Amen. Well, good morning. I do love the sound of little children in the church. Beloved, that is the sound of Jesus keeping his promises to the church. We are so very thankful for that. The Ecclesia, the called out ones, the set apart ones. It is a blessing with you once again to be gathered under the banner of Christ and his word. Our thanks to Brady for leading us in worship this morning. Diana will be with us again next week as they're out of town. We're so sorry to not have them today. We look forward to their return. But such a blessing to have visiting with us, Dr. Jack Hughes and his wife Lisa, a dear brother and pastor of Anchor Bible Church in Louisville, a faithful expositor. So wonderful to have you guys here. Providentially, we actually have many families who are out this week for different reasons. So I pray our technology is working to deliver this word to the saints. Well, as most of you know by now, today's message is both a sorrowful one and a special one, as we pause from our journey through Mark's gospel to tend to matters concerning the very church for whom Christ died, the church that he loves, the church that he is jealous for, indeed for his very bride. Mike Stiles describes us the church as, quote, the God-ordained local assembly of believers who have committed themselves to each other. They gather regularly. They teach the word, celebrate communion and baptism, discipline their members, establish a biblical structure of leadership. they pray and give together. Certainly the church may do more than this, but it is never less than this." And just so, Harrison Hills is committed to being a faithful body of believers in Lanesville, Indiana. We are a body that is committed to the sufficiency of God's word for all matters of church life, of church polity, of doctrine, and of practice. to be sure we are a body of believers that wholeheartedly affirms the Baptist faith and message and all that it contains. Here this morning, we sadly stand on the precipice of a once great denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, that is irreparably succumbing to both the whims of culture and to the idol of pragmatism. While many have seen this oncoming train for a long time, Love hopes all things, it believes all things. And many held out hoping and believing the best for the Southern Baptist Convention that so many have loved for so long. We joined with the psalmist in singing how good and pleasant it is when the brethren dwell together in unity. But we also know that this unity is never at the expense of truth. Martin Luther famously said, quote, that it is better to be divided in truth than united in error. Beloved, you may be surprised to know that believers are not called upon or even able to create unity or to create fellowship. Rather, we are to maintain the fellowship that is created by the Holy Spirit through the truth. It sounds awkward to hear a Christian say that they do not seek unity, and by itself we don't. We seek truth. And now the unity of the spirit that we also enjoy as a result of that truth is the fruit and the outflowing thereof. True unity that is wrought of the spirit is a result of truth. Thus we must stand on truth. We must diligently, we must boldly, we must humbly reject error wherever it is found, and to the best of our discernment and ability. While this message concerning the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention pains me to bring to you, we are watchmen on the wall, and your pastor has a solemn charge to watch over that which the Lord has entrusted. While we mourn that there must be division within the body of Christ, Scripture shows us clearly that God has great purpose in exposing and in revealing division. Paul, writing to the church at Corinth that was suffering all manner of problems, wrote this in 1 Corinthians 11, 18-19, reading from the Amplified Bible. For in the first place, when you meet together in church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And in part, I believe it. For doubtless, there have to be factions among you. Why? So that those who are approved character may be clearly recognized among you. Not only is division within the body expected, as truth is contended for, but we see that it is most useful by the Lord in purifying and in clarifying his church. Truth divides. By nature, it is singular, and it stands opposed to all else. Well, that doesn't mean that one side has it all figured out. That doesn't mean that one side doesn't make mistakes, even grave mistakes and miss things. We never arrive on this side of eternity, beloved. We don't arrive. We are simply called to strive. And that won't be perfect. Thus, we walk in grace toward one another and toward those who seek fidelity to scripture. But sadly, the issues for which we are contending with the SBC are not matters of opinion or areas where scripture is unclear. They are abundantly clear. They are not disputable dispensations or matters of preference or style, old-fashioned or new-fashioned. They are becoming a matter of another gospel. And for this, we will contend. Jesus exhorted us in Matthew 7 that we shall know them by their fruits, speaking of false teachers and false doctrine. While we all saw very troubling signs all the way back to 2019 in the SBC and even earlier, by being patient and by waiting for the growing season to take hold, the fruit tree is now in full bloom and can be clearly seen. Before we dive in, I wish to briefly prefix my personal history, lest one think I do not have an affection for the Southern Baptist Convention. I was ordained as a Southern Baptist pastor in a Southern Baptist church. I obtained my Master's of Divinity from a Southern Baptist seminary. My mentors in ministry were Southern Baptist professors and Southern Baptist pastors. Short of ironing Albert Moeller's shirts on a Sunday, I came as committed to the Southern Baptist Convention as a pastor could be. I wholeheartedly affirm the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 and stand for everything that historic Baptists have stood for as an authentic expression of biblical historic Christianity. So this pains me having to bring these reports to the body. As with so many aspects of church life and history of denominationalism, as we will see, there is nothing new under the sun. Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a wonderful brother, wrote recently that as Christians, quote, we are called to share our faith, but we are also called to keep it. We are called to defend it, to borrow from the oath of allegiance from all enemies, foreign and domestic, from those that would attack the faith from far battlegrounds and lines, and from those who are very, very close to home. We are called to keep the faith, to defend the faith, Paul exhorted Timothy in our text for today, writing in his second letter to his young protégé in chapter 4, verse 7, an encouragement and really a reflection on his own life and ministry. Looking to 2 Timothy 4, verse 7, Paul writes this, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. Let's pray. Most merciful Heavenly Father, we are desperate for you and your spirit this morning. Lord, we crave your word as a dry and weary landlord where there is no truth. But Lord, you've given us a river. There is a river that runs through it, and it makes glad the city of God. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would attend to these words today. Holy Spirit, as always, we ask that the arrow would find its mark. In Jesus' mighty name. Well, if one were to visit Norwood Cemetery in England today, you'd notice a very unique burial marker there. It's rather large and imposing. And ensconced on the front of it is an open Bible, open to 2 Timothy 4, reading our very text today. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. This grave marker belongs to none other than the Lion of Winter, the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Many do not know that Spurgeon lived through one of the greatest denominational crises the Baptists have ever known. Again, I'm grateful to Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Seminary, for his work and writing here on what was known as the downgrade controversy. And I will quote heavily his work here, as I cannot describe this time in Baptist history any better in my own words. The year in view here was 1887. Spurgeon was in the winter of his life, and for more than three decades, he had enjoyed singular status as the world's most well-known preacher. But just over the horizon, storm clouds were gathering. This downgrade controversy began slowly at first, with three anonymous letters appearing in the March and the April and the June 1887 editions of The Sword and Trowel. The three letters, later revealed to be authored by one of Spurgeon's friends actually, warned of doctrinal slippage on a downhill slope, thus the word downgrade. While the anonymous letters drew interest, This controversy did not really explode until a few months later when Spurgeon directly entered the fray. In the August 1887 issue of the Sword and Trowel, Spurgeon threw down the gauntlet in his six-page editorial entitled, Another Word on the Downgrade. At that time, Spurgeon was less than five years from death. He was near the height of his popularity in the Baptist Union, indeed, across the oceans. But he was near the depth of his personal anguish. His physical ailments, like failing kidneys and chronic gout, they wracked his body, and depression plagued his soul. Simply put, he did not need, nor was he much poised for, the conflict he was about to enter, that of withdrawing the largest Baptist church in England. from the Union, and it would have dire consequences. Nevertheless, Spurgeon entered into his Westwood study with his fountain pen in hand, and he proceeded to join the battle himself by crafting for publication a six-page article that would explode in Baptist circles. Jason Allen actually owns the original manuscript in Spurgeon's own handwriting of this article. It's fascinating to see his edits and his thoughts there. But Allen correctly writes that it radiates the spirit of Paul and the urgency of keeping the faith. And the first paragraph of that article especially has really taken on immortality in Baptist life. In light of our own downgrade of the Southern Baptist Convention, listen to Spurgeon's own words as they ring timeless in 2022. He writes, quote, No lover of the gospel can conceal from himself the fact that the days are evil. We are willing to make a large discount from our apprehensions on the score of natural timidity, the caution of age, and the weakness produced by pain, but yet our solemn conviction is that things are much worse in many churches than they seem to be and are rapidly tending downward. Read those newspapers which represent the broad school of dissent and ask yourself, how much farther could they go? What doctrine remains to be abandoned? What other truth to be the object of contempt? A new religion has been initiated, which is no more Christianity than chalk is cheese. And this religion, being destitute of moral honesty, palms itself off as the old faith, with slight improvements, and on this plea usurps pulpits which were erected for gospel preaching. The atonement is scouted, the inspiration of scripture is derided, the Holy Spirit is degraded into an influence, and the punishment of sin is turned into fiction, and the resurrection into a myth. And yet these enemies of our faith expect us to call them brethren and maintain a confederacy with them. Spurgeon goes on, the case is mournful. Certain ministers are making infidels. Avowed atheists are not a tenth as dangerous as those preachers who scatter doubt and stab at faith. Germany was made unbelieving by her preachers, and England is following in her tracks, close quote. Allen goes on to write, most prophetically, Spurgeon argued true believers cannot be ministry affiliates with those who have compromised the faith. His words portend the schism to come. Spurgeon was a lone voice, but he was the loudest, and he was the most revered voice of all, calling for doctrinal fidelity over programmatic confederation. Spurgeon's article landed like a bombshell. It sent shockwaves throughout the Baptist Union and through British evangelicalism. It reverberated throughout the Protestant world. Of course, for decades, the press had attacked Spurgeon, but now he would be savaged by his own Baptist Union. Prior to the downgrade controversy, if the Baptist Union had a papacy, if it had a pope, Spurgeon would have been the unquestioned pope. But now his erstwhile brethren were brutalizing him. They charged him with pugilism, meaning he was a boxer, he was a fighter, a being schismatic. They even questioned his sanity with a whisper campaign that his physical maladies had made him mad. Graduates of Spurgeon's college turned on him, and the leaders of the Baptist Union excoriated him. Over the next two months, Spurgeon penned two more articles on the downgrade and the sword and trowel, Then on October 28, 1887, Spurgeon wrote the General Secretary of the Baptist Union, Samuel Harris Booth, to announce his withdrawal from the Baptist Union. Close quote. Surely the Baptists would rally to their leader in such a time. Surely his clarion call for doctrinal fidelity would be heeded. But no such thing happened. In fact, just the opposite. The Baptist Union voted to censor and to rebuke the Prince of Preachers by a vote of 2,000 to seven. Only seven people stood with Spurgeon in the face of a theological downgrade in their Baptist denomination. His own brother James voted against him. Truth is a lonely place. I seem to remember a song from the 1960s. One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do. Indeed, Beloved, I want you to know that I've spent much time in prayer, in thought, and in study of how to present this to the body. I want you to know that even as recently as last week, I have stood face to face with Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, seeking guidance and assurances. I sought to surround myself with a multitude of counselors at the very echelons of Baptist life, and yet remain convicted in the core of my being. I realize that our everyday Southern Baptist has very little knowledge of what goes on in their denomination. And this is not surprising, as the SBC claims 14 million on their rolls, with only 4 million that attend a Sunday service. That's 10 million supposed Southern Baptists on the rolls that are nowhere to be found this Sunday morning. Sadly, membership means very little to most in the SBC anymore. No membership means no accountability. No church discipline, answerable to no one. That's the spirit of our age. So goes the denomination. Ten million people this Sunday who wear the name of Baptist will not sit under the word. They will not be held to account. They will not be subject to church discipline if they were living in open sin. Beloved, Matthew 18 cannot be any clearer. If you have a church that does not practice church discipline, in order to lovingly restore a member to fellowship when in open sin, you do not have a church. It was famously said, quote, when discipline leaves the church, Jesus goes with it, close quote. And yet in the SBC, such a phenomenon is exceedingly rare. With 10 million supposed members out of fellowship, something is radically wrong. Yet within SBC life, as we look to the health and status of our local churches, church discipline, as one example, is rarely practiced, which is only added to the general, unbiblical, and unhealthy state of the average Southern Baptist church. Sadly, it goes much deeper than that. If one were raised in an SBC church, I can almost guarantee that you were taught the false doctrine of decisional regeneration. Which means that you raise a hand, you walk an aisle, you make a decision for Jesus, congratulations, you're saved. Easy-believism is a hallmark of SBC life. Of course, this does not mirror the regeneration of a person in scripture. And what is the fruit of that? The fruit is that many of those who made such confessions were never born again. And guess what you're left with? 10 million missing members. Things like easy believism and decisional regeneration led to another phenomenon of SBC life known as spontaneous baptisms. J.D. Greer, former president of the SBC in 2020, that Easter they ran a fill the tank campaign. And all the SBC churches would fill up their baptistries and hope to get someone who would spontaneously decide to be baptized so we can, quote, get our numbers up. No teaching on baptism, no confirmation of a person's testimony. If you watch some of these videos from these SBC churches, the person would come up to be baptized, and the individual would not even know their name. They would have to ask them their name before baptizing them. One SBC pastor I listened to speak about this phenomenon, called this type of spontaneous baptism and decisional regeneration, quote, religious abuse of the soul, close quote. And I am inclined to agree. The North American Missions Board of the SBC actively promotes this activity in their church plants, churning out false converts, having now been told by someone in spiritual authority that they are now saved, and off they go. Having never had their testimony challenged or examined, testing ourselves, as Paul says, to see whether we be in the faith. its spiritual abuse, and its damning. But that's what happens when, quote, getting the numbers up drives an organization, when pragmatism rules the roost. Beloved, we know that as a pastor, my congregation has certain expectations of me, of my character, of my reputation in the community. Character of leadership matters. And of course, we should hold no different standard for those who would lead the Southern Baptist Convention. J.D. Greer began his presidency of the SBC about four years ago when we first started to notice massive cracks in the foundation of the convention. Greer, as a president and as a pastor, actively championed social justice causes. He knowingly joined in a Black Lives Matter rally while president of the SBC. Black Lives Matter is an organization that has declared itself, in its own words, to be committed to the destruction of the nuclear family that is rooted and grounded in cultural Marxism and has brought out horrific racial division to our country. Fruit of that tree came during his presidency in 2019 at the SBC convention. As most of you know, it's here at these annual conventions that resolutions are proposed that guide and define the SBC, our goals, our directions, our positions, et cetera. Well, this year brought what was known as resolution number nine. Resolution number nine was written to address a hot-button issue of the day, that of critical race theory and intersectionality in SBC life. Some may not know what critical race theory, or CRT, is. Very quickly, CRT is a secular model or approach to basically breaking down and reshaping a society. It is rooted deeply in Marxist thought as it seeks to place everybody into a category, in this case, based on the color of your skin. CRT teaches that every person with white skin is inherently racist, no matter what they actually think or feel. They are defined by their skin color. By virtue of someone being white, they are a racist. Like Marxism, it categorized people into one of two groups. You are either the oppressed or you are the oppressor. Now, back when Karl Marx wrote this theory, he desired to pit the bourgeoisie against the proletariat, right? The rich against the poor. Those were the categories. The rich were the oppressors, the poor were the oppressed. Well, that didn't work out very well for different reasons, so instead of financial Marxism, we're going to try cultural Marxism. Don't separate them based on class. Separate them based on race and on skin color. It should be noted, I don't like to use the term race, as there's only one race, the human race. Still, CRT is a demonic doctrine straight from the pits of hell. Scripture tells us how we are separated. It is by our attitudes and by our actions. The only categories in scripture are lost and saved. That's it. To accuse all people of a certain skin color, that they are all racist, because of their skin color, there is nothing more racist than that. Racism is a sin from any corner. CRT is a demonic doctrine that has no place in the Christian life. However, in 2019, the SBC voted in Resolution 19, which stated that critical race theory was, quote, a helpful analytical tool for interpreting scripture, close quote. An absolutely hellish teaching that was and is tearing apart the very fabric of our society, that is unbiblical in every facet of its origination and assertion, that was the fuel and driver for our cities burning down in riots, was a helpful analytical tool for interpreting scripture. CRT and intersectionality is the root driver as well of the growth in transgenderism that we see as well today. The more seemingly oppressed the group you are a member of, the more power and standing you have. That's how it works. To be a minority skin color, for example, is to have one loop in the pole of intersectionality in CRT. If you're a woman oppressed, that's another loop. If you're a homosexual, another loop. or a transgender, another loop, and on and on it goes. And the more times that you intersect with the wall of a grieved or victim status, the more power you have. The more right you have to be heard and to dictate the direction of society. the more you can claim all the privileges of a victim status. It's a race for who can claim the most victimized place in society and to reap the rewards. So if you are a straight white male, for example, you are at the very bottom, and you are entitled to say nothing. If you are a transgender minority female, you would be at the top of the food chain. This philosophy, the SBC declared, was a good analytical tool to use in interpreting scripture. It was at this moment that we knew that forces had infiltrated the SBC that were going to lead her down a path few would come back from. It was at this moment that conservative churches around the nation sat up and took notice. As we saw the effects of it in our streets, and our cities were being destroyed with riots, and our colleges and businesses began creating new departments called diversity, equity, and inclusion. What exactly was going on? Now, just as some this morning might not have been familiar with what CRT was, perhaps those present at the convention were not completely up to speed either. And that could explain the passing of this unbiblical resolution by the SBC. I get that we're known for still having DHS tapes of veggie tales in our Sunday school rooms, right? We're not exactly on the leading edge of culture. So maybe it just took us Baptists some time to get up to speed. However, the next year's convention came and went, and the next year's came and went. The messengers had two years to educate themselves and to come back and repent of such a travesty, saying that we acted out of ignorance, we repent of it, that we reject Resolution 9 with the utmost prejudice. But that never came. No action to condemn Resolution 9 was ever brought. And all the while, the North American Mission Board, the domestic church planning wing of the SBC, includes many precepts of CRT into their church planning materials. This is the same NAM that was using our tithe dollars, our cooperative dollars, to pay its SBC church planners to come to the convention to vote for the liberal candidates for president. It would not be an exaggeration, beloved, to say that the worldly, the carnal, the pragmatic people that Nam is putting forth to lead these new plants, very few would be allowed into this pulpit if their doctrine and beliefs were examined. The next in line to benefit from the wokeism in the SBC was Ed Litton. Voted in president of the SBC next, defeating the conservative candidate Mike Stone. Of course, when you're elected president of the SBC, it's going to invite additional scrutiny of your life and of your ministry. Well, just such a thing happened with Ed Litton. It was first found that he had plagiarized, word for word, his entire sermon series on Romans from the previous president, J.D. Greer. Word for word, even making J.D.' 's stories about himself. He stole it lock, stock, and barrel. Every pastor looked on in shame as we realized that every one of us would have been kicked out of seminary in an instant for doing the very thing our SBC president had done. Shortly after being found out, his ministry quickly scrubbed over 140 sermons from their website, deleting them entirely. When rules apply to the commoner, but not to leadership, we have a word for that. It's called elitism. Of course, we see enough of that in politics. To see it in our own denomination is heartbreaking. If your pastor plagiarized a sermon, he should be fired, summarily fired. He lacks the integrity of the position. He's too important doing other things than to spend his time grappling and wrestling with the word of God and his study on behalf of his people. It's dishonest, it's unethical, and not just once, but again and again and again he did it. A pastor would and should be fired, yet we have elected him president of the SBC with no rebuke or correction, with no apology, no repentance to this day. Dr. Stephen Lawson once opined that a congregation will rise no higher than its pulpits. How then does a presidency like this spur on the thousands of small churches and pastors around the country? What does it tell them? The response from the pragmatists within the SBC ranks would be that it doesn't matter that he did that because he was busy building the kingdom. He was doing other things for the Lord and didn't have time to labor in the word. Every pastor should cringe. Sadly, the presidency of Ed Litton brought in more fruit from this tree that is now in full blossom. Most who are students of church history, if one has watched this history of Protestant denominations, we know that there has always been one leading issue that has led a denomination to depart from their scriptural mirrorings. One camel nose in the tent, as it were, that has led once faithful denominations to crumble under the weight of its culture. and we have watched them fall like dominoes. And that has been on the battlefield of complementarianism. Now, it's kind of a big word. Some may not be entirely familiar with it. Complementarianism is the teaching that masculinity and femininity are ordained by God. And in that beauty, and that when we embrace those roles, that men and women will complement or they will complete each other. To be a complementarian means that you believe that the gender roles that we find demonstrated in scripture are purposeful and meaningful distinctions, that when honored and practiced in the church and in the home, both are given the opportunity to flourish as God intended. when we defy the culture, and when we embrace the divinely ordained roles of men and women in both the home and the church, does not bring a burden of restriction, but in fact allows one's ministry to prosper and allows men and women to actually reach their God-given potential within the boundaries set by scripture. Of course, we see this model for us in the home in Ephesians 5, with the husband having the role of headship in his family that he's to care for and nurture his wife. He's to lead his family with humility and love. And the wife has the equally important role of nurturing her children and intentionally, willingly submitting to her husband's leadership. When God's order is in place, when both husband and wife are complementing and completing each other in this way, Christ is lifted up in that marriage. And in fact, the marriage itself becomes what it was designed to be, a living picture of Christ and the church. To that end, we also see in the complementarian view established all the way back to Genesis 1 as the foundation for the administration of the church as well. 1 Timothy 2 and 3, Titus 2. Biblically, the men in the church bear the responsibility to provide spiritual leadership and training to the body. The women are encouraged and exhorted to exercise their spiritual gifts in all ways allowed by scripture. But much to the gnashing of teeth, the only prohibition or restriction to those spiritual gifts is that women are not to teach or to assume authority over a man in the church. Of course, this command in scripture has come under severe attack in our modern age. It sounds sexist and misogynistic to the ears of the world. It's often claimed that Paul was merely writing as a product of his environment, that this was just a culture thing for Paul. However, Paul does not appeal to culture or environment for this exhortation and home and church order. He appeals to the very order of creation. to the sin of Eve. And thus the Baptist faith and message affirms this by stating clearly that the office of pastor is restricted to men only. This is historic Christianity. This is scriptural and should come as a shock to nobody. Upon being elected as president to the SBC, it was found that Edward Lytton would often co-preach sermons with his wife. In fact, the week before the SBC convention, she quipped from the pulpit that this would be the last sermon she would preach for a while. Ed Lytton, in his own words, said, quote, I'm going to lead the convention in a more inclusive view of complementarianism, close quote. Anyone who has watched denominational history knows exactly where this train was headed and how fast it usually gets there, as predictable as the sun rises in the east. Very quickly we began seeing, and already have been seeing, SBC church plants under NAM being led by husband-wife pastor teams. Many of the plants had women being given the title of pastor, and as soon as they were found out and they were called on it, you could watch their website being scrubbed and their titles being changed. Although some refused to do so, they still proudly advertise females in these roles with the full knowledge and acceptance of the SBC. Well, the issue finally came to a head at this year's convention. I know many conservative churches, including our own, viewed this convention as a do-or-die event. If the SBC were to be saved from its drift into theological liberalism and its plunge into pragmatism to grow the tent, this would be it. lying in the sand time, would the SBC stand on scripture concerning women's roles in the church? Would the SBC stand on its own Baptist faith and message? Many may not know who the largest, most prominent Southern Baptist church is, and you may be surprised to know that it's not in the South at all, actually, nor is it remotely Baptist at all. The most prominent Southern Baptist church, the eighth largest church in America, is Saddleback Church in California, led by Rick Warren. As a name many of you know, Rick Warren is, by scriptural standards, a false teacher. He's the author of The Purpose-Driven Life, who's been responsible through his principles of The Purpose-Driven Church for pouring cement into the deep end of Christianity for years. He teaches a ecumenical prosperity gospel that has yielded predictable fruit. He's known as the father of the emergent church movement. He has a decades-long documented history of heretical teaching, nothing short of giving the invocation at the presidential inauguration, praying to Isa of the Quran along with Jesus. Many messengers to the SBC had raised concerns about Saddleback's inclusion in the SBC for years. Well, just prior to this year's convention, Rick Warren took the unprecedented step of publicly ordaining three women to the role of pastor. At that same time period, he announced who his replacement at Saddleback Church would be, and you guessed it, a husband-wife pastor team. Now, because we have many solid, wonderful churches that have held on with the SBC, they called for Rick Warren and for Saddleback Church to be disfellowshipped and to be discharged from the Southern Baptist Convention. And a motion was made for this very thing. Here was the moment. What direction would the SBC go? The correct response to a church that is so blatantly and flagrantly disregarding the Baptist faith and message and deed of scripture should have been a public rebuke from the leadership, a call for repentance from the platform. What would the SBC do to one of the biggest churches and the biggest givers to the SBC in light of such a blatant violation? I'll tell you what they did. They formed a committee. whose charter function was to, quote, study what the word pastor actually means, close quote. To the great credit of Dr. Albert Moeller, he arose to the microphone at this year's convention, not as president of Southern Seminary, but as a messenger from his own church, because that's what it's all about, beloved, the local body. as one who actually helped draft and create and write the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, and boldly told the platform, boldly told the leadership, and I'm paraphrasing here, that if this is where we are at as a convention, that we will not even state or affirm what the word pastor means. We are done as a convention. If we need to form a committee to study the word pastor, what hope do we have? We all see and know where this is going. Rick Warren was not rebuked, censored, or disfellowshipped from the SBC that day. But in the sight of thousands, instead of being called to repentance, he was given a microphone and a platform to speak, to give his speech, and to rebuke the members and the messengers for squabbling over what he called secondary issues. It was a speech that was so filled with hubris and ego, it made any pastor blush. That day, Rick Warren, upon completing his speech, was not censured. He was given a standing ovation. Thousands of SBC messengers rose to their feet to applaud this false teacher. Pragmatism won the day. It won over the clear teaching of scripture. It won over their own Baptist faith and message. Announced at the same convention, the SBC announced their new campaign on abortion. The title and theme of it seemed to be pulled straight from a line given by Hillary Clinton in a presidential debate. The new theme for the SBC on the killing of the unborn, quote, make abortion unnecessary, close quote. Make it unnecessary. Can you imagine saying that about any other sin? Make rape unnecessary. Join us in making murder unnecessary. Of course, that sounds absurd, doesn't it? So how could the SBC make this their abortion motto? We can do so when we don't really believe that abortion is murder of a child. We do that when there are theological liberals, but we have to play toward the center so we don't lose conservative dollars. So we make abortion unnecessary. Understand, beloved, we are trying to fit an ocean into a 45-minute teacup. These are only some of the lowlights of recent events. Conservative pastors have been watching this type of activity out of the SBC for years now, but it has crossed lines that we can no longer abide. 1887, it was Spurgeon that was censured and rebuked. The Rick Warrens were still given a standing ovation. There's nothing new under the sun. but we are called to be faithful in the time in which we live and serve. When faced with being censured by the Baptist Union, Spurgeon said, quote, I am quite willing to be eaten of dogs for the next 50 years, but the more distant future shall vindicate me. Close quote. Indeed, Spurgeon has been vindicated. Jason Allen, writing again, he observes, quote, the British Baptist Union is a shadow of its former self. Doctrinal decay always brings dire consequences. The controversy cost Spurgeon dearly. It cost him his friendships. It cost him his reputation. Even, as we said, his own brother disowned his decision. But yet for Spurgeon to remain with the Baptist Union would be tantamount to theological treason. Less than five years later, Spurgeon would die. And there we now see, erected in Norwood Cemetery, the Marble Bible, open to 2 Timothy 4, verse 7. I have bought the good Bible. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. Indeed, Spurgeon kept the faith against the winds of culture. He boldly said, quote, I do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist, but if I am asked, what is my creed? I reply, it is Jesus Christ. That is my cry this morning. I do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist, and I shall never leave the title of Baptist, but the Baptist may leave me. What am I left with? I'm left with Christ. All of Christ. That is enough. Beloved, I want you to know how difficult of an address this is to bring to you. And it pains me to the very core of my being. For those of you who have been a Baptist their whole life, take heart. You're still a Baptist. No wayward denomination can take from you a set of beliefs and of history that are rooted and grounded in the inspired, all-sufficient, infallible, and errant Word of God. Do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist, but our creed must be Christ. We must keep the faith, once for all delivered to the saints. Beloved of Harrison Hills, it is my solemn recommendation, with the unanimous support of the leadership of this church, that this body cease our cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention. This is a sad day and one that we have hoped would not come. I know that many of you have questions about what this means and what this looks like going forward, even important questions like what this means for the missionaries that we now support through the SBC. Next week we'll have, after church, we'll be holding a church-wide Q&A session, both for members and non-members are welcome to attend, where you can bring any and all questions about the change and timelines, et cetera. So please make an effort to be there if you may. As this word settles into our spirit, let us close with prayer. Heavenly Father, you give grace for today. Lord, we have one desire this morning, and that is to be called faith. We have one desire, and that is to stand before you, Lord, at the bima seat, and have crowns to cast before you. Heavenly Fathers, we enter into a new season as Harrison Hills. We ask, Lord, that you would be with us. We ask that the joy of the Lord would be our strength and our song. We ask, Lord, that we would be a body defined as those who boldly stand for truth and speak it in love. We pray all of this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.