Mark, chapter 8, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads,
In those days, the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat,
Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them,
I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat.
And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way,
for divers of them came from far.
And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?
And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven.
And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them.
And they did set them before the people, and they had a few small fishes, and he blessed and commanded to set them also before them.
So they did eat, and were filled, and they took up of the broken meat that was left.
Seven baskets, and they that had eaten were about four thousand, and he sent them away.
This miracle is very similar to what he did earlier, where he fed the five thousand.
That's the more famous story of feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes.
In this story, he feeds four thousand with seven loaves.
And so it's interesting, right away you notice that he was able to do less with more, or more with less rather.
So when he had seven loaves, he fed four thousand, and he fed five thousand with five loaves.
Now if you jump down the chapter to verse nineteen, it says this, When I break the five loaves among five thousand,
how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?
Okay, that was the bigger miracle, because he has less food to start with, and he's feeding more people.
And they took up twelve baskets. Look at verse twenty.
And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?
And they said seven.
So God even made sure that the leftovers were less the second time around.
Now it's amazing that God would do more with less, right?
But actually, does it really matter how many people there were and how many loaves?
I mean, if you have five loaves, it's clearly not enough to feed anywhere near four thousand, five thousand, six thousand.
So what's the difference, right?
But what's amazing is that people will sometimes question the miracles of God in the Bible and say, well, how could that really happen?
I was just talking to a guy a couple days ago that didn't believe in the Bible.
And he was talking about how, you know, some of the miracles are kind of hard to believe, like there's no scientific way to explain them.
I think you're missing the whole point. It's a miracle. That's the whole point.
That's what a miracle means.
And I remember when I was a kid, there'd be all these shows on TV that would try to explain the miracles of the Bible.
You ever see these?
And for example, they tell you, oh, there was a shallow spot in the Red Sea, like a land bridge or or that it was a certain storm that came through and would blow the water out of the way and that they could.
But the Bible is so clear that they walk through on dry land.
Not just that the wind blew it and it was a little bit shallow and they were able to go through, but it was on dry land.
Other people say, well, they didn't even cross the Red Sea, they just crossed the Reed Sea.
Red, Reed.
And they'll say they crossed the Reed Sea and it was just, you know, knee deep in water.
OK, well then explain how all of Pharaoh and his armies drowned in knee deep water.
You know, they're all laying in the water.
Help, help.
Stand up.
So they're all drowning in that water.
So the Bible is always really clear to let us know that there is no explanation for the miracles.
That's what makes it a miracle.
So he explains that when they crossed the Red Sea, that there was a wall of water on either side of them.
It specifically gives that detail because that's not natural.
Because on this show that I saw when I was a teenager, it was like, oh, all the water blew off to one side and they were able to know the Bible says there was a wall of water on either side.
That's not natural.
They walked through on dry land.
Things take a few days to dry, OK?
And, you know, you don't just immediately walk on dry land when it parts right then and there unless it's a miracle.
For example, I saw another show like that when I was a teenager of the Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego going in the fiery furnace.
And they even had a computer-generated diagram of what the furnace is in Babylon, what they think they look like.
And they had this elaborate scientific computerized reproduction showing how there could be this cool spot in the furnace where if they just went to a certain spot and they could be there, you know, it'd be hot, still going to be hot, but they would be able to survive.
But again, the Bible gives us the details that it was so hot that even the men who threw them in died.
Just the men who got close enough to the furnace to throw them in because it was heated up seven times hotter than it was want to be heated, even they were burned up.
And then God also gives us the detail that the ropes were burned off their hands, but they're not burned.
And then it gives us the other detail that when they came out of the furnace, they didn't even smell like smoke.
So, you know, how are you going to explain all that?
You can't. That's the whole point.
Either you believe the Bible or you don't.
I mean, if somebody is just going to reject the Bible, they could just say, hey, they never crossed the Red Sea or nobody was ever thrown into that furnace at all.
It's a book of fairy tales.
That's what many people in this world believe.
But it's ridiculous to sit there and say, well, I believe the Bible, but, you know, science can explain this stuff.
You know, when I mean, I'm surprised they haven't made this episode.
Let me you know, maybe they're listening.
I give them an episode idea.
You know, when Jesus spit in the dirt and made clay and put it on that guy's eye, you know, they'll probably explain how, you know, a human spittle mixed with dirt can actually, you know, have a good effect on your eyes or whatever.
You know, it can actually do something.
But these are miracles.
And why would it be hard to believe that God, who could speak the universe into existence, who can create all things, why would you not believe that he could turn water into wine or, you know, part the Red Sea?
Or feed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fishes?
Either you believe that God is omnipotent or you don't.
But why would you try to have it both ways?
It's so strange to try to say, well, you know, I believe the Bible, but I'm going to reject the miracles.
I'm going to reject the supernatural.
And there's an explanation for it.
There's a scientific explanation for it.
No, there isn't.
There's no explanation for it except for the fact that he's God and that he was able to do these things.
Even the Bible gives us the details when Jesus changed the water into wine and makes sure to tell us that the water was filled in them up to the brim and also to tell us that, you know, it was a very large water pot.
It tells us, you know, that they contained two or three firkins apiece.
You know, we all know what a firkin is.
So, you know, two or three firkins apiece telling you, hey, this is a really big water pot and it was filled to the brim just so you'd know that Jesus didn't put something in it, a little flavor pack or something to put it in it and stir it up.
And, of course, it was the best tasting wine that he had ever tasted, the governor of the feast.
And so that shows that these aren't just magic tricks or scientifically explainable phenomena, but that these are miracles of God all throughout the Bible, all throughout the New Testament.
So Jesus here actually does more with less.
Not that it really matters because, obviously, either way, it's an extreme miracle to start with five loaves and two fishes and end up with 12 baskets of leftovers where the leftovers are more than what was actually handed out.
But I think there is a symbolic meaning of Jesus doing more with less and also less with more that God often will choose to use the weak things of this world, the foolish things of this world,
so that he can receive more glory than if he were to use the strong and the wise.
There are a lot of scriptures like that, especially in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, where God says that he uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.
And you might think to yourself, you know, I don't really have a lot to offer God.
I don't really have a great speaking ability.
I don't have a great personality.
I don't have a lot of money.
I don't have a lot of talent.
But actually, God can do more with less.
And so if you're willing to take what you have and give it to God, he can still use you in a great way.
And in fact, sometimes he will use the weak more than he could use the strong.
He would use the one who's not talented more than he'll even use the talented.
Because if he uses the talented, everybody would just chalk it up to the talent instead of giving God the glory.
And when he uses one that is weak, he gets the glory.
And that's what we see over and over again in the Bible.
But the key thing about both stories is that both stories, they gave everything.
They said this is all we have, five loaves and two fishes.
They gave everything to Jesus, and he was able to do something great with it.
He was able to multiply it and make up the difference for that which they lacked and provide everything that they needed.
And so the same thing is going to happen in our lives if we're willing to step up to the plate and say to God,
here am I, send me, and open our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
You know, go out soul winning, maybe those who are thinking about preaching or pastoring.
You know, God can use you and you don't have to be totally talented and have everything together
because God can actually do more with less and then he gets the glory.
You know, I think about the story of Samson. He had great strength.
And whenever you see movies or Sunday school materials about Samson, they always show him as being a really big muscular guy.
You know, they show him looking like a body builder, right?
In the Hollywood movies or in the flannel graph, you know, he's a big giant muscular, you know, kind of had my build, no I'm just kidding.
But anyway, you know, a big muscular guy, but here's the thing though.
When Samson was doing these great feats of strength, they were perplexed by it.
And they said, what is the secret of his great strength?
You know, tell us where in thy great strength lieth.
Because I don't believe that he looked like just this monstrous hulk of a man.
Because then it wouldn't have really been a miracle.
The whole thing was that he had supernatural strength.
And once he had had his strength taken away by the Lord after, you know, Delilah gave him the haircut, he wasn't strong anymore.
So it's not like he just had these big muscles that were giving him strength.
It was the power of the Holy Spirit that gave him supernatural strength.
It was a miracle.
And so there's an example where I don't think that God used a guy who was already just huge.
Because then it wouldn't have been as amazing.
And so I think when we get to heaven, we're going to be like, that's Samson?
You know, because we're looking for some huge guy and then, you know, he's going to be...
I'm not saying he's going to be a completely skinny guy.
But I think he was probably just an average guy, would be my guess.
But again, that's just my guess.
Because, you know, that's how God is.
He wants to use people where he gets the glory.
Think about Gideon.
Gideon was going to go out to battle with a great army of tens of thousands of men.
I believe it was, what, 32,000 troops that he started with.
And God said that he did not want Israel to think that they won the battle because they had 32,000 troops.
You have too many troops.
So he gets rid of 22,000.
Now he's down to 10,000.
They're already severely outnumbered.
They're outnumbered.
But he says, no, 10,000 is too many.
He whittled them down to where they have 300 men.
And they get down to just 300 troops.
And God says, yep, you're going to go with these 300 against this great multitude on the other side.
But then God gets the glory for the great victory.
And of course, they used a strategy where they surrounded the enemy.
They had lanterns and pitchers.
They shattered the pitchers and blew with the trumpets.
And because of all the noise and the lights and the trumpets,
the enemy became confused and thought that they were surrounded by a huge army.
Then they scattered every which way.
And it was easy pickings.
And then the rest of the nation of Israel came and pursued after.
And then thousands of troops did pursue after them and defeat them.
But they initially engaged them with only 300 troops.
Why?
Because God wanted to get the glory.
And that story is something that we still talk about today
because of the fact that God did such a miraculous work there.
So God gets all the glory when he uses less and does more.
So look down at your Bible, if you would, to verse 10.
It says,
And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples and came into the parts of Dalmanutha.
And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him,
seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.
And he sighed deeply in his spirit and saith,
Why did this generation seek after a sign?
Verily I say unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this generation.
And he left them, and entering into the ship, departed again to the other side.
Now keep your finger there and flip over to Matthew chapter number 12.
Matthew chapter number 12.
And I want to show you something similar that Jesus says in Matthew chapter 12,
beginning in verse 38.
It says,
Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying,
Master, we would see a sign from thee.
But he answered and said unto them,
An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas.
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly,
so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Back to Mark.
What I wanted to point out there is that Jesus said
that an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.
So does it seem like we should be the type of people that seek after a sign,
if that's what Jesus says about those who seek after a sign?
No.
Now you say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson.
These people are saying that they want to see a sign from him,
and he says that he's not going to show them any sign.
Now in the other passage, when he was talking to the other group of people,
he said to them, well, you know, you'll see the sign of the prophet Jonas.
Basically just talking about the resurrection after three days.
But in this passage in Mark chapter 8, he says in verse 12,
he sighed deeply in his spirit and said,
Why doth this generation seek after a sign?
Verily I say unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this generation.
Now you say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson.
I thought that Jesus did all these miracles everywhere that he went.
I mean, he did heal the blind and healed the deaf.
But what you'll notice, though, is that later on, even in this very chapter,
when he does a miracle, look at verse 26.
After he did this miracle of giving sight to the blind,
he sent him away to his house saying,
Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.
Then a few verses later, basically when they're talking about the fact that Jesus is the Christ,
he tells them in verse 30, he charged them that they should tell no man of him.
So what you have to understand is that Jesus, in his ministry,
even though he did a lot of miracles,
he was not going around trying to make his miracles known unto all men,
showing miracles to all men.
In fact, when he was in his hometown, if you remember a few chapters back,
they didn't believe on him.
They mocked him and they criticized him and said,
Oh, you're the carpenter and you're the son of Joseph and this and that.
And Jesus did not do many miracles there.
And when the Pharisees are coming to him saying,
Do a miracle for us, he refuses to do it.
And then when he does a miracle for those who do believe,
he tells them, Don't tell anybody about it.
Now, why is that?
It's because God wants us to believe his word.
You know, a lot of people just, Well, I just have to see it to believe it.
But that's not the way it works with God.
God wants us to believe his word.
Now, people who already believe in him,
he'll show them great things.
He'll show them great miracles.
They get to see the glory of God.
But those who are scoffers and unbelievers,
the Pharisees of this world, he refuses to show them a miracle.
He doesn't want to.
They need to believe because of the word,
not just, you know, Well, show us a miracle.
But you know, it's that attitude.
God says, Well, fine, then don't believe.
And they'll go to hell.
But God will show the miracles under the people who believe already.
That's what we see.
And we see him withholding miracles from those who are scoffers and mockers.
You know, it's the same thing with Herod.
King Herod, who was a wicked king,
he wanted John the Baptist to perform some miracle for him.
Of course, John the Baptist didn't do many miracles.
The Bible never records any miracles that he did.
And the people even spake of John saying John did no miracle.
But yet, Herod thought that he would be able to see some miracle from John or from Jesus.
And did Jesus do a miracle for Herod when he stood before him?
In fact, he questioned Jesus.
Herod asked Jesus all kinds of questions, and Jesus refused to answer him.
He wouldn't even answer him, wouldn't even talk to him.
Why?
Because he was a wicked and unbelieving man.
And God will often withhold the truth and withhold mighty signs and wonders and things
from the scoffers and from the unbelievers, because there has to be faith.
And that's why, you know, people are always trying to find Noah's Ark.
Or they're trying to find some other artifact.
And they say, you know, if we can just find it, then this will prove that the Bible is true.
You know, if we can just find that pillar of salt that is Lot's wife.
You know, or if we can just find the Tower of Babel.
If we can find Noah's Ark.
If we can find the Ark of the Covenant or whatever.
They're trying to seek after a sign, in a sense.
Instead of just having the faith that, you know, God's word is true, the Bible is true.
They want to find the evidence.
No, faith is the evidence.
The Bible says faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
And I think that God purposely withholds people from finding these things.
First of all, when it comes to Noah's Ark, why would Noah's Ark still be there?
Wouldn't it make more sense that they probably dismantled it and used the wood
to build other things, or for firewood?
I mean, why would you just leave it intact?
And even if it were left intact, you know, would it still be there, you know, how many
thousands of years later?
I mean, would it still just be there if it's made out of wood and covered in pitch?
Wouldn't it have rotted and decayed by now?
But people get excited about seeking.
You know, I just get excited about reading the Bible.
I don't need to see a sign.
It's an evil person that just says, well, I'm just not going to believe anything God
has to say.
I need to see signs and wonders.
And there's a whole signs and wonders movement, a whole signs and wonders crowd of the Benny
Hinns of this world who show up and do all their magic tricks.
You know, you can go see also just secular magic shows, right?
Or you can see a Christian magic show where they bring people up and slap them on the
forehead and they fall.
But it's all smoke and mirrors, my friend.
It's all fraud.
It's not real.
And they go around.
But you don't see Jesus showing up and putting on a show like that.
Jesus will go into the house, shut the door, bring the blind man over, heal him, and say,
don't tell anybody.
And then move on.
Is that what Benny Hinn does?
Is that what these people do?
No, they go around and they put on a big show.
And it's all, you know, haka la gandola, you know, and slapping people on the forehead.
And people are flopping around, you know, on the ground.
Oh, it's the power of God.
It's nothing like what you see in the Bible.
It's completely different.
But, you know, it's an evil and adulterous generation that seeks after a sign.
Somebody, you know, I want to see the miracles.
I want to see the signs and wonders.
Well, what did Jesus have to say about that?
He said, don't seek after that.
You know, don't look for signs.
And by the way, the Antichrist, when he comes, the Bible says that he will deceive them that
dwell on the earth by the means of the miracles.
Lying signs and wonders, it says in 2 Thessalonians 2.
And also it talks about in Revelation 13 that the Antichrist will perform miracles to try
to turn people away so that even the atheists will believe in him.
Because they'll, you know, they'll see the evidence right in front of them because they're
so rational and so logical if they just see the evidence and they'll believe in it.
But if you see the evidence, then you're not really believing, you know, in a sense.
Because faith that is seen is no longer faith.
Because it's, faith is the evidence of things not seen.
That's what faith is, according to the Bible.
And so Jesus sighed in verse 12 deeply in his spirit when he was confronted by unbelievers
demanding a sign from him, demanding wonders from him.
He sighed deeply in his spirit and he said, no sign will be shown unto you.
It says in verse 13, he left them and entering into the ship again, departed to the other
side.
Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread.
Neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.
And he charged them saying, take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the
leaven of Herod.
And they reasoned among themselves saying, it's because we have no bread.
And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, why reason ye because ye have no bread?
Perceive ye not and neither understand?
Have ye your heart yet hardened?
Having eyes, see ye not.
And having ears, hear ye not and do ye not remember?
When I break the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye
up?
They say unto him, twelve.
And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?
And they said, seven.
And he said unto them, how is it that ye did not understand?
Now basically when Jesus says to them, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the
leaven of Herod, they said, oh it's because we took no bread.
They're thinking like, well when we go to buy bread, because we only have one loaf,
so when we get to the other side and we buy bread, don't buy it from the Pharisees because
they're using a corrupt leaven.
You know, they're thinking that the food is somehow tainted.
I mean, what kind of sense does that, like as if he's just telling them, hey stay away
from the bread of the Pharisees because, you know, of their leaven.
They're using the wrong type of leaven.
You know, like you need to check the ingredient list on that bread that they're getting.
It's ridiculous that they don't, and that's why he rebukes them for acting stupid.
You know, what are you talking about?
How in the world did you come up with that?
Because they're like, what does he mean?
Oh yeah, you know, he's talking about because we didn't bring enough bread, we're gonna
have to buy some.
He wants us to buy the organic, you know, and make sure that we get the one that's not
GMO or whatever.
But in reality, he's talking about, flip over to Matthew 16.
He gives a little more detail on this story in Matthew that he does in Mark.
If you go to Matthew 16, he tells the exact same story.
In verse 6, it says,
Then Jesus said to them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
This time he said, you know, and of the Sadducees.
And then it says in verse number 11,
How is it that you do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread that
ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of
the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
So Jesus is telling them, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
And the leaven there is their bad doctrine.
Doctrine just means teaching.
Their bad teachings, their bad beliefs that they held.
Now, why is it that false doctrine is likened unto leaven?
Well, the Bible talks a lot about leaven, because leaven is such a great illustration
of so many things, because leaven is something where you just take a little bit of leaven
and you put it in a lump of dough and it leavens the whole lump.
It can keep spreading and you can leaven one lump and then you can actually keep that leaven
going forever.
In fact, there's a bread company, a sourdough bread company that has been using the same
leaven for, I think, almost 100 years, nonstop.
And I remember when I was a kid was the first time I was ever exposed to this, where ladies
at church would pass around the starter and they'd get that starter and they'd have to
keep feeding it.
And it was the flour and water and it had the leaven in it, which is bacteria that is
multiplying, you know, or yeast or it's not bacteria, it's yeast or whatever.
Whatever it is, microbes, I don't know.
But it's alive, whatever it is.
So you'll have this leaven.
Sometimes yeast is used, but I don't think they were probably using yeast at this time.
They were using the microbes or whatever you call them.
But it multiplies.
So you could basically take that starter and you take half of it and, you know, make your
bread with it and the other half is still there and then you keep feeding the other
half and it grows and grows and multiplies and you can spread it around.
Why did Jesus use that illustration?
Because it's a great illustration of things that spread.
So when he talks about sin in 1 Corinthians 5, where if you allowed fornication into the
church and if you allowed drunkenness into the church, he said a little leaven will leaven
the whole lump.
You need to purge out that leaven.
What he's saying is the church is like a lump of dough.
And if you put just a little bit of leaven, it will leaven the whole lump.
So if you, let's say you have a couple in the church that's living together and they're
not married.
Well, it's not just going to remain that way.
It's not just going to be that everybody else is living for God, everybody else is righteous,
everything's great, church is doing great, but there's just that one couple and that's
their problem.
No, the Bible says that if you allow fornication in the church, a little leaven will leaven
the whole lump and that that sin is going to spread.
Same thing with drunkenness.
It's going to spread to other people.
Kids are going to see it and they're going to look at it and think, oh, OK, well, you
know, there are some people who go to church who aren't as strict as my parents, but they
still in church, they still love Jesus, you know, they still Christian.
And so I can just be more like them and it will leaven the whole lump.
That is why when people are in our church are living together and they're not married
there or they're or they're known to be fornicating.
Going to bed together when they're not married, then they have to either get out of our church
or if they're living together and they love each other so much, then they need to get
married.
And that is the policy of our church that has always been the policy of our church.
In fact, even when the church first started, even within a few months, listen to me, within
a few months of our church starting, I had to confront somebody about this, even in the
first six months.
And I had to confront someone and say, look, you either need to get married or stop living
together or stop coming to our church.
You know, and I showed them all the scripture.
I was patient with them.
I taught them.
But there came a point where it's like, you need to make a decision here.
And they ended up leaving the church.
Now, nowadays, this happens about once a month in our church, literally, because, you know,
we have so many people coming through the doors of our church, lots of visitors.
I mean, almost not a service goes by that we don't have visitors.
So we have all kinds of visitors and all kinds of new people coming in.
And constantly, I'm telling people, you either need to get married or you need to leave the
church because a little 11-11 is the whole lump.
And the Bible says not to have anyone who's called a brother who's a fornicator.
He says, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
And you know what's funny?
To most churches, it's like that verse just isn't even in the Bible.
It's like the chapter that doesn't exist, 1 Corinthians 5.
We would never, everyone's welcome.
We never tell anyone.
But the Bible says, and this isn't talking about unsaved people.
This isn't talking about somebody who's unsaved and visiting the church.
They're welcome.
And even somebody who just got saved, they need to be given time to learn and to grow.
But the Bible says if any man is called a brother and he's a fornicator with such and
one know not to eat, put away from among yourselves that wicked person, etc.
You can't just have a church that's just filled with fornicators, drunks.
You know, and you say, oh, well, everybody's a sinner.
Oh, nobody's perfect.
Yeah, but everybody's not a fornicator and everybody's not a drunk.
You know, so you do have to draw the line at these certain things where God says, look,
there are certain things that you have to take care of.
And I'll tell you what, most of the time when I confront people about this, you know,
it usually ends up happening.
They usually end up leaving, which is sad because, you know, what would be preferable
if they would either split up, which that's fine.
You know, if they decide, hey, well, you know, we don't want to get married or we're not
ready to get married or then split up, stop living together, stop sleeping together, you
know, or if they genuinely do love each other, then they could get married.
And we always are very helpful to people who want to get married and, you know,
put the ceremony together for them and everything like that.
But there's got to be a decision that's made because we can't just allow, because listen,
whatever you tolerate is going to abound.
And I even received an email recently from a guy and he said that in his church there
are people that are just living together in fornication for a long time.
You know, I mean, there's part of the church.
There's no talk of them getting married, no talk of engagement or marriage whatsoever.
And he went to the pastor and confronted the pastor about it, independent fundamental
Baptist Church, and the pastor said, well, they just love each other.
What in the world?
I mean, he's just spineless.
You know, he just won't take a stand and won't stand up for what's right.
So he just, oh, well, oh, oh, they love each other.
Yeah, I noticed.
You know, they're living together.
They're going to bed together, but that doesn't make it right.
They need to get married if they love each other.
OK, so don't give me this garbage of just, well, they love each other.
What kind of an answer is that?
It's bizarre.
These people just, they just, every answer is just love.
Well, you know, these homos, oh, just love.
Well, you know, you know that people are living in fornication in the church?
Love.
Yeah, you know that, you know, this guy in the church is a complete drunkard?
Just love him.
Let's just love.
Let's just love, love, love.
You know what?
It sounds great, but it's garbage.
You know, it's a lie.
It's, that's not a lie.
This is love that we walk after his commandments.
That's what the Bible says.
For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments.
OK, not just love, love, love, sin, sin, sin, drink, drink, drink, whoremongers and whores
and fornicators and adulterers and everything is just all great and homos and pedophiles.
We just love everybody.
We just love it.
Can you feel the love tonight?
But you know what?
That's not the truth.
OK, and we need to stand up for what's right.
And we cannot allow the leaven of sin to defile the church.
And the reason why, it's not because we're just mad at people and just want to make their
life miserable.
You know what?
Actually, we're trying to help people do what's right and it's actually better for them.
They're actually going to be better off if they do what's right because they're actually
going to be under the blessing of God when they get things right.
We're helping them do that.
Nobody's ever told them that or whatever.
But here's the other thing, too.
It's not that we don't love people.
It's that we love our children.
So we want our children to grow up in an atmosphere where they understand, look, you know, people
get married and they have kids.
You know, that's what a family is supposed to look like.
Not just, well, people just live together.
No, they either need to get married or they need to live separate.
That's what the Bible teaches.
That's what our church has stood on.
And I'm telling you, this happens in our church every month, approximately.
I'm not kidding.
It's just the reason you don't know about it is because most of the time they end up
just quitting the church, which is fine with me.
I'm not just trying to see how many bodies I can pack in here.
I'm trying to actually have a biblical church here and a New Testament church.
And praise God for the people who get it right.
But we've got to have that stand as a church because it's biblical, because that's what
1 Corinthians 5 teaches.
But not only is sin like 11, because sin will spread and it will infect other people.
Even in our own life, we have a little bit of sin.
It'll lead us into other sins.
Let's say you have a certain sin in your life, but then often that sin will lead you to other
sins.
Let's say you're doing something sinful, then you have to lie about it to cover it up.
Well, now you have more sin, because now not only did you...
For example, you could think of something that's just a small issue.
You could say, well, gambling.
Does the Bible even mention gambling?
Is gambling really a big deal?
So what?
What's the big deal?
Little online gambling, right?
Who cares?
Go to the casino every once in a while, do a little gambling.
Is that even really mentioned?
But then what happens when people start gambling?
Then they start lying about the fact that they're gambling.
Because of the fact that they're embarrassed that they lost.
Because you're always going to lose eventually.
I mean, I was driving down the freeway, this talking stick resort on the 101.
Has anybody seen this?
And it had this crazy light show on the...
I was thinking, that must be so expensive.
To install...
You could see from miles and miles away,
this elaborate light show on the outside of the building.
That should tell you who's winning in there.
Right?
I mean, how did they afford...
They're winning.
And the odds are in their favor.
And you might go down there, and you win, and you're doing good.
Eventually, you're going to lose.
Eventually, it's going to catch up to you.
Eventually, you're going to go into the hole.
It's just the law of averages, because the odds are in the house's favor on every game.
So you go down there, you start gambling a little bit.
Or maybe you're supposed to be at work.
You take off a few hours early, go down there and gamble a little bit without telling your family.
Or you just go down there, you lose money.
So you start doctoring.
And then you know what a lot of people do?
They'll start stealing money.
Because they have to cover the gambling without their family finding out about it or whatever.
I heard about a pastor of an independent fundamental Baptist church who got addicted
to online gambling.
And he ended up stealing from the missions fund.
You know, the money that was put aside for missionaries?
Hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And what ended up happening was, it just started out small.
You know, a little bit of online gambling.
Anyway, he got addicted to it, because it is addictive.
I can't understand how it would be addictive, but whatever.
I mean, I remember playing it on Microsoft Windows 95, and it wasn't that cool.
You know, there wasn't any real money changing hands.
It was just like a game.
You know, I didn't play the one for keeps.
But you know, he got into it and got addicted to it.
And pretty soon, and he did it over the course, it sounds like a lot of money, which it is
a lot of money, but it happened over the course of like decades, I guess.
But think about how bad this is, though.
He would lie about it and say like, oh, we're sending this missionary 100 a month.
They're really, he's really sending them 50 a month.
Or, oh, we're sending this one 80, and they're really getting 40.
OK.
He's taking the other part and feeding his gambling addiction with it.
So he's finally busted after decades of having taken, you know, like a couple hundred
thousand dollars from the missions account.
And he was busted with it.
And you know, he had to confess and come clean and everything.
Now, you know, first of all, that shows you how something little seems innocent.
You know, it's not like he's out committing adultery.
It's not like he's, you know, he's just doing a little online gambling.
But you know what, though?
That little leaven leavened the whole lump with him.
And what happened?
He ended up, you know, obviously being fired from being pastor.
Now, here's my opinion.
Actually, it's not my opinion.
It's biblical.
What should have, and this is a little test.
What do you think should have happened in that situation, biblically?
What should, who wants to answer this?
What man would answer?
What should, what should we, what would you do if you found out that the pastor had done
such a thing?
What do you think?
He's got to pay it back.
He's got to pay it back, right?
And also, what else?
What else?
I mean, is that all just pay it back?
Step down.
Exactly.
He should have to step down.
I agree with that.
He should have to step down.
He should have to pay it back, right?
And maybe even pay back, you know, more because the Bible talks about paying back, you know,
fourfold and then fivefold and everything like that.
But he for sure needs to pay it back.
He for sure needs to step down, right?
But here's what I didn't think was right when I heard the situation, that they were turning
him over to the police, turning him over to the authorities.
Now, the guy had the money to pay it back because he could basically sell his house,
sell his boat or whatever, you know, he had some stuff.
So he was going to sell his stuff and he offered to sell his stuff and pay it back.
Pay it back, he was going to step down, sell everything, pay it back, and I think he should
never be a pastor again after he violates that choice.
But what I didn't agree with was the fact that they were bringing the police into the
situation.
And the reason I don't agree with that is because of the fact that, first of all, the
Bible says that when it comes to issues of financial fraud, we should not go to law against
our brother in Christ, we should judge it within the church.
And putting someone in prison is not a biblical punishment.
The biblical punishment is to pay it back.
And if you say, well, he didn't have enough to pay fourfold, you know, make him pay it
back and then make him work for the church for free for the rest of his life, you know,
in addition to his job that he's going to need to pay his bills, you know, make him
come down and volunteer every week and work it off or whatever.
But never should we turn him over to the world system.
Now, here's the thing.
If someone's committing murder or adultery or, well, they don't punish adultery, never
mind, if somebody's committing murder or if somebody's being a pedophile, then you turn
it over to the world.
Because obviously, those are crimes punishable by death, according to the Bible.
Pedophiles and murderers.
And obviously, we can't deal with that within the church.
You know, if some molester, we're going to turn that over to the, you know, and they
won't even punish him severely enough, unfortunately.
If somebody commits murder, yeah, we're calling the police, okay.
But I'm saying, if it's a question of financial dealings, if you have a financial problem
with someone else in the church, the Bible says that's supposed to be taken care of within
the church.
And we should never go to law against a brother.
We should rather suffer ourselves to be defrauded than to go to law before a brother.
So does that make sense to everyone?
But anyway, I thought that was an interesting story just to illustrate how something little
can spiral.
And, you know, from what I heard, and I don't know the guy or anything, but from what I
heard, the guy was not a horrible person.
He just got sucked into this.
And let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
That sin can get a foothold, and you can get sucked into weird things like that.
You know, and you might not be able to relate to that story.
I can't relate to the story because, you know, online gambling just sounds pretty lame to
me.
It sounds pretty boring.
Doesn't sound cool.
Any kind of gambling, I don't get it.
You know, there are some things that are real tempting, and that's one where you're just
kind of like, I don't get it.
But, you know what, if it's not one thing, it's another.
And we all need to be careful of letting a little leaven leaven our life.
But not only that, the Bible is saying that false doctrine is like leaven.
And the false doctrine is like leaven because have you ever noticed that one false doctrine
leads to another?
One false doctrine will lead to another.
You'll get one thing wrong in the Bible, and then that will cause you to get something
else wrong, get something else wrong, because so many things in the Bible are connected.
So that's why false teaching can sometimes be leaven.
And you might think to yourself, well, why does that particular doctrine even matter?
Why do you even spend time talking about that?
Why do you even care about that?
Because if you get that doctrine wrong, it affects other things.
For example, I remember when I used to try to tell people, you know, hey, you know, the
Jews are not God's chosen people.
You know, they're worthy elect.
And then some people go, well, why does that even matter?
Why do you care?
Because then what happens is when it comes to the rapture, that matters.
Because those who believe in a pre-trib rapture, what do they do?
You try to show them the clear scripture in Matthew 24 that says after the tribulation,
and what do they come at you with?
Oh, that's the Jews.
The elect are the Jews.
So you see how getting the Jews wrong in scripture causes people to get the rapture wrong, and
you know, dispensationalism is like 11 that will mess up their view of so many things
and twist so many things to the point where then they get mixed up about even salvation,
where they say, oh, you know, salvation was by works in the Old Testament.
Well, those must have been some really amazing good people in the Old Testament that could
actually work their way to heaven.
All of us come short of the glory of God, right?
You know, none of us are righteous.
But I guess back then, people were just a lot better back then.
No, actually, it's always been by grace.
We're not living in the age of grace.
It's always been the, you know, the age of grace is always ever since Adam and Eve, it's
been the age of grace.
So, you know, you can see how these doctrines, they affect one another.
And one thing that might seem insignificant will actually be like a domino effect, where
it'll change your doctrine about other things.
And that's why it's so important, too, to have a King James Bible, because you have
these other Bibles, they'll make a little change, and none of the changes are significant.
But they'll affect a little doctrine, and it'll just be like a domino where pretty soon
you got all kinds of false teaching springing about.
People will sit there and say, well, you know, the Greek word, the Greek word, porneia, they'll
say.
You know, and beware of anybody going back to the Greek to try to tell you what the Bible
really says.
You know, it doesn't really say.
For example, the Bible has the word fornication, right?
What's fornication mean?
People that are basically doing what married people do before they're married.
It's called fornication.
So the Bible talks about the sin of fornication.
Well, all the modern Bibles take out the word fornication, pretty much all of them.
And they just change it to sexual immorality.
And they say, well, the word porneia is this broad word that encompasses all types of immorality.
And then they'll try to say, well, we're actually making it a stronger teaching, you know, by
say, encompassing all types of immorality.
But here's the, it's a domino effect because as soon as you say, oh, fornication is not
really fornication.
It's actually, if we go back to the Greek, it's porneia.
What word does that sound like?
What word does porneia sound like?
What English word?
Is anybody, is anybody here?
Porn, right?
So then here's what they'll say.
Okay, whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, right, except it be for porn.
See what I mean?
See how it changed?
Now they're saying, except it be for sexual immorality, which can mean anything.
So now all of a sudden you've changed the doctrine where instead of saying if you put
away your wife for any cause other than fornication, you're committing adultery, you're guilty
before God if you're getting divorced and remarried over anything different.
Now all of a sudden it's just anything.
So now it's like, oh, well, I want to divorce my husband.
Well, you know, he's got the swimsuit issue out in the garage.
Now look, I'm against the swimsuit issue.
I'm against, you know, the pornography of any kind.
I'm against whatever.
But here's the thing, though.
You can see how you twist that doctrine and now you open the door to just divorce your
spouse for pretty much anything because you can just say, well, he was looking at someone
else or he watched a bad movie or he looked at a dirty magazine.
And I'm not condoning looking at a dirty magazine, but listen to me.
You don't get divorced over that.
It's sin, it's wrong, but you don't get divorced over that.
It's not right.
It's till death do you part.
And so you can see how just that little change leads to false doctrine that a lot of people
wouldn't even think about that, how that change would lead to that.
But that's what's happening and that's why pretty much all churches that use these modern
versions, they'll justify divorce, oh yeah, you found a porno mag, divorce, fine.
I mean, they'll just, I know a situation, a specific situation of a guy whose wife found
a magazine, you know, of pornography and basically divorced him and the pastor told her, yeah,
you're right to do that.
No, you're not right to do that.
Okay?
And again, I'm not justifying the sin, but I'm saying when you get married, you get married
till death.
It's not just, oh, you know, I'm looking for an easy out, whatever.
So what I'm saying is, and you say, well, yeah, but the Greek word is porneia, pastor.
But here's the thing, you can't just go by, oh, that sounds like an English word because
there are all kinds of words in other languages that are called false friends.
For example, a perfect example of this is in Spanish, there's a word, embarazada.
So what does that, who thinks they know what that means in English?
Embarazada.
Don't give the right answer.
I'm trying to trick people.
Who doesn't speak Spanish and they think they know what embarazada means?
It sounds like what?
Embarrassed.
But it doesn't mean you're embarrassed, it means you're pregnant.
Embarazada means pregnant.
You know, or you could say, you know, there are all kinds of examples like that where
a word sounds exactly like something and you see a word and you're like, oh, I think I
know what that means.
And I mean, for example, when Noah gets off the ark in the Spanish Bible, if you're reading
Spanish, he offers a holocasto.
He offers a holocaust, right?
Right when Noah gets off the ark, he offers a holocaust unto the Lord.
Now you might look, oh yeah, the holocaust or whatever.
Look, you can't just look at a word and say, oh, it sounds like it, but actually the holocasto
in the Spanish Bible is, and it's spelled h-o-l-o-c-a-u-s-t-o, and it's actually the
whole burnt offering where they would offer the animal and burn it upon the altar upon
the wood.
But you see, you just look at that, and here's a great example too.
You know how in Jude it talks about how in Sodom and Gomorrah they went after strange
flesh, right?
They went after strange flesh.
Do you know what strange flesh is in the original Greek?
I'm going to tell you.
Hetero, hetero, sarx.
Hetero sarx.
So the word strange there, if you go back to the Greek, it's hetero.
So it's a false friend where you'd look at that and say, oh, hetero, yeah, he destroyed
the Sodom and Gomorrah because they were straight, right?
But see, that's the stupidity of going back to the Greek when you don't know Greek.
Or you show somebody where the Bible talks about the disciples meeting together on the
first day of the week.
The disciples met together on the first day of the week, and you say, look, right there,
first day of the week, when they're trying to tell you you need to have church on Saturday.
Right?
First day of the week, they met together.
And you know what somebody told me?
They said, well, if you go back to the Greek, though, it says Sabbath.
I'm like, huh?
Because this is why.
The Greek word for week is sabaton, which looks like Sabbath to somebody who doesn't
know Greek.
But it actually means week there.
So when it says on the first of the week, you know, they're not reading it as first
of the Sabbath.
They don't even know Greek.
They're just looking at it and saying, that looks like Sabbath.
I don't know what this verse says, but I looked it up, and there's a word in it that looks
like Sabbath.
So it must be the Sabbath.
But do you see?
And look, I could go on and on and on.
Are you getting the point, though, that if you don't speak fluent Spanish, you're probably
going to have some mix ups about what words mean?
How about this word, affectivo?
What do you think that means?
Effective, right?
No, it means cash.
Affectivo means cash.
But if you look at it, you say, oh, effective.
You know, I mean, I went back to the Greek, and it says hetero.
You know, I went back to the Greek.
It says Sabbath.
No, you don't know Greek.
You're mixed up.
You're confused.
And so what I'm saying is that people make these little changes, and the devil is subtle.
He doesn't just completely change the Bible into something unrecognizable.
He just puts a little leaven in, changes a few key doctrines, a few key teachings, just
changes a few words.
Literal, just little old words that he changed, and it changes everything, because it's like
a leaven.
And that's why Jesus said, beware of the leaven of sin.
Beware of the leaven of the false doctrine.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
Let me hurry up and finish here.
It says in verse 22, he came to Bethsaida.
They bring a blind man unto him and besought him to touch him.
And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.
And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw
aught, meaning if he saw anything.
And he looked up and said, I see men as trees walking.
After that, he put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up, and he was restored
and saw every man clearly.
And he sent him away to his house saying, neither go into the town nor tell it to any
in the town.
And Jesus went out and his disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi.
And by the way, he asked his disciples saying unto them, whom do men say that I am?
And they answered, John the Baptist.
But some say, Elias, and others, one of the prophets.
And he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am?
And Peter answered and saith unto him, thou art the Christ.
And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.
And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected
of the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed.
And after three days rise again.
And he spake that saying openly.
And Peter took him and began to rebuke him.
But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter saying, get
thee behind me, Satan.
For thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
So what happened is, Jesus is asking them, who do people say that I am?
And then he says, well, who do you say that I am?
Peter says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.
And he tells them, don't tell anybody.
Then a little bit later, he's explained to them how he's going to die.
And he's going to three days later rise again.
And he's explaining that.
And Peter just, it's just not what Peter expected to hear.
So Peter takes him aside.
And he begins to rebuke Jesus, telling Jesus, look, you're wrong.
That's not going to happen.
And Jesus rebukes him in front of everybody and says, get thee behind me, Satan.
For thou savourest not the things that be of God and those that be of men.
Now, why was he calling Peter Satan?
Well, he's not really, obviously Peter is not really Satan.
But basically, what Peter is saying is of Satan.
So that's why he's calling him Satan.
Because what he's saying would be something that would come out of the mouth of Satan.
You know, denying the fact that Jesus is going to die and be buried and risen again.
You know, it'd be sometimes, like I remember one time, you know, my wife said something
and it reminded me of something that her brother would say.
You know, I said, OK, Lotzi.
You know, because that's her brother's name.
You know, you'll sometimes refer to people because they say something that sounds like
someone else.
But what's interesting about this story, you don't get this part when you read in the book
of Mark, but there's a real famous verse in Matthew when you read this exact encounter
where Jesus, after Peter says thou art the Christ son of the living God, he tells Peter,
you know, thou art Peter and upon this rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
And basically, the Catholic Church takes that and says, you know, God's going to build the
church on Peter and then they say that Peter was the first pope.
So they say that.
But what's funny is that if Peter was really the rock on whom God was going to build his
church, then why is he in the next verse or three verses down?
Because whenever a Catholic shows me this, the Catholics will sometimes say, turn to
Matthew 16, you know, and they'll show it to you.
Then I always just say, well, let's look three verses later where he rebukes Peter and calls
him Satan.
So if this guy is just, you know, we're building the whole church on you, buddy, you're the
rock on whom the church is going to be founded.
And what do they say about the pope?
That he's infallible.
Isn't that what they say?
Anything he says goes.
I mean, he's infallible means he makes no mistakes.
So that when he speaks ex cathedra and makes a pronouncement, it's the same as if it had
come from the mouth of God.
It's up there with the scriptures to them.
So isn't it funny that, you know, Peter is being rebuked for what he's saying and called
Satan if he's supposedly the first pope?
And also, if he's the first pope, he's married.
How could he be the first pope if he's married when they don't let the pope be married?
He's a homo anyway, but, you know, they don't let him get married.
All the bishops in the Catholic Church are supposed to be celibate, even though the Bible
says a bishop must be the husband of one wife.
So, again, I just wanted to point that out to you that Peter is, you know, because, look,
it doesn't matter who you are.
If you're wrong, you're wrong.
And if you're denying the resurrection here, you know, he's going to call you Satan.
He's going to call you out on it.
And that's what happened here.
But it says in verse 34, when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also,
he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for
my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
For what shall profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and
sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory
of his Father with the holy angels.
So, again, the Bible is telling us, don't be ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And people often quote the verse about not being ashamed of the gospel.
But the Bible is just saying, don't be ashamed of any of his word.
There should be no part of the Bible or God's word that we're ashamed of.
And in an evil and adulterous generation, some of the things in this book are going
to offend people.
Some of the things in this book are going to attract mockery.
But we should never be ashamed of any of the words.
If it's in this book, we should preach it from the housetops and never shy away from
it.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the chance to be in your house once again, Lord.
And we thank you that we have the Word of God and that we have the whole thing, Lord,
and that we have it in our language.
We don't need some scholar to go back to the Greek to tell us what it really says, Lord.
Thank you for giving us an English translation that is true to the original, Lord, that is
something where we can just open it and read it and get all of our doctrine directly from
you, Lord.
And, Lord, help us to beware of the leaven of sin and false doctrine.
And help us to stand for the truth in this evil and adulterous generation.