Now, before I get into the story in 1 Samuel 11, we're going to come back to 1 Samuel 11,
but I want you to turn to 1 Kings 20.
Just a few pages to the right in your Bible.
1 Kings 20, right after 1 and 2 Samuel is 1 and 2 Kings.
And I want to preach on a subject today that is very important.
And we're going to start with a few Old Testament stories that illustrate the truth that I'm going to preach,
and then we'll get into some other Bible teachings on this.
But in 1 Kings 20, beginning in verse 1, we're going to start with this story of Ben-Haddad, the king of Syria,
coming against Ahab, the king of Israel.
Now, it says in verse 1,
And Ben-Haddad the king of Syria gathered all his hosts together,
and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses and chariots,
and he went up into siege, Samaria, and warred against it.
So here we've got the nation of Israel is in trouble.
The king of Syria has got thirty-two kings with him.
He's got horses, he's got chariots, he's got a mighty army coming against the nation of Israel.
Now, of course, the nation of Israel had always been taught that as long as they kept God's commandments,
followed God's laws, had faith in him, he would protect them.
He would keep them safe.
But because the nation of Israel had become wicked, they weren't relying on God anymore,
and so now they're afraid of this.
And so this host comes against them and says in verse 2,
And he sent messengers to Ahab, king of Israel, into the city, and said unto him,
Thus saith Ben-Haddad,
That's that wicked king of Syria,
Thy silver and thy gold is mine.
Thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine.
Now, that's a pretty mean request, isn't it?
He's saying, I want your gold, I want to take your silver, I want to take your wife from you,
I want to take all your wives, I want to take all your children.
And look what he says in verse number 4.
And the king of Israel answered and said,
My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine in all that I have.
Now, that was not a very bold response, was it?
That didn't have a lot of faith in the Lord to protect him,
but that's because Ahab was not a righteous man, and so he knew he wasn't right with God,
and so he basically just gives in and says, okay, I'll compromise here, I'll give him what he wants.
You know, just to get him off my back.
Well, look what happens in verse number 5.
And the messengers came again and said,
Thus speaketh Ben Hadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying,
Thou shalt deliver me thy silver and thy gold and thy wives and thy children,
yet I will send my servants unto thee tomorrow about this time, and they shall search thine house,
and the houses of thy servants, and it shall be that whatsoever is pleasant to thine eyes,
they shall put it in their hand and take it away.
So basically, Ben Hadad gets this weak, sorry response from King Ahab,
and thinks, boy, I didn't ask for enough. This guy's a weakling.
So then he says, well, I know I just wanted all your gold and silver and all your wives and children,
but I changed my mind. I want to go into your house and search and just find whatever I want and just take it.
Now look what it says next in verse number 7.
Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said,
Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief.
For he sent unto me for my wives and for my children and for my silver and for my gold, and I denied him not.
And all the elders and all the people sent them, hearken not unto him nor consent.
Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Ben Hadad, Tell my lord the king,
all that thou didst send for to thy servant at the first I will do, but this thing I may not do.
And the messengers departed and brought him whereto get.
And Ben Hadad sent unto him and said, The gods do so unto me and more also,
if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me.
And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he did put it up.
That was a pretty rough answer that he returned to him this time.
He says, hey, don't go mouthing off like you've already won the battle.
It hasn't even started yet.
When Ben Hadad heard this, he was drinking. He was actually getting drunk.
And the Bible says here in verse number 12,
And it came to pass, when Ben Hadad heard this message, as he was drinking,
he and the kings and the pavilions that he said unto his servants,
Set yourselves in array, and they set themselves in array against the city.
And behold, there came a prophet unto Hadad king of Israel, saying,
Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day,
and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
And Aaph said, By whom?
And he said, Thus saith the Lord, even by the young men of the princes of the provinces.
Then he said, Who shall order the battle?
And he answered, Thou.
Then he numbered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and there were two hundred and thirty-two.
And after them he numbered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand.
Basically, the ones who came out to fight, seven thousand.
Not very many.
And they went out at noon, but Ben Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions.
He and the kings, the thirty and two kings that helped him.
Go back where we were in 1 Samuel chapter 11, and I'll explain to you what happened in that story.
Basically what happened is, a wicked king came against the children of Israel,
and had an unreasonable request.
Wanted to attack, and instead of relying on the Lord to protect them,
they decided to compromise, give in, give them what he wants,
and hopefully that will get them off their back, right?
But did that get them off their back? No.
That just made them want more. That just made them want to demand more.
And then they came back and just demanded more.
When we go to the story that we read in 1 Samuel 11, we're not going to re-read the whole story,
we're just going to read only two verses of this story.
We already read the whole chapter, but it says in verse 1,
Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead, that's the city of Israel.
And all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash,
Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee.
And Nahash the Ammonite answered them,
On this condition will I make a covenant with you,
that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for reproach upon all Israel.
So here's kind of a similar story, history repeats itself.
Here the children of Israel are encamped about by the Ammonites,
another wicked nation, another enemy.
And basically, instead of having faith in the Lord,
like he commanded them in the book of Deuteronomy,
to remain free, to keep the freedom that they've been given,
to keep their nation intact, instead they said to their enemy,
because when they saw the multitude they were afraid,
they said, We'll be your servants, we give up,
we'll make a covenant with you, we'll make a deal with you.
God had told them that if their enemies came against them,
even if it was a great multitude, he said,
Don't be afraid of them, I the Lord will help you.
The battle is the Lord.
But they were weak, they had no faith,
and therefore they said, No, no, no, we want to make a deal with you,
we want to make a covenant with you.
And the answer comes back, OK, we'll make a covenant with you,
as long as we can pluck out every person's right eye.
Now how would you like it if you lived in an area
where your government leaders were making a deal for you,
that your right eye was going to be popped out?
I mean, that's pretty bad, isn't it?
Can you imagine if the United States made a treaty with someone
that involved every citizen having their right eye burned out,
so that they couldn't fight effectively?
You know, you can't hold the gun up to your eye,
you don't have an eye, you can't shoot the bow and arrow,
you can't fight with the sword effectively with only one eye,
and that was their rationale here.
You say, Pastor Andrew, what is the moral of the story?
What are we getting at here?
I'm preaching a sermon this morning called
The Slippery Slope of Compromise.
You see, God has drawn many lines in the sand.
We as Bible-believing Christians ought to draw many lines in the sand,
and we ought to stand our ground,
because let me tell you something,
when you start bargaining with the wicked,
when you start bargaining with the devil,
when you start giving in a little bit,
it just gets worse, it just gets worse.
You know, you start out making a deal,
next thing, your eye is going to be popped out.
You know, you start out saying, I'll give you my money,
next thing, I want your wife, I want your children.
Then you give them all that,
next thing, I want to come in your house and take whatever I want.
It just gets worse and worse,
because once you begin to compromise,
once you lose faith in the Lord to protect you,
and fear takes over,
there is no end to where it's going to go next.
You see, the Bible says this,
be sober, be vigilant,
because your adversary, the devil,
as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
You see, the Bible says, resist the devil,
and he'll flee from you.
He says, draw nigh to God, and he'll draw nigh to you,
resist the devil, and he'll flee from you.
But you see, he's walking about, seeking whom he may devour.
He's looking for the person that won't resist him.
He's looking for the person that instead of staying firm in their faith,
and resisting and saying, no, this is my wife.
No, these are my children.
No, this is my silver and gold.
He's looking for the one that will give in,
and when he finds that weakness,
when he finds an Ahab,
when he finds a Jebus Gileadite
that's going to give in and compromise,
he says, hey, I've got a live one here.
We're going to get as much as we can out of this guy.
I'm going to sift you like wheat,
because the devil is seeking whom he may devour,
because there are those whom he may not devour.
Those who resist him steadfast in the faith,
God will lift up.
God will strengthen.
God will be there in front of them to defend them,
and defeat the enemy.
Look at David, facing Goliath.
He said, the battle is the Lord's.
He said, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a shield.
He said, I come in the name of the living God.
That man grew up one day and wrote in the book of Psalms,
some trusted horses, some trusted chariots,
but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
He said, safety is of the Lord.
He said, it's not him that will it and that runs it.
It's God.
God is the one who gives you strength.
Who gives you strength and safety,
and will cause you to win the battle.
The Bible says in Ephesians 4.7,
you don't have to turn there,
one of the shorter verses in the Bible.
This is the whole verse.
Neither give place to the devil.
Neither give place to the devil, that's all.
You see, we need to resist the devil.
Don't give him a foothold.
Don't open the door to him,
and swing that door open and say,
okay, you can come in a little bit here.
Compromise a little bit, just to make everybody happy.
You know, people try to bring in,
and let's give them some examples here.
For example, our stand on the King James Bible version only.
King James Bible only.
That's our stand.
Now people will try to bring in all the other versions,
and I remember Ryan and I was talking about this on the road,
about how his uncle was looking for a church,
and his uncle called Faithful Word Baptist Church,
he was calling down the list in the phone book,
and he was calling every church,
and he was asking them,
what version of the Bible do you use?
So he asked me, what version do you use?
I said the King James Bible.
And he was King James only,
but just to really test the waters,
he would always ask this question,
well, is it all right if I bring my NIV?
You know, that was his test.
And if they said, sure, yeah, I don't bring the Word.
Then he's like, okay, well good, then I won't be coming.
You know, that's what he would do.
This is Ryan's uncle.
Who knows Norm Colby that's been there.
So anyway, he called me and asked me,
he said, what version do you use?
I said, King James Bible.
And he said, well, is it all right if I bring my NIV?
I said, well, it's all right if you bring it,
but I said, the moment you walk through the door,
I'm going to take it out of your hand
and put a King James Bible in your hand.
And he's like, all right, I'll be there.
But you see, here's the thing.
People will try to push this.
And you know where the first place they pushed it is?
Oh, the new King James.
Right?
I mean, come on.
I'm not telling you to use the message.
I'm not trying to get you to use good news for modern man
or the living Bible.
Just the new King James.
Come on, the new King James.
I remember, my grandfather, when he passed away,
my mother was upset because she knew that the NIV
was going to be used in this funeral.
And she made my mother angry because her dad had passed
and our whole family's King James Bible and so forth.
And at her mother's funeral, they said,
oh, this is her favorite passage,
and they read it in the NIV.
But it was her favorite passage in the King James.
So I called the guy.
I said, Mom, don't get upset.
Your dad's passed away.
You're sad.
You're upset.
I said, don't get upset.
Let me just call the pastor
and tell him to please use the King James.
So I called him up, and I called this pastor.
I said, can you please just do us a favor
and just use the King James Version in this funeral
because that's what the family wants.
Would you mind doing that?
And he said, well, how about the new King James?
And I said, no, it's got to be the old King James.
And he said, really?
And I'm like, yep, King James.
And here's what he said.
Well, I'm going to have to go buy one.
He didn't even have one.
And so this is Baptist Church.
He had to go buy one for the funeral.
Thank God that he did.
Actually, he didn't have to buy one
because he never used it the whole time,
but it was printed with King James.
But anyway, you say, well, why can't we just
meet him in the middle with the new King James?
Because let me tell you something.
As soon as you go to the new King James,
you might as well go to the NIV.
You might as well go because you're saying
that there's more than one Bible.
You're saying that they both can be totally different
and yet both be right.
And once you open that door,
once you stop believing that every word of God is pure,
he's a shield unto them that put their trust in,
add thou not unto his words, not thoughts, not ideas,
lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar.
As soon as you get away from the fact
that heaven and earth shall pass away,
he said, but my words shall not pass away.
As soon as you get past the fact
when he said man did not live by bread alone,
but by every word that preceded thou the mouth of God,
every jot, every tittle, and you start to think
it's just the basic idea that matters,
you are opening the door for the next generation
to use the message, the living Bible,
good news for modern man.
And literally today there are Bible versions today
that are written where Jesus is speaking like Star Trek.
There's a Star Trek Bible version.
There's a hip-hop Bible version.
There are Bible zines where you buy a magazine of the Bible
and it just opens the floodgates of perverting God's word.
Now I've got some information on the new King James
right in front of you.
It says right here, and I've checked all these facts,
and you can check them yourself,
that the new King James takes out the word Lord 66 times.
It takes out the word God 51 times.
It takes out the word heaven 50 times.
It takes out the word blood 23 times.
It takes out the word hell 22 times,
and it completely removes the word Jehovah.
The new King James doesn't mention it one time.
Did you know that the new King James in Matthew 7
when Jesus said,
narrow is the way,
he was asked a question,
are there a few that be saved?
His disciple, Philip, I believe it was,
might have been Andrew, but I'll do it still,
said, are there a few that be saved?
And he said, enter ye in at the straight gate,
because broad is the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat,
because straight is the gate,
like the straights of Gibraltar.
Straight means narrow, S-T-R-A-I-T.
Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way
that leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it.
The new King James, instead of saying narrow is the way,
in Matthew 7, 13, says difficult is the way.
It's not difficult to be saved.
But if you're a Roman Catholic,
it's difficult to be saved.
In fact, it's impossible,
because they're telling you,
you've got to be perfect,
you've got to follow the commandments,
you've got to confess your sins.
These churches that are teaching salvation by works,
that is difficult.
In fact, it's impossible.
But they're basically telling you,
you have to work and do all this.
Hey, is there anything difficult about
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved?
A little child can be saved,
because it's not difficult to be saved.
He said, you need to have the faith of a little child.
All it is, is just fully trust
in what Jesus Christ paid on the cross 2,000 years ago.
His blood, his death, his burial, his resurrection.
It's what he did that was difficult.
It was difficult for Jesus to live the perfect life for 33 years,
and to be tempted in all points of life as we are,
and yet without sin.
It was difficult for Jesus Christ,
as he sweat great drops,
as it were drops of blood,
in the garden of Gethsemane,
begging the Father if it were possible
that the cup would pass from him.
Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done.
It was difficult to be beaten,
and to be crucified,
and for his body to be buried,
his soul descended to hell for three days and three nights,
and for him to rise again.
But let me tell you something,
it's not difficult for you to receive a gift of eternal life.
Now, I know that when I've shopped for gifts,
sometimes it was difficult to buy a gift,
to find a gift, to purchase a gift.
It's a wrap.
I'm not good at wrapping gifts.
It was difficult to wrap the gift,
and it looked horrible on its own.
Seriously.
Women are wonderful at wrapping gifts.
When I wrap a gift, I'll wrap the whole gift,
and there's this one square that's exposed,
you know, because I miscalculated.
And then I basically just put another piece of wrapping
over that square and kind of tape around it.
That's my gift-wrapping method.
Or better yet, a gift bag with a tissue paper at the top.
Now we're talking.
But is it difficult to receive a gift?
No.
Is it difficult to tear open that wrapping paper?
No.
The difficulty was earning the money to buy the gift.
You know, earning $1,000 to buy someone an expensive gift.
But is it difficult to receive a $1,000 gift?
No, you just open it up, and it's yours.
The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And the New King James says that salvation's difficult
when the Bible says it's just a narrow way.
There's few that find it, but it isn't difficult.
It was difficult for Jesus.
But the New King James says it's difficult.
The New King James omits all these important words
like jacoba, hell,
replaces hell with death and the grave.
There's more beyond death and the grave, my friend.
It's called the second death. It's called hell.
And the New King James is glossing that over.
And then the New King James is supposedly
so much easier to understand.
That's why, because it's so easy to understand,
it uses the easy word praetorium
instead of the King James' difficult word judgment hall.
Now, judgment hall seems a little easier than praetorium to me.
To me, the King James' understand
is easier than the New King James' were to ascertain.
But you see, the King James is too hard to understand
because it says really big words like band
instead of New King James' easy word regiment.
Or the difficult King James' word boat.
Now, you know...
This thing belongs in a museum, doesn't it?
Boat. B-O-A-T.
You know what the New King James felt the need to change boat to?
Skiff.
Children, who knows what a skiff is? Children only.
One guy says, I think I might.
Who knows what a boat is, kids?
Kids, put up your hands if you know what a boat is.
You say, well, I can't understand the King James.
Well, boat? I'll tell you what boat is, officer.
But anyway, here's a really hard word in the King James.
That's Acts 21-20.
And the New King James, they've simplified it to myriads.
A little simpler.
In Acts 19-23, the King James has this really hard word, stir.
And the New King James made it a little simpler with commotion.
Luke 19-43, the King James has this really hard word, trench.
And they replaced it with the really easy word, embankment.
This is a really hard one in John 2-10.
I don't know how anybody can understand the King James version worse.
So that's why the New King James made it a little easier, inferior.
And then the King James used this really hard word, coat.
Isn't that tough?
So the New King James had to change that to garment.
And then in Acts 7-38, the King James used a really hard word, church.
And then he had to change that to congregation.
Or assault in the King James was changed to a violent attempt.
How about this?
Acts 14-16, the King James waxes eloquent with times past.
That means it already happened.
The New King James simplifies that to bygone generations.
The King James has this really hard word, Acts 18-12, deputy.
Kids, who knows what a deputy is?
So they replaced it with proconsul.
Now who knows what a proconsul is?
Boy, that New King James is really a piece of cake, isn't it?
Finally they simplified it for us.
Thank God they made it.
Wiser in the King James in Luke 16-8 becomes more shrewd in Luke 16-8.
Luke 19-13 uses the difficult word in the King James, pounds.
Pounds.
So they simplified it to minas.
What is minas?
M-I-N-A-S.
Who knows what minas are?
Who knows what pounds are?
Okay, well, boy, isn't the King James...
You know, I could go...
I have hundreds listed here.
Do I need to keep going or...
Alright, good.
I know I'm boring you, sorry about that.
But anyway, the point is here,
once you start switching to some other version,
if you're going to get up and say,
well, the King James or the New King James is all we're going to use and that's it.
You know what?
Some kid's going to grow up and say, why?
Why?
If we can use the New King James,
if it's okay for the New King James to change salvation,
if it's okay for the New King James to say that we're being saved,
as opposed to the King James says we are saved, like done,
then why not go to the NIV which says we're being saved?
If it's okay for the New King James to take out hell,
let's take out hell a couple more times with the NIV
and then let's get into these modern Bibles that will never use the word hell even once.
Once you start compromising, you are done.
Because once you cross that line, it's a free for all.
It's a slippery slope.
Because once you start compromising,
you just compromise and you compromise and you compromise.
If you ever heard this expression, you give them an inch and they take a mile.
If you ever heard this expression, you give them a finger and they take the whole hand.
That's what they say in Germany.
Have you ever heard this expression?
My name is Jimmy and I take all you give me?
Because what happens is when you start giving in to the devil,
he sees, oh, here's somebody who's not resisting me.
Here's somebody who's giving place unto me.
I'm just going to take full advantage here. I'm Ben Haydad.
I may ask him to be Ammonites.
There are those who teach that you don't need the Bible to be saved.
That's a doctrine that has been spreading among Baptist lately.
You don't need the Bible to be saved.
They'll say that you can just hear about Jesus and that's enough for you to be saved.
You just hear about Jesus. You don't need any word.
No, my Bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
My Bible says being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever.
My Bible says, what does my Bible say?
It says, of his own will begat thee us with the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
The Bible says that the sower soweth the word.
The Bible says receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save thy soul.
The Bible says in Psalm 119, thy word has quickened me.
The Bible says in John 5.24, verily, verily, I say to you,
he that heareth my word and believeth on him and sent me hath everlasting life,
and shall not come to God a nation.
But his past from death unto life, they hear the word and then they believe the word.
How shall they call upon him and who they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent?
And he said, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
But you say, you don't need the Bible to be saved.
The same crowd that says that, next they'll say, you don't need the name of Jesus to be saved.
Just call upon the Lord, just in general.
That's what they'll say.
No, it's call upon the name of the Lord.
Not just a random God, not just a random Lord.
No, the Lord Jesus Christ.
You've got preachers today saying that people who are Islamic might be saved
because they're believing on God.
It's all the same God, right?
Hey, thou believeth that there's one God?
Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble that there's only one God.
But do they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?
No. Do the Islamic folks believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?
No, they're going to split hell wide open.
And Mormons do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Catholics don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believing on some vague God that you've made in your own imagination doesn't save you.
You better believe on the God of the Bible.
And you better get that God from this Word.
Because in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
And when you start saying that you don't need this Word to get saved
and that faith does not come by hearing the Word of God
and that you can get faith somewhere else just from a story or a wordless book or a picture,
no, my friend.
Next thing you're going to say is you don't need Jesus.
And I sat in a Bible college and half of the class that I was sitting in
in an independent fundamental Baptist college,
Haddles Anderson College, in a summer school class taught by Dr. Al Lacy,
he was shocked and I was shocked when half the class said
you can get saved without even knowing the name of Jesus
if you were living on an island somewhere and just looked up in the sky and said,
God, I know you're out there somewhere.
Save me, whatever that means, without knowing the name of Jesus, my friend.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven
given amongst men whereby we must be saved.
That's why we're going to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
Because of the fact that, yes, you need the Word,
but when people start saying you don't need the Word,
the next thing they'll say is that you don't need the name of Jesus.
First they'll say it doesn't matter which version of the Word.
Any version will do.
Then they'll say, wait, you don't need the Word, it's just the truth.
It's just the story.
And then they'll say, well, you don't even need the name of Jesus.
Just be monotheistic and you're good.
No.
Believing that there is one God is not enough.
You must believe that that God is the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's salvation, my friend.
And you see the slippery slope?
What about music?
Music can be a slippery slope.
You see, we sing the hymns here, if you haven't noticed.
We sing rock of ages cleft for thee.
We sing amazing grace, how sweet the sound.
On the solid rock I stand, power in the blood.
Nothing but the blood, sound the battle cry.
We sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Have you noticed it's not a rock concert?
Have you noticed that it's not hip-hop and rap up here?
Have you noticed that we're not up here wiggling and wailing and jiving and jamming up here?
Have you noticed that we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that teach Bible doctrine?
That are not conformed to this world?
Have you noticed that?
There's a reason for that.
Because when you start to compromise on music
and go to worldly music produced by the world, for the world, of the world,
for filthy lucre and the love of money that produces it,
professional paid musicians instead of people who just love God from the heart,
producing doctrinal biblical music,
you see the difference between real music that's Bible music and money-driven music
is that real music has Bible doctrine in it.
And money-driven music tries to appeal to all denominations
in order to sell maximum CDs.
You see, our God is an awesome God doesn't offend anyone.
I don't think that there's any denomination that will get up and say,
God is not awesome.
But there are many denominations who will say that you can lose your salvation.
They're not singing Verily Verily, which teaches clearly that you can't lose your salvation.
They're not singing songs like Only a Sinner, which says that if you believe on Him you're saved
because they think it's by works.
They think it's by the sacraments.
And so we need to get back to Bible music and in your personal life.
Don't go down the road of listening to the worldly rock and roll music in your personal life.
Let me give you an example.
And today I'm like crazy for even saying that today
because everybody listens to rock and roll, everybody listens to hip-hop,
everybody listens to country western and all this stuff.
But get this.
I was at the park with my children last night.
And I'm at the park and yesterday we were celebrating my 10-year wedding anniversary
because my anniversary was on Friday.
I was in court all day.
I was found not guilty, praise the Lord, because I wasn't guilty.
And the jurors shook my hand and said, thank you for what you did.
Now that's a great not guilty verdict when the jury's thanking you for what you did.
And so basically I get out of court.
I didn't get home until what, 9.30 at night?
And so I got home and so we decided to celebrate the anniversary yesterday.
So we had a great day together and had a fun time.
We did some paddle boats out on a little lake.
It was like six bucks and we got to spend a half hour out on little paddle boats.
And we had a blast at a park in Phoenix.
And we were walking through the park and they had a little ride set up in the park.
And as we walked by it was the Beach Boys playing.
Who knows who the Beach Boys are?
So the Beach Boys are playing.
And all the music is about driving your fast car and you're driving down through L.A.
and you're in your fancy car and the GTO and the 409.
And then they're talking about surfing.
They're talking about how fun it is to go surfing and all that stuff.
And I was thinking to myself, wow, the music has come a long way, hasn't it?
Because this music sounds so benign.
It's about driving a car, it's about surfing, it's about playing in the sun.
It just sounds, yeah, you know, the golden oldies.
But you want to know what's funny, though?
When you open the door to the Beach Boys, it gets you where we're at today.
And let me tell you why.
When I was a child, my parents had a rule in our house that said no rock music except the Beach Boys.
I'm not kidding.
My parents literally had a rule.
We allowed no rock music in our house with one exception, the Beach Boys.
So when I was, don't ask me, but when I was a four or five year old boy,
I had a couple of Beach Boys tapes and I had a little tape recorder called the Kid Quarter.
And I would go around, and when I was a kid, I grew up listening to the Beach Boys.
That was the only rock and roll I was allowed.
So I listened to the Beach Boys all day long.
I mean, that was my favorite thing. I listened to the Beach Boys as the Beach Boys.
But guess what?
Guess what I did when I grew up?
I started listening to all the other rock and roll.
And guess what?
Did you know that the Beach Boys were best friends with Charles Manson?
Who knew that?
Did you know that?
Did you know that Danny Wilson of the Beach Boys, one of the founding core members of the Beach Boys,
used to hang around with Charles Manson with best friends?
All of the Beach Boys would go over to Spawn Ranch and hang around with Charles Manson in L.A.
And some of the Beach Boys songs are wicked, in fact.
You know, most of them sound great. They're all benign and friendly.
But that's what the devil will do to suck you in, my friend.
He'll get you on the Beatles listening to Oh, I Want to Hold Your Hand.
But you know what? The Beatles have some very blasphemous, wicked music.
And John Lennon was a wicked man.
He was an evil, communist.
You know, there's a Beatles album with him just nude on the front cover.
Just totally nude.
And let me tell you something.
The rock and roll of the 50s and 60s,
Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Beach Boys,
they seem so mild today.
The only reason it seems mild today is because of what the garbage that you're listening to now, it seems mild.
But you know, back in those days, preachers preached against the Beach Boys.
They preached against the Beatles. They preached against Elvis Presley.
Elvis Presley was not even allowed on TV for years.
His first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, he had to be shown from the waist up
because of the perverted movements of his body.
But today we laugh at that.
But it's not funny today that we think that's normal.
Because we open the door to rock and roll.
We open the door and the Beach Boys, yes, it sounds clean and fun and clean cut.
But they're hanging with Charles Manson.
They were all into drugs. All the Beach Boys were into drugs.
All the Beach Boys were doing yoga in India with that weirdo guy with the yogi and the long beard and everything like that.
Nothing wrong with the long beard, but there's something wrong with that guy that has the long beard.
Bottom line is, it's easy to slowly start to say, oh, come on, the Beach Boys, come on.
The Golden Oldies, but you know what, it just bleeds you.
It's like the gateway drug into everything else.
And even the Beach Boys, I could show you some offensive lyrics in the Beach Boys.
Literally. I mean, when you listen to the Golden Oldies,
9 songs out of 10, you'll go, oh, this is really clean.
But you know, some of those Golden Oldies have some downright suggestive lyrics and perverted lyrics.
And look at Little Richard, one of the pioneers of the Golden Oldies, who's an open sodding mic.
And this is the music that we're listening to because we get deceived into things.
And guess what, as I walked around with that kid quarter in my ear as a kid, just blasting the Beach Boys, surfing USA,
guess what I wasn't doing. I wasn't singing Power in the Blood.
I wasn't singing the Solid Rock. And if you come to my house, you will hear my children sing the hymns because that's their music.
And that's my music. That's all I sing. That's what we do. That's what we love.
We love the hymns because God told us to praise Him with a new song in our mouth,
not the old song of the world or before we were saved or what the world has to offer.
But you see, that sounds like radical preaching because I've drawn a line in the sand that says,
I want to listen to songs and hymns and spiritual songs from Christian people and that's it.
And I don't want Christian music to try to copy the world either.
You know, the Christian heavy metal and Christian rap and Christian rock and Christian contemporary, Christian son of God.
Because as soon as you go down that road, you go off the cliff.
As soon as you go off of solid standards, you go off the cliff.
Let me give you another illustration. I'm stepping on toes this morning. That's what I do. I'm a preacher.
Did you stumble into the wrong church this morning? This church preaches the Bible.
I think I've used a lot of Bible in this sermon. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
He put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God.
And many shall see and glorify Lord. Surfing USA is not praising the Lord.
And therefore we should use music that praises God.
And by the way, the Bible says teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
I don't want a dopehead friend of Charles Manson teaching me about surfing.
If I go surfing, I want to learn about surfing, not from Charles Manson's best friend.
I don't want to be around that guy. Does that make sense?
Okay, and I'm not against surfing.
But let me give you another example and then I'm going to get into some more Bible.
Why don't you start turning to Exodus 10 because that's where I'm going.
Exodus chapter 10, second book of the Bible.
But while we're going there, let's give another example.
What about the way that you dress, ladies?
Now ladies, the Bible tells us what is nudity and what is not.
He didn't want us to just guess about it.
And today you can go down to the beach or the pool or the water park
and you will see girls in their underwear.
And they call it a bathing suit, but it's underwear. It's just a different color.
No, you don't understand. It's a different color.
Hold on a second now.
It's underwear.
You go down to these places where women are in their underwear
and what bags are they wearing? Are they naked?
What if I'm just wearing a wristwatch? Does that mean I'm not naked or just a headband?
You know, God defines what nakedness is, my friend.
It's not just, well, I'm wearing a wristband so I'm not naked.
I'm wearing socks so I'm not naked.
No, you can call that appropriate when a woman is standing outside in her underwear,
but God does not condone that because God explains in two places.
Exodus 28, 42, for example, if you want to look it up.
Exodus 28, let's just look at it because you're already in Exodus 10, right?
Keep your finger in Exodus 10. Let's just go there and look at it.
Exodus 28, 42.
The Bible says this.
And thou shalt make them linen britches.
Linen britches or pants, like somebody's too big for their britches.
Thou shalt make them linen britches to cover their nakedness.
So what's the purpose of pants on a man?
To cover his nakedness, right?
And how long were these pants to be?
He says to cover his nakedness from the loins, even under the thighs,
they can reach if you want.
No.
He says from the loins unto the thighs they shall reach
in order to cover your nakedness.
Because let me tell you something.
Having your loins exposed is your nakedness.
And having your thighs exposed is your nakedness.
He wasn't telling them to go on a speedo, my friend,
because in order for it to be pants, it has to cover your thighs.
And he said it needs to reach to cover the whole thighs, what he's saying.
It needs to cover your loins completely and cover your thighs.
Now, did he say it had to go down to their ankle?
No.
But he said it needed to cover their loins in effect.
So is it wrong to wear pants that go down to the knee?
No.
Is it wrong, ladies, to wear a skirt that goes down to the knee?
No.
Because he just said cover your loins, cover your thighs.
And in Isaiah 47, verse 3, you don't have to turn there,
you can write it down for later,
but Isaiah 47, verse 3 talks about a woman uncovering her thigh
and her nakedness therefore being seen.
So the Bible teaches that your thighs are your nakedness.
So let me ask you this.
If I were to say, hey, ladies, your skirt should be down to the knee
in order to cover your thighs in order for you to be dressed appropriately,
you know, I've got some Bible to stand on.
Don't I?
Now I grew up in a Christian school where they said at some point
four inches above the knee.
You know, so four inches of the thigh was okay to be exposed.
Now let me ask you something.
Do they really have a biblical ground for that rule?
So look, if it's going to be four inches above the knee, why not five?
Why not seven?
Why not ten?
Why not thirteen?
Is there any end to it?
Because as soon as you walk away from what God said in the Bible,
you are just in uncharted waters, my friend.
You are in the wild, woolly world of anything goes.
2010, the United States of America.
This is like the public school hazard rule.
You can wear what you want as long as it's not distracting.
How do you define that?
I mean, how do you define that?
It's not distracting.
What if I wear a beanie with a pinwheel on the top of my head?
That's distracting.
What if I come in a bright neon orange jumpsuit?
That's probably going to be... I don't know, is it?
What if I wear a suit that lights up when I walk?
What if there's a girl that wears short shorts?
Is that distracting, guys?
And yet the school's filled with girls in short shorts.
Is it not?
The school's filled with girls that are dressed like a hootie mama.
And let me tell you something.
It violates scripture.
Because God says over and over to cover your nakedness.
Cover your nakedness.
But as soon as you start making excuses,
well, I'll let my daughter...
I'll let my daughter who's living in my home...
By the way, I'm the man in my house.
Amen.
I know I'm like a dinosaur up here,
but I actually make the rules in my house,
because I'm the boss.
And you know what?
I allow what my children can wear and what they can't wear.
Did you know that?
And I allow what my wife can wear.
She already wants to wear the right thing.
We don't have an issue on that.
But you know what?
My wife would go out of the house in short shorts.
Not that she ever would do such a thing.
But let me tell you something.
As soon as you start saying,
well, let's let her wear fingertip-length shorts,
you're just making stuff up.
You know what I mean?
Show me fingertip in the Bible.
But I can show you the thigh being covered in the Bible.
And so you've got to anchor yourself to God's word,
because as soon as you begin to compromise,
you might as well just throw in the towel
and say anything goes.
Because as soon as you say, well, let's go four inches above.
Make it six.
Make it eight.
Because distracting is just a subjective,
made-up rule that didn't come from God.
Let's get off all that.
You can chew on that for a while.
But next to this chapter 10, verse 8,
this is the story about Pharaoh.
And I've got to worry.
I'm going to have to cut out like half my sermon
for safety time.
But in Exodus chapter 10, verse 8,
it says,
And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh.
And he said unto them, Go serve the Lord your God,
but who are they that shall go?
And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old,
with our sons and with our daughters,
with our flocks and with our herds will we go,
for we must hold a feast unto the Lord.
And he said unto them, that his Pharaoh said,
Let the Lord be so with you as I will let you go,
and your little ones, look to it, for evil is for you,
not so.
Go now ye that are men and serve the Lord,
for that you did desire,
and they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
So here's what happened.
Moses wants to take all the children of Israel
and take them out of Egypt, right?
Pharaoh says,
You know, how about just the adults go
and you leave the children behind?
And they said, No.
We're going to go with our young and with our old.
We're going to go with our sons.
We're all leaving.
So Pharaoh's trying to get a compromise, right?
Look down at the next compromise in verse 25.
And Moses said,
Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings
that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God.
Because what happened is, then Pharaoh said,
Okay, you can all go,
but you have to leave all your animals behind.
And he said, No.
And look what Moses said.
This is the phrase that I love.
Verse 26,
Our cattle also shall go with us.
Look at the next phrase.
There shall not an hoof be left behind,
for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God.
And we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither.
So basically, if the devil can't stop you from serving God,
he'll try to get your children from serving God.
And if he can't stop your children from serving God,
he'll try to get control of your stuff
so that your stuff doesn't go to serve God
or your money doesn't go to serve God,
that you'll waste money on stupid things.
He wants to get a foothold in your life.
He wants to control you.
If he can't control you, he wants to control your kids.
If he can't control your kids, he wants to control your possessions.
He wants to get in.
Don't give place to the devil.
Let this be your motto, like Moses said.
Not one hoof left behind.
Zero compromise.
That's what he said.
He said, We've got a million animals,
and we're not even going to take 999,999.
We will take every animal.
We will not back down.
And that ought to be how we are at Faithful Word Baptist Church.
This is called every hoof Baptist.
Every hoof Baptist Church.
Young and old Baptist Church.
Don't budge Baptist Church.
That's what we ought to be.
A church that says we will not compromise even one inch,
because we know that when you give the devil an inch, he takes a mile.
We know that when you give the government an inch,
they take a mile.
Today we have a crisis in our country where we're losing freedom,
and constantly the government wants to come in and tell churches what to preach.
Literally.
They want to come in, and they want to tell people what they can and can't say,
which violates our freedom of faith.
They want to come in and take away your right to keep and to bear arms.
They want to come in and take away your right not to be searched.
Kind of reminds me of that guy Ben Haystack.
They want to come in your house and take a look around.
You know what I mean?
It's the same thing.
They want to come in and look around.
Hey, I don't want them coming in and looking around.
But you say, oh, come on, Pastor Anderson, lighten up.
Let it go.
No big deal.
No, because the problem is when you start giving up ground.
When I start getting behind this pulpit and saying, well, the Bible says,
oh, the government doesn't want me to say that.
Guess what?
The government will say, ha ha, we got him.
We're backing Pastor Anderson now.
We don't like that sermon that he preached last year in August of 2009.
And so we're going to put him on the news.
We're going to fight him.
We're going to send our federal agents out and shut him up.
And if they could get you to back down a little bit, you know what they'll say?
This guy's a pushover.
Now let's tell them he can't say this.
Now let's make a law that he can't say this.
Now let's make a law that they can't say this.
And let me tell you something.
The government has no business in this building that you're sitting in right now.
It's the house of God.
And the government doesn't have any business in your house telling you how to raise your children.
You ought to spank your children like the Bible says.
And you know what?
As soon as they can get you to stop spanking them, next thing they'll say,
well, now let's inject them with what we want to inject them with.
And it's drugs.
And don't tell me that children aren't being forced on drugs in America today.
It's called Ritalin, right?
It's called Ritalin.
Why don't you just smoke pot, you know what I mean, if you're going to take that stuff?
Because it's the same garbage.
It's a mind-altering drug, and I'm not telling you to smoke pot.
Don't take me out of context.
But hey, if you're going to take Ritalin, smoke some pot, get drunk.
Drink yourself drunk like wicked King Ben Haidat.
But I'm going to heed the Bible's command to be sober.
Be sober.
And that means I'm not going to drink.
I'm not going to take drugs.
I'm not going to let one drop a beer, touch my tongue,
because if I'm going to drink it raw, I might as well drink the whole can.
And if I'm going to drink a can, I might as well drink the whole six pack.
And if I'm going to smoke weed, I might as well take the next drug on the list.
Because once you start to compromise, my friend, it never stops.
Don't leave a hoot behind, my friend.
One last verse, don't turn there, but the Bible says this.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
He said, for 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.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day,
and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins good about with truth.
Three times he said stand.
He said stand, stand, stand, stand, stand.
The onslaught will come at you from the devil,
and you've got to draw an eye to God,
and he'll draw an eye to you, resist the devil, and he'll flee from you.
Because if you give place unto the devil, it's over.
Once you let him back you down.
Have you ever heard somebody say that when you get around a vicious dog,
don't show any fear?
Have you ever heard that before?
You don't just start running away from a dog,
because the dog will start chasing you,
because it perceives your weakness.
But when you stand firm and look it in the eye,
it'll back down, because it says, oh, wait a minute.
This guy is not as easy as I thought.
Boldness, my friend.
I've had somebody pull a gun on me,
and I didn't want to show any weakness,
because when you show weakness,
basically what you're saying is rob me, attack me,
sift me like wheat, because I'm a weakling.
And that's the message that Ahab sent out, didn't he?
I'm weak, and the guy said, well, I'm coming into your house,
and I'm going to take whatever I want.
Stand up, my friend.
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might,
and don't back down. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the Bible,
and we thank you so much for your word.
It gives us these great examples that can teach us some bad examples about weaklings.
Ahab, nobody names their child Ahab because he was a weakling.
Ahab was weak, but men like Moses were strong and said,
not one hoof is going to be left behind.
Help us to be like a Moses and have fearlessness and boldness
when it comes to doing what's right.
Help us to be like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that we learned about on Wednesday night.
And in Jesus' name we ask these things, amen.