It's very good to see you all here for our Sunday Night Service.
Please find your seats.
Now take a hymn.
I'll go to hymn 377, hymn number 377, rescue the perishing, hymn number 377, hymn number
377, rescue the perishing, care for the dying, number 377.
Let's sing this out together nice and strong on that first.
Rescue the perishing care for the dying.
Snatch them and fit in from sin at their grave.
Before the everyone's lived up the lull and tell them,
oh, Jesus, the mighty to save.
Rescue the perishing care for the dying.
Jesus says, first step, fall.
will say, though they are sliding and still he is waiting, waiting the penance and chance
to receive. Lead with them earnestly, and lead with them chastely, he will forgive and
they only believe. Rescue the parish, saving care for the dying, Jesus is merciful.
Jesus will sit down in the human heart crushed by the tender.
Healings of air in the grace can restore.
Touched by a loving heart, waken by kindness.
Fores that are broken will vibrate once more.
Rescue the perishing care for the dying.
Jesus will save.
Rescue the parachute, duty demands it.
Strength for thy labor, the Lord will provide.
Back to the new week, patiently with them.
Tell them for one, for a Savior has died.
Rescue the parachute, pray for the dying.
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.
Good start to our scene tonight.
We're going to go before Lorraine is placing on the service, so if you have any heads together
with me.
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we just come before you tonight.
We thank you once again for bringing us to church on this Sunday evening.
We thank you for giving us the safety to be able to be here tonight.
And as we come into this time of worship unto you, Lord, we just ask your blessing upon
us and the fellowship of spirit and help us be edified and encouraged as we sing out these
hymns and praises unto you.
And Lord, that you also prepare our hearts for the preaching to come.
We ask that you follow our pastor with your Holy Ghost and that he'd preach with power
and unction, that you would give him the words to speak to us tonight and that we'd be receptive
And that all that's said in them would bring back the honor and the glory that you deserve for it.
And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Hymn number 221 is next. Number 221.
A child of the king. Hymn number 221.
My father is rich in houses and lands. Hymn number 221.
Stick it out on that first.
My father is raised.
and diamonds of silver and gold.
His coffers are full, he has riches untold.
I'm a child of the King, a child of the King,
with Jesus my Savior, I'm a child of the King.
I'm a child
I'm a child of, on the last, a tent or a...
I'm a child of the King.
Man, good singing.
All right, at this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service time.
Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at six.
Wednesday nights at seven is our Bible study.
This week we'll be in Psalm 87.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below,
as well as Salvation's and Baptisms across the page.
We have the birthdays and anniversaries
for the month of August.
Congratulations to the SOC family
on the birth of baby Sylvan.
Born July 15th, remember to keep mom in prayers
because of some complications and baby's doing well.
And so if you wanna help out with the meal train,
please see Mrs. Wright or Mrs. Ventura.
On the back. We've got the note about the activity at Jake's Unlimited this Tuesday, so that's just day after tomorrow and
Basically, you can show up anytime between 11 a.m. And 10 p.m. That's just their opening hours
And it's like an all-day pass and if you just show up and you're from our church
There's going to be zero cost for you. You just have to give them the password
So if you're available in the daytime, you can show up at 11 a.m. Beat the rush
be there when it's not as crowded you don't have to wait for anything or if you get off work later
in the day you can show up at night you know all the way until 10 p.m. I'm sure that there will be
some diehards that just put in the whole 11 hour shift and just eat three meals there because food
is included and all the rides and I think it includes like one game of bowling in case you just
But the laser tag's unlimited, the games, the rides,
the food, that's all unlimited.
And so if you need the password, just come see one of us.
Just ask around and we'll get you the password
because yeah, you need a password.
And then congratulations to the Ariola family
on the birth of baby Emery Sealaw
born on August 2nd at 424 AM, seven pounds, 13 ounces,
inches, and there's the picture. So congratulations to them.
We got a few guest preachers coming up on Sunday a week from now.
We got Pastor Jim Weeb coming from Canada.
I think it's Winnipeg, Canada.
And so he's going to be preaching.
Many of you maybe know him or know his son, his son visited here a lot.
I believe his son led the singing when he was here and he's a he's a real charismatic guy.
And so great family.
He's going to be preaching on Sunday.
And then Pastor Aaron Thompson is going to be preaching
not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday night.
He's going to be preaching on August 13th at 7 p.m.
And that is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and just count up the soul winning from the past few days.
So going back to Thursday, which was the 31st, anything from Thursday.
OK, got it.
OK.
All right, gotcha.
Okay
Anything else from Thursday? Okay. What about Friday anything from Friday? Okay. Got it
Got it got it
and then
Was any that from the first Friday thing or no, okay?
So the first Friday was a total of seven saved separate from those right okay, so we get the first Friday
Soul winning event tallied
Okay
All right, and then anything else from Friday?
What about Saturday?
Anything from Saturday?
Okay.
Okay, got it.
Okay, any other groups from Saturday?
And then how about today, Sunday?
Main group with Brother Ian?
One.
All right, gotcha, gotcha.
Gotcha.
Got it
Okay, anything else from today. All right, very good keep up the great work on soul winning with that
Let's sing our next song come lead us. All right, you should find the insert in front of your hymn all with Psalm
139
You don't have an answer. Please raise your hand
Surely that will slay the wicked song 139
The wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked, the wicked.
everybody. Go on your hymns now to hymn number 98, hymn number 98, the name of Jesus, hymn number 98.
Number 98 begins, the name of Jesus is so sweet, I love its music to repeat, hymn number 98,
sing it out on that verse now. The
So, on that first, the name of Jesus, I say, so sweet.
Bye.
All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around,
let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter number one.
1 Corinthians chapter number one,
and we'll read the entire chapter as we always do.
Follow along silently with Brother Dan, as he reads.
1 Corinthians chapter number one.
First Corinthians chapter one the Bible reads Paul called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and
Sostheans our brother under the church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus
Called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours
Grace be unto you in peace from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ
I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Christ Jesus
that in everything you are enriched by Him, in all utterance and in all knowledge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye come behind in no gift,
waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end,
that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were
called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions
and that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you.
Now this I say that every one of you sayeth,
I am of Paul, and I have Apollos, and I have Cephas, and I have Christ.
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
I thank God that I baptized none of you but Christmas and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in my no name, and I baptized also the house of Stefanus, besides I know not whether I baptized any other.
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of this world?
Have not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
but we preach Christ crucified under the Jews a stumbling block and under the Greeks foolishness.
But under them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of
God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which
and base things of the world, and things which are despised, have God chosen,
yea, and things which are not, to bring to not things that are,
that no flesh should glory in His presence.
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let Him glory in the Lord.
Definitely Father Lord. Thank you for this church Lord. Thank you for all the blessings
Please fill Pastor Anderson with the Holy Spirit
So they may preach boldly from the Bible and so that we may be edified by the sermon in Jesus name. I pray amen
Where we left off this morning in chapter one of First Corinthians, we were talking about the importance of having unity in the local church,
and that that stems from the fact that as we all walk with God and have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's going to cause us to have fellowship one with another.
Now, the Bible says in verse number 10 of 1 Corinthians chapter number 1,
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you all speak the same thing.
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be perfectly joined together
in the same mind and the same judgment.
So in the scripture, he's saying that in the local church,
we should speak the same thing,
we should have the same mind and the same judgment.
So we're saying the same things,
we think about things the same way,
and we judge situations the same way.
You know, it's like, hey, who's right, who's wrong?
You know, we kind of judge things the same way, why?
ultimately walking according to this rule.
right? If the Word of God is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice, and if we're
all indwelled by the Holy Spirit, then there's no reason why we would just have dramatically
different beliefs and dramatically different judgments and ways of thinking about things.
Because the more that we inundate ourselves in the Word of God and just really saturate our
brains with the Word of God, we're going to start to kind of think about things in a biblical way,
And so you got a bunch of spirit-filled people
looking at the same world through the same biblical lens
being guided and directed by the same Holy Spirit.
Of course, we're gonna be thinking and saying
and believing a lot of the same things.
Now, a lot of people today would criticize this
and say that it's a cult.
You know, oh, if everybody believes the same
and has the same attitude and it's sort of just,
you know, spouting off the same.
talking points. Well, that's just a cult. And yet the word of God says that the church
is supposed to have some uniformity of belief and that there should be some consistency from
person to person in the church. Otherwise, what's even the point, right? The whole point
of coming together as a church is that we're getting together with like-minded people.
right? Because if you believed something different, like if you didn't believe in the King James Bible,
if you didn't believe salvation, we're by faith, if you believed in something else,
then you'd be at some other church where they believe those other things.
Those other wrong things, those other goofed up things, you know, because we believe the right things around here.
And so people that are serious about the Word of God come to a church like this
that makes the Bible its final authority, where the pastor is saved,
where the stuff that's being preached is in general right.
Of course, nobody's perfect, nobody's without error.
I'm going to be wrong about things, you're going to be wrong about things.
But when it comes to the big things, the essentials,
we need to have unity and that unity should be based on the fact that we all believe the Bible.
That we all know the Bible really well.
We're all searching the Scripture daily whether these things are so.
And the more we read the Bible and conform our thoughts to the Bible,
the more we're going to think the same because we have the same Bible.
Now, go for, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 4.
We're going to come back to this in 1 Corinthians 1.
But look at Ephesians chapter 4,
and we'll find something similar over there.
And it says in, while you're turning there, I'll start reading,
but it says in verse 11,
he gave some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ,
till we all come in the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ. And so we see here that pastors and teachers have been given unto us
to edify the body of Christ until we all come in the unity of the faith. So the more Bible teachers
and preachers are teaching good doctrine, the more that's going to produce unity as people
churches that preach these little 15-minute sermons, little feel-good, good-sin, good-devil,
cold-hell kind of sermons, those churches that aren't really communicating truth to their people
or really communicating anything to their people, hardly at all, little 15-20-minute little TED talk
feel-good messages, when you talk to those members, you're going to get beliefs and doctrines and
ideas that are just all over the place.
just wildly varying and we know this because we go out on a weekly basis and we knock on people's
doors and we ask them the big question which is if you were to die today do you know for sure
you're going to heaven and we'll talk to person after person after person from the same church
and get 20 different answers to that question whereas if you talk to 20 people from faithful word
you're going to get the same answer 20 times that salvation is by faith alone through Christ alone
To God alone be the glory,
you're gonna get that same answer
from everybody you talk to.
Everybody's gonna emphasize believing in Christ,
faith in Christ, that you can't lose your salvation.
You're gonna get a consistent answer,
whereas these churches that aren't really teaching anything,
they don't have unity.
People show up, they enjoy the show, and they leave, but they don't have a unity that's based upon belief or truth in common.
Because, like I said, the beliefs are all over the place.
So, if we have disunity...
And we have dramatic disagreement in the body of Christ here, in the local church.
Well then, either maybe some people don't know the Bible,
and maybe that could be where the disconnect is coming from.
Because here's the thing, if one guy knows what the Bible says and the other guy doesn't,
can you see how there could be some disagreement over doctrine?
Because one guy just doesn't know what the heck he's talking about.
Somebody else does, he's right, the other guy's wrong.
That could lead to disagreements, you know, whereas if everybody knows the Bible pretty well,
then we're going to be on the same page on a lot of the more things, the more we know the Bible.
Or if one guy believes the Bible and another guy doesn't,
well then you're going to have some serious disagreements because one guy's really taken seriously what the word says,
another guy's like, well, yeah, I know it says that, but...
I mean, come on, we all know, right?
And has that kind of a mentality, there's going to be disunity, there's going to be disagreements.
And so according to the Bible, preachers should be teaching the Word of God
to produce unity around truth.
And then he follows it up by saying in verse number 14 that we henceforth, henceforth means
from here on out, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about
by the slight of man and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive.
And so, if we...
Don't have good biblical teaching. We're kind of just jumping around one day. We believe this one day
We believe that whereas if we've got good solid training in the word of God by going to a church
That's actually going through the Bible with us verse by verse line by line teaching us things
Then we're not going to be just bouncing around and one week were this religion another week were that religion and just
Dramatically changing our end times view like every month or two or something like that
So go back if you would to first Corinthians chapter
one, with that in mind, because he said that he wants us all to speak the same thing and
to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment, thinking the
same way, same mentality, same outlook and view of the world.
But then he says this in verse 11, for it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren,
Now this I say that every one of you say I'm of Paul, and I have Apollos, and I have Cephas, and I have Christ.
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
And here we see the actual cult mentality that we need to avoid.
So everybody having the same doctrine? That's not a cult.
Everybody thinking the same way and saying the same things and believing the same good solid fundamental core doctrines
That's great. That's what God wants
What is cult like is when we obsess over personalities and when we're loyal to
personalities instead of being loyal to truth or doctrine when it becomes around the person or personality
That is what
is cult-like. And really, this word cult will even be used in a non-religious way, for example.
It'll be used about really charismatic leaders of, say, totalitarian regimes,
like if you think about Joseph Stalin.
Over the Soviet Union people would say that was a personality cult or in Nazi Germany
There's a personality cult around Adolf Hitler or a personality cult around Kim Jong-il or Kim Jong-un
Or Uno or Kim Jong-dose or whoever they're on over there now, whichever Kim Jong-we're up to Kim Jong-quattro
But the but the point is that you know they will idolize a person
believe or do a bunch of crazy things just because they're just gonna do
anything that that guy says and so this could be a politician and there could
be a personality cult around that politician and also of course yes
religious leaders
preachers, televangels, there can be a personality cult
where people will just follow this guy absolutely
off the cliff and just change their doctrine,
just believe whatever because of that guy.
So here's the thing, everybody having the same doctrine,
everybody being stuck on the same mentality,
that's not bad, that's good, that's called unity
when we all agree on the tenets of the faith
as found in scripture.
And you say, well, I'm with this guy, whatever he says, just amen.
I don't even know what he said yet.
And I remember I was in a church one time where this guy that was on staff in the church,
this is what he said about his pastor.
He said, I have more confidence in pastor so-and-so's doubt than in my own certainty.
And this was a statement that he made repeatedly,
like months and years apart.
This is something that the guy said over and over again.
I have more, and the context was that the pastor had said,
well, I'm not really sure about this doctrine,
but I think it's like this.
And this guy just said, well,
if you even just kind of think it's that way,
well, then that's just that.
I would, I'd be more sure of that
than stuff that I'm sure about.
Stuff that you think is probably right. I'm more confident of that than stuff that I'm sure about now
That is a weird cult kind of mentality, and I'm not saying that the church
Necessarily was fostering that or promoting that but this guy had that weird
sycophantic kind of a mentality of just whatever this guy says
I'm just gonna believe it because I'm just got all my faith and trust in this guy and even if he's not even sure
He's like, I think it's this way.
I'm like, well, I am sure.
Because if you think it's that way, it must be that way.
Because I have more confidence in your doubt
than in my own certainty.
That's a pretty weird thing to say.
And this guy said that repeatedly
over the course of years.
So this is just who this guy was.
That's what we want to get away from, OK?
Obsessing over the person, exalting the person.
And that's what we see here.
following a certain leader, even as he makes dramatic doctrinal changes,
that is a cult mentality.
Okay. And I'm not talking about little tweaks of just,
oh, you know, I changed my mind about who the two witnesses are in Revelation or something.
You know, oh, I have a different view on the 144,000,
or, you know, just these obscure kind of different,
oh, I have a different view on Melchizedek or something.
You know, I think I've gone back and forth
on my Melchizedek view about four times now,
in the past 20 years of preaching,
because that is such a side issue
that nobody's really sure.
Even right now, I'm only about 60, 40
that I'm even right about that, you know.
Somebody right now is like, well,
I have more confidence in that than, you know.
But then my own 100%.
But the point is that I'm not talking about small things.
I'm talking about seismic shifts in doctrine
just to follow the person.
And the perfect example of this is Tyler Baker.
You know, Tyler Baker, who started out believing in the Trinity, right, and he had his little
band of cult followers even within the church that he had carved out his little group of
little followers, and then he just decides to abandon the Trinity and start believing
this oneness, modalist doctrine teaching that Jesus is God the Father and all this stuff
It's just one person and all this and he started teaching all these really weird crazy things about that and
All these people followed him off the cliff
But then here's what's funny is a few years go by and then this guy years later
Changes back to the Trinity and then they all change back to the Trinity with him
So he's like super negative about the traditional view of the trade. He's preaching all these sermons against the quote orthodox view of the trinity
Now he's just
Gung-ho for the orthodox view of the trinity, right? People are still following him. Same guy was totally against Calvinism
Now he's a full-blown Calvinist. So he's just a hundred percent full-blown
Calvinist John Calvin was right the sovereignty of God and blah blah blah full-blown Calvinist
And the same people just follow him?
Oh, okay.
We're Trinity?
We're not Trinity?
We're Trinity again?
Yes, sir.
Oh, we're not Calvinists?
Oh, now we're Calvinists?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
Then he takes the dramatic seismic shift from pre-millennial to post-millennial.
We're not talking about pre-trip, post-trip.
Pre-trip and post-trip, you know, those are small issues.
in your beliefs. I don't think any independent fundamental Baptist are post-millennial.
Maybe there's one out there, some weird anomaly,
but I mean, independent fundamental Baptist are all pre-millennial.
Some of them are pre-trib, post-trib, whatever, but I mean, come on.
And it's just like, oh, we're post-millennial now.
Okay, and here's the thing.
How do you go from being Trinitarian to totally motorist
to some other quasi-Trinitarian view,
to full-blown Calvinist, to,
oh, now we're post-millennial.
And then, last I heard, now they're gonna get
rid of Baptist off the name, and it's just like,
just the changes are so dramatic.
And here's what's funny about that,
there's one common denominator, though,
there's one thing that stays consistent,
the person, Tyler Baker.
That's the consistent thing so it'd be one thing, you know because with these people have just on their own just
Just left the Trinity by themselves
Come back to the Trinity by themselves
Become a full-blown Calvinist become post money and just jumped all over the place
No, they are being deceived by their cult leader and when he changes doctrine they change with him
and make, and I'm not talking about little tweaks,
I'm talking about seismic shifts in doctrine
because they are in a cult, that's why, okay?
Because it's all about the person,
it's just I am of this person.
And so whatever he, I mean, I guess if Bro just, you know,
I don't know, just starts performing gay marriages or something.
It's just, you know, then I guess, you know, then that's just the new thing, I guess.
You know, or maybe polygamy will be next or something, you know?
Or maybe he can just, you know, join the Greek Orthodox Church or something.
Or maybe he can become a Pentecostal and start doing faith healings or something, you know?
Just, I mean, just what's next with this guy?
It doesn't matter, but wherever he goes, they'll follow.
That is the cult mentality is when it's just about following the person and here's another thing that's interesting too
some people, because they have a cult-like following
of a certain Bible teacher or preacher or politician
or whatever, they'll just go with whatever that person says.
Then you sort of have this anti-cult mentality
where you'll have people that'll just go against
whatever a certain person says.
So it's like a cult, instead of based on loving someone,
it'll be a cult of hate around someone.
So that, you know, like for example, and I feel like,
Donald Trump is a good example of both of these
because Donald Trump has a cult following.
Where anything Donald Trump does,
there are people who just defend whatever he does,
even if he does the opposite of what he said
he's gonna do in the campaign and whatever,
even if he's just at Epstein's Island and whatever,
just it's all, there's an answer for everything,
there's an explanation for everything,
Trump can do no wrong.
But then you have other people where Trump can do no right.
and they're obsessed with Trump in a different way
where just everything he does is wrong.
And so they would even change their beliefs,
just like I was talking about earlier,
people would just change their view on the Trinity,
Calvinism, end times, dramatic changes.
To follow a person, there will be other people
who would dramatically change their doctrine
to not follow someone, okay?
And for example, we've seen this recently with people
who, because they're mad at me,
change their doctrine on a bunch of things and start teaching all these really weird teachings on marriage and
Childbirth just as a reaction to me
And now we have this doctrine all of a sudden telling women that they can leave their husbands
and just call it a separation.
And you have all these women putting this into practice now at these churches and it's
being taught.
And you know, this hasn't been taught for the last 20 years that I've been preaching
and my pastor friends.
I've never heard of any of my pastor friends teaching this dumb stuff that women can just
leave their husbands and all this stuff.
But now it's like they're teaching it just to react, just to teach the opposite of what
It's like, oh, yeah, I'll show you I'm good. I'm just gonna get become totally against spanking
Just as a as a reaction to pastor Anderson. I'm just gonna say that God doesn't even discipline us
God doesn't even chasing us, you know, and you're just like what?
Where is this coming from?
At the end of the day, our doctrines should be based on the Word of God, not based on personalities,
not because we're for this person or against this person.
It should just be what does the Bible say, that's what we believe.
Okay, the cult mentality or the derangement mentality you could call the other,
like people say, Trump derangement syndrome.
The derangement mentality or the cult mentality makes it all about the person. It's not about the person.
See, here's the thing. People who are actually firm in the faith, people who are actually mature Christians,
if they're following a certain Bible teacher and that Bible teacher dramatically changes his doctrine,
they'll get rid of the Bible teacher and stay with the doctrine.
So if their pastor ditches the King James, they're not going to just say,
Oh, I'll ditch the King James too. No, they're going to ditch the pastor and keep the King James, you know
The pastor goes Calvinist. They ditch the pastor and they stay negative toward Calvinism
Okay, they don't just follow the guy. They follow the Lord. They follow the doctrine. Okay
And so that's what we need to be careful of,
is that we don't obsess over persons.
Now here's the thing, God has given us pastors
and teachers and influences in our life.
It's great to have role models.
It's great to look up to people.
It's great to follow people.
It's great to have mentors and people that can teach us
and train us and help us and show us the ropes as Christians.
But we need to realize at the end of the day though,
that people are fallible.
And those people may fall away or get back slidden or turn out to be bogus or whatever.
And at the end of the day, we got to make sure that we're always looking under Jesus, ultimately,
as the author and finisher of our faith.
And so the problem in this church, they have division because they have people saying,
well, I'm of Paul.
I'm of Apollos and I'm of Cephas and I'm of Christ, you know.
And the idea here is that obviously these are all good.
Preachers, as far as Peter's a good preacher, Paul's good,
Paul's good, these are all good options.
So there's no reason to be divided here.
You know, why not just like all of them?
You know, you could just like all of them
and saying like, well, I'm of Christ,
that crowd kind of sounds like they're saying like,
well, I don't follow anybody.
You know, and that's not a good mentality either.
And so he's saying, you know, you shouldn't have this attitude of kind of breaking into factions where you have this team,
Apollos, team Cephas, team Paul, and team Christ.
Is Christ divided? It says in verse 13.
Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
He's saying, look, at the end of the day, Jesus is the Savior,
and he's the only one that we will follow all the way to the bitter end.
Other people we may have to walk away from in our lives.
You know, and look, God forbid that I would ever lead you astray
or that you would have to stop following me.
But look, if I get up and start preaching a different salvation
and start preaching a different Bible
and start dramatically changing the doctrine
where I'm not even Baptist anymore,
you know, then you should walk away.
And stay Baptist, stay King James, stay with the right salvation
and don't just stay with me personally.
Okay, you stay with Christ.
And so he says, hey, were you baptized in the name of Paul?
I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Christmas and Gaius.
Lest any should say that I'd baptized in my own name.
And I baptized also the household of Stephanus.
Beside, I know not whether I baptized any other.
He's saying, you know.
I'm kind of glad that I didn't baptize you guys because, you know, then you'd be bragging about how you got baptized by the Apostle Paul or something.
And then, you know, people would say that I was baptizing in my own name, or baptizing people into my club, or my clique, or whatever.
He's saying, no, I didn't do that.
He said, Christ sent me not to baptize, verse 17, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
Now, let me stop and say this, sometimes I've seen this mentality where people really want
to be baptized by a certain preacher or a certain teacher and I don't think that this
is a healthy attitude.
Because Paul just finished saying that, you know, we shouldn't be divided and we shouldn't be
Obsessing over personalities and that's why it shouldn't matter who baptized us. That's why Paul is saying well
I'm glad I didn't personally baptize hardly anybody except just a couple people
Because it doesn't matter who baptized you because at the end of the day you're not baptized the name of Paul
You're baptized the name of Jesus, right?
Now, here's what I want to stop and explain here is that in order for your baptism to
be a scriptural baptism, you got to be baptized underwater because this whole sprinkling, pouring
thing is not biblical.
Okay, it's never found in the Bible. The Bible is super clear. If you look up the passages on baptism
It says that that you know they went down both of them into the water and he baptized him and the Bible talks about Jesus
When he was baptized he came up out of the water because he was down in the water
He was dunked under water the Bible says were buried with him by baptism into death
And so baptism represents the death
burial and resurrection of Christ and you know you don't bury someone by just sprinkling a little dirt on them
unless you just murdered them and the police are coming
and you gotta get out of there fast.
The point is that typically if you bury somebody,
they're gonna be completely covered in earth.
Some people have criticized us and said,
well that's not true,
because Jesus was buried in a tomb,
so he wasn't...
It's like, hello, is anybody home?
If he's inside the tomb,
then he's surrounded by earth.
He's not exposed.
There's...
Earth in all directions. He's surrounded by that material. I mean, it's just bizarre. Well, he was brought
Horizontally into the mountain side or he still brought into the mountain side
However, this tomb was constructed. He is still being put in the ground
Okay, because let me just explain to you if you have a mountain like this and you enter it horizontally you still went underground
You know you're still under because this is the ground and you're in the earth now either way
You're surrounded on all sides. He wasn't sprinkled in dirt
He wasn't laying in a field with dirt sprinkled on him or poured on him
He's buried were buried with him by baptism just as Jesus was buried in the tomb
Buried in the earth. Okay, doesn't matter whether we went in horizontal vertically or diagonally. It's not the point
Point is that he went in and you don't even know that anyway
You know, how he entered it, but the point is that he was put into the earth and when
we get baptized, we're put into the water.
We're dunked underwater, okay, and why did John the Baptist baptize an anon near to Salem?
Because there was much water there.
Why would you need much water if you're just sprinkling, you just need a little bird bath?
And that's why when you go to these Protestant and Catholic churches,
they have a little bird bath that they use, this tiny little thing,
and they get a little water and sprinkle it and do that and everything like that.
Whereas like you go to a Baptist church and they have like a giant tub of water.
that they dunk you in.
Well, that's what John the Baptist is doing.
That's why I'd say he was baptizing
and ain't on near to Salem,
because there was much water there.
What kind of a situation would there ever be
where there's not enough water to sprinkle someone?
People wouldn't even be able to survive
in such an environment,
because we need water to live.
He wanted water, and specifically the Jordan River,
if you know, because I've actually been to the Jordan River,
and the Jordan River is pretty shallow.
Like it's not this big giant,
Okay, and so, you know, you don't see a giant riverboat like you know going down the Jordan
And so the idea here is that at certain points the Jordan River would not be deep enough to dunk someone underwater
So he had to go to a certain place of the Jordan River
Where there was much water there because other parts of the Jordan River to shallow sort of like the Salt River
You go to parts of the Salt River, you can walk across the river and you're only going up to your knees or something.
Other places, you're swimming, it's over your head, there's much water there.
So again, we could go on and on, but there's plenty of biblical evidence for baptism by immersion.
If you didn't get baptized by immersion, you didn't get baptized.
That's a bogus, fake, pagan, weird, Catholic substitute for real baptism underwater.
But number two your baptism needs to have taken place after you got saved
Okay, so if you got baptized before you were saved
That just means you just got wet you just took a bath
But you did not get scripturally baptized because when the eunuch asked Philip see here is water
What does the intermediate be baptized?
He said if thou believest with all thine heart thou missed and he said I
Believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and then that's when he baptized it
But he said, you have to believe with all your heart, then you may be baptized.
Okay.
That is the scriptural order you believe, then you get baptized.
And guess what there is no example of in the Bible?
Just like there's zero example of people being sprinkled for baptism, there is zero
example of any baby being baptized in the Bible.
It never happens.
And so the Presbyterians, they say, oh well over here it talks about a household getting
baptized and that's their baby baptism.
Folks, how many people here live in a house
where there's no baby living in that house?
And put up your hand, Eddie,
because Oliver's three years old,
he's not a baby anymore, you know what I'm saying?
But anyway, look,
who doesn't even have anybody under five in your house?
Put up your hand if no one under five
even lives in your house, okay?
But then they claim,
well, if the household got baptized,
that for sure includes babies.
And yet this church has probably more babies
than any other church.
I mean, how many ladies are on a pregnant list right now?
I think we have like 13, 14 ladies that are pregnant right now.
We just had two birth announcements this week.
We had another birth announcement last week.
I mean, we're having babies born in our church literally like a couple times a month.
I mean, this is one of the youngest, most baby-producing churches per capita in America.
We're just churning them out, and yet, more than half the people raise their hand and
don't have a baby in the house.
But I'm supposed to believe every household has a baby.
Right? Hey, couldn't God in 31,000 verses of the Bible, in 260 chapters of the New Testament,
couldn't He have just mentioned one baby getting baptized one single time?
He didn't do it because it's not a thing.
Because it's a pagan ritual that has nothing to do with the Bible or Christianity.
Real biblical Christianity teaches baptism by immersion after you're saved and this household baptism is foolish.
Okay, because just because the whole house got baptized first of all if we said oh man the whole family got saved in baptize
We might even say that even if they had a baby and because we would just assume well duh
Obviously the baby didn't get saved and baptized because it's a baby
But number two most households don't even have a baby. I wonder what percentage of households in America don't have a baby in them
Right, it's probably the vast majority
So what do we have? Zero instances of sprinkling, zero instances of infant baptism, and a clear
scripture in Acts 8.37 saying, well, if you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized.
He believes, then he gets baptized. So number one, baptism by immersion. Number two, baptism
is after you are saved. And number three, baptism is in the name of the Father, the Son, and
Okay, so this is what we're talking about with baptism. It's in the name of the father son the holy ghost
It's by immersion and it's after your sake
So if your baptism meets those three criteria, then you have a scriptural baptism and you're good to go
Now here's the thing if you if you've never been baptized, but you believe in Jesus, but you've never been baptized
Here's the thing you're still going to heaven and you can go to heaven without being baptized
But baptism is a step of obedience after you're saved
and you're following the Lord's example in baptism.
Jesus got baptized.
He didn't have to do it to be saved
because he didn't have any sins.
He wasn't washing his sins away.
He didn't have any sins.
He was doing it out of obedience to the Father.
We do it as a step of obedience.
It's symbolic.
It doesn't get you to heaven.
It doesn't save you.
It's something that you do after you're saved
as a first step of obedience.
Okay.
Some people will say, well, I've already been baptized three times and I'm not doing it again.
Because they got baptized like three times and they weren't saved.
And then now they're saved and they're like, yeah, but you know, how many times do I have to get baptized?
Well, here's the answer. You have to get baptized once after you're saved.
You know so I don't care if you've been baptized a thousand times
We're gonna make it a thousand and one, you know
If you've been baptized two times we'll make it three if it was
Sprinkling or before you were saved or whatever okay, but again
You don't have to be baptized to go to heaven or be saved
But you do have to be baptized to be obedient because it is something that God commands us to do
It is something that we're supposed to do
And so a lot of people will come along though and say this,
they'll say, well, if you didn't get baptized
by the right person,
Your baptism is invalid and this is a doctrine that's out there even some of my pastor friends have taught things like this and
You know
this is a kind of been a debate in Christianity for literally thousands of years of what happens if the guy who baptized you
Turns out to be a false prophet. He turns out to be a Judas Iscariot or something like that
You know, do you need to get re-baptized and I would say absolutely not that if you were saved
and dunked in deep water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
I don't care who baptizes you, your baptism is valid.
That is where I stand on this issue.
And I'll tell you the reason why I believe that is because
the Bible makes it clear that you're being baptized in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
not in the name of the person who's baptizing you.
What that means is that the person who is actually baptizing you
is actually standing in
for the father the son and the holy ghost, you know
He's doing it on behalf of or in the name of the father the son and the holy ghost
It'd be like if I came and I said hey, I'm here in the name of
You know
I don't know that, you know, I'm here in the name of President Trump, you know, delivering
this message to you, you know, that the Epstein Files are actually a big hoax, you know, and
you know, it's like, I'm speaking on his behalf, and of course they're not, but you
know, I'm speaking on his behalf is what that means.
And so you're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, it's saying
like, you know, it's really, you're being baptized unto the Lord.
It's the Lord that's doing this, but it's just someone else is just a proxy or stand-in for the Lord.
Now, here's the thing, the Bible is not really clear on the issue of who's allowed to baptize.
There's no Bible verse that spells out, hey, these people can baptize and these people can't.
When we look at the example of Scripture we see that everybody who baptizes in the Bible is some kind of an ordained minister whether it's an apostle or a deacon or something like that.
So we follow the same practice at our church. The only people who baptize at our church are people that have been ordained like all baptized people or somebody who's been ordained as a deacon or an evangelist or another pastor or something.
That's who baptizes. But here's the thing, you know, other people might have a different view on that.
or practice something different on that.
Now that's what we do because we're just following the example of Scripture
and I think that that's the best way to do it.
But let's say somebody comes to me and says,
well, you know, I just got baptized by just, you know, a random dude.
He just, he won me to Christ and he just baptized me.
And he's just a guy.
Can I really point to chapter and verse and say,
well, here's why that baptism isn't valid?
Okay, what if somebody says, this is why I was baptized by a woman?
I was baptized by a woman, a woman baptized,
because there are liberal churches out there
where a woman will literally baptize you,
or people will get baptized by their mom or something.
But here's the thing, can I really point to a chapter
and verse and say like, hey, your baptism's invalid
because it was done by a woman?
Now here's the thing, we're not gonna have
women baptizing here.
But at the same time, can I really dogmatically get up and say that is for sure wrong thus
sayeth the Lord?
No.
And so we need to be able to differentiate between things that we're on firm scripture
on and things that are just our opinions or our preferences.
In my opinion, I don't think women should be out there baptizing people.
I think people should be baptized by pastors and deacons and evangelists.
That's my opinion.
That's what I think based on reading the Bible and just kind of putting two and two together.
But I can't be dogmatic about that.
I can't say that for sure.
And I can't condemn someone if I don't even have a verse.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
So this thing of, well, who baptized you is a slippery slope
because there's no clear scripture on it.
And then here's the problem is that what happens if you get baptized
and then 20 years later your guy apostatizes.
And then it's like, oh, like you have to keep tabs on who baptized you or something make sure that bro is staying normal
I mean think about it
It doesn't make any sense and then here's what would constantly keep happening is that people would turn out to be phonies
And then you'd have a whole bunch of people that need to be rebaptized and you don't see that in the Bible
And it just seems like a big problem and not only that I'll tell you what would happen. Let's say I preach the opposite
Let's say I got up like some preachers have done and I got up and said if you got baptized by someone who wasn't saved
Then your baptism is not valid or if you got baptized by someone who wasn't a
Doctrally sound Baptist pastor your baptism is not valid if you got baptized a liberal church your baptism is not valid
What if I got up and taught that you want to know what people would say?
People would demand to be baptized by me personally is what they would do
because they'd be like, well, I don't want to be baptized by your random staff member
because I don't know if I can trust it. I don't know this guy. I know you, pastor.
And I've heard people say, like, I traveled a thousand miles
to get baptized by you personally, pastor Andrew, because you're the only one I trust or something.
But it's like, hold up. Isn't that exactly what the apostle Paul doesn't want people to think?
I mean, the apostle Paul is literally saying, I'm glad I didn't baptize people
because I don't want people make a big deal about being baptized by me personally.
So I'm not even baptizing people personally sounds to me like we want to avoid that mentality
And if we have this doctrine that says well, it's kind of important who baptizes you then you'll have all these like
baptism tourism
And what I'm constantly telling people is I'm constantly telling people look if you need to be baptized
Just get baptized at your local Baptist Church
Because people will be like, oh, I'm coming out in October,
and I want you to baptize me in October when I come.
And I'm just like, well, wait a minute.
You should baptize right away.
Because to him that know it to do good and do it the not,
to him it is sin.
Don't wait till October to get baptized.
Why don't you get baptized right away?
Why don't you go to your local Baptist church?
Yeah, but I want you to do it.
And it kind of reminds me of this phenomenon
where little kids will do this, where
they'll need something, and one of their siblings
will offer to do it.
It's like, no, I want daddy to do it.
You know, I want mommy to do it.
And they demand like a certain person to do it,
even though it's something that anybody could do.
It's immature.
When you get older, you don't care who brings you your food.
You don't care who refills your milk.
You don't care who pushes you on the swing
when you're 44 years old.
You're just glad somebody's pushing you on the swing.
You know, like, I want mommy to do it.
It wouldn't make any sense.
And so it's an immature Christian that's just like,
I want to pass an innocent to do it.
And I've had people literally get offended
because I didn't baptize them,
because they need to be baptized
and I delegated that to someone else.
And they're just like,
I want to pass an innocent to do it.
And it's an immature, carnal attitude.
Because maybe I was sick or I was busy.
I'm just trying not to give you germs, bro.
I'm trying to protect you.
And, you know, and it just, it shouldn't matter.
It's really between you and the Lord.
You know, following the Lord in baptism,
it's not like celebrity baptism time, you know?
Let's go travel, or how about this,
like celebrity geography baptisms,
like I got to fly to Israel
and get baptized in the Jordan River, you know,
by a famous preacher.
You know, just like you just on Passover, you know, just like all this wild stuff in the you know the year of jubilee
I don't you know say what in the world. I think you're kind of missing the point here, buddy
And so it's precisely what we don't want,
this thing of like, well, I got to be baptized
by a certain person.
Now, the sad thing is, some people have trouble
getting baptized at their local church,
because their local church will tell them,
well, you have to go to an eight week class to be baptized.
You know, I mean, is the water that deep?
You know, like, why, you know, you need six weeks of training?
Obviously, that's not biblical.
In the Bible, people got saved, they're baptized immediately,
they're baptized the same hour.
There's no baptism class.
But some churches just will just say,
oh, we only baptized once a year.
Or they'll be like, well, we got to build up enough people
to make it worth our while.
So we gotta wait till we have four or five people to get baptized. We'll do them all at once
So see you in about three and a half years or something, you know
Obviously, that's a failure on those churches part,
but I usually end up telling people,
surely you can find some Baptist church in your area
that will baptize you.
And I usually tell people,
go on that Military Get Saved website
and search for the word, Hiles,
and find some Hiles Anderson graduate.
Hiles Anderson graduates love to baptize you.
And so they will dunk you
and they will not make you take a class.
So there you go.
There's a little tip for the unbaptized out there
that are watching online.
So, I want to focus in now on this point here, because he's warning about occult mentality.
He's saying, yes, we should all be in lockstep on doctrine, but we're not necessarily always
going to be in lockstep behind a person.
It's about the doctrine.
We're loyal to the doctrine more than to the person, okay?
We should be loyal to people, but we should be more loyal to truth and doctrine.
And when the person crosses the line and starts dramatically changing,
we stay with the doctrine and we say goodbye to the person.
That's the way it goes.
But look what the Bible says in verse 17.
It says,
Not with wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
Now, notice he says,
Yet you have some people out there teaching that baptism is part of the gospel.
Or that you're saved through baptism, or that somehow you have to be baptized to be saved.
How would this make any sense to say, well, Christ did not send me to baptize.
He sent me to preach the gospel if baptism is part of the gospel or part of salvation.
It's not.
The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ putting our faith and trust in that to save us.
Okay, being baptized is not the gospel.
It just pictures the gospel.
It pictures the death barrel and resurrection,
but it isn't.
Paul wouldn't be glad he didn't baptize people
because I'm here to preach the gospel, not to baptize,
if those are one and the same.
No, they're two different things.
Preach the gospel.
You could preach the gospel,
get a bunch of people saved and not baptize anybody.
You know.
Other people baptize them.
Interesting, we go on mission strip
and we win people to cries.
We get people saved.
Rarely do we baptize people on mission strips.
We do it sometimes, but rarely do we do it.
Usually we try to just point them to a Baptist church
and hopefully they'll go there
and get discipled and baptized and whatever.
You know, that's up to them.
It's up to that church and that person.
But the Bible says in verse 17 at the end there,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect,
he said he didn't preach it with wisdom of words.
He said he did not preach the gospel with wisdom of words.
Verse 18, for the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
And so the apostle Paul said that when he preached the gospel,
he didn't do it with the wisdom of words.
And here's what he means by that.
He didn't logic people into salvation.
You don't get people saved by winning an argument or by proving it with logic and reason and things like that.
No, faith coming by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
It's the preaching of the cross that gets people saved.
And in fact, just a few verses down, he says something similar in verse 21.
He says,
to save them that believe.
So what he's saying is that the wisdom of this world
does not work to get people saved.
The preaching of the cross
is the tool that God has chosen
to save those that believe.
The preaching of the cross is what gets it done.
He chose preaching, and he says,
the foolishness of preaching.
And I think about this a lot.
This term, the foolishness of preaching.
And, you know, it's kind of a sobering thought as a preacher.
Like, hey, what I do for a living is in some ways foolishness.
But here's the thing.
It's not saying that it's actually foolishness.
What it's saying is it's foolishness to the world.
Because get the context.
It says the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness.
Everybody see that?
So then when it says God chose the foolishness of preaching to save them the debate
He's kind of putting foolishness in quotes. It's kind of like it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them believe
Preach it, you know, thankfully, I don't have to have like an existential crisis that like oh my life's work is foolish
No, what it really is is just that to the world. It's foolish. I mean look the world tunes into Bible preaching and they think it's crazy
You know, I can't even count how many times people will leave comments on my service like is this satire?
And I'm like just as serious as a heart attack
I mean, I'm up here like really serious preaching the Bible with all my heart
And I mean everything I'm saying to the top of my bottom my foot and there's all these comments like is this a joke
Is this satire is this real?
Why because the preaching of the cross is to them the parish foolishness
But that us which are saved is the power of God
One time this guy calls up the church and this was back in the days that my wife used to answer the phone for the church
Because I made a deal back in the days when smartphones were not very common because you know I started the church 20 years ago and
Smartphone most people didn't have smartphones 20 years ago. Believe it or not
And so my wife really wanted to get a smartphone. It was the Google phone the G1
little keyboard that snapped out and so she really wanted to get a smartphone and I said honey
I'll get you a smartphone on one condition
It'll be the church number and you have to answer it
And she's like, okay, she's like, I'll do it, you know?
So I'm like, okay, so we both had our his and her G1 smartphones
and I use mine for my fire alarm business
and she answered the church phone.
And so she would answer calls.
So a couple of years in, she gets a call from this guy
and he's calling to ask if it's satire.
Is it a joke like he didn't think that Faithful Baptist was a real church
He thought it was just a joke that I was a comedian or that I was just like an actor
That I was just putting on a skit
And so he asked her, is this real?
Is this a joke?
And she said, of course it's a joke.
Like, are you serious?
Of course it's satire.
And the guy's like, oh man, you have me going and whatever.
And she, since her goes back and forth to the guy like,
oh man, I can't believe you thought it was real.
That's hilarious.
And she's just messing with this guy.
And then after messing with this guy for like a few minutes,
then she finally goes,
no, actually, I'm just messing with you, it is real.
We do believe it.
And then I was like, huh, what?
And then she just really messed with this guy's head.
The guy's probably still confused.
Now that might seem like a weird thing for her to have done,
but if you answer the church phone enough,
you'll get jaded enough to where you'll start.
You'll start doing stuff like that, too, eventually.
There's a reason why I made that deal with her, you know,
had her answer the phone.
And you better know, I don't answer the phone.
You know, it's the staff that answers the phone around here.
Certainly, every time I answer the phone, I regret it.
But anyway...
So anyway, that was kind of funny that she did that.
But, you know, that's what people think.
Oh, it's so crazy, it can't even be real.
But then another guy watches the exact same video
and is like, this is awesome!
Wow, this is great, so I can't get enough of this Bible preaching.
I'm learning so much about the Bible.
And I remember one time this guy came to our church and he was an unsaved guy but he was
in the truth movement and so I had met this guy at some like Ron Paul event in 2008 or
something and I had witnessed to this guy and given this guy the gospel.
So he was into like the political stuff and the freedom stuff and the truth movement stuff
And he came to me and, you know, and I'm talking to him,
I'm giving him the gospel and he didn't get saved,
but I told him, man, you know, read the Bible.
So I kind of got him reading the Bible
and the guy comes back, this unsaved guy comes back
and he read like half the book of Genesis
and just came back and just said,
this is the dumbest crap I've ever read.
And I'm just like, what, are you insane?
I'm thinking to myself, first of all,
the whole Bible is awesome.
The book of Genesis is like double awesome, you know what I mean, this is like even the world considers this great literature.
But to us that are saved, I mean, the Holy Spirit's speaking to us.
I mean, we love the Bible, love it.
And, you know, I was really shocked by that because most people,
I assign them readings from the Bible, like unsaved people that I'm working on and trying to get saved.
I'll be like, oh, you know, here, read this chapter, read this.
Usually they come back saying, wow, that's really cool, that's awesome.
You know, it backfired, you know, because this guy's just like, oh, yeah, it's awful.
This is garbage.
I'm like, are you insane?
What?
But see, he's spiritually blind.
And to those that perish is foolishness.
To us which are saved, it's the power of God.
I mean, we're reading the Bible
and every page is just pure awesomeness.
These unsaved people is just like whoop,
right over their head.
Wow.
And so this is a wonderful verse for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved, verse 18 there, it is the power of God.
Now I want to park it on this verse for a minute because this is one of the things
that the new versions have really butchered this verse and really ruined this verse.
Because what the modern versions will do is they'll change it to the message of the cross
is to them who are perishing foolishness,
but unto us which are being saved, it's the power of God.
And obviously, we don't like that translation
because we're not being saved, we've done band-saved.
We're saved, we're not being saved, we're just saved.
But this is what the modern versions are doing
and it's a really bad translation
because it's misleading, it's confusing,
and it gives people the wrong idea that salvation is like a process
Now they'll say well if you go back to the Greek, you know, that's what it says and of course these people don't speak Greek
They don't know how to read Greek. They've never read the New Testament cover-to-cover in Greek blah blah blah
They have this little kind of schoolboy level Greek like like you fool around on Duolingo in Spanish or whatever a little don't doesn't make you you know
Cervantes
you know, because you did a little Duolingo.
You're not exactly an expert, okay?
These people have a schoolboy level of Greek
to take a couple semesters in Bible college,
fool around with their little software,
and then all of a sudden they know better
than the 54 scholars that gave us the King James.
They're wrong.
They're wrong about this verse.
The King James is right.
It's not being saved.
I'm going to prove it to you using the English Bible.
I'm going to prove to you that they're wrong, okay?
Because it's like well, who do you trust? Who do you believe?
You know one one guy says the Greek says this other guy says Greek says this you don't speak Greek
It's all Greek to you. What it you know, who do you trust?
Here's the thing even just in English you can see that they're wrong my friend
So there's no faith required here in me that you have to believe me that I read this in Greek
And that I understand it and it is dead on with the King James. You don't have to trust me because I'm gonna prove it to you
Stop and think about this
statement. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. So on the one
end we have those who perish. And then on the other end we have those who are saved. It's
the power of God. Two groups, the saved and the ones who perish meaning that they die.
What does perish mean to die? Okay?
So here's the thing about that.
If you're going to say that this verb tense in Greek is this process of being saved,
then you would also have to believe that the parish is also a process because it's in the same tense.
So it would have to be people who are perishing.
and people who are being saved.
And here's the problem with that,
is that that's what the modern versions do, by the way.
They change both.
They'll say the message of the cross
is to those who are perishing foolishness,
but to those who are being saved, it's the perfect.
Explain to me, how does it make sense
that we're like perishing is a process?
So like, I guess I'm dying right now,
or something, or, you know, how long have you been dying?
37 years, like what is that?
That doesn't make any sense.
Are people who are unsaved, are they dying right now?
No, they're not.
They're gonna die someday.
We're all gonna die physically someday.
Someday they're gonna die spiritually
and perish spiritually and go to hell
if they don't have Jesus as their savior.
But are they perishing right now?
That doesn't make any sense, does it?
Well, guess what?
Being saved doesn't make any sense either.
Because you're already saved.
And being saved happens at one time.
You get saved at one moment.
In a twinkling of an eye, you're passed from death to life.
Well, guess what? Death is kind of the same way.
You die in a moment, too.
Right? And the doctor says,
okay, you know, time of death, 7.16 p.m.,
you know, snap off the gloves,
and somebody else like, no,
he's still got hope.
Getting saved happens in a moment.
Being born physically happens in a moment.
Dying happens in a moment.
This statement, they are perishing,
doesn't make any sense to look at that and say,
oh, death is a process.
No, it isn't.
Death is not a process.
Now you could say like, oh, I'm dying
and maybe it's like, because you're about to die or something.
But this is talking about people
that might die like 50 years from now.
They're perishing.
They're going to live another 35 years, but they're perishing that doesn't make any sense
But let me prove this to you further keep your finger here in 1st Corinthians 1 go to Revelation 21
In Revelation 21
You have the exact same Greek word in the exact same Greek verb tense
It's the exact same type of
present passive participle, over in Revelation chapter 21, same deal.
And let's see what it says in Revelation chapter 21 verse 24.
It says,
Now, if the modern version crowd is right,
Then we should translate this verse as the nations of them which are being saved because that's what they claim that that verb tense means
Being saved. Okay. Well, then we would have to say the nations of them which are being saved
Shall walk in the light of it now
How in the world would that work because if you know the context of Revelation 21, you know
Revelation 21 is about the new heaven and the new earth and
This is after the great white throne of judgment
After death has been destroyed, after every tear has been wiped away,
after the former things are all gone, there's a new heaven, new earth,
all the former things are passed away, no more sickness, no more dying,
no sin, no curse.
No unsaved people, it's just everything's all finished.
This is what some people call the eternal state or the new heaven and the new earth.
How could people be being saved in the new heaven and the new earth?
Like I can't even think of any theology that I've ever heard of in my entire life
where they say people are being saved in the new heaven and the new earth.
So it says here the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it
So here's my question if the nations of them which are saved is a good translation for Revelation 21 24
Sounds like that's a good translation for first Corinthians 118
To us which are saved
It's the power of God and look I'm saved. I'm not being saved
I just am saved with a D on the end and the D stands for done
because I'm already saved and it's a done deal.
So even just using the English King James Bible,
we can show the error of these people's ways
of this whole being saved business,
being saved nonsense, but conveniently,
oh, conveniently, because, you know,
I don't know, maybe some of you have this question on your mind,
well, what do the modern versions do in Revelation 21-24?
Who thought, who asked yourself that question?
Just now, you're kind of wondering,
I wonder what the modern versions do?
Do they do being saved?
They just, no, they just delete that whole phrase.
So in the modern versions, it just says,
and the nations shall walk in the light of it.
So in the King James says,
the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.
And the modern version is just the nations shall walk in the light of it.
And just, there's no salvation in sight.
So, isn't that convenient that when the devil turns the modern versions into Swiss cheese,
he seems to put these holes in really strategic places?
Have you noticed that?
Amen.
It's not random.
It's these really strategic holes like, oh, by the way, that verse about how you have to
believe before you get baptized, that's deleted in a lot of Bibles too.
These modern versions are like Swiss cheese.
They are mutilations of God's Word.
This is why we're going to stick with the King James and what's fine. Let's let's go back
We're almost out of time, but let's go back full circle to what I started talking about at the beginning of the sermon about unity through truth
And about what a cult is
Now here's the thing. This is what I hear a lot from people King James only is a cult. Who's heard that before?
Oh King James only is a cult. Okay. Here's my question. Who's the cult leader?
Because the whole point of a cult is that you're worshiping or obsessing over a person
like Joseph Stalin, that's a cult, cult of personality, Hitler, Mao Zedong, you know,
whatever, the rock star, whatever, he has a cult of personality around him, televangels,
you know, think about David Kress, you know, was a cult leader, and all the, name the cult,
Who's their guy? Joseph Smith. Bring him young. Okay?
What's that? Oh, you're worshiping a book. It's the word of God. It's the Bible
You know, and by the way, the Bible says that God has magnified his word above all his name
So if God magnifies his word even above his own name, I don't think that we are magnifying it too much
when we exalt it and say that it's our final authority.
But to say like, oh, it's a cult, but here's the thing.
The definition of a cult isn't, quote, worshiping a buck.
The definition of a cult is worshiping a person
and following that person,
no matter what crazy things they tell you to say or do.
Right, because think about every buddy
that we could all agree is a cult leader, Jim Jones.
Right? Didn't he get a lot of people to do a lot of crazy things and believe a lot of crazy things?
Didn't Mao Zedong get people to do and believe a lot of crazy things and you know
They're just willing to kill and die and do all these crazy things
For that person and you know you look at all the cults throughout the seven-day Adventists are cult
Who is their cult leader Ellen G white?
Okay? The Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult. Who's their cult leader? That Russell guy.
Right? Church of Christ is a cult. Who's their guy? Campbell. That's why they're called Campbellites.
Okay? How could King James only be a cult when there's no like King James only cult leader?
Is it King James? Because he's been dead for like 400 years.
And what I find is that most people are King James only. We don't really care that much about King James.
We kind of like his anti-smoking pamphlet
But like I don't have any portraits of King James in my house
You know, we don't we don't like think about his birthday or anything like I you know
We're not really that into the guy. Are we I mean, maybe
Is there anybody in here who's just like really into King James as a person, you know, I mean don't be shy if you are
I'm not I'm not gonna look down on you if you're just this big King James fan
You know, but I really would doubt it.
Maybe there's a few history buffs out there
that think King James is a pretty cool dude,
but honestly, we're not really that into King James.
This is all we are.
We're freaked out by these publishing companies
owned and run by Jews
that do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're literal Jews.
turning our Bible into Swiss cheese because of some German atheist scholar
who doesn't even believe in the virgin birth or the resurrection of Christ, did some research and archaeology
and decided that all these verses need to be deleted and stuff.
Folks, that's not a cult. That's just us staying with the traditional text of our Bible.
We want the same Bible next year that we had last year.
We don't want our Bible changing constantly.
And you say, well, just stick to the ESV.
The ESV changed five times.
In 2020, they said, this is the last time we're changing it.
Five, six months later, they said,
we're working on a new edition of the ESV.
We changed our mind.
It'll never stop.
They're on the 29th edition of their Greek text, the Nestle Alond Greek text, 29th edition.
They've already planned the 30th, 31st, and 32nd editions.
They're on 29 now, they've already planned all the way up to 32 to keep them busy for
the next decade or more.
And when the Greek text change, then they change the English Bibles to follow those changes.
First, they change the Greek text, then the English Bibles all change.
That's why the 1984 NIV is different from the 2010 NIV, is different from today's NIV,
the T-N-I-V, and you've got the ESV American Edition and the ESV UK version, and you've
got five different editions, and then you have the New American Standard.
That used to be a big popular Bible out of print now.
Oh, but don't worry, because now you can use the Legacy Standard Bible.
Oh, there's only one catch.
You have to read the word Yahweh seven thousand times whatever the heck that is
Folks King James only ism isn't a cult King James only ism is common sense
Which is why Brother Hiles preached a sermon called logic must prove the King James Bible
Okay, but here's the thing if logic doesn't do it for you, then how about this?
Why don't you just read it and see which one has the power of God?
See which one brings forth the fruit see which one preaches the fiery sermons because every fiery sermon
I've ever heard came from a King James Bible every soul winning powerhouse. I've ever seen
Was soul winning with a King James all the great works are being done with the King James
But I just read the King James. It just sounds awesome. Oh
This is your opinion. Yeah, but I don't think anybody thinks the ESV sounds awesome
If they tell you it does they're lying
It's like these people that pretend to like a certain band just to be cool or something.
You know like I saw I saw a meme the other day that said something like hey
It turns out like no one ever really liked you too. Everybody was just pretending or something
You know I saw me you know I just like you know people are just like trying to fit in and you know yeah
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yes. He's cool. Yeah. Yeah past the cigars. You know past the whiskey
You know these Calvinist beer-swilling tattooed
Shot taking cigar smoking
Face Tattoo Calvinist is love the ESV you know Calvinism starter kit or whatever
But let's face it
Everybody knows that the KJV is a monument of English literature
It's the greatest literature in the history of the English language
It's the greatest Bible translation in the history of planet Earth
Now look, we don't have some weird doctrine about the King James.
We believe that the original Greek is the preserved perfect Word of God.
We believe that the original Hebrew is the preserved perfect Word of God.
We just happen to believe that the English King James Bible is an awesome translation
from those documents and therefore it is also the perfect inspired preserved Word of God
translates the original documents.
So, my final authority is the English King James Bible
and the original Greek text Receptus
and the Masoretic Hebrew text.
And these three are one, these three agree in one.
It's no conflict.
It's not like, well, which one is it?
The KJV or the Greek and Hebrew?
Yes.
Because all this is, is an expert translation
from the originals.
So we don't we don't believe because they're like, well, where was the Bible before 1611?
Hmm. Well, here's where it was. It was in the Greek and Hebrew that this came from and
That Greek and Hebrew has been translated into lots of other languages, too
Some of those translations are better than others
This is the par excellence translation and is it a coincidence that God in his providence worked it out to where the par excellence
Translation just happens to be in the most important language in the world
Because is anybody really going to argue the fact that English is the most important language on the planet right now?
Spoken by two billion people
You know this is the big one and so no
King James only isms not a cult and by the way a church where everybody's right on salvation and
Everybody stands with the man of God and stands with the basic doctrines of the church. That's not a cult. That's just a healthy church
A cult is where the pastor just jerks the steering wheel
and totally changes the doctrine
and everybody's just like, okay,
I guess we're Calvinists now.
I guess we're post-millennial now.
I guess we don't believe in the Trinity.
You know, that's a cult.
It's not a cult to stay by the stuff for 20 years
and stay with the true doctrines
and stay with the same Bible,
same soul winning, same gospel.
It's a marriage and war repair.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Please just bless us now as we go our separate ways, Lord,
and help us to preach the gospel to the lost,
get people saved.
And Lord God, help us to read this awesome
King James Bible every single day
so that we can learn to have unity
and we can grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
until we all come to that unity of being the same mind
and saying the same thing and believing the same thing.
In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
Hey man, the right ladies and gentlemen, take your hymnals, please go to hymn number 402, number 402, our best, number 402.
my disaster
live yard smiths.