Q & A - Contemporary Music

So he was a man, he's a man bought with a price, and so when he says go, you go. You know, I just said after I got saved and was in seminary, Lord, we'll go where you want us to go. And I said, Lord, I prefer an English-speaking country.

And so ideas and law and order aside, the Lord granted that very thing, so at least we didn't have to learn another language. So tonight I'll just have some questions, I'll make some comments. It's different than Sunday morning where you are just kind of sitting there not wanting to respond.

We have elders and two policemen, matter of fact, that can escort you out. When Steve Cooley comes in six weeks, we'll have three policemen here at the church who can escort you out if you interrupt the preaching of the Word.

But tonight I encourage that, but maybe you could just raise your hand. And some of you are saying, who are those three policemen? That's for me to know and for you to find out. The good news is we're not like Los Angeles, and I don't have the stature of John MacArthur.

For those of you that know John, they've just behind the pulpit, they've coated the pulpit on the inside with Kevlar. So if somebody comes rushing up to him to shoot him and he ducks, he'll be protected because otherwise he would just go right through the wood of the pulpit.

The elders several years ago gave John a bulletproof vest to wear because of all the death threats that he was getting. And John's exact quote was, The bulletproof vest stands as a mute testimony of my elder's love for me.

Standing in the closet, he's not wearing it when he's in person. Can you imagine somebody so mad at you that they would try to kill you? Sounds like what they did to Jesus. Sounds like what they did to John the Baptist.

Sounds like that's what they did to Peter. Paul, you go right on down the line. And sometimes I ask myself the question, why don't I get more death threats than what I do? I think I've only gotten one in my life, but why has it been only one?

The Hero of Exodus and God-Centered Bible Teaching

Alright, first question tonight, and this just stems from a Sunday school lesson today that the kids had. Question number one, Who is the hero of the Book of Exodus? Congregation? Just go ahead, you don't even have to raise your hand.

Who's the hero of the Book of Exodus? That's the answer to every Sunday school question? Yes, you kids come home and you say to them, What did you learn in Sunday school today, kids? Jesus. What else did you learn about?

God. Well, what in specific? And so what we've done at our Sunday schools here at the church, and if you're parents, you need to know that we're trying to have God-centered curriculum, so they're not just stories.

Children do not need Bible stories. They need Bible stories that teach what the text teaches. For instance, Exodus is a historical book, but more so it is a theological book. Certainly the history is true, I don't deny that.

But the writer of Exodus had an agenda, and what was that agenda? To exalt God's goodness and greatness as He rescues His people, foreshadowing how Christ rescued His people out of the slave pit of sin.

Here God rescues His people out of slavery from Egypt. And so the hero of the Old Testament is God. The hero of the Book of Daniel is God. It's not Daniel, even though Daniel is very righteous. I don't even think one sin is mentioned of Daniel.

And so today when I looked at my daughter's Sunday school curriculum, I'm so thankful that we have a curriculum that is going to preach about God and not just stories. If you're a Sunday school teacher and you just give the story of, this happens to be Exodus 1 and 2, Moses is put in the little basket.

That's the only other place, by the way, where the word ark is used. Noah's ark and the basket that Moses was in is the Hebrew word for ark. Put him in a basket and then you see how just by chance, just by luck, somebody came along.

Well, that's not true. And so look at the theme, and this is what you want to reinforce with your kids this week as they learn. God protects baby Moses. Sounds like from our sermon this morning, doesn't it?

One of the reasons why we don't need to worry is because of God's providential protection. And if you don't think that He's providentially protecting your life, it's great to read the Old Testament because you can see He obviously protects them.

Read Joseph in Genesis chapter 37 through 50. When you get done reading those chapters, you will say it is so obvious that what those men, his brothers, meant for evil, God meant for what? Good. It is obvious.

A child could see it. Well, why did God write that? Because sometimes in your own life, you can't tell from your perspective that this is working out for your good and for God's glory, but you know it is because you know it's the same God who's in Genesis 37 through 50, and you're the same God that you worship.

And so you want to make sure you turn every story into something that is theocentric, God-centered, or else you're shooting too low. Esther's not about Esther. I'm not even sure I want my daughters to grow up like Esther.

Ruth's not about Esther. Well, Ruth's not about Esther either, is it? Ruth, they're not the heroes or the heroines of the story. These are people that are just like you and just like me that God uses.

That's why I love biography so much, because I realize that God can use losers. God can use clay pots. God could use people like me. Can you imagine the God of the universe could use me? He could use you, and that's why I love reading the Old Testament, because Moses wasn't such a great guy.

And by the way, I'm most thrilled by the testimony of this phrase for God, the God of Jacob. Who would...that guy was a scoundrel. That guy was a scallywag. That guy, you know, he wasn't so good. I mean, I would have probably said the God of Moses because Moses had more, you know, positive things than not.

Or probably, you know what I would have said? The God of Enoch. We know he sinned, but he walked with God so closely, God just took him. Or the God of...who else would really be good? The God of Daniel.

We know he sinned, but not recorded. But here he's called the God of Jacob, and so we want to make sure we want God-centered curriculum. And parents, let me goad you into making sure you talk about what your kid learns at Sunday school, because our Sunday school teachers are not responsible for your children's theological education.

They're responsible for a part of it, but you are responsible for your kid's theological education. All right, questions about that? Who's the hero of the book of... Yeah, see, we know. All right, so that's number one.

Salvation by Grace Alone, Not Baptismal Regeneration

Number two, let's turn to Titus chapter three, if you would. Titus chapter three, and I want to... We were talking about this as elders tonight. We will get to the Christian music issue. Lord willing, I have it coming up next, unless God strikes me dead up here.

We're going to talk about it. It's been a week since we've tried. Titus chapter three, and I'm going to pose this question to you, the congregation, and then we'll look at the text. I met somebody once in the Midwest.

As a matter of fact, it was in Missouri, and I found out that they believe that you have to be baptized to go to heaven. So it was faith in Christ plus baptism. And I said to them, well, baptism seems to me to be a work.

Baptism seems to me of something that you have to do. Baptism is beyond the finished work of Christ at Calvary. What did Jesus say up on the cross? What? I am finished? No, he said it is finished. The work of salvation is done.

And so when you look at the Bible, you'll see words like made propitiation, not made possible, but made. You'll see words like he made reconciliation, not made possible, not waiting for your faith, but he made reconciliation.

He made redemption. They're all in the past tense that he did that at Calvary. And your baptism is not going to add to your salvation when Jesus said, it's all of me. It's all of God's grace. Salvation, Jonah chapter 2 says what?

It's from the Lord. It's of the Lord. So this person said, I believe baptism. Because, by the way, I was shocked. This person preached a verse-by-verse message through the book of James. I got on the telephone, and I said, we're visiting.

We're out of town. We're here with family. This was several years ago. And what book of the Bible is your pastor preaching through? That is the question to ask a local church for the first question. Because if they're not preaching through the book of the Bible, I think you need to find an expository preaching church.

You need to know all of what God says. It's just not the hot buttons of the pastor. They said, our pastor is preaching through the book of James. We're there. So we went. The guy preached through James.

It was a good message on trials in James chapter 1, verses 2 through 12. It was excellent. And afterwards, I was walking out, and I picked up a brochure, and it said, you have to be baptized to be saved.

Now, there's a lot of different definitions for baptism in terms of, is it water baptism after salvation? Is it Christ placing you into the body of Christ, immersing you into Christ? There's no water there.

That's something God did. But he meant, you have to be baptized. For those of you that don't know, there's a baptismal pool right under here. You've got to be baptized to be saved. The person said to me, yes, I believe that baptism is required, but it's not a work because somebody dunks you.

You don't dunk yourself. So you're not working. Friends, whether it's you not working or somebody else not working, salvation's all of grace, and I just want you to recall your mind to Titus chapter 3 so you can see this.

This is what we need. There's no other gospel. This is why it's called the good news. This is the kind of saving I need. This is the kind of saving you need. Or we could put it in the past tense for those of us who are saved.

Look down at verse 3. This is my testimony, by the way. If you want your testimony given, this is a good place to start. For we were also once foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

So just a state of unrighteousness. And Jesus said to the people on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, verse 20, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you're not going to heaven.

You find the most religious person you can. And unless your righteousness is more than that, you're not going to heaven. And the bad news is this is who we are. And then that wonderful word, verse 4, therefore, God disintegrated everyone.

And because of their sin, God let their foot slip in due time. What's the word? I mean, it's just the best. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, this epiphany, appeared means epiphany, Christ comes, He saved us.

I want you to see that language right there. He saved us. Is that active or passive for you English students? I hit the ball, the ball was hit by me. Which one's active and which one's passive? Verb. Not all at once.

Conjunction, junction, what's your function? Hooking up clauses and phrases. You remember those? We're aware of that generation. I hit the ball, I'm actively hitting. Here, God is the one who's active, and so we see Him being active.

He saved us. And in this particular case, if I was going to write this passively, I would say, and we have been saved by Him. But in this case, it's active, but He's the one active, it's not us. Did you notice?

It's not, when I accepted Jesus in my heart, the rest of everything started happening, and I allowed Him to save me. No, here, He saved us, and now how did He save us? Not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness.

Nothing we could do, our merits could not save, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration, people say, see, there's the water right there, baptism, and renewing, both regeneration and renewing are by the what?

The Holy Spirit. They're not by you. The Holy Spirit gives you new eyes, new heart, new mind to see the things of God. He makes you born again, so your affections have changed. That's all done by the work of God.

And He goes on further, verse 6, whom He poured out upon us richly through the only Savior that's out there, Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Jesus lives a perfect life, and when we believe in Him, God credits His perfect life to us, and then God credits our sinful life to Him, the great exchange is made, and all that, could you be involved in that at all?

How can we do that? How could you say, God, I'm going to force you to give me your Son's perfect righteousness and all His perfect deeds, and by the way, He gets all my sin. Only God can do that, and God is the one who has authorized that.

And then isn't this neat the way Paul says it to Titus? This is a trustworthy statement, and concerning these things, I want you to speak confidently. Why? What's the practical ramification to doctrine?

So that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men. So does baptism save? No, baptism doesn't save. Baptism is a response to salvation, and even if somebody dunks you or they don't dunk you, that's still considered what we call a work, something that's not of grace, something that's not of God's doing.

Questions about that? Church of Christ will say you have to be baptized to be saved. The Boston Church of Christ will especially say you have to be baptized to be saved. We just have to watch out for that, because you know what I think it does?

And I will stand up and defend against baptismal regeneration, because I think it demeans the cross of Christ. Jesus' death was not sufficient for you to get to heaven, so you have to add your two cents worth.

Christ's death did everything, and that's why the thief on the cross is there, because the thief wasn't baptized. Now the people will say, well, the thief wasn't baptized because Jesus was there, and it was a special dispensation and all that stuff.

We know it's the grace of God that saves us, and if my Presbyterian friends like R .C. Sproul are wrong, do you think R .C. Sproul will be in heaven? Do you think J. Gresham Machen will be in heaven? Do you think all the great Presbyterians of time past will be in heaven?

If you're wrong on baptism, it's a sin. If I'm teaching the wrong thing about baptism, it's sin, because anything I teach about the Bible that's wrong is what? Sin. I want to teach the right thing. But sin will keep you out of heaven, but baptism, the lack thereof, won't.

All sins keep you out of heaven, but if you're a Christian, all sins have been covered. So, it just bothers me because I want to say, here's the cross, and here's salvation, and don't go messing with the Lord and Savior and His cross.

And that's what baptism, in addition to belief, does for those who go around and say that. It's no different than the Jews back in those days saying you have to believe and you have to be what? Circumcised.

And Paul had some word for those in Galatians, and he said, you know, if you think that, you might as well go ahead and just castrate yourself. If you think just a little skin off will do it, just go ahead and take care of it all.

He was very forceful and very in their face because it's not a matter of removal of skin from the flesh, it's a matter of removal of sin from our hearts. We need divine operation on our hearts. That's what we need, and you can't do that.

And that's why people try, but they can't. That's why if I meet someone who says, I've accepted Jesus in my heart, and I've walked the aisle ten times, and I still cannot have victory over sin ever, and I'm still not a Christian, then I say to them, well, who holds your salvation in their hands?

The Lord does. Instead of you doing something, of course you're commanded to believe, but instead of you doing something, why don't we just cry out that the Lord would save us, save you, and I'll cry out with you that God would be merciful to save you.

Question. You know, I never really thought about that. Nobody in the Old Testament got baptized. That's a good question. Now let me ask this furthermore. How were people saved in the Old Testament? By faith alone.

That's exactly right. What they knew about God and how He had revealed Himself by faith in Him. It was not saved by trying to keep the law or anything else because nobody could. The law would show many things.

The law would show that they can't keep God's commandments and that they were sinful and needed His grace. The law would also show them that they were different from other pagan nations and other things, but people are saved.

And some dispensationalists, to their chagrin, I think, think there are two ways of salvation. Salvation is always by God's grace alone through faith alone. And either looking back to the cross of Christ or looking forward to the cross of Christ.

So it's always by Christ alone. Since Abraham's in heaven, his sins were paid for by Christ. It just happened to be in the future. As we look back, he looked ahead to what he knew about Him. I think people were redeemed in the Old Testament.

I don't call Old Testament saints Christians, but I call them redeemed. I call them regenerated. I call them, you know, in the house of God or true Israelites or whatever we want to call them. There's different names.

But you are always saved by the same faith in Christ alone. Nobody else. It's not some, I'm going to add Christ to my pantheon of gods, but it's Christ alone through faith alone. Not any kind of works, lest any one what?

Both, that's right. I'm sorry. Isn't that a good point for the tape and for everyone else? Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, he said, you know, here's some people I baptized, but I really wasn't going around baptizing a lot of people.

Can you imagine Paul? He wanted people to go to heaven. In Romans 9, he basically said, God, if it will save my countrymen, go ahead and damn me, curse me, send me to hell for their sake. Now, he knew that couldn't happen because it's not by proxy of a sinful person.

We are saved by proxy in the sense that you have Jesus Christ fully man and fully God. Because He's fully man, God will accept His sacrifice for us as our representative and fully God so it can apply to all those who would ever believe.

You've got to have a divine Christ so all those who look to Him can be saved. Because if I'm perfect, God will accept my sacrifice as perfect, but only mine. I can't say I'm taking Louis with me. I'm perfect.

Louis, you come with me. No, because I don't have enough righteousness to give to Louis. I just need my own to get into heaven where Christ, not only fully man, who could identify with the human race, but also fully divine so everyone who ever believes could be saved.

Christ's Preaching Authority and His Healing Ministry

Also, let's turn to Mark 1. Now, I'm thinking about it, and I'm not going to forget the Christian music one, but let's just go to Mark 1. We looked at this at our Bible study. Can you imagine? Here you've got Jesus, and He goes around in heels, and if Jesus knew...

Not Matthew 1. Let's go to Mark 1. Jesus, if He's out there saving, temporally, the lepers and people who are demon-possessed, why didn't He baptize? Why didn't He baptize in the baptism of John, even for salvation?

No, He didn't. And just to talk about Christ a little bit, I love to study His preaching. As one man said, Jesus is the only Son of God. God had only one Son, and He made Him a preacher. And that's what Jesus did.

Even though He did heal, even though He did cast out demons, His main thing was preaching. And so, if you look at Mark 1, verse 21, they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath day, He entered the synagogue and began to teach.

They were amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority, not as a scribe. What does that mean? He was competent, and He wasn't quoting other rabbis like they would quote. He didn't even have to quote the Old Testament, because as He spoke, it's God's Word.

So, He's not saying, like I say sometimes, if I really want to prove a point. Now, there's three different views on this. Now, to show credibility, congregation, let me show you the three views, and let me show you why I match up with the last view.

And this last view, did you know John Calvin had that view? Did you know John MacArthur had that view? And did you know James Montgomery Boyce had that view? And so, you all say, okay, there's some credibility to Mike, and it's just not Mike.

I mean, who's he? How many radio shows does Abendroth have? Yes. That's exactly right. I say. So, he's not quoting anybody. He's not saying, I'll tell you why you should believe. He's preaching and teaching with one having authority.

Very good point, Lewis. And now I know that you're Lewis. And you're Dave. So, in verse 23, there's an unclean spirit there, and a man crying out. I find this very interesting. Verse 24, what business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. And then he calls him something that Isaiah calls God over and over and over. I want to say 28 times, what does the demon call Jesus? The Holy One of God.

Not just someone who might be holy. Not a holy person. The Holy One of God. This is a demon knowing that Jesus is God. Jesus is God because He said He was God. Jesus is God because John called Him God.

Paul called Him God. He accepts divine worship. He forgives sins. He has divine attributes. And here, even the demons testify that He's God. Isn't that amazing? The Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him saying, be quiet, come out of him.

They're all amazed in verse 27. A new teaching. Okay, so the demon's out. Now 29. Immediately after, they came out of the synagogue. They came into the house of Simon and Andrew and James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever.

How'd that happen, by the way? I thought the Pope can't have a wife. And immediately they spoke to Jesus about her. And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she waited on Him.

The focus should be on the Lord's great grace, but when God graces you, how do you respond? Waiting on the Savior. What a neat picture. When evening came after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed.

You bet they would. And you would do it too. If you had somebody who was sick and Jesus is healing everybody of every condition, and they're not just coming with little crutches, and Jesus healing just kind of like orthopedic injuries.

Why is that when you see a healing crusade today? And everybody has orthopedic injuries, something that they can throw away after the false teacher has healed them. Why is that? Well, that's not how Jesus did it.

He healed people completely of everything, healed of diseases, cast out demons, not permitting them to speak. And now, what a great way to lose your ministry. Verse 35. How to lose your teaching, healing ministry 101, seemingly.

In the early morning when it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place and was praying there. Simon and his companions, what are some of your translations say? They're all going to be weak.

Go ahead and say it out loud. Searched. Searched, okay, good. Hunted, which one is hunted? New American Standard, hunted. The NAS update says searched. It's not good enough. It's hunted. It's tracking them down.

It's like the English bloodhounds out for the chase of the fox. They hunted, wouldn't you? Jesus is staying in your house. He's healing everyone. Now you wake up and there's more people at your door, presumably.

And you look around, and you're supposed to be kind of like the disciple. And now they're all there and you're just like doing the tap dance. You're doing the stall. Where's Jesus? So they go out and they're tracking him down.

And he didn't have a cell phone or a beeper or anything like that. He's out there praying. They've tracked him down. And they found him and they said, now this is too bad in the English when we just have, this is the way God wanted it, but I just cannot see them saying this.

Everyone's looking for you. Everyone's looking for you. Everyone's looking for you, Jesus. If you were there, you wouldn't be saying that. You can imagine hands on hip kind of the wag out like this with the finger.

Everyone with exasperation is looking for you. Now I don't know if they would spit like I just spit. That was like a first row spit right there. And Jesus said, okie dokie, it's time for a healing crusade and ministry.

This is amazing to me. It shows you that not only, Jesus healed people because he was compassionate. But you can be a healed leper and still go to hell, can't you? The ten that Jesus healed, nine went away, nobody came back except the one to thank.

I don't know if he was the only one that was saved. He was the only one that showed on the scriptural pages a fruit of salvation which is thankfulness. But you can heal somebody and they still don't necessarily go to heaven.

So he was more concerned about their eternal souls. And Jesus said to them, here's how you'll lose your ministry if you're a healing ministry. Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for.

And he went into their synagogues throughout all of Galilee preaching and casting out demons. Isn't that amazing? And by the way, I noticed nothing there about baptisms. Let's make sure you get baptized so you get to heaven.

He's preaching the kingdom, he's heralding the kingdom about repentance and salvation. It's God's grace, not law keeping. So I just love that about Christ. They wanted somebody to heal, and he did heal, but that's not his primary purpose.

It was to preach the gospel so the souls would be healed. All right, one more before we get into music. From the great preaching of Christ to the what planet am I on section of our time tonight. Again, if you're here visiting, we usually just go straight through a book verse by verse.

We're kind of jumping around a little bit. I want you as a congregation to have discernment. I want you when you read something in the newspaper to say, you know, these people might not be right. This is journalism.

This is not necessarily scripture. As a matter of fact, I picked a good journal, a good newspaper that you might think, oh yeah, that's just right up my right wing alley, or that's just right where I am philosophically with my politics.

Wall Street Journal. If you're a conservative or not conservative, I really don't care. I think our church would overall be very conservative politically, but I wish that wasn't always the case. I hope if a Democrat comes into this church, a liberal politician comes into this church, I pray that we really love them.

I do not want politics to divide issues with the church and to say, well, we're BBC for Republicans and there's BBCF down there for Democrats. No, and it's a little bit different because most Christians these days in New England happen to be conservative politically, but I never want to make that an issue and I'll do everything I can to kind of drive that out because you can be a Republican and go straight to hell, can't you?

It doesn't matter. You can be against abortion and still not go to heaven. You're not saved by being against abortion even though I'm glad people are against abortion. So anyway, all that to say, Wall Street Journal.

Now, here's going to be my test class. I'm going to read this and then you tell me if it's right or wrong and why biblically and what the Lord must be thinking about things like this. By the way, this is 31004.

I don't want to read the title because it would give it away of the article. For the first time in ten years, Mary Wilkinson went to church one Sunday in January. She sat in a back pew at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Stamford, Connecticut, only in New England, flipping through a prayer book and listening intently to the priest's sermon.

Priest or pastor. What drew Mrs. Wilkinson back into the fold was a new monthly program that the church introduced, Holy Communion for Pets. By the way, this is the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

Front page. That's why she started going to church again. As part of the service, the 59-year-old retired portfolio manager carried her 17-year-old cat to the altar, waited in line behind three panting dogs to receive the host, and had a special benediction performed for her cat, Purrbox Jr.

I like that the other parishioners are animal people, Mrs. Wilkinson said. Congregants at Temple Beth Shear Salome in Santa Monica, California, have an animal prayer sung to the tune of Sabbath Prayer, a song from Fiddler of the Roof.

May our God protect and defend you. May God always shield you from fleas. I am trying not to throw up. I have not. This is a quote. All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has doubled attendance at its Sunday evening service since it began last summer to invite pets once a month.

It wanted to attract people who walk their dogs on the church grounds. We call it evangelism, says Rector Sherrod Mallow. It's opening your doors to the different needs of the community. What do you think of that?

What do you think the Lord thinks of that? Yeah, for certain it is not worthy worship. And we are thankful for animals. I'm thankful for animals, aren't you? I'm thankful for companionship with dogs. I'm thankful that steaks taste real good.

I'm thankful for oxen that grind and crush things. I mean, I'm thankful for animals. And we ought to treat animals properly. As Proverbs says, a righteous man regards the life of his beast. And if you're a vegetarian, God bless you as well.

We welcome you to the church. So we like animals. But what a shame it is that you'll say, I'll do anything to get people in. And you know, it's just like this. Here's how evangelicals do it. We're taking a survey, and we'd like to know what's important for you at church.

Now, that's not necessarily wrong. But the reason why they do it most of the time are wrong because then they say, well, collect all these. Now we've got a little thing of all these people in our neighborhood.

Why don't the people in West Boylston go to church here? I'll tell you the reason why they don't go to church is because 80 of them are people who are grown-up Catholic. So how could we get them in?

Well, let's just turn our church into a Catholic church, and we can attract them. It has nothing to do with theology in the sense of, you know, is this Catholic or is this not? I mean, if we were in Utah, I'd say Mormonism.

The whole issue is how do you get them into church? Well, people really like pets in our area, so let's get the pet people in. No, we preach the Word of God, we proclaim His truth, and if people come, they do.

I'm glad when I got up here this morning, I looked around, and I go, you know, this church is pretty full. But that doesn't mean anything. That doesn't mean somehow, oh, you know, we're doing all the right things.

God blesses people in spite of what they do. And I think if you preach God's Word, people will come. I'm sure of that. But what if a bunch of people left, too? I preached the Bible from the same Bible, and a bunch of people left.

So it's not really, is it, you know God's blessing you if more people come. You know God is blessing you when you are obedient to the trust that He's given you, and that's why you see in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Paul, by the Word of God, saying, you men are entrusted with this, and you keep it.

And as you would desire the fidelity of your marital bonds, you want the fidelity and the integrity of the Scripture, and you men guard it. So the whole pet thing, I just about fell off my rocker. I first read it, and I wanted to throw up.

I'm used to reading it now, because I've used it for other illustrations, so I'm not really going to throw up now. But I think the Lord does, and I think, matter of fact, He said for the church, that would have been that kind of church, I spew you from my mouth.

I vomit that kind of church out. And for us, the only reason I think we are being blessed and have been blessed is because God has been gracious. We're not better, we're not, we don't have an eye on the truth, and nobody else knows, and you know the elders, we're just the best elders in the entire world, and we know, and everybody else can't figure it out.

Whatever we do know, it's because God has opened our minds to know. Alright, finally, contemporary Christian music. One of the reasons why I waited to do contemporary Christian music, because those who don't come on Sunday night, I'm not going to talk as much about the Bible with contemporary Christian music, and I wanted you to have the Bible open.

I think if you come, you need to be fed. This is a big issue. Two things split churches. Many things split churches, but two high up. Homeschooling, and contemporary Christian music. Two wonderful church splitters.

That doesn't mean in and of themselves homeschooling is bad, and it doesn't mean that contemporary Christian music is bad, but those are just flashpoints, they're hot buttons. By the way, who could define contemporary Christian music for me?

That may be part of the problem, but what is contemporary Christian music? Anything that's not in that hymnal? That's what some say. If it's not in the hymnal, it's no good. When we have a couple of horrible songs in that hymnal, written by Unitarians, one I don't like, one I do.