. And if we just judge according to God's judgments, we would stay right and true and on the narrow way all the time. It wouldn't be a problem. I've got another excerpt to show you. Well, I'm going to skip. I'm going to go to Ecclesiastes 2. You can turn there real quick. I'm just going to read a little bit of this because I'm just making this point. It says, remember, it says, not given to wine. Let's see what Ecclesiastes says. Verse 3 of chapter 2. I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine. So does that mean he's just getting drunk all the time? He's just drunk consistently, constantly? No, that's not what it means. So what's he doing when he gives himself to wine? I made me great works. I built me houses. I planted me vineyards. I made me gardens and orchards. I planted trees, and them of all kinds of fruit. I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees. I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house. Also I had great possessions of great and small cattle, above all that were in Jerusalem before me. I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces. I get me men singers, and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me, and whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, it was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." I'm not preaching about that, but here's the point. He said he gave himself unto wine and then he kept nothing back from himself. A man of God ought not be the one that's just going to make sure that he gets everything he wants all the time. He just ought not be. But if we would, you know, look at these qualifications instead of looking at their suit and looking at their smooth speech and looking at how big and nice their church is or whatever people judge by, which is not these. I know that because if we went and surveyed like a hundred churches, boy, there'd be all kinds of impressive stuff. But if we went down this list, we would eliminate almost all of them. That's just the truth. So God's judgments are these. He says a man of God should be blameless. He's got to be the husband of one wife. In order to be that, he's going to need to be vigilant and sober. Those things will be there if he's the husband of one wife. Of good behavior, giving hospitality, apt to teach, not giving to wine, not giving to the finer things in life, no striker. And then it says, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient. And again, I believe these are like almost describing one another, going in categories, if you will. Let me give you a couple verses on no striker. And this is the same. I don't know if this is exactly what Pastor Turk believes, and I'm sorry. Most people believe this means to fight. But later it says, not a brawler. I think no striker goes along with not greedy of filthy lucre and patient, because I think striking means to strike hands and make a deal, get yourself in debt or something. Proverbs 17, 18, here's the thing, the Bible defines itself. So when it says not given to wine, and then I look somewhere else and it says, I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine. Boy, I could think, well, those must be related and figure something out there. The Bible is its own dictionary. Great if you've got a dictionary, but if you don't, you got the Bible, you got all you need. Given enough time and effort, you got all you need. No striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient. Let me throw two verses at you. Proverbs 17, 18. A man void of understanding striketh hands and becometh surety in the presence of his friend. So he's become a cosigner for someone, is what it looks like to me. Proverbs 22, 26. Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts. If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee? Listen, if you don't have the money to buy it, you shouldn't strike hands and get yourself in debt for it, because then you'd be a striker. You need to be not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient. And I believe that's what a striker is. It goes on, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. I think, obviously, having his children in subjection with all gravity is what it means to rule well your own house. Then it says, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? You've got to be able to rule your own. If a man's family is just off in the transgression, just completely, you know, he's not qualified. He's not qualified. That's what it says. Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and a snare of the devil. Listen, there's a lot of things that men look at to determine a preacher, to choose a preacher, but really we only need to look at God's qualifications that He's laid out to judge righteous judgment, and we would know. Again, not his suit, not his smooth speech, not his credentials, not his circle of friends, whatever you would say, the way he looks or even carries himself, and those things are all important. If he just can't put his suit on, if he can't even dress himself, maybe he ought not follow it. But if he just dresses himself really well, but his children aren't in subjection with all gravity, don't follow him. If he's got really smooth speech, but he's a striker, don't follow him. Just look to God's standard. It would rule out so many sheep's clothing preachers. As the Bible says, they come to you as wolves in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. because they're going to look just the way you want them to look. It looks like a sheep. It baas like a sheep. That's a sheep right there, Brother Beau. But then if you go to God's judgments and you apply them, they say, this is how you can tell if that's a sheep or a wolf. That's how you can tell. Titus chapter 1, I'm not even going to bother reading it to you, it's all in here again, but we see the qualifications of a bishop and a pastor. I'll just give you one verse here, Philippians 1.1, Paul and Timotheus, the servant of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. You know, we don't ever see any other offices laid out in the Bible, do we? We don't ever see, other than Apostle, which no man can qualify for today, because Apostles needed to be with Christ and see Christ, so nobody's an Apostle today, and people do call themselves Apostles, and boy, you can rule them out real quick and easy, right? But most people aren't calling themselves Apostles. They're calling themselves pastors and bishops and reverend or whatever, and then you put them up against these qualifications, and it doesn't match. If a man of God doesn't fit these qualifications, you ought not follow them. If God's people in the Old Testament, His nation, if the things they eat didn't fit into those restrictions and requirements, they ought not eat it. They didn't need to have a Rolodex or whatever with every single animal in it. They just needed to know these simple, clear rules, and if they'd apply it to everything, boom, they'd always be right. They'd always eat good. It's the same thing here. If we would just follow the men that God says to follow, and not the ones that just please our flesh and please our eyes and please our ears, but the ones that God said are qualified, you know what we'd do? We'd eat good. Because we're supposed to be coming to church and getting fed. You need to be eating on your own. but you can also come to church and get things that you might not have got on your own. It's the perfect system that God set up for you to dig in it daily and search if those things are true, and then come back here and be exhorted, encouraged, and taught up, and then go back and dig in it and search if those things are true, and you just grow, and you're just eating good. And it's because you put yourself where God said to put yourself. You follow God's standards and qualifications, and you didn't just say, man, that looks delicious. That looks good to my belly. So here's another example, and I said this, but we only see two offices laid out in the Bible. And so if God's people would follow the food restrictions, they'd eat the right foods. If God's people would follow the qualifications of the pastor and bishop, they'd follow the right men. If God's people would follow the ordinances that God gave, we'd pick a good church. Because here's the truth, and I believe this, and I'm not gonna have time, I got 10 minutes left, I'm not gonna have time to bear this out, but if they will pervert the two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, baptism or the Lord's Supper, either or, then they'll pervert anything. It's kinda like, and it's not in any way related, but the love of money is the root of all evil. That doesn't mean that if you love money, you're just gonna get into every imaginable evil. It means that there's not any evil imaginable that the love of money won't lead you into. So if you love money, there's nothing off the table. There's not how much do you love it? How what are the offers? You know, who knows there's nothing off the table But it doesn't mean that just because somebody loves money that there's every single Wicked filthy thing will be in their life. All right, so in any way it's the same way if if they will pervert the ordinances, the Lord's Supper and Baptism, then why is it? Is it because they don't understand the Word? Is it because they don't believe the Word? Is it because they don't know the Word? Is it just they don't care? What is the reason why that they will do it? If they'll pervert those two simple things, what won't they pervert? Those are a picture of salvation. The baptism is the picture. You're buried in the likeness of his death. You're raised in the likeness of his resurrection. You know, raised to walk in newness of life. Pastors say different things, but it's all coming from the Bible. And that's the picture. You know, the Lord's Supper, it's a picture of his blood that was shed for us. It's a picture of his flesh. that was given for us. It's supposed to make us remember what the Lord did. And then we're supposed to take it circumspectly. We're supposed to take it seriously. We're supposed to, you know, because we've been baptized into the church, into the Lord's institution, the real thing. By the way, we could go through the biblical Baptist distinctives. Biblical authority, autonomy of the local church, priesthood of the believer, individual soul liberty, two ordinances, separation of church and state, two offices, and there's one more. I can't remember what it is. Starts with an S. B-A-P-T-I-S-T-S. Soul liberty. No, individual soul liberty. I threw that one in there. Saved membership, saved membership. So anyway, we could go through these, but we just pick one of them out. If they'll pervert baptism, let's just use this for a second. I don't have all this written down. I don't have much more to say. But if they'll pervert baptism, if they'll sprinkle, well, that's supposed to be a picture of you buried in the likeness of His death, raised in the likeness of His resurrection. So they perverted the picture of the death, the burial, the resurrection. Do they not understand it? Do they just not care? Or do they think that there are ways, but, well, you know, I know that he baptized there because there's much water there. Well, I know that they went down into the water and came up out of the water, you know, but it doesn't necessarily say that. Well, it's really, really clear. Do they just not care? What won't they pervert? Or do they not understand that it's a picture of salvation? You know, if they will take these things I know of a church, by the way, if they pervert this stuff, it's not a church. If he doesn't fit the qualifications, he's not a man of God. It don't matter if he's preaching to 10,000 people. In fact, he's probably preaching to 10,000 people. It doesn't matter. If he doesn't meet the qualifications, he's not God's man. If it doesn't fit into the dietary restrictions, you ought not be eating it if you're God's people and God's nation in those days. You just ought not be. If they will pervert these things, if they'll pervert the two ordinances, really those are the checks. If they'll pervert those, it's because they either don't understand them or they just don't care. And we could go through, I believe we could go through every one of the biblical Baptist distinctives. And I'm not Baptist because, you know, I was raised Baptist or because that's the best denomination. Baptist is not a denomination. All right, we're not Protestant, we didn't come out of anything. Baptist, I believe that, and we just take Baptist away, that's fine, it don't mean anything. Bible believer, just call me that, just a Bible believer. But if you call me a Bible believer, and if you're a Bible believer, and if we start putting together the things that we believe, you know we're gonna come out to be, we're gonna come out to be Baptist. We're not going to be Lutheran or Presbyterian or Catholic or Jehovah's Witness or Muslim or Mormon. We're going to be Baptist if we believe the Bible. You say, well, Beau, there's a whole lot of different kind of Baptists. Well, you know, there's a whole lot of different kind of views in here as well, you know. Now, I'm not foolish enough to ever think that I'm preaching to a whole room of saved people. I assume, I always assume there's lost people in the house. However, I presume many of us are saved, many of us, a great percentage, and I know that if we were to go through and just study God's word for days and days on end, we would find things that we don't agree on. There would be some things, and it wouldn't be like, well, I think you can lose your salvation. Well, then you're not saved, duh. Just like, well, I don't think we need to baptize in deep water. Well, then you're not a church, clearly. The point is, there will be some variances and some degrees because one of the things we believe is individual soul liberty. We believe that every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. We don't have to sign up for some council or some synod, as I've learned that those are often called, or some group's confession or profession. No, you just read the Bible and get what you can get out of it. That's what I do. And then I'll come and I'll talk to Pastor Turk and my friends about it, and if they expound unto me a more perfect understanding, Got it, I'll go with that. But if what they're saying I don't believe goes with the Bible, I can't agree with it. I'm not gonna bring out anything that I disagree with you guys, but let me just say there are things that we disagree on, and it's okay. It's not a test of fellowship. Some of these things are a test of fellowship. You know, these Baptist distinctives, the biblical authority, autonomy of the local church. If you think that your church is getting its legitimacy from some head office somewhere, You know, that's not, who's the head? Because the Bible says that Christ is the head of the church. So if the head is Mr. Johnson at Memphis or wherever, well, then it's not Christ. It's just really clear, all right? So all the things, and I should have gone through and done this, and maybe I'll do this next time, because I've made the point, I've got to the point, but if they will pervert the two ordinances, they will pervert anything else, anything else, all manner of things. They will remove ordinances. They will add ordinances. I know of a church, let's just call it an assembly. This is not a church. I know of an assembly that takes the Lord's Supper and applies it to the family, which what they're doing is going back to the Old Testament and saying, well, we see in Exodus where God said to kill the calf and do it this way and do it quickly and just with the family. But wait a minute. Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper with his church right there in the upper room. And so we can see that. And they have either missed that or they don't care. You know what it is? And I know this particular instance, they've just missed it. Just missed it. But you know what it does? It reveals to those of us who've not missed it that that's not God's church. That's not the real thing. There's other examples. I give you all kinds of examples. I'm really out of time. Listen, if it chews the cut and parts the hoof, if it has fins and scales, it's clean. Eat it. If it doesn't, then don't. If he's the husband of one wife, he's apt to teach, not giving wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, not a brawler, not covetous, his children in subjection, he's not a novice, then he's worth considering for an office in the Lord's church. If not, then don't even listen to him and surely don't follow him. Surely don't follow him. If they'll keep the two ordinances just as the Lord gave them, then you can begin to consider, this might be a church, but if they won't, and obviously it's contingent upon their biblical doctrine, and I suppose it's possible, though I can't find an instance, I suppose it's possible that there could be an assembly that has the ordinances correct, and is wrong on salvation, is wrong on eternal security, but I've not found it. I've not found it. They're going to pervert the ordinances. It's just God's judgments are perfect. It could be that there's somebody that's really wise and worth following who doesn't meet God's qualifications, but I haven't found him and he's not worth ordaining to an office in God's church. That's for sure. So you say, you know, all these things, if they'll get the ordinances wrong, then they've got wrong doctrine. Don't follow them. And you say, why? Well, just because that's what God said. It's just that's what God said. And God knows best. I'm gonna read this to you and I'll close up. Isaiah 55, 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater." There's a purpose for all of it. God's got it all figured out. "'So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please. And it shall prosper in the thing whereinto I sent it to.'" One way or another, God's word will accomplish its purpose. Salvation, separation, sanctification. You know, God didn't need to list out every animal on earth. Instead, He just gave some precise parameters, and simply following them, again, like I said, would keep God's people eating good. He didn't need to list out every single detail, and these people are lying to you, and these people are not. He just gave some simple parameters for a church, for who to listen to, for who to ordain, for who to follow, and doing so would keep God's people eating good. Amen? Let's pray. Dear God, thank you so much for your Word. Thank you so much for giving us the truth, for making it clear. God, I pray that we would love it, each one of us, we would just love your Word. We would dig into it, and we would want it to guide and lead our lives, Lord, just because we want to be blessed, and we want to follow you, and we know the blessings would come from it. Thank you, God, so much for it. I pray that you bless everything that's done here today, the singing, the preaching, all of it. Bless it in your name. In Jesus' name, amen.