Now, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on there is beginning in verse number
24 where the Bible reads,
And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter
and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?
He saith, Yes.
And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou,
Simon?
Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute?
Of their own children or of strangers?
Peter saith unto him, Of strangers.
Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.
Notwithstanding lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea and cast a hook, and take
up the fish that first cometh up.
And when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money.
That take and give unto them for me and thee.
And I think that this passage right here in Matthew 17 is Jesus Christ's most clear
teaching on taxes and about paying taxes.
Now a lot of people will often make reference to the story where Jesus Christ says to render
unto Caesar that which is Caesar.
That comes later in the book of Matthew in chapter 22.
But it's amazing how you never hear about this story it seems like.
You're always hearing that other story over and over again and nobody really talks
about this passage which is the crystal clear passage that explains a biblicosophy
toward taxes.
Now when you look at what Jesus is saying in this story, he clearly tells Peter that
he does not believe that he owes these taxes.
He does not believe that he should have to pay these taxes.
I mean do you get that out of the passage?
Because they're coming to him and saying, you know, doesn't your master pay tribute?
And the words tribute, custom, these are all just words for taxes.
Because of the fact that governments always like to call taxes by a lot of different
names.
Fees, you know, insurance for this or that, you know, they just couch all these taxes
with all this different terminology.
That's what he's talking about.
They're saying, look, doesn't your master pay taxes?
Does he pay tribute?
And Peter says yes.
And then he goes in and before he has a chance to even ask Jesus about it, say hey
the IRS is here, okay, before he even has a chance to say that, Jesus being a prophet,
being the son of God, knowing all things, he stops him and answers the question before
Peter even asks.
And he explains to Peter philosophically why he and Peter should not have to pay taxes.
And then he says in verse 27, notwithstanding or in spite of that, lest we should offend
them, go thou to the sea and cast and hook and take up the fish that first cometh
And when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money that take and
give unto them for me and thee.
Now let me ask you this.
Does it seem like protesting taxes was a big part of Jesus' ministry?
Seem like Jesus is on a mission to fight against having to pay these unfair taxes.
No that's not what he's doing.
He just says, let's not offend them.
Let's not fight with them over this.
Let me ask you something.
Was Jesus afraid of offending people other times in his ministry?
He's constantly offending people.
He's constantly preaching things.
And the disciples even came up to him in a sermon that he preached and said, don't
you know that the Pharisees were offended at what you just said?
And then he just starts preaching even harder against the Pharisees.
And then when the lawyers said, hey, you're offending us.
And then he changed his sermon.
He was preaching against the Pharisees.
But when the lawyers said they're offended, he changed the whole sermon, woe unto you
lawyers and just started going after the lawyers.
So the bottom line is, Jesus Christ was not afraid of offending people.
But he wasn't willing to offend people over this.
To him this was just kind of an issue that wasn't important enough to fight with
them about.
He just said, just pay the stupid thing.
Go to Matthew 22 and we'll look at the famous story in Matthew 22.
And while you're turning there, let me just give you this reminder from the book of
Proverbs.
Okay, because I'm going to explain to you what I'm going to preach about this morning.
Here's a reminder from the book of Proverbs chapter 18 verse 13.
He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.
Did you hear that?
He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.
Don't just start tuning me out once you hear what the sermon's about and just decide
that I'm wrong and I don't want to hear this.
You know, why don't you just listen to what the Word of God is saying.
Everything I'm preaching this morning I'm proving from the Bible.
I'm using scripture as the basis here.
And so I want you to just listen and not jump to conclusions or get emotional or just
decide that I'm wrong before you've even heard what I have to say.
But look at Matthew 22 verse 15.
It says, then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his
talk.
They sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians saying, Master, we know that
thou art true and teach us the way of God and truth.
Now are these people being sincere when they say that?
No.
Wicked, ungodly people who are trying to trap you and to trick you and deceive you,
they'll often use flattery, the Bible tells us.
Flattery is when people lay a bunch of compliments on you to try to get your trust
and your confidence.
You've got to be aware of that.
So these people are just these lying, evil people and they want to get Jesus into trouble
with the law is what they're trying to do.
They're trying to entangle him with his talk.
They're trying to tempt him to say something that they can later use against him.
Because remember, these people are eventually going to get Jesus arrested and they're
eventually going to get him convicted and crucified.
And when they go through that process they're seeking false witnesses to try to accuse
him of something because they have no crime to accuse him of.
He was without fault.
And so they're trying to get something that they can use against him so they send these
lying deceivers to come in and flatter him and say, oh we know that thou art true
and teach us the way of God and truth.
Trying to get Jesus' guard down, okay?
And it says that they, neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person
of man.
Verse 17, tell us therefore, what thinkest thou?
Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not?
But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
Show me the tribute money.
And they brought unto him a penny, and he saith unto them, Whose is this image
and superscription?
They say unto him, Caesar's.
Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's,
and unto God the things that are God's.
When they had heard these words, they marveled and left him and went their way.
Now look, the same thing is going on today as was going on in Matthew 22.
There truly is nothing new under the sun, and just as Jesus Christ was attacked by
people who were trying to use taxes as a way to entangle him, as a way to accuse
him, as a way to malign him and speak evil of him, the same thing is being used
today where people are trying to use this issue to attack men of God who are following
Christ.
Just as they attack Christ, they will attack the followers of Christ, and they will use
issues like this that are really not biblical, spiritual issues.
Jesus Christ was not a crusader on this issue.
It's clear from both passages.
The first passage he says, Well, I don't believe in paying these taxes, but we're
just going to pay it because we don't care.
We don't want to offend them.
We don't want to fight over this.
Just give them the money.
We wish that we could pay taxes as easily as Jesus did, where he just performs a miracle
and the fish has a gold coin in its mouth.
Would to God our taxes would be one coin.
Nowadays he'd have to send a whale.
It wouldn't be a fish with a gold coin.
It'd have to be a whale that has swallowed a whole suitcases of money in order to pay
the taxes, because the taxes are so high.
But then in Matthew 22, he's basically saying, This doesn't concern me.
I don't care.
This isn't my face on this coin.
It's Caesar.
Just give it to him.
Who cares?
This wasn't some big issue that he's making a centerpiece of his ministry at all.
Now this is the Bible's teaching on taxes.
Now what I want to preach about this morning, and again, I want you to hear me out this
morning, because I know that there are some people in this room who probably disagree
with what I'm going to preach this morning, and listen, that's okay if you disagree
with what I preach.
I think the vast majority of people agree with me on this, but there are some people
who I'm sure disagree.
That's okay.
I'm not mad at you.
I don't think you're a bad person if you disagree with me on this issue, but I'm telling
you something.
I'm going to preach what the Bible teaches on this issue, and I want to lay it to rest,
and honestly, there's a lot of deception out there on this issue, and so I want to clear
it up.
And that is this issue where people are saying, hey, 501c3 churches are of the devil.
Who's heard this teaching that says, oh, 501c3 churches, they're wicked, they're
of the devil, they're in bed with the government, they're a state-sponsored church,
all these things.
You know, I'm going to show you today that that's a lie.
Now let me say this first of all.
Our church, Faith Ward Baptist Church, is not 501c3 certified.
But let me tell you something.
To sit there and lie and attack good churches that are 501c3, and I've got right here
printed out from the IRS tax code section 501c3.
So instead of just some rumor on the internet or what some guy gets up and says or some
websites, this is the source.
This is statute 501c3 in my hand, as well as subsection H, to which it refers, okay?
So I'm going to show you the truth about this today from the Bible and from the tax
code itself.
You say, why would you even preach about this?
You know, honestly, there's been a long time that people have said, you need to preach
about that, or you need to talk, but I just didn't want to preach about it because I'm
sort of like Jesus.
I don't care about it.
But the reason that I have to preach about it today is because there are so many good
men of God that are being falsely accused and lied about and blasphemed and there's
so much deception that this is just spreading and all kinds of people are getting out
of church over it, they're falsely accusing men of God, and let me tell you, I believe
that this movement is of the devil.
Now I'm not saying that people who believe in this are of the devil.
Of course not.
But I'm saying the people behind it, I'm going to prove to you, I'm going to show you who
is behind this movement, who started this movement, and that he is an unsaved false
prophet, okay?
And I'm just going to get to the bottom of it today scripturally.
But let's see what the Bible teaches about this subject.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 2.
We've already seen some teachings from Jesus Christ in the book of Matthew where he kind
of gave his view on taxes.
Now let me just start out by saying this, I pay taxes.
You know, I file my taxes every year and I pay the amount that they want me to pay,
but I believe like Jesus that we should not have to pay taxes.
You know, there was no income tax before 1913.
I do not believe that we, if we're supposedly living in a free country, should be signing
over 30, 40, 50 percent of our income to the government if we're supposedly living
in a free country.
Especially since all that money is just going to the bankers, all that money is going
to the military industrial complex, it's all going toward wickedness that I don't believe
in.
Okay?
So I'm right there with Jesus saying, hey, if we were free, like we supposedly are,
we shouldn't have to pay this.
But I pay the taxes for one reason, not to be put in prison.
Now you say, Pastor Anderson, you're a coward, you're a hypocrite, because you don't want
to go to prison.
Listen, I am willing to go to prison for preaching the Bible.
I am willing to go to prison for obeying anything that the Bible tells me to do.
Anything that this book says to do, I will do it even if it means me going to prison.
But I am not willing to go to prison for something that the Bible did not tell me to
do.
And the Bible did not ever tell me, don't pay taxes.
It didn't say that.
Now look, I know people who don't pay taxes.
I am not against those people.
I'm not condemning those people.
I'm not going to judge those people because I can see where they're coming from.
I understand their side.
But let me tell you something, I'm not willing to go to prison for something the
Bible never told me to do and for something that Jesus was not willing to go to prison
for.
Jesus didn't want to offend the IRS.
He just said, just give them the money, get them off our back, Peter, you know,
and let's go preach the Kingdom of God.
The streets of heaven are paved with gold, my friend.
The Kingdom of God is not about money.
And whenever a church has money and financial issues at its center, that church has strayed
from what Christ taught.
When you have a church that is always raising money and always a fundraiser and
always just, it's all about the offerings and all about raising money and it's just
preaching about money constantly, you know, that's a wrong emphasis.
That's not what the Bible emphasizes.
Yes, the Bible talks about money, but not to those extremes.
And money isn't that important of an issue to where we're just willing to just die on
that hill and just go to prison over it.
No, we'll go to prison over biblical things.
I mean, look, if they said, hey, if you spank your kids, we'll put you in prison,
I'll spank my kids and go to prison.
Because the Bible commands it.
I mean, if they said, hey, stop preaching against homosexuality or we'll put you in
prison, I'll go to prison.
I will not stop because those are the things the Bible commanded me to do.
I'm going to prove to you from scripture that the Bible does not command us to take
a stand on this issue.
And this is a non-issue and this is something where just a few churches that you could
literally count on a couple of hands, you know, in the whole country that go along
with this thing and they're basically saying every other church is a false church.
We are the only right churches.
Now that's always a red flag.
When somebody gets up and says we're the only true church and everybody else is not considered
by Christ to be a church, that should be a red flag to you right away.
And in fact, I'm going to prove to you that one of the main ringleaders of this
movement is a cult leader and I'm going to show you biblically why he's a cult leader.
But I'll say this, Faithful Word Baptist Church is not the only scriptural church
in Phoenix, Arizona.
There are churches all over Phoenix, Arizona that are scriptural, Bible-believing churches
that preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, that preach the King James Bible.
You know, I happen to think our church is the best one in Phoenix.
Okay, I'm not saying that those churches are as good as ours.
You know, if I thought they were better than ours, I'd go join.
You know, I think our church is the best.
But you know what, that doesn't mean that they're not scriptural churches.
And to have this attitude that says everybody's wrong, Christ doesn't recognize any of these
churches, only we are a true church, that should be a scary thing right away.
That's what the Catholics have always said.
That's what the Protestants, we're the only true church.
No, there are churches in Phoenix.
There were churches in Asia.
There were churches in all these towns in the Bible.
So look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 4.
The Bible says, no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that
he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
Now the thing that first prompted me to look at that scripture was the fact that
when they came to Jesus about the issue of taxes, they were trying to what?
Entangle him in his talk.
And you know, we need to be careful that we don't get entangled in the wrong things
when Jesus Christ has chosen us to be a soldier, not to wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
We don't want to get entangled in the wrong battle.
For example, Josiah was one of the greatest kings of Judah that brought about great revival
to the whole nation.
But Josiah decided to get involved in a fight that did not concern him.
And he decided to go out to battle against Nico, king of Egypt.
The Pharaoh Nico of Egypt went to him and said, you know, I don't want to fight with
you.
I don't have any battle with you.
Just leave me alone.
I'm doing God's will.
And Josiah went out and fought against him anyway and God allowed Josiah to be killed
in battle because he got in a fight that wasn't concerning him.
We don't want to get entangled in the wrong battle today.
And you say, well what is the wrong battle that we should not get entangled in?
What are the affairs of this life that we shouldn't get entangled in?
Let me explain to you what it is just in a very brief moment.
The battle between Republicans and Democrats.
Because it's the stupidest battle in the world because they're both of the devil.
And basically, you know, the world wants to get us involved in this fight between
the Republicans and the Democrats.
The false left-right paradigm of two groups that are both not honoring to Jesus Christ,
that are both against the principles of this book, and that are both against the principles
of the founding documents of our nation.
The Declaration of Independence and even the Constitution of the United States.
Both of them.
Both Republican and Democrat are for gigantic government.
Both Republican and Democrat teach that abortion is okay in certain circumstances.
They just argue about what the circumstances are.
Both of them hire all kinds of homosexuals to work on their campaigns and teach that
homosexuals are wonderful.
Both of them are spending us into oblivion.
Both of them rack up huge amounts of debt that all goes to the bankers.
Both of them want to take us to war because they are bought and paid for and funded
by the military industrial complex.
One of them is honoring to Jesus Christ.
Oh yeah, some of them might get up and say the word God every once in a while.
Oh, he said God.
So wonderful.
Isn't it so great that George Bush said God or, you know, Jesus or whatever.
Yeah, they get all excited.
These people literally worship Satan.
They literally bow down to a giant owl statue and perform mock human sacrifice at the Bohemian
Grove.
They literally are involved in secret societies of Skull and Bones and of the Masonic Lodge
and the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission.
Look, these are not just wild-eyed conspiracy theories, they're facts.
And if you are going to sit there and think that I'm going to spend my time and
my money or the church's time and the church's money getting involved in fight between
Devil A and Devil B, I'm not interested.
I'd rather be out soul winning, I'd rather be out preaching the Bible, I'd rather be
studying my Bible, I'd rather be praying, I'd rather be doing something that matters
for God, and I'd rather do something for the Kingdom of God than for our corrupt,
wicked nation.
Look, the politics of our nation don't even matter.
When our nation is filled with 35-40% of couples, one of them commits adultery.
Look up the statistic on adultery, 40% of marriages, adultery takes place.
Some studies have put it at 45.
75% of marriages, 50-75%, depending on which study you look at, are ending in divorce.
The schools are filled with homos and homo-propaganda.
One third of women have had an abortion in America.
One third.
And you're worried about whether or not Mitt Romney or Obama gets elected?
I mean, you're insane.
You think that's going to matter?
You think it's going to make a difference whether the Satan-worshipping Mormon gets
elected or whether the Satan-worshipping Muslim or charismatic or whatever he is gets
elected?
Who cares?
And that's what you want me to get involved in.
That's what you want our church to all be about, huh?
Tax and elections and campaigning.
Somebody tried to hand me a campaign flyer yesterday and I just said, I don't vote.
But let me tell you something.
I'm going to show you right now what 501c3 is because a lot of people don't even know.
But they just hear, it's bad, it's wicked, it's evil, it's horrible.
Here's what 501c3 says.
Let's just read it and then we're going to look at the Bible and then we're going
to make a decision about what we believe.
Listen to what 501c3 says, Corporations and any community chest, fund, or foundation
organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public
safety, literary or educational purposes, or to foster national or international amateur
sports competitions, but only if no part of its activities involve the provision of
athletic facilities or equipment, or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals,
no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder
or individual, no substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on propaganda
or otherwise attempting to influence legislation except as otherwise provided in subsection H,
which does not participate in or intervene in, including in the publishing or distributing
of statements, any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate
for public office.
That's 501c3.
That's this demonic statute.
Now listen, there are probably a lot of people sitting in here that are like, what
did you just read?
What did that even say?
What are you even talking about?
And here's the thing, I don't blame you.
I don't think you're dumb.
If you didn't understand what I just read, you're not dumb, because the people who write
this are dumb.
Because I'm serious.
I mean, it's just complicated, right?
It's this complicated legalese, and you know, a lot of people would probably have to read
this over and over again, scratching their head like, what in the world is this even
talking about?
Because it's written in this legalistic, political, mumbo jumbo IRS speak that nobody
can understand.
Now I know you might just do your taxes on 1040EZ form, but try running a business
and you're on all kinds of complicated, crazy stuff.
So what I'm saying is, ah, the church isn't a business.
Let me just say it, what I've said before.
The only people who think business is a bad word are communists and hippies.
That's the only people who think business is a bad word.
You know the Bible calls the work of the church business?
Just look up the word business in the Bible.
Jesus said I must be about my fathers.
Acts chapter 6 says we need deacons to handle this, but business, business.
But what I'm trying to say is that this stuff is so complicated, and there are all
kinds of pastors all across America who organize their church legally in different ways, right?
But they're all just trying to do the best that they can, and they just start trying
to figure this stupid garbage out.
I mean it's just complicated.
I mean look, if somebody just doesn't cross the T or dot the I on their taxes, you
wouldn't think that person should be thrown in jail, would you?
Because it's so complicated, people sometimes just don't understand it.
Who's ever been confused by your taxes before?
Everybody has.
It's so confusing.
So do you think it's right because pastors have different views on this subject.
One pastor does it one way, one pastor does it another, one pastor has it set up
as a corporation, the other pastor has it set up as a trust, the other pastor just
gets a trade name and an F-E-I-N, and another pastor sets it up as whatever.
Do you really think that we should just say that if you don't set it up exactly
a certain way, you're demonic, you're wicked, you're of the devil, just because pastors
have different opinions about how to interpret this garbage?
And you see what I'm saying?
We need to be careful not to just falsely accuse churches and men of God and say, oh
that's a wicked church because they're 501C3.
They're just trying to figure this out.
They're not trying to be bad.
They're just trying to just pastor the church and stay out of prison, okay, and just
trying to just follow the law without compromising what they believe, and different people have
different views on this.
Now let me just try to cut through all this jargon and just explain to you what
this is actually saying.
Let me just summarize what this is saying.
What statute 501C3 is saying is that if an organization is going to claim, whether
it's a corporation or not or whatever, if an organization is going to claim to be
a religious organization, right?
Like if an organization is going to say, we're a church, we're a religious organization,
he's saying anything that is set up, whether it's a corporation, community chest, or just
fun, just any bank account, that supposedly, hey, this is a church bank account, it's
for religious purposes, that basically all of that money that comes into the church
offering plate, according to this law, has to be used for religious or educational or
charitable purposes.
Does everybody understand that?
So if $200,000 comes in to Faithful Word Baptist Church, that $200,000 has to be
spent only on things that are religious, educational, charitable, and then there's other things
you could spend it on that we don't, like sporting events or stopping cruelty to animals,
I mean we barbecue animals after the service sometimes, and we try to do it as humanely
as possible, but you know, what can we say?
So I'm saying, so here's what they're saying, we can't take the money that comes in the
offering plate, right?
And just say, oh, here you go, brother Fairchild, here's 100 bucks out of the offering plate.
We can't just give him money, does everybody understand?
Because we have to use that money for things that are religious, educational, or charitable.
It says in 501c3, we can't give that to private individuals, we can't just take money
out of the offering plate and just hand it to somebody and say, here you go, here
you go brother Fairchild, here's 100 bucks, here you go, let's just give money
to people, here I'll stuff some in my pocket, here let's give you some, let's give
you some.
We can't, it's illegal.
Now does anybody think that we should just be taking money out of the offering plate
and just giving it to people?
Not for a religious reason, not for an educational reason, not for a charitable reason.
So when could we give people money?
Well here's the thing, we could pay people for the work that they do, as long as the
work they do is religious, educational, or charitable.
So for example, let's say brother Scott does work on our website and he revamps our
website and fixes it up and everything, and then we pay him.
That's okay because it was for some religious, our church website.
Or let's say somebody is starving to death and we give them money to buy food.
That's charitable, right?
Or if somebody says, hey, I have no power in my house and it's the middle of summer
and we're baking and I have little kids in the house and we don't know what to do
and we paid their power bill because they're in dire straits like that.
That's charitable.
That's okay.
But are we allowed to just give people money, here's 500 bucks, here's 300 bucks, hey,
for stuff that has nothing to do with religion, nothing to do with charity, nothing
to do with education, we're just giving people money, hey, let's just go buy things
that have nothing to do, let's just go buy a sporting facility, how about this,
let's just buy weights, fitness equipment, on the church's money and we'll just all
use it as a church.
That's not legal.
Does everybody understand?
Because is lifting weights religious?
It's not charitable, it's not educational, do you understand what I'm saying?
So we can't just, there's limits to what you can do with the church's money.
But they all make sense.
Then the other thing that 501c3 is saying is that we can't take any substantial part
of our church's money and use it to influence elections, to propagandize politically or
influence elections.
Now they have defined what a substantial part means because that's kind of vague, isn't
it?
What is a substantial part?
Here's what they're saying, more than 5%.
More than 5% is a substantial part.
So let me just break this down for you.
Let's say $200,000 comes into our church in a year's time, $200,000 comes in, 5% of
that would be 10 grand.
So that means that this year we could go out and spend $9,000 on things that have
nothing to do with religion, nothing to do with charity, nothing to do with education,
we could just spend $9,000 on political campaigning and still be in compliance with
this.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
We could go out and donate, we could go donate $9,000 some dollars to some pro-life
thing that's trying to get something on the ballot or $9,000 to some, you know, whatever
political cause and still be in compliance with this statute.
And then when we take the sermons, I preach 152 sermons a year, I could take 7 sermons
a year and not even open the Bible, put the Bible away, not even open the Bible and
just preach politics.
Nothing about the Bible, pure politics and to speak on politics for 7 entire sermons
and still be in compliance with this.
Isn't that, isn't this so restrictive?
Now let me explain to you how much money we spent last year on influencing elections.
Zero.
Let me tell you how many sermons I spent last year preaching on politics without a
religious teaching from the Bible.
Zero.
In fact, I care so much about influencing elections that I don't vote.
That's how much I care about influencing elections.
But do you really expect me to believe that Jesus Christ wants us spending 8, 9, 10 thousands
of dollars trying to influence some election and I'm supposed to spend 2, 3 hours a week
on the clock for the church out political campaigning and preaching entire sermons that
are just nothing to do with the Bible, just all politics, I'd still be in compliance
with this.
But yet these liars on the internet will say, oh, if you're 501c3, you can't mention
politics.
That is a lie.
I read it to you and it says no substantial part of your ministry can be for politics
and that has been defined at 5%.
So I can get up, I could sit there and I could take out a can of spray paint right
now and just spray paint on the wall, vote yes on proposition, whatever, and still be
in compliance with this.
I could get up and say you need to vote yes on Prop 101 or whatever and still be in compliance
with this.
So basically they're just lying.
And by the way, they'll also lie and say you can't even preach against homosexuality,
you can't even preach against abortion if you're 501c3, I've even heard them say that.
I can preach anything in the Bible and still be in compliance with this.
There's nothing that this book tells me to preach that I can't do according to this in
my hand.
So to sit there and say, oh yeah, this 501c3 is to muzzle the preachers and it's
to stop them from being able to influence politics and all this stuff, it still allows
them to influence politics but what they don't want is a political organization that's
fronting as a church.
You know what I mean?
Let me give you an example of that.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. flat out denied the virgin birth of Christ, denied the doctrine
of the Trinity, denied the inspiration of scripture, but yet he was a Baptist pastor.
Why was Martin Luther King Jr. a Baptist pastor if he denied the Trinity, denied the
virgin birth, denied the inspiration of scripture?
Because it was his political platform.
He would get up every Sunday and preach political sermons.
Whether or not you agree with his politics is not the issue.
He was not a Bible believing Christian.
There are whole foundations dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. that actually have
all of his writings compiled online.
You can read his essay on why the virgin birth is not true.
You can read his essay online where he denies the Trinity.
You can read his essay where he says that the scripture is not inspired by God.
It's not about civil rights or his politics.
He wasn't really a Baptist, but he's fronting as a Baptist for political reasons.
That's what this law, and I'm not saying I agree with this law, it doesn't matter
to me.
I'm just explaining to you why this law is on the books.
Because they just don't want a political group to just say, hey, we're a church.
When they're not even really doing anything religious, educational, or charitable.
It's really just all about politics, throw in Jesus every once in a while, call
it a church.
Now if you would, let's go to some other scriptures.
Go to Acts 20, Acts chapter 20, Acts chapter number 20.
Now you say, wait a minute Pastor Anderson, you're leaving something out.
Yes I am.
There's one other thing that this law said.
It said that you're not allowed to endorse a political candidate during the election.
So during an election, I can't get behind the pulpit and say, hey, vote for so-and-so.
Now I can influence politics, I can get up and say vote for this proposition.
I can get up and I can go around and campaign for all kinds of political causes
and propositions and laws, but I cannot get up behind the pulpit and endorse a political
candidate.
You say, oh that's terrible, that's awful.
Okay I have a question for you.
Which political candidate do you want me to endorse when they're all of the devil?
I mean it's so ridiculous like, well you can't even endorse a political candidate.
Who have I ever wanted to endorse, ever?
No one.
So to sit there and say, oh you're a compromiser because you won't endorse political candidates
from the pulpit.
Look, if there was a law that commanded me to endorse political candidates, I'd refuse
to do it and go to jail for that.
Why would I want to endorse any political candidate when they're all bad?
Why would I?
And you know what's funny?
All across America, all kinds of independent fundamental Baptist churches and all kinds
of Baptist pastors during this last election in 2012, they were all in their personal
life endorsing Mitt Romney, because that's legal.
They had a Mitt Romney sticker on their car, they're going on Facebook and Twitter
saying vote for Mitt Romney, because they just can't do it behind the pulpit.
They wish they could do it behind the pulpit, but instead they just do it on Facebook,
Twitter, they put it on their car, let me explain something to you.
It's almost good that these guys couldn't do it from the pulpit because they're fools
for endorsing Mitt Romney, because Mitt Romney is a Satan-worshipping Mormon, and Mitt Romney
is one who was pro-choice for decades, and he was pro-abortion.
Look Mitt Romney is the one who is the author of Romneycare, which is the basis
for Obamacare.
But oh man, let's defeat Obama by voting for Romney.
It's bizarre folks.
It's the false left-right paradigm.
That's a fraud.
Why would I want to influence that election?
Because I really care whether Obama or Ro-mama gets elected.
Oh, don't vote for Obama, vote for Ro-mama.
So what?
It's the same person.
I mean we're in Bush's fourth term right now.
And if anybody doesn't know what I'm talking about, you're just not awake politically.
You're just deceived.
The Republicans spend more than the Democrats.
Romney flat out said, oh man, he said, I have a homosexual's word for my campaign,
and he said, Romney said, if I get elected, I'm going to appoint homosexual judges.
That's what Romney said.
That's what he said.
And then, then you say, yeah, but Romney's against gay marriage.
Guess who else is against gay marriage?
Obama in 2008, he said, I'm against gay marriage, but I love homos.
And then, he is a homo.
And then Romney's like, I'm against gay marriage, but I love homos.
So can somebody tell me what the difference is?
But now Obama just changed to where he's for gay marriage.
You know why?
Because the tipping point just happened where 51% of Americans are now for gay marriage.
So as soon as that tipping point, it's like, all right, time to switch.
He said, well, I just wasn't for Obama, I was for Rick Perry.
Rick Perry was a liberal Democrat, and then he was approached by a member of the Republican
party that said, hey, I can make you a really popular Republican, you want to switch
to being a Republican?
Sure.
Did you know that?
No, you didn't know that, did you?
Because they didn't tell you that on Sean Hannity.
Glenn Beck forgot to tell you that.
Rush Limbaugh forgot to tell you that.
But you know what?
King James told me, you know, not to even entangle myself in the affairs of this life,
and that the rule is of the darkness of this world, and that the people that run
our world and the people that are the judges, according to 1 Corinthians 6, are
a bunch of effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind.
I already knew that from reading the Bible.
But where did I have you turn?
Look at Acts 20, verse 27.
And I hope the sermon's making sense to you this morning.
I'm trying to make this clear, it's hard, my job is hard as a preacher to take this
complicated stuff and try to break it down and make it simple.
You know, and you say, well you need to be giving money to private individuals.
You need to be handing cash to people.
No I don't.
Because the church's money biblically should be spent to pay the pastors and deacons, and
it should be spent to provide food and meat and drink in the house of God, and
it should be provided for charity for widows indeed and orphans.
So I mean, everything that we do is religious.
I mean, who thinks that this church service is religious?
Who thinks every church service is religious?
Who thinks the Bible's religious?
You know, any time we're preaching the Bible or doing anything the Bible told us to do,
we're doing something religious and are in compliance with this.
Why would we want to do stuff that's not religious and call it church?
Let's get together and do something completely not religious and let's just call it church.
Who thinks that's biblical?
Okay, well this is what it's telling us not to do.
So what?
Again let me just reiterate, our church is not even 501C3 certified.
Even if we were, we would be in total compliance with this, okay?
So anyway, look at Acts 20-27.
It says in verse 27,
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
So Paul's saying, I preached everything in the Bible.
You know, the Bible says preach the word.
It says that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God.
We should be preaching the entire Bible.
There's nothing in the Bible that we should not preach.
But someone show me where from Genesis to Revelation the Bible says endorse a candidate.
Somebody show me from Genesis to Revelation any man of God endorsing a political candidate.
Influencing elections, promoting political politicians and people like that.
Show me, you can't because it isn't there.
So let me ask you something.
Am I in sin by not promoting political candidates if the Bible never told me to do so?
Am I an IRS puppet?
Have I had duct tape put over my mouth by the IRS?
No, because I never wanted to endorse a political candidate anyway.
I didn't want to provide sporting equipment for you.
I did not start Faith Ward Baptist Church to provide a sporting equipment facility for
you, okay?
And that's what it's telling me I can't do with the church's funds and the church's resources.
I didn't start Faith Ward Baptist Church to go out and spend more than 5% of my time
influencing elections.
Not interested.
Don't care.
You know what elections I want to influence?
The election of people in the kingdom of God.
The elect.
Let's go get people saved so they can be the elect now.
That's the only election I'm influencing.
I'm going to spend way more than 5% of my time on that election.
You're worried about the wrong election, my friend.
Oh, you don't vote.
Oh, oh.
Well you know, I vote for people to get saved every week by going soul winning.
You're the one who's not voting when you don't go soul winning.
That's the election that matters.
Okay, now the Bible says that we should not shun to declare all the counsel of God,
but listen to what else the Bible says in Ecclesiastes.
Go to Matthew 15, but in Ecclesiastes 12 verse 13 the Bible says, let us hear the
conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man.
Now that's a very profound verse.
Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man.
Let me ask them, do I have any duty outside of fearing God and keeping his commandments?
Is there any duty?
Anything somebody can say.
You have to do this outside of fearing God and keeping his commandments.
No.
Okay, so what if somebody says you have to vote?
That's not the whole, that's not, is that commanded in scripture?
Then it's not my duty.
Oh, it's your civic duty.
Not to our stupid country.
You know what I mean?
Oh, you're an American.
No, the people who run our country are an American.
Okay, so I, you know, I'm nuts to these people.
They stopped representing me a long time ago when they just started becoming completely
anti-Christian, anti-Bible, anti-morality, anti-family.
I'm not interested anymore.
Okay, so there's nothing in the Bible that says endorse a political candidate.
Vote.
Put out political propaganda.
So therefore anyone who is teaching that that's my duty is in violation of scripture.
Look at Matthew chapter 15 verse 9.
It says, but in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of
men.
So man is adding commandments here, saying hey, you must have a church that is illegal
and you must pay the pastor under the table, which is a felony.
Where does the Bible say you must commit tax fraud to be right with God and you must
commit felony and pay the pastor under the table?
It doesn't say that.
Be willing to go to jail for paying the pastor under the table.
That's not what the Bible says.
I'm going to explain that in a moment, what I mean by that.
Listen to Romans 12 verse 8.
If it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Isn't that what Jesus was doing when he just said like just pay the stupid taxes.
We don't want to offend them.
He's just living peaceably.
He's just going along to get along about stuff that doesn't matter.
Now there are some things that matter.
You know what they are?
The things that are mentioned in this book.
They matter.
You know the things that don't matter?
Things that are mentioned in this book.
It's that simple.
And there's plenty of rules in this.
Who thinks that this book doesn't have enough rules in it?
There aren't enough.
Six hundred commandments, God?
That's nothing.
Give us more.
Give us more rules.
We want more commandments, yeah.
Why don't you work on keeping all six hundred of these, then we'll talk.
You're out looking for new commandments and new rules.
Now let me just go into, in this latter part of my sermon, let me just go into who's
behind this movement, and the wickedness of the people that are behind this movement.
First of all, let me just say this, it is wickedness to be a false accuser.
And you're saying every church that's 501C3 is not a scriptural church, or even every
church that's incorporated, which our church is incorporated, but we're not 501C3.
Corporation means body, by the way.
You know, and again, I don't even have time to explain all this, but here's what
a corporation means, it means I don't own the church, it means that the property belongs
to the whole church as a body, not to me personally.
Who thinks that that church van is my personal van, and that I should use it for my personal
use to go to sporting events?
Who thinks that I should do that?
No one.
Who thinks that that van belongs to the whole church, and that it should be used
for religious purposes, or charitable or educational purposes, which could include church activities,
fellowship, just whatever.
That's what it is.
And what being incorporated does, it makes it one body instead of just individuals or
an ownership, a proprietorship, where there's one owner, instead it belongs to the group
or the body.
Now, let me explain to you who's behind this.
One person, I just got this given to me, this is by Sam Adams.
This is one of the people who's really vocal about this on the internet.
And he's teaching this thing.
I took some notes, this is a four page PDF by Sam Adams called The Surrender and Betrayal
of the Church, the Unholy Union of the Church with the State Through Incorporation and
Tax Exemption.
Now, first of all, in this document, he says that if a church is tax exempt, that
translates to the government giving them money.
Now, do you think that the government gives Faith Ford Baptist Church any money?
Who thinks that the government gives us money?
They don't.
But here's what they say, yeah, but if you're tax exempt, that's like they gave you money.
What in the world?
So because they stole less of your money, that means we gave you money.
That'd be like if a thief came to your door and he's like, well, instead of stealing
all your money, I'm going to leave you 50 bucks.
That's like I gave you 50 bucks because I stole everything but I decided to leave
50 behind.
That's me giving you 50 bucks.
That's what people believe.
That's what the Democrats believe.
They say that all the time.
You know, oh yeah, they're giving money to these corporates, they're giving money
to churches by not taxing them.
But anyway, I took some notes on this four-page PDF.
According to this four-page PDF, our church is apostate, we've gone a whoring after other
gods, we are not a true New Testament church, we have committed a sin that is the same
as receiving the mark of the beast.
I as pastor do not have biblical authority, I am a mere hireling, we've committed abominable
sin, the Bible is not our final authority, the pastor has committed spiritual adultery,
the pastor is unworthy of the name Baptist, and the pastor is an idolater, simply because
our church is incorporated.
I called this guy on the phone and I asked him to clarify this.
I went straight through the horse's mouth and asked him, you know, what's going on?
He said to me, he said, because I said, you know, I don't know, I said, I disagree with
you, but should you be saying these things about any pastor who doesn't organize it
the way you have it organized?
And he stood by all of this.
He said yes, you know, I stand by all of these things that I've said.
And I said to him, well how should our church be set up if it shouldn't be a corporation?
How should it be set up?
And this is what he said, quote, the church should have no legal existence whatsoever.
Okay, so here's what he says.
We should just have the church and everything's in cash, he said no bank account, you know,
everything's in cash, everything's under the table.
And I said, well how do you pay the pastor wages?
He said, well, you know, we just, we give the pastor, we just don't call it wages.
You know what that's called?
Felony tax fraud.
So according to him, if I don't take my money under the table as pastor, but to add a pastor
shouldn't be paid, I guess you weren't here for that sermon, where I made that
look pretty stupid using scripture.
Okay, 1 Corinthians 9, Acts chapter 6, I mean, that's a whole sermon.
But anyway, so basically I'm an idolater, have received the mark of the beast, I am
worshiping other gods because I'm not willing to commit felony tax fraud by just paying
myself under the table.
Now here's what's funny, as the church member, you donate money to our church,
you get what?
A tax what?
A write off.
So if you donated $5,000 to our church, you write that off because you gave that
to a charitable organization, right?
So I guess here's what they want, they want you to come and give your offering
in cash, now you can't write it off, right?
But then I don't pay any taxes as the pastor.
I take it all under the table and just keep it all.
You pay extra.
As the church member, you pay more.
I pay nothing.
Sounds like a good deal, maybe I should rethink this sermon.
Because they want to just basically just take cash out of the plate and just, and
look, again, I'm not attacking these guys, I would never turn them into the IRS, or
I would never, and anybody who does is a wicked person, who would turn pastors into
the IRS and try to side with our evil government.
But to sit there and say, if you're not willing to do it, and he flat out said,
and I'm quoting, I spoke to him on the phone, he said, the church should have no
legal existence, and he said, what we pay the pastor, we don't call it wages.
So there you go.
So then he told me, when I talked to him on the phone, he said, you need to talk to Greg
Dixon, you need to talk to Pastor Greg Dixon.
Now listen, Greg Dixon is the guy who started this movement, from what I understand.
Maybe I'm wrong about that, but he seems, everybody who's ever come to me and talked
to me about this has said, well you need to listen to Greg Dixon, you need to look
up Greg Dixon.
If I had a nickel for every time somebody said to me, hey, you need to talk to Greg
Dixon, did you hear about Greg Dixon?
Do you know about what happened to Greg Dixon?
Greg Dixon, Greg Dixon, Greg Dixon, this is the main guy behind it.
And quote of Sam Adams in the phone call, he said, Greg Dixon has been my mentor for
years.
So this is the guy he's looking to, okay?
And let me just tell you how satanic of a false teacher Greg Dixon is.
Greg Dixon teaches the same doctrine as Joey Faust, which is that Christians who don't
live right will go to hell for a thousand years during the millennium.
Now I know you probably don't even understand what I just said because it's so bizarre.
Like a Baptist purgatory.
Joey Faust wrote a book, and Joey Faust is a cult leader who was in Texas.
This cult leader, Joey Faust in Texas, who teaches this doctrine that even if you believe
in Christ, even if you're saved, if you don't live right, you're going to spend
a thousand years in hell.
You're going to spend a thousand years in the lake of fire during the millennium to
punish you.
Then you get to go to heaven.
That's a long time.
Good night.
And by the way, that's so unscriptural.
The Bible says whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
You're not going to the second death for five seconds.
The Bible says he that overcometh shall not be heard of the second death.
And overcometh is defined as believing that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
If you believe in Christ, you're saved, you're secure, you will never see hell, you're
on your way to heaven, you have eternal life, you can't lose it.
But this Joey Faust wrote a whole book teaching that you'll spend a thousand years
in hell as a Christian if you don't live right, if you don't do works.
And you know what?
Greg Dixon wrote the foreword to the book.
And Sam Adams himself told me over the phone.
He said, the last time Greg Dixon preached at my church, because I confronted him about
that doctrine, I confronted this Sam Adams guy about that doctrine.
And he said the last time Greg Dixon was at my church, he preached that sermon
that taught that Joey Faust doctrine about people going to hell for a Baptist purgatory.
And he said, I will never have Greg Dixon come back and preach at my church.
Because he preached that.
But I still love Dr. Dixon, he's been my mentor for years.
I still love Dr. Dixon, but he's not allowed in my pulpit because he's preaching this heresy
of Joey Faust, the cult leader, who teaches that you go to hell even if you're saved,
unless you live really a good of a life.
And then he said, you're not recording this phone call, are you?
No, but I'm just going to quote it in my sermon on Sunday morning, is that alright?
So, Al, you're recording me, I told him, I said, you can record me whenever you want,
because I stand by what I say.
Now NSA, I'm not talking to you, okay?
I'm talking to people that I call on the phone, okay?
I'm not saying that I want the NSA listening in to me, you know, 24-7.
But what I'm saying is, these are the people behind, they're not even, look, Sam Adams
doesn't even preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, he believes in a workspace of salvation.
He has a whole section on his website refuting easy believism, saying that, you know, if
you teach faith alone for salvation, that's a false gospel.
His mentor teaches that Christians go to hell, even if they believe in Christ, because
they don't live right.
Greg Dixon, the mentor, Joey Faust, okay, Joey Faust is like following the Joseph Smith
playbook for how to start a cult.
He started a church in Texas, preaches a strange doctrine that no one's ever heard of, this
bizarre teaching, then he takes the entire church and moves them to another state, and
moved them all to Missouri, just like Joseph Smith moved them from New York to Missouri.
What is it with Missouri, people?
Look, if our church ever wants to move to Missouri, you need to quit Faithful Word Baptist Church.
It's time to quit.
When we start talking about, hey, they bought some property in Missouri, you know, I don't
know if they're all living on some compound or what, but they bought some big property
where they could all live together in some place that's so small, somebody said the
closest hotel is an hour away or something.
How small of a town doesn't even have a hotel?
You moved your whole church from Texas to Missouri.
You're teaching false doctrine.
I mean, I don't know what's next, polygamy?
What's next?
I mean, you're on the Joseph Smith program to starting your own cult.
Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism.
So here's what I'm saying to you.
I have so much more to say, but I'm out of time.
But go to 1 Peter chapter 2, okay, 1 Peter chapter 2, and let me just say this, and
I have way more in my notes, I just, I can't get to it.
Number 1, I proved to you from the Bible, Jesus doesn't care about taxes.
That was the first thing we saw.
Jesus gave his philosophy, gave his belief, and said, I don't believe that we should
have to pay this, but we're going to pay it anyway not to offend them.
We're not just going to give them a reason to go after us and arrest us for something
we don't care about.
That's what we saw in Matthew 17.
Then in Matthew 22, they tried to provoke him about it again.
Again, he blew him off.
Caesar's face is on the coin, give him the stupid coin.
Give him the Federal Reserve note that they want.
It's a bunch of paper fake money with all their banksters on the front of it,
Alexander Hamilton.
I proved to you that from scripture, then I proved to you from scripture that although
God wants us to preach the whole Bible, he doesn't want us to get entangled with the
affairs of this life, and he doesn't want us to get involved in other people's strife
and battles.
He doesn't need us to do anything the Bible doesn't command us to do.
It's not our duty if the Bible doesn't tell us to do it.
Then I took the time to show you that the people behind this movement, Sam Adams,
and especially his mentor, Greg Dixon, and Joey Faust, are wicked false prophets that
are teaching a false salvation, and teaching strange doctrines that no Baptist has ever
heard or seen.
They moved the church to Missouri, just as the icing on the cake, to Missouri.
I'm not trying to offend people that are from Missouri, but yeah, the whole church
is in misery, but can a clean thing come out of an unclean?
Not one.
Why would you listen to these people?
They're wrong on the Gospel, and by the way, you know what the word devil means?
The English word devil means false accuser.
That's where the word devil comes from.
That's the etymology of the word devil, is false accuser, and these guys are false
accusers.
I read you all the accusations that they make against our church, that we're a whoring
after other gods.
We've received the mark of the beast, and then I also am showing you right here that
there's nothing wrong with obeying statutes and ordinances of the law that don't really
matter and don't really affect scripture.
Like for example, there's a law that says we can't take our sign from our old building
and put it on our new building.
Who thinks that's a dumb law?
Remember that cool sign we used to have?
We can't bring it over here.
Oh, it's a totally different sign you need.
But who here thinks that because I'm obeying that law by not putting up that sign, that
Christ is not the head of the church anymore?
We've bowed down onto the city of Tempe now by letting them tell us what to do with
our sign.
But they're saying we're bowing down.
Oh, Christ isn't the head of your church because you're letting them tell you not to endorse
political candidates that you didn't want to endorse anyway.
Here's the last thing I want to show you from scripture.
It says in 1 Peter 2 verse 13, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for
the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto
them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them
that do well.
For so is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish
men as free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness.
And that's what these people are doing, using their liberty as a cloak of maliciousness
to just be malicious toward every church except their church.
The only right church in Florida, or the only right church in Missouri, or the only
right church in Texas, or the only right church in Indiana.
Oh, by the way, you know how many churches are operating their church?
Off the grid in Arizona?
I only know of one, and I've studied every independent Baptist in Arizona.
I've looked at all their websites.
I've talked to as many of them as I can.
I sent them all a DVD of After the Tribulation, and there's only one that's off the grid
that I know of, and I believe it's the only one.
That's not the only true church in Arizona.
And he's a friend of mine.
He's a good guy.
He's not like these false accusers.
And that's why I said at the beginning of the sermon, if you disagree with me on this,
that's okay.
My friend, the pastor's the one off the grid Baptist church in Arizona, is a good guy.
And I've recommended people to go to his church if they live over there.
And let me tell you something.
He's not like these bad people that accuse everybody.
But let me tell you something.
He's a friend of mine.
He's a good guy.
He's not the only scriptural church in this state.
We're not the only scriptural church in this state, okay?
But here's the thing.
You know how many people go to his church?
15 to 20.
And I'm not criticizing him at all.
He's a good guy.
It's a good church.
But let me say this.
That's why these churches can get away with it.
Because when you're that small, you're not even a blip on the IRS's radar until you
hit $250,000 a year.
And let me tell you something.
Hundreds of people say, I'm looking for a church that's not incorporated.
I'm looking for a church that's not 501.
I'm looking for... okay, here it is.
Why are there only 15 to 20 people who go there?
Because these people are all talk.
They're just using it as an excuse not to go to church.
Otherwise that guy should be running $5,000.
If every person who says this is their most important issue went there, they'd be running
$5,000.
What part of this scripture in 1 Peter 2 do you not understand?
This is not telling us to just refuse to obey all laws.
Refuse to obey ordinances.
Refuse to obey the law.
Refuse to pay your taxes.
It's not in scripture.
If you have questions about this afterward, you can come talk to me, but I hope I made
it clear this morning why we believe what we believe, what our position is, and let
me tell you something.
If you're going to come to me and confront me about this issue, you will be respectful
and polite to me.
There was a guy in our church who doesn't go here anymore who confronted me about
this and started calling me all kinds of names, saying that our church was a cult
and saying this and saying that, and listen, the Bible says rebuke not an elder and treat
him as a father.
So if you think I'm wrong and you want to correct me, I've had many people in our
church correct me the right way.
I've had many people come over and say, hey, here's something I disagree with you,
Pastor Anderson, the right way, respectfully.
But then I've had other people who come to me, mouth off to me, and call me names.
Let me tell you something.
I'm the pastor of this church, and I deserve to be respected as the pastor.
If you disagree, treat me respectfully, and I will treat you respectfully, and you can
be loving and kind and humble and not start calling me names and insulting our whole church
and insulting me.
And I confronted this guy who insulted me, called me names, and he refused to repent.
And he lied to me and lied about my wife.
And then I took two witnesses, as the Bible told me to do, and I confronted him again
with evidence in hand of his emails and text messages, insulting me, railing on me,
lying about my wife, lying about me, lying about my wife.
I confronted him in the presence of two witnesses.
He refused to hear them.
And I said, you know what, and you know what, the whole time I was talking, those
two witnesses were nodding their head because it was pretty obvious what was going on.
And I'll tell you something, I told him, I said, the next time you come back, I'm
going to take it before the whole church.
Because I said, you know, that's what the Bible teaches.
You're not going to come in here and start insulting me, insulting our whole church mouth,
and I'll name the name, it was Jabral Robinson.
And so listen to me, the next time Jabral Robinson walks through these doors, I'm
confronting him in front of this whole church.
And look, I didn't want it to come to that.
I talked to him personally.
And look, let me make it clear, there are other people in this church who disagree with
me on what I'm preaching right now.
That's okay.
But when you start calling me a cult leader, and lying to me, and lying about my wife,
and when you start just throwing accusations at me and mouthing off to me, see me after
the service for the evidence, I'll call you out.
Because that is being a false accuser, and the Bible says that false accusers should
be rebuked before the entire church.
First you go to them and try to make it right, then you bring two or three witnesses.
I said, you need to apologize, he said, I won't apologize.
That's life.
You say, oh, I don't like that.
Well, Matthew 18 teaches that that's the way it's going to be.
You know, and so I'm not here to, again, cause trouble with anybody.
And if you say, Pastor Anderson, I still think 501C3 is bad, I still think our church
should be off the grid, it's okay for you to think that, and I still love you,
and if you even want to explain to me your point of view, that's fine.
But you treat me with respect, and don't insult me and insult my wife.
Not going to put up with it.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and I thank you that our church
is a church where we do have harmony and one accord, and we do have a loving, friendly
atmosphere, Lord.
Help us to keep it that way.
Help us not to allow people to come in and cause division about issues that frankly don't
matter.
Lord, there are so many things that do matter that we should fight for, Lord, but
help our church never to get involved in fighting and bickering over a tax code.
Who cares?
Lord, help us to just stay unified around the scripture and not let these kind of issues
divide us needlessly.
And Lord, I pray that you would bless every Baptist church and even every non-denominational
church in Arizona if they preach the gospel and preach the King James Bible, Lord.
If they believe the salvation we believe, Lord, I pray that you would bless them this
morning because they are our friends, not our enemies.
Even if they don't agree with our politics, even if they don't agree with us on Bible
prophecy, Lord, bless every church in Arizona that preaches salvation by faith
alone and preaches your word out of the King James Bible, Lord.
Bless them all and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.