["Pomp and Circumstance"]
["Love Lifted Me"]
Turn to song 173, Love Lifted Me.
["Love Lifted Me"]
Song 173, let's sing it out on the first.
I will sing from deep this day, Far from the peaceful shore,
Very deeply staying with him, Singing to rise no more.
But the master of the sea, To rise fair and bright,
While the waters lift in him, They'll save their life.
Love lifted me, Love lifted me,
When nothing else could die, Love lifted me,
Love lifted me, Love lifted me,
When nothing else could bow, Love lifted me.
Sing it on the second.
All my hearts were in my head, Learn to be my queen,
In his classic presence lit, Every phrase a scene.
Love so mighty and so true, That it's his only song.
A faithful loving service to him, Belonged.
Love lifted me, Love lifted me,
When nothing else could help, Love lifted me,
Love lifted me, Love lifted me,
When nothing else could help, Love lifted me.
Souls in danger, look above, Jesus who pleads, he saves.
He will lift you by his love, Out of the angry graves.
He's the master of the sea, Villains who twill obey.
He, our Savior, wants to be, We save today.
Love lifted me, Love lifted me,
When nothing else could help, Love lifted me,
Love lifted me, Love lifted me,
When nothing else could help, Love lifted me.
Amen. All right. Well, let's begin the service with a word of prayer.
Let's bow our heads together. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for allowing us to be able to gather together.
We would bless this time that we have as we sing praises to you and as we have a time of preaching.
I pray that you would meet with us and bless this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right. Well, let's go ahead and take our song books and let's go to page number 136.
Page number 136. We'll sing, Master, the tempest is raging.
136. Sing it out on the first.
Master, the tempest is raging.
The billows are tossing high.
The sky is your shadow with gladness.
Your shelter of health is dying.
Heiress, how not that we perish?
How can so high a sleep?
The trouble so badly is wrecking
The grave in the angry heat.
The wind and the waves shall obey my will.
Please be still.
Whether the wrath of the storm tossing
Or demons or men or whatever it be
No water can swallow the shampoo of lies
The master of motion and earth and skies
They all shall sweetly obey my will.
Please be still. Please be still.
They all shall sweetly obey my will.
Please, please be still.
136. Sing it out on the second.
Master, where they wish your spirit
I'm now in my dream today.
The depths of my sabbath are troubled
Awaken and safe, I pray.
Torres of sin and of anguish
Sweet for my sinking soul
And I perish, I perish, dear Master
Awaken and take control
The wind and the waves shall obey my will
Please be still.
Whether the wrath of the storm tossing
Or demons or men or whatever it be
No water can swallow the shampoo of lies
The master of motion and earth and skies
They all shall sweetly obey my will
Please be still. Please be still.
They all shall sweetly obey my will
Please, please be still.
Master, the terror is over
The element sweetly rests
Sunning the cold wakeless mirror
And heaven within my breath
Linger, O blessed Redeemer
Leave me alone, O Lord
And her joy I shall make her rest farther
And rest on the distant shore
The wind and the waves shall obey my will
Please be still.
Whether the wrath of the storm tossing
Or demons or men or whatever it be
No water can swallow the shampoo of lies
The master of motion and earth and skies
They all shall sweetly obey my will
Please be still. Please be still.
They all shall sweetly obey my will
Please, please be still.
Amen. Good singing. Let's go over just some announcements real quickly.
Basically, what we need from you is if you had any salvations today,
we need you to fill out a communication card. In a moment, we're going to receive the offering.
You can drop this card in the offering plate and we need you to fill that out.
Is there anybody that had a salvation? You need a communication card. You don't have one. Raise your hand.
If you need a communication card, one of our ushers will get one.
Let's get all the communication cards out there.
And then maybe if we need some pens, I stop past Romero on the way out and grab the fuse.
I need to stop with that. I think that I'm taking that joke as far as it'll go.
All right. Does anybody need a pen? Do you need a pen?
Everybody have a pen? Okay. Make sure we want to get an accurate number of the salvations there.
So make sure you fill that out so you can drop it into the offering plate as it goes by.
This afternoon, laser tag at 5 p.m. for all the teams.
And you are meeting here. Is that correct, Brother Blati? You're meeting here at the church building, 5 p.m.
Now parents don't have to go. You're welcome to go, but you don't have to go.
So 5 p.m. here, laser tag, and they're going to be providing...
The church will be paying for the activity and for the food.
So the kids, they're going to have an In-N-Out Burger for the teen activities.
So I don't know who figured that out for them, but that was good.
So the rest of you just get pizza guys, but they get In-N-Out. So good.
All right. And then don't forget tomorrow morning service starts at 1030 a.m.
All right. The Sunday morning service starts at 1030 a.m.
There is a time of fellowship with coffee and donuts at 10 a.m.
10 a.m. to 1030 Sunday morning. So if you want to show up a little early, grab a cup of coffee, grab some donuts, and fellowship.
Service starts at 1030. Don't forget about that.
And then we have men's popcorn preaching. This is our Sunday night service.
So it's not like just a men's activity. It's our Sunday night service at 6 p.m.
Instead of having one preacher for an hour or whatever, we're going to have as many guys as we can.
We always have a great time with this on Sunday night, so make sure you're here for that.
And then on Sunday night after the service, we have Baskin-Robbins for everybody.
Baskin-Robbins ice cream. And if you haven't figured it out by now, we like to eat around here.
We eat a lot, and that's how we – we don't break – you know, we break ice cream and all sorts of things, bread, donuts, whatever.
And so we have a good time with that. So just make sure you plan on that.
1030 is the service, 10 a.m. coffee and donuts, and then 6 p.m. for the evening service.
And we'll have a great time with the guys preaching, and then we'll have some ice cream after the service.
Don't forget to turn in your salvations.
For the afternoon service, we have Brother Matthew Stuckey preaching for us, and he always does a great job, so I'm excited for him to come up.
Saturday was kind of a Verity day. You know, Brother – Pastor Thompson, of course, well, he just became Pastor Thompson.
I've been sure of foundations, but he's going to be part of the Verity family for the rest of his life, whether he likes it or not.
So – but – and then, of course, Brother Stuckey is on staff here, and he does a great job.
And be praying for the Stuckey family. They're actually moving in November to Manila, and they're going to be planting Verity Baptist Church Manila, Philippines.
So we're really excited about that, and be praying for them.
And then I just have one more quick announcement. This morning, I announced that we had 216 soul winners in the service.
And what I want you to know is that last year, we had 217 soul winners on Saturday morning.
So this morning, when they told me we had 216 soul winners, I was like, man, we're going to miss it by, you know, a couple of –
I was telling the guys, go out there and find some homeless guy, bring him in.
I'll offer him a doughnut and bring him in, you know, tell him, hey, we'll buy you lunch if you go soul winning or whatever.
And – but, you know, we have – hey, 216 is great, either way, and – but last year's record is 217.
But after I made the announcement, three people walked in for soul winners.
So we have 219, so praise the Lord for that.
We made it by the skin of our teeth, but 219 – that's a great number, 219 soul winners, so praise the Lord for that.
And thank for those three homeless people who decided to come.
We had legit soul winners. All right, so all right, well, let's take our song notes and go to page number 81.
Before we receive the offering, page number 81.
We'll sing When We See Christ as we prepare to receive the offering, 81, and let's go ahead and sing it out.
On the first of times the day seems long, our trials hard to bear.
We're tempted to complain, to murmur and despair.
The prize will soon appear to catch it right away.
All tears forever aware in God eternal name.
It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.
White clouds will swing so small when we see Christ.
What bliss of his grace all sorrow will erase.
So bravely run the race till we see Christ.
Page number 81, sing it out on the second.
Sometimes the shadows start with not a ray of light.
We're tossed and driven on the human help inside.
The fairest one in heaven who knows our deepest care.
Let Jesus solve her problems, just go to living prayer.
It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.
White clouds will sing so small when we see Christ.
What bliss of his grace all sorrow will erase.
So bravely run the race till we see Christ.
Sing it out on the last.
Life's day will soon be o'er.
All storms forever past will cross the great divide.
To glory's sake at last we'll share the joys of heaven.
The heart, the home, the crown, the tempter will be vanished.
We'll never be found.
It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.
White clouds will sing so small when we see Christ.
What bliss of his grace all sorrow will erase.
So bravely run the race till we see Christ.
Lord, I pray that you would even begin now to prepare the hearts of these dear people to receive your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity,
patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.
What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Now the first thing I want you to notice here is in verse number 10 where it says, thou
hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose.
What he's saying is, thou hast fully known my doctrine, thou hast fully known my manner
of life, thou hast fully known my purpose.
Everything he's going to list, he's saying you fully know this.
Now when you think about that, that's a pretty strong statement where he tells to Timothy,
you've fully known my doctrine.
He didn't have any skeletons, he was hiding in the closet, he wasn't being afraid about
who he was, he wasn't afraid to preach certain doctrines.
No Paul just told it like it was.
He just preached what the Bible said, people knew what he believed, he wasn't afraid, he
wasn't a coward, he wanted people to know what he actually believed and who he was and
what he was about.
Turn to Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians 6.
I think that we could all agree in this room that if you're thinking of like a model evangelist
that was out there, I think Paul the apostle was the great model we have in the Bible.
I mean he wrote half the New Testament, you look at his life and you know he was going
soul winning everywhere and he felt bad because he wanted to go soul winning at like a dozen
places at once.
I mean he wanted to go everywhere and he literally turned the world upside down.
And so a sermon on evangelism, you know, you look at Paul the apostle and he's a good guy
to look at.
Now Paul the apostle was a guy who was a hard worker and Paul the apostle was a guy who
worked to provide his own means, but you also see at times people did send him money sometimes
that were a blessing to him.
So Paul the apostle was a guy who turned the world upside down and he had people that were
praying for him, they cared for him, they loved him, and they sent him money.
And Paul realized that if people care about me and they love me and they send me money
and things like that, I need to keep them in the loop about what's going on.
You know there's a lot of evangelists, I use that word lightly, out on the field that the
old IFB has sent out and you know most of them don't really keep people up to date about
what's going on.
And I guess if you're never getting anyone saved it makes sense not to give a weekly
update with wow, you know we almost had someone walk the aisle today, they were this close,
we sung five stands of Just As I Am, they were this close to walking the aisle.
You know if you have nothing to say then I guess it's better to just keep your mouth
shut so maybe they're smarter than I'm giving them credit for.
But you know you need to keep people up to date about what's going on if you're out there
on the field.
I mean I don't care how trustworthy somebody is, if you're, I mean think if you're a boss
and you're paying somebody, you're going to expect them to have an accountability where
you know what's going on.
You don't check in 20 years later and then find out, oh wow, they didn't do anything
over the last 20 years.
You're going to check in and find out what's going on.
And so we see that in Ephesians chapter 6, look at what it says in verse 21.
But that ye also may know my affairs, Ephesians 6, 21, but that ye also may know my affairs
in how I do, take a kiss of beloved brethren, faithful minister in the Lord, shall make
known to you all things whom I have sent on you for the same purpose, that ye might know
our affairs and that ye might comfort your hearts.
Paul thought it was so important to keep people up to date with what was going on.
He actually sent his ticket kiss to update about how he was doing, the souls being saved,
the churches being started, the people joining church, getting baptized, I mean everything.
He sent somebody.
It's so easy in today's world just to send an email to all the churches that are supporting
you and let them know, hey, this is what happened last week.
We had 87 in attendance, we had this many soul winners, we had this many people saved.
Paul sends somebody to update.
So you know, if you're going to be an evangelist, you need to be able to update people and tell
them what's going on.
Now the name of this sermon is this, Attributes of a Trustworthy Evangelist.
Attributes of a Trustworthy Evangelist.
Turn back to 2 Timothy 3.
Not only do you need to update, but even more so, before you even go out on the field, it's
important that you're trustworthy.
It's important that if you're going to send money to somebody that you can actually count
that they'll get the job done.
And here's the truth.
I believe it's important to be dynamic and learn how to be good at preaching and things
like that.
It's something that I'm working on, trying to get better, but the truth is, more important
is somebody's character than how much of ability they have.
There's a lot of pastors from the old IFB that are pretty dynamic.
Very dynamic.
And they can preach a wowing sermon with no doctrine, and it will sound great.
But you know, it's more important that somebody has good character.
I mean, if we just wanted somebody who was dynamic, then you know, you could invite TD
Jakes.
I mean, he's dynamic, right?
I mean, he's a good speaker, right?
It's not—more important is your character.
More important is that you can actually trust that someone's actually doing the work and
believing the right things.
Character is more important than natural ability or how dynamic.
Now, before I get into the sermon, I just want to help explain to you—because some
of you are used to the old IFB.
You have a lot of experience.
You know, I got saved through the old IFB.
Someone who was an IFB got me saved.
Somebody I'm friends with still.
You know, he got me saved.
He taught me soul winning.
He taught me important key doctrines.
I was from the old IFB.
I've been independent fundamental Baptist for 14 years.
I remember when I first got saved, and then I realized, man, nobody believes in eternal
security.
And I realized, man, I'm a Baptist.
And then I remember when I heard a King James sermon that the person who led me to the Lord
gave me, and I listened to it, and I realized, man, I'm an independent fundamental Baptist.
And I'm never changing that.
I'm going to be an independent fundamental Baptist until the day I die.
Because they're the ones, even though they're going liberal, they're getting watered down,
they're the ones that have the right salvation.
They're the ones that are evangelizing the world.
It's nobody else.
It's not the non-denam.
It's the IFB.
I realized, so I have a lot of love for the old IFB.
I have pastors from the old IFB I still pray for.
I don't hate them, but I'm going to show a comparison between the old IFB, the way they
do things for evangelism, and the new IFB, the new model of what we should do.
Now, here's what the old IFB does to reach the world.
Because everybody could agree we want to reach the world with the Gospel.
The Bible says, go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
All the world.
You know, and the old IFB would agree with that.
We need to reach everybody with the Gospel.
Every country that we can get into.
Now, obviously there's countries right now that we cannot get into.
North Korea is probably not the best place to be called to be a missionary, right?
But you know, there's a lot of countries out there where there's an open door.
And we need to hit them while we can before we get kicked out, get down there, and a person
goes down there, and then churches get started from that.
You train the people that are locally from that area to start churches.
That's the model.
That's the goal.
And so the old IFB, they love missions.
If anybody's from the old IFB, you know that they love missions, they love missionaries.
And when a missionary walks into church, who's preaching for the church, who wants to get
supported, man, they pull out the red carpet.
That guy's like the greatest thing ever.
You know, they basically worship him.
And honestly, it's bad because, you know, if you're worshiped all the time, it's going
to get to your head.
You know?
But here's the thing.
The old IFB, they don't send people out from the local church usually.
They usually send people out from the Bible colleges.
Now, I would love to see that in the Bible.
If they could show that to me, I'm going to change my mind, but I've never seen it.
They send people out from the Bible college.
So basically, a guy goes to, let's say, you know, Hyles Anderson's the college I'm familiar
with.
From back east, that's where people went, right?
So somebody goes to Hyles Anderson, they're about to graduate, and before they graduate,
they realize they want to be a missionary.
They say, you know, I got the call, you know, and I'm going to go to Brazil to be a missionary.
Now, usually if somebody wants to go to Brazil to be a missionary, it means they probably
speak English and German, right?
Because usually they don't speak the language of the country they go to.
You know, I mean, because our God apparently is just not that intelligent, you know?
And this is the truth.
If I had to preach sermons in Tagalog, I would not go to the Philippines to be a missionary.
You know, and I know some Tagalog, I study it a lot, but, you know, if I had to preach
in another language, I don't think I could pick it up well enough where I would do an
adequate job.
I would stay here in America.
People go to a country where English, like in the Philippines, where they do speak English,
but usually they go to countries and they don't learn anything ahead of time.
They learn no words, they learn nothing about the language, and they get down there in language
school for a couple years and they know nothing about the language, so they can do jack squat
for a couple years.
Absolutely nothing.
And money's being poured down the drain.
So they come out of this Bible college, so you say, wait a minute, Brother Stuckey, so
you're saying these Bible colleges fully support them as missionaries?
No.
That's not what happens.
They go in something that's called deputation.
Okay?
Now, deputation is generally about a two-year process depending on where you go, whether
or not you need more or less money.
Now, basically, you email, like, a thousand different IFB churches across the country
and say, hey, you know, I was called to be a missionary, you know, to Portugal, or to
Brazil, and, you know, I want to set up appointments across the country.
I'd like to preach at your church, I'd like to be a blessing, show a slide show and everything
like that.
Basically, they want to come into your church and they're trying to sell you on a product.
They want you to trust them so you'll send them money.
That's their goal.
They want to wow you for those couple days so you're going to send them money.
Okay?
Now, I'm going to go through the problems in this along the sermon.
I'm just setting the groundwork because I know a lot of you are probably not that familiar
with this, you know?
And so, basically, they send all these emails, and all of our pastors, we get it all the
time of people that want to come in, and it's like, who are you?
It's like, I don't even know you.
We're going to let you come in and preach behind our, we don't even know who you are.
And then they want to come in and they want to preach behind the pulpit.
And so, basically, for around two years, they set up appointments around the country.
They go from place to place, and they'll preach a sermon, and they'll have a slide show of
starving kids, always starving kids.
And it's like, you know, people need the Lord.
I mean, is this not true?
Anyone who's old-eyed, anyone who's been to church like that, this is exactly true.
There's no exaggeration.
And they're trying to wow you on their product.
And if they can get a bunch of people to pledge support, then they'll go out to the
mission field after a couple years.
You know, God forbid that they would just go out there and, you know, work a job, you
know, instead of going around begging for, I mean, the homeless people do the same thing.
They're out there begging for money from us all the time, and then you've got these people
from these Bible colleges that are going around just like, you know, begging these pastors
to give them money.
And so that's what the Bible college does.
Now, here's what happens at the local church level.
Because most pastors in the old IFB, they love missionaries.
They do.
They worship them, they absolutely love missionaries.
There's a few reasons why.
Most pastors don't like preaching that much.
They love it when someone else comes in, they get to take a break.
That's the truth.
They love getting a break, and then somebody comes in.
And so at the local church level, they'll have missionaries come in a lot.
I remember there was a church that I would go to sometimes when I lived in West Virginia.
The weather was real bad where I would go, so sometimes there was too much snow, and
I went to a church that was like 45 minutes away every once in a while, like on a Wednesday
night, and the pastor was real good at preaching.
You know, not a surprise, but he didn't have a Bible college degree.
I think that was the secret.
But you know, unfortunately, quite often, there'd be a missionary that would come in.
And I'm like, not again.
And then I'd see this stupid presentation that was really boring and everything like
that.
But at the local church level, they have missionaries come in all the time, and we went to a church
in West Virginia that would have 80 people on a Sunday morning, 40 kids on the bus route,
and then 40 regular adults.
We supported around 50 missionaries.
You say, well, how does a church support 50 missionaries?
Well they give them like 50 cents a week.
They don't give them a lot of money.
That's why it's a two-year process.
Instead of finding someone who's trustworthy, we're going to send money to like lots of
different missionaries.
You say, well, why would they do that?
There's a few reasons.
One is tradition.
That's one reason.
Traditions are hard to kill.
But a bigger reason is pride.
Because what every IFB church in the old IFB, this is what they'll have, they're going to
have a map of the world, and they're going to have safety pins or flags on all these
different countries.
And it's like, look at us.
We support 50 missionaries.
We're reaching the world with the gospel.
Look, our movement through the internet is reaching more people in these countries than
these lazy, deadbeat missionaries are reaching that are out on the field.
That's the truth.
But it's an arrogant thing where they have this map on the wall, and they want to make
it look like they're reaching the world with the gospel.
Turn to Acts, chapter 5.
And being at an old IFB church, I would meet some of the missionaries, people that wanted
to get supported, and the pastor was a good guy.
I don't have anything against him.
I still pray for that church and everything.
But we convinced the pastor, we need to make sure that these guys are the real deal.
So if they're going to come in, then they better come soloing with us.
And we're going to see if they know what they're doing.
And if they don't know what they're doing, we're not giving them any money.
So we would take these future evangelists and missionaries out there soloing.
It was embarrassing.
Because we would be the silent partner at the first doors.
I remember there was about four of us, and we'd take turns, and we'd go out soloing,
and we'd always be the silent partner.
It was so embarrassing.
Have you ever been soloing with somebody who just does a really bad or embarrassing—I
mean, that's how it was every single time.
They'd just do a terrible job.
They'd come out—I remember one time this guy came out, and he didn't have his Bible,
and then the assistant pastor's like, I mean, don't you need your Bible?
He's like, no, you know, I think it works better without a Bible.
And it's just like, you know, what are you even going to say?
I mean, it's a joke, though, when you hear them.
And there's something else I'm going to mention later on called furlough, where basically
these pastors that have been out on the field, or these missionaries that have been out for
20 years, they'll come back to America and visit all the churches supporting them.
And so we'd have guys that were on furlough come, and we'd hear them, and it's just like,
this is the guy that we're supporting?
This is the one who's turning the world upside down?
I mean, the stories—I mean, I've got to make sure I don't go on too many rabbit trails.
But the first thing he mentioned in 2 Timothy 3, as you're in Acts 5, he says, thou hast
fully known my doctrine.
See, Paul was a trustworthy evangelist.
People knew what he was about.
He wanted people to know.
He didn't hide it.
He didn't cover it.
He let people know what he believed.
And you know what, if somebody's an evangelist, or starting a church plant, or a pastor, it's
not all about soul winning.
Another thing that's really important is that your doctrine spreads.
Doctrine is very important.
Look what it says in Acts 5, verse 27.
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked
them, saying, Did not we straightly command you that ye should not teach in this name?
And behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's
blood upon us.
And then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than
men.
They said, You filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.
I mean, isn't that the goal?
That we would fill Sacramento with our doctrine?
That we would fill Phoenix with our doctrine?
That we would fill the world with our doctrine?
Why?
Because doctrine matters.
It's very important.
It's very important, the doctrine of the Bible.
And here's the thing.
If somebody that you're going to support financially, isn't it important that they have the same
doctrine as you?
Isn't it important that you can trust their doctrine?
If you have never met someone, and they come in and preach, how do you know what they believe?
You don't know what they believe.
I mean, you have no idea what they believe on key doctrines.
It's impossible to know.
It's like, well, they come from an IFP church, they graduated from Hyles Anderson.
Hey, that means nothing.
That just means you're more likely to be a pedophile, probably.
I mean, you don't know what they believe.
They just come in here.
If a random person is coming in here and preaching, you have no idea what their doctrine
is.
Turn to Acts 20.
You say, why does doctrine matter so much?
You know why doctrine matters?
Because it's going to change your life.
Your standards, your doctrine, the preaching, that is going to change your life.
It's weird how this works, but people kind of have this idea on the mission field that,
forget about doctrine.
It's all about soul winning.
No, doctrine matters there, too.
People need to learn doctrine there to fix their lives.
People need doctrine to fix their marriages, to become better husbands, better fathers,
to understand doctrine.
Because you know what?
There's always going to be some smooth talker coming in and bringing in false doctrine.
It will always happen.
You just write it down.
And you know what?
Here's the thing.
You hear this sort of preaching all week, and until you actually see it, you do not
believe it.
And I can't remember which person was preaching earlier on, but this is very important.
You know what?
Here's the thing.
People come in here and bring false doctrine, and they're going to question things about
the King James Bible.
You know what they're not going to do?
They're not going to mention it to Pastor Minnis.
They're not going to mention it to me.
They're going to mention it to someone they think they can trick.
That's how they operate.
They're in sheep's clothing.
They're not going to go to someone who's going to shut them down.
They're going to go to someone they think that they can deceive.
Bad people come in here, you say, does that happen often?
It happens all the time.
It happens in any of our churches of decent size, I guarantee you.
There's somebody in that church that's trying to cause problems, because God says they're
going to be among you.
They're going to come in here and bring false doctrine, and it's important for all of us
to read this book and know what we believe and why we believe it.
It's weird to me how people say they believe in the reprobate doctrine, but they don't
believe unless someone's a sodomite.
I mean, somebody gets thrown out of a church, and everyone's like, oh, I think you should
be more long-suffering.
It's like, do you realize how long-suffering Pastor Romero was with that goon that just
got thrown out of that church?
I mean, you weren't around four years ago.
I mean, people have been very long-suffering, but people don't know the facts.
And then they just come against the pastor, and it's like, are you kidding me?
And it's like, people do not believe in the reprobate doctrine unless someone just openly
says they're a sodomite.
It's weird.
There's other bad people that are coming in, trying to deceive you, trying to trick you,
and church members need to be aware of it.
Why?
Because when you spot it, you need to tell your pastor.
When you spot it, you need to tell the church leaders so they're aware of what's happening.
Otherwise they're going to keep coming around and confusing a lot of people.
You say, well, they're not going to confuse me, but they're going to confuse someone who's
new.
They're going to confuse a baby Christian.
We were all baby Christians at one time.
I'll tell you, the first few years I was saved, man, I was bound to and fro, because I was
listening to a lot of IFB preaching, but I wasn't solid in what I believed.
I was bouncing back and forth on some topics, because I was a baby Christian.
And look, bad people come in and they try to deceive the baby Christians.
There's nothing wrong with being a baby Christian.
We all start there.
But the goal is for you to read the Bible and grow past that point.
So it's very important that you know your doctrine, that you know what you believe and
why you believe.
And if anything's taught us something over the last few years, you should not just trust
someone just because they're well-known in this movement.
Because bad people are going to creep into this movement as well.
I mean, if you hear a sermon, what do you do?
You be like the Bereans.
You search it to see whether it's true.
You read your Bible so you know what you believe, because you know what?
Bad people are going to try to deceive you, and you need to be ready for it.
Turn to Acts 20.
Are you in Acts 20 now?
This is what it says in Acts 20, verse 26.
Paul said, I've declared unto you all the counsel of God.
He didn't have some skeleton he was hiding.
He wasn't just vague about what he believed.
No, he just told people.
He said, this is what I believe, this is why I believe it, and he wanted people to know.
Turn to 2 John.
Second John.
And that is a big problem with the old IFB.
They're very vague with what they believe.
I remember I had a pastor a long time ago, a Hyles Anderson grad, and I was talking to
him about clothing standards with women, and I said, you know, I know this is a very sensitive
subject.
I was like, how do you approach that?
I was like, because you know, we're at a college campus.
I was like, this seems very extreme to the average person.
How do you approach this?
And he said what he's learned is, you know, it's better just not to preach about it.
And he said, basically, you know, over time, they're going to start to see how you dress,
and they're going to come to you and ask questions, and he said he's only mentioned it once in
five years behind the pulpit.
They don't preach doctrine at most of these churches.
They're just devoid of doctrine.
It's like, you know, people can take hard preaching, and hard preaching, it will change
people's lives.
Look, I remember when I used to listen to worldly music.
You know what fixed that?
Hard preaching against worldly music.
It's like, oh, he couldn't take it.
No, I needed to hear that.
And if people are wrong on something, they need to hear it.
Now, I'm not talking about going outside the pulpit and being a jerk.
I'm not talking about that.
But I'm saying, behind this pulpit, we're supposed to preach the whole counsel of God.
And Paul preached the whole counsel of God.
He was a very trustworthy evangelist, because people knew what he believed.
It's not like they were like, I wonder what he believes about this.
No, I mean, Paul just told people what he believed.
Now, let me say this, that I don't think that Timothy knew every single verse like Paul's
interpretation of it.
You see, there could be two pastors in our movement who both believe in the reprobate
doctrine just as strongly as one another.
But one might look at a verse and say, well, you know, I think this is just talking about
unbelievers.
And another person might look at it and say, well, I think this is talking about reprobates.
They have the same doctrine, they just have a different interpretation.
Within our movement, all the pastors have a different opinion on certain things.
You know, they're not 100% on every single thing.
Now, 90-whatever percent they are.
But they still have the same doctrine.
Do you see what I'm saying?
You can have the same doctrine, but still, every once in a while, there might be a verse
where you have a different interpretation.
Now, in 2 John 1, verse 10, this is what it says.
If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him Godspeed.
And so, in 2 John 1, 10, it says, you're not supposed to bring someone in who has false
doctrine into your house.
Now, I've heard certain people say that, well, this is not talking about your literal home,
it's talking about the house of God.
I strongly disagree with that.
And here's the reason why.
When do people bring you false doctrine?
At your door.
You know, we went out soul-winning today, and there was a Seventh-day Adventist invitation.
You know, false doctrine that they're spreading.
Jehovah's Witnesses have knocked on my doors plenty of times.
The Mormons, we see them out there on their bikes, right?
We see those 18-year-old elders out there, right?
I mean, they're bringing false doctrine to the door.
You're not supposed to let them in your house.
Why don't I want some Mormon coming into my house preaching to me?
Because I don't want to hear it.
I don't want my wife to hear it.
I don't want my son to hear it.
I don't want the three of us to hear false doctrine.
Even though this is talking about your literal home, but how much more the house of God,
though?
If I don't want three people to hear the Mormons talk about their garbage, why would we want
200 people to hear what the Mormons have to say?
And does that make any sense?
And so here's the thing.
These churches that are just letting random people come into their church that they do
not know, what if they're preaching a false doctrine?
What if you don't know what they believe?
Why would you let them in your pulpit when you do not know what their doctrine is?
I mean, that's ridiculous.
And I want to just cover a few basic doctrines.
Man, I'm at 25 minutes.
I'm on my first point out of eight.
This is the quickest point, or longest point, but...
But anyways, let's just look at some basic topics.
Because I think we could agree that every IFB person is going to say that they believe
salvation is by grace through faith, they believe in the King James Bible, and they
want to reach the world with the Gospel.
Those three things, right?
All of us would say we believe the same thing.
So let's think about this.
This salvation by grace through faith.
Okay, do all the IFB churches out there, do they really believe salvation is by grace
through faith?
No, not at all.
There's plenty of them that don't at all.
Does Keith Gomez believe salvation is by grace through faith?
Not at all.
He believes in a hard, he has always believed in a hardcore work of salvation.
He's always believed in this very heavy repentance, he was like the leader of this repentance
of sins garbage.
And you know, these people, they preach, a lot of them preach a false doctrine of repentance
of sins.
And he comes in here and says, man, I want to preach at your church, and it's like, I
believe salvation is by grace through faith.
It's like, well, great, what does that mean?
And you know what they're going to do?
They're going to be very vague on this repentance topic.
They're not going to be very clear with what they believe.
Why?
Because they're a salesman.
And they don't want to lose a sale.
And you know, if you're just vague on this topic, you're like, oh, okay, that's fine,
come in here and preach, you know, we believe the same thing.
It's not a matter of semantics.
Repentance of sins is work salvation.
And I'll tell you what, there's so many people out there that would get saved if somebody
would just show them what the Bible says about that the repentance of sins is work
salvation.
So I don't care what Bible college you went to.
You know, most, a lot of them, they believe in repentance of sins for salvation.
They believe in work salvation.
And if some of them are confused on the topic, look, if you're confused about how to explain
salvation, I'm still not going to give you money to explain to other people how to get
to heaven.
Yeah, I get it, some people are confused out there, but you know what, if they're confused
on the topic, why would we, how can you get somebody saved if you don't even know what
to explain?
They don't even know what you believe yourself.
I mean, it's ridiculous.
So just because they believe salvation is by grace through faith, that doesn't mean
that they do.
What about the King James Bible?
I mean, all these old I.P.s, they'll say they believe that they're King James only.
They believe in the King James Bible.
Well, you know what, being King James only means so many different things to so many
different people.
Okay?
And I'm going to tell you what I mean, because here's the thing, Sam Giff is not King James
only.
Not by my definition.
Peter Ruckman was not King James only.
Those Ruckmanites, they are not King James only.
You know why?
They think you can get saved from modern versions of the Bible.
They think you can get saved from the Romans Road and the NIV.
And I'll tell you what, I'm going to park it here for a second, because I've noticed
that I believe the King James Bible is going to be a fight in our movement at one point.
I believe that.
And I've noticed this, when we put clips on YouTube, and you say you cannot get saved
through a modern version of the Bible, I've been called a heretic, and I went to their
channel and they listened to all the sermons.
And I'm just like, are you kidding me?
It's like the Bible says, being born again not of corrupt will see, but of incorruptible
by the word of God which liveth and bideth forever.
I've heard people say that you don't even need the word of God to lead someone to the
Lord.
Just your testimony.
Well, why does the Bible say in the soul-winning parable, the sower soweth the word?
You need the word of God to get somebody saved.
And in our language, guess what that is?
That's the King James Bible.
And I'll tell you what, do you really think that most of these people graduating from
Bible college, do you think they believe that?
No.
Most of them don't.
Most of them do not think.
Why would you give money to someone who doesn't think you need the word of God to lead someone
to the Lord?
Why would you give money to someone who says, well, you can use the NIV?
It's not as good.
I get the King James is perfect, but the NIV's not that bad, is it?
That's what we have out there.
I mean, this is reality.
This is the old IFB.
They've become something so much different than what they once were.
They've changed a lot.
I've only been IFB for 14 years, but I'll tell you what, when I first became IFB, they
went soul-winning.
In West Virginia, they went soul-winning.
They knocked those doors.
Man, they were zealous for that, and I loved that.
I was like, man, that's great.
That was new to me.
I was like, that's awesome.
They knocked the doors.
And then you see those same churches 10 years later, they do visitation a little bit.
Instead of having 40 people out soul-winning, they have like five.
They have no business to go, but they never actually knock any doors.
It's changed a lot.
Being King James only means a lot of things to a lot of different people.
And they believe in reaching the world with the Gospel.
All these missionaries will say that.
But my question is, well, how are you going to reach the world with the Gospel?
Oh, I'm going to have a big fancy altar call, and all these kids are going to come down
and we're going to get them all saved.
You know, well, I'm sorry, but that's not what I believe in.
That's different doctrine.
That's a different belief system.
And that's the reality with these missionaries.
Most of them, you know what, they're not doing a good job out there.
And they come into churches, and they're not edifying the church that they're preaching
to.
They're edifying themselves.
That's a real problem.
When you get a chance to preach, you better be trying to edify the people you're preaching
to and not trying to edify yourself.
And for two years, they're going around as a salesman not preaching any doctrine whatsoever.
They don't want to preach any doctrine because that could turn away a sale.
So for two years, they don't preach any doctrine.
They're a people pleaser.
They edify themselves.
So what do you think they're going to be like after two years?
They're going to preach no doctrine.
They're going to edify themselves.
They're going to be a people pleaser.
That's the way they're going to be.
And even if they started off good after two years, it's going to change them quite a bit.
Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3.
This is the system for reaching the world with the old IFB.
They basically put a muzzle in their mouth for two years.
They basically get neutered for two years.
And then after those two years, do you really think that they're actually going to preach
real doctrine?
No, they're not.
They're not going to.
They've learned not to preach any doctrine whatsoever.
They're not going to change.
And in 2 Timothy chapter 3, I want you to notice the next thing he says.
He says, he says, he says, manner of life.
Manner of life.
Turn to Acts 17, Acts 17.
Now when you think about this, manner of life, because this is a great template on what a
trustworthy evangelist is.
Manner of life.
You know what that implies?
That there's a period of time that you actually see their life.
They have a certain manner.
Like week after week, they're here for so many.
Service after service after service, they're here at church.
Over and over, they keep reading the Bible over time over time.
Well, if somebody just got here, you've never met them, how do you know their manner of
life?
I mean, it doesn't make any sense.
It's like they can come in here and say that they read the Bible for an hour a day.
Well, you don't know that's true.
I've heard people that ended up being heretics that talk about how much they read the Bible
and it's like, yeah, right.
It's like, yeah, you know, you really read through the Bible.
You know, every three weeks you read through the Bible over and over and over again.
It's like, come on.
Just because they say there's some way doesn't mean that they actually are.
You do not know their manner of life by just meeting them.
Look at Acts 17, verse 1.
Acts 17, verse 1.
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis in Apollina, they came to Thessalonica, where
was a synagogue of the Jews.
And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with
them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen
again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ.
See, Paul had a certain manner about his life.
People knew his manner.
He said to Timothy, thou hast fully known my manner of life.
Timothy was aware who Paul was in his manner of life that he had.
Whether he felt like going soul winning or not, guess what he did?
He went soul winning.
We all have those times, like Pastor Thompson was preaching about, where we do not feel
like going soul winning.
But you know what?
You need to have a manner of life where you just keep going anyway.
Because here's the thing.
You start sending somebody money to go out there and preach the gospel.
If they don't have the manner of preaching the gospel now, they will not have that manner
once they get out there.
It's not going to happen.
And one of the big reasons why is this system with the old IFB has no accountability whatsoever.
There's no accountability.
Because you're not accountable to one specific church.
You have like a thousand churches supporting you.
You have like a hundred churches supporting you, fifty churches or whatever.
If our church supported fifty missionaries, let's think about this logically, do you think
that we could really keep track of what every single one's doing?
Do we have the time to do that?
We're not going to be able to do that.
It would be impossible.
So basically you're not going to be able to keep track of anyone then.
Because if you support fifty missionaries, I mean, when we had guys in West Virginia
come back on furlough, there's this guy who came.
And this guy had been out there for like twenty years or whatever, and we had really helped
build this church up.
We got soul winning going again.
And he comes in here and four times during the sermon he preached a heavy repentance
of sins.
He mentioned the word repent.
I remember a few people just looked at me and they were stunned.
And I remember looking over at my pastor and I was angry.
And I was just thinking, man, we've got to pull this guy off the stage.
Why are we allowing him?
And he said that he went more than a decade without leading someone to the Lord.
That's what he said.
And he said, I want to encourage you.
He's like, you could go more than a decade without leading someone to the Lord.
He said, I went twelve years.
And it's like, we're supporting this guy.
You say, well, how in the world did any church support him?
Well, here's the thing.
He came in for deputation.
He preached a nice, smooth sermon about staying in the fight.
Didn't preach any doctrine.
Nobody really knew what he believed.
No one really knew if he went soul winning, because whenever you have missionaries come,
the last thing they want to do is go soul winning when they're visiting churches.
It's really difficult to get him to go out soul winning.
So he didn't have a manner about going soul winning.
He didn't know what he believed.
He preached some smooth sermon, the same sermon he preached at like a hundred churches.
He got all the churches to support him, and then he's going out there and he's just a
full-blown reprobate.
You're out there for twenty years preaching a hardcore repentance of sins.
You're a hardcore reprobate.
After twenty years preaching a false gospel like that.
How did it slip through the cracks?
Well, the deputation system doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
It does not make sense.
You do not know what they believe.
You don't know what their manner of life is.
We need to have a manner of life when it comes to soul winning.
That we go whether we feel like it or not.
We need to have a manner of life with our personal walk with God.
And look, you do not know somebody's manner of life with their personal walk with God
unless you know them, unless you're around them.
You can see over time, and that is why it should be the local church sending and starting
churches.
The Bible college system does not make logical sense.
You need to actually have someone that's among you that you've heard preach plenty of times.
Yes, it's possible some bad person could end up.
I'm sure eventually a bad person will get ordained no matter how much we try to make
sure they're the real deal.
But you know what?
There's no accountability whatsoever with the Bible college system.
It should come from the local church.
That's the only way you can know their doctrine and their manner of life if you've actually
gotten to know them.
Turn back to 2 Timothy 3.
Now the next thing in 2 Timothy chapter 3 mentions, first we saw doctrine.
Very important.
Second thing we see, manner of life.
The third thing we see is purpose.
Now, I want you to notice that the word purpose is singular.
It's not plural.
Now, when we think of the word purpose, we usually think of a goal or an aim that somebody's
trying to achieve.
Like, you know, I have a purpose of one day doing this.
You have a goal, that's something you want to achieve, right?
That's the most common definition you see in the Bible.
It's also the most common definition you see in the dictionary.
I'm going to read you two definitions from the dictionary.
The first one is this, the object toward which one strives or for which something exists.
Basically, an aim or a goal.
For example, her purpose in coming here is to talk to you.
She had a goal where she wanted to talk to you, but there's also a different definition
of the word purpose, which I believe makes more sense with what this is talking about.
The second one is determination or resolution.
For example, Daniel purposed in his heart.
It wasn't just that he wanted to not defile himself of the portion of the king's knee.
No, he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.
He was determined, he was resolved, that he would not defile himself of the portion of
the king's knee.
I believe that's what he's talking about, and here's the reason why.
Paul was a guy who had a lot of goals.
He didn't just have one purpose.
He had a lot of goals.
I'm sure you talk to all these pastors that are here.
They have a lot of goals for their life that they want to achieve.
They don't just have one goal.
They have tons of goals.
Paul the apostle wanted to get so many churches started, he wanted to build those churches,
preach great sermons.
They have a lot of goals.
Most of us have a lot of goals in our life.
Now, here's the thing.
These missionaries will always come in with this huge goal of what they're going to achieve.
Man, I'm going to send somebody out as a pastor, get every six months, I'm going to get a church
started.
They have these massive goals, and it's good to have goals, but if you don't have enough
purpose in your heart to achieve any of them, it means nothing.
These missionaries, they come in, they preach that smooth sermon, they say, man, I'm going
to do this and this and this and this, but they don't have enough determination to do
any of those things.
And I'll tell you what, more important than having a million goals is actually having
enough purpose in your heart where you're going to achieve it.
And see, that was Paul.
He tells him that you fully know my purpose.
Now, I'm sure Paul had different goals that he was trying to achieve all the time, but
he was able to tell Tim that you fully know my purpose, and when you read the Bible, you
can see the purpose in Paul.
Paul was determined to accomplish stuff.
He was determined he would make it happen.
Most of the people that I've met that were missionaries, they did not have that purpose
within their heart.
They were not determined to get the job done.
That was not the attitude they have.
That is what you see, generally, with this deputation system.
We're at 2 Timothy 3, and let me say this, that you could have a guy who is really strong,
really tough, he looks like he could really be good in a fight, he could be really athletic
and everything like that, but you really just don't know how he's going to react until
he gets punched in the face.
That's the truth.
If you have ever seen any fights, you see the biggest, baddest guys, and they get hit
in the face, and they're like, oh, no, I can't take it.
That's what you see with a lot of pastors and missionaries.
They have that smooth sermon, man, they're pounding the pulpit, man, I'm going to stay
in the fight until the day I die.
They get one little punch in the face, and it's like, oh, man, the sodomites are eunuchs.
I mean, once they get one little punch in the face, they're done.
And I'll tell you what, most of these pastors, most of these missionaries, you know what,
they won't preach any doctrine at all.
They cannot take getting punched in the face.
Other people, they get punched in the face, they get beat down, and they just get back
up and rise up and fight.
And that's the truth.
And you'll see that with all the pastors in our movement.
Man, they're not afraid to preach the whole counsel of God.
They're not afraid to get protested by 500 sodomites.
They're not afraid to be on the news.
They're just going to preach it like it is, like you see in the Bible.
And that's what you need for a trustworthy evangelist, someone that's actually willing
to preach what the Bible says.
The old IFB, they're not doing it anymore.
They will not preach the full counsel of God.
They're afraid people will leave their church.
We've got these King Saul leaders that once somebody flees, people are leaving, man, I
gotta just change.
That's what you see with these leaders now.
The next thing it mentions is faith.
Next thing it mentions is faith.
When you look at Paul the Apostle, I think it's very evident, man, he had great faith
to accomplish stuff.
Now, I don't believe this is talking about salvation, because obviously Timothy knew
Paul was saved.
Often in the Bible, you'll see the word faith or you'll see the word salvation, and people
always try to apply it to spiritual salvation.
That's where they get themselves into a lot of problems.
But if you look at the context, oftentimes it's talking about physical salvation.
I don't think this is talking about spiritually, you know, you know I'm saved, Timothy.
Well, of course Timothy knew that he was saved.
I think what he's saying is, you know, the faith I have to actually accomplish something
big.
And you see Paul the Apostle, he didn't always know where he was going to stay.
Boy, didn't he have a lot of great faith, you know, in the book of Philemon, he's like,
you know, I just trust you're going to provide a lodging for me, it's just going to happen.
I mean, that's pretty bold.
That's a lot of faith to just randomly go and just say, well, you know what, you're
going to provide a place for me.
Man, he had great faith.
Paul had great faith to accomplish big things.
Now here's the thing.
If somebody you've just met comes in here and preaches a sermon for deputation, we don't
know what kind of purpose they have in their heart, we don't know what kind of faith they
have.
We don't know if they have faith to actually accomplish something.
Of course they're going to tell you they do, but we don't know if that's true or not.
We have no idea because we've never met them.
We don't know who they are, we just know that they're somebody who graduated Bible college.
And you know, when you see the end product out there on the mission fields, it's pretty
pathetic.
And look, you can talk to anybody in our movement that's been on these mission trips.
Man, it's hard to find good churches in all these places they've been evangelizing for
so long.
It's hard.
I was going solo with Brother Jimmy today, and he was talking about down at Belize, they
couldn't even find a church that was preaching the right gospel.
I'm sure the old IFB had sent missionaries there.
In Guyana, most of the IFB churches, they're just heretics, or they're completely watered
down.
You know, in the Philippines, and you're not even going to believe this story, okay, one
of my friends in the Philippines who wants to come to the church once it starts, I have
two friends, and this one guy at his church, he gets to preach like once a month at his
church, or he did.
He used to get to preach once a month at his church.
And so my other friend would drive in, would come in, and he would come to that service
when he got to preach, because he didn't want to normally come, but he'd come for him to
preach.
Now this is the best IFB church in his area, independent, fundamental, Rachmanite, just
like every Filipino church, Baptist church, the best one in his area.
He preached a sermon on hell, okay?
The pastor told him that he could no longer preach after that.
You know the reason why?
Because he says the Bible teaches that when unsaved people die, they so sleep until the
great white throne judgment.
No longer allowed to preach at that church.
And you say, why in the world?
How could possibly an IFB church teach that?
Well here's the reason why.
Because in the Philippines, 80% of people are Catholic, and the other ones that are
springing up, it's not the Baptists that are getting people saved, it's all these small
cults like Iglesia Ni Cristo, and Iglesia Ni Cristo teaches that nobody goes to hell
when they die.
Not now.
They so sleep for a while.
That's what the cults are teaching, so that doctrine has permeated into those unsaved
Baptist pastors in those churches.
I mean, good night, are you kidding me?
You know, you say unsaved people die and go to hell, no, that's not what the Bible teaches.
They so sleep until the great white throne judgment.
That's the best church in his area.
You know, it's bad in the U.S. with churches, it's a lot worse overseas.
This is the best country for finding churches, that's the truth.
And you know, I for the life of me don't understand people that don't even go to church.
They listen to all these sermons, it's like, you know, plenty of us have driven a long
distance to go to even a lame church, just because the Bible says that we want to be
in church.
We love church.
We want to hear preaching.
We want to be a part of soul winning at a church.
Look, overseas, it's a whole lot worse, and there is no excuse for people that just will
not go to church.
It's a joke.
In this country, you can find a solid church nearby you, especially when you compare it
to other places in the world where they have nothing.
I told that, you know, my friend was telling me that, and he was kind of asking my suggestion,
and I was like, I mean, I guess just don't go to church.
What am I going to tell him?
He said, he's trying every Baptist church, he can't find any that's where the pastor's
saved.
He's not looking for that much, he just wants to save pastor.
And it's like, you know, what's interesting about that is, if you've been in the old IFB,
there's two countries where they send all the missionaries, tons of missionaries in
Mexico and the Philippines.
Those are the two big countries, from my experience.
And it makes sense, I mean, they're big countries, cost of living's a lot less, and it's like,
you know, you look at the fruit of this, in metro Manila, 13 million people, they can't
find a church where they're confident their pastor's saved.
Of all these missionaries they've been sending there, it's like, what a joke.
It's like, man, I'm mad that I used to pray for all these random people at the prayer
meetings back in West Virginia that ended up being unsaved heretics, you know, a lot
of them.
What a joke.
Turn to 1 Timothy 1, 1 Timothy 1, and the next thing he mentioned in 2 Timothy 3 was
long suffering, long suffering.
Now it says in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 16, how be it for this cause I obtain mercy, that
in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering for a pattern to them which
should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Now Paul the Apostle, obviously before he was saved, he was not a good guy, did a lot
of bad things, but you know, God was very long suffering giving him a chance to be saved.
He ended up being saved and being the great evangelist that we know.
Paul understood about being long suffering.
He looked at God and said, man, God was so long suffering to me, and he realized how
long suffering he had to be to other people.
You know, if we want to be more long suffering in our lives, I think one thing that would
help us is just sitting back and realizing how long suffering God is with us.
I mean, his mercies are new every morning.
I'm amazed because I make a lot of mistakes, and I'm just like, man, you know, it's tough
growing, being a Christian.
We all fall, we all backslide sometimes.
God is so long suffering with us.
We often look at things like preaching ability, soul-winning ability, and things like that,
but you know what?
When it comes to getting ordained, the Bible mentions a lot of personal characteristics
as well.
It's not just about being able to preach a dynamic sermon.
I think that's one thing that people that are kind of new to the movement, they get
saved through after the tribulation, they come in, they're listening to all these sermons,
and they think, man, I can wow them after a couple years, they get kind of puffed up,
and I can just preach this sermon, be real bold, and that's what—there's a lot more
than just that.
The Bible also has a lot of characteristics, and I'll tell you what.
From experience, I've learned the pastors in our movement, they're very, very long suffering.
They're extremely long suffering.
I mean, when anybody gets kicked out of a church in our movement, those pastors are
already very long suffering not to kick them out before.
It's not like they want to kick out members from their church.
They want to give them a chance, because obviously, people are growing, and they're at different
stages, and we all backside and have problems.
And pastors can see the signs, they're like, man, there's all these signs, they're really
long suffering, they're long suffering, they're long suffering, and eventually, they kick
the person out, and then what ends up happening?
Plenty of people at the church are like, oh, pastor's so mean.
Look at them just kicking them out immediately.
It's like, you don't even know what happened.
You don't know the situation.
And it's like, I find it funny that people will listen to sermons from pastors in our
movement, and they love the preaching, they're learning, and then they're basically saying
that these pastors, though, have no judgment whatsoever spiritually when it comes to kicking
people out, or they just don't know what they're talking about at all.
I mean, it's like, are you kidding me?
I will take the side with the pastors in our movement.
When they kick somebody out, I'm going to assume they know what they're doing.
Because if I'm willing to listen to their sermons, and I'm gleaning a lot of spiritual
wisdom, I'm going to trust their spiritual judgment to kick someone out of church, especially
when I don't know all the facts.
And none of us know all the facts that happen when somebody gets kicked out.
It's not like the pastors want to come up here and just gossip about every single thing.
They understand the situation, they kick them out, we ought to take the pastor's side.
Don't side against the pastor.
And if somebody tries to side against the pastor, you know what, you ought to shut them
down immediately.
Don't let them go around and just say, well, I don't think that he should have kicked
out.
I mean, we kicked out some bozo last year, and it's like, it was so obvious he was such
a bad guy that he needed to go.
And then there were still people that said, man, you guys need to be more long-suffering.
It's like, are you kidding me?
I mean, this kid stole a little kid's basketball and kicked it over a ravine.
It's just like, are you kidding me?
This guy was going around, you know, making statements about the King James Bible to people
secretly, trying to confuse people like they always do.
That's why we've got to be aware, because these people are going to come in and just
subtly, they're not going to be obvious about it, they're going to be subtle.
That's why you individually need to know your Bible so you're ready for it.
And if you spot that, you need to tell your pastor.
Let him know.
Because you've got to realize, they're not coming in to talk to me or to pastor or people
at the church, you know, the ostrich, they're going to come to people that look like they
can be deceived.
That's why you've got to let them know.
And our pastors, in our movement, they're very long-suffering with people they kick
out.
When they get kicked out, they needed to go.
That's the truth.
Turn to Colossians 3, and I want you to think about that word long-suffering.
Long-suffering implies that there's like a period of time where basically somebody did
them wrong and they gave them a chance and gave them a chance.
Well, if somebody just came in here and we just met, how can we see that they're long-suffering?
It's impossible.
I mean, you can't tell if they're long-suffering.
You just met them.
You haven't seen a period of time where they've been, you know, very forgiving and long-suffering.
You have no idea if they're long-suffering.
There's no way to know whatsoever.
The deputation system just does not make any sense whatsoever.
The next thing that was mentioned was charity.
You're in Colossians 3.
Let me read you what it says in 1 Timothy 4.12.
It says, Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word,
in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
It says in Colossians 3.14, Above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of
perfectness.
Charity is the bond of perfectness.
So the Bible speaks very highly about charity.
We know the great charity chapter that we have in the Bible, and he mentions that as
something to Timothy.
He's like, You've fully known my charity.
He's like, You know what I'm about.
You know how caring I am and how loving I am.
Now remember, the Bible says, Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifyeth.
Okay?
Now, for one, you could never know if somebody just came in here whether or not they have
charity.
You have no idea if they're really generous at all.
You have no idea.
And if you see them being really generous, there's a good chance they're just doing that
to be seen a man so they can get your money.
You don't know whether or not that they have a lot of charity.
But you know, the Bible says, Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifies.
One thing that you see in this movement is that you can get a huge dose of knowledge
very quickly, extremely quickly, okay?
Now if you were just reading this Bible, let's say an hour a day, get through the Bible four
times in a year, you know, you're gonna learn a lot of doctrines along the way, but it's
gonna be slowly over time.
Most of the Bible, you're reading about people's lives and how they react to certain situations.
And you know what?
I'm not saying knowledge is a bad thing, because obviously knowledge is a great thing.
But honestly, a lot of people, they get really puffed up with knowledge, but they have no
charity whatsoever.
It's a dangerous thing.
When you're listening to sermons for eight hours a day, you know, it can be a little
bit of an overdose.
You'd be better off having some prayer time, better off reading the Bible, better off being
a charitable person.
And you see that in our movement.
People get puffed up with pride.
They think they know the Bible really well.
And it's kind of funny, because they'll know all these doctrines, how to prove them, but
then they don't know very basic characters in the Bible, because they've never heard
a sermon on that.
They're like, oh, man, I've never even heard of this guy before, you know, and they have
no clue.
But they get puffed up because they think they know a lot, when they really don't, and
they don't know that much yet.
Turn back to 2 Timothy 3.
Actually, turn to Acts 26, Acts 26.
The seventh thing mentioned in 2 Timothy 3 is patience.
He mentions patience.
You're turning to Acts 26.
I want to show you an example of how Paul the Apostle had a lot of patience.
In Acts 26, verses 24 through 28, it says this in verse 24,
And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself,
much learning doth make thee mad.
What's he telling Paul?
He says, you're insane.
That's what he's saying.
He's like, you are crazy.
Now, remember, Paul is preaching the Gospel.
Now, you have to understand the situation.
You know, you've been in those times where you're preaching the Gospel to multiple people
at one time.
Let's say you're preaching to three people, and two people are listening, and that other
guy is, like, rolling his eyes and trying to interrupt and interject.
You have two people interested, and one is not interested at all.
One of them hates your guts.
He wants you to leave, right?
That's what you have here with Paul.
He is trying to get King Agrippa saved.
He's not trying to get Festus saved.
The reason why he's not trying to get Festus saved is, I'm sure he was aware Festus is
not going to get saved.
You're going out soul-winning, you talk to multiple people, sometimes you can tell, well,
this guy just does not care whatsoever, but you're going to keep the conversation going
because this person is interested.
Now, usually this person does not end up getting saved because of this guy, unfortunately.
That's sad, but that's the truth.
Usually this guy ruins that conversation.
But he says, you're crazy.
Look at verse 25.
But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.
For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely.
For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him, for this thing was not
done in a corner.
King Agrippa, believeth thou the prophets.
I know that thou believeth.
He compels King Agrippa to get saved.
Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
Some of the saddest words in the Bible.
And King Agrippa does not get saved.
This is A-plus soul-winning right here.
Now there's a lot of people, especially people that get puffed up, people that are new, and
you know what?
They'll go out soul-winning and somebody calls them crazy and you know what?
It's going to be a massive fight.
They're going to be yelling back and forth.
That's not what we're doing out of soul-winning.
We're not trying to get in arguments.
We ought to be kind at the door.
If they're rude to us, how do we respond?
We're kind back to them.
They call us crazy.
We just ignore it.
And while they slam the door in our face, we ignore it.
We walk away.
We're nice to them.
We're not rude to them.
That's what you see in the Bible.
You see in Matthew 10, when Jesus gives instructions to them, they're supposed to salute that house.
You never say, well, if they reject it, then be rude to them.
No, it's just like going to the next door.
And it's like, you see Paul the Apostle here, obviously he's a mature Christian, and you
see that he has a great amount of patience in this story.
Look, if you're going out soul-winning and getting in fights a lot, there's a problem.
That's strange, because I don't get in a lot of fights out soul-winning.
It happens every once in a while, but it's not very often.
And you know, honestly, some of those times I get in fights, it's because I get a little
bit in the flesh.
I get a little bit mad for whatever reason.
We should be able to avoid most fights when it comes to soul-winning.
We need to have patience.
Turn to 2 Timothy 2.
Now if somebody comes in on a deputation, you have no idea if they're a patient person
or not.
There's no way to tell if they're a patient person, because that's actually going to take
some time to see how they react to certain situations.
And they just come in here, you do not know if they're patient or not.
2 Timothy 2, look at what it says in verse 23.
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender stripes.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach,
patient and meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will
give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
Paul talks about how we need to be patient.
You know, why is it so important to be patient?
Because you know what, when you start a new church, it might take time for that church
to grow.
You need to have patience.
It's going to take some time.
It's going to take time if you're a trustworthy evangelist.
You're going to a new place.
You're going to have to get acclimated to that culture.
It's going to take some time.
You're going to have to be patient.
Things are going to be a little bit different.
You're going to have to have a lot of patience for your church members to grow.
If you're the pastor, you're the church leader, the truth is most people at your church are
not going to grow at the same rate that you did.
That's the truth.
If you're a pastor, you want them to grow that fast, but a lot of them, they might not
grow quite as quickly.
You need to be patient.
That's why the Bible talks about it.
There's no way to tell if someone you just met is patient or not.
Turn to 2 Timothy 3.
We'll look at the last one.
2 Timothy 3, look at what it says, starting at verse number 11.
Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what
persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that will of God in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
I think it's safe to say that you don't know someone who just comes in here, how they're
going to respond to persecutions and afflictions.
It doesn't matter how dynamic they are.
People that I did not expect to quit ended up quitting, and then people I did expect
ended up lasting.
You just don't know if they're going to last or not.
You don't know how they respond to persecutions and afflictions.
Paul was persecuted all the time, so it was pretty obvious how he was going to respond
to persecutions and afflictions.
Then he told Timothy, you fully know my persecutions, my afflictions.
Now I want you to notice three quick things here when he talks about persecutions.
The first thing is this, that when it comes to persecutions, if you live godly, it's a
promise that will happen to you.
It's a guarantee that if you live godly, you will be persecuted.
That's what the Bible says.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
It doesn't matter who you are, if you live godly, you're going to be persecuted.
You'll be persecuted by your family, by your old friends.
You will be persecuted.
You'll have protesters around.
It's going to happen.
Everyone that lives godly will be persecuted.
But not only that, I want you to realize, not only will you be guaranteed to be persecuted,
you're also going to be persecuted everywhere you go living godly.
Notice what he says, at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.
People move to churches and say, man, it's so tough since I moved to Jacksonville, things
will work out better.
I feel like I'm being persecuted everywhere.
I'm just going to move to, you know, another church.
Look, you're going to be persecuted wherever you go.
You're going to have problems wherever you go.
At Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.
And I don't care what country.
You know, the Philippines is very receptive, but there's going to be persecution there.
And if there's not, then there's a problem with me, right?
There's a problem with our church if we're not persecuted at all, because the Bible promises
it's going to happen.
But the other thing is this, God promises He will deliver you.
He says, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Now the key is this, though, if you want God to deliver you, you have to resist.
You know, you have to endure through the persecution.
Now endurance is something that takes time.
If somebody just comes in here on deputation, we have not seen them endure persecutions
in their life.
And this is a great template of who you can trust.
So why would we give money to someone that we have no idea how they're going to handle
persecutions?
We have no idea whether they're long-suffering or if they have patience or any of these things.
We have absolutely no idea.
Now this whole chapter, like I said, is mainly talking about reprobates.
And I haven't talked about that at all, but I want to cover that real quickly here.
I want you to notice what it says in verse, starting at verse 5.
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden
with sins, led away with diverse lusts.
Never learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith.
They shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be made manifest unto all men, as theirs
also was.
Verse 13.
But evil men, right after the verses we preached on, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse
and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Here's the truth.
If we don't follow this great template, you know what's going to happen?
We're going to ordain a lot of reprobates.
That's the reason why it says lay hands suddenly on no man.
Yes, we want to reach the world with the gospel, but we're also supposed to not lay hands suddenly
on somebody.
And here, Paul says, you know I'm the real deal, Timothy.
I mean, it was evident in his life what he had did.
There's no question mark about him.
I mean, Paul was the real deal.
He says, you know who I am.
Now, like I said, a wolf could come in and trick us, but we ought to try to follow this
template.
Not just this drive-by ordination that goes on at a lot of places like, oh man, you know,
I was like, well, man, if you're called to go, let's just lay hands on you now, brother.
That's what you see, honestly, in some places.
You tell them, well, man, I'm called, and they say, well, let's lay hands on you tonight.
Let's get it done.
I mean, that's ridiculous.
And what's going to happen is a lot of bad people reprobate, and honestly, a lot of those
people in those prayer letters at those old IFP churches, a lot of them are reprobates.
Unsaved heretics preaching works salvation, and that's where the money's going to.
And honestly, look, I've been in those prayer meetings where there's five people out of
a hundred at church that show up, and you know, it makes me mad because it's like, you
know, the pastor would say, Brother Stuckey, tonight I don't want you to pray for the missionaries
and the agents.
I tried to pray for those people and care about them, people I've never met, I know
nothing about, and then all of a sudden you see the fruit of what they're doing.
You pray for those seven, eight missionaries in the Philippines, and you know, it's like,
are any of them saved?
I mean, hopefully some of them are saved.
I mean, much less are they actually doing a good job.
And that prayer letter is filled with a bunch of people, and the ones that are saved, here's
what you have to understand.
You go on deputation for two years, it will change you.
For two years you're walking around like a rock star, because everywhere you go they
pull out the red carpet for you because you're the missionary.
And for two years you preach to edify yourself rather than edifying who you're preaching
to.
What's going to happen after two years?
Anybody after two years, if they're a salesman who preaches no doctrine for two years, anybody
will change after those two years, I promise you that.
Maybe at the beginning they would have been a good missionary, but after two years they're
not going to be a good missionary.
The template of the Bible college and deputation, it just does not make any logical sense whatsoever.
And it's proven to fail.
Anyone who's been on these mission trips, we've seen the fruit of it, it's a failure.
It doesn't work.
Those churches are a joke.
It's bad in America, it's worse overseas.
So here's the thing, in America, can we really count on other movements or the old IFB getting
all these churches started?
This great soul-winning campaign that's going to happen, we can't count on them whatsoever.
Look, if we can't count on them in America, we can't count on them overseas either.
They've been trying it for a long time, and look, it's failed.
It's not working.
The truth is, if we're going to reach the world with the gospel, it is going to come
from churches like ours, like-minded people.
And it's not just going to be mission trips here and there.
We need to get churches started, so then we can do a big work.
Those mission trips are awesome.
So many people get saved, but we need more.
We need to keep pushing it harder.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting the opportunity
to preach.
I just pray that we'll all meditate upon this message and think about what's been preached
and help me and everyone else here to apply this to our lives, God.
We pray for all these things, in Jesus' name, amen.