I'd like to emphasize the beginning of verse number 8, where the Bible reads,
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, has a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom you may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
And while you're there, don't turn there, but I'm going to read to you from Luke chapter 22,
the Bible says, And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold,
Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat,
but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brother.
Now the title of the sermon tonight is this, Satan hath desired to have you.
This is what Jesus said to his eleven disciples, of course Judas Iscariot had already been sent out of the room,
this is at the Last Supper, Jesus said, That thou doest too quickly,
he went out to betray Jesus with thirty pieces of silver,
Jesus left with his eleven true followers, his eleven saved disciples,
and he looks and he directs it at Simon, but really he's directing it at all of them,
because of course in the King James Bible we know that the word thou is singular,
and the word ye or you is plural, and so Jesus says to Simon,
Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you.
He's talking about all eleven of them.
But then he says, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee,
that's singular, but I have prayed for thee, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Now, the truth of the matter is, if you're someone who's a soul winner,
if you're somebody who loves God, if you're somebody who's a strong Christian,
if you're somebody who's serving God, if you're somebody who takes a stand for God,
the devil wants to have you, the devil wants to do something with you,
he wants to sift you, he wants to destroy you.
Now, think about this, these eleven apostles, they've been greatly used by God over the last three and a half years.
I mean, Jesus didn't just have these guys following him around to learn only.
The first thing he said, the first day that he got them was,
follow me, and I'll make you vicious men.
These are the men that Jesus prayed for and ordained, laid his hands upon in Matthew chapter 10,
gave them power against unclean spirits and against sicknesses,
and he sent them out preaching the gospel two by two, in all the cities and towns and villages.
These are preachers, these are soul winners, these are church members of the first church,
which was pastored by Jesus Christ.
It's mentioned in Matthew 16, the church didn't start at the day of Pentecost, it's mentioned in Matthew 16.
And so Jesus was the pastor of the first church, these church members that were,
not the only church members, but man, they were the ones who were doing the most.
These were the eleven that were the closest to Jesus,
and Jesus saying that Satan has desired to have you, he wants to destroy you,
he wants to sift you, he wants to get you out of the ministry, he wants to stop you.
Now in 2 Corinthians 2-11, you don't have to turn there, stay in 1 Peter 5,
but it says, lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Now there's no reason for us to be ignorant, according to 2 Corinthians 2-11,
of what the devil's plan is.
What is he going to try to do? How is he going to attack us?
The answer is in the Bible.
We're not ignorant. Paul wasn't ignorant.
The Corinthians weren't ignorant. We got that book right here that explained to us
what his tactics are and what his methods are.
I'm going to show you the first method that he'll use.
Look at Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11.
Now I'm going to read this for you in Romans, but for the sake of time,
I'm not going to take you back to 1 Kings where the story comes from.
Romans 11 alludes to the story, but in the book of 1 Kings,
you'll see a great man, Elijah the prophet.
In chapter 18, has the great showdown with the prophets of Baal.
One of the greatest stories when you're a kid and you're learning in Sunday school,
or mom and dad are telling you the story,
where Elijah prays down the fire of God,
and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the world
are slain with the sword and tossed over the cliff,
and they say, the Lord, He is the God.
But, then comes the devil with his plan, and you have to understand,
the devil, let me put it this way,
the word Satan is only mentioned in the Old Testament four times.
There are really five direct mentions of the devil in the Old Testament,
and only four times is he called Satan.
The first time he's just the serpent in the garden of Eden.
There's only five mentions of the devil.
You say, wait a minute, I find that odd that I read 75% of the Bible,
the Old Testament, the devil is only mentioned five times.
And then in the New Testament, you read a lot about the devil.
I mean, Jesus is constantly mentioning the devil,
the apostles, and the epistles, and the book of Revelation,
has a lot to say about it.
Here's the reason why.
Because the false gods of the Old Testament were devils,
and the god Baal was really Satan.
I mean, if you study the Bible, you'll find that very clear,
that it's explained in the New Testament,
that when the Gentiles in the Old Testament were worshipping these false gods,
they were worshipping devils, plural, demons,
that's who they were worshipping.
When they were worshipping Molech, when they were worshipping Asheroth,
and Rimfan, and Baal-Zebub was the god that they were worshipping,
which in the New Testament is pronounced Beelzebub,
which is Satan, and Jesus refers to as Satan.
So Baal worshiped of the Old Testament, was Satan worshiped.
So if you want to find the devil all throughout the Old Testament,
look at the false religion, look at the false gods.
That was the devil's working in the Old Testament.
He worked through these false religions.
And by the way, he hasn't changed us.
It's the same thing he's doing right now.
And so that's clear, because Jesus equates the god of the Zydonians,
Baal-Zebub, with Satan in the book of Matthew,
chapter number 9, I believe it is right around there,
chapter number 8, 9, 12, somewhere around there.
We get a little bit mixed up with some of the chapters,
but he's represented by Satan.
Now, look down at your Bible in Romans chapter 11.
The Baal worshiper Jezebel has pronounced that Elijah's going to be killed,
he's being persecuted, he's on the run.
Look at verse 2, it says,
God has not cast away his people, which he foreknew, Romans 11-2.
Why ye not what the scripture saith of Elias, that's Elijah,
how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and dig down thine altars,
and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
But what saith the answer of God unto them?
I have reserved to myself seven thousand men,
who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal,
even so then at this present time also,
there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
Now, flip back over to 1 Peter chapter 5,
I should have had you say that, I'm sorry.
But you've got this story about how Elijah is saying,
I'm the only one that's left.
I mean, I'm the only one that's preaching the truth,
I'm the only one that's worshipping the Lord,
and they're trying to kill me.
But look at 1 Peter chapter 5,
we're going to see the devil's first tactic.
It says, be sober, be vigilant, 1 Peter 5-8,
because your adversary the devil has a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,
wants to devour, he wants to have you.
Verse 9, whom resist, steadfast in the faith.
Now this is how he's explaining us how we're going to resist him.
Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world.
Now do you see here, God is saying,
you are not the only one.
Do you see that in verse 9?
He says, knowing that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
What is the devil's first method?
He wants to isolate you,
and make you feel like you're the only one.
Because then you're going to start saying, am I crazy?
I mean, am I the only one?
And the devil wants to devour you,
he wants to push you and resist you,
and he wants you to feel like you're the only one.
God is saying the way you're going to resist him
is when you know that there are other brethren
all over the world who are believing like you,
they take the hands that you take,
they believe the gospel that you believe,
and God said to Elijah,
there are 7,000 men in the nation of Israel alone
who have not kissed the image of Baal.
That was something that they did.
They had to kiss this image of Baal.
I don't know what that was about,
but it's in 1 Corinthians 7.
I'm sorry, 1 Kings 19, 18, it says,
Yet if I left me 7,000 in Israel,
all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal,
7,000 men had not bowed down to Baal,
and every mouth which had not kissed him.
There were 7,000 men taking the same stand
that Elijah was taking,
but Elijah was made to think by Jezebel,
by the devil, by others,
that he was the only one.
Let me tell you a little story.
I grew up as an independent fundamental Baptist.
I mean, from the time I was born,
that's the type of churches that we went to.
They preached the King James Bible.
Some of them were pretty weak on soul.
Some of them were a little bit weak
on their separation and holiness,
but they were independent fundamental Baptist churches.
They were conservative.
That's the way I grew up.
I got to be about 12 years old,
and the church that we were attending,
and all the churches around that time,
it seemed like were going by the wayside,
the church that we were attending fell apart.
We were going to a great big independent fundamental Baptist church,
the soul of one name, the whole works,
and what happened?
The pastor was embezzling money.
There were scandals.
There were problems.
There were improprieties,
and the whole church just literally disintegrated
from running about four or five hundred people,
big days of 950 on Roundup Sunday.
I can remember breaking 950 on Roundup Sunday
at this church in Sacramento,
and the church fell apart and literally whittled down
to just a tiny group of like basically the pastor's family
and a couple other people in a storefront.
I mean, for being this giant millions of dollar facility,
huge church, running buses, the whole works,
they went down to nothing.
Okay.
Well, we balanced from after that.
After that, it fell apart.
We balanced from church to church.
We were trying to find something that was fundamental.
We were trying to find something that was the King James only.
We were trying to find something that was soul-ending,
and so my parents struggled and searched,
and we tried church after.
We could not find it, and I remember my mom and my dad.
I remember my dad saying,
maybe we're just crazy.
That's what he literally said.
He said, are we the only ones left to believe this stuff?
I mean, I can remember as a 12-year-old boy
listening to my father say, maybe we're the only ones.
Maybe we're just crazy.
I mean, maybe we just need to try these liberal churches,
because, I mean, maybe we're just nuts.
Nobody else believes it anymore.
Okay?
And so what did we do?
And you know, you can see where he's come.
I mean, Elijah felt the same way.
It's a tragedy that he felt that way,
because he tried all these churches,
and they were all compromising.
And he said, why would I go to an independent fundamental church
that's exactly like the liberal church?
He said, we might as well just go to the liberal church
where all our friends are,
where all the wash-ups from the church that fell apart,
they all went to this liberal church.
Let's go where our friends are,
because this independent Baptist church is the same thing.
You know what I mean?
What's the difference?
Let's go where our friends are.
And so what did we do?
When I was 12 years old, we switched to a church.
They used the NIV.
It was Baptist, you know,
but it was North American Baptist Convention,
not independent, part of the nomination.
It was a rock band on stage, the NIV.
Nobody ever got saved to my recollection,
and it was just everything that's liberal and wrong.
And we went to the two different churches
that were actually three different churches.
They were about the same over that five-year period.
And you know, pretty soon we switched to this
being a Sunday morning home,
because there just wasn't really much worth hearing.
You know what I mean?
And so we came once, you know.
We put in our time.
And we did that,
and we went there for five years
to these kind of churches,
all because the devil had put it into my dad's head
and my mom and my head,
and our whole family said that we must be crazy
and we're the only ones left.
But God is trying to tell us here,
if you're standing with the Bible,
you're never standing alone.
You never are.
I mean, sometimes as a preacher,
I feel like, man, a lot.
Am I the only one who prays?
I remember not that long ago.
And the devil has done this to me throughout my life.
He throws this at me.
I remember somebody said to me not that long ago
about this whole repentance thing.
You know, because we're saying it's by grace,
through faith, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved.
But now the popular thing is,
you know, the independent bathroom.
And they think it's so cool, you know.
It's been around so long.
It's been around ever since
the mother-whore Catholic Church has been around
that says, you know,
well, you've got to turn from your wicked way.
You've got to repent of your sins.
You've got to be willing to turn from fornication.
You've got to be willing to turn from it.
You've got to be willing to turn from that.
Hey, the Bible says in Jonah 3.10,
and God saw their works,
that they turned from their wicked way
and God repented on the evil he thought to Jonah.
Turning from your wicked way is worse.
Take it up with Jonah 3.10.
And so, this is what a man said to me not that long ago.
He said, you know what?
He said, everybody else in the whole world
understands this repentance doctrine
except you and Roger Jimenez.
That's what they said to me.
You two guys can't get it through your thick head.
That's what this person said to me.
Everybody else has got it all figured out.
It makes so much sense to everybody else
that you have to turn from your sins
in order to be saved.
I guess I'm still not saved.
I'm still a sinner.
I don't know about you.
But anyway, I haven't been willing
to give up every sin in my life,
or I guess I would have given them all up.
Or do I just have to be willing to be willing?
Or do I just have to be willing to be willing to be willing?
Okay.
I heard somebody here, well, you don't even have to know
how to quit your sin, but you just have to be
wanting to kind of quit it.
But anyway, I think I'll just stick with Act 1631.
How about John 3.16?
Whosoever believeth.
But anyway, he said, you and Roger Jimenez
are the only ones who don't understand it.
That is such a lie.
Okay, look, there's an organization
that's called the Sword of the Lord.
Who's ever heard of it?
Put up your hand.
I mean, they've been around forever.
It's like a newspaper, and there's all these things.
And I'm not saying that I condone everything about that,
but did you know that they believe
exactly the way that we believe about salvation,
that it's all by faith and the jump of faith?
And did you know that there are
thousands and thousands of churches
who subscribe to the Sword of the Lord,
and they love the Sword of the Lord,
and they believe the same thing about salvation that I believe?
Did you know that there are,
I mean, there are churches all over Phoenix.
There are churches that believe
the same thing we believe about salvation.
There are people all over the world
that believe that it's only by faith,
and it will even take a stand against that doctrine.
But sometimes, you'll get the feeling you're isolated.
I'm the only one.
Maybe I'm crazy.
Whenever you're siding with the Bible,
it doesn't matter whether you can see anybody
around you that agrees with you.
Sometimes, you might be the only one in your church,
or the only one in your geographic area,
or the only one in your family that believes something,
but I promise you, if it's in the Bible,
there are thousands and millions of people
who believe it all over the world,
because the same Holy Spirit
indwells millions and millions of believers
all over the world.
They have the same Word of God.
That's why I've met people and told them things
that I discovered in the Bible that were never taught to me,
and I said, look what I've discovered.
They said, I've been preaching that for years.
Why?
Because the same Holy Spirit revealed it to them,
revealed it to me.
When you read something in the Bible,
and it's as plain as the nose on your face,
when you side with the Bible,
you're never alone because God's with you,
but there are other people that are with you,
and don't let the devil make you feel like you're alone
and isolated like you're the only one you're not.
And not only that, but others are suffering.
Look at 1 Peter 5 and 9 again.
It says others are suffering the same afflictions
that you're suffering.
Sometimes you might get the feeling like,
well, I've got it so bad, nobody knows what I'm going through,
look at the pain, look at what I'm struggling with,
whether it be finances, whether it be a marriage,
whether it be physical pain and infirmity,
people that are your brethren in Christ Jesus
are suffering the same way all over the world.
You're never alone, but the devil wants to isolate you
and make you feel like you're alone,
make you feel like you're the only one,
and then you just feel outnumbered and then you just give in.
Hey, God plus one person makes a majority,
but there are other brethren all over the world
that believe like you, that suffer like you,
that if they knew you, they'd love you and they'd be your friend,
and so don't ever feel like you're alone.
Don't ever get that isolated feeling that the devil wants you to have.
But not only that, turn over to 2 Corinthians 11.
So the first tactic that we saw was in 1 Peter 5,
further explained in Romans 11,
that the devil wants to isolate you
and make you feel like you're all by yourself.
Thank God for the local church.
Thank God that we live in the New Testament,
that we're not like Elijah in some cave by himself somewhere,
but we can come to a church with other people
who believe what we believe,
who want to win souls like he wants to win souls.
That's what's so great about church.
You say, well, you know, I watch a TV preacher.
It's not the same as church.
First of all, it's totally different preaching.
Are they putting my messages on TV?
Does anybody know? No? Okay.
Let me know if they are, you worldly people who watch TV.
Let me know if they ever put them on TV,
because then I might say there's one good TV preacher actually.
But anyway, you know, let's say they put me on TV.
Let's say they took this sermon and put it on TV.
Right now, it wouldn't be the same as being in church.
Because guess what?
Did you know that this is not Stephen Anderson Baptist Church?
I mean, the person sitting next to you
is Faithful Word Baptist Church,
as much as I'm Faithful Word Baptist Church.
And so you don't just come here to hear me.
You come here to see them.
And that's why you ought to be here,
because some people are coming to see you.
And then you're not here, and they're disappointed.
And so Faithful Word Baptist Church,
a place where you can realize you're not alone.
There are other people who believe like you believe,
that love God, and so forth.
And that's what every church is for.
That's what every church should be for.
Maybe at work, you're the only one.
Maybe in your neighborhood, you're the only one.
But at church, you're not the only one.
And in the world, you bet you're not the only one,
because there are plenty of people out there,
thousands of them, in fact,
that have not bowed the knee to Baal.
But number two, here's his second tactic,
besides trying to make you feel isolated.
Number two, look at verse 13 of 2 Corinthians 11.
The Bible reads,
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no, Mark, this shouldn't surprise us.
For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing
if his ministers,
we're talking about all the devils, you know, demons,
also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to their words.
Now, in chapter 2 verse 11 of 2 Corinthians,
he said, we're not ignorant of these devices.
Nine chapters later, he's saying, look,
it should not surprise you
that the devil's workers are men of the cloth.
They're these ministers.
They're these bunch of religious pastors.
That's what he's saying.
He's saying they're false apostles.
They're deceitful workers.
They're transformed as ministers of righteousness.
But he said they're the devil's workers.
Now, you want to know where the devil is right now?
Oh, the devil's in hell.
That is not true.
Oh, the demons, they're all down in hell.
Not true.
The devil, listen to me carefully.
The devil has never even been to hell.
Read the Bible.
He's never even been there.
One day he will go to hell.
The first time he's going to go to hell
is at the beginning of the millennium, okay?
First, the beast and the false prophet
at the beginning of the millennium
are not going to go to hell.
They're going to be cast into the lake of fire, okay?
Then the devil is going to be cast down into hell.
For the first time at the beginning of the millennium,
this is in the future, this is after tribulation
and after God pours out his wrath on this earth,
the devil's going to be put in hell for a thousand years.
Then after the thousand years are expired,
and I'm quoting the Bible verbatim right now,
Satan shall be loosed out of his prison
and shall go forth to deceive the nations
which are in the four quarters of the earth,
dog and magog, to gather them together to battle,
the number of whom is as the sand of the sea,
and they went upon the breadth of the earth
and encompassed the camp of the saints about
in the beloved city,
and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them,
watch this, chapter 20 verse 10 of Revelation,
and the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,
where the beast and the false prophet are,
and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.
So the devil is not in hell,
he's going to go to hell to gain the millennium,
be there a thousand years,
he's going to come out of hell,
deceive the nations one more time,
God is then going to take the devil
and cast him into the lake of fire,
then there's going to be the great white throne judgment,
God's going to take hell and relocate it to the lake of fire,
and every unsaved person from all time
will go to hell and the lake of fire for all eternity.
That's a simple read of the 15 verses of Revelation 20,
we'll teach you that.
So, the devil right now,
we read it in the first verse we read,
as a roaring lion walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour.
He's not in hell, he's walking about,
looking for someone to devour.
He was in Job, remember?
He went up and stood before God in heaven.
And God said to Satan,
Whence comest thou, Satan?
And he said,
From walking to and fro in the earth,
and from going up and down in it.
And God said,
Hast thou considered my servant Job?
And on and on.
So Satan, remember the devils that inhabited the demoniac
in the land of the Gadarenes,
and when Jesus cast out the devils,
they said,
Torment us not before the time,
art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
Because they have a schedule to go to hell,
and it's premature for them.
Right now, they're out doing the devil's work.
What is their device?
Number one,
the devil wants to make you feel isolated.
But number two,
he wants to create a counterfeit
of true Christianity,
and true service for God.
He's a counterfeit.
He's in the counterfeit business.
He wants to make a cheap substitute for the truth.
He wants to have a substitute preacher,
a substitute minister,
a substitute Bible,
a satanic religion,
and he wants to substitute the truth for the counterfeit.
Now think about this.
Let's say I were a counterfeit,
and I want to pass a counterfeit bill.
Do you think I'm going to take a monopoly,
a hundred dollar bill with J.P. Morgan on it
with a big white handlebar mustache,
and bring that down somewhere,
and say,
Hey, can I get changed from this?
No.
If you see counterfeit money,
it looks almost real, okay?
Because anybody knows,
if I want to do the best job I can in counterfeiting,
I'm going to make something look as real as possible.
The more real it is, the better.
Just as long as it's not real, okay?
That's what the devil's going to do.
He's not going to have a church
with a red pitchfork out front
instead of, you know, on the top,
instead of a steeple, a red pitchfork,
and, you know, a flashing neon light,
the devil's church.
Come on down.
He's going to make it look light.
Now, he's definitely the prince of darkness, okay?
But he's going to make it look as if it's light.
He's going to make it very beautiful.
The Bible says in the devil,
if you read Exodus 28,
that he was the most beautiful creature
that God created.
And he was lifted up in his heart
because of his beauty.
Very beautiful.
Listen to me.
If you go to one of these fancy,
Roman Catholic churches,
let's face it, they're beautiful.
I mean, the stained glass windows,
the paintings are beautiful paintings,
aren't they?
And, you know, some of the music
that you hear, you know,
some people say,
oh man, I hear this rock music
because it's so repulsive.
You know, some of the rock music
sounds beautiful, okay?
Some of the, you know,
some of the dirty magazines, okay,
are beautiful women.
They don't put some ugly woman
on the cover of some magazine.
It's a beautiful woman, okay?
But don't let that fool you
because her steps, the Bible says,
are the steps that lead to hell, okay?
It says in the book of Proverbs.
But she's very beautiful on the outside.
The Bible talks about how beautiful
the strange woman, the adulterous,
how beautiful she is,
how beautiful some of the wrong music
is going to be,
how beautiful the wrong church is going to be,
how beautiful a sermon could be
that's teaching lives,
that's teaching heresy.
It might be a beautiful thing.
And so the Bible says the devil will allure
through the lust of the flesh
at 2 Peter 2.18.
He's going to allure using
the lust of the flesh.
And so he has a counterfeit.
For example, the counterfeit Bible,
and I'm not going to spend
too much time on this,
but the counterfeit Bible.
You say, well, wait a minute,
I don't think that the devil
is responsible for publishing
the NIV, you know,
the New International Version.
And you know, this was in my pulpit
all the time,
and I wrote across the front
of the Sharpie, false Bible,
because I didn't want
somebody to find this
and think, you know,
I'd rather that somebody
found a dirty magazine
in this pulpit
than to think
that I'm studying the NIV,
and I mean that.
This is wicked.
I mean, good night.
A dirty magazine's wicked,
but changing the Bible
will damn you to hell,
according to Revelation 22, verse 18.
I mean, the people who made this thing
are under a curse of God
that's found in Revelation 22, 18, and 19.
But for example,
turn in your Bible through
to Isaiah 14.
Let's see who's behind the NIV.
Let's see who's behind
the counterfeit Bible.
Let's see who has transformed
into a minister of life,
transformed a false book
into a book that seems
very good, like the NIV.
Let's look at it together.
Put your finger in Isaiah 14.
Are you in Isaiah 14?
Put your finger there
and go to Revelation 22, 16.
Revelation 22, 16,
but your finger is in Isaiah 14.
Now I want you to take your foot.
No, I'm just kidding.
Okay, Isaiah 14 and Revelation 22, verse 16.
The Bible reads in Revelation 22, 16.
Look down at your Bible.
It says,
I, Jesus, no question
about who's talking, is there?
I, Jesus, have sent my angel
to testify unto you
these things in the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David
and the bright and morning star.
Okay, so who is in the Bible
the bright and morning star?
Jesus.
Let's read the NIV.
Okay, I got the NIV right here.
You're looking down
at the true Bible there,
and the page is torn
around the back of my hand.
Oh, here we go.
Great.
It's still eerie.
Here we go.
All right.
Revelation 22, 16.
I, Jesus, have sent my angel
to give you this testimony
for the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David
and the bright and morning star.
Basically the same thing?
Yeah, I mean,
the bright and morning star
already changed these things,
which is equated to these words,
two verses later, to testimony.
But the point that I'm trying to make
is that both the King James
and the NIV both called Jesus
the bright and morning star.
Agreed?
Turn back to Isaiah 14 now.
So they both state the same fact
that Jesus is the bright and morning star.
Okay?
Now, in Isaiah 14, 12,
you'll find a word
that is only found in one place
in the entire Bible,
and that word is the name of Satan, Lucifer.
Who's ever heard that term before?
Lucifer.
Okay?
Lucifer is the name of the devil,
the name of Satan.
Look at Isaiah 14, 12.
How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning?
How art thou cut down to the ground
which is weak in the nations?
Why?
For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven.
See the pride of trying to lift himself up?
He says,
Exalt my throne above the stars of God.
I will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation
and the sides of the earth.
I will ascend above the heights of the gods.
I will be like the most high.
He's trying to take the place of God.
Put himself in the place of God.
Yet, thou,
he's talking to the devil,
shall be brought down to hell
to the sides of the period.
Now, let's look at the NIV.
You look at your Bible there.
I'm going to look at the non-inspired version.
It says,
How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star,
son of the dawn.
So, now who's fallen from heaven?
Jesus.
Look,
morning star is only mentioned
three times in the Bible, okay?
It's mentioned once in Isaiah 14, 12.
It's mentioned
once in Revelation chapter 2,
I will give him the morning star,
and Revelation 22, 16,
I, Jesus,
I'm the bright and morning star.
Okay?
That's all.
And now the NIV has removed Satan's name
from the Bible,
the word Lucifer does not even occur in this whole book,
and replaced it with a title of Jesus
from Revelation 22, 16.
You think that's a little bit evil?
It's a little bit scary.
I mean,
the devil's been removed in Jesus.
So now,
let's read it,
what the NIV is saying,
with that in mind.
How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star,
sun of the dawn,
that's Jesus.
You've been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations.
You said in your heart,
I will ascend to heaven.
I will raise my throne above the stars of God.
I will sit at the throne in the mouth of the ascended.
I on the upmost heights of the sacred mountain.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds.
Listen to this,
I will make myself like the most high.
So now,
Jesus is accused of trying to be God.
Okay,
do you follow this?
But you are brought down to the grave.
To the depths of heaven.
So basically,
Jesus is,
according to the NIV,
an imposter,
who was trying to make himself like God,
but where is he right now,
according to that verse right there?
He's in the grave.
No, my friend,
up from the grave,
he rose,
as he said.
And so,
he's not in the grave.
He didn't try to make himself like the most high.
He is the most high.
He was God in the flesh,
as the Bible says.
And so,
let me show you something else quickly here,
if I can find it.
Give me one second here.
But look at Philippians chapter 2,
and verse number 5.
Philippians 2, 5.
We'll see the same common thread.
And you know,
if you've never listened to my sermon,
if you are here,
when I preach my sermon,
the NIV's attack on Jesus,
you've got to listen to that sermon.
It was preached on like,
December 24, 2006.
December 24, 2006,
PM service,
it's a sermon,
the NIV's attack on Jesus,
and I go through and just systematically show
how the NIV takes away the fact that Jesus was eternal
by stating in three different places that he had an origin,
that he had a beginning,
that he was created by God,
that Joseph was his father.
I mean, he could show all these different things about the NIV.
Here's another one.
Philippians chapter number 5,
Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
Okay?
So, because he was in the form of God,
he wasn't taking something that wasn't his
by stating, I'm God.
He thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
He was equal with God.
Does that make sense?
Joseph made himself of no reputation,
and not enough.
But look down at your Bible,
and let me read from you from the NIV the same thing.
Verse 5,
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus,
who being in very nature God,
so he's not God, he's just in nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.
Okay?
So, he couldn't quite grasp.
He was in God's nature, yes.
Of course, so were we in some ways.
I mean, he could twist that up.
He didn't consider it something that he could quite grasp.
You know?
It's like, I'm trying to be like God,
but, hmm, just not quite like God.
And so you see, I'm not a pattern through the NIV.
I mean, it's the same thing again and again.
Jesus' deity and the fact that he's God
is under attack in the NIV.
I mean, the fact that he's created,
or had an origin,
I mean, God has no beginning and no ending.
Jesus didn't have a beginning.
Jesus said, I am the beginning,
and the ending, the first and the last,
the Alpha and Omega, and so on.
I don't want to go on and on,
but if you're not convinced about the NIV,
just look up Acts 8.37.
It's gone.
Look up John 5.4.
It's gone.
Look up John 5.7 in the NIV.
It's gone.
Look up, again and again,
15 verses in the NIV completely gone,
and they're all strategically removed
in four verses, and on and on with that.
So the devil's got a counterfeit Bible.
He's got his fingerprint all over it.
And so he's got a counterfeit...
Not only that, he's got a counterfeit religion.
It's called the Roman Catholic Church.
That's the devil's counterfeit religion.
And it's given birth to many other Protestant religions
that believe the same thing as Mala believes.
You know, they believe that salvation is by works.
They believe in the universal church.
The Catholics believe in what's called the universal church.
But the Protestants and New Evangelicals
believe in what's called the invisible church.
But they both believe in...
I mean, look, at least the one the Catholics are by,
at least you can see it.
At least it's not invisible, you know?
And so Martin Luther came up with this.
He said, well, there's not a universal church that we see.
There's an invisible universal church.
That's what Martin Luther said.
Okay.
The invisible church?
Okay, well what does the church mean, according to the Bible?
Congregation?
So it's the invisible congregation.
That'd be interesting.
It's like a disappearing apple.
You know, you walk in, and I come to church,
there's all these tears going, where is everybody?
They're invisible.
This is an invisible church.
And it's so dumb.
I mean, the invisible church?
I said church means congregation.
It means assembly.
How can it be invisible?
But they say there's an invisible church
made up of every believer in the world.
Are you assembled with every believer in the world right now?
I'm not.
We're all scattered abroad.
Now, one day we will be assembled
at the rapture, in heaven,
the church of the firstborn in heaven.
Then every believer will propose a church in heaven.
But there's no invisible church.
But we have the Catholic church and its children,
the Protestants, who all believe
in the salvation of my works.
And here's another counterfeit for you
among the Catholics and Protestants.
God instituted an ordinance called baptism,
buried in the likeness of his death,
raised in the likeness of his resurrection.
What's the devil's counterfeit for baptism?
Sprinkling.
You won't find it in the Bible.
The Bible says in Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straight way out of the water.
Then Philip and the eunuch
went down, both of them, into the water,
and he baptized them.
He could have just carried around a squirt gun.
Why was John...
Why did John the Baptist, in John chapter 3,
he went to Aenon, near Salem,
baptizing because there was much water there?
If you're just going to sprinkle on,
how much water do you really need, John?
You could carry a backpack.
You could carry a super soaker.
You don't need much water.
You don't have to go to a giant rushing river.
John said, if I'm going to baptize somebody,
I'm going to have enough water
to dunk them all the way under water.
And so, baptism's my immersion.
Any way you slice it.
But the devil has a counterfeit.
Sprinkling.
And you mark my words.
Any pastor or church that's sprinkling
is going to be wrong on about 500 other things, too,
because that is so blatant in the Bible
that if he's willing to just throw aside the Bible
for a Catholic tradition like sprinkling,
what else is he going to throw out?
What else is he lying about?
What else is he wrong about?
But you see the devil.
How about this?
The devil's got a counterfeit
for the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
He has two counterfeits.
Number one counterfeit for the fullness of the Holy Spirit
is the tongue speaking move.
Okay?
The charismatic, emotional driven, rock music driven,
ecstatic speaking, barking like a dog,
falling on the ground, the holy rollers.
It's a counterfeit.
It's not real.
It doesn't get anybody saved.
It's not about preaching the gospel.
It's about talking in language
that people don't even understand.
It makes no sense.
But the other counterfeit is alcohol.
He has two counterfeits for the Holy Spirit's fullness.
Number one, the tongue speaking carries my mood.
But number two, alcohol is a counterfeit for the Holy Spirit.
You say, well, how so?
Because the Bible says,
be not drunk with wine wherein is excess,
but be filled with the Spirit.
Let me give you the similarities of being drunk,
how it's a counterfeit, of the Holy Spirit's fullness.
When you are filled with the Holy Spirit,
the Bible says they were all,
when they had prayed, Acts 4.31,
and when they had prayed,
the place was shaken where they were assembled together,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Have you ever noticed the boldness that alcohol gives people?
People are shy, people are inhibited,
get a few drinks in them.
All of a sudden, they're bold, man.
They start saying things they wouldn't normally say.
Oh man, I got to tell you a story.
Somebody told me this recently.
I got to change the names to protect the innocent.
But somebody told me this story of,
he's sitting in church, this guy walks into church,
and he was a new believer.
He'd been coming a little bit,
and he was a really quiet guy,
just did not say much at all.
Kind of a backward kind of a guy.
You know, a little backward, a little shy, a little awkward.
Didn't say anything to anybody else.
He was wearing a hat, though.
Every time he's in church wearing his hat,
it was some kind of an alcohol brand,
but nobody knew that, so nobody realized
he's wearing his beer hat for like a month to church.
And nobody knew what it meant,
and nobody had heard of the brand,
but maybe one person had heard of it,
which was the person telling me the story.
And this guy walks into church, real shy, real inhibited.
He sits down next to this married woman,
but he doesn't realize she's married because he's drunk.
I'm sorry, did I forget to mention?
He walks into church drunk.
He's a new believer.
For some reason, he shows up at church,
drunker than a stone, okay?
So he walks in.
He sits down next to this married woman
whose husband wasn't there, you know, but she was there.
He sits down next to her
and just starts talking to her real friendly,
you know, and the singing's going on.
I mean, the service is going on.
It wasn't that big of a church.
And he's just, hey, you know,
just like he's chatting her over.
And everybody's like, what is this guy doing?
You know, he usually doesn't even say anything.
You know, she's kind of scooting away from him,
like, hey, I'm trying to be in church here.
Where did he get that boldness?
But did you notice the boldness to do something that's wrong?
That's what alcohol gives people.
It gives them the boldness.
Did you know that 80% of suicides are alcohol related?
Why? Because alcohol gives people the boldness
they would not normally have to be able to commit suicide.
They drink alcohol to give themselves the boldness
to do something as awful as killing themselves.
And so alcohol gives people boldness
to commit wicked sins they wouldn't normally commit
to get in fights with people that are much larger
or better armed than they are.
And they get in a fight with them,
and they get stabbed or beaten up or whatever.
And so alcohol gives boldness to do wrong.
The Holy Spirit gives boldness to do right.
When you are Spirit filled,
you are letting God influence your actions.
But when you're drinking,
you're under the influence of alcohol.
Not only that, but have you ever noticed this term
about alcohol?
Spirits? Wine and spirits?
I wonder why it's called that.
Spirits.
There are all kinds of similarities,
and there are different correlations between alcohol
and the Holy Spirit.
See, the devil's trying to counterfeit the same thing
that God has in a wicked and ungodly way,
through tongue speaking, charismatic movement,
and through alcohol and those that are worldly
and do not attend one of His churches.
But not only that, not only is he counterfeit,
look at Zechariah 3.
We're talking about some of the ways
that the devil is going to try to attack you.
Number one, he's going to try to make you feel like you're isolated.
Number two, he's going to try to take away from you
true Christianity, a real church, a real Bible,
a real ministry of soul leading, like house to house,
and replace it with a counterfeit.
He wants you out of faithful Word Baptist Church
and in a church that is fake and not for real.
He wants to pull the King James Bible out of your hand
and put a counterfeit in your hand.
Remember those five years that we talked about
where I was in those liberal churches?
You know that I had person after person after person?
I had people literally take me out to lunch
for one reason, to tell me why I needed to get rid of the King James Bible
and get the NIV, a whole lunch for that reason.
I mean, the youth pastor, there's 200 kids in the youth group,
sat me down, took me aside and said,
Why do you use the King James Bible?
You're not getting as much out of it as you could be.
It's so hard to understand.
You've got to switch to the NIV.
I mean, on and on. Why?
The devil is looking down at Stephen Anderson and saying,
I want to take the Bible out of his hands. It's too powerful.
It's going to turn him into a preacher.
It's going to turn him into a soul winner.
It's going to make him steadfast and unmovable.
I've got to get out of his hand and give him a counterfeit.
I've got to get him out of the fundamentalist church,
put him in a counterfeit church.
And I've been there for five years. I know what it's like.
It's fake. It's not real.
It might look real, but all good counterfeits look real.
Those are his methods.
He wants to take you out of soul winning ministry
and take you into some other ministry that doesn't work.
That doesn't do anything.
Like going out and screaming your head off with a megaphone
in the middle of the city somewhere.
Jesus, God, for you! Hey, can you hear me?
You know, it doesn't work.
House to house works, because that's how God said to do it.
Jesus' voice was not heard in the streets.
You might have read that verse in Matthew 12.
So, he doesn't care what you do.
He doesn't care whether you're running the mug and muffin ministry
or the paint the wall ministry or the day care ministry
or he doesn't care if you're handing out flyers all day
or he doesn't care if you're out yelling with a megaphone somewhere.
As long as you're not going to soul winning door to door,
because that's the thing that works.
As long as you're not doing the thing that works,
as long as he can get any kind of a cheap substitute for you to do, he's happy.
But number three, that's not the only way he's going to attack.
And you say, well, I don't think the devil would ever attack me in any of these ways.
These ways are all ways that you personally could be attacked in the future.
Don't be ignorant of his devices.
Be sober, be vigilant.
Your adversary is available. Walk at the bow.
And he has desired to have you personally.
You've got to realize that.
Yes, he could get you to a point where you feel like you're the only one.
Yes, there may come a time when he will try to replace soul winning and the Bible and whatever.
Good singing, great hymns, you know, with chanting.
He'll try to replace this hymn book of songs that are filled with doctrine,
like the book of Psalms is filled with doctrine.
Great songs that teach great stories, teaching and admonishing one another
not just mindless chanting.
Our God is an awesome God he reigns on the 50th.
Our God is an awesome God.
Let's sing it again.
99 more times.
I mean, you know, that song is about as spiritual as 99 bottles of beer on the wall.
And it's about the same length.
It's about the same length.
You know, I mean, it's pretty close.
They both take, you know, a couple of hours to sing or whatever.
And they both have about the same amount of lyrics that I'm...
And they both teach as much Bible doctrine.
That's all.
You know, let's not replace power in the blood with our God's an awesome God.
Let's not replace these great songs with a counterfeit.
But look at the third way that he's going to try to attack you personally.
Number three, Zechariah chapter three verse one.
And this is the primary way that he's going to attack you.
This is really the most common way.
Look at verse number one, it says,
He showed me Joshua the high priest.
This is not Joshua from the book of Joshua.
This is a different Joshua many, many hundreds of years later.
And he showed me Joshua the high priest
standing before the angel of the Lord
and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
This is one of those few mentions in the Old Testament
where he actually calls him Satan
and really pinpoints who we're talking about.
Joshua the high priest
and Satan is standing at his right hand to resist him, okay?
And the Lord said unto Satan,
The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan,
even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee.
Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments that stood before thee,
and this is a vision that Zechariah is having.
And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him,
saying, Take away the filthy garments from him.
And unto him he said, Behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee,
and I will close thee with a change of reigneth.
And I said, Let them set a fair miter upon his head.
So they set a fair miter upon his head,
and clothed him with garments.
And the angel of the Lord stood by,
and the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua,
saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge,
then thou shalt also judge my house,
and shalt also keep my courts,
and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
This is the primary way the devil is going to attack you.
He's going to resist you, okay?
And I'm going to explain what that means.
Remember how we started out, resist the devil?
Whom resists steadfast in faith?
Resist the devil and he'll flee from you?
Now, uh, let me illustrate this.
Come on up here for a second, my victim.
Um, I'm going to show you what this means.
The devil's biggest way of attacking you,
but just come on.
You're probably too smart for one of these counterfeits
he's going to stick under your nose.
Come on, you know you're not the only one.
There's always old Pastor Anderson, you know, screaming and yelling.
You can always go to him and he'll understand, you know?
But this is what he's going to do.
Whenever you try to take a step forward for God,
like how about this morning's sermon?
Take it to the next level.
You try to step things up a little bit and say,
you know, some of the things are going to change.
I'm going to move forward.
I'm going to take a step forward.
He is right there to resist you.
Understand the story.
You say, well, who was Joshua?
This is from the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, okay?
The books Zechariah and Haggai are written at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
These are the two men that God used to preach
and to stir them up while they built the temple in Jerusalem
and while they built the wall around Jerusalem.
And so Joshua, the high priest, was trying to basically rebuild the house of God
when it had fallen apart in the decay.
He's trying to rebuild Jerusalem,
rebuild the walls of separation and strength and security and safety.
And he's trying to step forward.
He's trying to bring his nation forward.
He's trying to bring God's people forward.
And right there, right at his right hand,
not just a devil, but the devil saved himself
because Joshua died.
He was one of the greatest men living at that time.
Hey, the devil's going to be all over him.
Just like the devil is protecting Jesus personally.
I mean, very seldom is the devil personally attacking people in the Bible.
I mean, he attacked Adam and Eve.
He attacked Jesus Christ.
He attacked Joshua, the high priest.
And so, here's the devil.
You're going to be the devil.
Actually, I'll be the devil.
Does that make you feel better?
So, here's a Christian, right?
He says, you know what?
I'm going to start going slowly.
I'm going to take a big step forward.
Come on, take a step forward.
Come on, try it.
See, resist the devil and think from him.
But anyway, the bottom line is,
that's what the devil's going to try to do.
Hey, hey, come here.
Start coming to church three times a week instead of one.
That's right.
Come on, man.
Come on, is that all you got?
So look, the devil wants to resist you, right?
Now, look, he can push through if he wants to.
You can push through, right?
I mean, come on, you can, right?
But see, I'm resisting.
I'm making it harder for him.
I'm going to make him have to work for it.
I'm going to make him have to earn it.
I'm going to make him have to push for it.
He's not just going to say,
you know what, I'm going to double my soul winning.
That's not the way it works.
You say I'm going to double your soul winning.
The devil's going to say, no you're not.
Come on, try it, try it.
And he'll send everything in the world to stop him.
We want somebody in the Lord our soul winning.
And what did I say to the girl last night
that I wanted the Lord?
When we were done, we're all done,
and I said to her, I said,
I said, come to church tomorrow?
And she said, I'm going to try and be there.
I said, if you try and be there,
you won't be there.
I said, you're only going to be there
if you say I'll be there no matter what.
Because if you try to be there,
the devil's going to resist you,
and then you're going to say, I can't go.
I still got a flat tire.
Can't go, my old long lost buddy called
and needs my help.
Can't go this, can't go that.
The devil will always resist you
when you try to take a step forward for God.
He's always right there to get you.
That's why, I mean,
look, people will say to us,
man, I'm going to start coming to church every Sunday.
I know I've been out of church,
but I'm going to start coming to church every week,
and I'm going to start going soul winning
every week, and it might happen like
this for a long time.
And I honestly believe those people
were sincere when they said that.
I'm not saying that they're lying.
I mean, they honestly thought they were going to start going to church.
They honestly thought they were going to be soul winning,
but what happened, the devil resisted them,
and they just went down.
They did like...
But anyway, they just couldn't push through the resistance.
The devil is constantly in your life
going to be resisting you
every time you try to make a step forward
always.
And if you know that going into it,
you're not going to be shocked when it happens.
You're going to be ready for it.
You're going to be ready to like
fake this way and go that way, you know,
and find a way to do it.
I remember one time, there was this guy
that we'd won for the Lord, and he was baptized,
and actually a friend of mine
won for the Lord.
And this guy called up this friend of mine,
and he said, I can't come to church today.
Somebody busted out all the windows in my van.
And you know what my friend said to him?
He said, you know what?
If you don't come to church right now,
you're just telling the devil
that every time he doesn't want you to come to church,
all he has to do is bust all the windows out of your van.
He said, you get down here to church.
And the guy came to church
with all the windows busted out of his van.
He said, I'm not going to let anybody push me around.
I'm going to be in church.
I can deal with this thing.
And really, why did the windows being busted out of your van
stop you from going to church?
You still drive the van.
You know, you got the windows down.
Get a little fresh air.
And so, you can deal with the windows later.
Come to church.
And at first, when I heard my friend say that,
I thought, man, that was a little harsh.
Man, the windows busted out of his van.
You're yelling at him.
Get down here to church!
Who cares about your windows?
But then I thought about it,
and I thought, you know what?
That guy, if he would have stayed home
and not come to church,
there's always an excuse not to come to church.
There's always an excuse why we can't go soloing.
There's always an excuse, some reason why
we can't read the Bible, why we can't do this, why we can't do that.
You've got to resist the devil
and he'll flee from you.
He resists you. You've got to resist back.
You've got to push through.
Sometimes,
the devil resisting you can actually strengthen you.
Now, the devil's our adversary.
The word adversary means opponent.
It's somebody who's against us.
It's against us.
But, even though the devil is against us,
even though he's our opponent,
many times, we can be strengthened
because if there's resistance, we have to push harder.
In fact, it might even make us more determined.
I'm not going to let him stop me.
I'm going to move forward.
I'm going to push forward.
And so I've got to hurry, but...
The Bible says in James 4-7,
Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil and he'll flee from you.
Now turn to Ephesians 6.
I guess how late it was here, but...
Look at Ephesians 6.
Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Now, where are we started again?
I keep going back to that scripture.
Be sober, be vigilant,
because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion.
You're turning to Ephesians 6.
Walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,
whom resist steadfast in the faith.
So how do you resist?
According to 1 Peter 5-9,
one of the ways that you resist the devil
is by standing your ground,
being steadfast and unmovable.
Now that doesn't mean that you're never moving.
You should always be moving forward.
But you're unmovable.
You say, wait a minute,
how do you move forward if you're unmovable?
Because unmovable means nothing external can move you.
You're going to move yourself.
You understand that?
I'm not going to move forward,
but I'm not going to let anybody move me.
Nothing's going to push me around.
You see the difference?
Unmovable, steadfast,
means standing your ground if you're steadfast.
So it says in Ephesians 6,
we're supposed to resist,
steadfast in the faith.
Look at Ephesians 6, verse 10, it says,
Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil.
Right?
So resistant, being steadfast, standing.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities.
But we do wrestle, he's saying, against principalities.
We do wrestle against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day,
and having done all to stand for the second time,
for the third time, stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness,
and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace,
that's going on soul winning,
and above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewith ye shall be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked,
and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit,
which is the word of God.
So the fourth and final way in this list,
there are many other things,
but that the devil's going to attack you,
is he's going to try to find a way in.
He's going to try to creep in to your church.
He's going to try to creep in to your family.
He's going to try to creep into your house.
He's going to try to creep into your life.
He's going to try to creep into your mind.
You have got to be suited up in the armor from head to toe,
and have a shield of faith,
so that he cannot penetrate these defenses.
He's trying to get in.
He's trying to find that shank in the armor, right,
where he can find his way and creep in.
Now, I'll read this for you, don't turn there,
but 2 Peter 2 verse 1 says,
But there were false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you,
who privily, secretly,
shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord the bottom,
and bring upon himself swift destruction.
The devil's going to send his workers into your church.
It will happen.
He's going to creep in.
He's looking for the shank in the armor.
It says in verse 18, I alluded to this earlier,
it says,
For when they speak great, swelling words of vanity,
they allure through the lusts of the flesh,
through much wantedness,
those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
So we see that the devil's trying to get into your church,
he's looking for a way in,
he's looking for a way into your home,
a way into your family,
a way into your mind,
he wants to come in through your eyes,
he wants to allure through the lusts of the eyes,
through the lusts of the flesh,
he wants to come into your eardrums,
he's looking for an inroad and a way in.
Now, I drove by a church the other day,
you know what it's called?
Church without walls.
That was the name of the church,
just Church without walls.
Now look, if you read the Bible,
you know walls are a very positive thing,
in fact, I kind of enjoy the fact
that we're just building the walls right now.
In fact, I love the fact that my house has walls.
I mean, if I could right now have my house
be just without walls,
that would be a very bad thing.
Why? It'd be dangerous, number one,
because we live in Phoenix.
I mean, it's a dangerous thing to have no walls.
Everybody can see what you're doing,
people just walk right in,
start taking stuff away,
just loading up whatever they want.
Hurting my family.
Walls are good, they're not bad.
Not only that, but temperatures are going to fluctuate majorly,
and you have no walls.
And so, church without walls.
We've got to have a wall built around our life.
We've got to have a wall built around our church.
We've got to have a wall built around our family.
God built a hedge around Joe to protect him.
We've got to have a wall of protection.
We've got to have armor protecting us.
We've got to have a shield to protect us,
because the devil is looking for a way in.
Now, when you sit down and turn on the TV,
you're saying,
come on in, devil.
Come on in.
Show me what you want to show me, you know?
I mean, it's what you're doing.
You put on all this music that's put out by the world?
Come on in.
You ought to be guarding yourself.
You ought to be looking for the chink in the armor.
What do you need to shore up in your life
where you can keep him from creeping in?
Now, in this church, we want to keep the devil out.
Now, part of the way we do that is by hard preaching.
Keeps the devil out.
We've had some weirdos come to our church before.
Yes, we have.
But they only came once.
And that's the truth.
I mean, they only came once.
Because you just start ripping and preaching on the sand
and yelling and naming the sand,
and they'll get up and leave.
They'll get uncomfortable.
They'll leave.
They'll never come back.
I remember when I was in Sacramento at the church there.
People would heckle with pastors sometimes,
and they'd have to drag people out.
You'd get up and start preaching against homosexuality,
and this woman stood up in the front row
and started yelling at him.
She was a sopramite in the service.
And she starts yelling at him, and the deacons came
and dragged her out and whatever.
And a couple of similar experiences happened like that
when we were at that church.
And then you say, Pastor Anderson,
how come fun things like that never happen at our church?
Well, here's why.
Because our goal is to keep the devil out
before the devil ever gets in.
We don't want to have to drag the devil out
kicking and screaming, right?
We don't want to have to carry people out
and rough them up and kick them in the ground.
That's fun, but we don't have to do that.
We just want to keep them out.
That's part of the reason why on our invitations to church,
I used them all up.
I've sold them.
Amen.
Praise God.
I know you've got a few left
because you weren't even sold.
Why are you holding back?
Give it everything you got.
Go down to the last invitation,
or else you didn't go sold anymore.
Just kidding.
But that's part of the reason why
there's nothing radical in this fire.
There's nothing radical in this invitation.
It just says what we believe.
I don't think there's anything radical about one thing
that's listed under the what we believe section.
For one second.
I'm not kidding right now.
There's nothing radical about this.
This is Bible doctrine.
But the reason that we state who we are,
what we are, is to keep it safe,
to keep a wall built up.
Now look, let me read this for you.
Tell me what's radical about any of this.
We believe that the King James Bible
is the word of God without error.
Pretty radical, huh?
There's only one Bible.
There's not the Bible of the month of God.
Okay, that's not radical.
Okay, number two.
This is what we believe.
This is the fine print.
I always tell people, read the fine print.
Where are you going?
Number two, we believe that salvation
is by grace through faith.
Baptists are always supposed to believe that.
We believe in the eternal security
of the believer.
Once saved, always saved.
I don't think there's a Baptist
statement of faith that doesn't say that.
I mean, the Baptist believed that.
There's millions and millions of people.
There's nothing radical about that.
We believe the unsaved will spend
eternity in torment in a literal hell.
That's the truth.
That's the Bible.
Jesus taught that.
We believe that Jesus is God.
And that Jesus Christ has been
gotten by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary.
We believe only in the local church
and reject the teaching of the universal church.
That's what Baptists used to believe
for hundreds and hundreds of years.
It's not radical that we don't believe
in invisible, make-believe churches
that don't exist, and that we only believe
in a physical church we lay eyes on,
like the Bible talks about.
We reject the teaching of Calvinism
and isn't this radical and believe
that God wants everyone to be saved.
Right?
That comes from the Bible,
1 Timothy 4,
who will have all men to be saved
in the comments and knowledge of the truth.
He would like for everyone to be saved.
Really, this one's radical.
We believe that life begins at conception.
Parenthesis, fertilization.
Those people try to mince words.
And reject all forms of abortion.
Well, us and about 50% of the American people.
Pretty radical, huh?
Including surgical abortion,
morning after pills, IVF, birth control pills,
and all other processes that end life after conception.
If it ends life after conception, we're against it.
Okay?
Next, we believe that homosexuality is a sin
and an abomination which God punishes
with a little death penalty, Leviticus 20, verse 13.
Okay?
And Romans chapter 1.
And then lastly, we oppose worldliness,
modernism, formalism, and liberalism.
And I couldn't think of any other isms.
Buddhism.
We're against Buddhism.
And Methodism.
And so, there's something radical about any of that.
It's just us saying who we are, what we believe,
we're independent Baptists, we're fundamental,
to keep us safe from the devil's attack,
where he wants to creep in and change what we believe.
See, everybody in this church knows what we believe.
Unless they've ever taken the time to read that.
You're like, wow!
I didn't know that's what we believe.
I've been coming to this church for years!
But look, is anybody in this church wondering
what we believe about any of those things?
Or anything else for that matter?
No.
That's why we're going to be steadfast and unmovable
at Faithful War Baptist Church.
See, the best thing is,
are you afraid of people coming in
and bringing false doctrine?
This is what people do when bringing false doctrine.
When the devil infiltrates.
And this is point four.
It's the final point.
When the devil infiltrates, right?
He already tried to make you feel isolated.
It didn't work.
He tried to give you a counterfeit.
You saw the difference.
You held it up.
You shined a blue light at it and said,
this is not the King James.
This is the counterfeit.
He tried to resist you,
but it ended up making you stronger.
Because you just kept pushing forward.
You didn't let anything stop you.
You didn't make any excuses.
You kept pushing forward.
And so, his last ditch effort is to try to infiltrate.
If you can't beat him, join him.
He's going to come in and join the church.
He's going to try to get into your house
through the television, through magazines,
through visitors who come and stay at your house,
and you let them stay and they're weirdos and whatever.
He's going to find a way to infiltrate.
But you see, this is how they do it.
And I'm going to close with this.
They come in and they separate themselves,
is what Jude says.
They separate them.
They want to get people off in a corner somewhere.
Some of it's for filthy reasons.
But they'll try to get you off to yourself somewhere
and say, hey, Amanda, how you doing?
So what do you think about what kind of answer
this puts you?
You ready?
I mean, this is my story.
You know, Amanda, what do you think?
I mean, don't you think that, I mean,
we just believe and that's it?
I mean, you just live however you want.
I mean, you actually, I mean, let me show you.
And this is what they do.
They try to take people aside and try to sew,
kind of like, they have got to,
they try to sew doubt about what the truth is.
Like, I can't come out.
I think it's reasonable when guys are saying, you know,
I mentioned broke pants.
Is this guy like Taliban?
You know, I mean, I'm not saying I don't like the church.
I mean, I like coming here.
But I mean, that's what he's a little opposite of this.
You know, if anybody tried to do that to anybody
in this church, do you think it's going to work?
I mean, if somebody came up to Amanda
and started trying to tell him, I like,
you got to repent of all your sins.
You got to make Jesus the Lord of your life.
She'd slap him across the face.
You know that's right.
Anybody who knows Amanda knows that's her.
She's been here since the second Sunday.
She's the meanest person here,
besides me and my wife because we were here before her.
But the point is, this is what's different about our church
than a lot of churches I've been in.
We're not just King James only.
Every person in this room understands why we're King James only.
I mean, literally.
And here's the difference.
We not only believe right,
but everybody who's here understands why we believe right
and knows the Bible verses of why we believe right.
They wouldn't have to, well, just a minute.
Let me go get Pastor Anson.
He'll tell you why I believe that.
They know why they believe.
So we can't be infiltrated, you know.
No, I'm just kidding.
We can't be infiltrated
because the devil wants to come in,
but we've done too good of a job
of educating ourselves and educating each other
and knowing the truth,
standing fast on these things,
having a shield of faith.
The Lord is good about the truth.
We know what we believe.
We know why we believe.
If the devil comes in here
and wants to talk to you and put ideas in your head,
come on in, devil.
Have fun trying,
because it ain't going to work.
So he doesn't even come around.
He's like,
I'm not going to mess with faithful word about this church.
Why?
Because if you resist the devil,
he'll flee from you.
He tries a few times.
He'll try to take a few people.
And you know,
people have come to this church
and tried to bring in heresy.
They've tried to change the gospel.
They've tried to bring in ideas,
just like the kind of thing I said,
not about the pants on women or anything.
That was kind of a joke.
But, you know,
they've come in
and tried to change doctrine
and do things and everything.
They're like,
I'm not going to do that.
And it's not going to work.
And by God's grace,
let's keep it that way.
Let's keep the preaching.
Let's make sure it's teaching,
you know,
use something about the Bible
and what you believe.
Because when the devil comes in,
if he finds that there's no kids,
he can get off by themselves
because we don't let our kids
out of their sight here.
We don't send their kids off
in some room somewhere,
on some bus somewhere,
in some class somewhere.
We don't let our kids
out of their sight here.
We don't send their kids off
in some room somewhere,
on some bus somewhere,
in some class somewhere.
We don't let our kids
out of their sight here.
We don't send their kids off
in some room somewhere,
on some bus somewhere,
in some class somewhere.
We don't even have
Sunday school classes.
We've got church.
And so, the child molester
is not going to have any fun
at Faithful Word Baptist Church,
because we don't let our kids
out of our sight here.
And the heretic that wants to
spread his lies and false doctrine
is not going to have any fun,
because everybody who talks to,
everybody who talks to,
is going to pull out the Bible
and eat his lunch with doctrine.
And so he's going to go down
to the church down the street
and say,
you know what,
I'm going to flee from that place.
I'm not getting anything done.
I mean, how much time
did he really spend with Jesus?
He tempted him about three times
and just said,
you know what,
I'm going to leave.
Because he wasn't getting anywhere.
And so we've got to resist
the devil who will flee from us.
Understand what he's going
to try to do,
so you'll be ready for it.
You'll feel isolated someday.
Remember that I told you
that it would happen.
And then just start thinking
about all the other people
who are with you.
You're going to start
to be handed a counterfeit
and it's not door to door soul waiting.
It's not the true Bible.
It's not hard,
accounted for hard preaching.
Some drama team acting things out on stage.
It's not preaching.
God ordained preaching.
Preaching is what you need.
Yelling, screaming,
I mean, this is Bible preaching.
Smite with thy hand.
Stomp with thy foot.
Lift up thy voice
like a trumpet,
the Bible told the priest.
Jesus cried aloud
and stared not when he preached.
Don't let somebody
give you a counterfeit.
Real soul winning
and real spirituality
and sweet hour of prayer
on your face
with a Christian song
you listen to on the radio
that makes you come spiritual.
But you haven't done anything for God.
You haven't done anything for God.
And don't let him get in
and creep in
and infiltrate you.
Don't invite him to your house.
Don't let him into your house.
Neither bid him Godspeed.
And don't let him creep into your mind.
Close off your eardrums.
Close off your eyes
from what's wrong.
Said no wicked thing
before your eyes.
Shut the door to your house.
Build up the wall of your house.
Build a wall around your house.
Lock the door.
Lock the deadbolt.
Load the gun.
And say the devil
is not going to infiltrate my family.
Let's bow our heads
and have a word of prayer.
Father, please just help us
to take the warning of your word.