In the book of Jude, the part I would like to focus on is toward the beginning in verse number 3 when the Bible reads,
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation,
it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will therefore put you in remembrance, and notice these next words, he says,
Though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them to believe not.
What I want to preach about tonight is putting you in remembrance of things that you may already know,
but things that we constantly need to be reminded of.
You see, the people that Jude is writing to are already saved.
He's writing to save believers, and he's telling them, I wanted to write unto you of the common salvation.
He said, and I realize that it was needful for me to exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
He said we need to fight for what we believe in because there are certain men crept in unawares who are basically denying the Lord Jesus Christ, denying the truth,
preaching another gospel as Paul warned in Galatians chapter 1 that someone might come along preaching another gospel or even appearing to be an angel from heaven.
And who is actually an angel of the devil bringing another gospel, another doctrine.
And he says, I will therefore, verse 5, put you in remembrance.
Though you once knew this, he's saying, you already know, I'm not telling you something new here,
but I'm just trying to hammer this in and bring you to remembrance how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,
afterward destroyed them that didn't get baptized. Is that what it says?
He destroyed them that didn't repent of all their sins.
He destroyed them that didn't join the church or live a good life. No, he said he destroyed them that believed none.
That's the faith of the gospel. That's the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. We need to fight for salvation by faith.
Jump down to verse 17. The Bible says, but beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lust.
Flip just a few pages to the left in your Bible to 2 Peter 3.
2 Peter 3, the Bible reads in verse 1, this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance,
that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before. He's not telling us something new here.
He said, be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
knowing this, that there should come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise that was coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water,
whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished, but the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
These are basic truths that they already knew. Hey, salvation by faith. Hey, the world was created by God.
Hey, there was a flood upon the earth that destroyed the ungodly first world in the days of Noah.
Hey, there's a coming judgment of fire and brimstone upon this earth at the second coming of Jesus Christ.
These basic truths need to be emphasized again and again and again to bring them to our remembrance.
So that we don't get sucked into false doctrine and false teachers and cunning craftiness of man who lie in wait to deceive us.
We need to be firmly grounded in these things and then we need to be reminded of them again and again and again.
Go to 2 Peter chapter 1. Hebrews 2 says this, while you're turning to 2 Peter chapter number 1.
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
So do you see how it's possible to hear something or to know something or to learn something and then it begins to slip?
If somebody doesn't bring it to remembrance, if somebody doesn't remind you of it, it can begin to slip.
Now you might think to yourself, well, I know so much about them. I've been in church so long.
You know, I don't really need church that much anymore. You know, I'll just go by there once a week or every once in a while or when I feel like it.
Because you know what? If I miss church, hey, I'm not missing much because I pretty much know it.
Well, first of all, you don't know everything. Okay? And I'm constantly learning new things and I'm trying to constantly teach new things.
And people get an attitude that just kind of says, well, I pretty much know everything or I know most things about the Bible.
I already got one time saying, well, you know, I read the Bible X amount of times. It would be pretty hard to teach me something new.
You know, that's spoken like a fool. Because the more I read the Bible, and I've done a lot of Bible reading myself, the more I read it, the more I feel like, man, there's more I need to learn.
I'm missing. I need to go back and study this more. The more you know, the more you see how deep it is, how much more there is to learn.
But even if you do already know these truths, you need to come to church to hear it preached again.
Oh, we already heard that preached five years ago. You need to hear it again. It needs to be refreshed. It will begin to slip if you don't constantly hear it and be reminded of it and be grounded in it.
And that's what we've seen over and over. In Jude, he said, you once knew this. Hey, let me remind you again because it's so important.
Because people are corrupting the Gospel. Let me just emphasize to you, it's believe, believe, believe, believe. And you say, well, I've already heard that. Hear it again.
Because there's going to come a time when somebody's going to come to you and tell you that there's something else besides believe that's going to get you saved.
When the Bible says, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
And I can quote you a hundred verses on that when I'm going to. Hey, creation, the flood, the second coming of Jesus Christ, salvation by faith, these are basic things.
But we need to be stirred up on these things by way of remembrance. Look at 2 Peter 1. The Bible says in verse 12,
Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things. So he's saying, hey, if I don't remind you of this stuff, I'm negligent.
I'm failing as a pastor or as an apostle in his case. I'm failing to teach here. I'm negligent if I'm not putting you in remembrance.
And he says, of these things, and look at the next phrase, though you know them. Hey, even though you already know this stuff, I'd be negligent if I don't put you in remembrance of it, Peter said.
And that you know them and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it me, he's saying, I think it's appropriate, as long as I'm in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.
You see, maybe you know this salvation by faith. Hey, get stirred up about it. Get stirred up about it. You need to come to church to get fired up about it.
And you know what, the one who stays home from church because they already know everything, or maybe they just tune out the sermon, or they just zone out and they're thinking about what they're going to go out to eat or something, because they already know everything, and they just go home, here he goes again.
Hey, they're not going to be as stirred up as the guy who keeps coming back, hearing it again, hearing it again. I've heard a lot of this stuff before, too. Let's hear it again. Let's get stirred up about it.
He says, I want to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Look at verse 14. Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, he's saying, I'm going to die. His tabernacle, he's talking about his body.
Even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me, moreover I will endeavor that you may be able, after my deceased, you know when somebody's dead, they're deceased, right?
To have these things always in remembrance. Go to Matthew 13, first book in the New Testament, Matthew 13. You say, well Pastor Anderson, are you saying that we just need to have the same thing preached over and over again? That sounds a little bit boring.
Well, I agree with you. But here's my verse. I would say this is one of the most important verses in regard to my preaching. I've been pastoring now for almost six years.
And in that time, I preached Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. I can pretty much count the services I've missed, I think on one hand, in the last six years.
And there's 156 services per year. So do the math. You know, I'm getting close to having preached 900 sermons in this church.
Let alone all the sermons I preached before I was a pastor. But just since I've been pastoring, I've preached close to 900 sermons.
Now, I've preached on a lot of subjects, but when you preach 900 sermons, sometimes you're going to be repeating subjects. And that's okay. In fact, that's something that you need to do.
Because some preachers are so wrapped up in saying something new all the time, that they're forgetting to just ring the bell on the old truths, the basics, the fundamentals, the things that are the foundational things.
Now, there's two things that I don't want to do as a preacher. And that's why this verse, Matthew 13, 52, is a really important verse to my preaching. And this is my preaching philosophy right here.
I'll read it for you. It says, then said he unto them. Now, he's given them a whole big litany of parables here in Matthew 13. He tells one parable after another.
Well, verse 52 is its own parable. Okay, just one verse. He just gives a parable. And he says, then said he unto them.
Therefore, every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
That's me. That's what I desire to do as a pastor. I'm a scribe that's instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, sort of like Ezra. I'm a preacher. I'm a student of the Bible so that I can preach it to you.
And my goal is to take the treasure of God's word and every week, three times a week, to bring out of it things new and things that are old.
Now, I don't want to just always bring out new things because then there are going to be people who are missing out on fundamentals.
Because guess what? We constantly have new people coming to church. And if you started coming two months ago, and I say, why are we preached on that back in 2006?
You know, that's not really helping you. We've constantly got new people coming, so you've got to repeat things.
And the reason I preach the old things is to stir you up by way of putting you in remembrance, even if you already know it.
I want to bring out old truths and keep re-preaching them. But I don't want to just be a broken record. That's my other fear as a preacher.
I don't want it to just be ho-hum, here he goes again. I don't want to get up and preach and you're thinking, hmm, I heard this exact sermon back in 2007.
I guess he decided to dust that one off and do it as a retread. So I want to do a combination of things new and old.
And really my goal is that every sermon will contain new and old. Now sometimes I think of subjects that I've never preached on. I've never preached on this subject, for example.
And last Sunday night I preached a sermon I'd never preached, a subject that I'd never really gone into.
And so sometimes it's going to be more new, sometimes it's going to be more old. But we've got to have both.
If it's all old, then it gets ho-hum, it's boring. We need something new. And you say, well something new, hey the Bible is so deep. We're always getting something new.
We're always learning. Every week I should, if I read my Bible like I should, I'm learning stuff. Every week, new things. Because the Bible is so deep you'll never learn it all.
And then there's the old. Hey, the fact that salvation is by faith, that's not something new to me. That's something I learned as a little kid when I got saved.
But it's still something that needs to be preached. Old and new. And if you're ever going to be a preacher, get that down and understand the need to preach new and old.
And by the way, in order to preach new, you have to learn new. Which means you have to read a lot of Bible.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter number 2. Here's the same concept of old and new. I'll read it to you from 1 John 2. You turn to 2 Timothy 2.
1 John 2 says, Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye heard from the beginning.
Then in the next verse he says, Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth.
John is saying, I'm writing things to you that are the same old things that you need to know and you need to get stirred up again and remember them. But I'm also writing you some new things. I'm giving you new plus old.
The Bible reads in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 8, Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.
That's a pretty basic truth, but he says remember it. Wherein I suffer trouble is an evil doer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Look at verse 14. Of these things put them in remembrance.
And look, what's the definition of remembrance? You already knew it, but it's being refreshed. It's coming back to you. You're remembering it.
He says, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
Go to 2 Timothy 1, just one page back in the Bible. Verse 5, When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in my grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eus, and I am persuaded that in thee also.
Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the pudding out of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
You see, we might know something, we might have the faith of Christ, and maybe even our grandma had it, and our mom had it, like Timothy, and he said I'm persuaded that it's in you also, but he said you need to stir up the gift of God that's in you.
You need to realize that God's not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Don't be ashamed of the gospel, and that's something that we need to be reminded of again, and again, and again, and again.
Go back just a couple pages to 1 Timothy 4. Do you see the pattern, how many times God's saying this? Hey, you need to keep this in remembrance. Hey, I want you to remember this. You need to be reminded of something. Yes, you knew it. I know you already know this, but hear it again.
There's so often that we might know a biblical truth, but it begins to fall out of practice in our lives. Then we hear it preached in church, it stirs it up and reminds us, and we get back on the wagon as it were in that area of our life.
1 Timothy 4 verse 1 says, Now the spirit speaketh expressly, then in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, sounds like the Roman Catholic Church with their celibate priesthood, and commanding to abstain from meat, sounds like Meatless Friday, or the Seventh-day Adventist telling me that I can't eat pork and cats and dogs.
It says, And commanding to abstain from meat was God who created to receive with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, like my animals being eaten, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. Nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine were in 2008.
God says, look, in order to be a good minister, in order to be a good pastor, a good preacher of the word of God, you've got to push people in remembrance of these basic things over and over again.
You've got to do it. Because if you're remiss in doing that, people will get sucked into false doctrine.
You see, there are a lot of preachers out there and they want to just preach a cute sermon all the time.
Whatever the new fad is or maybe a really long series that's really practical for your life. It's really going to help you in your life.
And it's all about things that are really just relevant to your daily life.
And they get into all this teaching about things that are relevant perhaps, but they forget the basics.
They forget to emphasize salvation by faith. And look, when you're out soul winning and knocking doors, sometimes you'll knock doors of people that go to a Baptist church.
And that Baptist church has a statement of faith somewhere that spells out salvation is by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, not of works.
And that once you're saved, you are eternally secure and safe. But then you'll knock on the doors of the people that go there and they're like,
Well, I think I'll go there. I'm a pretty good person. They don't even know. Why? Because I guess the pastor is just preaching every other cute thing.
And I'll tell you right now, if there's anybody unsaved in our church, it's not because they don't know how to be saved.
It's because their name is Judas. That's the only reason. Because honestly, anybody who goes to this church has heard the gospel and it's been clear and it's been reminded of.
And here's the thing, even people that are saved, obviously somebody who's saved, they have the Holy Spirit living inside of them.
They're not going to go out and become a Mormon or a Catholic or something. But they can get turned around on doctrine sometimes.
They can get caught up in false doctrine. Remember Barnabas? He was pretty solid on his doctrine.
But you remember how when James and some of the guys from Jerusalem showed up and Barnabas got caught up in a little bit of their false doctrine about the difference between the Jews and the Gentiles?
And Paul had to call them out on that. You see, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed, lest he fall.
Let us therefore take the more earnest heed to the things we've heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
I've heard a lot of people who are saved, but because they're not hearing clear preaching on salvation or clear preaching on things, they're weak doctrinally when it comes to the subjects of salvation.
Not that they don't believe it's by faith, but they're easily sucked into false doctrine and confusion in regard to salvation.
And they'll start being led astray. And as a believer, you're only going to go so far because you've got the Holy Spirit living inside of you. You know which way is up as a believer.
But it's easy to get caught up in false teaching and false doctrine when you're not hearing the truth over and over again.
And when you're not reading your Bible, when it's not being reminded to you, it's easy to let things slip and to start going into false doctrine and to be sucked in and lied to by deceivers.
We need to emphasize these things, and we need to warn you. The Bible says warn you of these false teachers and false prophets.
Look, I'm going to warn you about it. You say, well, I've already heard you warn me about that.
Paul said that there are many enemies of the cross of Christ, and he said, of whom I've told you often.
And now it tells you, even weeping, that they're the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Paul, I'm going to warn you again that there are people out there who are going to come to you someday and tell you that believing on Jesus Christ is not enough to save you, and they're a liar.
Because believing is enough, because whosoever believeth in him shall not perish for that eternal life.
And I've seen people that were saved who believed them, and there was a time when they stood up and said, it's faith alone, it's belief, that's it, nothing else.
And then later that person will get into the wrong crowd, sucked into the wrong crowd, and start saying, well, you know, you've got to be willing to give up your sins, or, you know, there's got to be repent of your sins.
And then later the person will get right to God and start preaching the truth again, that it's belief on Christ alone.
I can make a name for you people like that, that get hanging around the wrong crowd, they start listening to a bunch of phony preachers, they start palling around with a bunch of Pentecostals and Protestants and perverts, and they start reading a bunch of books instead of reading the Bible.
Books about the Bible instead of the 66 books of the Bible. And then they start getting turned around on this stuff.
A person who's saved, when you sit down with them and show them, they'll tell you, okay, yeah, it's belief, it's faith alone.
And obviously somebody who's preaching total work salvation was never saved in the first place.
But people can start getting into gray areas and getting weak and watered down. That's why we ring that bell over and over again.
That's why we keep ringing that bell.
Even John the Baptist, he got doubts. Remember? Remember when John the Baptist was in prison and he said to Jesus,
and said, aren't thou the youth that should come, or do we look for another? That's the guy who pointed to him and said, to hold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
But he began to have his doubts. So people can mess with our minds sometimes, or we can begin to doubt things.
That's why we need constantly to be put in remembrance.
Yes, the Holy Spirit's inside of us, but when a lot of false bad influences are hitting us, we can get turned around and mixed up on things.
And we need to be reminded and clearly taught the basics of the Bible.
You say, why are you called a fundamentalist or an independent fundamental Bible? Because we emphasize the fundamentals.
Because we're back to the basics. Because we stand on the fundamental basic truths of the Bible and we ring that bell over and over again.
You see, a lot of these truths that I preach about, you already know it. But you need to hear it again, and again, and again, and again.
About salvation. Not just about salvation, about heaven and hell. All these doctrines about the eternal security of the believer.
About the fact that once we're saved, we're always saved. That's the most important doctrine that there is.
We need to hear that again. We need to keep preaching.
You see, there are people out there who literally go to church and they've never even heard the gospel.
Even the fact that Jesus died and buried and rose again.
For example, I was out knocking doors. I knocked on the door of a 15-year-old girl who'd gone to a Baptist church her whole life.
What's that one? What's that? Pilgrim's Rest Baptist. Phoenix.
She went to Pilgrim's Rest. She was 15. I asked her how long she'd been going there. She'd been going there for over 10 years.
I began to explain to her the gospel. I'm going through the whole story of the gospel.
I get to the part where Jesus rises from the dead, and she said, are you serious?
I'm like, yeah. He rose like he walked out of the grave. He's alive.
He died, and then they buried him? His body was buried in the tomb?
He actually walked out of the grave alive. She said, did that really happen?
I'm like, have you ever heard that before? She said, I've never heard about it.
He died and came back to life like they buried him? And he came out of the grave?
Yeah. She's like, wow, I've never even heard that before.
She was kind of saying, are you for real? Is this just a story, or did this really happen?
I said, well, you've got to believe that this happened to be saved.
That's when you've got to believe to be saved. You've got to believe that Jesus really did that, and that he's the Savior.
You've got to confess that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
there's a church that's not preaching the basics. That's not a fundamental church.
They've got plenty of that going on.
And man, they're in the spirit, but they don't even know the basics.
And he said, remember that Jesus Christ as the seed of David was raised from the dead, according to my gospel.
Hey, we've got to reemphasize again and again salvation, the gospel.
And by the way, the bodily resurrection of Christ.
Because somebody will come along someday and tell you, oh, he just raised as a spirit. It was a spiritual resurrection.
No, Jesus said, destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up, and he spake up the temple of his body.
John, chapter 2, verses 18 through 20.
Look, somebody's going to come and tell you, oh, no, his spirit just broke.
Is that true? Really? What?
I'm not kidding. I'm going to say, no, John, chapter 2, verse 18, verse 20 says that he bodily rose again.
Hey, we need to emphasize that we believe that the Bible is the word of God, cover to cover.
Every word of God is pure. He's a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found alive.
That's why every week when I preach, practically every week, I'm pulling out one of these so-called Bible versions, the NIV or the New American Center.
You say, why do you keep doing that? We get it.
You've pulled out the NIV like 300 times in the last six years and shown us what's wrong with it.
I'm going to show you again.
Because as sure as I'm standing here, somebody in this church, oh, they'll stick to the King James,
but they'll walk out of here and go to some church that bridges the New King James.
Because, come on, it's pretty close, right? It's just three letters different. New.
You know what I mean?
Somebody said, well, I went from the NIV to the New King James. That's progress. That's not progress.
Going from being a Catholic to being a Lutheran is a progress.
Until you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, when it comes to the Bible, it's on or off.
When it comes to salvation, you're either in or you're out.
You're not kind of saved. You're not almost saved, partially saved.
No, you're either saved or you're not.
It's either the Bible's the word of God or it's not.
And you've got all these gray areas out there.
And I'm telling you, people will go to a church, they'll believe it's the King James Version,
they'll know that the NIV's back, but years will go by and it dims their memory, honestly.
Years and years will go by, and they'll say, well, I like this church.
I mean, yeah, they use the NIV and everything, but they use the New King James.
And that's why you have to constantly be reminded of it.
You say, what's wrong with you? Well, let me remind you right now.
Shall I?
The Bible says right here in the book of Matthew, chapter 7 in the King James Version,
narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it in Matthew 7.
The New King James says difficult is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Sorry, the way to eternal life is not difficult. It's easy.
It's just belief, but it is narrow. There are few that find it.
Hey, this book says unto us which are being saved, it's the power of God.
The King James Bible says us which are saved, it's the power of God.
No, I'm not being saved. I've done being saved.
You say, well, I already heard that before.
Well, you need to hear it again so that you don't go to one of these phony New King James churches.
That's why you need to hear it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
Because five years from now, you're like, I don't even remember. What was so bad about the New King James?
I mean, it just got rid of the thes and thes.
I mean, I remember Pastor Anderson preaching a whole sermon for an hour and a half called The New King James Exposed,
but I don't remember what it was about.
Well, that was the one where I showed you about 50 things wrong with it.
And look, I mean, maybe you need to download that sermon and listen to it again,
and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
Because we need to be constantly reminded of these things and have these truths.
Look, I didn't read the Bible once cover to cover and say, well, I already read that book.
You got another book for me?
Where's the Quran? Where's the book for me? I already read that.
You know what I did when I finished reading the Bible?
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and I read it again.
And then I read it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
And you just keep reading it, and reading it, and reading it, and reading it.
And honestly, I read stuff in the Bible this day, and I'm like, wow, I forgot about this part.
Right? And I've read it scores of times, and I read it again and say, wow, I forgot that part.
That's good. I need to hear that. I forgot all about that part.
I was talking to somebody before the service on our way back from soul winning,
and I was talking about how sometimes I've literally written a sermon.
And I thought of an idea for a sermon, and I thought, man, this is a great idea for a sermon.
Wow, I've never preached this before.
And I'm thinking, this is a cool sermon. And I wrote the whole sermon.
And then I remembered, you know, I did a sermon that was kind of, didn't I do something kind of similar?
And then I'll go back on the website to like 2007 or 2006.
And I'm like, yeah, I did do something. I'll download it, and it's the identical sermon.
Same outline. I'm like, oh, man, I thought I had a new sermon.
And it's the same scriptures. Like, I did that recently a few weeks ago.
I went back and downloaded a sermon. I had written a sermon.
I downloaded the three points, and the three main scriptures I went to were the same thing.
And I mean, I wanted it up, and I said, man, I can't preach this, the identical sermon.
But I knew that, I mean, I thought, this is, I just learned this.
This is a new truth. This is great. And then I'd already done it before.
You know, it's like the Bible says in Ecclesiastes, is there anything whereof it may be said,
see, this is new, and it had been already of old time, which was before it.
And so I ended up modifying the sermon to be part new, part old.
Because I didn't want it to just be a complete repeat.
You know, but if it was a good idea in 2007, I guess the 2011 Pastor Anderson thought it was a good idea too.
I guess I haven't changed much if I wrote the same sermon without even remembering.
It was just in my subconscious mind or something.
But that just goes to show you that I'm the one who preached it, and I totally forgot it four years later.
You forget things. They begin to fade.
And that's why, you know, some people who just, oh, I learned all that when I was a teenager.
I went, you know, I read the Bible cover to cover when I was 19.
You know, and I'm in my 40s now, and, you know, I did read the whole thing back then.
I know what's going on. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, you need to learn it again. You need to read it again. You need to hear it preached.
You need it to be repeated to you and drilled into you. We all do.
We all need to remember things that we already knew and be reminded of them.
Not that the pastor needs to be a broken record just where it's all a repeat, but where it's a combination of new and old,
and where you're rereading and relistening.
Say, I don't need to come to church three times a week because I already pretty much know most of what Pastor Anderson preaches.
Well, do you want to come up here and take my places since you know everything?
And the bottom line is that nobody knows everything.
I don't even know everything I've preached because I sometimes literally I'll be wondering about a subject.
I'll go back to a sermon I preached on five years ago and see if I can learn something because we forget stuff.
I mean, you need to hear stuff over and over.
And even if you do know everything, come to get stirred up.
You're going to be more stirred up. Let me give you a little matter formula.
If one is good, three is better.
And if you come three times, you're going to be three times as stirred up.
If you come once every blue moon, you're not going to be very stirred up and you're going to start forgetting stuff
because you're not getting it constantly drilled in.
The person who comes to church over and over and the person who reads their Bible every day
and keeps going through it cover to cover, year after year, year after year, they're not forgetting much
because it's just getting hammered in and drilled in and reminded of it.
Jesus Christ even instituted the Lord's Supper where they would break the bread and take up the cup.
And he said, this do in remembrance of me. Why? To remind them.
To just remind them of the fact that his body was broken, that he shed his blood for them.
He said in I Corinthians 11, 24, you don't have to turn there.
And when he had given thanks, he'd break it and said, hey, Eve, this is my body which is broken for you.
This do in remembrance of me.
Don't forget that I died for you. Don't forget I shed my blood. Don't forget that my body was broken.
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
Go to I Corinthians 4. I Corinthians 4.
While you're turning there, the Bible says in Hebrews 10, 32,
But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after you were illuminated,
he endured a great fight of afflictions.
He's saying not only should you remember the key doctrines of the Bible,
but he says remember your own personal past of your walk with God.
Remember the fight of afflictions you've gone through.
Remember the persecutions that you've endured.
Remember the criticisms. Remember when people have attacked you.
Why? Because it will strengthen your faith.
Because the Bible says...
What does the Bible say? Where did I return to I Corinthians?
Keep your finger on I Corinthians 4. Go to II Corinthians 1.
I don't want to misquote what I'm trying to say here.
Oh, this is not what I'm looking for.
Romans. Keep your finger on I Corinthians 4.
We're going to skip II Corinthians 1.
Go to Romans chapter 5. Here we go. I found it.
Alright, Romans 5. See what I mean how you forget stuff?
See, in fact, I did that on purpose.
Just to show you how easy it is to even forget what you're preaching in the middle of preaching.
Go to Romans chapter 5.
It says...
Now look, if we have gone through the experience of tribulation...
If we've experienced trials and troubles and persecutions in our life, which is what tribulation means...
If we've been through that...
Tribulation worketh patience, patience worketh experience, and then experience works hope.
Because if I can remember the hard times I've been through in the past...
Then when I'm in hard times right now, I can say, you know what?
I've been through stuff like this.
And God got me through it back then. He's going to get me through it this time.
That experience gives you hope.
That, hey, God's always got me through it in the past. I've had that experience over and over.
Hey, I know I'm going to get through this too.
But some of our people forget.
They forget the fact.
You go, oh, what are you doing? You've already been through this.
You've been more poor than this.
You've lost your job before. Don't you remember that?
Or don't you remember the last time you had stuff like this happen?
Or you got attacked or you got persecuted or you got beat up.
And you go, hey, life goes on because you've been there and you can do it again.
And God got you through it the first time. He can get you through it the second time.
That's why He's constantly telling the children of Israel, remember how I parted the Red Sea?
Remember how I fed you with manna?
Remember how I defeated all your enemies?
Remember how I gave you water out of the rock?
And it constantly says they forgot His works.
They forgot the works of the Lord.
They forgot what He did for them.
They forgot.
I mean, look, they forgot the Red Sea.
That's why when they got to the Promised Land, they said we can't win.
They already had defeated the greatest army in the world through the power of God
when He parted the Red Sea and then drowned Pharaoh's army.
And then just a few months later, they forgot.
You know, Moses goes up on the Mount Sinai for 40 days.
And in 40 days, they forgot.
Forty days out of church, basically.
Forty days without being preached to.
Forty days without God's Word.
And they're worshipping the golden calf.
Now, I thank God.
I have never in my life got 40 days without going to church.
Never. Never.
The longest I've ever gone without going to church was just 20 days
because I was sick as a teenager.
And I went 20 days without going to church just because I was sick.
I've never gone longer than that.
That's the longest I've ever gone.
I wouldn't want to go 40 days, and you know what?
I even felt myself that I was beginning to fade spiritually.
Just from being out of church.
And it was good to be in church again.
Three weeks later when I got in church, hey, it was good to be back.
It was good to be back in God's house.
And so we need to be reminded.
Go to 1 Corinthians 4 where I had to turn.
So remember the doctrines.
And then also remember the trials and tribulations.
Remember the fight you've been through.
And it'll help you through the next fight.
But look at 1 Corinthians 4.15.
It says, for though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ...
And by the way, there's 10,000 people out there that'll instruct you in Christ.
I mean, if you want to find somebody just to...
You know, you could probably go on the Internet
and find 10,000 websites that want to teach you the Bible.
And you could find 10,000 churches in America easily
that'll teach you in Christ.
But he says this, hey, you have 10,000 instructors in Christ.
Yet have you not many fathers?
For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel.
Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus,
who is my beloved Son and faithful in the Lord,
who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways,
which be in Christ.
As I teach everywhere in every church,
I keep reminding people of the truth.
And he says this.
I'm sending Timothy to remind you of something.
You might have 10,000 instructors,
but you only have one father,
because I begot you in the Gospel.
And here's what I always tell people.
Whenever I win somebody to Christ
and they want to keep going to their phony liberal church
that didn't...
I always say to them, well, did they ever tell you how to get saved?
I learned that from my dad,
because my dad said that to somebody who, you know,
they got saved and then they were going to go back to their church.
He said, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Did they tell you how to be saved?
No.
Because I'm here telling you right now.
So why don't you go to the church that told you how to get saved?
And here's what blows me away.
You'll be out solely knocking doors
and you'll be asking, where do you go to church?
Oh, I go to Calvary Christian Fun...
I go to Calvary Christian Fun Bags Worship Center,
you know, where the sermon's five minutes
and it's Christian rock and whatever.
And, you know, it's just this total no soul and no doctrine,
just a little fun center that they call a church.
And, you know, I go to Ronald McDonald Playland Christian Church
and you're like...
But this is what they'll say.
You ask them, do you know for sure if you died the day you got in?
And they say, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I'm saved by faith and, you know, it's belief.
And you say, well, you know,
do you think there's anything you'd ever do to lose your salvation?
And they're like, no way.
You know, I'm saved.
You know, it's all through Jesus.
He did everything.
It's through his blood.
And here's what they say.
I got saved in a Baptist church.
Right.
How many times have you heard that?
It's been so long you've heard that.
They go into some watered down thing,
nom-to-nom thing,
and then it's like, I got saved in a Baptist church.
I got saved in a Baptist church.
Well, it's funny how the Baptists are the ones who are good enough to get you saved.
Why don't you go to a Baptist church right now?
Instead of a church...
I mean, if you were unsaved now,
those people would never get you saved.
Because they would never even give the gospel or even make the gospel clear.
You know, but you go to church there.
Why are you finding an instructor in Christ
that's not the one that either got you saved
or at least the same religion that got you saved,
the same type of preaching that got you saved?
You know, if the King James Bible is what got you saved,
why are you into these other versions?
You see what I'm saying?
And Paul's saying, why are you following all these people?
I'm the one who won you to Christ
and you're following all these other people.
And look, I'm not saying that, you know,
it's wrong to ever switch churches or go somewhere.
But you know what?
Why are you... I mean, look, you know who won me to Christ?
Okay?
My mom is the one who actually won me to Christ
as far as she opened the Bible to me
and showed me the gospel
and I got saved.
Okay?
And guess what?
Guess what my mom went to?
An independent Baptist church.
And, you know, my mom got saved
in an independent fundamental Baptist church,
a soul-witting church.
My dad got saved
in an independent fundamental Baptist church.
He's not going to a fun center today.
My mom's not going to a fun center today.
They're going...
And you say, what's a fun center?
I'm talking about these churches
where it's just all about having fun
instead of real Bible preaching and singing the hymns.
It's just all about a rock concert
and fun bags and whatever.
Okay?
Not that there's anything wrong with having fun,
but church is a time to get serious
and learn the Word of God
and to get serious about going out and knocking doors.
You know, that's my roots.
Okay?
That's where my parents got the gospel.
And, you know, usually when you go off soul-witting
and people give you the right answers on salvation,
they usually got saved in a Baptist church
or they're a Baptist.
Because, let's face it,
that's usually the ones...
And I'm not saying that there aren't people
that are not Baptists that are saved.
There are people that are not Baptists that are saved.
But that's usually the ones
that are the clearest and the strongest on the gospel.
They're Baptists.
Get real.
And so when you go out and talk to these people,
you know, it doesn't make any sense to get saved.
You got saved through soul-witting
and now you don't go soul-witting.
You know, you got saved with a King James Version.
Now you're not into the King James.
You know, you got saved
in a fundamental Baptist church.
Now you're nom-to-nom
because it's more fun there.
And it doesn't...
It makes you feel good when you walk out
and you get a tingling feeling or something
because of the worship experience.
I grew up an independent fundamental Baptist.
Now, as a teenager,
I started going to, you know,
not the full-blown fun center,
but I started going to some churches
that were just liberal, watered-down churches.
You know, the NIV, the Rock and Roll.
Nobody's ever getting saved.
Nobody's ever getting baptized.
Nobody's going door-to-door.
They'll travel thousands of miles to go to Mexico
and go door-to-door for an hour.
And they won't even go door-to-door
across the street from them
when there's a guy named Jose
living in that house anyway.
So they'll go all the way across sea and land
and they won't even do it solely.
Now, look, here's the thing.
As a teenager, I did that,
but you know what?
I got back to my roots.
I got back to the type of people...
Now, not the exact same church,
but I got back to my roots
of what I was saved under.
Because when I got saved,
I was in a church that was
a fundamental Baptist church.
There was a King James Bible preaching church.
That's what my mom came from.
That's what my dad came from.
They're the ones who taught me the gospel.
My mom is the one that won me to Christ.
That's my roots.
And there's something wrong
with going to somewhere that can't get you...
that can't get people saved.
And listen to me.
Who here is saved?
Put up your hand.
I'm saved.
Okay, now look.
You got saved at a specific time
in your life.
You may not know exactly...
you know, most people know
exactly when that was.
Some people say,
well, I'm not sure, you know,
who was at this point or this point.
They may not know the date or the time.
But they know for sure
that there was a time somewhere
where they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,
called upon the name of the Lord,
and they were saved.
Now, everybody who raised their hand,
you said, I'm saved, okay?
Think to yourself.
There was a time when you got saved.
Now, if you're going to a church
where no one is getting saved,
that means if you were there,
if we were to fast-forward you
and put you in this church,
you wouldn't be getting saved either.
So instead of just saying,
well, I'm saved,
you know, let's go have a fun church.
Okay, why don't you go to a church
that's getting other people saved?
Because that church that got you saved,
that's because that was a soul-winning church.
That's how they got you saved.
Or that person that got you saved,
it's because they learned
to be a preacher of the gospel,
and they were taught that.
You know, that's where you ought to be.
That's your roots.
And people need to stop and think to themselves,
wait a minute, I've got this church for two years
and nobody ever got saved.
Wait a minute,
these aren't the people who got me saved.
This isn't the type of people who got me saved.
This isn't where I came from.
This isn't where I came out of.
And that's why I like what Paul said.
He said, yeah, you got 10,000 instructors in Christ.
Hey, there's only one guy who won you to Christ.
Why don't you follow me?
If I'm good enough to win you to Christ,
maybe I can preach you the word of God
and show you how to be a fisher of men,
since I'm obviously a fisher of men,
because I got you saved.
And so that's what I always ask people.
Have you ever talked to somebody
who you went to the Lord,
and they tell you,
hey, I'm going back to my Lutheran church
or my Presbyterian church or whatever?
I'm always just saying,
did they ever tell you how to be saved?
Did they ever give you the gospel?
Then why would you go there?
Why are you following them?
Faithful Word Baptist Church
came and brought you to gospel.
Why don't you go to Faithful Word Baptist Church?
Obviously, the Spirit is there.
Obviously, the power of God is there.
The power of God that gets you saved was there.
It's going to be there to help you grow
and go to the next level.
That's kind of a rabbit trail,
but it really fits in with the sermon,
because we're thinking about the fact...
He says, I want to remind you of that.
That's why I turned there.
But really, it fits in,
because I think it has to do with remembering.
Remember your roots.
Remember where you came from.
Remember where you heard the gospel,
where you learned how to be saved.
And that's where you need to be.
You need to be in a place that's like that,
that's the same.
It's funny how the old-time religion
got people saved like 10, 20, 30 years ago.
Now they want to go to the new-fangled church.
The new-fangled church isn't the one that got you saved.
You didn't get saved in a worship service.
You got saved under fundamental printing
when you got saved.
You didn't get saved in a punch center.
But anyway, I'm getting off on a tangent here,
but turn, if you would, to John 14,
John chapter 14.
It's important to remember that
and to get back to your roots
and to understand, wait a minute,
this new religion isn't what got us saved.
It was the old paths that got us saved,
the old-time religion that got us saved.
And so we don't need this new stuff.
He says in John chapter 14, verse 25,
These things have I spoken unto you,
being yet present with you.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name...
And by the way, there's the Trinity
all mentioned right there.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
is all mentioned right there.
He says, whom the Father will send in my name,
He shall teach you all things
and bring all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you.
So what is the Holy Ghost role?
What is the Comforter's job?
Now, anybody who raised your hand earlier,
if you're truly saved,
that means that the Holy Ghost
is living inside of you,
because the Bible says that Christ is in you,
the hope of glory.
It says that if any man have not the Spirit of God,
He's none of His.
So everybody who's saved, according to the Bible,
has the Holy Spirit living inside of you.
What is the Holy Spirit's job living inside of you?
Or what is the purpose of the Father and the Son
sending the Holy Ghost to live inside of us?
Why was He sent?
He was sent to teach us all things
and bring all things to our remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you,
whatsoever Jesus has said unto us.
And later on, Jesus says,
He will not speak of Himself,
but He will take of mine and show it to you.
So what does the Holy Spirit do as He lives inside of us?
He brings the Scriptures to our remembrance.
The indwelling Holy Spirit reminds us
of what the Bible says.
So when it comes to comfort,
because here He's talking about He's in comfort.
Well, let's say I'm going through a really hard time.
Let's say I'm very sad and I'm heavy and down
and in gloom.
Well, He can bring to remembrance where the Bible says,
Hey, weeping may endure for the night,
but joy cometh in the morning.
Or let your conversation be without covetousness
and be content with such things that you have,
for He has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
On and on He can bring Scriptures to our remembrance
about how much God loves us
or about how brighter days are ahead
or how we're going to go to heaven someday.
Behold, I make all things new.
He can bring comforting Scriptures
that will strengthen us to our remembrance.
Or let's say we're out-souling Him.
We're trying to give somebody the gospel.
And maybe He can bring verses to our remembrance
to show somebody you have to be saved.
He'll remind us of stuff.
Maybe we're tempted to look upon something sinful.
He can bring it to remembrance,
like what Job said, I made a covenant with my eyes.
Why then should I think upon it made?
Or He might bring to remembrance what the Bible says
when He says, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.
I ain't the work of them to turn aside.
It shall not cling to me.
Maybe He can bring to remembrance of us
where He says, Flee fornication.
Every sin that a man doeth is without the body,
but he that committed fornication
sinned against his own body.
Where the Bible tells us that fornication,
he that is joined unto in harlot is one flesh.
And He says, shall I then take the temple of Christ?
I'm mixing it up, but He says, join it with a harlot?
God forbid.
Those scriptures can be brought to our remembrance.
Or maybe somebody brings up a false doctrine to us
and starts teaching, hey, you need to be baptized to be saved.
And we can pull out a scripture that says,
no, believing is enough.
Faith alone without works to be saved.
Somebody might bring up a false doctrine,
hey, Jesus didn't bodily rise from the dead.
Hey, John 2 comes back,
because the Holy Spirit brought him back to us.
His job is to jog the memory,
to bring to remembrance things that we've already known.
What's the minister? What did he say?
You'll be a good minister of Jesus Christ
if you put him in remembrance of these things.
The Holy Spirit is to put you in remembrance.
As you read the Bible, you're being put in remembrance.
The Holy Spirit is putting you in remembrance.
The pastor is putting you in remembrance.
He said, put yourself in remembrance.
Don't forget where you came from.
Don't forget when you got saved.
Don't forget what you heard taught in church last Sunday.
Don't forget what you read in your Bible five years ago.
Remember it, refresh it, enforce it.
You've got to hear it again and again and again.
That's why you can't do too much reading,
you can't come to too much preaching,
and say, well, I've already heard it.
Hear it again.
Amen.
And hey, you'll probably get something new, hopefully.
I mean, I strive to give you something new.
And maybe you'll hear a sermon.
Maybe you've been here the whole six years.
Like Amanda, you know, she's been coming
since the second Sunday.
She's been here almost the whole six years.
She's virtually heard every sermon.
She's one of the few that's here tonight.
There are other people who were here this morning
that were here in those real early days also.
And there are people who go back to the year 2006,
so they've been here with me at least for five years
listening to my preaching.
They've heard the same things over and over.
Now, they may...
Now, somebody who just got saved
or just started coming to church,
man, everything's new.
I mean, everything's new.
You know, somebody who's not been in church that much,
man, they haven't heard any of this.
It's all new, it's all new.
They're eating it up, eating it up.
Well, look, after you've been here for four or five years,
it's not all going to be new anymore.
Now, God willing, and I strive to give you
somewhat new in every sermon.
A little bit new, a little bit new.
You'll get something new.
I think even Amanda, if you get something new, everyone's along.
And they go, please, no.
I'm sure she gets new things and learns it.
You know, part of it's because I'm learning new things.
So I can't preach stuff that I didn't know back then.
I'm just learning new things.
And so you're getting something new, getting something new.
But you know what?
Even the people who go back that far
or even people that go back three years, four years,
and maybe you say, well, Pastor Anderson,
I don't go back that far,
but I went back and listened to all the sermon downloads.
You know, I heard all that stuff before.
You still need to be here and hear it again
and again and again and again.
And I think you'll get a little something new every service.
And maybe if you come here and you've been here a long time,
maybe it's 90% remembrance for you,
90% remembrance and 10% new.
Even if you just learned one new thing, though,
hey, it's worth it.
And a lot of times I'll go to a service,
I'll listen to a preaching service,
and sometimes it'll be an hour sermon
and maybe I'll just get one or two new things.
I walk out happy.
I always say, hey, I'm really glad I came back
because I learned something new.
Even if I just learned one thing new
and if I learned five new things,
then so much the better.
But even if I just walk out learning one new thing,
I consider that a great sermon.
Because, man, if I can learn something new
that I've never learned
and I can be taught something new,
I consider that, hey, that was a great sermon
because I learned something new.
Now, other sermons, I might walk out
and say it's a great sermon
just because I got stirred up on something
that maybe was beginning to fade in my life.
And, look, my friend, there are people in our church
who are once fired up and excited and zealous
and they begin to fade
and to fade and to fade and to fade.
You know what? Don't be that guy that fades.
Don't be that gal that fades.
Be on fire.
Be instant in season, out of season.
Be stirred up, fired up, charged up all the time.
It's happened to greater people than you or me.
So be stirred up in remembrance.
Hey, get the great when you get the new stuff.
But you know what? Don't disdain the old.
Don't say, well, you know, yeah,
I'm glad I went for that one new thing.
You know, 90% of it was a repeat from 2006.
You know, on April 5, 2006,
you already preached this sermon and, you know,
it's kind of a repeat.
Hey, you needed to hear it again.
Okay? So don't be like that.
Don't disdain the old.
Love, love the new.
Love it.
But you know what Jesus said?
The old's better.
You know what I mean?
Where he said, you know,
no man having tasted new wine,
he doesn't say the new's better,
he says the old's better.
And you know, every sermon's new and old,
and maybe the new's more fun because it's new,
but honestly, the old is better.
The best stuff I preach is probably the stuff
you've already heard before.
It's the best stuff.
Because the best thing that there is
is that Jesus died for us.
The best thing in the whole Bible
is when he rose again.
The best thing ever is salvation by faith.
The best thing ever is when God created the earth.
The best thing ever is that he's coming again.
The best thing ever is heaven and hell.
That's the best stuff.
The old's better.
So don't just name the old.
Love the new, love the old,
love it all, but the old's better.