All right, it's good to see those of you who have stayed for the afternoon sessions. Continue our studies on biblical holiness for the 21st century. This is the textbook and we will have the video classes, the Lord willing, that will be edited after these meetings. And we've covered a little bit of ground this morning The next section in the textbook is there is no key. Fundamentals of holiness. Fundamentals of holiness. And we cover a lot of things in this section. Some of the major things that are covered in scriptures, what we've tried to do. And we begin by saying there is no one key to holiness. There are keys that are, there are many that present a key. They try to say, well, there's one thing, if you could do this one thing, Lewis Barry Schaeffer, we quote him here, said Romans 6, 1 through 10, is the foundation as well as the key to the possibility of a walk in the spirit, Lewis Barry Schaeffer. And well, that passage Romans 6 is very, very important. and a very fundamental passage on holiness, but it's not a key. And the reason we know it's not a key, there's not one key, and the reason we know that Is that there's many many things that are presented in the scripture even in romans There's romans 6 what about romans 7 and romans 8 and romans 12 romans 12 is magnificent And uh, and and then you've got ephesians 4 to 6 and colossians 3 and 4 and on and on if there were One thing you could get a hold of and have that holy victory Then that would be presented clearly in scripture as such And every time the apostles and prophets would be addressing a church that had problems, which all of them did, say the church at Corinth, it had some real issues. And then all Paul would have to say is, folks, this is what you need. Well, we don't see that anywhere, so that's wrong. We're just trying to get some things out of the way just a little bit. And I believe that section is important and helpful, but that's all we're going to say about it in the actual classes here as we're hitting the highlights. But what we want to deal with more thoroughly in this section is Acts chapter 2. Oh, if you did bring your Bibles. Acts chapter 2, I know a lot of it's in the notes, but in Acts chapter 2, we have salvation and a New Testament church. That's fundamental to holiness. Salvation and a New Testament church. What is a New Testament church? I've been trying to figure that out for 51 years, 51 years. Aaron, 51 years. When I was first saved, led to Christ by Pentecostal, I didn't know where to go to church. I've never seen him again. And so I started looking for churches and studying the Bible and trying to study the Bible and look at churches and find that New Testament church. And I'm still studying the Bible and wanting to know what is the New Testament church, better and better. We don't get anything instantly, nothing. Well, salvation is born again. That's an experience. But I'm talking about in the Christian life as far as growing and things. It's a matter of growing. And we're very clouded by tradition. Oh, my. It's very hard to read the Bible without reading it through the traditions that we've been taught and heard of it and been just around us. It's very hard. And I mean, it wasn't that long ago that I just really, really realized that the Bible commands the New Testament church to sing Psalms. Well, I've been reading those two passages in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 for 51 years, but it never struck me that we don't. We don't. And then I began to study that out, try to figure that out. Why don't we? Well, Baptists used to, Protestants used to, back in the 1800s and before that. But it was given up by the 20th century. But I read that passage, I've read that for 51 years and just kind of not even see it there. God commands us to sing Psalms. And so it's a matter of growing, But the New Testament church, I think that's the greatest need of the times. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 3, verse 15, that the church, the church, not that church, the whole world church, there is no such thing. Well, the church is in bad shape, yeah? Which one? The church is apostate, right? Which one? Our citizens. Thank the Lord. But so you can't talk about the Church of Canada and all that kind of stuff. That's way too vague. But there are churches. And it is called in First Timothy 315, a church that has pastors and deacons, the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Truth is what this world needs. Truth, truth. Well, where are we going to find truth? New Testament church. That's where it's supposed to be found. It is the pillar. holding up the ground, the foundation of the truth. It's a great, great need. Very few real New Testament churches today. I hear from people all the time, all the time. I would be willing to drive for an hour. And I know people don't do it. If I could go to a real biblical church, but there is not. And I recommend to them that they relocate. It's worth relocating for a New Testament church. We've got to have that for biblical holiness. We've got to. Without a strong church, you're going to be weak in your Christian life. You'll probably end up being confused by something that's wrong. You're not going to make the kind of spiritual progress you need to make. You're going to gradually backslide. You're going to be in danger from the world and false teachers more than you would be if you're in a good biblical New Testament church. After I was saved, I started looking for that, as I mentioned. And I didn't know where to go to church. So I started looking, and I found some Seventh-day Adventist materials. And I found a book called, oh, I can't even remember the name of it. But it was by a prominent Seventh-day Adventist teacher. And he was teaching, of course, Sabbath worship, Sabbath keeping, and he was teaching soul sleep. When you die, you don't go to heaven, you don't go to hell, you just sleep. And other things. Hell is just to be burned up. Other things. And I was confused by that. They seem to have scriptures that teach that. But they, of course, misuse them, but I didn't understand that. And then I was listening on the radio, and I heard Herbert W. Armstrong. worldwide Church of God in those days. And I wrote for his material, wrote for his material. And started, you know, just picking up little things here and there, but not understanding things properly. It was when I found a little New Testament church and God led me there. And there is no perfection in a New Testament church. We look for the best, we aim for it, but it's not there. You won't find perfection in the pastor or pastors. You won't find it in the pastor's wife, lo and behold. Nowhere. Where are you gonna find it? In Christ? But we see that even in the New Testament. We see those apostolic churches had some serious problems. And before all the apostles were even dead, Christ is writing to the seven churches in Asia, seven in the province of Asia that he selected. There were more churches than that. And some of them were really messed up. But you look for certain fundamentals. certain fundamental things that make up a New Testament. I believe we see it right here in Acts chapter two. And it's a summary passage, beautiful. God does this. He summarizes these huge things like the resurrection, Diwali resurrection, our charity. That's a huge thing. And he'll summarize these huge, eternal, infinite things in a few words, in a short passage. Only God can do that. Man can complicate things. That's easy. But God can summarize eternal, infinite things in a few words. And you can never get to the end of learning. Every time, I don't know how many times I've passed, I've studied and taught and built commentaries on this passage, but it's endless. Learn new things constantly. Acts chapter two verse, Well, we could start, but I don't really want to as far as reading, with Peter's sermon. This is the first church, Acts 2. So this is very important. When the Bible talks about something first, the first time, that's very important. But this is the first church. And so it's very important. It is an example for the whole church age. And especially if you put this church together with Acts chapter 13, with the church in Antioch, You have the two main aspects of a New Testament church, because this Acts 2 was not yet a missionary church. But Acts 13, that's where we come into full-blown Great Commission, through Antioch, going to the roots of the earth. But this is where it starts, this is where the New Testament church starts. What is the New Testament church? Well, David, go to Acts chapter 2, study that first church. Go to Acts 13, study that church, which which became the prominent thing. You don't read about Jerusalem hardly at all after that. Antioch and then to the ends of the earth through Paul's ministry. Magnificent. There it is. That's the New Testament church. And then the epistles, all the epistles. But here it is summarized. So I have here in the textbook some as just pulling them out of this passage. in Acts chapter 2, some very fundamental things about a New Testament church that we must have to have biblical holiness. We live in an unholy age where we're going to find holiness, New Testament church. Where we're going to find a model, New Testament church. And if it's not, it's not a New Testament church. Just because it calls itself a church. What? It was built on the preaching of Jesus Christ in the gospel. Look at verse 22, we started verse 22 just with a little portion of Paul's sermon that day, great sermon. Paul just messed up gloriously not long before that. Peter, I'm sorry, it was Peter. Messed up gloriously, just denied Christ, cursed and all that stuff. And here he is restored. The Spirit comes, the Spirit comes that day. And Paul preaches this amazing, magnificent sermon. He was just an old fisherman. Where did he get this wisdom? From the Spirit of God. But we begin in verse 22 to just take part of that sermon. Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders inside, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. Very bold. Very bold. These people have just crucified Christ recently. And Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God, ye have taken, ye have taken. And by wicked hands have crucified and slain, no beating around the bush there, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him I foresaw the Lord, always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, my tongue was glad, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy wrath to see corruption. And so he's quoting from David, he's quoting from the Psalms, he's quoting from the prophecy of the resurrection of Christ. And he's showing these Jews that this has been fulfilled in Jesus. What is he doing? He's preaching Jesus as the Messiah, the Lord, the Savior, everything. And so that's the preaching of Jesus Christ in the gospel, the death, burial, resurrection of Christ. First Corinthians 15, three and four is fundamental of fundamentals for a New Testament church. If it's not built on that, it's not built on that message, that doctrine. And of course, there's a lot there. The vicarious atonement of Christ, which is under great attack today. And all those points of the gospel, not only knowing them and understanding them and growing in them as a New Testament church. And by the way, that's what the old hymns really did. built up God's people. Our hymns, Pastor O'Shallow, and our hymns, most of our hymns in our typical hymn books only go back to the revivalist era, Fannie Crosby era. Fannie Crosby wrote some good hymns, but nothing like if you go on back to the first and second awakening, the depth to build up a church in the knowledge of the gospel. But not only the knowledge of the gospel, preaching of the gospel. A New Testament church is built on the preaching of the gospel. Nobody can be saved. The church starts dying as soon as the aggressive evangelism stops. I'm not talking about the nutty quick prayers and stuff. I read about a missionary. I was in a prayer letter this week, and it was a missionary in Mexico. And he went out for a campaign this summer. And they won $12,000, which is a lot, in just one few weeks. And then he and his family ran out one night. They decided to keep doing it. So he and his family, just one child and the two parents, they won $59,000 that night? No, that's nutty. Thank you. The question is, where are they? No, I'm not talking about that, but I'm talking about zeal. The Highland Parish Baptist Church, when I was there as a student at Tennessee Temple, in the 70s, it was the church of the green light. The green light. And it was about gospel preaching. Always green. They had a light there, a traffic light, you know, big, huge model of one, and it was always on green, which would be nice if you're driving. But it was talking about evangelism, always green. And they were doing everything possible to get out the gospel. And that's good, and that's right. And what's happened since then, we're talking about a long time since the early, since the mid 70s, is that that quick prayerism mostly has been given up. You know, the big numbers and stuff. But evangelism has been given up. As far as, I mean, really going after it and really trying to get all the people involved and really busy giving out the gospel all the time. That's a fundamental of a New Testament church. You give that up and you're gonna start to die. And you'll just end up with some old people. I don't have anything against old people. Don't get me wrong. I'll be 75 shortly, in a few weeks. So I don't have anything against old people. I don't want a church with a bunch of old people. No, sir. We want new families and young people and children and God will set and God will give that. If we sow the seed, God's going to give some fruit. I am sure of that. I don't care where you are. Maybe even Ontario. Ontario is a hard place. It's a hard hearted place. We know that. But if we sow, it's sowing. The farmer sows, and the more seed he sows, the more possibility of a crop. Fishing, evangelism likened to fishing, and the more hooks a fisherman has in the water, the more fish he might catch. It's not rocket science, but it's very important. Get that gospel out there. Get it out there in every way possible, all the time. Figure out new ways to do it. Figure out how to fine-tune things you are doing. Put a lot of attention in it. All right. It was built on the preaching of Jesus Christ in the gospel. Secondly, it had membership. Church had membership. There is some funny thinking about membership today on the part of many. But we see in Acts 2, verse 41 and 42, that after Peter preached this great sermon, and verse 40 says, with many other words, we don't have that whole sermon, many other words, but then in verse 41, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. They gladly received his word, were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls, that's membership, the commitment they made talks about membership. Membership is just a matter of practicality, really. You've got to know who's in the church and who's not for business. Can anybody just pop in and vote? Well, that'd be weird. And can anybody be under discipline? No. No, there's a practicality there. You don't spank other people's kids. You want to a lot of times, but you're not supposed to. No, no, it's a matter of practicality and it's here. They were added unto them. I've never understood the problem with that. But it had saved members. That's the third point. Saved members. The Regenerate Church membership, which is so strongly emphasized in the scripture, verse 41, didn't they? That gladly received his word, the gospel. Gladly. There was no arm twisting. No pressure, no salesmanship, psychological manipulation. They gladly received his word. They were baptized. Scriptural baptism. If we would compare scripture with scripture, we could see what scriptural baptism is. By immersion as a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Public testimony of your faith in Christ. And the same day, Now this happened in one day. So there is no progressive salvation here. Tony Campala, I got to interview Tony Campala one time at one of the conferences I attended with press credentials. Tony Campala, he was there, he had his rainbow scarf on. And that wasn't talking about Noah's rainbow, because his wife was big in the homosexual thing. But so Tony Campala, famous author and all that stuff. And he he was asked about his salvation in one of his books he writes about. He said, well, my mom always wanted me to have that born again experience, but I never had that. It's just kind of a gradual thing. Yeah, but that's not what we see here. The only way we can know what is true salvation is look in the Bible. and they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly. Which ones of them? All of them. They all had this clear evidence of salvation. Look at that. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. They love doctrine. That's the first really evidence of salvation is you love the Bible. That's what it's talking about. You love Bible teaching. You love it. You want it. You'll be there for it. Yeah. Doctrine. They continued. Steadfastly. Those two words are almost synonyms, but they're not. That word steadfast is even stronger. It's strong. Suddenly they had this commitment to these things. Doctrine. Fellowship. with the brethren, not fellowship in sports or whatever the world fellowships with, but fellowship in Christ and the Word of God, and breaking of bread, the Lord's Supper, and in prayers. These were praying people. There you go. That's salvation. That's what that is. That's evidence. that it's not a special kind of salvation. That is the only kind of salvation you see in the Bible, folks. There's no other kind. It's a born again, being changed, being converted supernaturally kind of salvation. Christianity has messed up and confused all of this. But that's not the standard. Christianity is not the standard. This is true Christianity. There is no other kind of true Christianity. If anything is contrary to this, it's wrong. It's wrong. And so the saved members, they were saved people. You could see it. You could see the change. And Baptists really strongly believed in that. The confessions that they had, Going back, their statement of faith that they had was very strong about that. The Somerset Confession of 1652, 1656. In admitting of members into the Church of Christ, it is the duty of the Church and ministers whom it concerns, in faithfulness to God, that they be careful to receive none, but such as do make forth evident demonstration of the new birth, and the work of faith with power." That they, what? Make forth evident demonstration of the new birth. That's what they look for. Evident demonstration. You can't save yourself. You cannot do. You cannot make yourself new. You can't burn yourself. It's a supernatural work of God. And if you come to Christ in repentance and faith, and he does that, and he will always do that, then there is going to be this change. And they look for it. The Charleston Summary of Church Discipline of 1774. These are Baptist churches. The temple of the Lord is not to be built with dead but living materials 1st Peter 2 5 living stones None are fit materials of a gospel church without having first experienced an entire change of nature Matthew 18 3 Be converted if their practice contradicts their profession they are not to be admitted to church membership and for which purpose candidates must come under examination before the church. If you're a candidate for membership, for baptism, you are to be to come before, to be examined before the church. And if it should happen that they do not give satisfaction, satisfaction of their new birth, they should be set aside until a more satisfactory profession is made. This is exactly what we do in our church work. And we will have them come. These are people we already know. These are not strangers off the street. These are people we've known and worked with and known. And they will come before baptism and give their testimonies before the leaders and the workers and their wives. And then if there's a question, things are not clear. And actually, if we don't have unanimity, we look for unanimity among the workers. And we will say, look, we don't think things are quite clear yet. And so let's keep, you know, let's have some special Bible studies here, whatever we need to do. We put it off. We do it kindly and we do it trying to not be, you know, hurt them in any way. But we want to have a regenerate church membership. Living stones, a spiritual body. First Peter 2.15, 2.5. A spiritual house made of living stones. Living stone is a strange deal. Have you ever seen a living stone? No, you haven't. Stones don't live. Stones are dead. Stones can be very pretty, like a ruby or whatever, but they're dead. There's nothing man can do to make a stone live. Nothing. No, but God can. And we're just dead as a stone before we're saved. just as dead as a stone, spiritually, and only God can make that stone live. And that's the only kind of members, people that should be members of a New Testament church. Got to be very careful about this. We're talking about saved members, which is what we see here. Saved members. Churches established by the American Baptist missionaries in the 1800s. I've read a lot about them. Missionaries overseas. And like China, 1877, a report from there said, 109 men and 60 women have renounced idolatry. Renounced idolatry, that's repentance. Have given evidence of faith in Christ. Evidence. And have been baptized into his name. Besides those received, a large number have been examined. who have been advised to wait, to wait, until they should obtain more definite knowledge of the truth, or until there is a more satisfactory proof of a change of heart. That was Old Baptist. And why was it Old Baptist? Because our principle is supposed to be that the Bible alone is the order of faith and practice. The sole basis for faith and practice, and that's what we see here. Salvation requires repentance, Acts 238. And Peter said unto them, repent. Of course, repentance is necessary. Jesus twice said, except you repent, you'll all likewise perish. Salvation is through Jesus Christ alone, Acts 238. In the name of Jesus Christ. Salvation is a gift, Acts 238. Ye shall receive a gift. Salvation requires understanding. With many other words, Acts 240, many other words. How many words does it take to be saved? Many as it takes. It can take days, it can take weeks, it can take months, it can take years. Salvation must be received. Acts 240, save yourselves from this total regeneration. Save yourself. There's something you've got to do. which is to repent and receive Christ in saving faith. Saved members. It had baptized members, number four. Then they gladly received his word were baptized, Acts 2.41. It had faithful growing members, Acts 2.42. Which members? All of them? Every single one of them. That's what we look for. We want to see an evidence of salvation. And that evidence will be growing. We know everybody doesn't grow at the same rate, we know that. But there's going to be some growing, some growing, some life there, some growing. When you hear the word, something's going to happen. Or else you're dead stone. You're still a dead stone. Growing, continuing. You see some zeal here on the part of these members of the first church. Not a bunch of deadheads. I talked to a young man on a trip in April, I think it was, in Georgia. Pastor's son. And I was talking to him, a teenager, about studying the Bible. I probe like that, dig around like that as I travel. Talked to Timothy about that. And I was trying to get him to really up his game about studying, because obviously he's not a Bible student at all. And so I was talking to him about effectual Bible student. That's a course I put together especially for teenagers to get them started. And I said, I'll give you that course. I'll give you the textbook. And I was just trying to push him as hard as I could, but there was nothing there. There was no response. I finally said to him, you're not interested in this, are you? He said, no, not really. Wow. That's scary. Yeah. You say you're saved and somebody's got to literally drag you along to get you to study the Bible, to have any interest in the Bible. You're not saved. Not according to this. Compare your life with this. You say, well, that's, you know, that was then that was something special. No, it's not. It's biblical Christianity. And I don't care how old you are. It's just going to be something new there. Faithful, growing members. And so this church. The first church. Could you be a member of that church? Could you be a member of that church? Well, we got the best crowd this afternoon. We got the ones that stayed. And for afternoon meetings. But could you be a member of that church? That New Testament church? Well, this is biblical Christianity. And if anything is different than this, it's not biblical Christianity. And for 51 years I've not wanted to be a part of something that's not biblical Christianity. I've not wanted to be. Churches that are New Testament, truly New Testament churches, and these are some fundamental things there. Not everything is fundamental. Aaron, but these things are really fundamental here. These are the things you see emphasized, emphasized, repeated in the scriptures. Oh, a New Testament church. It's life-changing. People can come to a New Testament church and find out how to be born again. I mean, hardly anybody out there knows the answer to that. You know, what is life? Where's God? How can I, you know, what's wrong with me? How can I be right? And all these questions. Who's got the answers? Only a New Testament church does really. And I'm saying if they don't, they're not a New Testament church. That's what we need. And families can come and learn how to be a biblical kind of family and get the husband right and get the wife right. And all these fundamental things, people don't even know what a man and woman is anymore. Get all these things settled and right. Clarify, we're a New Testament church. Young people can find God's will in a New Testament church. Children can be raised upright. Old people can be helped in a New Testament church. We need to keep serving the Lord and keep growing to the very end. And if you're sitting here this afternoon, then it's not come for you yet. No, it's just a blessing for everybody. God's got everything that every group of people, every age group, whatever, needs. And where do you find it? In the Bible. And where do you find it properly taught? In the New Testament church. How we need that. And that's the fundamental of learning holiness. Truly, it's a New Testament church.