Alright, hello, everyone, and welcome to our third installment of our Fundamentals of the Faith of the Christian Identity online lesson. We are going through the foundations of Christianity, what makes a Christian, where it's established, and what not. Remember, Christianity is a lifestyle. It's not because you signed the dotted line. It's definitely not because you agreed with the creed. A creed has nothing to do with it. Council meetings have nothing to do with it. We're looking at the foundation of biblical teaching. So far we looked at the Bible as sole authority. We looked at two points of that. That was two parts, I mean. Today I want to look at two areas. We're going to try to cover two of these points just today in a brief lesson. The autonomy of the church, the autonomy of the local church. It is anti-scriptural to have a corporation, if you will, or someone over local churches to dictate what they teach and preach and say and do and hold to creeds and all this and that. That is not biblical. You'll never find it in the Bible. It was established through traditions of man, the rudiments of this world, if you will, and they are anti-scriptural. Guys, if they're anti-scriptural, they're anti-God, and we need to understand that here today. And so we're gonna look at the autonomy of the church today, and we're gonna look at the priesthood of the believers, both of which really and truly tie in one with another because of what you find. So I also wanna say at the onset, excuse my voice here, and we're having a bit of a heat wave here in Wells, I didn't get enough water in myself on Sunday after preaching as long as I did, and my voice kind of went. But it is what it is. Hopefully you can hear me just fine. So, the autonomy of the church, guys. So, independent local church, and that includes the separation of church and state, biblically speaking. The government is not over the church and nor should it ever be There is a separation separation of church and state is never meant to protect the government or the state from the church But actually vice versa and so this belief as some would claim guys is it's it's more than a position But rather it's a biblical truth. Someone would claim complain. It's a position. It's an opinion But it's a biblical biblical truth and building upon our first lesson our first distinctive on the Bible of sole authority for faith and practice It's clear to understand that the church is obligated to hold to the Word of God above anything and everything. Now we understand that each local church has a set of bylaws and a constitution that it administratively operates through and for, and there's nothing wrong with that, unless any of those bylaws or any part of that constitution is contrary to scripture. The scripture has to dictate how the local church functions, point and period, but not some higher church, not some corporation, some upper level management. Church doesn't work like that, that's not biblical. So it makes any group of men, you know, so making any other group of mankind authoritative over another church is wrong. So the independent autonomous church is a doctrine. It's not created by Baptists. It's not created by any denomination, but it's a basic simple truth established by several biblical truths. So biblical local church are to settle their own issues, their own problems. We find this as a principle in Acts chapter six. the principal congregational government, as the church at Jerusalem chose seven men to be their deacons. However, I don't want you to confuse congregational voting and approving process with this. If you think back to that process in Acts chapter 6, there were some naysaying going on in the community that the church or, you know, the disciples weren't taking care of the widows and this and that. And so the apostles told the church, they said, choose you out seven men full of faith and the Holy Spirit. And then later on you see faith and power, because power and the Holy Spirit equate to the same thing. And he says, choose you out seven. So he chose them seven men. Stephen was one of them. And then the apostles approved these men. So it wasn't a voting process. The congregation didn't vote and determine those men or those men to become deacons. They chose them for the selection and the approval process for the apostles. The apostles approved these men. And ultimately, it's the spiritual leader of a church that will be held accountable for the church's actions. and therefore it is his responsibility to approve such matters. So concerning the topic of discussion, this is something that's handled and controlled within a local New Testament church, not with a convention, not with an assembly, not with a corporation. It is not the responsibility, nor the business, of anyone outside of the four walls of a local church to handle any business concerning the matters of the local church, whether they're problems or promotions or a pulpit fill, fill-ins, whatever it is. So the topic outside of recommendation It's not against the autonomy of the church, you know, guys. The Bible says that, you know, you can, there's, and a multitude of counselors, there's safety. You know, so you take a small church or a mission church, it would not be out of the question to set up a committee of elder preachers, you know, someone from other churches or a multiplicity of churches, to choose a replacement pastor. There's nothing, there'll be nothing wrong with that, okay? Nothing wrong whatsoever, should something quickly or tragically occur to that pastor. But the best policy for replacement pastor is to be chosen, the successor to be chosen by the existing pastor, for him to appoint that pastor and for that younger man or the other person to train up underneath him for a set period of time. It's not the responsibility, it's not biblical for anything outside of the local church to handle those matters, guys. So each church has an obligation to choose the best policies, the leadership for carrying out the commands of scripture, and it's responsibility of the pastor to supervise, which is the original meaning of the word bishop, to carry out God's commands in the church. All spiritual authority in the scripture. All spiritual authority is in the scripture, but the supervisory authority over the church program is in the hands of the pastor as God tells that pastor to take the oversight thereof in 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 2. So that's where all the weight lies within the local New Testament church. The pastor of a local church has a very heavy weight upon him. He has a great responsibility upon him. Hebrews 13 verse 7, Hebrews 13 verse 17. You can read those on your own time. but those two verses are referring to pastors whom whom you know are supposed to obey we're supposed to obey them we're supposed to look and study and and look at the end of their conversation which means their life and they're going to give an account for you and for those that are in their congregation and so we need to understand The pastor doesn't want to give an account before God. He doesn't want to be grievous before Him. So Paul reminds us of this same thing. 1 Thessalonians 5 and in verse 12 Paul says clearly, he says, Know who that pastor is. Know who that pastor is that's laboring, and you watch his actions, and know that he's laboring amongst you inside the church and in the community. Luke reminds us of the same thing. Acts chapter 20, verse 22, as he records, where the Bible says, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock of God, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. And so, obviously, he's recording Paul's charge there. And so voluntary fellowship and cooperation were obviously practiced by the church in the New Testament, and this is an important work of the Lord to be carried out effectively, but we must understand as we come back. authoritatively, administratively, appointments, whatever it may be, the structure of the local church and how it functions is within the local church. It's not to be done outside. So most passages in the Bible, when they're referring to a church, they're referring to a local, visible assembly. The word church comes from the Greek word ekklesia, which really just means a local called out assembly. That's what it means. And it exists on this earth during the church age, okay? All passages about the church refer to the assembly of believers, and we're going to cover that more later on when we talk about saved church membership. But so when you see that word church, rarely is it talking about the entire saved body. Most of it's referring to the local church. So a New Testament church is an assembly of baptized believers. Again, we'll cover that here when we get into the two ordinances. Baptized believers for the purpose of worship, fellowship, and fulfilling the Great Commission. I'll give you some verses you can write down. That's Matthew 28, verses 18 to 20. Mark 16 verse 15, Luke 24 verse 47. So the New Testament pattern is for the church members to be baptized by immersion after making a confession of salvation. That's the biblical precept. That's how the membership is established. The autonomy of the church simply means Every local church has their own free will. Every local church has their own distinctive to operate and function how they see fit according to the Holy Scriptures. Meaning this, good example, then we'll close on the autonomy and get into the priesthood of the believers. They cannot or they should not function outside of the scripture. Now we also know that there are a litany of things that call themselves churches, okay, which biblically speaking, number one, are not because they're not holding to the holy scriptures in the manner that they should. Number two, they're holding to a creative man, a council meeting, establishments that have been just anti-scriptural. Okay, so we, you know, what calls itself a church doesn't always make it a church. I want to make that kind of clear. But for all Principal purposes. Let's just say when I say church, I mean a biblical Church that is functioning according to the Word of God. All right So each individual church has its Right its liberty to function in the way that it sees fit through the Holy Scriptures. No private interpretation So you take our church here? So this is Sarah Chapel a certain Chapel independent Baptist Church in Aberanon We planted this church and then we planted a church in Cardiff Calvary Baptist Church in Cardiff, right? I'm the pastor of both of those churches, but both of those churches are autonomous, one of another, okay? We may do things functionally different down there, still according to the scriptures, but we may do something different in Corinth than we do here, and that's quite all right. That's called liberty, okay? That's called the autonomy of the church. Saron is not in charge or over Calvary. Calvary is not in charge or over Brother Preston, we know, he filled the pulpit at Horeb when they lost their pastor. He still works with us, he's still with us, he's still our partner in the ministry. However, what he does as his church, as long as it's not anti-scriptural, is his business, how he functions. That's the autonomy of the church. Each individual local church are responsible for their own administration, their own functions, and their own development. They are not to be put under the corporation or the assembly or the convention of a head or corporate entity. And they surely aren't to be put over some type of mother church to bring somebody and appoint their preachers and ministers or be told what to preach and teach and all this and that. All that's, let's just say, let's just cut to the chase. All of that is devilish. All of that is devilish. That's the autonomy of the church. I want to get real quickly here. We're not going to take a whole lot of time today. Get into the next point, which this will be the third point. We have the Bible for soul authority. Our Bible is soul authority for faith and practice. We have the autonomy of the church today. Then the priesthood of believers. If you have your Bibles with you. I'm going to have you turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. And again, forgive my voice, guys, for being raspy like this. I know it's rough and I still got to preach again tonight. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5. The Bible says in verse 5, you also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The priesthood of the believers, guys, is a doctrine that each individual believer may go before the Lord freely as his own representative. That is vitally important because that is a New Testament doctrine. The foreshadow of the priesthood of the believers is seen in the Old Testament priesthood, okay, where there was a go-between. But the Old Testament, guys, was before the blood of Jesus Christ was shed for the sin of mankind. And that, my friend, that was the hang-up. That's why you needed to go between the high priest here. We have a high priest now who is Jesus Christ, who is sat at the right hand of the throne of the Father, who the Bible tells us is our propitiation. We'll see that here in a minute. He is our go-between. So because we've accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and thus His blood has cleansed us of our sins, okay, He's washed us white as snow, therefore we, every single individual, okay, are a royal priesthood. We are the priesthood of the believers, that's what that is. We are invited as brethren in Christ to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19. We are told, as I read in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 5, that we are a holy priesthood. That word holy means set apart, same as the word sanctified, that's what it means. We are every individual, okay? So thus it allows every child of God who has repented and been saved and born again to, according to Hebrews 4.16, come boldly unto the throne of grace, boldly. I can go boldly under the throne of grace. Most, if not all religions today have specially appointed priests to represent them unto their God or even God. And this was true in the Old Testament, like I've already mentioned. It was true with Israel. However, the Holy Spirit of God now, in the church age, indwells the individual body of the redeemed. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19, okay? Why is that important? Well, we understand according to Mark 15, verse 38, that the temple veil was ripped in twain. It was torn apart. That temple veil was what separated the holies of holies, okay, two portions from the tabernacle. You have the temple here where the work would be done, but only the high priest each year, once a year, would walk through that temple veil to present the sacrifice and the sins of Israel before the mercy seat there where the Ark of the Covenant was. The only other side in that holie of holies was where the Holy Spirit of God dwelt. That's all Old Testament. Now, we, the Bible tells us that we are the temple of God. We, this body here, is bought with a price, the price of Christ's blood and his life. Therefore, my body is the temple, the tabernacle, housing is what the word tabernacle means, of the Holy Spirit of God. So, when the temple veil was written, twain, at the earthquake when Christ was crucified, it would no longer separate the true believer from the Holy Spirit of God. All right, so Baptists and Bible-believing Christians, as we find in Acts chapter 11, have led the way in the calling attention to the glorious truth of the priesthood of the believers. Almost every false doctrine there is has one singular entity that they must come to either to for a confession or to have the sinful act of infant baptism or whatever it may be performed to them in order for them to be placed into what they deem saved or salvation or their church. So every born-again believer though according to the Holy Scripture according to the Word of God and if anyone out there can remotely take the Holy Scripture out of the AV and prove this wrong I set you up that challenge day. Feel free to give me a call. Every born-again believer may pray directly to God through Jesus Christ, or in the name of Jesus Christ, who is our high priest, without human intercession. The Old Testament priests were the ones who dared to enter the presence of God, which was the Holy of Holies in the temple. There was a ceremony of washing, a ceremony of cleansing that took place prior to doing so. However, today, a born-again believer is washed from their sin through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Revelation chapter one, verses five through six. So therefore, as a born-again believer, we can have direct access, direct prayer to God at any given time and place that we choose, okay? So what's the particulars of prayer, real quick, the particulars of prayer? Prayer is communion with God. Prayer is worship by which believers fellowship with a petition to God. Prayer can be both public, Acts chapter four, verses 24 through 31, and prayer can be private, Matthew chapter six, verse six, and many, many more. So that's the particulars of prayer. Anytime a believer wants to pray, if you are a child of God, you're born again in the blood of Christ. By the way, if you are saved and born again in the blood of Christ, you're a saint as well. You don't need some guy in a funny hat to say to sainthood you after you died. That's anti-scriptural. You won't find it one place in the scripture. Not one place. Not at all. It doesn't exist. So there's the particulars of prayer, communion with God, worship, which believers make a petition unto God. There's the privilege of prayer. The significance of the temple veil was to separate the holy of holies from other places in the temple and from others in general. It was a separate place. Only the high priest could enter there. I've already mentioned that. He and the veil operated as a mediator between the people and between God. That veil was rent in twain, we've already talked about that, Matthew 27 verse 51, at the crucifixion of Christ. Now there is only one mediator, all right? 1 Timothy chapter two and verse five, 1 Timothy chapter two and verse five tells us this. It says, yeah, wrong one, there we go. First Timothy in chapter two, verse five, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, or man, the man, Christ Jesus. So we have one mediator today, one go-between, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ who has sat at the right hand of the throne of God. He's our high priest, Jesus Christ is, according to Hebrews chapter four, verses 14 through 16. Every believer, let me say this to you again, every single believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a priest. A priest is not, matter of fact, a priest is not even a biblical word that you should use for the local New Testament church as in a pastor, bishop, or elder. They're not even associated with it. Every child of God is a priest. Positionally speaking, they're not a bishop, elder, or pastor. We understand that. but they are a priest. If you were saved and born again, you are a priest, because priest, that position is for you to have access to God himself. That's what it means. That's what it is, okay? It's not something you gotta go to school for, not something that you gotta pass some test or be confirmed for. It is simply being saved and born again truly by the blood of Christ, okay? Every believer is a priest. So 1 Peter 2 verse 5 we've already read says we're a holy priesthood. Verse 9 in 1 Peter chapter 2 says but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Revelation chapter 1 is another one very clear then we're going to move on and be finished here tonight. Revelation chapter 1 verses 5 and 6 tells us, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead. and the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us and watched us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So very clear. There's the privilege of prayer because you're a priest. If you're not a priest, you don't have access to heaven unless it's that prayer of forgiveness to be saved and born again. The practice of prayer, guys, a simple acrostic can be used by this. And I'm just going to kind of run through some of these scriptures and be finished tonight. But a simple lacrosse that can be used, it's well known concerning the functionality of prayer, and it spells out the word acts, A-C-T-S. There's adoration. Prayer is time praising and worshiping of the Lord. We see that in Psalm 95, verse 6, and so adoring him for who he is. We see that in Matthew 6, verse 9. We see that in Psalm 103, Psalm 145, Psalm 150, Revelation 4, 8, Revelation 5, 12 through 14. So, the first thing we understand about prayer, when we look at the practice of prayer, is there's adoration, okay? Again, why are we talking about prayer and the priesthood of believers? Because priesthood of believers, again, I'm mentioning this again, repeating it, that's what gives you the access to pray unto God, is that priesthood. Confession, confession. The word confession means to agree with, okay? Repentance from every known sin in your life. We see that in Psalm 32, verse five. Confession should be part of your continual walk with Jesus Christ. Matthew 6, verse nine through 13. We should spend time asking the Lord Jesus Christ to search our hearts for areas which displease him. Psalm 139, 23, and 24. We should allow God to cleanse our heart of any unconfessed sin, Psalm 51, verse 10 through 13. And we should be sure to spend time confessing and repenting, turn it away from specific sins in our life. 1 John 1, 9. Will you lose your salvation if you don't do that? Not at all. Will you lose your joy? Yeah, you will. You will. You'll lose your joy. So there's in the Acts, there's adoration, then there's confession. Thirdly, there's thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Giving thanks for all things should be a part of our everyday lives as God's people. Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 through 7. This includes thanking God for specific things such as blessings, people, open doors, guidance, et cetera, whatever it may be. Also giving thanks for his salvation and the privilege to serve as such a wonderful, wonderful savior. Thank him for his goodness, thank him for his loving kindness, thank him for his faithfulness. You can see that in Psalm 100, verses four through six. And the last part of Acts, as you look at that acrostic, is the letter S, which means supplication. You know, we are called as believers to have intercessory prayer. Matthew 6, 9-13, Luke 18, 1, Colossians 4, verse 2, 1 Timothy 2, verses 1-4. Thus we are able to come before God on the behalf of others. Hebrews 10, verse 19-25, and Revelation 1, 4-6. Spending time in prayer, guys, for specific people, for events, Countries, for counties, for boroughs, for councils, for missionaries, for preachers, churches, all of those things is what we do in accessory prayer. We see that in Acts 12 verse 5, we see it in Romans chapter 10 verse 1. So in addition, we need to spend time in prayer for personal things. There's nothing wrong with praying for personal needs. Matthew 6 verse 11 to 13 again. So the practice of prayer is for God's glory. We see that in 1 Corinthians 4 through, I'm sorry, 4.15. We see that in Hebrews 13 verse 15. And it's part of Christian service, guys. The practice of prayer is part of Christian service. Ephesians chapter 6, 18 through 20, 2 Thessalonians 3, 1 through 2. And for personal use, guys, or personal peace, Philippians 4, 6 through 7 once again. So that's the practice of prayer, something very important. And lastly today, we see the problems in prayer, the problems in prayer, what hinders our prayer. Number one, sin will hinder our prayer, Psalm 66 verse 18. Doubt will hinder our prayer, James 1, 6 and 7. An unforgiving spirit will be a hindrance to our prayer, Mark 11 verse 25. Pray and amiss, which means fiend or lustful, James 4 verse 3. marital problems. Men, you know, if you think that you're going to treat your wife terribly, speak to her harshly, not think about her, not love her, and then go get on your throne and pray, and the Lord hear your prayers, you're wrong. Look up 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 7. You need to go make it right with your wife first. Get your marital things situated and then come together and pray so that God may hear your prayers. So there are problems in prayer. So a New Testament priest, which is a born again individual, someone who is saved today, someone who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. According to Romans chapter 10 verse 9, that if thou shalt confess of thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in the heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. When you make that decision, when you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, you accept his free gift of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In your heart, you ask forgiveness of sins when he comes into you, like that, okay? You are a priesthood of believers, nothing else. There is no sanctified filled with the Holy Ghost. You receive all of the Holy Ghost that you'll ever need or ever have on the moment you made your decision to accept Jesus Christ. And from that point forward, you are a royal priesthood. You are in a holy priesthood, a set apart priesthood in your life. So as a New Testament priest, We have the obligation to up our prayer and praise to God. That's 1 Peter 2.5 as we've seen. And also we see we should proclaim praises of God before others. 1 Peter 2.9, we read that just a moment ago. We are to serve as a witness of God and His glory in the dark world that we live in. So I want to encourage you today, guys. I hope, I understand my voice has been a bit raspy. I get that. I know we went through these two points rather quickly. What I'm going to do, your PDF today, if you want to look that up there on our sermon audio on the app. I'm going to leave all the notes in there. There's no fill in the blank with that today. You can refer back to the very notes that I have taught from here that'll be on on the website there on Sermon Audio. And so take that, download it or upload it, whatever, print it off, and you'll have it there to refer back to when there's any questions whatsoever. Concerning these two topics, if you still are struggling with this, after looking at all the scriptures in your A-vein, If you're having any issues, any problems whatsoever, from the smallest point to the largest point, get in touch with me. Ask me the question, guys. I'm an open book. I'm more than happy to continue to teach and preach. I want to help you guys here at Calvary Baptist Church of Cardiff. Like I said, we have one shot on Sunday evening, so we want to do this fundamentals foundational class. It's for anybody who wants to get on the site and see it. It's not just for our church in Cardiff, but we're making it primarily now. for our team down there so that you guys can learn and help you through. Any questions whatsoever on the first three points, please let me know. I'm more than happy to help. And I look forward to seeing you on Sunday evening. God bless each and every one of you. Have a wonderful rest of your week.