Man, the title of my sermon this morning is Let No Man Despise Thy Youth.
The Bible says there in verse number 12, Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example
of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
Now we talk about this idea of let no man despise thy youth.
If we get the context here of the Apostle Paul writing to Timothy, how old approximately
is Timothy?
What kind of an age range are we talking about with Timothy here?
Well obviously we know that Timothy and Titus are known as the pastoral epistles.
So these guys are not teenagers or, you know, adolescents because they're obviously old
enough to be pastoring a church and they have to meet those qualifications, being married
and having children and so forth.
And we see them both being charged with ordaining other elders.
So these are some serious servants of God that have already been preaching, they've
already been pastoring, they're obviously adults.
But I've had some people, I heard one preacher kind of go to this other wrong extreme and
say oh he's probably in his 40s.
It's like yeah, in your dreams, 40 year olds, that that would be known as a youth, okay.
Or you know, he's probably a man in his 40s or 50s, you know.
What are we talking about when we talk about a youth?
Well if we kind of study this word throughout the Bible where the Bible calls someone a
youth, we're often talking about a grown man.
And the main example that I'm going to use this morning about a youth whose youth was
despised is King David.
He's a great example in chapter 16 and 17 of 1 Samuel, we're going to go there in a
moment and look at that famous story with Goliath and so forth.
You know where his youth was despised but the Bible says in chapter 16 that David was
a man of war.
So he was a grown man when he faced Goliath.
He's young, maybe he's small, but he was called a man of war.
Not only that but the Bible says, and if you would, keep your finger there in 1 Timothy
but flip back to Psalm 127.
Actually lose your place in 1 Timothy because it'll be a while until we come back there.
But go to Psalm 127, you know the Bible also says in Proverbs chapter 5 verse 18, rejoice
with the wife of thy youth.
The Bible talks about the husband of her youth in Joel chapter 1 verse 8.
The Bible says in the Lamentations 3, 27, it's good for a man that he bear the yoke
in his youth.
So we're talking about a man in his youth.
The Bible says here in Psalm 127 verse 3, lo, children are a heritage of the Lord and
the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.
So you can see how it's possible for a youth to have children.
So what kind of age range are we talking about specifically with Timothy and Titus?
Another clue is found in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 22 where it says, flee also youthful
lusts.
So he's telling Timothy don't let anyone despise your youth but then he also tells him to flee
youthful lusts but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the
Lord out of a pure heart.
What does that mean, youthful lust?
Well if you think about lust, when is lust going to be at its peak?
Just from a scientific perspective, we're probably talking about high testosterone levels
of being an older teenager or throughout your 20's and then guess what, when you hit 30
or when you hit 35, your testosterone levels start to diminish for the rest of your life.
So if we're talking about a guy who is subject to youthful lust where he would have those
hormones raging of being at that type of an age, then we're probably talking about a guy
in his late 20's.
If he has children, he's married, he could be anywhere from like mid-20's to possibly
early 30's, so he's still young, he's still a youth, people would look at him as kind
of a young guy but he's old enough to be married, have kids, pastor, church, etc.
And that's consistent with what we see in the rest of the Bible about being a youth.
Now why would Timothy's youth be despised?
Well stop and think about it, if you're a pastor, the people in the church obviously
need to look to you as a spiritual leader, as some kind of an authority on the Word of
God and that can be hard if everybody's older than you.
You know I remember when I first started Faithful Word Baptist Church back in 2005, I was only
24 years old.
So according to the Bible's definition here, I was a youth.
Now I met the qualifications in that I was married, I had children, and so forth and
I was experienced in the ministry and everything that goes along with that, but I was still
young and you could see how that could be hard for people to listen to this young 24
year old get up and preach the Word of God to them.
But what is the Bible telling us?
The Bible's saying not to despise the youth who is actually living for God, serving God,
preaching the Word of God, we shouldn't just automatically assume that young people don't
know anything or that we can't learn from them or that we should somehow think of ourselves
as better than them just by virtue of being older.
Being older doesn't make you automatically wiser, hopefully you're wiser as you get older,
but there's no fool like an old fool and it's actually not a given that being older than
someone makes you more mature or smarter or wiser.
He's telling Timothy, let no man despise thy youth.
Look Timothy, maybe you're in your 20s or early 30s and people are having trouble respecting
you, but he says let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believers in
word and conversation and charity and spirit and faith and purity.
Now if you would go back to 1 Samuel chapter 16.
And while you're turning there, let me give you the evidence that Titus was also a young
man.
Well, in Titus chapter 2, the Apostle Paul is giving him instructions on how to teach
the older men, the younger men, the older women and the younger women, just giving practical
life advice for all of these different demographics.
And when he gets to the young man, he gives him very little advice on what to teach because
he says, in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works in doctrine showing
uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity.
So when he gets to the young man example, he says, you be the example, Titus, which
wouldn't really make any sense other than the fact that Titus is a young man.
So it makes sense that both Titus and Timothy are young preachers, they're young men.
And he says to Titus something similar at the end of chapter 2, he says, these things
speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority.
Let no man despise thee.
So this is he told Timothy, let no man despise thy youth.
He says to Titus, let no man despise thee, be an example to the young man.
He said to Timothy, be an example to the believers.
Both men are given almost the same exhortations.
These two young preachers are given this statement, let no man despise thy youth, let no man despise
thee, speak with authority.
It doesn't matter how old you are because of the fact that the timeless truths of the
Word of God are older than any of us.
You know, it's funny when sometimes you'll show someone the truth out of the Word of
God and point blank, they see the Word of God and then they'll come at you with this
kind of ad hominem like, well, how old are you?
You know, I was preaching when your mama was still wiping your nose, right?
That's not a valid argument, my friend, because you know what?
Truth can come out of the mouth of a five-year-old, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.
The Word of God was being proclaimed in the gospels and then the Pharisees and the scribes
are shut them.
You know, the older crowd was wrong in that sense.
Age does not automatically equate to wisdom, knowledge, superiority.
David said in the book of Psalms that he had more understanding than all of his teachers
because he had kept God's Word.
So back to 1 Samuel, we have an example of this thing of a man's youth being despised.
It says in chapter 16 verse 10 of 1 Samuel 16, 10, again, Jesse made seven of his sons
to pass before Samuel and Samuel said unto Jesse, the Lord had not chosen these.
And Samuel said unto Jesse, are here all thy children?
And he said, there remitteth yet the youngest.
So again, look, automatically, Jesse is discounting David simply because he's the youngest.
And so, well, the youngest remains, right?
And behold, he keepeth the sheep and Samuel said unto Jesse, send and fetch him, for we
will not sit down till he come hither.
And he sent and brought him in.
Now he was ruddy and with all the beautiful countenance and goodly to look to.
And the Lord said, arise, anoint him for this is he.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren and the Spirit
of Lord came upon David from that day forward.
So Samuel rose up and went to Rhema.
So you see, God did not despise David's youth.
God anointed David in his youth to begin an important work for God, even as a young man,
while his father even doesn't think he's ready or he's old enough.
And if you remember, when God called Jeremiah to preach, Jeremiah tries to use the excuse,
I'm too young, I'm a babe, says no, say not I'm a babe, I am going to put my words in
your mouth.
He's preaching the Word of God and the Word of God carries with it authority, no matter
whose mouth that's coming out of, as long as it's truth, it's truth.
Look down, if you would, at verse number 18.
And we see what I alluded to earlier, that David is referred to as a mighty valiant man.
It says, then answer one of the servants and said, Behold, I've seen a son of Jesse the
Bethlehemite that is cunning and playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war,
and prudent and matters and a comely person and the Lord is with them.
So again, we're not talking about a little boy here, we're talking about someone where
other people looked at him and said, this is an adult.
This is a man of war.
He's a mighty valiant man.
Now if you would flip over to chapter 17 now.
Chapter 17 is where we get to the famous story of David and Goliath.
So in chapter 16, we have David being anointed.
And I want you to pay special attention to that, that when David was anointed as king,
the Bible makes a point of saying that he was anointed in the midst of his brethren.
Okay, and anytime the Bible gives us an unnecessary phrase or detail, it's doubly important, because
it's being brought up for a reason.
Because he could have just said, Oh, then they got David, and David was anointed and
so forth.
But we don't just have all these unnecessary descriptions, anything that's mentioned always
has a purpose.
And so the Bible makes a point to say that David was anointed in the midst of his brethren,
mean they're all there, they all saw it, it wasn't a secret.
Dad's there, brothers are there, David's there, he's anointed in the midst of his brethren.
As king of Israel, he's going to be the next king of Israel.
Okay.
Just to set the stage in chapter 17, the Philistines are longtime enemies of the Israelites.
And they've come out against the Israelites with a great army.
And they have this great champion known as Goliath, who's approximately 10 feet tall.
Okay.
And so you've got this huge guy, and he's a warrior.
He's got all kinds of heavy equipment.
And he's been a man of war since his youth, the Bible says, so he's well trained.
He's giant, he's scary.
And he proposes that they send out their best guy, and Goliath will challenge any man from
Israel in single combat.
And he says, hey, instead of all of us going to war, why don't you just pick your greatest
warrior and he'll come out and face me, and that will decide who wins.
And so this goes on, he keeps making this challenge, and in the process of Goliath making
this challenge, he's constantly mocking and blaspheming God, and defying Israel, and defying
the God of Israel.
And so nobody's willing to take him up on the challenge.
King Saul himself is not willing to take up the challenge, none of the soldiers are there.
Well, in this battle, the three oldest sons of Jesse are in Saul's army.
So if you remember, he has at least eight children, right?
He has the seven sons and then David.
And the three oldest are in Saul's army.
And so Jesse sends David who still keeps on being a shepherd, even after being anointed,
he continues his job of shepherding.
He sends David to just go check on his brothers, and to bring a gift to their commanding officer,
and to see how everything's going just to bring them a little care package as it were.
So David is sent there.
And when he gets there, he sees what's going on, because news traveled a little slower
back then.
So it's not like from home, they've all heard about Goliath or anything like that.
So when he gets there, he sees Goliath issuing his daily challenge that anybody who wants
to fight him, he's ready to take all comers.
Well, look what the Bible says in verse 25.
This is them speaking to David about Goliath.
And the men of Israel said, if you've seen this man that has come up, surely to defy
Israel is he come up.
And it shall be that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches,
and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.
And David spake to the men that stood by him saying, what shall be done to the man that
killeth this Philistine and take away the reproach from Israel?
So he asks basically for a clarification or a repetition of what the prize is for defeating
him because he's thinking about doing it, right?
He's actually considering this in his mind.
And so he says, wait, wait, what will I get if I do this?
And then he says, for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies
of the living God?
So he's upset and he doesn't like the fact that this guy's mocking the people of God.
And so he wants to go out and fight this guy, but he's also interested in winning the rewards
as well.
And the people answered him after this manner saying, so shall it be done to the man that
killeth him.
Look at verse 28 and Eliab, his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the man and Eliab's
anger was kindled against David and he said, why camest thou down hither and with whom
has thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?
I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thy heart for thou art come down that thou might
see the battle.
And David said, what have I now done?
Is there not a cause?
And he turned from him toward another and spake after the same manner.
And the people answered him again after the former manner.
Now, what is mind blowing about Eliab's response here of just falsely accusing David, just
attacking David for no reason is when you go back and think about the fact that in chapter
16, David was anointed in the midst of his brethren.
And so Eliab here is not just being a jerk of an older brother, but rather he's showing
a lack of faith in the word of God.
Because Samuel is speaking the word of God and has said, thus saith the Lord, this is
going to be the king of Israel anointing him.
And it says, well, who do you think you are?
You're supposed to be doing this menial work over here.
And I know how prideful you are.
You're so arrogant.
You think you're big stuff.
Well, guess what?
According to the Lord, he is big stuff.
According to Samuel, he's going to be big stuff.
He's going to be the king of Israel.
And so this is a lack of faith in God.
But I can't help but think about the story of Jesus and his brethren when I think about
the story, because I believe this is a foreshadowing of how Jesus would be actually treated by
his physical brethren.
So keep your finger there in 1 Samuel 17 and go to John 7.
So we'll be back to 1 Samuel 17 possibly, but look at John 7 in the New Testament.
And in John chapter 7, I'll start reading while you get there.
In verse 1 it says, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in
Jewry because the Jews sought to kill him.
Now the Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.
His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence and go into Judea, that thy disciples
also may see the works that thou doest.
For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known
openly, if thou do these things, show thyself to the world.
For neither did his brethren believe in him.
So Jesus here, obviously the son of God, but also the physical son of Mary, has his
brethren who are the children of Joseph and Mary.
So they're his half brothers, right?
Because they have the same, it's, you know, the same mother, but obviously different father
because Joseph is their father and Jesus is the son of God, born of a virgin.
And so what we got here is his brothers making fun of him, mocking him, making light of him,
the Jews seek to kill him and they're taunting him that he would just go openly to Judea
and put his life in danger when they know that there's a warrant for his arrest.
They know that he'll be killed if he goes there openly.
And so they're just like, oh come on!
Look at verse four, there's no man that doeth anything in secret.
And then here's the key, and he himself seeking to be known openly, if thou do these things,
show thyself to the world.
What are they accusing Jesus of there?
If they say, well, he himself is seeking to be known openly.
They're accusing him of being prideful, like, oh, you know, you want to be famous, right?
You want to be, you're seeking for yourself.
Look, Jesus was not seeking for himself to be known openly or something.
Jesus is doing the work of God.
Jesus is doing the will of the Father.
And guess what?
When you do the work of God, when you do the will of the Father, you're going to garner
some attention.
But then you have wicked people that will come along and say, oh, you're just trying
to get attention.
You're just looking for attention.
No, no, no, people who do great things for God, they're going to get attention whether
they're looking for it or not.
And God is the one who knows the heart of whether they're just some kind of an attention
seeker, whether they're actually doing the will of God from the heart.
You know, when David showed up in 1 Samuel 17, he wasn't there trying to get attention,
talk a big talk and impress everybody, see the battle.
He wasn't just trying to insert himself into that situation when he was just acting as
a courier.
No, he was really there.
He was upset about Goliath.
He wanted to see the Philistines defeated.
He was fired up in his heart and he didn't like the fact that nobody was doing anything
about these enemies of the Lord.
And so he got fired up, wanted to do something about it.
What's he accused of?
Pride.
You're proud.
You're talking a big talk here.
Jesus Christ, obviously perfect in every way, the sinless son of God is doing great works.
And in fact, he did not seek to be known openly.
He's constantly healing people and saying, see that thou tell no man of it.
He's trying to put the focus on the word that he's preaching rather than just only on the
miracles.
Okay.
And so he tried to get people to emphasize the Bible that's being preached, the gospel
that's being preached, the word.
And so he doesn't go around just trying to make a name for himself by doing miracles
because he often even tells people not to tell anyone that they were healed if you read
the four gospels.
Okay.
But this is a false accusation of pride, just like what David's brethren accused of him.
Jesus is being accused of the same thing.
And so Jesus went through a lot of the same things that we could go through as human beings.
You know, Jesus Christ was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin.
And so he went through an issue of, of, uh, being falsely accused, having, uh, perhaps
not his youth despised, but just being despised of his brethren because the Bible says a prophet
is not without honor, save in his own country and his own house.
You know, David went on to be of course greatly lifted up and exalted by the people, but he
didn't seem to have a lot of respect from his dad and he didn't seem to have a lot of
respect from his brothers because the prophet is not without honor, save in his own country
and in his own house.
Now hopefully David's brothers eventually came up, came around and they probably did.
And we know that Jesus's brothers definitely did come around, but at this time they don't
even believe in him.
They're not even saved.
They're unsaved.
They're rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ at this point and they mock him and accuse him
of being prideful.
So let's go back to first Samuel chapter 17 now that we've seen that parallel with Jesus.
But he says, uh, Eliab that is the older brother says, you know, I know thy pride and the naughtiness
of thine heart for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.
Hopefully Eliab just doesn't like the fact that he was passed over by Samuel when he's
this big, tall, mighty man and that David is the one that was anointed.
And you know, you can't say that Eliab has the excuse of not knowing the truth because
he was there when David was anointed.
And you know what?
Jesus's brethren didn't have an excuse for not believing in him because they had grown
up with Jesus and you'd probably notice if your sibling was totally without sin because
we've all seen our siblings commit sins growing up and we've constantly dealt with their sinfulness
in our lives.
And so you're probably going to notice if your brother is the sinless, perfect son of
God.
Why did they not see it?
They didn't see it because they didn't want to see it.
But guess what?
That's why every single person rejects the gospel of Jesus Christ because they don't
want to believe.
See, I'm not a Calvinist.
I will never be a Calvinist.
Calvinism is stupid and unbiblical and I don't believe in it for one second.
And Calvinists fashion themselves and style themselves as being so smart and so intelligent.
But you know what?
They believe in stupidity.
Okay.
The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ died for all men.
He's the savior of all men, especially of those that believe.
He died not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
He tasted death for every man and whosoever will may come, whosoever will.
Let me translate that into our modern 2023 vernacular.
Whosoever wants to, whosoever will may come, whosoever wants to may come.
You know what Jesus said to the unsaved?
He said, you will not come to me that you might have life.
And again, that's 1611 English.
He's saying you don't want to come to me that you might have life.
Why?
Because people believe what they want.
And that's why the Bible says of the unsaved, they receive not the love of the truth that
they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but at pleasure and unrighteousness.
You see, there are people who love the truth and people who don't.
And anybody who's a lover of truth is ultimately going to come to Christ because Christ is
the truth.
No one who rejects Jesus is a lover of truth.
He is the truth.
No one who rejects the Bible is a lover of truth.
Thy word is truth, the Bible says.
God's word is truth.
And some people receive not that love of the truth.
They don't love truth.
They don't desire truth.
They're not seeking truth and therefore they believe in strong delusions.
And so we see that Christ's brethren didn't believe in him.
What's the explanation for what?
Well they just they just weren't elect.
Well they're like later, but just not yet.
You know, why didn't they believe in him?
They didn't want to.
Their heart wasn't right.
They had their own, you know, and what's funny, they're accusing him of pride.
I'll bet they're the ones with the pride.
You know, they don't want to believe that their brother, that their sibling could be
the son of God.
You know, that bothers them somehow because they've gotten too close to him at home or
something or whatever.
Whatever is wrong with their heart, something's wrong with their attitude, right?
And by the way, every single person who's not saved, it's either a, maybe they just
don't know the gospel.
Maybe they haven't heard the gospel.
Maybe they need us to go explain the gospel to him and preach the gospel to him.
Because a lot of people out there, they're ignorant and they need to hear the truth.
But you know, when people do hear the gospel and understand it and then reject it, they
have a problem with their heart.
It's not an intelligence problem.
It's not that they're not smart enough to understand what you're saying.
It's not that you didn't do a good job of proving it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
No.
When the word of God is preached and the Holy Spirit is working, they reject God.
Why?
Well, they're just not elect.
Just chose for them to be damned before the world began.
There's nothing they can do about it.
That's what the Calvinists would tell you.
It's garbage.
But you know what?
The real reason is that they don't want to believe the truth for whatever reason, whatever's
wrong with their heart, whatever wickedness in their heart or arrogance in their...
Look, why do you think work salvation is so popular?
Look at just denomination after denomination, church after church, religion after religion
teaches that you go to heaven through doing works.
Why is it so popular?
Because of the pride of man wants to feel like he is earning his own way to heaven.
He is getting there on his own merits.
He deserves to go to heaven and wants to look down on someone else and say, well, that guy
should go to hell, but I'm a good person.
And that's that wicked pride.
And by the way, many of the Calvinists are guilty of this exact thing because the Calvinists
claim that, oh, they're all about giving God all the glory as they walk around being some
of the most arrogant, puffed up people ever.
And then turning around and being so arrogant and puffed up and then say, oh, if you don't
have works, you're not saved.
You know, you got to have works and you know, none of this easy believism, right?
Well, last time I checked, it's pretty easy to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and get
saved because he already did the hard part when he died on the cross for us, that was
the hard part.
It's done.
It's paid for.
The death, burial and resurrection of Christ is why I'm going to heaven.
And it's not like, well, you know, if you're not doing the works, if you're if you don't
have the works, you know, you're not saved.
You know what it is?
They're they're glorying in their works.
And then it becomes this slippery slope of like, well, you have to have the works.
And then it's like you have people like Paul Washer, notorious Calvinist, saying something
like, well, you know, if you're if you're still struggling with sin, you know, you're
not saved.
And if you don't do works, you're not saved.
And all this stuff trying to get people to think you're not saved unless you do these
works.
Well, you know what?
To me, that's muddying the waters of the gospel where it starts sounding like what?
These images start sounding like do works and thou shalt be saved, faith and works and
you'll be saved.
And a lot of them will just explicitly come out and say, well, yeah, you know, it's faith
and works.
You know, I mean, it's both because God picked you, though.
So he gets all the glory.
He gets all the glory because he picked you to do such good work.
You know, they have all these ways to try to twist things around and spin things around.
But at the end of the day, we are saved by faith alone, period.
Okay.
And it's not any works before, during or after salvation that have anything to do with salvation.
We're supposed to do good works.
We should do good works.
God commands us to do good works.
If we love God, we'll do good works.
But you know what?
When it comes to being saved, it's by faith alone.
And there are going to be some people who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when they get to the judgment seat of Christ, all of their works are wood, hay and
stubble.
They're all burned up, and they've done nothing of eternal value.
Yet he himself shall be saved.
But according to these people, what would they say?
Well, you know, he didn't have works.
Can't be saved.
Then why does the Bible describe a person in First Corinthians three, who all their
works are burned up, all their works are wood, hay and stubble.
And it says, yet he himself shall be saved.
The Bible says, but he's still saved.
It says he shall suffer loss.
Loss of what?
Loss of reward, because Christ is going to reward every man according to his works.
And so if his works are gold, silver and precious stones, the Bible says he'll receive a reward.
But if his works are wood, hay and stubble, he shall suffer loss.
Yet he himself shall be saved.
Why?
Because our works determine our rewards, but they don't determine our salvation.
That's why the Bible says to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
You know what that means?
That means it's possible to work not and yet believe.
But to him that worketh not, yet believeth, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Even as David also described it, the blessings of the man unto God impudeth righteousness
without works.
Him that worketh not, but believeth, he's saved.
But faith without works is dead.
Let me tell you something.
Faith without works exists.
Riddle me this.
How could faith without works be dead if it doesn't exist?
Right?
I mean, how could that, you know, what if I said, I'm trying to think, what if I said,
you know, a peanut butter jelly sandwich without peanut butter and jelly is dead?
No, because there's no such thing.
Because once you've removed peanut butter and jelly, it's not peanut butter and jelly
sandwich anymore.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
What if I said, you know, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with no peanut butter and
no jelly and no bread is dead.
It's stupid because it doesn't exist.
There's no such thing.
But let me tell you what does exist.
You want to know what does exist?
Faith without works.
It exists.
It's real.
It's out there.
Otherwise, why even talk about it?
And in fact, here's proof that it exists.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness.
Now look, what if I got saved as a six year old boy, which I did, live for God, serve
God, and did works for God, you'd say my faith was a living, active, vibrant, fruitful faith.
Right?
I'm doing the works.
I'm living for God.
I'm serving God.
And I've got this vibrant, active, living faith, the opposite of dead faith, right?
Living faith, because I've got faith and works, right?
I believed on Jesus as a six year old boy, and I'm doing all these works.
Well then let's say when I'm 42 years old, I just stopped working.
Now do you think something like that has ever happened before?
Of course.
You see people all the time who in the past were serving God and they quit on God for
whatever reason, right?
So they were going to church, they were serving God, it's called getting backslidden.
And so they end up getting caught up in the cares of this world.
They get caught up in making money.
They get caught up in the pleasures of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, whatever.
Or maybe they just get burned out or tired of it and they just get lazy and they just
quit going to church.
Look, I've seen some great, wonderful church members over the years.
They weren't bad people.
They were good people that did really good work for God and I'm thankful for the work
that they did.
But then I watched them just kind of slowly fade away and just kind of get tired of it,
get backslidden and just kind of drift away.
Now in that present condition, wouldn't you say that that person's faith is dead if they're
not doing any works?
I mean, you know, okay, yeah, you did stuff in the past, but right now you're not doing
anything.
Faith without works is dead, right?
You'd say that person's faith is dead.
So here's my question then, do they stop being saved now?
And yet you have people who claim that they believe you can't lose your salvation, turn
around and come out and say, well, faith without works is dead, you gotta do works for it.
You know, that'd be like saying you could lose your salvation then because guess what?
There are all kinds of people who do works and then stop.
Well, at that point, their faith is dead and what do they need to do?
They need revival.
They need a personal revival in their life and get their faith moving again and doing
stuff.
Okay.
But no, you can't lose your salvation.
And if you could lose your salvation by not doing works, you know what that would mean?
That would mean salvation is by continually working your whole life because as soon as
you stop, your faith's not working anymore.
Oh, so you know, but then here the Bible turns around and says, for by grace are you saved
through faith and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God.
Oh, just not of works.
Oh, just kidding.
I know I said it was a gift.
I know I said it's not of works, but I forgot the part where you just have to keep working
the whole time and as soon as you stop, you're not saved anymore.
What garbage?
What nonsense.
If you actually read James chapter 2 in a context, he's talking to people that are already
saved.
He says, my brethren, and he's talking about the fact that if you don't have works in your
life, people are going to think that you're not saved.
You're going to appear unsaved to the outside world.
People are going to look at you and question whether you're saved because they can't see
your faith.
All they can see is your works.
Nobody can see my faith.
My faith is invisible.
It's in my heart, but people can see what I do.
People can see what I say.
And so James is talking about not being justified in the sight of God because no flesh will
be justified in the sight of God by their works.
The Bible is crystal clear on that in Romans 3 and 4.
But he's talking about being justified in the eyes of man.
And again, I've done whole sermons on that.
I'm not going to re-preach that sermon.
But it's about showing your faith by your works.
But works have nothing to do with salvation, but yet we have person after person, church
after church, religion after religion, teaching works based salvation.
Why?
Because of the pride and arrogance of their own heart that doesn't want to just receive
a free gift and say, you know what, I didn't do anything to earn this, but Christ died
on the cross.
I just, I just believed in him and accepted that free gift.
I don't deserve it all.
I'm a sinner.
I deserve hell, but I believed on Jesus.
He died for me and I'm going to heaven because of him and then the emphasis is all about
him.
And then Jesus comes along and says, I'm, I'm, I'm a special chosen one and everybody
else is just going to hell and there's nothing they can do about it or we can do it.
Isn't it wonderful?
Isn't the grace of God beautiful?
It's got kind of a dark side if it's sending like 90 some percent of people to hell without
even giving them a chance.
Whereas the actual God of the Bible gives everyone a chance.
Everyone has a chance to be saved and anyone who goes to hell, it's their own fault.
They receive not the love of the truth.
They would not come to him that they might have life and God is justified before all
men because he has given everyone an opportunity to be saved and yet many turn their nose up
at it.
It's their own fault.
Their blood is on their own heads.
According to Calvinism though, it's just, well, you know what?
God just thought I was special or something.
And then you're like, no, no, no.
God didn't think I was special.
He picked me for no reason.
Oh, so you Calvinists think you're special that God chose you.
Oh no, no, no, no.
He picked me just for nothing.
That's not called picking.
That's not what picking means.
That's not what an election means.
That's not, when was the last time we had an election where lotto balls bubbled around
an air bubbler and then it picked our president?
Is that an, would somebody call that an election?
No, seriously, what if, okay.
What if somebody got up and spun a big wheel like on, like on the price is right and they
spun a big wheel and the wheel says like Biden, Trump, Biden, Trump, Biden, Trump, and then
everyone's all throwing like a third party candidate or something just to mix things
up and they spun a wheel.
Would that be an election?
Would you say that we chose our president?
We elected our president.
We selected our president.
Would you, would you, is that, is that selecting?
What if somebody held out a bag to me filled with colored marbles and I don't get to look
inside.
I just reach in and I just pull something out.
Did I pick a marble?
No I didn't elect or select or choose a marble because guess what?
In order to choose something, in order to select something, in order to elect something,
there has to be some criteria, right?
If we pick a president, we say, well, here's what I like about him.
I like this.
I like that.
I like, you know, that's what it means to pick something.
When you go out to eat, if you choose an entree, you flip a coin.
If you flipped a coin, that's a lack of choosing.
Does everybody understand?
Why do we choose the things that we choose?
There's always a reason, right?
When you choose a restaurant to go to, there's a reason.
When you choose what to have for breakfast tomorrow morning, there's a reason.
Maybe it's the taste, maybe because it's healthy, maybe because of whatever reason, maybe it's
just what's available.
But there's a reason.
There's always a reason.
Otherwise it's not choosing.
It's randomness.
So God isn't just randomly picking who goes to heaven and hell, he chooses.
So then the question is, who does he choose?
The Bible says that we're elect according to the foreknowledge of God.
Well what's the deciding factor between who goes to heaven and who goes to hell?
It's whoever believes on Jesus is going to heaven and whoever doesn't believe in Jesus
is going to hell.
That's the deciding factor.
God doesn't just reach into the bag blindfolded, no, he reaches into the bag and pulls out
everybody who believes on Jesus.
That's how he separates the wheat from the chaff.
That's how he separates the sheep from the goats.
It's by faith in Christ that we're saved.
That's what the choice is based upon.
God chooses in the passage here David to be king of Israel.
What is it based upon?
Is it just random?
Hey let's just pick the smallest, youngest guy just to throw everybody off.
No, he picked David and wow, turns out David's a man after God's own heart.
Coincidence?
No, he picked David because he knows that David's going to be a man after his own heart.
He knows that David's going to write all those Psalms.
He knows that David is going to do certain things and so he picked all of his disciples
he picked for a reason.
You think he just grabbed 12 guys?
Look if you look at Christ's disciples, 11 of them do all this great work for God and
turn the world upside down.
One of them is this devil who betrays him.
That was by design.
He literally purposely chose Judas to do that job of betraying him so that the scripture
would be fulfilled.
He chooses the other guy.
Notice that there's no disciple who's just constantly not showing up.
You know what I mean?
They're working a pretty rough schedule.
I mean they're traveling, they're soul winning, they're good.
You know if you just randomly picked 12 guys there would be a few guys who are just not
doing anything, who just refuse to show up and Jesus would have to be firing the disciples
and replacing them with people who would actually show up.
That's how real life works.
But no, no, no, he picked them according to his foreknowledge.
He knew that Peter was going to betray him.
He knew that Peter was afterward going to be converted and strengthen his brethren.
That's why he said, you know, Simon, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sit to
his way.
He tells him, look, when they are converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Again not talking about salvation there, but talking about Peter getting his attitude right,
getting his heart right and so forth.
And so Peter is ultimately going to go on and do amazing things for God.
That's why God picked him according to foreknowledge of what Judas would do, what John would do,
what Peter would do.
Well, guess what?
God knows who's going to be saved and who's not going to be saved.
But that is a big difference from God saying, well, I'm going to make this person believe
and make this person not believe.
That's that's false.
The Bible doesn't teach that.
Okay.
The Bible teaches that Christ died for all men and that whosoever believeth, believeth
shall be saved.
God knew that and he can look in the future and by his foreknowledge, elect those that
are saved to be conformed to the image of his son, to be eligible to go to heaven and
to receive all these benefits of being saved.
But folks, it's based on his foreknowledge.
And then some some idiot came along and said, well, you know, when the Bible says that he
foreknows, and I'm seeing this all the time lately.
When the Bible says he foreknows who's going to be saved.
It doesn't mean no, like, you know, no.
Like because when I hear the word foreknowledge, that means knowing in advance.
I mean, look, is foreknowledge a hard word?
If we said like, hey, the U.S. government had foreknowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack
or something.
What do we mean by that?
They knew about it in advance.
No, no.
When the Bible says foreknew here, new there means love.
And here's where they're getting this.
They say, well, Adam knew his wife, Eve, and she brought forth the son.
It's like, first of all, hold up, OK?
First of all, you know, if you're five years old today, if you're seven years old, I hope
that's what you think makes babies.
You know what I mean?
I hope that you seven, eight, nine year olds out there, I hope that you think that daddy
loves mommy and therefore mommy conceived and gave birth and had a son.
But you know, for those of us who are actually adults, though, you know, we actually know
that loving your wife doesn't get her pregnant, right?
You know, I could I could be off on a trip somewhere and I could love my wife with all
my heart.
But he is not going to get pregnant while I'm gone, OK?
What kind of stupidity is that to just say, well, you know, Adam knew his wife and so
God knew us.
It means he loved us.
And then they were just substituting the word love and all the verses about foreknew.
He fore loved us.
He loved us in advance.
He loved us eternally.
No, no, no.
That's not what no means.
The reason that the Bible uses the word no about Adam knew his wife.
It's because of the fact the Bible doesn't often go into a lot of graphic or explicit
detail about things that should be left, you know, unsaid.
OK, he doesn't have to get all detailed about what men and women do when they're married.
And so the reason that the term no is used is a very logical word.
It's a euphemism.
Like if you said, hey, people should wait until they're married to sleep together.
You know, there'd actually be no issue with people just sleeping to get like like if I'm
on what if I'm on an airplane and I fall asleep next to the woman next to me, you know, there's
absolutely no issue there, is there?
We both fell asleep to get no pregnancy, folks.
OK, why?
Because that's called a euphemism.
The euphemism is when we when we say something, you know, hey, I'm going to go to the bathroom.
Right.
It's not like I'm just going to go there and come back.
That's it.
Right.
I just I went I went to the bathroom.
But it's amazing because I feel no relief.
No, no, no.
You say you say I go to the bathroom because you don't want to go into detail about something
that's not it's crude, right?
So it's the same thing when the Bible says Adam knew his wife.
What it's doing, it's avoiding talking about something that is sensitive, something that
is intimate.
It avoids talking about in great detail.
So use this term new.
Sometimes it will use the term lie with.
Sometimes they'll say he lay with her and she became pregnant.
She conceived.
Right.
Sometimes it'll say lie with.
Sometimes they'll say he knew her.
Now why would the word new imply that is because here's the thing.
You know, we all as normal human beings, we walk around with clothes on.
And so nobody really knows what we look like underneath these clothes.
Am I right?
Nobody really knows.
I mean, look, for all you people know, I could have some giant tattoo on my butt, for all
you know.
How would you know?
Because nobody's seen my butt because I'm not walking around showing my nakedness, right?
I'm a decent, civilized human being.
I keep my butt covered in clothes, anything, anything could be on my butt.
Nobody would know.
But you know who would know is my wife would know.
Okay.
So here's the thing.
Guess what?
If you know things, it's talking about having a carnal knowledge of someone, it's talking
about a physical relationship.
And you know what?
I don't care what Adam's attitude was toward his wife, if he could have a bad attitude,
he could not love his wife at all.
But if he knew her, she could still conceive and bring forth a son.
What if I told you that men who don't love their wives could still impregnate them?
And I know this is common sense, folks.
Everything I'm saying is common sense.
But can you explain it to these false prophets, these false teaching Calvinists who pull out
this weird perverted explanation of, oh, for new, and by the way, I've heard this from
James White too, but he's not the only one.
He said, oh, when God foreknew, it's like Adam knew his wife.
What kind of weirdo doctrine is that?
Because when Adam knew his wife, that's talking about a physical act of carnal knowledge,
okay, of knowing things about her that only a husband should know.
And then no other man should ever know.
That's what it means when he knew his wife.
Oh, it means he loved her, so let's substitute love.
How about we don't substitute love?
How about we stay with he foreknew?
How about he chose based on his foreknowledge?
He knew in advance who would believe, he knew in advance who loved the truth, he knew in
advance who was too prideful to accept the free gift, and he elected those who were humble
enough to receive Christ by faith.
That's who he selected, that's who he elected, that's who he chose.
And by the way, if there's no criteria, it's not a choice.
Show me in this world a choice we make with no criteria and I'll show you that it's not
a choice.
Spin the wheel, that's not a choice.
Choosing is when you say, oh, I like blue better than red.
I like this one better because it's blue.
I like it better because it's red.
I like this burrito better because it's bigger or because it's made out of cleaner ingredients
or when it's got meat instead of tofu, you know, there's always a reason.
If there's no reason, there's no choice.
That was a really long rabbit trail.
You don't even know what the sermon's about, but it's called Let No Man Despise Thy Youth.
Alright.
Now let's get this train back on the tracks here, I regret nothing.
So look what the Bible says, are you there in 1 Samuel 17?
Look what the Bible says in verse 32, David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because
of him, thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
And Saul said to David, thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with
him, for thou art but a youth and he a man of war from his youth.
And let me tell you something, that is a bad reason.
You can't do it because you're young.
That's a bad reason.
Let no man despise thy youth.
He's despising his youth.
He's saying, you can't do anything great for God because you're young.
And he ends up, of course, being wrong.
Jump down to verse 41, it says, and the Philistine came on and drew near unto David and the man
that bare the shield went before him.
And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, how did the Philistine feel?
He disdained him.
What does that mean, disdain?
It means he looked down on him.
He saw him as of little value.
He disdained him for he was but a youth and ruddy and of a fair countenance.
So he's looking at him and saying, you know, this guy's too young and too pretty to go
up against a big, ugly, gnarly warrior like me.
But he underestimated David because he underestimated the power of God.
And so Goliath's downfall was underestimating the power of God because David flat out told
him, I'm not going to do it by my own strength.
I'm coming to you in the name of the living God.
God's the one who's going to give me the victory today.
So Goliath underestimated the power of God.
Jesse seemed to underestimate the power of God's word and his brethren also seem to underestimate
or even just not believe the word that God has spoken concerning David.
Probably due to their own attitude problem of just not wanting to submit to God's choice
and submit to someone who's younger than them or submit to someone that they're related
to or whatever.
If you would flip over to 1 Timothy chapter 4.
You know I have great respect for people who are able to submit unto someone who is younger
than them or to submit unto someone who's maybe a family member of theirs when it's
appropriate to do so for the kingdom of God.
You know the Bible says that we should be submitting one to another in the fear of God.
An example of this is Pastor Roger Jimenez, a pastor in Sacramento, California, a good
friend of mine for the last 20 some years.
His parents go to his church.
Now look, they're not despising his youth, right?
I mean his parents are obviously older and more experienced than him and they could have
this attitude of, hey, you know, son, who do you think you are to speak the word of
God unto us when we change your diapers?
We brought you into this world.
You know, we remember when you were nothing and we taught you everything.
How dare you preach to us?
But no, no, no.
Pastor Roger Jimenez, his parents come to his church week after week, Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night.
And what are they doing?
They're listening to their young son preach them the word of God.
Now Pastor Jimenez is not as young as he used to be, so he might not quite be a youth
anymore now that he's, I believe, 38 years old.
He's probably out of that window of being considered a youth.
But here's the thing.
When he started the church, guess how old he was?
He was 24 years old when he started Verity Baptist Church.
And guess what?
His parents were still listening to him preach, still submitting unto him, still you say,
well, that's got to be humiliating.
No, only for a prideful, arrogant bozo would it be humiliating.
It'd be an honor to submit to a pastor like Roger Jimenez and be under his teaching of
God's word at any age.
He's a great man of God.
It'd be an honor to learn from him and hear from him.
I don't care if you're 119 years old, you know, you can learn from him.
And so let no man despise thy youth.
But now I want to close on this thought.
We don't want to despise the youth.
God chooses people to do his work and, you know, if young people are zealous about serving
God, we don't want to pour cold water on an excited, zealous young person who wants to
serve God.
And I'm older than you is not an argument, okay?
But now let me turn around and speak to the young people because, you know, this whole
sermon has been saying, hey, don't despise the youth except for that part where I went
off on salvation by faith and against Calvinism for, you know, a long time.
But here's what I want to point out.
I want all you young people to listen to me now because some young people are like, yeah,
listen to us.
Yeah.
Don't despise us.
Yeah.
We're right about stuff.
Yeah.
We know things.
Yeah.
Our parents can learn from their children.
Yeah.
That's what a lot of young people might be thinking right now.
Well, you know what?
Amen.
But here's the caveat.
Look at First Timothy chapter four, verse 11.
These things command and teach.
Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation,
in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
You know what?
In order for you to not let any man despise thy youth, you have to be an example of Christianity.
You have to be an exemplary Christian.
And you know what?
I see a lot of teenagers and young people in their early 20s or late 20s or whatever
the Bible says a youth that are mouthing off to their parents, mouthing off to adults.
It's not because they're out trying to slay the Goliaths of this world.
It's not because they're trying to be this godly servant and preach the word of God.
No, it's because they want to be worldly.
They want their parents to listen to them about why, you know, there are some virtues
to feminism.
You know, they want their parents to listen to them about why it's okay for them to be
worldly and sinful and why they can use other versions of the Bible or why they can go to
a liberal church, right?
Why they can have long hair as a man, short hair as a woman, why, you know, they want
their parents and older people to respect their opinions about women going out there
in the workforce and doing it all for themselves and all these things.
You know what?
Hey, I'll be glad to defer to any young person who wants to set an example of being a great
Christian and show me an example of sound doctrine and preaching the word of God and
teach to, you know, you show me a young person who has made God their number one priority.
They've made the things of God paramount in their life.
The Bible is their priority, church is their priority, winning souls to Jesus Christ their
priority.
And you know what?
I'll be glad to sit down and shut up and listen to something that they have to say.
But you see, if you want to be taken seriously, you got to be a serious person.
And you know what, we should never despise someone because of their youth.
But you youths out there, you should let no man despise that youth.
How do you let no man despise that youth?
Well, first of all, we could say, well, you know, don't let people give you guff about
your age.
Amen.
You know, when I was 24, when Pastor Jimenez was 24, we both started churches when we were
24.
And people did give me guff about my age and kind of scoff at me and act like I'm too young
and I don't know anything or whatever.
And I didn't let that stop me from getting up and preaching with authority.
I didn't get up and preach like, well, guys, I know I'm only 24.
I probably got a lot to learn.
But I think this is what the Bible says.
No, I got up and said, that's not the Lord.
And I spoke with authority.
But you know, he says, let no man despise that I despise that youth, but be an example
of the believers.
Here's how you can stop getting despised for your youth, young people.
Be an example of the believers.
You know, you want people to respect you, be respectable.
You want people to take you seriously, be a serious person.
And you know what it means to be an example of the believers?
It means that you're setting the tone.
You're setting the trend.
And you know what most young people are doing?
They're not an example of the, you know what?
They're not an example.
They're not saying, hey, I'm an example.
Follow me.
You know what the Apostle Paul said?
He said, be followers of us and have us for examples.
Right?
Brethren, be followers of me as I follow Christ.
Have us take us as an example.
Follow us.
But you know what most young people are doing?
They're not setting an example.
You know what they're doing?
They are followers.
They are conformed to this world.
You know, all you know what they're excited about this week?
It's not soul winning.
It's not the Bible.
It's not church.
They're just excited.
They just you know what?
It's not that they just can't decide whether to go soul winning or go to church or read
their Bible or which church to attend.
They're having trouble deciding whether they're going to watch Barbie or Oppenheimer.
And what's the big and why?
Why?
Because that's what everybody's doing.
Everybody's doing it.
Right?
And most young people, all they want to do is just do what everybody else is doing.
Well, you know what?
If you're going to be a young person that just wants to do what everybody else is doing,
then don't be surprised if adults treat you like you're just basically a lemming.
And act like, hey, you don't know what you're talking about.
You need to listen to us.
We're guiding you.
You know why you're being treated that way?
Because you're just showing that you'll just follow any trend.
You know, and look, I'm not claiming to be an expert on these two films, but from what
I understand, you know, this Oppenheimer film sounds like it's pornographic.
Somebody said that it just seemed like they just put a naked person on the screen every
few minutes just to keep you watching.
It's like movies going along, ah, nudity, ah, here's more nudity, ah.
So you know what?
Yeah, let's all go watch the latest skin flick.
Let's go watch, who gives a crap about Oppenheimer?
Nobody gave a crap about him until Hollywood says, ooh, Oppenheimer.
Like really?
When was the last time you saw somebody just like wearing an Oppenheimer t-shirt, like
a year ago?
Or when was the last time somebody walked up to you and be like, hey, I was reading
this book about Oppenheimer, it's like cool.
Nobody gave a rat's whatever about Oppenheimer a couple of months ago and nobody even knew
who he was.
If I would have just said, who is Oppenheimer?
They would have just been like, ooh, wow, so he was at a nuclear test and he quoted
the Bhagavad Gita, satanic Hindu scriptures.
He quoted satanic Hindu scriptures at a test of a nuclear weapon.
Cultural phenomenon, let's all go watch it.
Let's all go see it, it's so cool.
What is this?
They want to watch people having sex on the screen for 15 minutes.
That's what they want to do.
The sinful heart of man wants to go to the movie theater and they don't care about Oppenheimer.
They're not necessarily interested in nuclear physics.
They want to go down and watch people in a pornographic film because of the lust of the
heart of man.
That's why.
And Barbie?
Please explain to me why grown men, grown men are going to see a Barbie movie.
Can somebody explain that to me?
Because I'm trying to figure it out.
I'm trying to figure out why a grown man is like, yay, let's put on pastels and go watch
Barbie.
Isn't our world faggoty enough without a whole movie of a bunch of pastel dudes?
And by the way, let me just explain to you something.
Showing off your body in public as a man is a faggoty thing to do.
You know what women do?
Women show off their bodies.
You know what men do?
They don't do that.
Men don't just go around just like, hey, look at my body.
Let me just, you know, let me just show you my physique.
It's a fag thing to do.
Let me just, I'm just laying some real truth on you this morning.
You know, real dudes are more interested in other things than staring at themselves in
the mirror and preening.
And you know what?
Women, yeah, they may spend hours in front of the mirror worried about their appearance,
you know.
Well, that can be overboard too, but when a dude does it, what are we doing, guys?
If you're dressed, let's go.
Five minutes, let's go.
You dressed?
You got deodorant?
You brush your teeth?
Let's go.
Let's roll.
You know, you sit in there and, but then, you know, the teenagers today, here's what
they want to tell me.
No, you just don't understand this new generation is more concerned about their appearance as
dudes.
Yeah, because it's a faggoty generation.
Yeah, I know.
I know because men are being feminized to where now they're all into their appearance
now.
They're just like a freaking peacock or something now.
You're right.
Men are more into their appearances now, I noticed.
Folks, if you want to be treated like an adult, then why don't you start making some godly
righteous decisions that show that you're actually an example of the believers, that
you're taking, why don't you take the lead on something spiritual?
Take the lead on some soul-winning, take the lead on serving God, take the lead on doing
something great for God, not just, well let me just follow all the other lemmings to go
watch a Barbie movie.
And by the way, let me answer my own question.
Why do grown men want to go watch a Barbie movie?
Because it's kind of a question.
Probably half the people that are seeing it are dudes.
Even if a fourth of them are dudes or a third of them are dudes, still millions of dudes.
Can I tell you why?
I'll tell you why.
Because they just want to just stare at some scantily clad woman on the screen for 90 minutes
or however long the running time is.
Am I right?
Why do you think dudes are willing to go watch Barbie?
They just really remember Barbie from when they were a kid?
No, they want to just lust after these female actresses in the Barbie film because they're
scantily clad.
Because like I said, I haven't seen the film, I don't really know anything about the film,
but I'm assuming that Barbie's going to be scantily clad in the film.
I'm going out on a limb, if I'm wrong, maybe, I don't know, I don't know, because the only
advertisement I saw for the film, she had a knee-length skirt.
But I have a funny feeling that that knee-length skirt isn't the whole movie.
I have a feeling we're going to see Barbie in her underwear or in a bathing suit a lot.
We're probably going to be looking at Barbie's naked ass at some point in that movie.
In some revealing swimsuit or underwear or whatever.
Oh, I can't believe you said that.
Okay, fine, you're so offended and then you're going to go watch movies, you don't like the
word ass, but you'll go look at ass in those movies, right?
Right?
Okay.
That makes you a big hypocrite is what it makes you.
And you know what?
And by the way, the word ass is in the Bible, so I have no problem using it.
But the point is that, you know, you've got a bunch of young people today that just whatever
is the hot thing, this week it's Oppenheimer and Barbie.
What's the message of Barbie?
What's the message?
Feminism?
Being a feminist?
Girl power?
Yeah, that's what we need.
That's what we need in 2023 America.
That's what I want my daughters watching.
That's what I want them learning.
That's what I want them being programmed with.
What's the message of Oppenheimer?
I don't even know.
What is it?
Does anybody know the message?
What's that?
Inventors of evil things.
I mean, look, my friend, what's it going to be next week that the devil is going to get
you all hyped up about to where you just think like, oh, this is what we have to go do or
whatever?
I mean, if the devil can get adult men to go see a Barbie movie, obviously, whatever
he puts out in front of you, it seems like you're going to fall for it.
And so you know what?
At that point, you can't really expect people to not want to lay a bunch of spiritual wisdom
on you and maybe treat you like you need some wisdom because you're not being an example
of the believers in word and conversation and charity and spirit and faith and purity.
Instead you're following the example of this world.
You're just going after the things of this world and next thing you know, you start buying
into feminist ideas and virtually everybody in our society has bought into feminist ideology
today.
Everybody's been influenced by it.
Virtually everyone in this room has been influenced by it.
The Bible's hard truths about men and women, that women are supposed to obey their husbands,
obedient in all things, submit to their husband, keepers at home.
You start preaching that stuff and everybody freaks out.
That women shouldn't divorce their husbands.
No fault divorce is feminist garbage.
This started in 1969, first in the Soviet Union, then in California, then all over America.
You say, well, you're preaching long this morning.
Somebody stop me when I hit the running time of the Barbie movie, okay?
Somebody pull up the running time of that Barbie movie.
That's when I'm going to stop preaching, right?
How long is the Oppenheimer movie?
Because maybe I can really make this a marathon.
Somebody hit me with some running times.
An hour and 54 minutes.
How long have I been preaching?
About an hour and 10 minutes?
Forty hours.
Okay, so, according to the Oppenheimer, I can preach for another hour and 50 minutes.
Oh, but I'd have to show you naked pictures to keep you interested, I guess, right?
And then, according to the Barbie mentality, I would have another 44 minutes to preach.
Okay, I know you're getting nervous.
I'm actually going to end it on.
You're like, wow.
You're like, please, Hollywood, make shorter movies.
And look, I guarantee you there's people in this room that have seen both of those films.
You're shaking your head, really?
Because you're pretty naive if you don't think there are people in this room that have seen
both of those movies.
And it's probably a lot of people in this room that have seen both of those movies,
okay?
And you know what?
Because I've been pastoring long enough to know that there are people in this room who
drink alcohol, there are people in this room who smoke cigarettes, there are people in
this room taking drugs, there are people in this room who commit fornication because you
know what?
Because there are hundreds of people in this room, and let me tell you something, people
are sinful.
And even people that are saved fall into sin, get backslidden or whatever.
I guarantee you.
And look, I'm not up here just trying to browbeat you or make you feel bad.
And you know what, if you quit the church because you're like, well Pastor Anderson
questioned my manhood because I watched a Barbie movie, you know, why don't you just
get over it?
You know, if you quit the church over something like that, you're not going to last in a church
like this anyway, okay?
But you know what, instead of just getting all offended or mad, and you know what, if
you want to walk out of here and think that the Barbie movie is wonderful and that Oppenheimer
is wonderful or whatever, you know, you can think whatever you want, my friend.
There's no skin off my back, but I'm just getting up here and telling you today that
our society is trying to brainwash us, and I wonder, here's my question to you, okay,
you went and saw the Barbie movie, okay?
Here's my question for you specifically.
Did you spend an hour and 54 minutes reading your Bible that week?
Because here's the problem.
The problem is that you're getting infected with all of this feminist junk, all this worldly
junk, and then it's like you're not even getting the antidote, you're not even getting the
word of God.
And I'm not saying you should do both and balance them out, I'm saying read your Bible
and listen to the truth because today the devil comes out with these movies with an
agenda, he wants to brainwash you, he wants to corrupt you, he wants to get you to think
a certain way.
Like I said, I have no idea what the agenda behind this Oppenheimer film is because I
don't know anything about it, but I guarantee you there's an agenda, that the devil has
an agenda.
Because why out of all the movies, why are these just the big ones?
I mean, there are movies being produced every day.
Movies are coming out on all these platforms now, just movie after movie after movie after
movie.
Why all the hype about these two movies?
Just all about these two movies.
Like we're supposed to believe it's just a spontaneous phenomenon.
You believe that?
I don't.
I believe that the devil has served it up for us.
And that's what he's got, that's what he wants us to be influenced by today.
Maybe his LGBT agenda was losing a little steam or something.
So maybe if we all watch a bunch of dudes, scantily clad dudes in pastel, I don't know.
Maybe that'll help his agenda, I don't know.
But folks, you young people, don't ever think it's too early for you to start serving God.
Why don't you teenagers be out soul winning this week?
Why don't you guys in your 20s, you gals in your 20s, why don't you be out soul winning
this week?
Why don't you be serious about the things of God?
Why don't you use all that youth and energy and vitality that you have as a young person
that we lose as we get older?
Why don't you use that to do something great for God?
And you know what?
I have absolutely no regrets about starting a church when I was 24.
Instead of using my vigorous energy to go do something for this world, because at the
end of the day, it's eternal things that matter most.
And so be an example of the believers, get serious about the things of God, and let no
man despise thy youth.