I just want to thank you all for coming and being a part of this service tonight.
Obviously we went out, we had some soul winning, and we enjoyed a tremendous sermon from Brother Joe this morning about, you know, the fact that we've been tried by fire as a church.
What I want to talk about tonight is being zealous for the wrong things.
Being zealous for the wrong things.
And, you know, the Bible talks about this. I believe that there's a concept we can learn from the Word of God about being zealous for things that don't necessarily matter.
And we understand that worldly people are zealous for the wrong things.
You guys all know that.
That's not what I'm going to be focusing on during the course of this sermon because it's obvious.
It's as obvious as the fact that water is wet.
Worldly people care about worldly things.
They care about their Hollywood movies.
They care about their video games.
They care about the stupid sports game.
You know, Brother Jeff and I were talking about what it would be like if we were worldly.
And he asked me, hey, you know, you see the football game last night?
That's what they care about.
They care about the sport.
You know, these people literally have the jersey numbers and the statistics and all these different factoids about their favorite sports team memorized just as sure as Brother Marcel has memorized the book of Hebrews.
And you want to know why?
It's because that's what they live for.
But we're Christians.
The Bible refers to us as a peculiar people.
That's not what we live for.
That's not what we should be living for.
We should be living for God.
However, just because worldly people are concerned for worldly things and have a zeal for those things,
we as Christians might fall into that particular issue in the sense that we become zealous for things that don't actually matter within the Christian worldview.
And I'll go into more detail in moments.
You're in Philippians chapter 1.
Do me a favor.
Look at verse number 12.
It says there, but I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.
So what's Paul saying here?
You know what?
He went through storms.
He went through persecution.
He went through hell on earth.
But at the end of the day, it was designed for him to further the gospel.
And we've had soldiers who have fallen away in this church, like Brother Joe talked about.
The dross has been removed ultimately to help us further the gospel.
Our mission statement hasn't changed at this church.
We want to get people saved.
We want to preach hard against sin.
And we want to do what the Bible has commanded us to do.
In Genesis chapter 50, Joseph says this to his brethren.
He says, but as for you, ye thought evil against me.
But God meant it unto good to bring it to pass as it is this day to save much people alive.
Whenever we feel knocked out, whenever we feel like we've been run over by a semi truck,
ultimately we have to realize that despite the fact our enemies meant it for evil, God meant it for good.
In Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas are thrown into prison.
The Philippian jailer ends up getting saved as a result.
God meant it for good.
Now you're there in Philippians 1.
Look at verse 13.
So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places.
And many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of good will.
And that leads me to my first point.
Be zealous for preaching the gospel, not starting arguments.
Be zealous to win souls, not starting arguments.
Now, you know, if you're preaching Christ even of envy and strife like it's talking about there in Philippians chapter 1,
you're doing it wrong.
That's not why we go out and knock doors.
Unfortunately, though, there are some people who use soul winning as a platform to debate, to cause strife,
to provoke even the God haters of this world, and that's not what we've been called to do.
That's not what God commanded us to do, and that's not the mission statement of this church.
We preach the gospel not to exalt ourselves, not to start arguments and debates.
And listen, make no mistake about it, as I look into the eyes of everyone in this congregation tonight,
I see men and women who I guarantee you would wipe the floor with anyone in a debate out soul winning.
You guys know your Bible.
You would win every debate you ever got into.
It's not that I don't have confidence in you to win a debate, but the fact of the matter is we don't have to win a debate.
That's not what soul winning is about.
It's called soul winning, not debate winning.
If you want to go do debate winning, then maybe go attend a James White debate where he's sitting there,
an unsafe false prophet debating another unsafe false prophet, vain, jangling, trash, not even using the King James Bible.
Maybe you ought to go attend that.
Go buy a ticket and watch that instead of go out soul winning because that appears to be where your zeal lies.
But the Bible tells us that we ought to have a zeal for souls and truly care about the people we're preaching to.
Look at verse number 16 in this chapter.
The Bible says the one preached Christ of contention.
Listen to this.
Not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.
You know what?
Judas went out preaching as well, but I guarantee you he wasn't sincere.
And there are false prophets, false brethren who have crept in unawares.
You all know it.
If you're a part of the new IFB movement, you've seen it firsthand, and they're not preaching Christ sincerely.
They're preaching Christ with an ulterior motive.
Galatians 5 lists the following as works of the flesh.
It lists idolatry.
It lists witchcraft, hatred, variants, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, and heresies.
What I want to focus on, though, is that word strife.
And my question to you is are you preaching Christ of contention or are you preaching Christ of love?
Where does your zeal lie?
Does it lie in trying to make other people look stupid and win an argument?
Or does it lie in making sure their soul and their spirit is sealed until the day of redemption?
What are you zealous for?
The gospel or yourself?
You know, Doug Trowbridge, this psychopath reprobate who was exposed by my friend, brother Jeff Utzler,
he would take selfies with the people he got saved.
You think he actually cares about them?
No.
He did that to convince the world that he was a genuine Christian.
Go to Philippians chapter 2.
The Bible reads, while you're flipping there to Philippians 2, shouldn't be too far away,
Romans 13 says, let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness,
not in strife and envying.
The Bible says there that we ought to walk as in the day.
You want to know why?
Because crime, sin, wicked sin, filth, smut, mischief, fornication, adultery.
Where does that take place?
It takes place at night.
Donnie Romero wasn't prowling around in the daytime where everyone could see him because he's a coward.
He did it at night.
So let's walk as in the day and not be ashamed of who we are.
Now you're there in Philippians 2.
Look at verse number 3.
It says, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.
We, you know, more than ever are a team here.
There are multiple preachers and I would exhort brother Marcel, brother Theo, brother Joe,
let's make sure that we esteem others more than ourselves and let's, you know, make sure that we are motivating each other.
Hey, brother Theo, when you preach your sermon and I'm sure you're going to do a good job,
I'll be the first one to tell you you did a good job.
Why?
Because I want him to be motivated.
I want him to do the work of the Lord.
And we're teammates and we have to make sure that we, you know, we're exhorting each other to do great works.
Now the Bible says in, where are we at here?
Philippians chapter 2.
I want to repeat it one more time.
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory.
So I'm going to ask the question again.
What is your zeal for?
Is it for yourself or is it for actually winning souls?
Go to Revelation chapter 20.
What I'm talking about is the fact we shouldn't be a synthetic soul winner who does everything for show to appear as if we're spiritual.
Living for God is not about vain glory.
It's not about beating people in a debate.
It's not about looking smart.
So, you know, I'm not worried about that.
But at the end of the day, folks, there are certain people whose zeal is not to make sure that people understand how to get to heaven.
And these oftentimes tend to be false brethren.
Now look at Revelation chapter 20.
You know, I just want to make this point.
When you encounter a heretic, it's not worth arguing with them.
The Bible says after the first and second admonition, reject.
It doesn't say argue.
It doesn't matter what verse you pull out.
It's just going to go right over their heads, through one ear and out the other.
So you know what my response is half the time?
Alright, see you later.
You're not interested?
You want to sit there and debate the interpretations of the Scriptures I'm showing you?
Have a nice day.
See you later.
And see you later is not a lie because we will see them later.
Look at Revelation 20.
It says in verse 11.
Look at verse 11.
And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.
And there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.
And the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged, every man according to their works and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death and whosoever was not written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
And I want you to imagine witnessing this for a moment.
Imagine being witness to the great white throne judgment and people who you could have preached to.
People who you could have gotten saved.
Getting cast into the lake of fire forever.
Imagine that feeling of regret saying to yourself, I wish I opened up my Bible and showed them how to be saved.
I wish I just took 10 or 15 minutes to prove to them that it's by grace through faith alone on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I wish I put in the effort because then they'd be going to heaven where I'm going.
We shouldn't be zealous for debating.
We should be zealous for genuinely reaching the lost.
And at the end of the day when you're witnessing the great white throne judgment it's not going to matter how many debates you've won.
The only thing that's going to matter is how many souls you actually got saved.
Now let's move on to point number two.
What I want to talk about now is the fact that we should be zealous to edify the brethren rather than chase a title.
In Micah chapter 2 the Bible says,
Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds.
When the morning is light they practice it because it is power in their hand.
You know from Absalom to Adonijah to Diotrephes the list goes on and on of men who were drunk with the pursuit of power.
In verse 2 of Micah 2 it says,
And they covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
It says they oppress a man and his house.
Well you know what? This is God's house.
This house has been oppressed whether it's from outside forces or even sleep or sell heretic false prophets in this building.
It's been hijacked by those who hate the Lord Jesus Christ but look where we all are.
I wonder who won that battle.
You know the cancer has been removed from this ministry.
The cancer who is exploiting this church for prostitution and drugs and filthiness and smut.
I can't even imagine preaching against sin and then going after church driving an hour away and committing the very sins I just preached hard against
and slammed the pulpit in an effort to preach hard against.
That is absolutely disgusting and it boggles my mind that this has occurred in our movement.
I can't believe it. I can't believe the pastor we trusted did this.
But you know the only thing we can do is move forward.
I'm going to read from 3 John. It says,
I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
Wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth,
prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith,
neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.
Last Sunday, I think it was, we did church at Theo's house, right?
Because we were forbidden from entering our own building.
Diotrephes, Fanon, who wanted the preeminence, had hijacked the building.
He wanted it for himself. He wanted the chairs. He wanted the souls sitting in the chairs.
He wanted the hymnals. He wanted it all. He wanted the preeminence.
And what we're ready to do now, and I'll speak for Brother Joe,
I'll speak for Brother Marcel and Brother Theo, is give you a balanced diet of preaching.
I'm sure you're sick of the same thing every week.
Listen, I know false prophets are wicked. We don't have to hear about it every week.
But I guess that's easy to preach when you're writing your sermon 30 seconds before the church service starts.
We want to give you balanced preaching. We want to show you how to live the Christian life,
how to have a good marriage. I'll leave that one to Brother Theo.
By the way, I have a good marriage. I'm not implying that I don't.
But we want to give you everything that the Word of God teaches and not just focus in on one issue.
But again, Diotrephes, he loved the preeminence.
And there are several men that we have seen over the last year who remind me of him.
You look at Tyler Doka, this clown who believes in the flat earth and that you could lose your salvation.
Tyler Baker's another one who went and got ordained by his daddy to start the trash can here.
These people are self-willed preachers who covet a title. They are not zealous for you.
They're not zealous for the Word of God. They're not zealous for helping you.
They're zealous for no one but themselves.
Being a pastor, folks, is a selfless service.
That's why one of the attributes that's described in the Bible that you must have in order to be biblically ordained is not self-willed because it's a selfless service.
There's nothing more selfless than what Pastor Anderson did and Pastor Shelley as well.
They could have said nuts to steadfast. They just lost their pastor.
Let's leave them to toil away and fade away into obscurity.
There's nothing we can do about it. And they could have just stayed home with their families.
Pastor Shelley had just moved to Houston. He just moved his whole family to Houston.
He could have just said nuts to them. But you know what?
He felt in his heart that he needed to help us and he offered himself as a help, as a gift really.
And yet there are still people who think what Pastor Anderson and Pastor Shelley did was wicked.
I think it's because deep down in their own hearts they're wicked themselves.
Now, if you don't mind, go to 2 Samuel chapter 15.
Go to 2 Samuel chapter 15.
I want to look at an example of someone who was self-willed.
I want to look at an example of someone who wanted to do nothing more than exalt himself.
Who was power hungry. 2 Samuel chapter 15.
We're going to look at verse number 1. Someone who wanted the kingdom for himself.
Someone who wanted the power, the acclaim, the popularity.
Someone who wanted to be king, not to exalt the Lord, but so that he himself could be in that spotlight.
It says in verse number 1,
It came to pass after this that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and fifty men to run before him.
And Absalom rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate.
And it was so that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment,
then Absalom called unto him and said, Of what city art thou?
And he said, Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel.
And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right.
But there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee.
Absalom said, Moreover, O that I were made judge in the land,
that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice.
Now do you really think Absalom actually cared about the men of Jerusalem?
The answer is no. He's using them.
He's using them as nothing more than a platform to step on for his own gain.
Now if I told you, if Pastor Shelley was ordained and I came, you know,
I walked onto this platform and I said, Hey, everybody, I know Pastor Shelley is the pastor,
but why don't you just ordain me? I have no children. I'm not qualified.
But you know what? Ordain me, everybody. I should be your pastor.
You would rightfully look at me like I'm insane.
Because, you know, the leader has to be qualified to do what he's going to do.
Absalom was not, again, he was in it for himself.
He wanted power to judge the land because he wanted the preeminence just like diatrophes.
Now look at verse number five in this chapter.
It says, And it was so that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance,
he put forth his hand and took him and he kissed him.
And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment.
So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
Now people who are zealous for the title of pastor,
they're selfish, they're arrogant, they're prideful, they're demagogues.
And what they want to do is exploit people, again, for popularity, for fame.
But what they're trying to do as well is steal your heart.
Because when they look at you, they don't see a human being, they don't see a soul,
they don't see a potential warrior for Christ.
They see someone that they can use as a tool.
Skip to verse 13, And there came a messenger to David, saying,
The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom.
And David said unto all his servants that were with him at Jerusalem,
Arise and let us flee, for we shall not else escape from Absalom.
Make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly,
and bring evil upon us, and smite the city with the edge of the sword.
And the king's servants said unto the king,
Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever, my lord, the king shall appoint.
Now notice, the servants didn't say, well, Absalom is the guy we choose, see you later.
No, they said, we're willing to do whatsoever it is that you want us to do,
because David was the rightful king, he's the one that had the throne,
and we ought to follow the leader.
That's biblical. We ought to esteem those who are above us.
We ought to esteem the pastor of our church,
and follow him as he follows Christ.
And thank God, as we sit here tonight,
Steadfast Baptist Church has a rightful pastor,
and his name is Jonathan Shelley.
1 Corinthians chapter 14 says,
Let all things be done decently and in order.
This is the very reason why there's an authority structure,
not just in church, but in your homes.
If your wife is bossing you around, that's not being done decently and in order.
There's an authority structure, you've got the pastor,
and here locally, Brother Theo is under him, he's the guy we answer to,
he says something to us, we say, yes sir, Brother Theo,
whatever it is you want us to do, we're going to do it.
We have to follow the leader.
That is how all things can be done decently and in order.
My question is, how can we accomplish that?
How can something be done decently and in order,
if nobody's following the leader,
and if everyone in here thinks that they're the leader,
and they want the preeminence? It makes no sense.
Go to 1 Peter chapter 5.
A violent psychopath is deranged, degenerate,
they murder people, they hurt people in a physical sense,
but it's the corporate psychopath that is willing to rise up to the top
of a particular power structure using manipulation tactics and smooth words.
Some of you think maybe you've been hanging out with Jeff Utzler a little too much,
but this is common knowledge.
In Psalm chapter 10, the Bible says,
For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire,
and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance,
will not seek after God.
God is not in all his thoughts.
His ways are always grievous.
Thy judgments are far above, out of his sight.
As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved,
for I shall never be in adversity.
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud.
Under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
The reason I read that to you is because of those words,
deceit, fraud, mischief, vanity.
They are within the heart of a wicked person.
That's what the Bible is saying there in Psalm chapter 10.
Self-willed men who covet popularity will do whatever it takes to get there,
even if it means hindering the cause of Christ, splitting a church.
No matter what it is, they will stop at nothing to gain that popularity,
to gain the preeminence, to gain that spotlight that they so badly crave
that they're addicted to.
Is that what being a pastor is all about?
Is that what Pastor Anderson did when he left his family,
when he left his friends, when he came to Fort Worth, Texas,
to try and fix a situation that had nothing to do with him,
when he had a grieving wife call him and ask for help?
Did he refuse her? No.
He put other people ahead of himself.
That's what it means to be a pastor, and that's what we should be zealous for
and what we should want to be.
Now, the Bible says in Psalm 11,
For lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string,
that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
I need Brother Dustin to sing that one for me.
I can't sing, so I'm not going to do it.
The wicked shoot at the upright in heart, the Bible says,
because they want to hurt the upright.
They want to hurt those who are God's children.
That's what they are obsessed with doing.
They have a zeal for themselves and their father, the devil.
Now, you're there in 1 Peter 5. Look down at verse number 1.
The Bible says there,
The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder,
and a witness of the sufferings of Christ,
and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Feed the flock of God which is among you,
taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly,
not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind,
neither as being lords over God's heritage,
but being in samples to the flock,
going out at this most obvious statement in the world,
but going out behind everyone's back
and sleeping with prostitutes and all the rest of it.
That is the total opposite, obviously,
of being in a sample to the flock.
But the attitude that we have,
and Brother Marcel and the rest of these great men here
who want to pastor when they lead a congregation,
we have to remember we are being looked up to,
and we have to be example and samples to the flock.
And so what we need to do is understand
that this position right now, what we're doing,
it's to improve lives.
It's to teach the Bible, exhort, impel.
What we're doing even today,
Brother Marcel and all the rest of us, is serving you.
It's not about us. It's about serving you.
In Philippians 3 the Bible says,
For many walk of whom I have told you often,
and now tell you, even weeping,
that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ,
whose end is destruction,
whose God is their belly,
and whose glory is in their shame,
who mind earthly things.
The enemies of the cross of Christ,
their God is their belly.
They mind earthly things, whether it's vain glory,
whether it's fame or popularity or attention
or YouTube subscribers or YouTube views.
That's why this church was dealing with
some really weird clickbait headline titles
over the last year.
The NKJV is just as good.
I said that's a bad idea.
What are you putting that as a title for?
But if you want to get the clicks,
then you're going to do whatever it takes,
even if it means putting a headline to a sermon
that sounds like it's heresy.
Point number three is be zealous for the majors.
Don't overemphasize the minors.
Now, there are major fundamental doctrines
of the Christian faith.
Brother Joe hit on it this morning.
One of them is the Trinity.
And if you don't believe the doctrine of the Trinity,
I question your intelligence,
and I question your salvation.
The Trinity is a fundamental doctrine.
Salvation by grace through faith,
the deity of Christ, you all know these things.
This is the foundation of which our church is built on.
There's no doubt about that.
But there are minor doctrines as well.
And what I want to implore you to do is
don't be zealous for the minor doctrines,
the secondary doctrines, the tertiary doctrines,
and reject or not even care about
the fundamentals of our faith.
The old IFB does this a lot,
and I'll point to that in a moment.
But if you're cutting fellowship over non-essential doctrine,
you're overemphasizing the minors,
and you're not doing what the Bible has told us to do,
which is to make sure that we mine the foundation of Christ.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter three.
Now, listen, I don't care if you think Babylon is South Africa.
You know what I care about?
What's your gospel?
How do you get to heaven?
Do you believe that there's three persons but one God?
Do you understand the Trinity?
Do you understand the deity of Christ?
Do you understand that the King James Bible
is the perfectly preserved Word of God?
Do you understand the fundamentals of our faith?
I don't care if somebody's post-trib, pre-wrath, anti-Zionist
and has the perfect eschatological views.
The bottom line is that they don't have salvation right.
I don't want to hear from them.
2 Peter chapter 2, it says,
But there were false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them
and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
Damnable heresies impact salvation.
Now, here's a doctrine or something that was taught
as a doctrine in our church
that really isn't even a biblical doctrine
that is not damnable heresy at all.
And that's open breastfeeding.
It was taught that that was wicked.
It was taught that, you know, the women in this church
have to put on a hijab in order to feed their children.
You know, it wasn't necessary, honestly,
for the preacher to come up here
and remind everyone every single service
that the women had to cover up completely.
Listen, you do what you want to do.
You want to cover? Great.
You don't.
You have to do what you need to do
for your baby to get fed.
And, you know, I'm just so sick of this.
I just can't believe that this came up this week.
It's like if you can't handle a woman breastfeeding,
are you some kind of pervert?
Seriously, you must have a perverted mind
to make that an issue.
You must be a depraved, sick, twisted individual
to make that an actual issue of modesty.
And we're not saying that women should walk around topless,
but at the end of the day,
they have to do what they need to do
to be comfortable to feed their children.
This is common sense.
And, you know, breastfeeding shouldn't have even come up
when, you know, Pastor Shelley and Brother Fanon
were doing whatever they were doing.
I called him Brother Fanon.
He's really a Judas.
Now, again, are you a pervert?
It doesn't matter.
Should women be kicked out
because they want to feed their children a certain way?
Of course not.
And you know what?
Brother Joe, he made this.
This was supposed to be a part of the satirical video.
It says,
Mothers, feed your baby, be comfortable,
and draw out the breast.
Lamentations, chapter 4, verse 3.
And let me just make it known,
I've totally evolved on this issue.
This is what I believe.
And it's not a primary doctrine whatsoever.
You do whatever you feel comfortable doing.
Now, you're there in 1 Corinthians, chapter 3.
Look what it says in verse 10.
It says,
According to the grace of God,
which is given unto me,
as a wise master builder,
I have laid the foundation,
and another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed
how he buildeth thereupon.
For other foundation can no man lay,
then that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ.
Now, does it say the foundation is Babylon?
Does it say the foundation is the two witnesses
in the book of Revelation?
Which is Moses and Elijah, in my opinion,
but that's a different story for a different time.
Two people who are like Moses and Elijah.
Anyway, that's not foundational level doctrine.
That's secondary doctrine.
That's tertiary issues.
And we shouldn't overemphasize
those particular teachings
over the foundations of our faith.
And if you caught fellowship with someone
over something like that, Babylon or breastfeeding,
you're a weirdo.
Okay?
I'm just going to go ahead and say it.
You're weird.
And pre-Tribbers, they do this all the time.
I've heard testimony after testimony
of people who used to go to an old IFB church
that were kicked out
because of their views on end times Bible prophecy.
People who were kicked out
because they believed that the rapture,
rightfully so, as the Bible says in Matthew 24,
Mark 13, Luke 21, and scores of other Scriptures,
that it happens after the tribulation,
before God's wrath.
People have been kicked out of church over this.
That is ridiculous.
It's not a primary doctrine.
It has no bearing on salvation.
Now, in 2 John chapter 1, the Bible says,
Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ,
he hath both the Father and the Son.
If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine,
receive him not into your house,
neither bid him Godspeed,
for he that biddeth him Godspeed
is partaker of his evil deeds.
Unfortunately, the majority of the Baptist churches
you will encounter throughout your Christian life
are churches that are more zealous
for secondary doctrines than primary doctrines.
For example, they care more about
whether or not you worship the Jews
than whether or not you're even saved.
They'll gladly welcome
a repent of your sins heretic into their church.
As long as you believe in the pre-trib rapture,
as long as you believe in Zionism,
then it's Godspeed, brother.
Welcome to church, man.
Come on, sit down.
Let's do an altar call.
Let's do what we've got to do.
Right?
Doesn't matter pre-trib.
As long as you're pre-trib in Zionism,
you can be a Pentecostal for all they care.
You can be speaking in tongues for all they care.
You're good to go.
But if you have salvation, right,
if you have the foundations of our faith, right,
they persecute us.
They kick us out of churches.
They make us a byword.
They make us appear like we're crazy,
kooky, conspiracy weirdos.
And it's ridiculous,
and I'm not going to stand for it anymore.
Somebody needs to call these people out,
and we have been doing so,
and we should continue to call them out for this stuff.
They have an intense zeal for secondary, tertiary issues,
Bible prophecy and all the rest of it.
I'm not saying that's not important,
but to put that above salvation,
to kick people out over Zionism,
that's wicked,
especially when they're allowing homos
and they're allowing everyone else into their church.
I guess if the Sodomite believes in the pre-trib rapture,
then they can do whatever it is they want to do at the church.
Ridiculous.
Go to 2 Kings chapter 10,
and I'm going to move into my final point.
2 Kings chapter 10.
Point number 4 is be zealous for the Bible
rather than conspiracies.
Be zealous for the Bible rather than conspiracies.
I have to preface by saying this.
I like me a good conspiracy theory,
and I'll watch a documentary on 9-11 Truth or whatever,
and I'll sit down.
I'll have some popcorn.
I'll have some popcorn, some leisure time,
but I'm not obsessed over that,
and there are people who literally replace the gospel
with 9-11 Truth,
or they replace the gospel with whatever other conspiracy theories
making the rounds on the Internet today,
and that ought not to be us.
Yes, we have a Christian worldview,
and we are saved,
but we need to focus first primarily on the things of God
rather than conspiracy theories.
Now, they're fine, again,
but if you're obsessed with them,
that's a problem.
And look at verse number 13.
Verse 13, the Bible says there,
Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah,
and said, Who are ye?
And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah,
and we go down to salute the children of the king
and the children of the queen.
And he said, Take them alive.
And they took them alive and slew them
at the pit of the shearing house.
Even two and forty men,
neither left he any of them.
So what's going on here is that
the words of the Lord are being fulfilled.
Ahab's descendants are slaughtered in 2 Kings chapter 10.
And, you know, here we have some sympathizers coming in.
They say, Well, I want to go fellowship with them.
And Jehu doesn't hesitate to take care of business.
And every time someone is exposed, folks,
there are always the sympathizers.
There are always the bleeding hearts sticking up for them,
no matter how wicked they are,
no matter how many times we prove to them
that the person who's being exposed
might not even be saved.
Look at verse 15.
It says, And when he was departed thence,
he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab,
coming to meet him, and he saluted him,
and said to him, Is thine heart right,
as my heart is with thy heart?
And Jehonadab answered, It is.
If it be, give me thine hand.
And he gave him his hand,
and he took him up to him into the chariot.
And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.
So they made him ride in his chariot.
And when he came to Samaria,
he slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria,
till he had destroyed him,
according to the saying of the Lord,
which he spake to Elijah.
Now, Ahab was the husband of the wicked Queen Jezebel,
and his descendants were completely wiped out here.
Jehu, in this scripture, verse number 16,
he proclaims his zeal for the Lord.
He didn't proclaim his zeal for conspiracy theories.
He didn't proclaim his zeal for anything other than God himself.
But there are certain conspiracy theorists who would say,
Come with me, and see my zeal for 9-11 Truth.
Come with me, and see my zeal for Alex Jones, or Freemasonry.
Come with me, and see my zeal for aliens,
and all these other weird YouTube videos
that make the rounds on the internet,
these conspiracies.
And you know what we ought to say?
Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord,
for Jesus Christ.
You're a Christian.
And the worst one out of all these,
and I'm going to hit on it,
and I'm going to go down this rabbit hole
because the Flat Earthers have been expelled.
Flat Earth is the worst conspiracy,
and if you believe in Flat Earth,
I question your intelligence,
just like I question the intelligence
of those who reject the Trinity.
You're an idiot.
If you can't even figure out
the shape of the planet we live on,
I question your sanity.
Go to Job 38 for a second.
The Bible says that the Earth is a circle
in a three-dimensional world.
That would mean it's a sphere, everybody.
You learn this in kindergarten.
And so Flat Earthers are idiots.
Does that mean they're all unsaved?
No.
And there's people who are saved,
who have been caught up in this,
and people say,
oh, well, you're being mean to them, right?
They're going to hurt their feelings.
Well, this is what our church believes.
We believe in a spherical Earth.
We don't believe in a Flat Earth
with this ice wall, okay, on the side.
So anyway, go to Job 38.
Look at verse 9.
It says,
When I made the cloud,
the garment thereof,
and thick darkness,
a swaddling band for it.
I'm going to stop there.
How many of you who have infants
swaddle half of the infant?
You swaddle the whole, swaddle,
you put a swaddling band around the whole infant.
And so this is how the Earth is being described.
Therefore, we can conclude based on this Scripture
that it's a sphere, okay?
Case closed.
That's all I'm going to talk about with this.
It's stupid.
And the reason why I bring it up
is because our church was,
keyword was,
plagued with these people.
And I just want to make it public.
Don't talk about it to me, okay?
If you believe that, that's fine.
You know, nobody gets kicked out for believing.
But do not talk about it to me.
I'm not interested.
It's a sphere.
This was solved thousands of years ago.
It's not an issue.
But this is a result of the conspiracy mind,
the culture that surrounds these YouTube videos.
Who cares what the Bible says about salvation?
Who cares about actual Bible doctrine?
And those who are caught up in these things,
they come to our churches thinking that we're like them.
That all we're obsessed with is Freemasonic agenda
of breastfeeding or whatever.
Nobody cares about that.
What we're here to talk about are the things of God,
actual Bible doctrine.
And so I implore you,
do not lose your zeal for actual Bible doctrine
and the things of God
and eschew it for these weird conspiracy theories.
Keep your mind focused on what actually matters.
I'm not saying all conspiracies are evil and wicked or untrue.
What I'm saying is,
you shouldn't become obsessed with them
to the point that it replaces your Bible memorization
or your Bible reading or God forbid, your soul winning.
That's not what this church is all about.
Go to Titus chapter 2.
Now while you're flipping to Titus chapter 2,
I'm going to read out of Numbers 25
where the Bible says,
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar,
the son of Aaron the priest,
hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel,
while he was zealous for my sake among them,
that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.
Wherefore, say, Behold,
I give unto him my covenant of peace,
and he shall have it and his seed after him,
even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood,
because he was zealous for his God
and made an atonement for the children of Israel.
Now you're flipping to Titus chapter 2.
The point I wanted to make there
is that Phinehas was zealous for his God.
He wasn't zealous for vain jangling.
And my question is, are you zealous for your God?
Or are you zealous for the conspiracy theory you saw on YouTube?
Are you zealous to come here and just talk about race?
I mean there was a guy come here to talk about race and all that.
Different races have different IQ levels.
That is wicked and stupid.
And I just can't believe anybody would waste any time
looking at that, researching that.
Do you have a zeal for the Lord?
Or do you have a zeal for things that are designed
to distract you?
Look at Titus chapter 2.
It says in verse 11,
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men,
teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world, looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God
and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us,
that he might redeem us from all iniquity
and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
listen to this, zealous of good works.
These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority.
Let no man despise thee.
Good works.
I don't care if you believe 9-11 is an inside job.
And if you go and proselytize people with that,
guess what, they're still going to die and go to hell.
Doesn't matter.
You could walk around in your 9-11 truth hat all day
and you could obsess over that all day
and you can convince people about that all day,
but if you're not preaching them the gospel,
you know where they're going to go when they die?
Hell.
And it doesn't matter if they believed in 9-11 truth
in this life or not.
And by the way, it was an inside job.
I'm not arguing that.
But, you know, a good works means opening your mouth,
speaking with authority, preaching the word of God,
preaching against sin.
That's what we have to be focused on.
Especially this week, I think we've all learned
that the flesh can take over even a saved Christian's life
and I'm not saying anyone in here is struggling
with some of the sins that Donnie obviously struggled with,
but take heed lest ye fall
and remain focused on what actually matters.
Bible doctrine, the fundamentals of our faith
and making sure you're walking in the new man
rather than the old man because we've learned,
like I said this past week,
that the old man can completely take over
if you're not careful.
It can happen to any one of us, myself included.
We have to make sure we're not making provisions
for the flesh.
You know, I like what Brother Alex said to me
earlier today.
He said, I don't want to get behind the pulpit
and be a hypocrite.
That's good.
Preachers who preach against drunkenness and adultery
and then go out and do it themselves
are the biggest hypocrites.
They are wicked people and we should not emulate that.
So part of the Christian life is not focusing
on the things that don't matter,
these secondary issues and YouTube and all the rest of it.
Don't get distracted with that.
Don't be obsessed with that.
The fundamentals of our faith,
it's Bible doctrine and it's walking in the new man
and living a clean, holy, Christian life.
That's why saved Christians are referred to
as a peculiar people.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and we'll be done.
1 Corinthians chapter 3,
and what I'm talking about is the fact that
we should be zealous for the Bible
rather than conspiracy theories.
What the overall message is is that
we should be zealous for the right things
rather than the wrong things.
The world is zealous for the wrong things.
The world cares about the sports and the movies
and Hollywood and the TV shows
and the celebrity gossip and all the rest of it.
That's what they care.
Let's not act like that by focusing on the things
that are secondary or don't matter
within the Christian worldview.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 12.
The Bible says there,
Now if any man build upon this foundation,
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest,
for the day shall declare it
because it shall be revealed by fire
and the fire shall try every man's work
of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide
which he hath built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss,
but he himself shall be saved,
yet so as by fire.
There are going to be works that we do in this life
that according to this Scripture here
will be burned.
I don't care how many warm meals
you've given to the homeless.
I don't care how many times you said
God bless you to whoever,
if you went to a soup kitchen
and said God bless you
and left them with John 3.16.
If you didn't preach the gospel to them,
they're going to hell anyway.
I don't care how many times you were nice
and walked old ladies across the street.
How many people have you gotten saved?
How much Bible have you memorized?
There's something called a social gospel.
It permeates leftist churches
and all the works that these social gospel sympathizers
and followers believe in and do,
they're going to be burned up one day.
They don't matter.
And what I want you to do is recognize this.
You may have some works that will be burned up
that you've done in the past,
but you can't look to the past.
Continue to look to the future
and understand that you still have
plenty of time to serve God
and recognize that there is a zeal
you need to have for the things that actually matter,
not the works that are going to be burned up one day,
according to 1 Corinthians chapter number 3.
Is your Christian life full of wood, hay, and stubble?
Or are you doing things
that are just going to go to waste one day?
Think about that.
Honestly, ask yourself that question
as you walk out of the building tonight
and recognize that if the answer to that question is yes,
there's still time to change
and there's still time to hit the restart button
on your Christian life in 2019
and do things that will earn you a reward
rather than be burned up.
Are you zealous for good works?
Are you zealous for the things of God?
Are you zealous for God's commandments
and living right and walking in the Spirit?
Are you zealous to be seen of men?
Are you zealous for vainglory?
So in conclusion, I talked about my first point
was be zealous to win souls rather than start arguments.
This is the basics of soul winning.
Let's not forget that.
The second point I made is that we should be zealous
to edify the brethren rather than chase a title.
And I talked about how preachers who are chasing a title
tend to be wicked, filthy, lucre-seeking devils.
Point number 3 was be zealous for the majors.
Don't overemphasize the minors
like breastfeeding of Babylon and all the rest of it.
And finally, I said that we should be zealous for this,
the Word of God, the King James Bible,
rather than conspiracies.
If your life is consumed with conspiracies,
you're going to feel like there's no way out.
But you know what?
If your life is consumed with the Word of God,
you know there is a way out,
and that's believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
Whatever happens in this world, it has no effect on us.
We'll be out of here one day.
We're going to be raptured, right, after the tribulation.
We're going to be with God.
There's going to be millennial reign.
We're going to rule and reign with Christ.
There's a way out for us,
but not for those who are on their way to hell.
Let's not forget that.
I really appreciate you all listening,
and let's go ahead,
and I'm going to bow my head and have a word of prayer,
and we'll be dismissed.
Lord Heavenly Father,
I thank you so much for this church.
And we've been tried with fire,
like Brother Joe talked about.
I just pray that you help us to remain steadfast.
You know, Brother Joe said that that name
is not just something that's plastered on a wall,
but it really means something.
I believe it does.
And Lord, I just pray that you fill us with the Spirit
and help us to continue to come to church
and be zealous for the things that matter,
rather than the things that don't matter.
And Lord, just keep us focused and not distracted.
The devil would love us to be distracted.
Help us to continue to preach the gospel,
to have a good percentage of the congregation go out
and win souls to Christ.
And Lord, bless the preachers here
who are going to be feeding the flock of God moving forward,
Brother Theo, Brother Joe, Brother Marcel.
Lord, help us to do what we need to do
and serve these people here at Steadfast Jacksonville.
We love you and thank you for everything you've given us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray, amen.
Amen.
All right, closing numbers.
Follow the 240 rule.