In a sermon titled 'The Church's Responsibility to Truth,' David Green emphasizes the crucial role of the church as the 'pillar and ground of the truth' as outlined in 1st Timothy 3:15. Green highlights the challenges faced by modern churches, including declining membership and doctrinal disagreements, even among those historically committed to sola scriptura. He stresses the importance of demanding truth in all aspects of church life, from sermons to hymns, and warns against complacency. Green underlines the need for both preachers and congregants to study and verify teachings, drawing inspiration from the Bereans' example in Acts 17. He cautions against the erosion of truth through compromise or neglect and challenges churches to uphold doctrinal integrity, noting that church perpetuity is tied to truth, but individual churches can falter. The sermon also touches on the importance of selecting biblically qualified pastors and maintaining unity without sacrificing truth.

In 1st Timothy chapter 3, we'll read one verse here, verse 15, verse here, verse 15, but if I tarry long that thou mayst 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. I'm going to preach a message today on the church's responsibility to the truth. Church's responsibility to the truth. What a great day this has been, a great occasion that we've come together for, to worship our Lord and to be a part of a church organization. We don't see too many of those in this country.

In fact, in our age, there seems to be quite a number of churches disbanding, closing down, shutting up shop. I appreciated brother Jackson bringing out the fact of two or three. Sometimes the church gets down to five, six members and they say, well there's no point in going on, so let's just disband and go home. Can you imagine what history would have looked like if that would have happened time and time again. Going back to that very first church, we praise God they kept at it.

Praise the Lord that there was something driving them forward. We read in our text here that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. What in the world does that mean? Well, there's a lot of different ways we could look at this but I believe we can look at it like this that the Lord's churches Sovereign Grace Baptist Church very soon unity Baptist Church guardians upholders preachers proclaimers of the truth That if you go into any town or city and you're looking for the truth, you should be able to find it where the Lord's Church is. There are, right now today, In our area and no doubt up in North Carolina, all over this country there are churches so called Children of the Reformers that held up the banners that said sola scriptura, by scripture alone, they said.

But when you examine them, even they don't agree on truth. They don't agree on doctrine. And indeed, we find that they fall very, very short of those things. And even we as Baptists, we say that Our final rule of faith and practice is the Word of God. It's in our statements of faith.

It's in the things that we preach, the things that we hope to. But oftentimes, oftentimes, it's not that way. And I appreciate the messages that have been brought here today. There's things to consider when we look at this. Not only do we expect that when we assemble ourselves with one of the Lord's churches, not only do we expect when we come into a service of one of the Lord's churches, not only do we expect that the truth will be there, we ought to demand it from the pulpit to from the pulpit To the to the things that are in print to the very songs that we sing Those things matter.

Every bit of it. Every bit of it. Truth matters. And I'm thankful for this church. I'm thankful for this new church that's about to be organized today.

I'm thankful for the fact that truth matters. I mean think about it, why in the world would a group of people Make a trip from North Carolina to Georgia on May 9th to seek membership in a church. Fast forward to today. Why in the world would you make a trip all the way to come together to get authority for the organization of a church? Because the truth matters, that's why.

That's why. There's people out there that can't even get across the street to come here. People in, I mean, since COVID hit and all these people have all sorts of excuses to come, not to come and reasons. And I mean, today, the rain, if you want a reason not to come to church there's plenty of them but let me tell you there's a whole lot better reason to be here and I appreciate those that made the effort to come. Over in Matthew chapter 16, in Matthew 16 and verse 18.

And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Praise the Lord for what we call church perpetuity. Thank God that he has promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church. You see, this wasn't about Peter. The church wasn't built on Peter. This was the Lord's church that's been talked about.

And thank God for that because Where's Peter at? Peter's dead. Peter was a man. Peter was a small pebble compared to the rock, Jesus Christ, that this church was built upon. And he promised that he would build up his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

It wasn't even all about the Church of Jerusalem, because if you were to go back to Jerusalem and look for the first church. It's not there. It's gone. But, praise the Lord, he kept his promise because the Church of Jerusalem went out. At the first they kind of had to be scattered, prodded a bit, didn't they?

But they went out. Other churches were organized and then those churches, organized churches, you think we've got it bad here and rough here, those people in those places they had it rough. It would have been real easy to sit at home and not go out. But thank the Lord that they did. They did go.

And they went from place to place. And churches were organized. And we can find that. And what a blessed heritage that we have as God's people and as the Lord's churches. We find going back, Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, organized in June 1996 by Landmark Baptist Church of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which they were organized in May 1993 by Calvary Baptist Church of Ashland, Kentucky, in 1955.

It was when Calvary was organized by King's edition Baptist Church. They were organized in 1947 and you get going back and back and back. Just like Brother Halleman was mentioning his family heritage, He didn't have to tell me all the way back to Adam, but I look at him and I say, hey, you're a son of Adam, a descendant of Noah, more recently of Japheth. Right? We can figure those things out.

Do I have to have every bit of his genealogy all the way back? No. But I can tell because I know what the Bible says and I can examine and see. Examine and see. I can tell.

Brother Hellman did not descend from apes or monkeys. So how do you know that? God said so. You weren't there. Well, that's right.

Neither were you, but God was. And the same thing is true with churches. I can look and I can say, hey, this church matches up with what is biblical, but that one doesn't. Right? And we praise the Lord for that, for that genealogy, that surname.

I'm very thankful to have the name Green, just like he's very thankful to have the name Halleman. And today I'm very thankful to have the name Baptist. And Brother Halleman's right too. There's sometimes you get into some circles of preachers and it makes you ashamed to even be a Baptist. But praise the Lord, it's not about those other preachers.

It's not about their politics. It's not about their potpourri's, What they've done to muddle things up, it's about the Lord and His Word. That's why I'm a Baptist. This heritage that we have, I was reading some of the history of the churches that have gone on before us in that line. Some of them I knew, some of them I didn't know.

Brother Reggie Moore, Brother John Gilpin, Brother James Hobbs, you keep going down the line. They all had a story to tell, didn't they? They all lived a life. Pastored churches, somewhere in our history, and we thank the Lord for those men, for the things that they do, but our church authority, church succession. It's not preacher authority.

It's not preacher baptism. We don't trace it through baptisms. We don't trace it through ordinations. It's through the churches. Through the churches.

Just like the Unity Baptist Church that's organized today doesn't get her authority from David Green and this church didn't get her authority from Joe Wilson you see. We look at We look at perpetuity and we thank the Lord for it. We also understand that each and every church, each church that has ever existed for the last 2, 000 years has a responsibility to the truth. Because even though he has promised perpetuity to his church, that does not mean that individual churches won't fall into error as time goes on. As time goes on.

And so churches, even some churches that were started right, can end very very wrong. And so let us consider this and examine. Verses 18 through 20. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, what serve I have commanded you, and law I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

Amen." A lot of American churches have this problem that they won't just die out, they'll rust out. Up north, that happened a lot with vehicles. You get up there and they're sitting and the rust would get to them and they just... Gone. Church's command is to go.

This is not just a generic commission. This is a commission to His church. Take it personal. Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, this is your commission. Unity Baptist, this is your commission.

Study it, understand it, act on it. As mentioned a while ago about getting things out of order, The order is just as much of importance as what it says here. He doesn't say, go ye therefore, teach all nations, teach them to observe all things what sort of a commanded you and then baptize them that's not what he says but you hear some Baptists that's what they're doing right now all you want to join this church pass this test study this book learn this doctrine be a theologian. Get your doctorate. And then you can be a member here, but that's not what the Bible says.

Not at all. Better it is for the Lord's churches to wear out than to rust out. And let us be busy. Listen, we live in some perilous times, and I understand that the Lord may come back soon, and things are looking pretty bleak in this country and around this world. But don't use that as an excuse to not be busy about the business of following what the Lord has commanded us to do.

I look and see what's going on here and I see people, they say, well, signs of times the Lord's coming back. It's just the way it is and they don't do anything Imagine if you were back in the Middle Ages Persecution is hard coming against you because you're a Baptist. The only thing that you have done to upset the state authorities is you have refused to have your babies sprinkled, poured on, whatever, by the state church. You have refused to pay the tax into the State church. You have refused to go where they tell you to go.

And now your pastor's in jail, possibly dead, you don't know. Some of your neighbors have already been caught, and you might be next. You know what they called the Pope in those days, they called him the Antichrist. I believe there's a reason for that. But all the same, They kept right on serving the Lord.

They kept right on witnessing, preaching, baptizing, being obedient to the commission, Organizing churches. Sometimes, yeah, they were running for their lives, but that's what they were doing. They didn't say, well, time must be about up. I mean, I'm sure they might have thought that that might be the case, but they did. They knew that there's a possibility that it wasn't.

So the fact is, since we don't know, we just keep right on going every day, expecting the Lord to come back today but also understanding that he didn't tell us to stop when we think it's about time. Understand that he didn't tell us to quit when it looks like he's coming back today. What is our responsibility of the truth? Well, in 2nd Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 In 2 Timothy 3 verses 16 and 17, he says, He says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof. Sorry, let's start with verse 14.

I'm sorry. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. That from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise into salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." in 1st Timothy. And our text there in chapter 3, He says in verse 15, but if I tarry long, that thou mayst know how thou art to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

So we look at this and we say, all right, so what is our responsibility to the truth? Well, we have to determine what is the truth. Well, we find that in these epistles to Timothy, he is telling him that to continue in the things that he has learned. But where did he learn it from? Well, as a child he learned the Holy Scriptures.

All of them, all scripture, is given by inspiration of God. Profitable. If you tie that in with John 17, 17, Jesus said, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. This is what sets us apart. And so our responsibility as the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ is that we're to learn the truth and study it.

It's not just the preacher, but certainly the preacher needs to study the Scriptures. Shame on the preacher, whoever gets in the pulpit who doesn't study. But, study the Word of God. Everyone. Over in the book of Over in the book of 2 Timothy, there again, in chapter 2, verses 15 and 16, he says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

Well guess what folks, if it can be rightly divided, that means it can also be wrongly divided. And so we're told to study to show ourselves to prove done to God. They're working on it, need not to be shamed. But there again, not just the preachers. There's a passage over in Acts chapter 17, one that I have grown to love and appreciate very much over the past year.

But in Acts chapter 17, I should say over the past year especially, but look at what it says there in Acts 17 and verse 11 He says these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. Here's a group of believers who, Paul, as he wrote under the inspiration of spirit, he says about these Bereans, he said that they were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They were earnest seekers of the truth. First of all, you see there's two sides to this that we want to make sure we catch. And this is important for Unity Baptist and for Sovereign Grace Baptist and for any other church that's represented here today.

Because first of all, we find that they received the word with all readiness of mind. I'm telling you, these people were gobbling it up whenever they were hearing the Word of God preached, but they weren't merely going on the word of the preacher, were they? You see, they were hearing it, they were receiving it, but they themselves were also studying it and checking it out to be sure it was accurate, to make sure that it was being preached and taught correctly. They searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so. You know, There's a group of people in history Like any other group of people they had their faults But one thing that they did that I like the old Puritans they used to preach and then they would take the message and go home and they would meditate on it, they would consider it, they would discuss it through the week.

What happens here in America? In one ear, out the other. And sadly, one of the worst things is That if a preacher preaches error or heresy, too many in the pew wouldn't recognize it, even if he did it without trying to hide it. Brother Ross wrote in his book on the commentary on a Baptist exposition of the book of Acts, he said, time spent in earnest study of the scriptures is never wasted. If more Baptist church members followed the example of the Brayans, there wouldn't be so many churches compromising and departing from the faith once delivered unto the Saints." Appreciate the truth.

Study it. Preach it. Preach it. And anytime that you're up in the pulpit, in any capacity, preaching or teaching, Someone wants a question about it or whatever, a discussion about it, discuss it. Beware though of those preachers who don't ever want to discuss their messages.

But how do you get there? You got to learn it. You got to learn the truth and study. Don't ever get complacent. And sometimes in this country we get a good pastor And we kind of get lazy about it.

We can't. We can't. There might be something that I might say that I maybe haven't studied out or didn't realize or might have misspoke, I might be wrong somewhere. How will I know unless somebody talks to me about it? The same thing goes for any other preacher, any church.

And listen, we're churches. What are we doing? We get together, we talk about the ball game. I mean it's important that the Atlanta Braves won and all that. When we get together, we talk about the ballgame, we talk about the weather, we talk about work, we talk about everything, why aren't we talking about the Word of God?

We ought to be doing that, We ought to be. So learn the Word of God, study it, talk about it. We also want to make sure that it's been declared. 2 Timothy chapter 3 once again. And there's a division here.

Brother Chris talked about good divisions and bad divisions. Keep in mind that whenever the scriptures were put with chapters and verses, that was an inspiration. Right. And some of those divisions aren't very good. And so whenever you're reading, especially in the epistle, just remember that 2 Timothy, for instance, was a letter.

And It was intended to be read like you would read a regular letter, like a letter that might have come from Sister Becca only a lot longer. But just sit down and read it, and read it all the way through. So what's he saying here? So he says, verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine For reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works. I Charged thee therefore And check that out Just in case that you missed it, you start with chapter four and you get to that therefore.

You want to go back and see what it's there for. And so, what's he talking about? Well, he's telling Timothy to continue in those things that he had learned in the scriptures, being taught. Take those things and preach them. That's what he says here.

I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ Who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom preach the word be instant In season out of season Reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, shall be turned unto fables. We'll Watch thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's all profitable. Our Responsibility is to make sure that and to treat every scripture as something precious and profitable.

The truth of God's word is to be declared. We're commanded to preach the word. Who is commanded? Yeah, I mean, you can say, well, it's the preacher, but ultimately where does the preacher get his authority from? He gets it from the church.

You see, The world's idea of a good sermon is not the biblical definition of a good sermon. The world will say that a good sermon will make everybody feel all warm and fuzzy inside and all that sort of thing, tickle their ears, entertain their emotions. But the Bible's clear. A good sermon will often Comfort those who are troubled and trouble those who are comforted That's a fact we could get off and talk about different styles of preaching and all that sort of thing But let's get something straight. We're all men.

And my style is a little different than Peter's style, different than Craig's style, different than Chris's style, different than Paul Jackson's style. What's important is the Word of God being preached. Is the word of God being preached. Is the word of God being preached. That's what's important.

That's what's important. And the church is to ensure that. Oh, when you come to church, to the worship service, you ought to expect and demand that the word of God is being preached. Not just sometimes, but every time, every time. And I know y'all don't have a pastor yet, but when you do, give him time to study.

He needs time to study. I thank the Lord for this church. They give me time to study. And my family too, and all that. Even while you're without a pastor and you've got men filling in, give the men time to study.

They need it. A 30 minute sermon takes hours of preparation if it's done right. If it's done right. The church ought to want that. We've all been places, we've all heard sermons, but where the preacher didn't study, at best it's it's a Alka-seltzer type of a sermon.

You know, plop, plop, fizzle, fizzle, gone. You know, at worst it's full of heresy and error and it's all messed up because he didn't study. And we should want neither of those. Neither of those. We want the Word of God to be preached.

Over in Jude, verse 3. Jude, verse 3. Jude, verse 3. He says, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints." We are to earnestly, you are to earnestly, Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, Unity Baptist, you are to earnestly contend for the faith. Now keep in mind, There is a difference between contending for the faith and being contentious.

Oh, sometimes you go to these Bible conferences and somebody's always got some controversy to stir up and to get everybody all bent out of shape about, what are they doing? They're being contentious. We ought not to be that way. But when it comes to the truth, we ought to contend. To contend for the faith is to zealously defend it, to eagerly preserve it.

If the Lord's churches won't do it, then who will? I don't know what other churches will do. That's their business. But what will I do? What will this church do?

What will the church that you are a member of do? What will you do? At the end of the day, we give an account for our service to the Lord and how we've contended for the faith. It's not just going to be the pastors that have to give answer. It's not going to just be the men that wrote in the Baptist Examiner.

We all will. Give an account. And when we give an account, we won't have to answer about what Brother So-and-So is doing down in Florida, or up in North Carolina, or over in California, or down the street, will answer about what we've done. And by the way, they won't be the ones asking for the answer either. We will, some of the brethren like to pass judgment on what we do here and now, and perhaps even what we're doing today.

But that's in this life. That don't matter. What matters is where we stand when we go to the Lord. What he says and how will we know what he says we know because of the truth the truth Which brings me to my next point. Over in Proverbs chapter 23 and verse 23.

Your responsibility to the truth. My responsibility to the truth. In Proverbs 23 and verse 23, he says, By the truth and sell it not, also wisdom and instruction and understanding. By the truth, that implies there's a cost. There's a cost to serve in the Lord.

There's a cost to be in one of the Lord's churches. There's a cost. Everything that you do in the Lord's service, there's a cost. The truth is a jewel of such worth that it ought to be bought at any price." Here's the truth. But if I stand on this truth, I'm going to lose some friends.

That's okay. The truth. Here's the truth. If I go in, if I do this, I'm going to lose some family. That's okay.

I've got a brother that's, I've got one who sticks closer than a brother. Once you've got the truth, he says, buy the truth and sell it not. Don't sell out. Don't sell out. When I was a young preacher, every other preacher that's come before me has had a story to tell, so I'm going to tell a story.

When I was a very young preacher, my mentor was James Hobbs, my grandfather. And there was a, he had a Bible conference every year in April there at Kings Edition. And several preachers came. Not all the preachers agreed on everything. There were a few individuals who brought their pet doctrines with them.

And often times, when preachers bring their pet doctrines, they don't say them from the pulpit. Sometimes they will, but most usually it'll be off in that corner or over in that corner over here with that group or over here with this group okay and I remember a couple preachers brought a book. They said, hey, David, you really need to read this book. I think you'd like it. Have you ever studied this out?

I was about 16 or 17. I'd been preaching maybe about a year. I said, no, I've not seen that book. It's called Adultery in the Church. And what it was, was they gave me a copy of it.

I started reading it after the conference and comparing it with the Scriptures, and I realized this guy had an agenda. He was saying that if a preacher had been divorced and remarried, he wasn't qualified. And not only that, but this guy was writing and saying that if you've been divorced and remarried, you shouldn't even be a member of the church. And then he got into some craziness, and I mean even worse craziness than that. Talking about how they had to divorce the second wife and try to get back with the first wife.

And I don't know, as a teenager it made my head explode. My point is, My point is, don't sell out. At that young age, I was looking for old men to be around, to learn from, so that I could learn. But I realized at that point that there were some who were trying to get me to sell out. And some people will sell out.

They'll sell out for money. They'll sell out for power, for friendships. But we can't sell out for the truth. They followed up with me and asked me if I read the book. I said, yeah, I read the book.

They said, well, what did you think of it? I said, it's not worth the paper it's printed on. That's what I think of it. Amen. Amos 3-3 says, can two walk together except they be agreed?

We don't unionize with other people. We don't invite ministers of other denominations to come stand here. It's a strange sight to see a Baptist preacher arm-in-arm with a Presbyterian or a Methodist. Those things are foreign to the truth, but you know there's some folks that call themselves Baptists that aren't Baptist in practice. And even those Baptist churches that we fellowship with now, here's the deal, and this is where the rubber meets the road we love their fellowship we love their friendship but it can only stand as long as they're standing on the truth if they fall into errors heresy or error it's broken it's broken We're not saying anything about their salvation.

We're not saying anything about what they may have done in the past, but what we're saying is we disagree with the road that they have taken. We can't sell out. You can't sell out. Too much is at stake. Truth matters.

Truth matters. We can't play politics with it. We can't sell out. We've got to stick to the truth. Everything that we need, as Brother Craig said, it's in this book.

We don't need extra lists of bylaws and all that sort of thing. We don't need the opinions of other people. Look, I mean, we can appreciate them, but we have the Word of God. We have the Word of God. All confessions, creeds, writings, commentaries, and yes even opinions, They must submit to the word of God.

And that's where we're at. And that's where Unity Baptist must be as well. In Proverbs chapter 22, in Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 28. 28. Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set." The ancient landmarks.

There's a lot of different ways we can look at this. But think of it this way. The ancient landmarks are those truths which we have known and loved. And just like in our, down here in the south we got all these people wanting to destroy history and go through and tear down all the monuments and the things written in stone about our history of what's going on in this country. So it is with people who don't love the truth.

They'll go through and they'll plow down those things. Those landmarks, those ancient landmarks. Keep in mind, these ancient landmarks are precious not because they're ancient, because we recognize that there are some very old heresies out there. Some very old heresies. Armenianism goes all the way back to Adam and Eve.

Remember what they say? Hey, we got some leaves, let's cover ourselves up. God said, no, that's not good enough. So there are some very ancient heresies. They're not precious because they were put there by the fathers.

For we recognize that some who have gone before us have fallen into error. But rather we recognize these landmarks for the same reason that those who came before us recognize them, that these are landmarks of truth and they need to stay where they are. Things that we don't hear being preached very often, like Baptist Church organization and alien baptism and and things like that that you don't hear very much. Why is that? Somebody's not paying attention to the old landmarks Don't remove the truth the truth is there John chapter 4 we won't spend a lot of time on this one is already mentioned but in John chapter 4 very important Very important.

John chapter 4 verses 23 through 24. It says, But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshiper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Brother Peter knows how this is. He's been to a lot of churches. I've been to a lot of churches.

There are some subtle differences in the way that worship services are done from one church to another, even among our sound landmark Baptist churches in this country, and that's okay. As long as we stick within the limits of the scriptures. When we get outside of the limits of the scriptures, what do we have? We have donuts and coffee. We have entertainment.

We have all sorts of garbage that shouldn't be there. What is it that, why do we meet? Churches are to assemble. Why do we assemble? We assemble for worship.

How do we worship? And who do we worship? Well, we worship in spirit and in truth. We worship according to His Word. And the Holy Spirit will never ever ever lead anybody contrary to this word.

Never. Somebody says well I feel the leaning in spirit to do this or that and You look at the Bible and you say, wait a minute, one of the easiest examples is these women that get out there They say well, I've been called to preach the Spirit of God has called me. No ma'am Some other spirit called you but it wasn't the Holy Spirit And as we think about the truth, consider going to 1 Timothy chapter 3. You're with me to 1st Timothy chapter 3 1st Timothy chapter 3. Begin verse 1.

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 or 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 they 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 in the snare of the devil. What's our responsibility to the truth as churches? Unity Baptist, Sovereign Grace Baptist, every other Baptist church that is here, but you know we're about to organize a group into a church that y'all don't have a pastor yet. Somebody says, well, is that scriptural? I said, well, let me ask you this.

When your church, the church where you're at, before you became pastor, who was pastor? They tell me. I say, alright, was there a period of time when the church was without a pastor? They say, well yeah. Was that a church?

Did it stop being a church when it didn't have a pastor? Of course, the answer is no, it didn't stop being a church. Two or three is the requirement. But when a church seeks out a pastor, we have a list. We have qualifications that are listed.

Hear me now, there are some pastors out there who aren't qualified. How'd they get there? You ever go through the countryside you see a turtle upside down on the post. You say, how in the world did that turtle get there upside down on that post? Somebody put him there.

Somebody put him there, and that's how he got up there. There's some unqualified pastors out there, and they're there because somebody put them there. And when you go about and you ask churches what they're looking for in a pastor, a lot of times they come up with lists that aren't even anywhere near what's found here. Well, we're looking for someone who doesn't yell too much or someone who has this style of preaching, or that, wears a coat or tie, or has this type of an accent or that's what I mean these are qualifications that are listed start with these start here now there's a group of brethren I mentioned them before, they take their pet doctrine about divorce and remarriage and so they they go in here and they forget about every other qualification, and they go right there to husband and one wife, and that's all they talk about. That's all they talk about.

That's not talking about divorce or remarriage. But the problem is that because they take and they put so much emphasis on that, that then there's another group who takes this and they want to water it down. They say, well, these aren't qualifications. They're just recommendations. Understand folks, that when you start watering down this, or taking it out of context, what do you get?

Well, I believe the Bible's in an order for reason. And I believe that if you take it out of context, it's not, or water it down, either one, it's not too long until you have 2 Timothy 4 and verse 3. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They've got them a preacher that they've modeled after their own liking and not one according to the scriptures. Maybe he does fit in well with that group and that culture and whatever, but is he qualified, you see.

And by the way, the man that you've, on the other side of the coin, the man that you've disqualified is because you've not taken the scriptures and rightly divided it, you see. Seek out a pastor that is biblical. That's what I'm trying to say. A biblical pastor. One who will preach the truth.

When the church is the pillar and ground of the truth, you can go to church, come to the worship, hear the preaching, and not have that queasy feeling in your stomach when you walk in wondering what's going to be preached, or wondering what he's going to say next. You know what I'm talking about. You've been there. I've been there. There's some men.

You walk into the church building. You see his name on the program and you think, man, I don't know what he's going to say. In my younger days, I would sit right through it. Now that I'm getting older, I think I would get up and walk out and come back after he's done. But that's just me.

You do with it what you want. But by all means, don't call such a man as your pastor. You want one that's a good, solid, biblical pastor who will preach the word. In closing, John 17 and verse 17, We read it a while ago. Sanctify them through thy truth.

Thy word is truth. The Word of God is truth. You, Unity Baptists, need to be sure that everything in the church bends to the truth. Avoid the idea that the truth needs to be bent for everything else. Praise the Lord for unity, the word unity.

But understand unity, unity for the sake of, I mean unity at the expense of truth is not good unity. I liked what Brother Craig said, better to be divided by the truth than united in error. And that was one of Brother Reggie's sayings. And I wrote that down. It's good.

Praise the Lord for the truth. Praise the Lord for unity. The two go hand in hand. And whatever the future holds, those two will always go hand in hand. May God add the word, add the blessing to his word.