Now, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is there at the very beginning.
And before I get into the sermon, let me say this, whenever you listen to the preaching
of God's Word, you should always be ready to change what you believe, you know, if the
Bible tells you something different than what you previously thought.
And a lot of us have a lot of opinions and a lot of viewpoints that might be really deep-rooted
opinions and views, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're biblical.
And so we need to always be ready to hear the preaching of God's Word and to let it
reprove us where necessary or rebuke us where necessary and not just think, we know everything,
we cannot be corrected, we cannot learn something new.
So keep that in mind as I preach this morning.
I'm going to preach a very biblical sermon, but it's a sermon that is probably going to
be offensive to some people and a lot of people would, outside the walls of our church, be
very offended by this sermon, but I'm preaching directly from the Bible.
What I want to preach about this morning is the subject of warfare.
Now look at the first verses there, it says, From whence come wars and fightings among
you?
Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members?
Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, ye fight and war,
yet ye have not because ye ask not, ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that
ye may consume it upon your lusts.
So this scripture here is explaining to us where warfare comes from, where fighting comes
from.
Now there are three levels of warfare that are discussed in these three verses.
First of all, he talks about the internal warfare.
He says, you know, the external warfare in our world, the wars that are fought in this
world, they originate with the lusts that war in our members, basically a war that's
going on inside of our body.
Then the Bible talks about, you know, the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit
against the flesh and these are contrary, the one to the other.
So there's a war going on inside of us.
Then he also mentions the fact that there's warfare just between two individuals might
fight or strive with one another or have contention one with another.
But then there's also a national level of warfare, right?
Where nation is going to war against nation.
And that's what we think of when we hear the word war.
You know, we think of people on a battlefield, there's blood, there's death, and so on and
so forth.
And the Bible here gives us the primary reason for warfare and the primary source of where
war comes from.
Why do we have so much war in the world?
I mean, as we speak, there are wars being fought all over the world.
And throughout history, wars have always been fought and we have to ask ourselves, why is
there war in this world?
And there are basically three reasons that I found biblically that can show us where
war is coming from.
And what I want to also preach about this morning is the military industrial complex.
And I'm going to explain what that is.
But first of all, let me give you the first reason for warfare.
Number one is the love of money.
Now if you look at this passage in James 4, which is explaining where war comes from,
he says, from whence come wars and fighting among you.
I mean, where do wars come from?
And when he gives the answer, he uses the word lust basically four times.
Look at verse 1.
He says, they come from your lusts that war on your members.
Verse 2, ye lust and have not.
Ye kill and desire to have.
Desire is another word for lust.
Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain.
Ye fight in war, yet ye have not because ye ask not.
Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lust.
So when the answer is given to the question, where do wars come from?
From whence come wars and fighting among you?
He says four times, lust, your lust, your lust, lust is where they come from.
Go to Romans chapter 7.
And let's understand the word lust in the Bible.
Romans chapter number 7.
Because according to James 4, the source of war in this world is from lust.
What is lust?
Romans 7 verse 7 probably has the best definition of lust in the Bible.
It says in Romans 7, 7, what shall we say then?
Is the law sin?
God forbid.
Nay, I had not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust.
He's saying I wouldn't have known what lust was.
For I had not known lust except the law had said, thou shalt not covet.
So what is the law in the Bible against lust?
Thou shalt not covet.
So the commandment that tells us not to lust, according to Paul here, is the commandment
that says, thou shalt not covet.
And what is covetousness?
It's desiring that which belongs to someone else.
Desiring more than what is legitimately yours.
It's greed for something that's not yours.
It's wishing that you had something that is not yours.
Now go to 1 Timothy chapter 6, 1 Timothy chapter 6.
So we see that the answer to the question, where does war come from, is that it comes
from lust.
It comes from greed.
It comes from covetousness.
It comes from desiring something that does not belong to you.
Now look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 9 and see the exact same thing.
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful
what?
The lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root
of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows.
So in those two verses, we've got lust, we've got covetousness, and we've got the love of
money and the Bible says that it is the root of all evil.
Obviously we know that war is a great evil.
Because we know that evil in the Bible means harming someone else and when you're seeing
people being blown apart, people are being shot, people are being killed, people are
being bombed, people are being wounded, we see that there's great harm being done.
There's great evil that's being done and the love of money is the root of all evil.
Somewhere when we look at warfare, we have to understand that the love of money is behind
it.
I mean that's what the Bible says.
I mean you can say whatever you want about where warfare is coming, but when the Bible
asks the question, from whence come wars and fighting among you, he said it comes from
the love of money.
He said it comes from lust.
It comes from greed.
It comes from covetousness.
Now look, there are people who make money and become rich because of warfare.
That's where it's coming from.
That's why it's there.
That's why it exists.
Now obviously there could be one nation that covets or desires or lusts after the territory
of another nation, right?
One nation lusts after the territory.
Why do they want that territory?
Because of the resources that are in that territory, okay?
They want the timber or they want the oil or they want the natural gas or they want
the rubies or they want the gold or the uranium.
Whatever it is, there's some kind of a covetousness or lust for material possessions, natural
resources, goods that belong to someone else.
That's what the Bible says is the cause of warfare.
But not only that, today there are people who make millions and billions of dollars
on selling the weapons, selling the tanks, selling the bombs, selling all the equipment.
I mean this stuff is expensive.
I mean we're talking hundreds of billions of dollars of very expensive equipment that
is being sold to the government, and here's a newsflash, when you sell stuff to the government,
you make more than when you sell it to the individual.
Because when you sell it to normal people, normal people, they don't like to just give
their money away for free.
So therefore they don't spend $15,000 on a toilet seat, they don't buy a $16 muffin,
they actually think about the price, but the government prints their own money so they
don't care, it's not really their money, so they basically will pay a lot for what they
need.
And to go to war, you need a lot of gear, there's a lot of equipment involved, it's
a multi-billion dollar industry.
Now think about it, if you're a multi-billionaire, right, and the reason you're a multi-billionaire,
you run industries that produce weapons.
You produce armor, you produce tanks, you produce missiles.
If you are in that industry and all of a sudden a war ends, right, I mean you've been pumping
out all this stuff, you're making a killing, making a killing, all of a sudden the demand
ends because the war's over, you don't want to lose that gig.
You want to keep selling that stuff, right?
So it's in your best interest to foment the next war.
And it doesn't matter who the opponent is, it doesn't matter who's fighting, you don't
care who wins.
You just want people to keep fighting so that they keep buying the equipment, the bombs,
and so forth.
That is what is meant by, when you hear people say, the military industrial complex.
You know, that comes from, I believe, President Eisenhower is the one who coined that phrase.
He made a speech and he said that the potential for misplaced power exists because the military
industrial complex, you know, something like that.
He basically just warned that there are people who make money off warfare and they just want
to keep this thing going and they want to keep these battles going.
And look, when you are a multi-billionaire, number one, there are a lot of very wicked
people that are multi-billionaires because the Bible talks about the fact that they that
will be rich fall into temptation and asnare.
And the Bible warns us about the fact that the love of money is the root of all evil.
Many people have become billionaires, obviously they love money, that's what they've spent
their life doing, making money.
That's all they care about, that's how they've gotten where they are.
And so therefore there are a lot of very evil people who are multi-billionaires and they
don't care who dies, they don't care who they hurt, they just want to make a buck.
And it's easy for them to cause war to go forward because they buy up the media.
They buy up the TV, they buy up the newspapers, they even influence Hollywood movies with
their money.
Just to control our minds.
Now look, we as believers need to have our mentality and our way of thinking come from
the Bible.
Not from the world, not from TV, magazines, newspapers, we need the Word of God to teach
us how to think.
Now look, there is an agenda out there to get you to be pro-war.
Because the military industrial complex makes a lot of money off of warfare and so therefore
there is a mentality out there that is a pro-war mentality.
And that is something that is being taught you in the media, okay?
And it's being taught you on conservative talk radio, it's being taught you by the left-wing
liberal media, it's being taught you in the news, I mean all these different ways they're
brainwashing you to accept and even promote the next war.
And you say, well what, next war, there's always, it just goes from one to the next
It doesn't even matter who the enemy is.
You know, first we're fighting against Al-Qaeda, then now we're with Al-Qaeda, right?
I mean we're supposedly against the Islamic extremists in Iraq and Afghanistan, now in
Libya and in Syria, you know, now they're the good guys.
But it doesn't matter, just as long as we keep fighting, as long as we keep the wheels
of war turning, as long as the killing and the bloodshed continues, and as long as we
can keep buying weapons and equipment and keep fighting wars, okay?
Now, if you would, turn to Proverbs chapter 13, Proverbs chapter number 13.
So there's a mentality out there that says, you know, warfare is good, be pro-war, and
even those who were anti-war, and here's how it works by the way, let me just cut through
the garbage for a second.
And again, this sermon's going to offend people, but it's only just because you've
been brainwashed and programmed.
Because if we let the Bible be our final authority, I think by the time I'm done with the sermon,
it's going to be pretty clear to you, okay?
But here's the thing, when a Democrat is in office, right?
When a Democrat is in office and he's taken us to war here, there, and everywhere, then
all the Republicans become anti-war.
Just because he's doing it.
I mean, not all of them, there's always going to be some, you know, who are just, let's
just kill anybody, you know, that we can, like McCain or something, you know what I
mean?
Like just, you know, let's just, oh, war, yeah, let's do it, let's do it, you know.
Well you haven't even heard where it is yet, doesn't matter, you know, let's just do it.
There are always going to be those type of people.
But in general, in general, when the Democrats are in power, all of a sudden the Republicans
are like, whoa, you're taking us to the, look, I remember when Clinton was in office.
Republicans condemning him for taking us into war, for bombing all these different countries
and everything, for getting us involved in stuff that was going on in Africa and going
on in former Yugoslavia.
Okay, but then as soon as Bush is in office, now all of a sudden the Democrats are anti-war
and the Republicans are pro-war.
Then we get Obama in office, now all of a sudden the Democrats are pro-war again, even
though they were anti-war when it was Bush.
So it's just all being brainwashed by the media.
It's like people don't have any core values.
They don't have any personal beliefs.
They're just manipulated.
One day it's like, war, war, war!
And then the next day it's like, oh man, Obama's getting us into all this war.
And then, you know what, in 2016 they'll elect some Republican and then it's going to be
like all of a sudden, yeah, we need to go to war.
And then all of a sudden the Democrats are going to like, you know, oh where have we
been for the last eight years?
You know, no war.
So what I'm saying is people aren't thinking for themselves.
They don't have a biblical view, they don't have any kind of view except what's just fed
to them by the media.
They're just sheep being led by the shepherd, which is Satan, who just is shepherding them
into more warfare, more fighting.
Now, what does the New Testament teach about warfare?
Every time the New Testament mentions war or warfare or being a warrior in a positive
way, it's always talking about us fighting a spiritual warfare.
The New Testament never tells us, go, go fight a war.
You know, go to war physically against other nations.
See in the New Testament, he says in 2 Corinthians 10, 3, for though we walk in the flesh, we
do not war after the flesh.
Now did you hear that?
We do not war after the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds.
Paul told Timothy, this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies
which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare.
He's saying war a good warfare through preaching.
War a good warfare, not a carnal warfare, but a spiritual warfare.
The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places.
He talks about the fact that fleshly lusts are warring against our soul.
He talks about us enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ and not entangling
ourselves with the affairs of this world, that we may please Him who has chosen us to
be a soldier.
The entire New Testament consistently teaches us to be a warrior for Christ, to fight a
spiritual battle, a spiritual warfare, not a physical battle against a physical enemy.
But today Christians are taking Old Testament passages and they're failing to rightly divide
the word of truth.
They're taking Old Testament passages about the nation of Israel and they're saying, you
know, we need to be like them and go to war and kill all these people.
And that's not true.
God specifically did command the nation of Israel to wipe out certain people, didn't
He?
He told them to wipe out the Canaanites because they were involved in sodomy, they were involved
in all kinds of witchcraft and paganism.
And He said, go wipe them out, man, woman, boy, girl, because they were all filled with
disease and STDs and they polluted the land and they were just so ungodly.
He said wipe them out.
Christians today, I've heard Christians quote that and say, that's what we need to do in
the Middle East today.
That's what we need to do to Muslim countries.
We need to just nuke them, we need to kill man, woman, boy, and girl.
I mean, that is not a biblical teaching.
To sit there and take something that was a specific revelation where God specifically
said, destroy this specific group of people, okay?
And then they just apply that as a carte blanche for the United States to just wipe out our
enemies.
That is not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible does not teach that we should massacre and kill people of other religions.
The New Testament teaches that we should evangelize people of other religions.
That we should fight a spiritual battle against their false religion, against the spiritual
wickedness in high places, and that that battle is fought through preaching, through preaching
the gospel, through prophesying the word of God.
Not a physical battle of killing people that are of another religion or another belief
or of another nation.
Why do we have warfare of the kind that we see?
God is not commanding us to go to war in the New Testament except a spiritual battle.
Where is all this warfare coming from?
First of all, the Bible taught us it's coming from the love of money.
The military industrial complex makes that obvious.
We also just see other wars that are fought clearly to get opium, to get oil, to get natural
resources of other kinds.
That's what the Bible teaches.
But secondly, there's another source from which war comes.
Number one, it comes from lust and greed and the love of money.
Number two, it comes from national pride, also known as patriotism.
Now look at Proverbs 13 verse 10.
It says, only by pride cometh contention, but with the well-advised is wisdom.
So right there it says that pride is a source of contention or strife or fighting or warring.
Pride is where it's coming from.
Go if you would to Galatians chapter 6, Galatians chapter number 6, because you say, well, Pastor
Anderson, I'm starting to get upset at you right now because you're saying something
negative about being proud to be an American.
And you're saying something negative about patriotism.
And you know, that means that I'm going to never come back to this church again.
Okay, well, I would like you to show me in the Bible where I'm wrong with what I'm about
to preach.
Because if the Bible is our final authority, I don't care what your apple pie loving, you
know, self thinks.
We need to see what the Bible says and make the Bible a final authority.
Now listen, you can say, well, you know, if you're not proud to be an American, you know,
I'll pack your bag, no, you go somewhere else, idiot.
Don't kick me out of my own country.
Hey, I live here, I was born here, and I'm not going to worship at the feet of the military
industrial complex.
I'm not going to get excited about killing innocent people to live in the country where
God put me.
And God put me here and the founding fathers did not envision what our country has become.
You need to leave.
If you love warfare, if you love homosexuality, if you love the filthy cesspool that our country
is turning into, you're the one that needs to leave.
God put me here, I was born in this country, and God commissioned me when I was in my mother's
womb to stand up and rail on the sin of our nation, and to stand up and rebuke our nation.
And the Bible says, they that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the
law, contend with them.
You praise Obama, you're praising the wicked.
You praise Bush, you're praising the wicked.
You praise 99% of the members of Congress and our Senate, you're praising the wicked.
Those that keep the law contend with them.
You say, oh, well you just need to leave, if you don't like America, no, these bunch
of Satanists that are running our country need to leave.
The bunch of satanic blood dripping from their hand monsters that don't care who they kill,
who they hurt, that just promote sin, ungodliness, destroy the family, destroy religion, destroy
the economy, destroy our money, they destroy our prosperity, they need to leave.
And don't you be their cheerleader.
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
And you know what, I was in a Baptist, just to show you how far this goes, I was in an
independent fundamental Baptist church and I heard a preacher get up in an independent
fundamental Baptist church, I was sitting in the auditorium and he said, I'm an American
first Christian second.
I'm not kidding.
He literally said, American first, Christian second.
And the auditorium got real quiet.
You know, people are like, huh?
And I'm thinking like, he did not just say that.
But I mean, that's the mentality of a lot of people, my friend, American first, Christian
second.
No, I'm Christian first and old, period.
You know, I mean, you know, being an American is so much far below on my list of being a
Christian.
They shouldn't even be in the same list, okay?
Say well, you're just not patriotic.
Okay, well show me in the Bible where anything I just said is wrong, okay?
So national pride, this pride that says, I'm proud to be an American and this is what
they say, we're going to go over there, we're going to kick their butts.
You know, this mentality, it's like it's a football game.
We're going to show them, they're not going to, you know, they're not going to say that
about us, they're not going to do that.
We're going to go over there and we're going to beat them and they cheer for it and root
for it like it's a game.
People are dying.
People are losing their lives.
Innocent men, women, and children are being, civilians are being killed.
People are being wounded both on the American side and even ten times or a hundred times
more on the opposing side and you're going to sit there and just cheer it on and you're
proud to be an American.
Look, it's getting to where there's not as much to be proud of anymore.
You know what I mean?
And I mean, my only, I mean, do I respect the founding fathers?
Absolutely.
You know, my patriotism I guess could be defined as, you know, I think that our country was
founded on a lot of biblical principles and it was founded on a lot of liberty and freedom
and small minimal government.
And I thank God to be born in America just because other places are worse in many cases.
But let me tell you this, there are a lot of things in our country that we shouldn't
be proud of.
And so to just have this carte blanche, no matter what America does, I'm proud to be
an American and the red, white, and blue and I don't care what anybody says, you know,
you know what?
Is that biblical?
We're asking ourselves, is that really biblical?
Should we even be promoting, you know, our nation at this time?
Look if you would at Galatians chapter 6 verse 14 it says, is that where I had you turn?
Galatians 6 14 says, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
So does that look like Paul is saying, hey, let's just glory in the fact that we're Americans.
Let's just boast in glory and be proud of the fact that we are American.
No he says, let's just only glory in the fact that we're Christian.
Let's just boast about Jesus and glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's where our loyalty should be.
Go to Isaiah chapter 40 and while you're turning to Isaiah 40 I'll read for you from 2 Corinthians
10.
The Bible says, but he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord.
In verse 16 he said, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast
in another man's line of things made ready to our hand.
Now let me read that to you again.
To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast in another man's line
of things made ready to our hand.
You say, well I don't even know what that verse means.
He's saying don't boast about what other people have accomplished.
Boast about what you have accomplished yourself.
And then he follows that up by saying well in fact don't even boast about that, just
glory in the Lord.
Give God all the glory.
But he says if you're going to boast about something, and if you read the whole context,
you know when you get home maybe 2 Corinthians 10, it's a complicated passage.
I don't really want to break it down right now just for sake of time, but it's a great
passage and if you study it he's explaining the concept of not boasting in other people's
achievements, boasting in other people's accomplishments, but rather he said if you're
going to take credit for something it better be what you did.
But then he follows that up with even better than that is just to give God all the glory.
Just boast in the Lord.
Just glory in the Lord.
But today we literally have this society where we glory in the achievements of others.
We look at, I mean I remember, you're going to think this is funny, but you know how little
kids think.
I remember when I was a little kid and I don't know how old I was, but I was really small.
I mean I don't know, maybe I was 3, 4, I mean I don't know.
I was really young and I remember hearing my dad say, we bombed Libya.
Okay he said the words, you know, we bombed Libya or something like that.
And I remember thinking that my dad had literally bombed Libya.
I mean I thought he was involved with it.
And I'm thinking like when did they do this?
I didn't even know that my dad was a warrior.
I didn't even know that.
But he was just like, we bombed Libya.
I'm thinking, what?
And it sounds stupid, but you know how kids do.
It's like the first time I preached on Revelation, some of my little tiny children thought that
the first seal and the second seal were like the porpoise.
They were thinking of the animal.
You know when you open the third seal, they're picturing like a seal on a ball in a circus
or something.
I don't know.
But anyway, I'm just saying it's amazing how we look at a sport, yeah we beat the Redskins
or yeah we beat the Packers or yeah we beat them.
You sat on your fat rear end on the couch drinking beer, watching other people play
a game and you get all this pride in the yeah we beat them, we destroyed them.
You couldn't even run the length of that football field without huffing and puffing
putting your hands on your knees, let alone actually playing the game.
And I don't know how to play football either.
But I'm just saying it's funny how people love to glory in others.
You know what, there are people who do that with church too.
Oh man, my church, I go to Faith Ward Baptist Church, look at all those doors we've knocked,
look at all the soul winning.
Never been soul winning once, right?
I was just glorying in the, yeah I go to a soul winning church.
Okay did you do the soul winning?
You know, oh man my pastor knows, do you know the Bible?
Oh man my parents, they were this, you know, what about you?
You know, let's not glory in others.
And you know what we say, we glory in the fact that we're an American, we're proud to
be an American.
Look did you have to earn the right to be an American?
I was just born here.
So why should I go around bragging about how wonderful it is that I'm an American,
how proud I am to be an American?
Look you weren't, look you were born white or you were born black or you were born Chinese
or you were born American or born in some other country, it has nothing to do with you.
Somebody else founded this country.
Somebody else fought for freedom against the British.
Somebody else fought to make sure that we had rights and somebody else fought to put
the Bill of Rights in there.
And somebody else fought to make these things available to you and you know what, it wasn't
this generation.
Because I mean if we were founding our country right now and it were people like Obama and
McCain doing, I mean we'd be living in a total police dictatorship, you know, socialist whatever.
It wouldn't be anything like what they founded.
So look, why would we be so proud about something that happened like 200 and some years ago
by people who actually acknowledged God and actually acknowledged Jesus?
And then we're going to take credit for that today when our country is being run literally
by people who worship Satan.
I mean I don't, you know, does anybody understand the sermon this morning?
But this national pride is used to rile people up and to get them all excited about war and
yeah, we need to defeat these Muslims.
You know what, I don't hate Muslims.
I love Muslims, I want to get them saved.
Because we're supposed to love the lost, not hate the lost, because they're of a different
religion.
Oh, but you don't know how bad their religion is.
Every false religion is bad.
It doesn't matter whether it's Hinduism, whether it's Buddhism, whether it's Zionism, Judaism,
Islam, Catholicism, it's all bad.
Mormonism, it's bad, okay?
Should we just kill everybody who's not saved?
I mean that's not what the Bible teaches.
Those are human beings, they are normal, nice people just like the average person in America
you look at that's a normal, nice person.
There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
There's no difference between the American and the Syrian and the Iranian.
We're human beings.
The only difference is who's saved and who's not saved.
That's the difference.
That's the difference we ought to emphasize.
And you know what we ought to be proud of?
You know what we ought to glory in?
You know what we ought to boast about?
The fact that we are in Christ.
The fact that Jesus Christ, our Savior, lets glory in the cross of Jesus Christ.
That's the flag I want to fly.
That's what I want to get excited about.
That's what I want to celebrate.
That's what I think is important.
See I'd rather go fight a spiritual battle against Satan and sin and sodomy and wickedness
than to fight against some enemy that's done nothing wrong to me.
That I have nothing to do with.
National pride, look at Isaiah chapter 40 verse 17, did you turn there?
The Bible says, all nations before him are as nothing except the United States of America.
Everybody got that in your Bible?
All nations before him are as nothing except the United States of America is the greatest
nation that's ever existed on this planet and if you don't like it, leave.
Is that what it says in your Bible?
No it says all nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing
and vanity.
So when God looks down at the United States, is he impressed?
He's not impressed by us.
He's not impressed by our nation.
He looks down at us and he says, your vanity, wait a minute.
No that would be complimenting you to say that you're vanity because that would be saying
you're nothing and you're not nothing.
You're less than nothing.
Now this is what the Bible says.
Now the Bible says in Psalm 144, you don't have to turn there, verse 15, happy is that
people that is in such a case.
Happy is that people whose God is the Lord.
You know what makes us blessed as a nation if God is our Lord?
If the Lord is our God, is that true of our nation today in general?
Does our Senate honor God and the Lord?
Does our president honor the Lord Jesus Christ?
He mocks the Bible.
He mocked the Sermon on the Mount, he mocked the book of Leviticus.
You know, our country does not honor the Lord, therefore we should not glory in our nation.
Why would we be proud to be a part of an atheistic nation?
Why would we be proud to be part of a nation that promotes sodomy?
You say well support the military though, we've got to support the troops.
The military now has open homosexuality, institutionalized.
I've talked to several people who have quit the military because they said they're being
forced to take classes to teach them that homosexuality is fine just to stay in the
service.
Anybody who wants to stay in.
They've got to take classes to train them how to love and get along with homos.
It's hard for me to support that.
In fact, I'm not going to.
And again, this sermon might be offensive to people, but I'm more than willing for you
to come correct me after the service from the Bible.
Not your Rush Limbaugh quotes, not Sean Hannity, not Glenn Beck, I want to know what the Bible
says.
Look, this is not, you know, and when I go through these border patrol checkpoints and
they say are you a U.S. citizen, I just tell them you know what, I'm a citizen of heaven.
I'm a citizen of the spiritual Israel.
You know, and then they're like, go to secondary, you know, and then I'm like, no, but anyway,
that's another story.
Okay, so the first source of war according to the Bible, number one, is that it comes
from the love of money.
I mean, that's what the Bible said, that money is behind it.
Follow the money.
Number two, contention.
The Bible says only by pride cometh contention.
There cannot be war without pride.
That's why propaganda is critical in war, because everybody has to feel like their side
is always right, so that they can take pride in being an American.
I mean, look at propaganda posters from World War II.
They show a poster that was given to U.S. troops to put up on U.S. bases and in U.S.
barracks.
They showed a picture of a Soviet soldier, this man is your friend, he fights for freedom.
Okay, did you hear that?
The United States put out posters during World War II showing a Soviet soldier with a hammer
and sickle, communist red Soviet soldier saying, this man is your friend, he fights for freedom.
Because they're just trying to brainwash you to think, we are always on the right team,
and if we're fighting alongside the Soviets, well that means that now they're the good
guy.
And if we're fighting alongside Al Qaeda, well today they're good.
Now tomorrow the Soviets are going to be bad, but today they're good.
Today they're fighting for freedom.
Tomorrow they're going to be bad, because we are always right and we never make mistakes.
Any questions?
No matter what war the United States is in, we are right all the time.
And all God's people said, amen.
But honestly, this is not biblical because sometimes in war both sides are wrong.
Because you know, the Nazis were wrong, but so were the Soviets.
They're both wrong.
Which leads me to my second point, or the third point rather.
The first point was the love of money.
The second point was nationalist pride is used to, it's essential for war.
You can't have war without this feeling of, we're on the right side, we're going to win,
we're undefeatable, we're unstoppable, we are Americans, we eat apple pie, we love rock
and roll, we are America.
You can't have war without it.
But number three is entangling alliances.
So where does war come from?
It comes from the love of money, it comes from nationalistic pride, and number three,
it comes from entangling alliances.
Now good night, I'm losing my voice.
The Bible says, go to Proverbs chapter 26.
And this scripture should be etched in stone in the walls of Congress.
This verse that we're turning to in Proverbs 26 17.
It says, he that passeth by and meddleth with strife, belonging not to him, is like
one that taketh a dog by the ears.
Here the Bible's warning us, don't get involved in fights that don't concern you.
You know, you walk by and you see a couple people fighting, you know, don't just get
involved in that fight.
Don't just pick a side in that fight.
Don't meddle in strife not belonging to you.
Now the perfect illustration of this is World War One.
World War One is the perfect illustration of this.
I remember my whole life wondering, what was World War One fought over?
Because you know, you know what World War Two's fought over, you know the Nazis and
they're trying to take over the world, okay I get that.
But you're like, World War One?
What was World War One fought over?
And my whole life I wondered that.
Has anybody wondered that?
I mean I just wondered that my whole life.
So then one day I decided, you know, I'm going to study World War One, I'm going to learn
about World War One.
And I bought, I went to the store and I bought some books on World War One and I realized
that the reason I couldn't figure out what it was fought over was because it was fought
over nothing.
Which makes sense why I didn't know what it was fought over.
And when you're in school they'll just tell you like, oh it started because Archduke Ferdinand
was assassinated in Sarajevo.
Oh okay.
So that's why the whole world started fighting.
Because one guy got assassinated.
Well there have been a lot of other people that were assassinated, didn't cause the entire
world to start fighting with each other.
And then it's like, okay now let's go to World War Two.
Next chapter.
But let me explain to you how World War One actually started.
And by the way, World War One, a war that was pretty much fought over nothing, 16 million
people died.
That's a lot, right?
And 20 million were wounded.
This is why World War One started.
Because everybody had all these alliances with everybody else.
So you have these two little tiny nations, are you listening?
Here's your history lesson.
Austria, Hungary, and Serbia.
Now does anybody think those are two major world superpowers?
Austria, Hungary, and Serbia.
No.
These are two small nations.
They had a dispute because the guy who was supposed to ascend the throne of Austria-Hungary
was assassinated by a Serbian group.
So the Serbian group assassinated the Hungarian, okay?
So basically the Austro-Hungarians, they made all these demands on the Serbians.
Give us all this land, give us all this money, you know, to make up for the fact that you
killed our guy.
So you just have a battle between two tiny countries.
And here's the problem, Serbia was allied with Russia, huge country.
Germany is allied with Austria, huge country, right?
So now if there's a beef between Serbia and Austria, well guess what?
Now it's going to be between Russia and Germany, which are two major powers.
But not only that, Russia is allied with France.
So Germany says, well if we back up Austria against Serbia, then Russia's going to get
involved.
And then Germany says, well if we're going to fight against Russia, then France is going
to get involved.
So then the Germans said, well here's what we're going to do, since France is way more
dangerous than Russia, we just need to attack France.
I mean think about this logic.
So because Serbia and Austria are having an issue, well we know Russia's going to back
up Serbia, we're going to go to war with Russia anyway, Russia's allied with France,
we need to just attack France.
In advance.
Just because we know it's going to happen anyway.
And then they're like looking at a map of France and they're like, well the best way
to attack France though is to go through Belgium.
But here's the problem, when you go through Belgium, England has a treaty with Belgium
that if anybody goes through Belgium, we're going to defend you.
So it all starts by Germany going into France through Belgium.
Now England's involved, Russia's involved, France, I mean the biggest powers in the world.
And then they have allies all over the world, and then Turkey's involved, and then pretty
soon it's a world war.
Eventually even at the very end, in the final year, got the United States involved in 1918.
Why?
Because if you didn't have all these alliances where everybody's allied with everybody, and
everybody just did their own fighting and just minding their own business, then you
would have just had a small regional conflict between Serbia and Hungary.
No big deal.
Today the United States has treaties like that with over a hundred nations.
Where if that nation gets invaded, we're going to go fight for you.
So we're basically saying we're going to fight for practically everybody.
That's what we're basically saying as a nation today.
If there's any battle anywhere in the world, we're going to get involved.
And then you wonder why we're constantly at war.
Because we're just basically just have told everybody, we got your back, yeah we got,
you too, we got your back, yep we got your back, yep we got your back, yep you too, don't,
we got you.
How can you not be at war?
There's always going to be somebody fighting with somebody.
I mean it would be like if you went to a school of 2,000 kids and you just said, okay,
these 1,200 kids, if any of these 1,200 kids ever get in a fight, I'm going to back them
up.
You're going to be in a fight every day, but what does the Bible say?
Mind your own business.
Now the biggest entangling alliance that we have today is with Israel.
Because Israel, Israel is our best ally.
Okay go to 2 Chronicles 25.
And see today we feel that every country in the Middle East is our enemy because we got
to protect Israel.
And we will protect Israel.
Now here's what's funny, the people who teach this doctrine, they teach that Israel are
God's chosen people and they teach that eventually Israel is all going to get saved and they're
all going to turn around.
So here's the thing, if they think that Israel, the nation of Israel, plays such a big part
in Bible prophecy, which I agree that they play a part in Bible prophecy, just different
than what they believe, it's going to be the headquarters of the Antichrist, but it still
does play a part.
Here's what they say, if we don't defend Israel, Iran is going to nuke Israel.
You just told me, and I've even said this to them, I said to them, I thought you said
Israel is going to play a part in end times prophecy.
Oh it does.
Well doesn't that prove that they'll never be nuked by Iran?
Because if they're nuked by Iran they wouldn't exist anymore.
How could these prophecies be fulfilled?
Oh well I guess you're right.
Don't vote for so and so because if you do, Iran is going to nuke Israel.
If they're supposedly these special chosen people, isn't God going to protect them?
Oh yeah I guess you're right, but we should still support Israel anyway.
Now here's the thing, is God always, let's see, is God always on the side of Israel?
Look at your Bible, 2 Chronicles 25, verse 7, but there came a man of God to him saying
O King, let not the army of Israel go with thee, for the Lord is not with Israel to wit
with all the children of Ephraim.
So the Bible here, the nation of Judah is going to war, and they say let's bring Israel,
our trusted ally, with us.
And God said don't bring Israel, God's not with Israel.
Now question, why was God not with Israel at this time?
Why was God not with Israel?
I mean is everybody looking at your Bible?
In verse 7, doesn't it say that we shouldn't go with the army of Israel because God's not
with them?
Why was God not with them at that time?
Somebody help me out, my throat hurts.
They're worshipping other gods, right?
Were they worshipping the God of the Bible at this time?
No.
They're worshipping other gods, they're worshipping Baal.
They're worshipping two golden calves.
Okay question, does modern day Israel worship the God of the Bible?
Because the Bible says, who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?
He's anti-Christ.
They deny that Jesus is the Messiah.
They deny Jesus is the Christ.
And the Bible says whosoever hath not the Son, the same hath not the Father.
But he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
So you say, well they have the same God we do.
No they don't have the Father.
Because if you don't have the Son, you don't have the Father.
So how can you say they have the same God when the Bible says they don't have the Father?
What God is there that's not the Father?
A false god, a false religion.
And look, if God wasn't with them before when they worshipped a false god, why would he
be with them now when they're worshipping a false god and a false religion?
When they are anti-Christ and reject the Messiah.
Jeremiah 21.
Jeremiah 21 verse 4.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 21, because you say well Pastor Anderson, but God was still
with Judah.
He wasn't with Israel, but he was still with Judah.
Okay well let's take a look at Judah, verse 4.
Jeremiah 21 verse 4, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons
of war that are in your hands, wherewith you fight against the king Babylon, and against
the Chaldeans, which beseech you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst
of this city, and I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand, and with a
strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.
Here God is promising to fight against Judah, to fight against Israel.
He said if you fight against the Babylonians, I will get on the Babylonians team and fight
against you, because you're worse than they are.
You're an abomination because you're worshipping false gods, because you've turned away from
the law of God.
And notice the last word of verse 5.
What's the last word of verse 5?
Wrath.
And the Bible says of the Jews in the New Testament, because they rejected Christ, 1
Thessalonians 2, for the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.
So God's wrath is on Israel today because of rejecting the Messiah, 1 Thessalonians
2.
God will fight against them.
He's not fighting for them.
The Rothschilds and Rockefellers are fighting for them.
God's fighting against them.
Go to Romans chapter 11.
Let's see if Israel is our ally.
Romans chapter 11.
You say, this sermon is political, this is your opinion.
This is not political, this is not my opinion, this is Bible preaching.
What part of this sermon is not biblical?
Warfare is caused by the love of money, biblical.
The Bible tells us not to take pride in anything except our identity in Christ, and that national
identity is less than nothing.
What part of that's not biblical?
Okay, entangling alliances.
What part of that's not biblical when the Bible says mind your own business, don't be
a busybody in other men's matters, don't meddle with strife not belonging to you.
What part of that's not biblical?
When the Bible says, don't go with Israel because I'm not with Israel, because they're
worshiping another God.
What part of that's not biblical when 1 John 2 says they don't have the Father?
Romans 11, 28, speaking of the Jews, speaking of Israel in the New Testament, as concerning
the Gospel, they are allies.
They are trusted allies.
Is that what it says?
It says, as concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes.
You say, oh, you're preaching that we should hate Jews, no, because look at the next verse.
But as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake.
So let me ask this, does God love Israel?
Does God love the Jews?
Should we love the Jews?
Yes.
But are they our enemies?
Yes.
You say, well, how can they be our enemies when we're supposed to love them?
Love your enemies?
Isn't that a pretty famous verse?
You have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt love thy neighbor and
hate thy enemy, but I say unto you, love your enemies.
So look, do we love the Jews?
Do we love Israel enough to want to get them saved?
To want to give them the Gospel?
Are they beloved for the Father's sakes?
Yes.
But are they our friends?
Are they our ally?
The Bible says they're enemies of the Gospel.
They are, I mean, look, sometimes I feel like I have to just really slow this down.
I know our church has got this, but there are some people who don't get it, though.
I mean, probably 90% of the people in here have got this.
But some people don't get it, so I just want to slow it down really slow, okay?
They are enemies.
Everybody got that?
They are enemies.
Do we love them?
Yes.
Do we love our enemies?
But look.
They're enemies.
No, but that's our ally, that's our friend.
They're enemies.
So what's the conclusion?
The conclusion is this.
We should be for peace.
I didn't say world peace.
Because you know what?
There will never be world peace until the Antichrist sets up world peace.
And eventually Jesus Christ will set up world peace.
But you know what?
It's not our job to worry about what everybody does in the world.
We should be at peace as much as is possible, the Bible says.
We should strive to live peaceably with all men.
That is what the Bible says.
And the founding fathers believed the same thing.
They said trade with all, alliance with none.
That was their motto.
Trade with all, alliance with none.
And let me tell you something.
We should be for peace.
We as Americans should do everything we can to promote peace and to try to get along with
the people in this world.
In our personal lives we shouldn't just go around picking fights with everybody, getting
involved in fights.
We should try to be personally at peace.
We should try as a nation to be at peace, be neutral.
Why can't we just be neutral?
And here's what these conservative talk radio hosts will say.
You want us to give up our place of leadership in the world.
We don't want to give up our place of leadership in the world.
Who put you in charge of the world?
Nobody.
God never gave us a place of leadership in this world.
He gave us a leadership over this continent.
Just be happy with it, you know, of what we have here.
This is where we live, this is our land.
Let's just take care of it.
Let's not try to lead the whole world.
That's called one world government, new world order, global government, okay?
God wants us to just be neutral in other people's fights, to just be at peace.
The Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
You say, well you're just a hippie.
You're a peacenik.
You're a hippie.
You know what?
At least I don't have blood all over my hands.
At least I'm not promoting innocent people to be killed.
And you know what, it's easy for you to sit back with your little video game, watching
bodies being blown apart on a video game that you play, right?
And you're sitting here, and have you ever even been in battle?
And I know there are some people who have been in battle in our room today, and they'll
probably agree with my sermon.
You know, the ones who've been in battle, they know that what I'm saying is true.
And they don't want to see that.
They don't want to just go do that for no reason.
And just to line somebody's pockets, and to make somebody rich.
And you know what, it doesn't matter who the enemy is, we need to stay out of other people's
business.
You say, oh we've got to help these people, genocide.
But you know what, a lot of it's just manipulated by the media, because there are other genocides
that we ignore all the time.
But then all of a sudden, certain genocides we get all worked up about.
And you know, I seem to remember the fact that, you know, our country murders a bunch
of unborn babies.
Maybe somebody should come bomb us.
Seriously, I mean, honestly, is that, I mean, is that, if you think that, and I don't believe
somebody should come bomb us, but I'm saying, to use your logic of saying, hey they're killing
a hundred of their own people every day with tear gas, or sarin gas, or nerve gas, or they're
using chemical weapons on their own people.
Well isn't a saline solution a chemical weapon?
So the United States of America, we're using chemical weapons on like three thousand babies
every day.
I mean I guess another country should come bomb us, because we're not fit to rule ourselves.
I mean is that what you think?
Who here wants another country to come bomb Phoenix?
None of us want that.
But that's the logic that we use to bomb everybody else.
Oh, they're taking away their people's rights.
They're breaking up protests over there.
Let's go, okay, they're breaking up protests in America.
The police are beating and tasering people for no reason in America.
Look, we need to just stop believing, and you say, what's the moral of the sermon?
Number one, let's be for peace.
Even David, one of the most waring-est, fighting-est guys in the Bible, who God even told him, you're
not going to build a temple because you fought too many wars.
Because a lot of the wars David fought were right, but some of them he went overboard.
And God said, you're not going to build a temple because you've shed too much blood.
But even David said, I'm for peace.
But when I speak, they're for war.
So why can't we be for peace?
And I'm not talking world peace, I'm talking American peace.
I'm saying we as Americans should be against war, we should be striving for peace, war
should be a last resort to defend ourselves.
Just to defend ourselves as a last resort.
And guess what, nobody's attacking us anyway because we have the biggest military in all
these, you know, anybody who attacks us would be a suicide mission.
That should be enough for us not to have to go and just start a bunch of wars and fight
a bunch of wars.
And I don't know, so number one is, let's be a peacemaker.
Let's be pro-peace.
Let's promote peace and not promote war and just repeat stuff we heard on talk radio that's
not biblical.
But number two, we need to just honestly quit listening to all this media and talk radio
constantly.
I'm not saying it's wrong to tune into it every once in a while to figure out what's
going on.
I'm not saying it's wrong, tune in every once in a while, figure out what's going on in
the world.
Okay, I get that, but when you're pumping three hours of that stuff every day, four
hours, five hours, six hours, and you spend five minutes in this book, and then you wonder
why Pastor Anderson's sermon doesn't make any sense to you.
It's because it's a Bible-based sermon, it's not a talk radio-based sermon.
And when you just constantly, just everything that's coming in is this political propaganda
coming in at you and just rarely, okay let's read a chapter of the Bible.
You're being brainwashed.
So we need to be number one, for peace.
It's not something to get happy about, people being blown apart, people dying, it's horrible,
it's sad.
And secondly, we need to stop listening to the propaganda.
I don't even have time to get into 9-11, you know, because it's the anniversary of 9-11.
You know, see me after the service on that one, you know, but 9-11 was an inside job.
But anyway, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the fact that we have something to get more excited
about than the red, white, and blue.
We can actually get more excited about Jesus.
We can actually fight a war that matters, which is the war for men's souls, the war
for the gospel, instead of fighting a war that a bunch of bankers and billionaires have
orchestrated, where we get involved in some civil war in the Middle East that's been going
on for thousands of years.
God, please just help us not to be brainwashed, but to focus on the spiritual battle and not
fight a bunch of physical wars that really don't concern us.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.