Now the part of the chapter that I want to focus on is at the beginning there, where
Nadab and Abihu basically offer this strange fire unto God and God basically kills them.
God basically sends fire from heaven and just devours them and just burns them up and kills
them.
And these two guys were the priests.
They were the sons of Aaron.
I'm going to get back to that story, but go to Genesis chapter 4.
We're going to come back to Leviticus 10.
Go to Genesis 4, first book in the Bible right at the beginning there, Genesis chapter 4,
and we'll see kind of a similar story if you think about it of Cain and Abel.
It says in Genesis 4, 1, and Adam knew it, Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain
and said, I've gotten a man from the Lord.
And she again bare his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was the tiller
of the ground.
And in process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an
offering unto the Lord.
And Abel, he also brought of the first things of his flock and of the fact thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect, and Cain was very wroth and his countenance
fell.
And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?
And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and
thou shalt rule over him.
And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field,
that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.
And the Lord suddenly came, Where is Abel thy brother?
And he said, I know not, am I my brother's keeper?
And he said, What hast thou done?
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground, and now art thou cursed
from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.
What I want to preach about tonight is the fact that although sometimes people have good
intentions, that doesn't make what they're doing right, it doesn't make it acceptable
with God.
Now here we see Cain desiring to serve God, right?
I mean he's bringing an offering to God.
God had asked him for an offering, and Cain decided that since he's a farmer, since he's
a tiller on the ground, he's going to bring his very best to God.
And it's going to be all the fruits and vegetables and the very best ones, and he's going to
bring those to God for an offering, and God rejected that offering.
And you say, wait a minute, what's wrong with God here?
Here's a guy who's bringing something and giving it to God, and yet God gets angry and
rejects it.
The bottom line is, that's not what God had told him to bring.
It's not what God asked for.
And whatever Cain's intentions were, and even if he was trying to do a good thing, he was
still disobeying God.
And so God rejected his offering.
You see, the offering that was supposed to be made was the Lamb's sacrifice.
That's what Abel brought, the Lamb, and the blood and the fat and so forth, because it's
a picture of the blood of Jesus Christ.
It's a picture of salvation through the Lamb of God, which is Jesus Christ.
And you see, just as Cain brought his best works, that's the same thing that people are
trying to do today when they trust in their works for salvation.
And this theme goes all throughout the whole Bible.
All the way back here in Genesis, we see God showing us that your best isn't good enough.
All your works and everything that you produce is not good enough.
You know, we need the Lamb of God, the blood of Jesus Christ, that's why we're saved by
faith, not by works.
And so here Cain is trying to do a good thing, but he brings the wrong offering.
It's not what God told him to do.
It's his best, but it's not what God wanted, and so God tells him, no, I will not accept
this.
Now at that point, Cain still had the opportunity to do what's right, because God tells him,
look Cain, don't be rough, don't let your countenance fall, don't get mad, Cain.
If thou doest well, wilt thou not be accepted, and if not, sin lies at the door.
He's telling him, look, just do what I said, do it right, don't get mad at me, just straighten
it out.
And instead of getting right, Cain just goes away mad, and he decides he's going to kill
Abel, because he's so angry that Abel's offering was accepted and his wasn't.
The Bible tells us in 1 John that Cain slew Abel, it says, as Cain was of that wicked
one and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he in?
Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.
Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you.
Just like with Cain and Abel, just like with Ishmael and Isaac, the one who's wrong always
hates the one who's right.
The one who does the right thing is hated by the one who does the wrong thing.
And you say, well, their heart's in the right place, it doesn't matter, it's wrong.
Wrong is wrong and right is right, no matter what your intentions are.
So we see that, and then in Leviticus 10, if you flip over, God had given really specific
instructions to the children of Israel about how they were supposed to worship him and
how they were supposed to serve him, and the kind of offerings that they were supposed
to perform in that tabernacle.
And here we see that Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, verse 1, instead of doing just
the normal sacrifices and the rituals that God had told them and burned the incense that
he told them to burn, it says that they took either of them as censer and put fire therein
and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them
not.
And they went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.
Now that seems pretty harsh, doesn't it?
But it's God sending a real clear message, you're going to do things my way.
I mean with God, it is truly his way or the highway.
God doesn't just accept whatever we offer him.
And people today will say, well, just as long as you're worshiping God, just do it in your
own way.
And he's just glad you're worshiping him.
No.
I mean he clearly told them, this is how I'm going to be worshiped.
This is how you're going to build the tabernacle.
This is the sacrifice you're going to offer.
This is the music you're going to have.
This is who's going to perform the music.
This is who's going to preach.
This is what it's going to be like.
And everything was laid out to a T, and he said, see, Moses, that thou build all things
according to the pattern that was showed thee in the mouth.
Don't go freestyle.
Do it God's way.
And then these guys just say, well, hey, let's just offer more incense.
Let's make our own incense and just light it up and just offer this.
And they deviated from God's plan.
And God is sending a clear message to Aaron and all his descendants, don't deviate from
my instructions.
Do it my way.
God is not up there just glad that your heart's in the right place tonight.
He's just glad that you're doing anything for him.
You know what I mean?
And if all you know how to do is just get up and just play Jimi Hendrix music in a rock
band but do it for Jesus, you know, if that's your best, God's just going to accept that.
No, he's not.
He doesn't want the world's recycled music from a Satan-worshipping voodoo Jimi Hendrix
whose first album was called Voodoo Child, or one of his albums.
You know, what does that tell you?
He said, music to me is a religion and that religion is voodoo.
That's a quote from Jimi Hendrix.
And you know, I've walked into a Baptist church, El Camino Baptist Church in Sacramento, California.
I walked in as a teenager to El Camino Baptist Church on a youth activity and they were playing
Jimi Hendrix songs.
They were playing Manic Depression by Jimi Hendrix.
But you know what?
At least they were serving God, right?
I mean at least it was in the name of Jesus.
And I remember I confronted some of them about this and said, you know, why are you
playing this music?
I mean this isn't right.
And they said, well whatsoever we do, whether we eat or drink, we're doing it unto the Lord.
And so when we play this Jimi Hendrix, we're playing it unto the Lord.
I mean we're worshiping God in our hearts.
You know, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo, you know, we're worshiping God in our
hearts with that song.
But see, that's not what we see in Leviticus 10.
That's not what we see in Genesis 4.
We see God sending a message that says, no, do it my way.
Not just your heart in the right place, but obey my word.
Do the right thing.
Not just, well, he tried to do what's right, no, do the right thing.
Do it the right way.
Do what God said.
See, there are a lot of people whose heart is in the right place, but they're still wrong.
I think a lot of people in this world, they're not bad people.
I mean they're sincere people, but they're sincerely wrong.
Think about what Paul said.
You don't have to turn there.
Romans chapter 10.
He said, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
For I bear the record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
He said they have zeal.
I mean they have a passion about serving God.
He said they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted
themselves under the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth.
Now look, that is salvation.
Everyone that believeth.
And he said the Jews are trying to establish their own righteousness by works, and man,
they're excited about it, and they really think that they're doing a great thing for
God, and they're serving Him day and night.
I mean there are people today in this world who literally beat themselves with a whip
in the Philippines, in the Roman Catholic Church, that will literally crawl on their
hands and knees and be crucified once a year in the Philippines today.
And they'll be suffering, and they think they're serving God.
They're wrong.
And guess what?
It's going to be even worse than Nadab and Abbai.
Nadab and Abbai were physically burned up and then it was over.
But you see, those who are trying to work their way to heaven, the burning will never
end, because they're going to be in hell for all eternity, because the Bible teaches that
if you don't believe on Jesus Christ, you're not saved and you'll be in hell for eternal
damnation.
And so all the sincerity in the world is not going to help you one day if you're standing
in front of God saying, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name?
And in Thy name we passed out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works, and
then while I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
He said, these shall go away in the everlasting punishment, but the righteous and the life
eternal.
It's not about being sincere, it's about being right.
It's not having your heart in the right place, it's actually being right.
Not having the right intention, having the right belief and the right action.
That's what God wants.
Not an intention.
Show me in the Bible anywhere where He says, well, as long as your heart's in the right
place, as long as your intentions are good.
You know, have you ever heard the statement, the road to hell is paved with good intentions?
That's a really true statement.
A lot of people out there, they think that they're helping people and they're actually
hurting people.
Let me prove it to you.
John 16 2, you don't have to turn there, but it says, they shall put you out of the synagogues.
This is Jesus warning His disciples, yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you
will think that he doeth God service.
He said people were killing Christians and thinking that they were doing God service.
The apostle Paul had Christians thrown into prison and he said, I thought that I was doing
the right thing.
He said, that's why I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly and unbelief.
And thank God, he eventually got saved and then he felt really bad about what he'd been
doing.
But you see, he was sincere all the way along.
You know, how many people in this room could probably say that before they got saved, they
were sincere about their religion, but they were sincerely wrong.
And so being sincere is nothing that the Bible deals with.
The Bible deals with being right and believing right.
And so we need to be careful that we don't have this attitude that just says, well, just
do your best.
Just as long as your heart's in the right place, you know, just whatever you feel comfortable
serving God.
Well, no, it's what does God tell us to serve Him?
Hey, at least you're doing something for God.
What if you're doing the wrong thing?
And see again, doing the wrong thing is based on ignorance in all these passages.
He said that they have a seal for God, but not according to the knowledge for they being
ignorant of God's righteousness.
Paul said, I persecuted the church of God, I did it ignorantly and in unbelief.
That's why we need to read the Bible and know what the Bible says, or we're going to ignorantly
do wrong and not even realize it.
And we might be sincere, but we'll be wrong.
Look at 2 Samuel chapter 6, we'll see another example of this.
So first we saw Cain and Abel.
Cain offered an offering unto God that was not accepted.
He did not go for it because it was the wrong offering.
It was not what he wanted.
Nadab and Abihu decided to have this, you know, whatever kind of, they wanted to make
their worship service a little more contemporary or whatever.
So they bring in some new thing, you know, some strange fire, and God just torches them.
Because He said, that's not what I told you to do, it's not what I want.
This isn't just a free for all.
You just do it, you know, you just come to church and just do whatever you want.
No.
He said, this is how you're going to do it.
You say, well God, it's mean.
Look at 2 Samuel chapter 6 verse 1.
It says again, David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000.
And David arose and went with all the people that were with him from Beilah of Judah to
bring up from them the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts,
that dwell between the cherubims.
And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab
that was in Gibeah.
And Uzziah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drained the new cart, and they brought it
out of the house of Abinadab, which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God, and Ahio
went before the ark.
And David and all the house of Israel, played before the Lord on all manner of instruments
made of fir wood, even on harps, and on salt trees, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and
on cymbals.
Now let me ask you something.
Does it sound like David's heart is in the right place here?
It definitely does, doesn't it?
I mean, David, he wants to bring the ark of God.
And he wants to bring it back where it belongs, in the house of God, in Jerusalem.
And he gets 30,000 people together.
And he's going to bring the ark, and he's going to have this triumphal entry.
And they're going to play on all this great music, and praise God, and serve God.
Watch what happens.
It says that when they came to Nacon's threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark
of God, and took hold of it for the oxen shook it.
So here's the ark of the covenant, right?
And this is that big box that has the two sticks coming out of either side, where they
were supposed to carry it upon their shoulders.
And it's covered in gold, and it has the two cherry bims.
And inside of it was actually the tablets of the Ten Commandments that came down from
Mount Sinai, and Aaron's rod that budded, okay?
And also the, what was the other thing?
The manna, the pot, the golden pot of manna.
So that stuff's all in the ark.
And they got the ark, they're not carrying it like they're supposed to.
They put it on this new cart.
And as the new cart's driving, it hits a bump.
And all of a sudden, the ark is going to fall off the cart.
And so they don't want to damage it.
So this guy Uzzah reaches out his hand and grabs it, because he doesn't want to stop.
Well here's the thing, nobody's supposed to touch it.
Well when he touches it, he instantly dies.
And so it says in verse 7, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote
him there for his error, and there he died by the ark of God.
Now was Uzzah's heart in the right place?
Was he trying to do a good thing?
He didn't want the ark to fall over and spill and break and be damaged.
I mean, not a bad intention here.
But yet he did wrong, because God said, don't touch it.
And yet he said, oh I know, but this reminds me of my children sometimes, or all children.
You know, you give them a really clear instruction, oh but I thought.
You know, they kind of have a different idea.
Whereas God told them, don't do it.
By the way, parents can sometimes make mistakes, but you know, usually, guess what, the parents
are right and the kids are wrong.
But with God, God's always the one that's right.
And God said, don't touch it.
And so Uzzah, in his zeal to do what was right, made an error by reaching out and touching
it, and he was killed.
Look what it says, he died by the ark of God.
And it says in verse 8, and David was displeased, because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah.
So he's mad, because he doesn't think it's right that this guy died for doing a good thing.
And he called the name of the place, excuse me, I'm cold.
He called the name of the place, Pires Uzzah, to this day.
And David was afraid of the Lord that day.
And said, how shall the ark of the Lord come to me?
So he's afraid, he's upset, okay.
Because he doesn't think it's fair, he doesn't understand why God would smite this guy down
when he didn't really seem to do anything wrong.
Now later on, David figures this out.
He sees some other events that happen, and he gets right and he says, you know what,
we need to have the Levites come carry the ark on their shoulders with the wooden staff.
And he said, that's why Uzzah died, because I messed up.
So really it was David's fault that Uzzah died.
Because David put the ark on that new card.
If it hadn't been on the new card, it wouldn't have almost spilled.
And if it hadn't almost spilled, Uzzah wouldn't have touched it.
And if he hadn't touched it, he wouldn't have died.
So really whose fault was it? It goes back, it was David's fault for doing it his own way.
Now where did they get the idea to put it on a new card?
Well if you go back earlier, the Philistines had the Ark of the Covenant in the land of Philistia.
And they put it on a card.
Now when they had the ark, they thought because it had all these magical powers.
You know, it's sort of like that Indiana Jones, you know.
Oh man, if we can get the ark, we can have all this awesome power, you know.
So basically, Indiana Philistine Jones thinks like, oh man, if we can get the ark,
we're going to wield all this awesome power.
So basically the Philistines get the ark, and basically the first thing they want to do is,
hey, let's open it up and look inside.
They look inside and everybody who looks inside dies.
So now they're afraid of it. They want to stay away from it.
So then they decide to put it in the house of Dagon their god.
Dagon is like this, you know, fish god or whatever it is.
So they've got this graven image, this stone god statue.
And they put the ark in the house of Dagon their god.
They go to bed at night, they come back in the morning and Dagon has broken and fallen on his face in front of the ark.
So then they prop him back up.
It says they put Dagon in his place.
You know, if you have to prop up your god, he's probably not really god.
Because they have to prop him up and hold him up, you know.
And then the next day, he fell down again, and this time his face smashed in.
And his arms and legs broke off, and so it's just the stump of Dagon.
You know, and this is their god.
So you see, the Ark of the Covenant here, it's not that the Ark of the Covenant was some mystical power.
They could just get their hands up. No, god was the power.
And when the Rama people have the ark, he just kills them and punishes them and breaks their statue.
Well then, they get upset and they say, we don't want this thing.
Because all of a sudden, god is smiting them with disease.
Everybody in the town where they have this ark, they start getting these emeras, it says.
Okay?
Hemorrhoids.
Hemorrhoids, thank you.
Yeah, but it spells it in the Bible, emerods. This is an old spelling.
And he says they had emerods in their secret parts.
That sounds like pretty bad news of a disease.
And so they say, get this thing out of here, we don't want it.
And so they bring in all their priests to the Philistines.
And the Philistine priests come in and say, okay, here's what you need to do to get rid of the ark.
You need to, because they said, maybe these emerods are just a coincidence.
Maybe you guys are just a bunch of perverts and you just picked up this STD or whatever.
And so, because they were wicked.
I mean, the Philistines were like that.
They did commit a lot of fornication.
The Bible's clear on that score.
But he said, you know what?
Maybe this was just a chance thing that happened.
Maybe it's just a coincidence that when the ark of god came to town,
everybody broke out in emerods in their secret parts and the statue fell over.
Maybe it was just a little earthquake or something.
And so they said, maybe it was just a chance thing that happened to us.
But they said, here's how we're going to find out.
Take the ark of the covenant and put it on a new card.
Put it on a card and make golden,
because there were also mice that were infesting the land because of the plague there,
of having the ark there when they went out and got it.
And basically they said, well, make little golden images of the mice.
You know, this is kind of a bizarre religion that these people have.
Make golden images of the mice and golden images of your emerods.
And they're like, and put them in a jar and put it on this card,
and then get these brand new cows that have not been trained which way to go
and hook up all these cows to pull the cart, these oxen.
And here's what we're going to do.
We're just going to turn these oxen loose and just see where they go.
And if they take the ark toward Israel, then you'll know that it was God that did this to you.
But if they just go some other random direction, then it was just a chance thing that happened.
So they say, okay.
They make their whatever little ark project, put that in a jar,
send off the cart, and it just marches, these cows just march straight into the land of Israel,
and the children of Israel get the ark back.
And it's there at that place for a little while until we picked up the story where David wants to move it.
So David is copying the world.
David's idea to put the thing on a cart, he's like, hey, what in the world are we doing carrying it around on our shoulders?
That's way too much work.
Why would I carry the ark on my shoulders when I could just put it in a cart and have cows pull it?
That's a great idea.
And it sounds like a pretty good idea to me, too.
Except that it was wrong, because God told them, carry it on your shoulders with those poles.
And they did it wrong.
But I just thought of something funny.
Somebody sent me this video a long time ago of these guys that were carrying this Mary statue.
Who's ever seen that video?
Somebody sent me a video.
They're in a Catholic church, and they're...
You know, all the chanting and everything.
And they're carrying it, and then the thing just takes a tumble.
And the Mary statue just falls like day God and just shadows into a thousand pieces.
Has anybody ever seen that?
That was a good one.
It had nothing to do with the storm.
But anyway...
And so basically, David is copying the methods of the world, the new methods.
You know, and look, I'm not against things that are necessarily new, but you know what?
I'm against most things that come out new, because the thing is, if God already told us what we need to know,
why do we have to change everything about the way we run our church and change all of our methods?
And everybody's always coming up with some new method to serve God, some new way.
And they'll tell you, oh, this is going to revolutionize your evangelism.
I mean, if you can just get this new method, it's going to revolutionize your impact on the community and your outreach.
But wait a minute.
What in the world is wrong with God's old-fashioned method?
How can you improve upon opening your Bible, walking up to somebody, and giving them the Gospel?
How do you improve upon that?
How do you improve upon opening the Bible and just showing someone one-on-one how to be saved?
No, no, you've got to have these tracks.
No, you've got to get on the radio.
No, you've got to get this megaphone and drive around and make an announcement.
No, do it God's way.
Everybody's got some cute new method for learning the Bible.
Here's how you learn the Bible. You read it!
No, you need this fill-in-the-blank activity book.
You need a DVD, the Bible DVD.
The Bible CD wrong.
No, you just need to open the book and read it.
You sit down and you read it.
And you'll learn it.
What do we need to do in church?
We have preaching.
No, you don't understand.
These dramas. Can you imagine Peter, James, and John putting on a drama?
Tonight we're having a drama presentation.
You know, and they're all role-playing and acting it out and everybody's clapping.
I mean, do you really think that that's what it was?
But that was back then.
Now we need a new method for sharing the gospel.
We need drama.
We need tracks.
We need to get on TV and the radio and the internet.
Look, I'm telling you right now, there's one method for getting people saved that's the right method, that's the best method.
It's just the old-fashioned method.
You just walk up and get saved.
Now look, I'm not saying that people can't get saved from hearing something on the radio
or seeing something on TV except everything on there is phony.
You know, or seeing something on the internet or whatever.
But you know what? That's not a substitute for God's methods.
It's not some new method that's going to get it done.
It's us going out and doing it the old-fashioned way that's going to get it done.
And yeah, it's hard work to carry that thing on your shoulders.
It's hard work to read the Bible.
It's hard work to go out and knock doors and preach the gospel.
It's hard work, but it's the right way to do it.
It's what God told us to do.
We don't need a new card, we just need to do the old methods.
And so, don't get sucked into this trap of, well, you know, as long as my heart's in the right place, God's going to be happy.
Because I'll tell you right now, you better make sure that what you're doing is biblical.
And the way you live is biblical and right.
Because a lot of people have really good intentions and they do a lot of really stupid things.
But their intentions are good.
And they even think that they're helping people.
They think they're serving God. They think they're doing something good.
In fact, they're hurting the cause of Christ.
They're harming the cause of Christ.
And you say, I mean, I'll tell you right now, that scares me to death to think that I would be out thinking I'm serving God and I'm actually hurting the cause of Christ.
But you know, that's what a lot of people are doing based upon ignorance.
You know, David just hadn't thought this through.
If David would have been reading his Bible like he should have, he would have said, wait a minute, they're supposed to carry it on their shoulders.
Because he sure figured that out later. Nobody told him that.
He got that from reading his Bible on his own.
But if he would have read the Bible first, he would have done it right the first time instead of copying the world.
And so, if you haven't read your Bible cover to cover one time, you don't really even know what's right.
You've been spoon fed from the pulpit of churches, maybe even from me myself.
And so you've got to read the book cover to cover.
Every word, yourself.
Then you can know what's right.
And then you can do what's right, not just, well, you know, as long as I love God, everything I do is just fine.
No. You've got to read it and get it right.
Because most people are wrong. Because most people don't read that.
And you walk into churches all over America, and I'll bet you they're filled with nice people.
I'm not saying they're all mean people.
I'm sure you walk into all kinds of churches in this city that are filled with very nice people.
That are not saved and are going to hell because they think that they're saved, because they live a good life and they've been baptized.
We run into all kinds of nice people. I've sold it and been saved.
Yeah, I think I'd go to heaven. Why? Because I'm a really good person.
But they're not saved. You don't go to heaven by being a good person. You've got to believe I'm Christ.
But they think, oh, I'm wrong because I'm a good person.
I've knocked on doors and have people say, well, I'm going because I help people.
We knocked on the door, Brother Sager, and this lady said, I'm a social worker. I save people's lives every day.
Isn't that what she said? Something like that?
Like, I'm a social worker. I save lives every day.
The sad thing is she's probably taking people's kids away from them.
You know what I mean? She's probably doing a wicked thing.
But she thinks, oh, I'm helping people every day.
And even if she is helping people every day, that's not going to get her into heaven because she's not Jesus.
And there's none good but one, and that's God.
Jesus is the only one that's righteous.
And so that lady is sincere, but she's sincerely wrong. She's not saved.
And then you run into all kinds of other churches where the people are saved.
The people do believe on Jesus Christ as their Savior.
They do believe on salvation by faith alone.
And many of them spend hours and hours and hours working their fingers to the bone in ministries that are never mentioned in the Bible and having little or no results.
But they're very sincere about it, but they're just wasting a bunch of time because they didn't do it God's way.
I mean, look, let me tell you something.
When I was a teenager, I was zealous for God. I wanted to serve God. I wanted to get people saved.
But guess what I didn't have a lot of? Knowledge.
Because I was young and I hadn't studied.
And so, you know, I'm 17, 18 years old, and I just didn't have a lot of knowledge.
But I had a zeal to serve God.
And so everybody told me, gospel tracts, hand out tracts, you gotta hand out these tracts.
And so I literally handed out tens of thousands of tracts.
And I remember when I first got married to my wife, I told my wife, well, think about all the people that are getting saved from all these tens of thousands of tracts we're handing out.
And she's like, do you really think so?
I'm like, yeah, sure.
And she's like, I don't think so.
You know, then over time I realized they're not.
And then I looked at it and I said, okay, I spent so many hours to hand out that many tracts.
If I spend that same amount of time talking to people, I'm going to get a bunch of people saved.
I know a guy in Germany who spent three days a week, eight hours a day, handing out tracts.
Because he was a retired gentleman, he'd handed out two million tracts.
How many people were saved?
He couldn't point to any that were saved.
And they all had the address of his church, none of them ever showed up, and he never even had anybody saved that they got saved.
And guess what, I looked at the tracts and they were the most, they didn't make the gospel clear at all.
And a lot of these tracts are mixed up on the gospel, or they repented their sins or whatever they throw in there to muddy the waters.
And so many people have really honestly, I mean, I've handed out thousands of Chick tracts in my life.
You know, and those things are garbage.
But yeah, I've handed out thousands of them.
Guess what, I was wasting my time.
I mean, I donated money to a bunch of missionaries that I come to find out later were preaching a false gospel.
And they're a bunch of phonies that aren't even working.
It's like a spiritual welfare program.
And I'm not saying all missionaries, because there are good missionaries out there.
Our church supports good missionaries.
But the point is that you can oftentimes be serving God in your mind, but you're not really serving him.
You know, you're handing out thousands of tracts, but God never told you to hand out tracts.
He said to open your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
He said, preach the gospel to every creature.
And if I would have spent those hundreds of hours just doing the simple thing of just talking to people, I guarantee you, people would have got saved.
In a hundred hours of opening your Bible and talking to people, I don't care where you are, I don't care who you're talking to, somebody's going to get saved.
But in a hundred hours of handing out leaflets and tracts, no guarantees on that, buddy.
Think about you in the auditorium tonight that are saved.
How did you get saved?
Who was it that gave you the gospel?
Did you just get handed a leaflet and you got saved?
Or did somebody talk to you and preach to you the gospel?
And then ask yourself, if all these millions of tracts are being handed out,
why aren't there just millions of people or hundreds of people saying, hey, I got saved from re-entering?
Now, I went to a fundamental Baptist church and there was one guy at that church who said, I got saved reading from a tract.
And later that guy turned out that he wasn't even saved.
And then I talked to this other person that said, they got saved from reading a tract?
And this guy really was saved.
And I'm like, wait a minute, you got saved just from reading a tract?
He's like, well, this is what happened.
The plan of salvation. Somebody preached me the gospel.
And they left me with a tract.
Then I went and read the tract and prayed and asked Jesus to save me.
So guess what? They didn't just get saved from the tract. They got saved because somebody preached them the truth.
I mean, and so, yeah, a tract, I mean, it's God's word.
You can read God's word and get something out of it.
It can water the seed. I mean, it can definitely help you to read a tract.
I'm not saying that a tract is going to hinder you or be bad for you.
It's going to teach you something.
But it's not enough.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
People are just reading the Bible and they think, oh, somebody's going to get saved just if I just give them a Bible.
No. Philip read the Bible all day long.
I'm sorry, the Ethiopian eunuch read the Bible all day long.
But he never got saved until somebody talked to him and preached it to him.
And so it's not that tracts are bad.
I'm not saying that tracts are bad.
But the bad thing about them is that they become a substitute for preaching the gospel.
And that is bad.
It is bad when people hand it out. It's a cop-out.
It's a cop-out where you hand it to somebody and then you say, well, my conscience is clear because I handed them a tract.
They're not going to get saved.
Talk to them. Plead with them.
Beg them to get saved.
Preach of the word with passion in your heart.
Take a piece of paper.
Open your mouth with love in your heart and preach the word filled with the Spirit of God.
Don't just hand the tract and it's a cop-out.
I remember I was going to preach somewhere as a guest preacher.
And someone said to me, hey, there's going to be a lot of unsaved people there.
Preach a gospel sermon.
Preach the plan of salvation.
And you know what I said? I said I'm not going to do it.
I won't do it.
People say, oh, this wedding, preach the gospel at this wedding.
I said no.
Get up and preach the plan of salvation at these people's funeral.
No!
You say, why not?
Because if I do, if I get up and preach, here's what I say.
If I get up and preach that salvation sermon, and I'm not saying salvation sermons are bad.
I'm saying I'm not going to do it.
Because if I get up and preach that salvation sermon, the people in the audience have you tuned out.
And here's what happens.
Everybody else who's a Christian in the room can wash their hands and say, I don't need to talk to anybody.
I don't need to give anybody the gospel at this wedding.
I don't need to give anybody the gospel at this funeral.
I don't need to give anybody the gospel at this service where Pastor Anderson's a guest preacher because he already did it from the pulpit.
But guess what? I've noticed through the years, from the pulpit does not get it done like one-on-one.
I mean, look, I'm just telling you the truth.
I have got up and preached, you say, you're wrong about that. Listen to me.
I've preached thousands of sermons.
And I have gotten up and preached the most clear salvation message for an hour straight.
And just, it's believe, it's not words, you can't lose it for an hour straight.
Walked up to somebody afterward and said, do you know for sure if you die, you go to heaven?
I think so. I'm a pretty good person. I live a pretty good life.
But then that same person, you talk to them one-on-one, dialogue, and they get saved.
Because there's something about God's method that just works.
You know what I mean? Of just talking to people.
Just preaching to them.
Going out like Jesus did where he just finds the woman at the well.
One blind man, two deaf men.
You know, talking to just a couple people, one person, one-on-one.
That's what seems to get it done, my friend.
House to house. That's what the Bible says.
David in the temple and everybody else.
And you know, you'll notice that this morning's sermon wasn't exactly a salvation message, was it?
Was this morning's sermon a salvation sermon?
I didn't even mention salvation.
But do you notice that when the sermon ends, the people who are saved, they go to the visitor and give him the gospel.
And that's about a hundred times more effective.
Nobody walks out that door without hearing the gospel.
You know, at least they ought not.
And if they do, then shame on you, church member, for not going and trying to get him the gospel.
But I'll tell you right now, that's a lot more effective than trying to get him to walk down an aisle that they might be embarrassed to do.
And it always blew me away watching a pastor for ten minutes beg someone to come talk to him.
The piano's going to play one more time, just as I am. One more stand up.
You, God speaking to you, come get saved. Please, come. You raised your hand earlier. Come, come, come.
Here's an idea. Why don't you go walk over to them?
Wow, that's an ingenious idea, isn't it? Please, come and be saved. Get up, come down the aisle.
Hey, that aisle goes both ways, buddy. Why don't you get off your little platform, your little staircase, and go down and give them the gospel.
And get down on their level. How hard is it? Well, it's going to embarrass them.
Yeah, but it's not going to embarrass them for fifteen minutes of just as I am five hundred times, begging them to come.
You raised your hand. Come, come, come. The piano plays. Come.
Oh, off your seat, in the aisle. Come on, come on. It's bizarre.
Look, I went, okay, let me give you an example. I'm in a preaching service with, who was it, Ritchie. This was great.
We're at this service with, Scott, you were there, right? Scott was there, Ritchie was there, you were there, Chris, right?
And who else was there? Anybody else from our church? There might have been some other people.
I know that you guys are, we're at this service, and this preacher gets up to preach, and he said something in his sermon about, like, you got to repent of your sins or whatever.
So, he gets to the end, and he's doing the invitation at the end, okay? And he says, he's first going to ask who's saved.
So he says, like, how many of you would say that you know for sure you're saved, because you had a specific time that you repented of your sin and trusted Christ as Savior?
Slip up your hand. So we all have our eyes closed, our whole church. We all have our eyes closed, but just all independently of one another?
None of us raised our hand. Because we're like, I didn't repent of my sins, I just believed on Christ.
So we all have the same thing going through our mind, like, without even talking to each other, so none of our hands goes up.
So then he asks a question, how many of you would say, I'm not saved, or whatever, you know, pray for me, I'm not saved, or whatever, okay?
And I hear him say, God bless you, I see that hand. So I'm thinking to myself, because I didn't raise my hand that I'm not saved.
So I just didn't raise my hand at all, I just didn't participate in it.
So I hear this old man who was the guest speaker, he's like, God bless you, I see that hand.
So I'm thinking to myself, oh wow, somebody in the auditorium raised their hand that they're not saved.
You know, I didn't think it was somebody from our group or something, you know.
So, you know, we keep our heads bowed, our eyes closed, and now that that hand has gone up, you know, now the begging and pleading begins.
Okay? Come on down the aisle, you know, you raised your hand, before it's too late, come on down and get saved, you know, this is the price is right, you know, come on down and get saved, come on down.
And, you know, they pleaded and pleaded, you know, just as I am, about 15 times, and then they closed the service.
Okay? And actually they didn't close the service, then we sang a song, then we were going to open the song book and sing a congregational song, after all the just as I am instrumental was through.
So, you know, we open our hymnals and start to sing the song, and you know, it's a very serious time, you know, it's invitation time, very serious.
And so Richie just looks over at me and just like says, yeah, I'm going to raise my hand.
I'm just trying so hard not to laugh, you know, because I'm trying to be all serious, because it's all sober, and everybody's real sober, and I'm trying to sing the song, and I just, because I just keep starting to laugh.
I couldn't help but laugh, because he's like, he's like, I didn't repent of my sins, so I raised my hand on that question.
So, you know, I'm just trying so hard not to laugh, but here's the moral of the story.
We get done, you know, singing through that song, I'm trying to think, you ever try not to laugh and think of every like really negative thing, I was thinking of really bad depressing things, like trying to think of every problem I had in life, you know, just to stop smiling.
So then we get through that, and then get this, this is the part that's going to blow you away.
Keep in mind, this guy's up there begging him to come down the aisle. He thinks that Richie's not safe, he doesn't know that Richie's being a smart aleck, you know.
So here's what happens. We all line up to leave, and that preacher is at the back door shaking hands with everyone as they depart.
And Richie walks up to the guy, shakes his hand, and the guy says, hey, thanks for being here, see ya.
And doesn't even give him the gospel. Now, does that make any sense? He begs him to come down the aisle, and because he won't get up and come down the aisle, you know, then you basically just won't even give him the gospel.
See ya later, have a good night. If that guy really wanted to get him saved, why not just say, hey, why not just say, hey buddy, thanks for coming tonight, you know, can I talk to you about salvation?
Can I, you know, is it alright if I go over with you real quick? And see, here's the thing, I would have just skipped all the hand raising and the begging and pleading, because guess what?
Just because somebody raised their hand or doesn't raise their hand doesn't really make them saved anyway, does it?
So here's what I do. I just try to give the gospel to every creature. And in fact, I got that idea from the Bible.
I think it was Mark 16, 15, where it said to preach the gospel to every creature. And I thought that was a pretty good idea.
So when I see a creature, I just give them the gospel. You know, and I don't sit there and wait for them to raise their hand or walk down the aisle.
Okay? And the thing is, these preachers, he had a clear conscience in his own mind, thinking to himself, I've done all I can do for that guy.
But was he using God's method? Did God say to make people jump through a hoop and then they could be saved? Then you're worthy if you give them the gospel?
See, that guy thought in his mind, well, I gave him a chance to come down the aisle, and you know what, Richie was already saved, thank God.
But I wonder how many services that guy's been in with people who really weren't saved, who really raised their hand that they weren't saved, and who were embarrassed to get up and walk down in front of the whole church.
And then he just lets them go. He just lets them walk away. He just shakes their hand and says, hey, see you later.
When he could have saved that whole debacle and just walked up to people, and I know it's so complicated, but just open the Bible and just ask them if you can show them.
If people get mad, so what? And if people get mad, you know, whatever. But I mean, what is the point of us all sitting around for this invitation time?
Because it came from the Protestants anyway, with their little city-wide revivals and Billy Graham and all these, Bob Jones and all these people, with their little dramatic little sawdust trail and all the crying and weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Why not just open the Bible and give people the Gospel? But they have to get all cute about it.
And look, you think I'm splitting hairs tonight? I'm not. I'm not splitting hairs when somebody walks in and says, I'm not saved.
Will you come down to my feet here at this altar? Okay, then see ya. Justify that to me.
Justify to me somebody saying, I'm not saved, and the preacher saying, okay, everyone's going to close their eyes when you're going to stand up and walk down to the front. That sounds weird.
And if he won't do it, then we're not going to give you the Gospel. No Gospel for you, buddy. You didn't come down the aisle.
You know, and I'm sick of this Bob Barker Baptist Church where it's all about coming down the aisle.
Look, it's not biblical, okay? And look, I'd be okay with it, except it's a substitute for giving the Gospel.
If they did both, okay, but guess what? They don't. And that's why when I was a guest preacher at this play, I preached a message that didn't have anything to do with salvation.
I preached the Bible, and guess what I did? I instructed the people that were there that were saved, hey, let's give the Gospel to these unsaved relatives.
Let's give the Gospel to these visitors, and guess what? They got saved.
And look, I'm telling you, when I was a teenager, I brought in excess of 20 people who were unsaved to church because I wanted them to get saved.
And I brought unsaved people to church, and they didn't even hear the Gospel, except from the pulpit, nobody talked to them one-on-one.
And I figured it out. You know what? Here's an idea. How about while I'm driving them to church, give them the Gospel myself?
And I even literally called the pastor one time and said, can you preach on the Gospel? Can you preach on salvation because I'm bringing two unsaved visitors and I want them to get saved?
And he said, okay, I'll do it. But in reality, why didn't I just preach on the Gospel? You see what I'm saying?
Like, why didn't I just do it on the drive over, and then the pastor wouldn't have to preach the Gospel every Sunday morning, over and over again.
And so there's a lot of things that seem, and look, I'm not saying that the intention is bad. The intention's good. Let's get people saved.
Let's bow our heads, raise our hands, and come down the aisle. Their intention's in the right place, but show me in the Bible.
I'll show you people walking out the door with a pat on the back without hearing the Gospel's salvation plan.
Not a faithful word Baptist, if I have anything to say about it. Everybody who comes through that door, I want them to hear the Gospel.
And not from me, but from you. From everybody. Not just from the pulpit, but from the pew.
And so all I have to say is, get in the Bible and do things God's way. That's what I try to do. That's what our church should try to do.
And let's not be ignorant of God's methods. Let's use God's methods of just house to house, face to face, you know, mano e mano, preaching the Gospel.
That's what the Bible teaches that we should be doing. Let's do it. Does that mean I'm never going to preach the Gospel from behind this pulpit? No, I preach the Gospel from behind the pulpit.
But you know what? I don't want that to be a cop-out where you think, well, I don't have to give this person the Gospel because they already heard it from Pastor Anderson.
That's just a cop-out. Or I already had it in the trap. That's a cop-out. Okay? And that's why whenever there's a lot of unsaved people, I make a point not to preach a salvation sermon.
Because I want you to go do your best with them right there, give them the best Gospel presentation you can, one on one. Not just a one-size-fits-all.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Well, Ava, thank you so much for your word there, God, and for your warnings here. And God, you definitely have shown yourself in these scriptures that you're very stern and you're very strict.
And you seem to burn people up that try to blow off what you try to tell them is the right way.
God, help us to do things your way. Let's not be Nadab and Abihu. Help us to do things the way that you commanded us, like Eleazar and Ithamar did, as the good example.
And help us not to be Nadabs and Canes and Uzzahs. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.