Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Fayford Baptist Church.
So good to see you all here for a Sunday night service.
Please find your seats now, grab a hymn, they'll go to hymn number 405.
We'll get started tonight.
Hymn number 405, the banner of the cross.
Hymn number 405.
Once you find your place together, we'll start singing on that first.
There's the royal banner given for display.
Hymn number 405.
Lift your voice together nice and strong now.
Hymn number 405.
Good start to our sing tonight. We want to go before Lord and ask the blessing on the service
So I've asked for the Jason next side with who lives privilege
Dearly father lord. Thank you for allowing us to be in church. Please bless all aspects of the service
Please bless the music as we sing praises under you in Jesus name. I pray amen
Amen up to him number 411 number 411
Hold the fort him number 411
Oh my comrades see the signal waving in the sky him number 411 sing it out on that first now
All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one on the inside.
We have our service time Sunday mornings at 10 30 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at six Wednesday nights at seven is our Bible study.
This week will be in Psalm 83.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below, as well as
Salvation and Baptisms.
Congratulations to the Delgadillo family on the birth of baby Lucas.
born June 21st, 4.04 a.m.
Eight pounds, nine ounces.
Mother and baby are doing great.
We got the wonderful close up there.
And so congratulations to them.
Next Sunday morning,
we'll have the donuts and coffee before the service.
Again, we talked about it this morning,
but over here to my right,
we've got all this wonderful information on the wall
about things that are coming up
in the way of mission strips.
got some possible cruise trips that you could go on
that Brother Kevin Rowe is going on.
You can always plan your own that are more fitting
with your schedule and timing and your desire to go
and preach the gospel.
And then there's a Mexico City mission strip
that Steadfast Baptist is putting on later this year,
and that is for Spanish speakers, of course,
because a lot of the world is going to English,
but not Mexico, all right?
So if you're in Europe, yeah, you can kind of go through
Europe and just find all the young people that speak
English and wind souls.
But in places where they speak Spanish,
they already speak a huge language, Spanish,
so they're not really.
in a position where they need to learn English
like these European countries
where they speak a smaller language
so they need to branch out to English
in order to interact with a larger, you know,
compliment of media and entertainment and education
and all the different things
that the English language opens up for you.
So anyway, Mexico City is for those who speak Mexican.
I'm kidding.
Also, the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship.
I know we had a raise of hands this morning.
Who's going?
And you didn't raise your hand this morning,
but you're going and you didn't raise your hand
this morning, fire breathing.
Okay, so we got everybody this morning.
So we got a good count on how many you're going.
But if you could also just sign up over there.
I'm not sure what the sign up's for,
but check it out, read it,
and write your name down on there.
Stand and be counted.
And then on the back,
we've got the note about the baby shower for Peyton,
on Sunday, July 13th.
So that is two weeks from today,
two to 4 p.m. at the church.
All ladies and girls are invited to attend
and cake and refreshments will be provided.
Bring a dish to share.
So kind of a potluck style as well.
And please RSVP if you would too,
Mrs. Jenny Akinoshio over here to my left.
Or you can always just show up of course,
but it's nice to RSVP.
And everybody's invited to that.
Then we've got a soul winning opportunity.
This Friday is the 4th of July, apparently.
And so Brother Steve Tilson is going
to be leading a crew of soul winners out
at the first Friday's event.
He's been doing that for the last few months.
They've been getting a lot of people saved.
And so you can contact him at the information provided.
There's the meeting point.
There's the time.
There's the place.
And so that is something to think about.
And then below that, we've got other upcoming events listed,
and that is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning
from the past few days.
So going back to Thursday,
anything to report from Thursday?
Okay, got it.
Okay, okay.
All right, and then what about Friday?
Anything from Friday?
Okay, okay, all right, and then what about Saturday, anything from Saturday?
All right, and then today, Brother Ian, four for the main group with Brother Ian, other groups.
Okay, gotcha.
Okay, anything else from today?
Very good, keep up the great work on Soul Winning.
And with that, let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right, turn your hymnals to hymn number 62.
Hymn number 62, save by grace.
Hymn number 62, we'll start on that first verse.
Someday the silver cord will break.
Number 62, save by grace.
Lift your voice together now on that first number 62.
Someday the silver cord will break and I know all.
As now she'll sing, but all the joy when I shall sing.
Sing go over to hymn number 93, hymn number 93.
Art thou weary, art thou languid, hymn number 93.
Sing with me on that first hymn number 93.
All right, this time we'll quickly pass
our offering plates around.
As the plates go around,
let's turn our bibles to 2nd John,
the second epistle of John.
Is it the very end of the Bible right before Revelation?
You've got those short little books.
2nd, 3rd John and Jude.
We are going to be reading both 2nd and 3rd John.
So beginning in 2nd John, verse one.
Fall along with Brother Corbin Brock as you reach.
The second epistle of John,
The elder unto the elect lady and her children whom I love in the truth and not I only but also all they that have known the truth
For the truth's sake which dwelleth in us and shall be with us forever
Grace be with you mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Father in truth and love
I rejoice greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth,
as we have received a commandment from the Father.
And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee,
but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
And this is love that we walk after his commandments.
This is the commandment that, as ye have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.
For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
This is a deceiver and an antichrist
Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward
Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ
He hath both the father and the son
If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him God's speed.
For he that bideth him God's speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink, but I trust
to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.
The children of thy elect sister greet thee, amen.
The third epistle of John, the elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved,
I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers, for I rejoice greatly
when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers.
Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church, whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort,
Thou shalt do well, because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles.
We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth.
I wrote unto the church, but diatrophies who love it to have the preeminence among them, receiveeth us not.
Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth,
prading against us with malicious words, and not content therewith,
neither doth he himself receive the brethren,
and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.
Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good.
He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself, yea,
and we also bear record, and ye know that our record is true.
I had many things to write, but I will not write with ink and pen, right under thee.
But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face.
Peace be to thee, our friends salute thee, greet the friends by name.
Our Father in Heaven, thank you once again for the opportunity to hear your word preached.
Thank you for Pastor Anderson, Lord, and thank you that he preaches with great plainness of
speech, that he opens the Word of God to us, Lord, so that we would better understand it.
We pray that you would bless him now and bless us as we hear your word preached. We ask this in
Jesus' name, amen.
Men, title my sermon this evening is the wrong kind of separation, the wrong kind of separation.
Now, first of all, separation is biblical and there are a lot of good reasons in the Bible for separation,
but then there are some wrong motives for separation and some wrong separation in this world.
So we don't want to always think that all separation is always good because we're going to see from the Bible
that it speaks about this both positively and negatively.
with some good reasons for separation.
I mean, the main point of the sermon
is to talk about the wrong kind of separation.
But first, let's start about
with some good reasons for separation.
Let's go to 2 Corinthians 6.
This is a really famous passage.
If you've been in fundamental Baptist churches
for any length of time,
this is kind of just a classic
that they're constantly going to turn to.
2 Corinthians 6, verse 14,
unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
So a right reason for separation is to separate from unsaved people.
meaning that we as a church, we're not going to yoke up with other churches
where they don't believe the same gospel that we believe.
We're not going to, I'm not going to yoke up with other pastors that aren't saved.
I'm not going to be going to the presidential prayer breakfast.
I'm not going to be going to the, you know, national council of churches,
whatever, ministerial association or things like,
not that I would ever be invited to any of these things.
I'm just being sour grapes, right? No, but I would never go to these things
to be equally yoked together with unbelievers.
Supposed to hook up with them and work together with them.
You say, oh, well, you know, it's for a common cause
of conservative politics or, you know, it's against abortion
or something. It's against the sodomites.
Well, no, we're not going to be unequally yoked
together with unbelievers.
You know, we're going to serve God with other saved Christians.
That's who we want to work with.
And of course, this also goes for marriage, right?
You definitely don't want to marry someone who's not saved.
You don't want to be unequally yoked in your marriage.
But it says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
And what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial?
Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
and what agreement had the temple of God with idols.
And by the way, typically people that worship idols aren't saved.
Like, for example, Roman Catholics.
Okay, and that's why the Bible is saying,
hey, don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers
because the temple of God has no agreement with idols.
Temple of God, that's you, saved Christian.
Idols, that's the Roman Catholic Church.
They're bowing down to a statue of a woman and worshipping it and then you're gonna tell me that's not idolatry
It is rank idolatry and Roman Catholics are not Christians, they are not saved, they do not believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
they have a hocus pocus, pagan idolatrous religion with all their little priests and cardinals and monks and nuns and things that are not in the Bible
and the Pope is anti-Christ.
Okay, but anyway, let's get back to the sermon, this isn't about Catholics.
As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, sayeth the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you."
And so this is a good kind of separation, saying, hey, we're not just going to team up with everyone who claims the name of Christ.
No, we're teaming up with believers.
We're teaming up with people that are actually saved, and we're not yoking up with unsaved people, okay?
idolatrous, so-called Christian cults.
We're not teaming up with the Mormons.
We're not teaming up with the Jehovah's Witnesses.
We're not teaming up with the Seventy Adventists.
We're not teaming up with Islam.
We're not gonna have Chryslam.
We're not gonna team up with Jews.
We're not Judeo-Christian, we're just Christian.
And so we don't want to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, but look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5, a few pages to the left in your Bible.
So good reasons for separation are number one, if we're talking about the unsaved, there should be a separation between the saved and the unsaved.
Number two, we should separate from saved Christians.
over the issue of some serious specific sins.
There are some serious specific sins
where we can't fellowship with other Christians,
even if they're saved Christians,
we can't fellowship with them
if they're indulging in these sins, okay?
And it says here in verse 11,
but now I've written unto you not to keep company
if any man that has called a brother
be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer,
or a drunkard, or an extortioner,
with such and one, know not to eat.
Now, in the context of the chapter,
it talks about how you're gonna need to interact
with unsaved people in your life,
and you're gonna need to spend time
with unsaved people in your life
that are guilty of these things.
You know, people at work, or whatever,
that are unsaved, and they're fornicators,
or drunks, or whatever.
But the Bible's saying, but if someone's called a brother,
and they're a drunkard or a fornicator or idolater.
He said, do not even eat with this person.
Have nothing to do with that person.
He says in verse 12, for what have I to do
to judge them also that are without?
Do not ye judge them that are within?
but then that are without God, judges,
therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
That means people that are outside the faith,
people that are outside of our church,
people that are just out there in the world,
just unsaved people.
You know, we're not trying to judge them.
We want to preach the gospel to them.
We want to reach them.
We can interact with them and hang out with them.
But what we don't want to do though,
is we don't want to have people in our midst
or in our friend group that are Christians
but they're living in fornication or drunkards or whatever.
You know, the Bible says put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
And obviously, when we look at this list here,
it's just a short list of some very specific, very bad things.
And also, when we look at it and we see fornicator on the list,
we could also obviously use a little common sense and say,
well, if someone's committing adultery,
that's tantamount to fornication.
So that would also be something that would be on the list
because obviously adultery is worse than fornication.
I'm talking about literal adultery, okay?
Also, when we see drunkard,
we could extrapolate that out and say drug addict
Being addicted to drugs is tantamount to being an alcoholic.
God's not going to sit there and list every single thing.
We have to use a little common sense and put the pieces together.
But flip over, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3.
And let's see another good reason for separation,
which is people who refuse to work.
People who just refuse to get a job, people who refuse to work,
the Bible says that we should separate from those people.
It says in verse number six,
now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you withdraw yourselves from every brother,
so we're talking about saved Christians,
but every brother that walketh disorderly
and not after the tradition which he received of us.
Now, what does this mean to walk disorderly?
It says for yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you.
Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and day,
that we might not be chargeable to any of you.
So he says, look, we weren't disorderly, we worked and we ate our own bread and we bought our own food, we did not freeload.
And then if you jump down to verse 11 it says, or verse 10 it says,
for we hear that there is some which walk among you disorderly, and then he defines it,
working not at all, but our busy bodies.
Now, them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ,
that with quietness they work and eat their own bread.
But ye, brethren, be not weary and well-doing."
So he says, look, you have these people that are just refusing to work,
they're not working at all,
and they're just...
Eating everybody else's food, they're freeloaders,
they're mooching off of other people,
and the Bible says,
if any will not work, neither should he eat.
Meaning that people who refuse to work should starve.
And you know what, that'll motivate them to actually start working.
if they can't just keep eating off of everybody else's food
and taking from everyone else and mooching off of everyone else.
And so the Bible says we are too with quietness work
and eat our own bread and the Bible in this context says in verse 14
and if any man obey not our word by this epistle note that man
and have no company with him.
that he may be ashamed.
So these kind of freeloaders who refuse to get a job,
these derelicts, these homeless bombs who refuse to work,
the Bible says that those people should be shunned
so that they will be shamed
and that if they won't work, then they shouldn't eat.
You know, so they're holding aside, oh, I'm hungry.
Well, what does the Bible say?
The Bible says if they won't work, then neither should they eat.
And here's the thing about these people, News Flash,
this is not the Great Depression.
2025, America is a place where jobs abound and places to work abound.
People who are out there week after week, month after month are refusing to work.
The opportunities are there, the programs are there, the jobs are there,
we've tried to help these people over the years, they don't want to work,
they have chosen that lifestyle because they want to go on these benders
where they just are high on drugs, are drunk for days on end
and they don't want to go to work, they want to be a drug addict.
And that's the life that they have chosen. And you say, well, you can't just let them
starve. Well, the Bible says if any would not work, neither should he.
That's just the way the world works.
And it might sound harsh, but in the end, it doesn't lead to a bunch of people starving.
You know what it leads to?
A bunch of people working.
Because as soon as you stop feeding these people, then they'll figure out pretty quick,
okay, I better get my butt in gear and get to work and make something happen.
And guess what? These people aren't happy the way they're doing it right now.
Anyway, they'd actually be a lot happier if they got off the drugs, got off the booze,
and actually went to work, okay?
Again, God is right and the bleeding hearts are wrong, once again, okay?
The Word of God is always right.
So number one, good reasons for separation, the unsaved.
Number two, certain serious, specific sins.
Number three, people refusing to go to work.
And number four, damnable heresies.
Go to 2 John.
We just read it before the service.
Damnable heresies, right?
The Bible says in 2 John, verse 9, whosoever transgresseth.
And what does it mean to transgress, okay?
If we break down this English word into its root components,
we have trans, which means cross.
And then we have grass, which means to go, okay?
Like regress is to go backwards, okay?
And so we have transgress, which is to go across
or to go beyond or to go too far or to cross a line, okay?
And this is often used in the Bible about sinning
because you're crossing lines
that God has drawn in his commandments,
boundaries that he has set.
But in this case, we're not talking about sinning, we're talking about transgressing
when it comes to doctrine, going outside the bounds of good doctrine,
crossing a line into heresy.
And it says, whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ,
hath not God, right?
So here's the thing, saved Christians who have the Holy Spirit inside them,
they can get into doctrinal error, they can get into heresy,
Once they cross a certain line, you're like, well, this person's not even saved.
If somebody starts telling you, oh, Jesus is not God, Jesus is just a created being,
or Jesus isn't the Son of God, or something like that, then you know, okay, this person's not saved.
They've crossed the line. They've gone too far. They've gone into damnable heresy.
what the Bible teaches, and they're just way out of bounds.
That's what the Bible is saying, transgressing and not staying with the doctrine of Christ.
So you have somebody, oh, I used to be a Christian, but now I'm Muslim.
Okay, that person has not gone. That person was never saved in the first place.
They went out from us, but they were not of us.
For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.
But they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us.
1 John 219.
So the Bible is saying that when people go outside of the faith
and they leave Christianity and they start believing these horrible, damnable heresies,
it just proves that they were never saved in the first place.
They don't have God.
And of course, this could easily apply to Jews
who were constantly told worship the same God as we do,
but yet the Bible says if they don't abide in the doctrine of Christ, they have not God.
Well, they believe in the Father. No, they don't they don't they believe in Beelzebub
But the Bible says here he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he has both the Father and the Son
If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him Godspeed, for he that bideth him Godspeed is a partaker of his evil deeds."
So we should not be yoked up with people who are not abiding in the doctrine of Christ.
If somebody comes to us and brings us heresy about Christ,
We are not to have that person in our house.
We're not to invite in the Mormon missionaries
or the Jehovah's Witnesses or anything into our house.
And we are not to bid them Godspeed.
We're not, hey, here's a glass of water.
God bless. Have a great day.
Nope, it's get out of here.
You're a false prophet. You're wicked.
Get off my lawn.
Okay, that's what it is.
Now, we've seen good separation in the Bible.
Yeah, the Bible teaches separation.
But not all separation is good.
In fact, there are many instances in the Bible where it's the bad people that are separating
from the good people.
And here's a good example of this.
And you stay there in 2 John because we're going to flip over to 3 John in a second.
But here's an example from Luke chapter 6 verse 22.
It says,
and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil
for the Son of Man's sake.
Rejoice ye in that, Dan, leap for joy,
for behold, your reward is great in heaven,
for in the like manner did their fathers
unto the false prophets."
So these people's separation can't be good
because these are bad people separating from the good.
And in fact, it's interesting when you think about, in the Bible, the two main groups of Jews that were opponents to Jesus,
kind of religious leaders that clashed with Jesus, they were what two groups?
The Pharisees and the Sadducees, right?
Well, the word Pharisees literally means separated ones.
Okay, that's literally what that means.
And then the word Sadducees goes to the priest Zadok.
Sad-Dok, Sad-U-C is where that comes from.
And that has to do with them being righteous
because Sadduke means righteous,
but then also that name Zadok,
that was like the side of the priesthood
that stayed with the Lord.
You remember when there was kind of a split
in the time of David?
There were two high priests, and then God ended up cutting off the house of Eli,
and so you have the good priests, which were the sons of Zadok.
Okay, and then if you're reading the New Testament, the Sadducees
are the priestly factions. So the high priests and the priests
are Sadducees, and so they're kind of looking at their hero,
Zadok, and also they are, you know, seeing themselves as righteous, like a double
But Pharisees means the separated ones, and if you remember, this is because they were just super
ultra into cleanliness and purity and being really separate, and they're just super clean and holy
and better than everyone else. And so even to this day, people who have a holier-than-thou attitude
are typically referred to as being Phariseical.
because they saw themselves as being ultra-separated,
uber-separated, if you will.
And so, that's not good.
The Pharisees are bad.
Jesus is preaching against the Pharisees.
And so, not all separation is good.
Why were the Pharisees so separated?
Is it because they loved the Lord?
Is it because there were such good people?
Is it because there were such wonderful people?
No, it's out of pride and arrogance and envy
and thinking, hey, we're better than everybody else
because look how separated we are.
And remember that Pharisee that prays and says,
oh God, I thank you so much that I'm not as other men are.
You know and he starts listing off all his good deeds. Man. I'm so glad I'm not like this public in here, right?
That's the wrong kind of separation the kind of separation that's just motivated by pride and
Eregancy and being holier than now. Hey, look at me. I'm better than everyone else because I'm so ultra separated. Okay?
Now, I want to get into three specific evil motives for separation that the Bible covers.
Motive number one that's an evil motive for separation is envy, okay?
And what I mean by that is envy is when you look at someone else and you wish that you
were them, or you wish you had what they have.
or you wish that you, you know, had the status or the possessions or the position that they have,
that's called envying them.
In our Monument Accular, we would call it being jealous of them, right? Being jealous.
That's not the way the Bible used the word jealous, but in our Monument Accular, we'd call it being jealous.
That is why a lot of people separate wrongly.
Look at 3rd John, verse number 9.
It says, I wrote it to the church.
But diatrophies who loveth to have the preeminence among them receiveth us not.
So the Apostle John, obviously a great man of God,
you would assume that any church would want to have the Apostle John
come and be a guest preacher, come and visit the church, fellowship, you'd want to work with this
guy. I mean the guy who leaned on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper, why in the world would
diatrophies not want John to come for a visit and not want to receive him? Well the Bible tells us
why because diatrophies love to have the preeminence among them. Diatrophies has to be number one.
He has to be a big shot and no one is gonna have diatrophies play second fiddle. Uh-uh
He's not gonna be your second favorite preacher
He has to be your first favorite preacher and you have to listen to only him and he doesn't want you
Listening to anyone else and boy. This is a phenomenon. I have seen over and over again, and it's wicked
Okay, it's wicked because we as ministers, as preachers, we should not be desiring to have the preeminence like hey
I got to be in the limelight. I got to be number one or something. That is a wicked attitude
But you see there are people who get into the ministry for the wrong reason
You know, there are a lot of reasons why people could become a pastor
One reason could be because they want to serve God.
He that desired the office of a bishop desired the good work.
And maybe they just see the need for good preaching
and they see that our world is messed up
and they see the need for souls to be saved
and for missions to happen and for soul winning to happen
and they want hard preaching to go forth.
And so they want to jump in and make up the hedge
and stand in the gap and say,
well, here at my Lord send me
the kingdom of God, the gospel of Christ, the work of God going forward, right?
But then there are other people who just think, oh, well, I'd like to be the one up there.
I want hundreds of people to be looking at me, listening to me. I want to be the one with my name in lights.
You know kind of like the same reason why someone want to be like an actor or a rock star or a politician or something
President of the United States now look somebody could want to become the president of the United States because they really want to fix things
And they want to lead America and help America or it could just be that they just want to be in a history book
They want to be a big shot. They want to be in the White House. They want to be the leader of the free world
You can see how
some of the best people or some of the worst people
could get into positions in religion or politics
or things of that nature, right?
It could be a really great person.
Just really loves God and really wants to serve God
and so he's gonna dedicate his life to serving God
or it could be a really terrible person
who just really wants fame and power and money
and prestige and attention and wants to be a big shot.
You can see how this could go either way.
Well, we know what kind of guy diatrophies was.
Diatrophies is the kind of guy he just loves
to have the preeminence among them.
And so therefore he really wants you to only listen to him.
So he's gonna separate from John, okay?
Now here's the thing, he can't tell his church,
hey guys, I don't want you to listen to anybody else
because I have a huge ego.
So therefore we're breaking fellowship with John.
Because I'm afraid if John comes here you're going to get excited about hearing him preach and you're going to prefer him
And I can't have that so that's why we're breaking fellowship with John that sound kind of stupid, wouldn't it?
So is that what die actually is going to tell his church?
No, so anybody who separates because of this motive of envy is always going to lie about
the person that they're separating from and make things up as a justification for why they
need to separate from so-and-so.
And look what the Bible says in verse 10.
Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth,
prading against us with malicious words."
So there you go. There it is, right?
So what does he tell his church?
He tells the church, oh man, John's a horrible person,
and he prates against him with malicious words.
Now let's break this down. What does prating mean?
Prating means talking nonsense.
Well, you might know the word prattle right babies prattle it means that they just kind of jibber-jabber and they're not really saying anything meaningful
They're just chattering. Well, prating is similar
Prating against us with malicious words meaning that their intentions are bad
Their intentions are to harm and they are talking nonsense meaning that their accusations are not legitimate
The attacks are not legitimate. They're prading and
The motive is malicious
and not content therewith, neither does he himself receive the brethren
and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them
out of the church. So he's saying, look, not only will diatrophies not
have us come.
And he says, I run into the church, but diatrophies who love to have the preeminence receive it, us not.
So it's John and whoever John's with, whoever he's working with, his companions or whatever.
And he's saying, you know, they're lying about us, they're prading against us with malicious words,
and he won't receive the brethren, he forbids those that would and cast them out of the church.
You know, I heard somebody talking recently about a church where people were being required to sign a paper that Pastor Anderson is wicked.
Like, in order to be a part of their group,
you had to sign a paper condemning Pastor Anderson,
you know, which is me, of course.
And the point, and it's not some other Pastor Anderson,
but the point is that, you know, this is like,
it's like, it's not enough for them
to pray against me with malicious words.
They have to make sure that everybody else
also hates Pastor Anderson too, you know.
I heard about recently at another church,
somebody told me there was a situation where this guy
is just talking all kinds of mad trash about me
in a big group, and then he just points out a guy,
you like Pastor Anderson, don't you?
Wait you love Pastor Anderson and the guy's like well, yeah, actually I do. Oh, so you beat your wife, huh?
You know and just all this just lying trash and attacks on people just for
Actually receiving us just for actually not joining in the slander and the parading against us with malicious words
Folks, there's no new thing under the Sun
You say, oh, it's so much drama.
You know, I'm so sick of this thing about like,
oh, too much drama.
Oh, so much drama in the new IFB.
You know what?
You're being a drama queen by bringing that up.
Oh, it's so much drama, it's so sad.
Why don't you shut up, you big baby?
Because guess what?
The entire Bible is filled with drama.
I guess you never read the book of Nehemiah.
It's filled with drama.
In fact, first and second Corinthians,
you could just as well call them first and second drama.
Turn your Bible to second drama 11 because in second Corinthians
There is so much drama Paul is talking about all the people attacking him
And he's gonna come there and straighten them out and these people are full of it and I'm gonna fix this and I mean
Folks you need to read the Bible and realize that there's all kinds of quote-unquote drama in the Bible
And you know what it really is, is that you're just not comfortable with fighting because you're a baby.
Because the Bible says fight the good fight.
And there's always going to be strife and friction and fighting and drama where the work of the Lord is being done.
Now if we go to some do nothing, be nothing, high steep, a few people church, then there won't be any drama.
Right? We can sit around and have your little coffee clatch, but are they going to have hundreds of salvations?
Are they going to be going and burning up the mission field with the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Are they going to be tearing up all the neighborhoods and reaching millions of people with the gospel?
No! Are they burning up the social media feed with the word of God thundering forth to millions of people?
No! Oh, but there's no drama.
So what?
Get over it, man. And by the way, what if I told you that life is just filled with drama outside of church?
You know if you worked at a grocery store
There's so much drama because I've talked to people who worked at grocery stores and they said man be in a checkout
clerk at the grocery store is so much drama and there are all these like
Romances going on and all of these breakups and all kinds of drama at the grocery store
And you know what I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands, but I'll bet a lot of you would say yeah
My workplace has some drama going on in my workplace or my school has drama
My class has drama my neighborhood has drama or whatever. It's just called people
and
You know what if you're a hell-raising barnstorm in hellfire damnation kind of a preacher
Yeah, the devil's not gonna take that lying down and there's gonna be some drama
And so John had some drama.
I mean, here's the thing.
John could have just said,
oh, diatrophies doesn't want me to come preach.
Oh, well, okay, I'll just preach somewhere else.
But instead, he's like, hey, guys, what's up, buddy?
I wrote into the church.
I'm writing you guys because I wrote into the church.
But diatrophies, who loves to have the preeminence among them,
receives us not.
Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth,
prading against us with malicious words, and not content therewith.
Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would,
and casteth them out of the church, literally throwing people out of the church,
for...
you know, being an apostle of John, listener online or whatever.
For following apostle John on X or being his friend on Facebook or whatever,
they're thrown out of the church.
And look, I've heard about people getting thrown out of the church all the time.
For even just following our church or listening to our church, getting thrown out of church,
thrown out of Bible college, getting called into the office.
Why? Is it because we're unsaved? No.
Is it because we're drunk, fornicating idolaters? No.
Is it because we refuse to work? No.
Is it because we preach damnable heresy? No.
Why? It's because there are people out there that just love to have the preeminence
and they don't want you listening to anyone else.
I mean, I've had so many pastor friends, I can't even count.
that get angry when their church members listen to my sermons.
These are my friends, they're saying they're my friends,
but then they get mad when their church members listen to my sermons
and they tell, I'm your pastor.
You need to be listening to me.
You don't need to be listening to that stuff online.
And, you know, be one thing if you're going to a bad church
and, you know, you got to come home and get your,
you know, get your fix with Pastor Anderson,
you know, when you get home because you're just,
you just need some real preaching.
But I'm preaching good sermons up here. So you should just listen to me and be done. You don't need anything else
That's a diatrophies right there
And let me tell you something right now. I want you to listen to other preaching
Okay, I'm not up here saying hey only listen to me
Okay, no, it reminds me of the patch the pirate song just listen to me
You know, it's not just me that you should listen to there's nothing in the world wrong with
Supplementing with other good Bible believing preaching out there and look we have such a great circle of friends
It's a veritable smorgasbord of sermons every week
I mean, you all listen to some great leather lung hard preaching from the Bible, biblically rich sermons.
I mean, I highly recommend the sermons from our friends like Pastor Corbyn Russell, Pastor Aaron Thompson,
Pastor Dylan Oz, Pastor Jonathan Shelley.
I'm sure I'm leaving people out, Pastor Bruce Mejia, of course.
I mean, look, I'm leaving people out, but honestly, even a lot of these evangelists
and laymen that are preaching in these churches
are preaching great sermons
and burning up the internet with great sermons.
I mean, every Monday morning you could just sit there
and just take a look at the smorgasbord
and just pick the sermons that,
there's so much good stuff out there.
And you know what?
I've had people come up here and literally tell me,
oh, I like so-and-so the preacher.
Actually, he's my favorite preaching.
I prefer his preaching to your preaching.
I've had people tell me that.
It's kind of a strange thing to walk up to me and say,
but here's the thing, that doesn't bother me at all.
It's just like, hey, I'm just happy to be
your second favorite preacher.
I'll be happy to be your third favorite preacher.
I'll be happy to be your fifth, you know,
obviously if you go to church here,
I want you to like the preaching.
If I'm not even in your top 10 or 20, then I'm a little nervous, okay?
But the point is that hey, it's not a popularity contest
It's not a contest for who can preach the best sermon who is the best preacher?
No, my friend. We're all on the same team
We're all pulling on the same rope and here's the thing if you listen to sermons from those guys
They're gonna fill in gaps that I missed
because I'm trying to preach the whole Bible, but I'm going to miss things.
They're going to fill in gaps, they're going to supplement,
and you get different perspectives, and here's the thing,
the truth fears no investigation.
I'm not afraid of you learning from other people, getting other perspectives,
because at the end of the day, you know, I know that the preaching that I do can stand up to scrutiny.
Now again, I don't think you should be listening to unsaved people and damnable heretics,
and I don't think you should be listening to people that hate our church.
But, I think there are a lot of great preachers out there in our movement to listen to.
I just listed a bunch of them, and there are more that I didn't list.
But, I think that there's also a lot of great preaching, even in the old IFB.
There are places where you can get good preaching, and good pastors, and good men of God.
You know, I just recently posted a sermon from Pastor Kyle Conley in Sacramento, California.
You know and I preach that sermon that he did on the end times where he's preaching about the post-trip rapture and everything
You know and and he's not necessarily in our friend group
I've met him and and he's a cool guy, but he's not necessarily in our group or our buddy or something like that
But you know I recommend the sermon because there's a great sermon
You know he preached a great sermon. He's a great guy
And you know what? There are other great churches here in Phoenix also in our town old IFB churches that we like and that we respect
We wouldn't separate from them or break fellowship with them. And you know we have had
Other pastors come visit our church before in the area here
And we've had other people in our church sometimes people who drive from a long way away to get here
And so they have an old IFB church like five minutes from their house and they're driving like 45 minutes to Faith Ward
So maybe on a Wednesday night, they just go to the one by their house and then they come down here on Sunday or whatever
Right. I mean amen. I'm not like well. Hey, you're two time and me
What the heck we're not married
Hey, I hear you're cheating on me on Wednesday nights over there. It's like what the heck that's absurd
And here's the thing, I used to do the same thing.
When I was a layman, when I was a teenager,
I would seek out churches that had a service
on Thursday night,
because I just wanted to get an extra service in.
And then I got into learning the Romanian language,
and so I was learning a lot of Romanian,
and so I would go to a Romanian Baptist church
on Sunday nights and just go there
just to practice the language, to speak, to listen,
and hang out there, and everything like that.
Look, there's nothing wrong.
with fellowshipping with other churches,
with listening to other pastors inside or outside of our circle of friends.
Okay, we shouldn't have this attitude of like,
well, no, no, no, it's all about me and you have to listen to me.
That's how diatrophies wasn't as a wicked attitude.
And it was Envy, he obviously envied John.
And that's why he's separating from John and lying about him and criticizing him and so forth.
And you know, everything I'm going to say in the sermon, it kind of goes to the motive for the separation, right?
Because Paul talked about in Romans chapter 1 being separated unto the gospel of God.
You know, there should be a reason for our separation, not just what we're separated from, but what we're separated unto.
You know, we want to separate so that we can be closer to God and so we can serve God better
and not be hooked up with people that are going to tear us down, drag us down,
take us down a dark path. But we don't want to just separate for the sake of separating.
and just be so ultra-independent because we're afraid
of other people stealing the show,
stealing the limelight, outstaging us.
And you know what, here's the thing.
You know, there have been times when some of our preacher
friends, you know, their churches had, you know,
many, many years ago, like, larger attendances than ours
or broke our record or whatever.
And I'm just like, praise God.
I would love for all of my pastor friends' churches
to be double and triple and quadruple
It's not like, well, no, they're bigger than us now.
Good.
I hope they become huge, all of them.
Because it's not a contest.
And only wicked people think it's a contest.
And only selfish, arrogant, ego-driven people
think, like, oh, well, it's a zero-sum game.
And so their game is my loss or something.
That's a stupid attitude.
Because I like what Pastor Shelley says.
You know we should all be serving God and everybody reaching people and and there's the thing frankly
I'm a team player and
Even the old IFB. I'm constantly filling their churches with people all the time
All the time. I've literally reached
Thousands of people across America that have joined old IFB churches because of my preaching
Amen
It's like oh you got to move to Phoenix. You got to come here. No, no you don't
They go to their church and be a blessing to that church and serve God in that church. That's a win for the kingdom of God
You don't have to come to our church
They don't have to necessarily be here with us for it to be a win. Every soul saved is a win. That's why it's called soul winning
Every person that gets saved and then gets plugged into church. That's a win
If it's not our church, so be it
Serving God is what it's about not serving me or serving faithful word, so not like diatrophies.
Go to Acts chapter 20 verse 20, I gotta hurry because I'm running out of time.
Acts chapter 20 verse 28.
So diatrophies, the Bible describes them as evil.
Because right after that, he says, you know, following off that which is evil, but that which is good in the context of deotrophies
Deotrophies is an evil guy for
slandering a good man of God simply because he's jealous of him
Simply because he wants to be number one and he can't stand to play second fiddle to anyone
That's a wicked attitude. And look, I'm not making this stuff up. There are
many pastors who I have been friends with historically that have literally
had these like secretive meetings about how like,
you know, we are no longer gonna have anything to do
with Pastor Anderson, and if you are gonna keep
following Pastor Anderson, you have to leave the church
and everything, and these are people who to my face
had flattered me and pretended to be my friends
and everything like that because of the fact
that they are a diatrophies type.
Look at Acts chapter 20 verse 28. It says,
Also, of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after them."
So on the one hand, you have just the unsaved, false prophet wolves from outside the church
that will come into the church and teach perverse things and corrupt and twist doctrine.
But also, he says, of your own selves.
And some of these guys could be saved as well.
drawing away disciples after them.
So they want to be separated.
So here's what they do.
They come in and they grab a bunch of people.
And look, this movie has, like if this were a movie,
it would have more sequels than Fast and Furious.
Okay of people who basically they come in and they're a big pastor Anderson fan
They latch on to my fan base and then they get a following for themselves
And they say okay now pastor Anderson's bad and we're breaking off from pastor Anderson
We're separating from pastors look. These are people who literally wouldn't even know who this guy is
Except that they were listening to my preaching
That's how they found out about that guy, but then that guy
Slowly works with them and teaches them perverse things and then draws away disciples after him like okay
Now stop listening to Pastor Anderson because he's bad and we you know, we're breaking fellowship with him
It's madness, but again if I had a nickel for every time that happened
I could buy like a soda in 1987, but anyway
But that's still you know
Quite a few nickels because I'm talking name brand. I'm not talking store brand. Okay. I'm talking Pepsi or Coca-Cola
And I'm talking about the movie theater. No, I'm just kidding just kidding just kidding
So he says look they want to draw away disciples after them
That's their motive
Envy they want you to follow them
Instead of just following Christ,
instead of just listening to everybody,
instead of just being a Baptist,
you have to be like their kind of Baptist
and totally separated from all these other people
and these other kind of,
and they're the only legitimate church.
And this is kind of a cult-like attitude
to think you're the only legitimate church.
I got news for you, faithful word Baptist church
is not the only legitimate church in Phoenix.
There are about 40 independent fundamental Baptist churches in the Phoenix area that are King James only and
I'd say probably 10 of them have some semblance of a soul winning program
They're probably like 10
Viable options of a church that's King James and soul. Now look, I'm not saying that those churches are faithful word because they're not I
Think that faithful word is the best one
But I'm a little biased because obviously I'm here
But the point that I'm here because I believe this is the place to be but here's the thing about that though
Is that we're not gonna say these other churches are bad?
We're not gonna criticize them. We're not gonna attack them. You know, we're gonna just realize. Hey, we're doing our thing
They're doing our their thing and you know, and I'm not even I'm not just gonna get up here and give you vague platitudes
I'll even mention
Some of the good churches in our area that I think are good churches that are serving God
You know Valley Baptist Church out in Mesa by Apache Junction pastor Kevin Cowling. I think that's a great church
I think they're serving God. I think they love the Lord down there. I think they're winning souls
I think it's a good place. What's the name of that church that?
Where brother Hesser went to it's like a brand new startup in like Chandler or Gilbert or something
Old paths Baptist church and hey, that seems like a great church pastor came here and I met him
And that seems like a good place. What's that? What's that church a desert gateway Baptist church?
You know and again you I'm sure you could go and pick apart and find all the problems with these churches
But you know what in my heart, I'm glad that these churches exist
You know, and these are just a few that I know off the top of my head.
There are other churches across town.
There's a guy in Buckeye, there's a guy in Levine, there's a guy in...
I don't know, I mean there's just, they're all over the phoenix, north, south, all over the place.
There are all kinds of churches all over the place where you could go and you could serve God
and you could do some soul winning and you could, you know, this is not a cult
where it's like, no, we're the only ones who know the truth or something.
Look, the gospel is being preached before we came along.
it'll be preached long after we're gone.
But you know why I can get up and say that
and name these other churches
and I'm not worried that you're like,
oh, let me write that down.
Why are you writing that down?
No, you know, is because here's the thing,
I believe that if you go to those churches
and if you come to our church,
you're gonna see the difference.
And I believe that there's a good reason
to be right here at Faithful Word Baptist Church.
You know, and I think that we're different.
I think that we're special,
but we're not the only ones.
You know, just because we're the special forces,
it doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of other great units
that are out there fighting great battles for the Lord
and serving God in their own way.
And so we don't want to have this attitude of like,
oh, well let's talk crap about Valley
just so that people know to be here.
No, I have nothing negative to say about Valley.
I just don't.
I don't have, in fact, I don't have anything negative
to say about any of the churches that I just listed.
You know, it's just, it is what it is.
You know, but this is faithful word.
And we love our church and we're happy here.
And if you're really just super unhappy here
and uncomfortable here and you don't like me
and you don't like the preaching,
then you should go to one of these other churches.
where you can go and be happy and love and respect the pastor.
But you know, some people though, they're just church hoppers for life,
and they're just going to keep hopping because what you do when you switch churches,
you trade one set of problems for another, typically, you know.
So you just got to decide what's important to you.
All right, I got to get back on track here. Go to Jude.
You're right there in, well, I don't know where you are, but go to Jude at the very end right before Revelation.
Go to Jude. I'm gonna give you another motive for separation. We said number one and evil motive for separation is envy
And I spent a lot of time on that one because that's a big one
It's a big one of like well
We got a break fellowship with so-and-so because we're jealous of him and you know
He's out performing us and so we got a break fellowship with him
And I've seen this my whole life with people hating brother Hiles
Two, and everybody hated Brother Hiles and is attacking Brother Hiles.
Why? It wasn't for any biblical reason.
It was because they were envious of his powerful preaching.
Everybody liked his preaching and envious of his success.
I think a lot of that was envy driven.
And so this is something that is always going to happen in every generation.
There are going to be people who envy people who are successful.
It's wicked.
But number two, not envy, but number two, another motive for wrong separation is secrecy, secrecy, okay?
Let's look at Jude 17, and it says this, it says,
Beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 18,
how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
Okay, so these are people that are walking after ungodly lusts, so doesn't this sound
like they're indulging in say, fornication or adultery or drugs or alcohol or something
like that, right?
So you know, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, whatever.
It seems like they're indulging in some sin that's gratifying to the flesh, okay?
So it says they're walking after their own ungodly lusts.
Sensual, now doesn't sensual seem to connect with walking after their own ungodly lusts?
Sensual having not the spirit.
And so we see that there could be a motive of separation in order to have secrecy.
And this is where you see cults will often go out in the middle of nowhere, right?
They'll move the church out to the middle of nowhere to some kind of a compound
where they have more secrecy, where they withdraw from society
and they disconnect you from society.
Of course, a famous example is Jim Jones, the atheist communist cult leader.
who started a commune in South America in Guyana called Jonestown.
And the Bible, people charge themselves as a Christian,
the Bible is banned at Jonestown literally,
and he was literally an atheist, literally a communist,
and they literally sang the Soviet Union National Anthem
congregationally at their church.
And I've listened to a recording of Jim Jones
leading the singing at his church of the Soviet Union National Anthem.
Not exactly Christian, is it?
He famously threw the Bible at the wall in anger,
said, God can't save you,
and they literally banned the Bible at Jonestown.
I'm not gonna go on and on about it.
But why does he move the church from,
I believe it was the San Francisco area in California.
Why move the church from the Bay Area in California
where you could reach more people?
Why would you move it?
to the middle of nowhere the jungle in South America
because you want to be able to do whatever you want
in secrecy and gratify
whatever weird lusts for power
or women or whatever it is you're doing, secretly, where nobody sees what you're doing.
And so Jim Jones is an example of that.
Same thing, right? Oh, we got to move out to Utah to the middle of nowhere because we're rolling out a new
Polygamy doctrine and whenever they rolled out that polygamy doctrine is when they moved to Utah
Because they weren't doing that stuff openly in Illinois. They were doing it secretly when they were in Illinois
secretly in Missouri, but then Brigham Young took over
and put the polygamy out in the open,
and then they move out to the middle of nowhere of Utah,
and then they have this closed system out there,
and then they're like, oh, there's too many women
and not enough men, what do we do?
And then they just start having all this polygamy,
and then because they get even greedier,
then the wives just keep getting younger
and younger and younger.
Right, and you know we have the same exact cult going on in Northern Arizona right now that whole
Warren Jeffs is the name of the cult leader. I think he's in prison
But his cult still exists in Northern Arizona north of the Grand Canyon and they have you know 18 wives and
14 wives and they're marrying
13 14 15 year olds and everything to these dirty old Mormon men
And so you can see this over and over again,
they're separating themselves from society,
separating themselves from the rest of Christianity.
We're the only right way.
We're the only legitimate church.
We have to go separate off into this geographical enclave.
So the second motive could be secrecy for wrong separation.
Not wanting to be held accountable.
So you separate from everybody because then nobody can call you out and then you tell your people don't go on the internet
Don't listen anything. By the way, the Jehovah's Witnesses are told don't research anything on the Internet
It's just set your home page to JW.org and they don't want them on YouTube watching videos about Jehovah's Witness
No
In fact, they are technically not even supposed to receive any literature from you, like if
you hand them a gospel track, they're not supposed to even take it, because they're not supposed
to read anything against their church, they're not supposed to look at anything, they can't
be exposed to anything, okay, because they're trying to separate them, isolate them so that
they can't learn the truth about their false religion, okay.
So that's secrecy.
Number two secrecy, but number three is fear fear go through into Galatians chapter two is the last point Galatians chapter two
So what were the right reasons for separation right reasons for separation is like hey
we're separating from this church because they're not saved or
serious specific sins
Fornication drunkenness idolatry, you know and obviously you could add fagotry to that
Because obviously, like I said, he's not listing every permutation.
If he says fornication, you can also assume that if somebody is just committing adultery with another man's wife,
that he should also be thrown out of the church.
Or if a married woman's committing adultery and she's unrepentant, she should be thrown out of the church.
Or that sodomite should be thrown out.
So yeah, obviously...
churches that are harboring sodomites and pedophiles and just allowing open
fortification and adultery to take place, then yet those could obviously
be legitimate grounds for separation, couldn't they? Or if they're not saved,
or if they're damnable heretic preaching damnable heresy, which again is kind of an overlap with
not being saved. But what are the wrong reasons for separation? Envy.
Oh, well, that church is a pretty cool church,
so we better demonize them so people don't go there.
Is that a legitimate reason for separation?
No.
Or number two, secrecy.
Oh, well, we gotta separate and be ultra independent
because we don't want anyone checking up on us.
We don't want anyone watching us.
We don't want anyone to see what we're doing
because we're up to no good.
And by the way, this is a red flag too
when pastors are hiding their sermons.
and not publishing them.
Now, I'm not saying that churches have to publish
their sermons online or something like that,
but it's kind of weird though,
when churches are publishing the sermons online,
and then all of a sudden, they go dark.
And then they go dark,
and then you hear from the people that go there
that they're teaching all kinds of heresy.
And then it's like, okay, that's why they went dark, why?
Because they don't want to be held accountable.
And there are churches that password protect their sermons.
Which to me is just bizarre.
I mean, we should just be preaching the Word of God from the house tops.
But it's cults who hide what they believe.
Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, etc.
So number one, envy, number two, secrecy, number three, fear.
Look what the Bible says in Galatians chapter 2 verse 11.
It says, but when Peter, oh, and by the way, drama alert.
More drama in the Word of God.
But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed.
For before that certain came from James. He did eat with the Gentiles
But when they were coming watch this he would drew and separated himself
Fearing them which were of the circumcision. So what's the motivation for this separation fear?
Like oh, well, I got to separate from this guy because I'm afraid what people are gonna think now
Peter did not believe that it was wrong to be eating with the Gentiles.
He had no moral issue.
He believed that it was 100% allowed for him to eat with the Gentiles.
But when the James crew showed up and James tended to be a Judaizer,
And so, if we read the book of Acts, you can see that James is, unfortunately, a Judaizer in many ways.
He sucked into that Judaizing mentality, you know, a lot in that story.
And, you know, in his early days, you could say, hopefully later, he straightened these things out.
But his Judaizing faction shows up, and when they do show up, Peter withdrew and separated himself.
Fearing.
Did he separate?
Because he's like, oh, I need to separate biblically.
No, no, no, he's separating out of fear.
Fearing them which were of the circumcision.
And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him
in so much that Barnabas also was carried away
with their dissimulation.
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel,
I said unto Peter before them all,
If thou being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles,
and not as do the Jews,
why compelest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
Say that ten times fast.
And so this is a separation that's motivated by fear.
The apostle Paul said,
At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.
Right and then he said the Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiferous for he oft refreshed me
It was not ashamed of my chain
So when the Apostle Paul was thrown in prison he had people separate from him because he was thrown in prison
Why? Because they're afraid that they're going to end up in the Hooskow.
If they end up hanging around with the Apostle Paul and Paul's in prison,
they feel like, oh, well, maybe I'm going to get persecuted. I'm going to get heat.
And a lot of people will say, well, we have to separate from so-and-so because we don't want
the heat that comes from being associated with so-and-so.
Because if we get associated with so-and-so, we're going to get a bunch of heat
and they can't take the heat, so they get out of the kitchen.
This is a wrong reason for separation. We shouldn't make our decisions based on the fear of man
Okay, shouldn't say oh, I'm I'm leaving that church because I'm scared
That's a dumb reason to leave a church
You know switch churches because you want to go somewhere better
You know switch churches because there's a better option for you and your family because you can serve God somewhere better
Because you geographically moved don't switch church say well, you know the church is getting persecuted. So I'm out you're weak
And we've seen it over the past few decades.
We've seen churches come under persecution
and have church members leave and quit the church.
They love the church, they love the preaching,
but they quit for one reason,
they couldn't handle the persecution.
You know, I'm thinking of a certain preacher in particular,
got up and preached a rip-roar sermon about the sodomites
and literally his Sunday morning attendance
dropped by 40 people overnight.
He lost 40 Sunday morning glories overnight.
Fear, fear you know because there's the thing when they heard the sermon they were fine
But when the backlash to the sermon came I I'm a head out
Okay, as the meme says and so we don't want to separate because of fear
So conclusion is this
separation is good, but separation can also be bad
We don't want to be ultra-separated.
We want to have fellowship with other Christians, we want to hang out with other Christians,
and we want to work together with other churches.
And you know what, it really helps us out
if we preach for them, if they preach for us.
Number one, it just helps to cover the pulpit
and fill the pulpit.
But also it helps people find out about us
and we help people find out about them.
They help people find out about us
and we help each other out on social media.
We help each other out in real life.
We have friendship.
We can get together and have big events.
We can travel and go to a conference
and do all these things.
These are all good things.
And these are the things that you miss out on and lose
when you're ultra-independent and ultra-separated, okay?
So you want to play well with others.
And we want to get along with other people as much as we possibly can.
I'm not saying that we should hook up with heretics and false prophets and
fornicators and fag hags and queer baits.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying what we should do is have an attitude that loves the brotherhood.
The Bible says that we should be lovers of hospitality, lovers of good men.
Further the kingdom of God and that means helping other churches
You know and if we can send people to other churches if we can reach people online and then point them to another church in their area
It's all about the cause of Christ folks. Don't get this diatrophies mentality
Where it's just our church. No, no, it's about the whole movement and even greater. It's about Christianity in general, okay?
And secrecy?
No, we don't need to be all withdrawn and secretive
and nobody knows what we believe
and nobody knows what we're into and what we're doing.
No, no, we're pretty much just out in the open
and everybody knows what's going on.
So we just kind of live stream everything
and just preach the word and just put it out there
and we don't hide things
and we don't discourage our people
from listening to other preaching.
No, listen to other preaching.
And number three, we don't want to separate because of fear.
That means that if our friends come under fire,
if they come under attack,
if they are being trashed in the media or trashed online,
we don't just ditch our friends, we stay with our friends
and we stay loyal to them and we back them up
and we don't just get scared and panic
and ditch our friends when they're in their time of need.
But we stay with it.
Separation should be unto Christ, unto the Gospel, unto the work of God, separation from
evil, unsaved, gross sin, major wickedness, but not just separating at the drop of a hat
and not demonizing every church that's a little different from us.
Or is this a little bit different, doctrinally,
a little bit different in their style?
Don't make a mountain out of a molehill, right?
Let's try to get along with people.
We really wanna have unity in our church,
but we also want to, if possible,
get along with other people and other churches too.
That's a virtue.
Well, it's Bar-Eyes and I've ordered a prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Please help us not to go overboard on separation, Lord.
Help us to have a necessary biblical separation,
but help us not to go overboard on separation
for the sake of separation.
Help us to be independent, but not ultra-independent.
And Lord God, help us to ultimately be serving you,
not our own interests,
and help us to always look at the big picture
of the Kingdom of God in general
and the work of Christ in general.
And it's in his name we pray, amen.
Amen. All right, ladies and gentlemen,
take your hymnals, please go to hymn 154, hymn number 154.
Blessed be the tie that binds.
Hymn number 154.
Let's sing this out together.
Let's do this, let's sing it out.
154.
Blessed be the...
things that we are spending.