In Titus chapter 2, we have this great chapter about how older men should be behaving themselves,
younger men, older ladies, younger ladies.
God's giving instructions to these various demographics on the type of lifestyle that they should be living
and what is right and what is wrong.
And he gets down to verse 11 after explaining all that,
and he also explained how employees should be and how servants should be toward their masters.
He says in verse 11, 4 meaning because there, like a conjunction at the beginning of the sentence,
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denied ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world,
looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
And so what God is explaining here after he got done giving these very specific instructions
about what is right and what is wrong for various groups of people,
he says the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.
By the way, there goes Calvinism out the window right there.
Oh, it's only for a certain piece, just for the eye.
No, the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.
But notice, it doesn't stop at salvation.
He says, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly.
He's saying we should live righteously, and we should live godly in this present world.
And so being saved is great.
But after you're saved, there are other things that God says that you should do after that.
Now, you're not automatically going to do it, but he said you should do it.
You see, in order to be saved, the Bible just says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
The famous verse, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, where he says,
For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast.
Then he says, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
So God has works that he has ordained that we should be doing.
Are we automatically going to do them? No, but we should be doing them.
Do we have to do them to be saved? No.
He said your salvation is not by works, it's by faith, but there are works that you should do.
Here he says that we should learn, teaching us, verse 12, that denying ungodliness and worldly lust,
we should live soberly, righteous and godly in this present world.
And then he says in verse 13, Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God
and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity.
That's salvation, redeeming us from all iniquity, forgiving all of our sins.
The Bible says in Colossians 1.14, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
But it's not just teaching us that we should live godly.
It's not just saying he gave himself for us just to save us, just to redeem us from iniquity.
Look what it says in the latter part of the verse.
And purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
So God was trying to accomplish two things. Number one, to save us.
Number one, to redeem us from all iniquity.
You know, the first one is just to forgive us of all our sins.
But he says that also his purpose in dying for us was to purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
So he doesn't just want us to be saved, he also wants us to be purified.
He doesn't just want us to be saved, he wants us to do work.
He wants us to do works for him and to serve him and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.
You say, why are you preaching about it? Well go to 1 Peter chapter 1.
The reason I'm preaching about this is that many people today are misguided into believing that salvation is the only thing that's important.
And that soul winning is the only thing that's important.
And that everything else is not important.
Now, I'll be the first to tell you that salvation is extremely important.
What is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
It doesn't matter what you accomplish in life, it doesn't matter how many times you go to church, it doesn't matter how much you clean up your life.
If you're not saved, if you go to hell, it's all in vain, it's all worthless, it means nothing.
Salvation is the most important thing.
There is nothing in this world more important than your own personal salvation.
That is the most important thing.
That's why it blows me away when I knock on somebody's door and ask, do you know for sure if you're going to heaven?
I don't know. Can I take 5 minutes and show you from the Bible? No, no, the game's on.
No, I'm busy. No, no thanks. I don't have time right now.
There's nothing more important. Nothing.
I mean that is the number one thing. But let me ask you this, is it the only thing?
No, it's not the only thing.
If it were the only thing, it would be what I would preach about on Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night every week.
And it's not. Yes, it's the most important thing, but it's not the only thing.
How many times in your life do you get saved? Once.
But you have a whole life to live after that where you have all kinds of choices,
you have all kinds of works that God has before ordained that you should walk in,
you have all kinds of temptations and opportunities to fall and to commit sin.
There's so much more to the Christian life than just being saved.
Being saved is just the beginning. It's the foundation. It's the bedrock.
It's the most important thing, but it's not the only thing.
Likewise, soul winning.
Now our own personal salvation is number one because if you're not saved, you're not going to get anybody else saved.
You got to get saved first and then you worry about saving other people.
But you see, just as being saved is the number one thing, but yet it's not the only thing,
going out and getting people saved is the number one thing, but it's not the only thing.
I mean, it's the most important thing to be out there winning souls to Christ,
to be giving the gospel to your friends and loved ones and co-workers and schoolmates,
whoever you have the opportunity to give the gospel to.
That is the number one thing. That's the most important thing about our church.
That's what we emphasize. It's our number one purpose, but it is not our only purpose.
We have other purposes too. You say, what's the other purpose?
To teach you to be godly, to teach you to be sober, to teach you to be righteous.
Now there's a movement out there amongst churches, and this is the movement that I actually grew up in for a while.
And I've heard most people refer to it as the New Evangelical Movement.
And that's just a label that some people use, take it for what it's worth.
That's what I always called it and that's what I've always heard people call it.
And I would say that for about five years of my life as a teenager,
I went to churches that would probably be classified as New Evangelical churches.
Meaning they weren't fundamental Baptists. They weren't fundamentalists.
They were New Evangelicals. They weren't old-fashioned. They were New Evangelical.
And these churches that I went to, I spent about five years going to these types of churches.
I grew up an Independent Fundamental Baptist and then when I was a teenager, for whatever reason,
my family and I started going to these New Evangelical type churches.
And we went there from the time I was probably about, let's see, 12 to just when I was just turning 17.
So 12 through 16 inclusively. So five years I went to those types of churches.
And basically at these types of churches, it was a very watered-down preaching with a philosophy that said,
getting people saved is the only thing that's important.
Therefore, we need to make sure that nothing in the church offends the lost.
We need to make sure that we don't preach too hard.
We have to have music that will be friendly toward people coming in and seeker-sensitive.
And we want everything to be geared toward reaching the lost.
Because if we preach too hard, we're going to turn them away.
And hey, it's just not worth it.
Basically what they're saying is, it's not worth it to preach on godliness, righteousness, and sobriety.
Because that's not what lost people want to hear.
And the most important thing is just reaching the lost, so let's just worry about that.
Now go if you would. Are you in 1 Peter?
Yeah.
Now look, I'm all for winning people to Christ.
And I'm all for reaching the lost.
But not at the expense of righteousness, godliness, and sobriety.
Look at 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 9.
That is not right. I think I wrote down the wrong verse.
I'm sorry, 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9. I wrote down the wrong chapter. Sorry about that.
It says in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9,
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,
which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
So notice, he said the same thing in verse 9 that we saw in Titus 2.
He said he's chosen us to be a peculiar people.
That means we're supposed to be different than the world,
because we're supposed to deny the worldly, ungodly lust that the world indulges in.
He says in verse 11,
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul.
He says I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims.
What is a stranger? A foreigner.
What is a pilgrim? Someone who's just traveling through.
God's telling us our citizenship is not on this earth.
We're just passing through. We're just pilgrims on this earth. We're just strangers here.
We don't belong here. We don't fit in here.
And he says we need to abstain from fleshly lust.
Having your conversation, verse 12, honest among the Gentiles,
that whereas they speak against you as evildoers,
they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Now we're going to come back to 1 Peter, chapter 2.
But go if you would to 1 Corinthians, chapter 9.
1 Corinthians, chapter 9.
You see, this right here in 1 Corinthians 9 is the mantra of the new evangelical movement.
In 1 Corinthians, chapter 9, the Bible says in verse number 22, 1 Corinthians 9, 22,
To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak.
I have made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
And they take this as, hey, we need to become all things to all men,
unto the rock and roller, we need to become a rock and roller.
Unto the hip hopper, we need to become as unto hip hop.
Unto the skater, we must become a skater.
And I'm not saying, hey, skateboarding is not a crime.
We just say that right now.
But anyway, I'm just saying this idea that we've got to fit in with the world to win the world.
This is the new evangelical philosophy.
You say, you're wrong. I lived it. I believed it.
I went there for five years and I bought into this and I would tell people, hey,
the main thing is just reaching people and that's what matters
and we need to just do whatever it takes to reach people with the gospel and reach the lost.
And you know what? We've got to fit in with them.
We've got to have their music. We've got to dress like them.
We've got to act like them. That's how we're going to reach them.
We've got to become one of them and so forth.
I know what I'm talking about because I've been there. I lived it.
And let me tell you something. It doesn't work. It didn't work.
The whole time I was there and it still doesn't work.
And I'm going to show you why.
First of all, the Bible says here that we should become all things to all men.
He said that I might by all means save some.
And they'll take that to mean, you know, just whatever it takes.
If we need to go to a bar and drink a beer with them, you know,
if that will make them open up to the gospel, you think that's silly,
but this is what people literally think. This is what they think.
They think, hey, I'm going to go to the bar and maybe I'll just have a Coca Cola or whatever
and with them drinking, and that's how I'm going to reach them.
That's how I'm going to give them the gospel.
And in many cases, they'll even drink a beer with them
because they don't want to seem holier than thou.
They don't want to seem legalistic.
You know, if they say, hey, I don't drink, it might offend them.
So we need to sit down and have a beer with them so that we can get on their level
and relate to them and talk about the gospel with them.
But if you go up and read the context of this, starting in verse 19,
because this is a great passage. This is one of my favorite passages.
It says in verse 19,
For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all,
that I might gain the more.
He said in verse 20,
Unto the Jew I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews,
to them that are under the law, as under the law,
that I might gain them that are under the law.
He's saying, look, I'm trying to relate to people on their level.
Unto the Jew I became as a Jew.
And you say, well, that sounds great, Pastor Anderson.
You know, you've got to be like him to win them.
But notice what he says next.
To them that are without law, as without law.
He's saying, I went to those that are without law.
What law is he talking about?
God's law.
He says, unto them that are without law, I became as without law.
But look at the next thing he says, though.
This is the part that the New Evangelicals missed.
Being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.
Now, am I just seeing things, or did that not say,
that Paul is under the law to Christ?
Is that not what that says?
He said, I went to those that are without the law,
and I became like them, except I did not violate God's law to be like them.
That's where I drew the line.
Does everybody see that?
He said, yeah, I was like people that are without law.
He's saying, yeah, I went to the unsaved.
I went to the unbeliever.
I went to the hip hop crowd.
I went to the rock and roll crowd.
I went to the skater crowd.
I went to the tweaker crowd.
And yeah, you know what?
I'll go with them, but I'm not going to violate God's law to do it.
I'll talk to them.
I'll give them the gospel.
I'll reach out to them.
I'll be their friend.
But I'm not going to break God's law to do it,
because I'm still under the law to Christ.
Now, the problem with the New Evangelical movement
is they don't believe that.
Because they say, we're not under the law.
We're not free in Christ.
Free in Christ.
They say it over and over again.
We're free in Christ.
We have liberty, Christian liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty.
And you're trying to show them stuff in the Bible,
where it says we're supposed to be godly.
We're supposed to be righteous.
We're supposed to abstain from worldly lusts.
We're supposed to be peculiar people.
And they want to just completely fit in with the world.
They think that that's what this means when he said,
I became like them.
They think it means completely fit in the world.
But how does that jive with the part where he said,
we're supposed to be a peculiar people?
We're supposed to be different.
So you have to balance these two ideas,
is what I'm trying to say.
God is saying, yeah, reach out to them.
Relate to them.
But don't be without law to Christ.
And you're still needing to be a peculiar people.
You still need to be different in the sense
that you're abstaining from fleshly lusts.
They aren't.
You're abstaining from unrighteousness.
They aren't.
OK?
You are sober.
They are not sober.
There's a difference that needs to be between God's people
and the world.
And that difference needs to be maintained and not
a thing of being like them to win them
in the sense of crossing the lines of breaking God's law.
But you see, they'll teach, we're free in Christ.
We're free in Christ.
Now, go to Romans 6.
Let's go back a few pages.
Now, it's always good to compare scripture with scripture,
right?
Because Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9,
he said, to them that are without law,
if I return to Romans 6, I'm going to read it to you again.
He said, to them that are without law, as without law,
but Paul said, being not without law to God,
but under the law to Christ.
So Paul said, I'm under the law to Christ.
He said, I'm not without law.
I'm under the law.
OK?
Now, look at Romans 6.
In Romans 6, it says in verse 14,
for sin shall not have dominion over you,
for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Now, they'll look at that and say,
see, we're not under the law.
We're under grace.
And here's how they interpret that.
We no longer have to obey God's law.
That's how they interpret it.
Like, hey, we're not under the law.
We don't have to obey God's laws.
We're free in Christ, Christ in liberty.
Whatever the Spirit guides us to do,
and whatever the Spirit leads, we can do it.
If the Spirit leads me to drink a beer,
I'm going to drink a beer.
If I'm watching a movie and the Spirit's not bothering me,
well, then it's OK for me to watch the movie,
even if there's nudity, even if there's fornication,
even if it's blasphemous.
As long as the Holy Spirit is not convicting me.
Now, if the Holy Spirit starts telling me no,
that's why I need to stop.
But I'm going to let the Spirit lead,
because I'm not under the law.
I'm not a legalist, man.
I'm free in Christ.
And that's what they'll say.
And anybody who tries to preach God's laws,
they'll say, you're a legalist.
You're trying to bring us under the law.
You try to preach God's law.
Thou shalt not.
Thou shalt do this.
Be sober.
You know, do this.
A woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man.
Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment.
Wait a minute.
You're trying to bring us under the law.
And they'll try to say that free in Christ
means that God's law doesn't apply because we're in a grave.
But look at the next verse.
He says in verse 14,
For sin shall not have dominion over you,
for you are not under the law, but under grace.
What then?
Shall we sin because we are not under the law,
but under grace?
God forbid.
So he says, wait a minute.
Does the fact that we're not under the law,
does that mean that we should sin?
God forbid.
Now you say, well, what's the big deal?
Because the Bible defines sin as the transgression of the law.
The Bible says sin is the transgression of the law.
That was the definition of sin.
So here's my question for the New Evangelicals.
If we are not supposed to obey God's laws anymore,
then why does he say, hey, just because you're not under the law, don't sin.
Sin against what law?
If the law no longer applies.
When sin is the transgression of the law,
by definition in the New Testament,
that's how the New Testament defines sin
in the book of 1 John toward the end of the New Testament.
So what am I trying to say here?
What I'm trying to say here is that we are under the law
in the sense that we have to obey the law.
Jesus didn't say, if you love me, keep my suggestions.
He said, if you love me, keep my commandments.
But we are not under the law in the sense that the Bible says
that we are not under the curse of the law.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.
You see, we are saved from our sins.
We're saved from the penalty of our sins.
We're not under the curse of the law that says the soul that sinned it shall die.
We're saved. We're under grace.
Grace is what saves us.
We're not under the law but under grace in regard to our salvation.
Is everybody listening?
We're not under the law but under grace in regard to salvation.
But in regard to our lifestyle and the way we live our life,
you better know we're under the law.
And that's what Paul said, I'm under the law of the Christ.
Because on this hand, when it comes to salvation, it's by faith with zero works.
But when it comes to our lifestyle, it's a lifestyle of works.
Amen.
God demands works.
What does God demand for salvation?
Just faith.
What is salvation?
Just grace.
Is the law what saves us?
No, the law cannot save.
It's grace that saves.
It's faith that saves.
It's not the law.
It's not works.
But when it comes to after we're saved and how we live our life,
you know what it's about?
It's about the law.
And it's about works.
And it's about obeying Christ.
And it's about doing what's right.
And it's about being godly and righteous and sober.
That's what it's about.
Amen.
And the New Evangelicals, this is all they want to talk about all day long.
Grace, faith, free in Christ, not under the law.
You know what?
That was great when I got saved.
But now I'm saved.
It's time for me to move into a zone of doing some work.
And it's time to move into a zone of obeying God's law.
You see, this doctrine that says,
well, some things might be wrong for you but they're okay for me to do
because the Holy Spirit's not convicting me.
And some things that are wrong for me may be right for you
because we're all just free in Christ.
It's just what the Spirit leads.
That is a false doctrine.
God has laws written in black and white of what is right and what is wrong,
and they're the same for everybody.
They don't change from person to person depending on how you feel
or what your conscience is telling you.
Now, go if you would to 2 Peter, or go back to 1 Peter 2,
and then we'll go to 2 Peter 2.
So this whole thing of Christian liberty, free in Christ,
not under the law, under grace, okay?
When it comes to salvation, I'm on board with it.
I'll be the first to tell you salvation 100% by grace.
And it's not the law, and it's not works.
But you know what?
It's time to move on now that you're saved
and start doing some works and get under the law, my friend.
Paul said he's under the law.
He said, you know, when I went to those people that were without law,
when I went to the lawless individuals,
he said I was not without law unto Christ.
I still realize I've got to obey God and obey Christ,
and I'm not going to break God's laws to try to reach out to the unsaved.
You see, when you're breaking God's laws to try to reach the unsaved,
you're going too far.
You're not in God's will when you're doing that.
Your heart may be in the right place,
and I think that the heart of the New Evangelical Movement
is in the right place sometimes where they say,
hey, we've got to reach this people.
So what, man? Get over it.
So what about your clothing standards?
This is what they'll say.
You're going to sit there and preach about the clothes that people wear
when people are going to hell, and it's all about getting them saved,
and you're sitting here talking about the way people dress.
I mean, look.
How many times have I preached a sermon about how we should dress
based on the Bible where there's all these Scriptures
telling us about how to dress, telling us how to have our hair,
telling us how to live our life,
telling us what we should and shouldn't do?
And here's what people say.
What did that have to do with the Gospel?
How is this sermon going to get people saved?
I mean, look, I'm serious.
I've had people say that to me hundreds of times.
I'll preach a sermon all about how we should be sober,
and then they'll say, excuse me, who is getting saved from this sermon?
What does this have to do with the Gospel?
You need to preach on Christ.
You need to preach on the death of your own resurrection.
You need to preach on salvation.
We need to get people saved.
Well, you're worried about clothing.
Look, I've heard this, Mike.
I've heard this ever since I got out of the New Evangelical Group.
While you're worried about clothing, people are going to hell.
While you're worried about a haircut, people are going to hell.
While you're worried about TV shows that people are watching, people are going to hell.
While you're worried about the movie theater, people are going to hell.
And you need to get all fetched up and just preach Christ
and just make it all about the Gospel,
and it's all about getting people to say, this is the New Evangelical Movement.
You're a legalist.
You're preaching the law.
You need to get out from under that and get under grace.
Look what the Bible says in 1 Peter.
We read the part in 1 Peter 2 where he said in verse 9 that we should be able to kill your people.
We saw the part in verse 11 where he said that we should abstain from fleshly lust.
Kind of a tongue twister there.
And then he says in verse 16, look at verse 16.
As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
Now let me read that to you one more time, and I want you to let these words sink in.
As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
Now I'm going to explain that verse, go just a few pages over to 2 Peter 2.
Watch how this ties in.
In 2 Peter 2.
In 2 Peter 2, it says in verse 19,
and this is talking about false teachers and false prophets that were among the people.
He says in 2 Peter 2.
While they promised them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption,
for of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought in bondage.
So let's combine what we got in 1 Peter 2.
And 2 Peter 2.
Where he said in 1 Peter 2.
That we should not use our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness.
Now what does that mean, a cloak?
What is a cloak?
It's an outer garment. It's the last thing you put on.
It's usually a cloak. This wouldn't even really be a cloak.
It would be the thing I put on over this.
Like a really big coat that I put on over this.
Like a mantle, we might call it.
Or a cloak or an overcoat.
A cloak is like an overcoat.
It's a covering.
So here's what he's saying.
Don't use liberty as a way to cover up for your own maliciousness.
Don't use liberty as a cloak of maliciousness.
And he says here in verse 19 of 2 Peter 2.
He says while they promised them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption,
for of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought in bondage.
Now let's back up and get to context.
Go to verse 14.
They have eyes full of adultery and they cannot cease from sin.
What does that mean, eyes full of adultery?
The Bible says that whoso looketh on a woman to lust after
hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
This is sitting on TV and watching all the adulterers and fornicators
and all the filth on TV.
All the women in the short shorts and the short skirts
and scantily clad and thinking a lustful thought
and you're watching all that garbage
and you know what your cover is, you know what your cloak is,
you know how you hide that and cover that up,
your little decoy, your code word.
Oh, it's liberty.
It's Christian liberty.
I can watch this movie without being offended.
I'm free in Christ and I'm going to watch it with my unsaid friend.
And we can relate to each other as we watch the same movies
and look at all the same scantily clad women on the silver screen.
But he says here having eyes full of adultery and they cannot cease from sin,
beguiling unstable souls,
an heart they have exercised with covetous practices,
cursed children which have forsaken the right way.
Jump down if you would to verse 18.
For when they speak great swelling words of vanity,
look at this, they allure through the lusts of the flesh,
through much wantonness,
those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
While they promised them liberty,
they themselves are the servants of corruption.
For whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought upon him.
What does that mean?
They promised them liberty,
but what they actually deliver is bondage and corruption.
What does that mean?
Well, here's what they promised.
Hey, are you tired?
Listen to me now.
Are you tired of those churches that are always preaching a bunch of rules,
a bunch of dos and don'ts?
Are you tired of churches that condemn you for your lifestyle?
They condemn you just for drinking a beer.
They condemn your music.
They condemn your movies.
They condemn your clothing.
Wouldn't you rather come to a church where there's a little more freedom?
Where you can just come as you are and just kind of let your hair down
and just be free in Christ and just worship Christ in your own way
and have a little more freedom.
And so they promised them liberty.
They say, hey, at our church, we're not going to rip on sin.
We're not going to rip your face.
We're not going to judge you.
We're not going to judge you for your lifestyle.
If you're a sodomite, we're not going to judge you.
We're going to love you.
If you're living with your girlfriend on a wedlock, we're not going to judge you.
We're going to love you.
We're going to reach out to you.
We just accept everything.
Everything's fine.
Okay, but you know what?
That's the promise.
But you know what they really bring is bondage.
Why? Because sin is bondage.
Amen.
So if you go to a church that condones of all sin
and just tells you that all your sin is okay,
basically that's the church that keeps you enslaved.
That's right.
And the church that preaches against sin
and will tell you what the laws are
and will tell you what's right and tell you what's wrong,
that's the one that's releasing you from the chains of sin in your life.
The church that tells you it's okay to drink
is just basically handing you a ball and chain
saying, here you go, chain up, buddy.
Be a slave to the bottle.
Be a slave to sin.
The church where you can go to the pastor's house
and watch all the DVDs of all the Hollywood filth
and he'll sit down and watch it to you,
he might as well say, sit on the couch with me
and put on this shackle.
Sit on the couch with me and put on this handcuff.
Get on the couch with me.
Let me put a ball and chain around your ankle.
Because he's bringing you deeper into the depths of sin
which always enslaves you.
And the bonds of sin hold you back
from what you could be doing for God
when your mind is filled.
And notice the word that kept coming up
in all this preaching that I'm showing you
is the word lust.
Lust, lust, lust, lust.
Did you notice that?
Every passage we've heard you pretty much use the word lust.
Because the devil wants to get you enslaved by lust.
He wants to get you to where your flesh
and the desires of the flesh
and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh
is controlling you and stopping you from serving God.
You see, it may seem cool
when you can go to the pastor's house
and watch a dirty movie with him.
But you know what?
It's holding you back from serving God
according to all these scriptures.
And I'm going to show you more about that in a moment.
But he said here, they promised them liberty
but they themselves are the servants of corruption.
Go to Galatians chapter 5.
So we saw the one passage that said,
hey, don't use your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness.
Don't use it as a cover, he's saying,
for your sin, to cover it up.
Okay?
Don't use it as a shield from scrutiny of others.
Now in Galatians chapter 5,
we find a similar concept about freedom
and about liberty, about Christian liberty.
He says in verse number...
Let me find my place here.
He says in verse number 13,
Ye have been called unto liberty.
So there, yeah, I'm all for freedom and liberty.
But watch this.
Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another.
So God's saying this.
Yeah, of course you're free.
Of course you have liberty.
But don't use your liberty to feed your flesh.
Don't use your liberty to fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Oh, just because you're under the grace
and not under the law, you're going to sin?
You're going to break my laws?
You better be under the law of Christ.
And so this whole philosophy that says
that, you know, well, we're free in Christ
and we have liberty,
therefore we can participate in worldly sinful activities,
it just doesn't fly with the Bible.
It's just not what the Bible teaches.
Now look at Matthew 13, if you would.
Matthew chapter 13.
We touched on this this morning with the parable of the sower,
and I'm going to tie it in yet again.
You see, the movement out there that says,
preach the gospel, preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and nothing else, okay?
And look, Paul said,
yeah, that's what I do with unsaved people.
He said when I first came to Corinth,
I determined with myself not to preach Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, that's all I preach.
But once you're saved, he'll preach you the rest.
Obviously, we don't go door-to-door preaching all this stuff.
We go door-to-door preaching one thing, Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
That's the power of God unto salvation.
But look, is anybody here not saved tonight?
Anybody?
God bless you, rest your good hand.
Anybody not saved tonight?
Did you notice I'm preaching to people that are saved?
Now, obviously, there are people that are not saved
that are in our services.
Probably most of the time,
there's somebody in here that's not saved.
But I don't preach for them, I preach for you.
I don't preach to the visitor, I preach to the church,
which is God's people.
And the Bible says that my preaching is supposed to be
for the edification of the saints,
for the perfecting of the saints,
the edifying of the body of Christ.
And so I'm preaching to the saved.
And this philosophy that just says,
well, just preach about Jesus, preach the gospel,
is all about getting people saved.
All this other stuff, they say,
is a hindrance to getting people saved.
They'll look at preaching.
Listen to me now.
They'll look at preaching against alcohol and say,
that's turning people away from the gospel.
That's a hindrance to getting people saved.
They'll look at a preacher who preaches
that women should dress like women
and men should dress like men,
and they'll say, hey, that's a hindrance to the gospel.
They'll look at a preacher that preaches on Sodom and Gomorrah,
how God rained fire and brimstone on homosexuals,
and they'll say, hey, you're turning people away from the gospel.
They'll look at a sermon that preaches about what's right in any area,
and they'll say, hey, that is offensive to people
because it's too extreme or whatever.
But it's what the Bible teaches.
It is what it is.
You call it extreme or radical.
I just call it Bible preaching.
Now, they look at that and they say,
hey, that's stopping people from being saved.
But I'm going to prove to you tonight from the Bible
that what's really stopping people from being saved
is Christians who live a worldly life.
That's what's stopping people from being saved.
Now, in these churches,
and I spent time in these New Evangelical-type churches
that had this philosophy of just, hey, it's just the gospel,
it's just salvation, it's about reaching people,
it's about loving people,
and don't get hung up on all the laws and the do's and don'ts.
And this is what they say, I hate religion.
It's all about a relationship.
Well, the Bible says that pure religion
and undefiled before God and the Father is this,
to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction
and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
The Bible defines true religion
as keeping yourself unspotted from the world,
keeping yourself clean from the filth of the world.
God calls it religion.
Isn't that the reason why you see all these New Evangelicals
basically attacking religion?
I mean, I saw a bumper sticker on the back of somebody's car
less than a week ago.
They just say, no religion.
Big, giant, all capital letters.
I thought it was like an atheist, right, wouldn't you think?
Like a huge sticker, no religion.
I'm like, okay, atheist?
Then I walk up and look close and it says in tiny little letters,
just our relationship with Jesus.
Now look, I know you'd love that.
I know you'd love to have no religion.
So you can just live however you want
and you can be just like the world
and you can watch all the world's movies
and you can go to all the worldly parties
and have all the worldly lusts
and look at all the scantily clad women on the silver screen
and I know that you want no religion,
but God says get some religion.
Get yourself unspotted from the world.
Get yourself clean from the filth of this world.
And that's what religion is all about, according to the Bible.
They say religion's bad.
I mean, I'm not going to say it from the pulpit,
but there's a church in Chandler that had a billboard up
and I'll censor it for, you know,
it wasn't anything really dirty or anything.
I don't want to offend anybody here.
But basically I'll just tone it down a little,
but it basically just said religion stinks.
Huge billboard, that's all it said.
Religion stinks.
What are they saying?
Basically what they're saying is,
man, it stinks to keep yourself unspotted from the world.
It's so much more fun to just indulge in all the lust plus Jesus.
And I remember I listened to a sermon by,
I was listening a long time ago,
probably 10 years ago I had a tape of a sermon by Jack Chiles.
And I was listening to this tape by Jack Chiles
and it was called Light the Land of Egypt.
And he had somebody over at his house,
some kind of a repairman or something,
fixing something at his house.
And this guy said, I love my church.
He said, here's why I love it,
because it's just like the world plus Jesus.
He said, it's just like the world plus Jesus.
Now look, of course that's what the flesh wants.
Hey, the best of both worlds, right?
Jesus and the gospel, I'm going to heaven, I'm saved,
and I can have everything the world has to offer.
But that doesn't make it right.
You're a little no religion, just a relationship.
I want religion and a relationship.
Give me this garbage where it's just a relationship
and religion stinks and we have no religion and religion's back.
Yeah, of course you hate this kind of preaching.
Too religious for you?
You see, this is the mantra that says
it's all about just a relationship
and getting people saved, and it's about Jesus.
But what about the words of Jesus?
Watch me prove from the Bible right now
that what's really going to stop people from getting saved
is you living a worldly life.
Are you listening to me?
You say, why do you preach on all this sin
if it's all about getting people saved?
Well, because number one, it's not all about getting people saved.
It's about getting people saved
and purifying unto God a peculiar people
zealous of good works.
It's about both.
It's about being saved and then about being pure.
But not only that, by being pure, you'll get more people saved.
Did you hear me?
By being pure, you'll get more people saved.
So these people that are smug and come up to me
after the sermon and say,
well, how did that sermon get anyone saved?
You know how it got somebody saved?
Because the person who was listening to the sermon,
they got rid of their dirty magazines
and they got rid of their DVD
and they quit drinking and they quit taking drugs.
They're going to get more people saved.
That's how it got people saved.
Because it taught somebody how to live godly,
that's how they're going to get people saved.
See, the Bible clearly teaches that lust and worldly things
stop you from being effective in winning people to Christ.
And I'll prove it to you.
We talked about the parable of the sower this morning.
And the parable of the sower and sower is all about bringing forth fruit.
And God says that, of course,
everything brings forth after it's gone kind.
I touched on it this morning.
You know, what does the orange bring forth?
Oranges.
Right.
So if an orange is buried in the earth,
what kind of a tree is going to grow up?
An orange tree, right?
So the Bible is really clear that
when the Bible talks about bringing forth fruit,
it's talking about reproducing.
It talks about, in one place, married couples bringing forth fruit.
He said to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply.
What was he telling them?
He said be fruitful.
To spring apples and oranges on their bodies?
No.
When he tells them to be fruitful,
he's telling them to have children.
Why?
Because they're humans.
So they reproduce humans.
Dogs reproduce dogs.
Oranges reproduce oranges.
So when God's telling us to bring forth fruit,
he's telling us to multiply.
That's what it means.
All the way back to Genesis 1.
He's telling us to reproduce.
So when he's talking to the believers,
and talking about the saints bringing forth fruit,
he's talking about the saints winning people to Christ.
That's why, if you look at this parable in Matthew 13,
at the end of the parable,
he says in verse number 23,
But he that received seed into the good ground
is he that heareth the word,
and understandeth it,
which also beareth fruit,
and bringeth forth some a hundredfold,
some sixty, some thirty.
Now a lot of people will try to tell you,
well, he started going to church.
That's fruit.
He quit drinking.
That's fruit.
He's got joy in his heart.
That's fruit.
But here's the thing.
Joy is not measured thirty, sixty, or a hundred.
How's your joy level?
Sixty?
Are you drinking?
You know?
Are you about ninety-five there?
You know, oh, I quit drinking thirty.
You might have quit drinking at forty, but you know.
What I'm saying is, you know,
thirty, sixty, and ninety,
this is talking about reproducing.
It's talking about winning thirty people to Christ.
That's what it's talking about.
It's talking about getting sixty people saved.
Because it's talking about getting a hundred people saved.
Why?
Because when you plant a seed,
you can plant one little seed.
And how many seeds are produced?
Thirty?
Sixty?
A hundred?
Right?
When you plant a seed?
I remember when we were kids.
You probably, you might have never heard of this
or know that it works.
People don't even plant popcorn kernels
and they'll grow into socks of corn.
Who knew that?
Nobody knew that, huh?
When we were kids, I don't know,
I think it was my sister Ronnie that dreamed this up.
She had this idea and there was this side yard
where my parents never really went very much.
They didn't really see what went on over there.
And the ground was really moist over there.
So she went out there one day
and she just planted a whole bunch of popcorn kernels
in the earth.
And it was moist earth over there.
There was a lot of shade,
but it got a little bit of sunshine.
We went back there much later,
I don't remember how long it took,
but literally there were stalks of corn
this high in the side yard.
The corn that it grew was kind of weird corn,
but those kernels,
I mean like she bought at the store
like a jar of popcorn kernels and just planted.
And it worked.
So she planted those seeds and reaped more.
You plant one seed and you reap,
one seed can grow into a tree that's producing 100 apples.
So you see how it multiplies.
Well it's the same thing with the gospel.
You get the gospel, you get saved.
If you obey God's word and keep it
and stay with it and stay in church,
eventually you'll bring forth fruit.
Some 30, some 60, some 100.
But what stops people from being fruitful?
What stops people from bringing forth fruit?
We talked about this morning those who get offended
because of persecution,
but there's another group that is stopped from bringing forth fruit.
Look at verse 22.
He also then received seed among the thorns.
Is he that heareth the word and the care of this world
and the deceitfulness of riches
choke the word and he becometh unfruitful?
So the seed that was among the thorns,
it says that the cares of this world
and the deceitfulness of riches
choke the word and he becometh unfruitful.
He becometh unfruitful.
He's not bringing forth any fruit
because he's choked out by the cares of this world
and the deceitfulness of riches.
Keep your finger there.
Go to Mark 4.
Actually you can turn from there.
We already covered that.
Go to Mark 4.
Mark 4 is the same parable again,
the parable of the sower.
Look at Mark 4, 19.
It says in verse 18,
it says that these are they which are sown among thorns,
such as hear the word and the cares of this world
and the deceitfulness of riches.
Now aren't those the two things he brought out in Matthew 13?
That we're going to choke the word
and stop you from getting people saved?
The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.
But look, one more thing is added here.
The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches
and the lusts of other things entering in
choke the word and it becometh unfruitful.
So do you see how the lust of other things
can stop you from being fruitful?
Everybody see that?
See the Bible is clear.
If you're going to bring forth fruit,
you can't let the cares of this world come into your life.
You can't let the deceitfulness of riches come into your life
because you can't serve God and mammon.
You can't live for God and live for money at the same time.
You can't let the deceitfulness of riches,
you can't let the cares of this world come into your life,
and you can't let the lusts of other things entering in.
Or you will not be a fruitful Christian.
That's why he said,
teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
You see, if you are going to be effective at getting people saved,
you must be different than the world.
You must be a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
If you're going to be effective at getting people saved,
you must be sober, you must be righteous, you must be godly.
You must not let lust, whether it be the lust of money
or the lust of other things entering in,
or the cares of this world and worldly lust and worldly things
come in and choke you out.
It's not going to be fruitful.
That's why the New Evangelical Movement is unfruitful.
You say, how do you know it's unfruitful?
Well, first of all, I went to those churches that were so into reaching people,
and they were so into bringing in the lost.
And let me tell you something, they did bring in the lost,
but they didn't get them saved.
I mean, when we would have a youth activity,
it was really easy to get our unsaved friends to come.
And they're like, Dad, this is great.
We're reaching out to these unsaved people.
But they didn't get saved. They didn't get the gospel.
Because my pastor back in Sacramento said it best.
He said, what you win them with, you'll win them too.
If you win them with a rock concert, you've won them over to a rock concert.
If you win them with fun and games,
and I'm not saying fun and games are bad,
but you've won them to fun and games.
But if you use the word of Christ to reach them,
then you've won them to the word.
Because you see, the whole time that I went to these churches,
there were not a whole lot of people getting saved.
There were a lot of visitors, a lot of unsaved people.
And you know, you do see big crowds.
Now, if you don't believe what I've preached tonight,
if you listen to my sermon tonight and say,
Pastor Anderson, I think that these new evangelical churches
that don't preach on sin and they allow everything.
Everything's fine.
It's kind of like we were talking about,
Brother Dave and I were talking about a church where
a teenage boy just walked in with a Metallica t-shirt
and it was just, nobody said a word.
Everything was just fine.
And this kid had grown up in the church his whole life
and it was just acceptable for him to wear a Metallica t-shirt
in the church without anybody telling him,
hey, that's the satanic band.
Hey, that's ungodly.
And you say, oh, you're going to turn them away.
You're going to offend them.
No, maybe he'll get some sense.
Maybe he'll stop listening to Metallica as they worship Satan.
But you see, this mentality that's afraid to preach on sin.
No, I'm afraid not to preach on sin
because I'm afraid that if I don't preach on sin,
our church will become worldly and lustful
and ungodly and non-sober
and then we're going to be unfruitful.
And I want to be fruitful.
But you see this movement out there
and you say, Pastor Anderson, I disagree with you.
Well, if you disagree with me, let's go soul winning.
And let's go soul winning right next to all these
big liberal watered down new evangelical churches
and let's go ask their members
if they know for sure if they die today, they're going to heaven.
That's it.
And let's see what they say.
Because you know what, the majority of them
are either going to say no
or maybe they'll say yes, but then they'll say you can lose your salvation
or they'll say, I hope so, I'm trying
or I think so, I live a pretty good life.
Yeah, I've been baptized.
Yeah, I go to church.
But a lot of times they'll just flat out tell you no.
And the ones who say yes, half the time or three quarters of the time, it's for the wrong reason.
Because it's their works or whatever.
I mean, look, if you don't believe me, get out of soul winning.
You might actually get some people saved in the process. That'd be great.
But it'll be a great learning experience for you
because when you go out soul winning
you get a feel for what people believe
and you look at these churches
that have huge crowds and you say, well, they must be reaching people.
Oh, they're reaching them.
But they're not reaching them with the gospel.
They're not reaching them with Bible preaching.
They're reaching them with entertainment.
They're reaching them with a feel good sermon.
They're reaching them with stuff that's not doctrine.
Because when you go and talk to these people
and ask them what they believe
they don't know for sure they're going to heaven
or they believe you can lose your salvation
because you have to live a good life to stay safe or be safe.
They're totally trusting in their works.
They are without the true gospel of Jesus Christ
which is by faith alone, not of works.
And so the New Evangelical philosophy doesn't work
because it's...