Alright, now the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is the part at the beginning
of verse 14 where God is speaking to the church of the lay of his hands and he says in verse
14, these things say it be Amen, faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God.
I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot.
I would thou work cold or hot, so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot,
I will spew thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and knowest
not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
And then he gives the answer in verse number 19, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten,
be zealous therefore and repay.
Now the title of my message is this this morning, God deals in extremes.
That's the title of the sermon and if you've read the Bible at all, you'll know that what
I'm preaching is true and I'm going to show you from the Bible that God deals in extremes.
First of all we see right here in Revelation chapter 3, he said, you're lukewarm and I
would rather have you be cold or hot.
Now turn if you look at Revelation 21, you're in Revelation chapter 3, look at Revelation
21.
The Bible says in verse number 1 of Revelation 21, this is just the introduction, but the
Bible reads, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold the tabernacle of God is with men and
he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them
and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither
sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed
away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, behold I make all things new and he said unto me,
write for these words are true and faithful.
And he said unto me, it is done, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son.
That's a great description right?
A perfect place, no sorrow, no pain, no sadness, all things new, all things inherited by God's
people.
But look at verse number 8, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers
and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, that's me, I've lied before.
It says, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone
which is the second day.
But look down at the bottom of the chapter there at the end of chapter 21, verse 27,
and there shall in no lies enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh
abomination nor maketh a lie, one lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life.
Hey, that's me right there.
Hey, I'm saved, my sins have been washed away, gone, gone, gone, yes, my sins are gone.
But I'm going to tell you something, this is a pretty extreme chapter.
We have on one side the eternal bliss and blessedness of God's people in a perfect new
heaven and a new earth, and then we have the horrible, terrible, horrendous damnation
of the unbeliever in a lake of fire and brimstone that burneth forever and ever.
That's pretty extreme, and let me tell you something, there is nothing in between heaven
and hell when it comes to eternity, there's nothing in between.
We're not Catholics, we don't believe in purgatory, I'm not wearing a dress right now, I'm wearing
a pair of pants like a man, and I'm not standing up here telling you I'm father, call me dad,
I'll sprinkle a bunch of dust, holy water, baptize you by sprinkling, hey, this is a
Baptist church, this is the Holy Bible, and there's two places that you're going to spend
eternity, heaven or hell.
That's pretty extreme.
You say, I think you're extreme.
Well, great, thank you, that's the best compliment I've ever had.
You see, God is the God of extremes, right?
I mean, a God that would create a place like hell, that's a pretty extreme place.
But then he's balanced it out by creating a place called heaven.
That's a perfect place.
What about, can you go anywhere in between?
No, if you commit sin, if you've lied, if you've been fearful and stolen, whatever the
case may be, he says you're desperate for hell, unless you're saved by the blood of
Jesus Christ.
Unless you're forgiven of your sins, then you get to go to heaven and live with Jesus
in a perfect place all throughout eternity.
That's pretty extreme, isn't it?
But there's more to it than that.
Look at John chapter 3.
Look back in your Bible to John chapter number 3.
Let me show you another extreme that God deals in.
Look at John chapter 3, and we'll read verse number 18 of John 3.
The Bible reads,
He that believeth on him is not condemned.
Now, I believe that.
And then it says,
But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed,
in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Now, turn to Romans chapter 4, if you would.
Turn to Romans chapter 4, and let me tell you something.
I'm not a moderate.
Politically, I'm not a moderate.
Religiously, I'm not a moderate.
I don't want to be a moderate about anything, because God's not a moderate.
God goes all the way to one side or another, hot or cold.
That's the way heaven or hell.
Good, bad, right, wrong.
Now, here in this chapter, Romans chapter 4,
and in James chapter 2, we have a discussion about salvation.
Now, in John 3.18, we saw a very clear statement delineating what the plan of salvation is.
He that believeth on him is not condemned,
but he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed, in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
There's no middle ground.
It's one extreme or the other.
Believe, you go to heaven. You don't believe, you go to hell.
Now, people have said that we take an extreme position by preaching that salvation is by faith alone.
For by grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man suppose.
John 3.16, For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
John 5.24, Barely, barely, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life.
Good night.
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
On and on throughout the Bible, this is taught that salvation is by faith alone.
It's whosoever believeth, or as Romans 1.16 says, it's everyone that believeth.
Acts 16.1, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Now look, I can't understand why anybody would take a middle position
of saying that it's faith plus works.
Because on one extreme, you'd say it's all Jesus.
Jesus paid it all, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, by grace through faith.
And then on the other extreme, you'd have saying,
well you earn it yourself, you pay for it yourself, you work for it yourself.
But look, I can't understand, look at James 2.
You've got to bring in Romans 4, look at James 2.
Now to me this is sad, because when I was a kid,
you'd try to give the Gospel to people, you'd be talking to a Roman Catholic,
or you'd be talking to one of these false religions,
and you'd be trying to give them the Gospel, and the only place they could go
is James chapter 2, to try to show you that salvation is by works.
And they'd take you to James chapter 2, and show you this.
Look down at James chapter 2.
But the sad thing is, that today, independent fundamental Baptists
are taking me to James chapter 2, trying to show me
that if you don't have works, you're not saved.
I'm serious, I could name for you independent fundamental Baptists,
churches, pastors, people who are getting mixed up in this.
Hey, we must be living in the last days, because even God's people
are departing from the truth.
They're preaching another Gospel, and they're being sucked into this.
I don't understand why we'd want to be half Roman Catholic and half Baptist.
Why don't we just be all the Bible-believing Christians?
But look at James chapter 2, and I just can't even believe it.
I mean, I'll be talking to fundamental Baptists,
and I feel like I'm talking to an unbeliever, and I probably am,
because they're trying to bring works into salvation,
and they're taking me to James chapter 2.
Look at James chapter 2.
The Bible says in verse number 14,
What does it profit my brethren, though a man sayeth he hath faith?
So is this even a person who truly believes for sure yet? No.
Though a man sayeth he hath faith, and hath not works, can faith save him?
Now that's a question, by the way, not a statement.
It's just asking a question.
He's just trying to get you to think about something.
Then he brings up, If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled,
notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are equal to the body,
what does it profit?
So we're not talking about does it profit yourself.
We're talking about does it profit someone else, right?
He says, Look, if I have faith, if I have food and clothing,
and somebody is without those things, without those basic needs,
and I say to them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled,
but I didn't do anything, or I didn't help.
It didn't profit who, me? No, it didn't profit them.
Keep looking. It says, I lost my place.
It says in the next verse, Even so, he's saying it the same way,
Faith, if it hath not, works, as dead, being alone.
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works.
Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.
That's what somebody could say to you.
Where is your faith? I can't see your faith.
All I can see is your works.
So show me your faith by your works.
Look at the next verse.
Thou believeth that there is one God.
Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble.
Now, people will take this verse and say,
Well, see, the devil believes. Believing is not enough to save you.
Wait a minute. Where in the Bible does it say that if you believe in one God, you'll be saved?
Nowhere. It says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
So believing that there's one God is not salvation.
Yes, the devils believe that there's one God. So do the Muslims.
There is one God, and Mohammed is his prophet, is their model of Islam.
They believe there's one God. Are they saved? No.
Hey, even the Native Americans believe in the Great Spirit,
but the Great Spirit is not the Holy Spirit. It's a different God.
Other religions in this world believe that there's one God. That's not salvation.
But he says in the next verse, he says, Thou believeth that there's one God.
Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Now watch this. This is the important phrase.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works,
when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God,
and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
Now, you see then, here's the key word, how. Left out of the modern Bible translation.
You see then how, or in what way, he sang,
that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
Now look at Romans 4. Let's compare spiritual things with spiritual.
Let's compare scripture with scripture. Look at Romans 4.
Let's see how Abraham was justified by works, as it said.
It says in verse number 1 of Romans 4,
What shall we say then, that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
Watch this. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory,
but not before God.
You see, the Bible says, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
He says, hey, if you're justified by works, you have whereof to glory.
Hey, it's something that you could glory in.
But he says, not before God. Not before God. It doesn't impress God.
Now to him that worketh, look down to your Bible, Romans 4.4,
But to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not, that means no works.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justified the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also described it,
the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputed righteousness without works,
blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute shame.
Now what did it say? The first thing in James 2 was, my brethren, what to the prophet?
Look, he's talking to people that are already saved, saying, what does it profit your neighbor?
What does it profit your brother and sister in Christ if you don't have any works to go with your faith?
But works cannot save you. And it's not faith plus works that save you.
It's him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justified the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness.
And you say, well, wait a minute.
Faith, and this is the new thing I've been hearing, faith is always accompanied by works.
You can't have the one without the other. Now wait a minute. Are you serious?
If faith is always accompanied by works, then why do you say faith without works is dead?
Wait, because if faith without works never exists, you see what I'm saying?
I mean, if there's no such thing as faith without works, because they're always found together, they're always hand in hand,
then how could you have faith without works?
Why did he just preach to us about having faith without works if it supposedly doesn't exist?
Would that make any sense?
It must be possible to have faith without works, right?
Oh, you say, I still don't believe it's possible.
Then why does it say, but to him that worketh not, but believeth?
In verse 5 of Romans 4, it looks like it's possible to believe on Christ and have no works,
and your faith will be counted for righteousness, your sins will not be imputed unto you,
and you'll be saved and on your way to heaven, and you'll live eternally with Jesus Christ in heaven.
But I'm telling you something, I think that a lot of these people, they just don't understand the Bible because they're not saved.
But I'm preaching to you the truth this morning.
You say it's extreme to believe that salvation's by faith alone.
Hey, you call it what you want, but God deals in extremes.
He says he that believeth is not condemned.
And if somebody believes in this world, and they're going to be condemned in hell, then God's a liar,
because he said, Whosoever believeth them shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
You say, well, but if they have faith, certainly they'll have the works.
It says right here, no works, but believeth.
Faith without works is it. Let me explain it to you this way.
I got saved when I was six years old by believing on Jesus Christ as my Savior.
Today I'm 27 years old.
Now, let me ask you something.
If today I cease to go to church, I cease to do anything for God, and I live a life of sin.
Oh, that's impossible for a Christian.
Kind of like Moses committed murder, kind of like David committed adultery and murder,
kind of like Lot went and lived in Sodom and more pitched his TV towards Sodom.
I mean, kind of like all these people throughout the Bible, kind of like Peter got backslidden
and forsook God and denied the Lord Jesus Christ.
People can go into sin, my friend.
Kind of like He must have forsaken me, having loved this present world.
It's possible.
And let me tell you something.
Let's say I went out and just kind of got backslidden, went to the world, just lived a life of sin.
Let me ask you this.
Would my faith, but I still believe in Jesus, would my faith be alive or dead, according to James 2?
It'd be dead, right?
Because I mean, I don't have the works.
I mean, if I quit doing the works, are you following me?
I'm talking about me personally.
I got saved when I was six.
But let's say I quit doing the works.
That would make my faith be dead.
James is saying it's not going to profit anybody, but am I still saved?
Because you can't lose your salvation.
Because he said, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
You say, well, you just had to have the works back then.
Your faith had to be alive when you got saved.
So do I have to be doing the work while I get saved?
You know, what, like putting money in the place?
I'm like, OK, God saved me.
I was working while I got saved.
My faith was alive.
So when do you have to have the works?
Before you get saved, you sound like a Roman Catholic.
After you get saved, you still sound like a Nazarene or an Assemblies of God.
Because you believe you can lose your salvation.
You see, salvation is by grace through faith.
It's not by works of righteousness, which we have done.
But according to his mercy, he said, hey, I'm going to take the most extreme position that I can on that
and say it's all by faith, not of works.
You can live however you want.
And if you believe on Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven.
Now, wait a minute.
You say you need a little balance.
Agree?
God has balance.
Let's balance out the scale of saying it's all by faith.
Let's balance it out with this.
If you love me, keep my commandments.
There's your balance right there.
Now, here's what I've noticed, and here's a phenomenon.
If you think about this, you'll know that it's right.
Think about this for a minute.
The people who believe that salvation is the freest
are the ones who live the most righteous life.
And the people who think that you have to work for it or earn it
seem to be the ones who go out and live in sin.
I mean, I used to work with people that are Roman Catholics.
I'd preach them the Gospel.
I'd give them the Gospel, and they'd say, no, you can't just live however you want.
You've got to follow the commandments.
And then five minutes later, they're telling dirty stories.
They're talking about the fornication.
They're talking about being so drunk they puke their guts out.
And they're sitting there saying that you've got to be good to go to heaven.
Right? I'm not doing any of these type of things.
I mean, I wasn't into that kind of stuff.
And I'm saying you can live. It's free.
We love Him because He first loved us.
If we love Him, we'll keep His commandments.
Hey, but that is not how we're going to earn our way to heaven.
Jesus paid it all. It's the gift of God, eternal life.
You say, why is that, Pastor Anacin?
Why is it that the people who think that salvation is the freest
live the cleanest life, and the people who think you have to earn it
are the ones that are into all this sin?
They're the ones who have their heads stuck in a TV screen,
and they listen to all the rock and roll,
and their daughters and their wife dress as like a hoochie mama and all this stuff.
Why is that? Well, let me tell you why.
Because if you believe this morning that in order to be saved,
you have to turn away from your sins,
you've got to repent of your sins.
A phrase never found in the Bible, by the way.
Have fun showing it to me at that service.
Turn from your sins. Turn away from a life of sin,
which Jonah 3.10 calls works, and God saw there works
that they turn from their evil way.
So if you have to turn from all your sins in order to be saved,
you're going to have to set the bar pretty low for what sin is.
Because I'm going to tell you something. I sin every day.
And if I thought you had to turn from your sins to be saved,
I'd just give up right now.
Because there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us, you say,
well, you've got to turn away from your sins.
Which ones? The bad thought? The lack of doing right?
And so if you say that you're saved by giving up your sins,
you have to set the bar real low and say,
well, we're just talking about the really bad sins.
And that's why these churches that are preaching works.
They're so permissive. You know, it's just anything goes.
And anything goes here too.
But I don't have rules for your life, but God does.
God said if you let me keep my commandments.
And so that's the balance right there.
The balance is that Faithful Word Baptist Church
preaches the freest salvation around.
I mean, just straight, believe, no works.
But yet Faithful Word Baptist Church is the same church
that preaches the hardest against sin.
You see the balance there? You see that?
Because I'm the one who's going to get up and tell you
that TV is straight out of hell.
And you can go home and watch all these queers
and sodomites parading on the screen.
Go ahead and watch all these women
that are scantily clad and seductive.
Go ahead and watch all that and think you're right with God,
but you're not because your eye affected your heart.
Because God said if thy eye be evil,
thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness?
And if your eye is filled with evil things,
your whole body will be full of darkness, Jesus said.
He said if your right eye offend thee,
pluck it out and cast it from thee.
You ought not be watching the filth that's on TV.
Hey, you ought to be holy as God is holy.
God has not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness.
Go ahead and justify it.
Go ahead and make excuses for why you love Keanu Reeves
and Leonardo DiCaprio, these filthy queers,
and yes they are queers, they're open queers in real life.
Listen honey, your little heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio
and Keanu Reeves is a queer,
he doesn't even like girls anyway, sister.
So why don't you quit looking at the screen
coveting some pervert.
Get his poster off your wall.
Get those movies and throw them in the trash.
Clean up your life, clean up your act,
clean up your Christianity.
You say this is the most extreme sermon I've ever heard
and this is the most extreme book you've ever read.
Heaven, hell, right, wrong, safe, unsafe,
good, bad, right, wrong.
Is it of the Father or is it of the world?
And if it's of the world, love not the world.
Period.
Oh, you're extreme.
People say I'm extreme because I preach against birth control.
I'm not going to pump my wife full of drugs so that she doesn't have kids.
Hey, children are inherited to the Lord and the front of the womb is His reward.
Praise God. Thank God for my kids.
I love every single one of them. I wish I had another one.
Or more.
And so I'm not going to sit here and apologize for the truth.
I'm not going to apologize because God killed somebody in Genesis 38
for practicing birth control.
And if you read the Bible, you know that. It's true.
Look it up.
That'll be your homework assignments after Genesis 38.
And I don't know, I don't have time to preach on that.
But you say, oh, you're extreme because your music's extreme.
You better know it's extreme.
It's songs, hymns, and spiritual songs.
You better know it's extreme to a world of Christian hard rock, Christian rap.
Independent fundamental Baptist accepting rock and roll and this southern gospel and country western.
Hey, we sing the hymns here. We sing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs.
No apology for it. No ifs, ands. We don't care.
I don't like it.
Okay, well then you can find a million churches that will have the rock and roll bands more.
Yes, sir. Amen.
I'll have you find one after the service.
I'll be able to make the evening service.
Oh, yeah, they cancel their evening service.
Oh, yeah.
Come on.
Because it's only an independent fundamental Baptist church that has Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night.
The other one you just show up, you throw your 20 bucks in on Sunday morning.
You get your ears tickled. You get your rock and roll.
You get your feel good. God is love.
See you later.
And so, look. Let me show you the balance here.
Look, if you would, at Nahum chapter 1.
Nahum chapter number 1. This is in the Old Testament.
Before the end of the Old Testament, just shortly before the book of Matthew, you'll find the Mindly Prophets.
Twelve short books.
And you'll find Jonah, Micah, Nahum.
Look at Nahum chapter 1 and see something about the nature of God and seeing his extreme nature.
His dichotomy, if you will.
Now, the best way to balance something. Let's say that we had a scale.
And we were to set a scale right here on the pulpit.
And let's use the traditional scale with the two balances, right?
The chains and the two dishes that goes up and down like this.
Sort of like the scales of justice.
And let's say we wanted to balance that scale.
What would we do to balance that scale?
Would we put something right in the middle, right? Be a moderate.
Now, trying to balance something on the middle of that scale would be very difficult.
But everybody knows that the way to balance that scale would be to put the same emphasis on this side as you would put on this side, right?
Then you'd be balanced.
Now, let's say we put very little on this side and very little on this side.
That would not be very balanced because any little wind or movement, it would be kind of wobbling up and down.
But if we were to put 20 pounds on this side and 20 pounds on this side, it would be balanced and it would take a lot to upset that balance, right?
So the way to be balanced is to balance both extremes, right?
You balance out both extremes.
You balance out the free gift of salvation, preaching it the way God preached it, that it's belief only, with hard preaching on sin so that people don't use that as a license to go out and live a wicked life.
When God has called us, you know, after we're saved, to try to please Him and try to earn rewards and to try to win other people of Christ.
See the balance there?
You preach hard on sin, but hey, you don't make people jump through a bunch of hoops to be saved.
It's false doctrine.
It's false.
It's wrong.
Look at the nature of God here.
This is a really interesting chapter.
Look at Nahum 1, verse 1.
The burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the alcoshite, God is jealous, and the Lord revengeeth.
The Lord revengeeth and is furious.
Now, who knows what furious means?
Extreme anger, right?
The Lord revengeeth and is furious.
The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies.
But then look at this.
The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked.
The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind, in the storm, and the clouds of the dust of His feet.
So here's the balance.
God's anger is extreme.
He just spent two or three verses describing to us His immense anger.
But He balances that out by being slow to anger, right?
See, God is like a time bomb waiting to go off.
God is slow to anger.
God does not fly off the handle.
God does not, the moment that He sees something bad happen, just jump in and punish it.
He's long suffering to us where He waits.
Look at Sodom and Gomorrah.
I mean, He waited until it just got to the point where there was no hope for it, and then just destroyed it.
And in today's world, we can maybe look around and see the things that are going on and say,
where is the God of judgment?
Where is God's wrath?
Where is God stepping in and taking care of these things?
But you have to understand that God is very slow to anger.
But when His anger comes, it's like a whirlwind.
You see, He just keeps getting more and more mad.
It's like you're winding Him up.
Every abortion, every gay pride parade, every preacher preaching heresy.
I mean, it's just like, just winding Him up, and one day it's just going to be boom!
And see, many people mistake God's long suffering that He's not going to judge.
But keep reading, and look at the balance.
It says,
He rebuked the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth off all the rivers.
And the flowers of Lebanon languisheth, and the mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence.
Yea, the world and all that dwell therein.
Who can stand before His indignation, and who can abide in the fierceness of His anger?
His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him.
Look at the next verse though.
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble.
And He knoweth them that trust in Him.
Now look, you see the balance here?
God is extremely angry, vengeful, jealous, and wrathful in this chapter.
But yet we know that God is good.
God is a stronghold to those that love Him.
God is preparing us a wonderful place in heaven.
I mean, God protects us.
God helps us in all our infirmity.
God gives us peace, and joy, and gladness.
God will protect us.
God will keep us safe.
God will bless us.
God will take care of us.
And yet, for the wicked, He has nothing but wrath, vengeance, vindication.
But that's who God is.
Get to know God.
Read the Bible and get to know God.
Because God is not Mr. Middle of the Road moderate that you might think He is.
Go ahead and go to moderate Baptist Church.
Go ahead and go to Pastor Middle of the Road.
Go ahead and check yourself off in politics and say,
I'm a moderate.
You know what? This is what a moderate politician is.
Right?
See which way the wind blows, and that's the way I'm going to blow.
I'm not a moderate.
Say, what, are you some kind of an extremist?
Yes.
Some kind of a fanatic?
Yes.
I'm a soul-winning fanatic, Bible-reading fanatic, preaching fanatic, Baptist fanatic.
Hey, I'm this extreme and fanatical and radical.
You call it whatever you want.
It's Bible Christianity.
It's called being cold or hot.
And God said, I would thou work cold or hot.
He's talking to you this morning.
God is looking down, and He's talking to you.
He that hath an ear, let an ear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
We're sitting in a church, and God is saying to you this morning,
I would that thou work cold or hot.
Dave, I would that thou work cold or hot.
Brad, I would that thou work cold.
Matthew, go down the list.
He's saying, I would that you would get in or get out.
I wish you'd get on board.
And we live in a day of watered-down Christianity, middle-of-the-road theology.
Hey, there's nothing middle-of-the-road about the Bible.
One time I got up at the store, and I said the word gray does not even appear in the Bible.
But then somebody corrected me because they talked about somebody being gray-headed.
Okay, sorry about that.
So there is a gray egg in the Bible.
Gray hair.
Other than that, the word gray does not even appear in the Bible.
And so the point is that God's not the God of the gray area.
You say, oh, I just kind of want to come to church.
And this is what people think balance is.
Come to church, don't do anything, be lazy, be half in, half out,
watch TV on Saturday night, preach the Word,
listen to the preaching of the Word on Sunday night,
hang around with God's people on Sunday,
hang around with the world and the devil on Monday.
They think that's balance.
No, I think I'll balance soul winning with Bible reading.
I think I'll balance church attendance with soul winning.
I think I'll balance prayer with giving.
I mean, that's where I want to get my balance.
I'm not going to balance God and the devil.
And look, God is, listen to this, we want to talk about extreme.
God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
He's all the way on one side.
And then, of course, you want to talk about the devil?
The devil, Jesus said there's no truth in him.
There is no truth in him.
I mean, God basically polarizes things, doesn't he?
He says it's all the way in or all the way out,
all the way right or all the way wrong.
Why don't you decide in your life that you're going to get on board
the extreme bandwagon of a board Baptist church,
or of the King James Bible, or of soul winning?
No, you say, oh, man, how do you guys have all these people saved?
This is how we have so many people saved,
because we have about 20 to 25 people out soul winning
every single week for several hours apiece, that's how.
We're not going around, you know, just,
oh, pray this prayer, you know, in five seconds.
We're going out and knocking doors.
I mean, me and Brent went out soul winning for what?
Over about two and a half hours and had nobody saved.
But, you know, if you just keep going and keep going and keep going
and keep going and work and work and walk and walk
and knock and knock and knock and go and go and go.
Hey, eventually, you will come forward rejoicing,
bringing your seeds with you, and you go bearing the precious seed.
Hey, you will eventually get people to say,
hey, it can be done in 2008, it can be done in Phoenix, Arizona,
it can be done in this generation,
it can be done in the United States of America,
but you have to be extreme.
You have to be a fanatic.
You have to go out and preach and work and walk and go and go and go
and keep knocking the doors and keep going and going
and get the doors straight.
Have people say, no!
Hey, but God has called us to preach the gospel to every creature
and I'm going to take it seriously.
Sit here and say it can't be done?
Well, it can't be done by people like you,
with that attitude, sure.
But it can be done by somebody who has a vision to get it done.
Hey, it can be done by people who are willing to put in the hours.
They're not part of the 59 minutes and 59 seconds soul winning club.
You know, come on now.
The 59 minutes and 59 seconds.
Oh, I put it in my hour.
Hey, put it in another hour.
Put it in a third hour.
You crazy?
Yes!
Yes, I'm crazy.
Yes, I want to go soul winning more than that.
Yes, I want to see people say, hey, if one hour is good, two hours is better.
If three hours is good, five hours is better.
Hey, that's what's going to get the job done.
David and the temple in every house,
they seek God to teach and preach Jesus Christ
and we have people from this church out soul winning
seven days a week.
Now, I don't go seven days a week.
Nobody really goes seven days a week
except the professional here.
But hey, somebody's out seven days a week, praise God.
And that's why we're going to knock every single door in Phoenix, Arizona
and the outlying area.
Because of being a little bit extreme.
You know, and people come to our church and I compare them to Goldilocks
because people come to church and they walk in the door saying,
oh yeah, you know, we're tired of these liberal churches
and oh man, it's still watered down everywhere.
Then they sit down and then they hear me preach
and they're like, oh man, oh, this is too much.
Listen, Goldilocks.
You know, oh, this church is too hard.
Oh, this church is too soft.
Oh, this church is just right.
Just right Baptist Church.
This isn't just right Baptist Church.
This is too hard Baptist Church.
This is too hot Baptist Church.
This is too much Baptist Church.
This is I can't handle it Baptist Church.
Hey, this isn't Goldilocks.
This isn't Pastor Goldilocks up here.
I'm going to have blunt hair this morning.
Hey, I've got brown hair.
I'm mad. I'm preaching hard.
This is hot.
All the way in.
Whatever you want to call it.
I don't know.
Look, look at Matthew chapter 12.
Matthew chapter number 12.
Pastor Anthony preaches too hard.
You know what, just go somewhere else, Sid.
Don't cool us down.
All you're trying to do is cool us down.
Right? I mean, you know, if we brought in all these people who are all watered down,
they'd just water us down, right?
They'd just cool us down.
We want to keep the temperature right where it's at.
Right where it's at, Goldilocks.
Okay, if it burns your little palate a little bit, I'm sorry.
If it's a little bit too hard on your behind, then tough, you know.
This is the chair that we're providing.
Good night. At least we have a pack of chairs.
We used to have the heart constant once.
But look at Matthew 12.33.
This is Jesus' attitude about what is right and wrong.
He says, either make the tree good and its fruit good,
or else make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt,
for the tree is known by its fruit.
Now, if you were to drive around and see a citrus tree in Arizona,
you're probably not going to know what type of citrus tree it is
until you see the fruit growing on that tree, right?
Unless you're some kind of an expert, you can look at the leaves and the bark.
You know, pretty much, when it's orange, it's oranges.
When it's yellow and big, it's grapefruit, right?
If it's yellow and small, it's lemons.
If it's green and small, you know, maybe it's just not ripe, or it's limes, okay?
So you're not going to know until you see the fruit, right?
You're not going to know what type of tree it is.
And God says, look, you know the tree by its fruit.
I mean, you look at it, you see apples on it, you know it's an apple tree.
Don't tell me it's an orange tree. You know, I can see the fruit.
And God says, look, the tree is known by its fruit.
Either make the tree good...
Why is Jesus being so extreme here?
Is everything just good or corrupt?
I mean, is everything just right or wrong, God?
Isn't there stuff that's just neutral?
Jesus said, he that is not with me is against me.
And he that gathereth not with me, scatter it abroad.
That's what Jesus said.
He said, there's no middle ground.
You're with me or you're against me.
And he said, being with me is equated to gathering with me, right?
Going out and gathering the sheaves, going out and winning people to Christ.
He says, either you're with me or against me.
Either you gather with me or you scatter or buy.
I'm not scattering anything.
If you're not gathering, you're scattering.
Do you hear that?
If you're not getting people saved or trying or preaching the Gospel to people,
you're actually hurting the cause of Christ.
Just by doing nothing.
Did you hear that?
Just by doing nothing, you're scattering.
Say, well, I'm just kind of on the sidelines.
Nobody's in the sidelines.
You're on Jesus' team or you're on the wrong team.
You know, and you may be wearing the right uniform.
You ever be at a soccer game and somebody kicks it in their own goal?
You know what I'm talking about?
I mean, could anything be more humiliating?
Especially when you're looking at younger kids and they don't realize what they've done.
You know?
There you go.
Yeah!
And they just scored against themselves.
Now look, you may be saved.
Hey, you got the right uniform on.
You're saved.
I mean, you're God's child.
You're on the right team.
Why are you kicking goals for the other team?
Say, well, I'm just doing nothing.
Well, imagine a basketball game with one player on your team is just not doing anything.
So it's pretty much four on five.
You're not going to win.
I mean, you've got to be pretty good to beat those kind of odds having one less player on the team.
But we're missing a lot of players.
I mean, we're on a bare-bones team here as Christians.
We've got so many people playing for the other team.
Or we've got so many people sitting around doing nothing.
Hey, don't call yourself a man and be lazy and do nothing.
Work!
Amen.
Work!
Men are born to work.
God told Adam, by the sweat of your face, you will work for the rest of your life.
Period.
And no man who's not a worker is a real man.
You show me a worker, that's a real man.
Somebody who works by the sweat of their face.
And it's a male attribute.
All the way back to the Garden of Eden.
Look at Jacob and Esau.
You say, oh, Jacob was a wimp.
Jacob wasn't a wimp.
Jacob was a hard worker.
God had great respect for Jacob.
That's why he changed his name to Israel and made him the patriarch of the Israeli nation.
God looked down at Jacob.
The first time we meet Jacob, what does he do?
He walks up to the well.
Remember, the stone was on the well's mouth.
And he said, hey, why don't we water the sheep?
And the girl there said, well, you know, we've got to wait until everybody gets here
because everybody's got to pick up the stone together and lift it up.
He said, hey, honey, hey, hey, baby, let me take care of this.
Right?
And he just walked up and just lifted it off himself.
You know, he wasn't a wimp.
He's a hard worker.
God's not going to bless some wimp.
You think God's going to, hey, look, Jacob wrestled the angel all night long.
You remember that?
And received the blessing.
So if Jacob wrestled the angel of God all night long and received,
he must not have been a wimp if he could wrestle all night long and win.
You see what I'm saying here?
God doesn't bless lazy people.
God doesn't bless wimps.
He doesn't bless the effeminate.
He blesses the man, and I'm preaching to the men right now,
the man who rolls up his sleeves and works and doesn't whine about it.
I mean, my sister, she was trying to find a good church in her area.
This is years back.
And there was this church.
And she called the church and said, hey, do you guys go soul-winding?
And he said, we go soul-winding seven months a year.
The rest of the time it's too cold.
It was in like Farmington, New Mexico.
It doesn't get that cold there.
It gets like, what, maybe 20 or 30?
We went soul-winding in Norway every day.
It was 17.
In Norway, it went every day all day, 17 degrees.
So what?
Oh, you want to talk about cold?
When I was in Chicago, we went soul-winding.
It was below zero on the thermometer one time.
And we would knock a few doors.
Then we'd go get in the car, crank the heater for a minute.
You know what I mean?
Warm up, all right, let's do it again.
We'd knock the doors for another 30, 40 minutes, get in the car, warm it up again.
We had those little packets, the hand warmer packets.
I mean, it was cold.
Because Chicago's windy, too.
So it was below zero and windy and humid and everything else.
And she gave this guy a nickname.
I think his name was Pastor Stackpole.
And so she called him, oh, there's old seven month Stackpole.
And he said, well, my wife doesn't go soul-winding
because I don't want to work her to death.
He said, really?
Because I thought that Acts chapter 2 says,
upon the servants and upon the handmaidens,
I will pour out my spirit in those days and they shall prophesy.
I thought it said that he would pour out his spirit upon all flesh.
Men and women in Acts chapter 2 were out preaching gospel soul-winding.
I thought that in Philippians chapter 4,
he talked about Euodia and Cyndicate,
two ladies who labored with them in the gospel.
I mean, he said, I'll pour out my spirit upon the young and old,
upon the handmaidens and servants.
Female, women.
But he said, I don't want to work her to death.
Well, good night, don't work her to death because you go knock a couple doors.
Why don't you?
Maybe you could vacuum or something while she goes soul-winding.
And he said, my assistant pastor, he's building a house,
so I've given him the year off on soul-winding.
And I go seven months a year.
Wow, man.
Man, that church is on fire.
Whoa, man, good night.
That's too hot for me to handle.
But this is the day that we're living in.
This is why it's not getting done.
Because, I mean, I don't know.
But anyway, Matthew 12.
I've got to get back on track with my sermon here.
But in Matthew chapter 12, he's saying here,
look, either make the tree good, and it's true good,
or else make the tree corrupt, and it's true corrupt,
for the tree is known by its fruit.
Job said it this way.
Can any man bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Not one.
If we were to go, if we were to put something clean
inside this garbage can back here,
and this is a pretty filthy garbage can,
let's say we were to throw in a subway sandwich,
clean, fresh, hot, baked out of the oven,
and throw it in that garbage can.
When it came out, it'd be unclean.
Right?
I think, look, if you drop something in the trash
and then take it out, it has become unclean
from being in the trash.
You cannot take anything clean out of something unclean.
And you cannot, you don't gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles.
Thistles produce thorns.
They don't produce anything good.
Figs come from a fig tree, a good tree.
Good tree brings forth good fruit.
Corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.
Look, let me ask you something.
Hollywood.
Good tree or corrupt tree?
Corrupt tree.
OK, Hollywood.
Is it of the Father or is it of the world?
The world.
I mean, think about it.
I mean, it's not that hard to determine these things.
And you know why you'd excuse this?
Because you like it.
But you know what?
There are pleasures of sin for a season.
It's fun to go watch the Batman movie.
You know?
But don't do it.
Because if you do, you love the world,
and God's not going to bless you for going and filling your eyes
with sin, with women that are dressed wrong.
And you know what?
The key player of this Batman movie
that's the best-selling movie of all time,
and I saw it in the newspaper, is Sodomite.
Come on.
He's dead.
He's served.
What's his name?
Help me out.
Something Ledger?
He's Ledger.
What is it?
He.
He?
He Ledger.
Right?
Yeah.
OK?
He's the star of the movie.
I don't know.
Who does he play?
Worldly one.
Who is he?
I don't know.
But he's the star of the movie.
He's the star of the movie,
and that's what you want your kids to go see, right?
Some faggot.
Come on.
Good thing you just said that.
Come on.
Oh.
Sorry to be so extreme.
Sorry to use a negative word about something that's disgusting.
You want me to get a little pretty word for it, like gay?
I'm not going to use a pretty word for something as ugly and filthy
as God calls it as homosexuality.
God calls them filthy dreamers.
God calls it strange flesh.
Strange means queer.
God calls them brute beasts.
Read the Bible.
Read 2 Peter 2.
Read Jude.
Read Romans 1.
Read what God calls them.
Amen.
And I'm not going to use some pretty little fluffy, fuzzy word
to make you feel good about the star of the Batman movie.
You have to get right with God and not feast your eyes on that kind of garbage.
Hey, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father but is of the world,
the lust that passes away and the lust thereof,
but he that doeth the will of God abiding forever.
You say, wait a minute, I like the first part of the sermon about Jesus saves.
Hey, Jesus does save.
Hey, I'm saved.
If you believe on Jesus, you're saved.
We're eternally secure, paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.
We're going to live in heaven.
But let me tell you something, those movies aren't going to be in heaven.
That music's not going to be in heaven.
This world's not going to be in heaven.
In heaven, it's going to be God's people, God's spirit, God's music,
the things that are of the body.
That's why heaven's such a great place.
Why don't you enjoy a little heaven on earth this week
by throwing some of that garbage out of your house?
That's all I'm preaching this morning.
Makes sense.
Oh, it's extreme.
You're getting the point of the sermon.
You're getting it.
Yes, I've succeeded in expressing to you what the sermon's about.
God deals in extremes.
He deals in extremes.
Salvation, it's a pretty extreme difference, heaven or hell.
It's pretty extreme.
It's all faith, not works at all, before, during or after salvation.
It's pretty extreme because it's Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.
I didn't pay for it all.
It's just a gift to be received.
It's pretty extreme.
It's either of the Father or it's of the world.
It pleases God or it pleases the devil.
It's pretty extreme.
It's either get all the way in, get out soul winning, read the Bible,
pray, memorize the Bible.
You say, oh, it's so extreme.
Look, why don't you memorize a whole book of the Bible?
It's extreme.
Do it.
Amen.
Meditate on God's Word day and night.
That's extreme and that's what He commanded you to do.
Memorize it.
Quote it.
Chant it.
Know it.
Learn it.
Meditate upon it.
Chew upon it.
How often?
All day.
Well, I read the Bible for 15 minutes every morning.
Read it for an hour.
Right?
Why not?
Pray more.
Memorize the Bible more.
Hey, rip out your stereo.
And I know sometimes you have to have a special tool to get it out.
But, you know, rip out that stereo and why don't you just stick this song book, right?
Stick the song book in there.
And when you're at the red light, pull it out and say, oh, I think I'll sing this song.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
Oh, what a force.
Hey, let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand.
That's what God says about His people.
Not the high praises of Britney Spears.
Not the high praises of NSYNC.
Not the high praises of whatever groups, instead of naming groups that are like 10 years old or something.
Does anybody know what the new thing is?
I don't know.
But anyway, you get the idea.
Let's finish where we started.
I would thou work cold or hot.
Put your name into play.
So and so, I would thou work cold or hot.
And he says, so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I'll spew thee out of my mouth.
Man, why?
Wouldn't you hate for God to be up in heaven just saying, I want to spew you out of my mouth?
And that's what he said to the Laodiceans.
I mean, how would you like to be at the church of Laodicea and get that letter in the mail from Paul?
Think about it.
Put your mind in the Bible.
You're at the church of Laodicea Baptist Church.
Oh, look, the mailman came.
It's a letter from God.
Great.
Let's see what he says.
I want to put it up.
He says, I'm ready to spew.
Oh, man, it's from Jesus.
I want to spew you out of my mouth because you're lukewarm.
Now, don't get mad at the mailman.
Why'd you bring me this letter?
Hey, Pastor Anderson's just the mailman this morning.
And look, if the letter's addressed to you, if the shoe fits, then wear it.
Say, are you talking to me?
I'm not talking to those that are hot.
I'm not talking to those that are cold, but I am talking to those that are lukewarm.
And so if the letter's addressed to you, then must be free.
I'm not just the mailman.
I just bring the mail.
I mean, I didn't write this.
Jesus wrote it.
But hey, if you're lukewarm, God wants to spew you out.
He said, I want you cold or hot.
You say, well, is this a message of condemnation?
It's not a message of condemnation at all.
It's a message of hope because he said, hey, be zealous, therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear my voice, I'll come in to him.
Not into him as it's often misquoted.
It's two different words.
Into him.
I'll come into him.
And it'll suck with him or he with me.
God wants to have fellowship with you, but he says, you've got to be zealous.
You've got to be on fire for God.
You've got to have zeal.
You have to be a fanatic.
And I'll have fellowship with you.
He said, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another.
I'm talking about us and God.
We have fellowship one with another.
And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin.
Hey, I want to have fellowship with God.
I want God to come in and suck with me and to spend time with me.
I want to have close fellowship with God.
Be zealous.
Don't be watered down.
Don't be lukewarm.
Pick one extreme or the other.
Be like God.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, please help us to be more like you and your son, Jesus.
Dear God, help us not to be watered down, in the middle of the road.
But Father, please just help us to realize the need of picking sides, getting on the
right team, jumping in, full speed ahead, head first, both feet.
Help us to jump in and do the work.
Live for God.
We love you and thank you for everything that you've done for us and for the salvation that's
so free.
Praise God for that.
But Father, help us now.