The part that I'd like to focus on here is the part beginning in verse number 13.
And before I get there, let me say this.
If I were to ask you, who is Jesus? Or what is Jesus like?
You know, somebody who didn't really know who Jesus was.
We might describe Jesus as the creator of the entire world.
We might describe Jesus as God in the flesh.
These are biblical definitions of Jesus.
We might describe Jesus as the savior of the world.
We might describe Jesus Christ as, well, God is love.
I mean, He's very loving.
He was the sacrifice for our sins.
We might describe Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God,
slain from the foundation of the world.
We might describe Him as the author of the Bible,
the author and finisher of our faith, as it says in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2.
We could describe Jesus in all these different ways,
because we know who Jesus is.
I would describe Jesus as the Word of God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The shame was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life, and the light was the light of men.
And the light shined from darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
And so we could say, Jesus is the light of the world.
Jesus is the head of the body, which is the Church.
We could describe Him in all these different ways,
but what's interesting to me, that's what we think of Jesus,
is we've maybe read the Bible cover to cover. I hope you have.
I hope if you've been in this church, if you've been saved in any amount of time,
you've read the Bible cover to cover.
Maybe you've read the Bible cover to cover. Maybe you've spent your whole life in church.
Maybe you've been in church for a year, or two years, or six months.
You know a lot about Jesus.
And if you've been to this church, you know a lot about Jesus.
If you were on Wednesday night for the last 21 weeks as we went through the book of John,
hey, you know who Jesus is.
But what I find interesting, look down at your Bible in Matthew 16 verse 13.
It says, when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi,
He asked His disciples saying,
whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?
And in the book of Mark, He says it this way,
whom do men say that I am?
And that's the title of the sermon.
Jesus has this question.
Whom do men say that I am?
He said, and they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist.
Some, Elias. That's Elijah.
And others, Jeremiah, one of the prophets.
Now He asks a different question.
He sayeth unto them, but whom say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Now Peter had the right answer.
He said, you're Jesus Christ. You're the Son of the living God.
But what I want to focus on this morning is who did people think Jesus was?
Whom did men say that Jesus was?
Jesus said, well, whom do men say that I am?
And what was their answer?
He said, people think that you are John the Baptist.
Do you remember when King Herod heard about the works of Jesus?
He said, John the Baptist has risen from the dead.
He said, people think that you're Elijah.
People think that you're Jeremiah.
They think you're one of the prophets.
Now think about this for a moment.
What kind of men did people think of when they thought of Jesus?
I mean, these are the people who've heard Him preach.
These are the people who've heard Him teach the Bible.
These are the people, perhaps He's gone to their town.
He's come to their city.
They've been there in the throngs of the feeding of the 5,000, which just happened.
Two chapters previous, the feeding of the 4,000, which just happened in the previous chapter.
I mean, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people who knew of Jesus.
They heard Him preach, and they said, who do these people think that I am?
They think you're John the Baptist.
They think you're Elijah.
They think you're Jeremiah.
What do those men have in common?
What do we think of when we think of a John the Baptist?
What do we think of when we think of Elijah?
Well, turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 3.
You're in chapter 16.
Go back, if you would, to chapter 3.
Matthew chapter number 3.
Look at verse number 7.
Let's see our first introduction to John the Baptist.
Well, look at verse 4, if you would.
It says,
And the same John had his raiment, or clothing, of camel's hair,
and a leathern girdle about his loins,
and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
And look down at verse number 7.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism,
he said unto them,
O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruit's meat for repentance,
and think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father.
For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham,
and now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees,
therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
I indeed baptize you with water and repentance,
but he that cometh after me is mightier than I,
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.
He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire,
whose fan is in his hand he will thoroughly purge his fore,
and gather his wheat into the garner,
but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Listen to the preaching of John the Baptist.
Here's a rhyme that was a little bit rough.
I mean here's a man who was not clothed in soft raiment,
he was not dwelling in the king's house,
he was wearing camel's hair,
he had a leather girdle about his loins,
which by the way was the exact clothing of John the Baptist,
read 2 Kings chapter number 1,
he was a man that was out in the wilderness,
he was a rough man,
he was a man who preached the truth,
he called these Pharisees, these religious leaders,
he called them generation of vipers.
He said, you're snakes, you're serpents, you're devils,
he said you're false teachers,
he said you're going to hell, is what he says,
you're going to be burned up with unquenchable fire.
Now wait a minute, stop and ask yourself this question,
why did people think that Jesus was John the Baptist?
Why did they think he was Elijah?
Think about Elijah, what did people know of Elijah as?
They said, well, he's a powerful preacher,
he was a man that called down fire from God at Mount Carmel,
he was a man who made this statement,
how long halt ye between two opinions?
He said, why are you straddling the fence?
Why are you skirting the issue?
He says, how long halt ye between two opinions?
If the Lord be God, follow him,
but if Baal, then follow him.
And the people answered him not a word.
You see, when people looked at Jesus,
and here's what I'd like to ask you this morning,
is your impression of Jesus the same impression of Jesus
of the people who actually heard him preach?
Because when the people who were actually there,
I mean the people who were actually fed when he fed the 5,000,
the people who actually walked and talked with Jesus,
when they were asked, when he said,
who do they say that I am?
They said he was like John the Baptist,
they said he was like Elijah, they said he was like Jeremiah.
What does that mean?
That means that he was a preacher.
You see, sometimes we get the wrong idea,
jeez, I was thinking about this,
there was a thrift store that I used to shop in
when I lived in Sacramento,
you know, we get everything from the thrift store.
But we were at this secondhand thrift store,
and I have no idea why,
but every time we went to this thrift store,
and we went there, scores of times,
there was a television,
it was mounted behind the counter,
and it was always muted,
so you could just see the image,
and it was always playing the same thing,
and it was this movie of the life of Jesus.
But it was this certain movie,
and this particular movie has been known as
the Smiling Jesus movie,
that's what people kind of call it.
Because for some reason in this movie,
and the movie is all about the life of Jesus,
I've seen it before going out to church and everything,
and whatever, in these more liberal churches,
they play this for us,
and in this particular Jesus movie,
because there are several,
in this particular Jesus movie,
Jesus is smiling the whole time.
I mean, he's just like...
I mean, he never stops smiling.
I mean, when he's being crucified, that's about it.
I mean, the whole rest of the time, he's smiling.
And literally, there's a scene in this movie
where Jesus is preaching,
and it's directly being quoted from the Bible,
and he's smiling.
He's like,
you generation of vipers.
How can you escape the damnation of hell?
You white and simple curse.
You hypocrites.
He's literally smiling the whole time.
Why?
Because people have the wrong view of who Jesus is,
or what Jesus was like when he walked on this earth.
Now, God is love, of course,
but see, you have to get the complete picture of who Jesus is.
Why is it so important for us to know what Jesus is?
Because Jesus said that he left us an example
that we should follow in his steps.
He said,
and he said,
as I am, so are ye in this world.
We're going to do the works that Jesus did.
If I'm going to be a preacher,
I should seek to preach like Jesus preached.
I should seek to preach like the Son of God,
the King of Kings, the ultimate preacher.
I should seek to preach in the same way
that Jesus Christ preached while I was on this earth.
He's the example.
You know, the first church,
Jesus was the pastor,
and the eleven disciples were his most faithful members.
And so this Smiling Jesus movie
was a result of the fact that people think of Jesus,
what the world has given them this picture in modern day,
of a Jesus who's got hair down to his shoulders
like a long-haired hippie.
When the Bible says that it is a shame
for a man to have long hair,
1 Corinthians 11,
it says that a man should not put on a woman's garment,
a woman should not wear that which pertaineth to a man,
a man should have short hair,
a woman should have long hair,
a man should dress in masculine clothing,
a pair of pants.
I know this is radical preaching,
but put on a pair of pants if you're a man.
Or put on shorts that go down to your knee.
But don't put on a dress.
You say, well, I'm from Scotland.
I put on a quilt.
You queer, put on a pair of pants.
And you say, well, you know, I'm a lady.
What should I wear?
Well, what do you think you should wear?
Something that's not pants, like a skirt or a dress,
so you can look like a lady.
Now, you say, oh, man, that's radical preaching.
That's wild stuff.
You see the average picture of Jesus,
and He's literally wearing a skirt,
and He literally has long hair.
That's blasphemy, my friend.
That hurts my feelings.
It hurts my feelings to drag my Savior's name through the mud
by drawing a picture of Him with a skirt and long hair.
That's perverted.
That's disgusting.
That's blasphemy.
Can you imagine how God feels up in heaven
when people say this is Jesus,
and you've got this long-haired sissy with a skirt,
and I mean literally.
They show Him with a skirt that goes down to right here to His knee
with a little belt around it and a coat over it.
Let me break it to you.
Yes, Jesus did wear a coat.
Yes, He did wear a robe or a mantle or a cloak,
all words synonymously used throughout the Bible
for the same article of clothing.
But I'm going to tell you something.
Underneath that coat, underneath that cloak,
underneath that robe, underneath that mantle,
He wore a pair of pants.
And I can show it to you from the Bible.
It's called britches.
It's a word that's in the Bible.
It's called hosen.
It's called pants.
And I'm going to tell you something.
Jesus was a man.
He was not a sissy.
If Jesus were a sissy, would He have been compared to John the Baptist?
A man who lived in the wilderness?
A man who ate locusts and wild honey?
A man who dressed in skins of animals that he hunted?
Now, did Jesus look exactly like John the Baptist?
No.
Did He act exactly like John the Baptist?
No.
Did He preach exactly like John the Baptist?
No.
But I'm going to tell you something.
When they were looking for a comparison,
they said,
He reminds me of John the Baptist.
Why?
Because He was a man.
And John the Baptist was a man.
Why?
Because Elijah was a man.
He was a tough man.
Read the Bible.
And Jesus was tough.
You want to know what Jesus was like?
Read the book of Jeremiah.
The longest book in the Bible.
It's tied in length.
You say,
Well, Psalms is the longest book.
You put the book of Psalms and Jeremiah side by side at the same length.
One of them just has more chapters than the other.
But if you put those two books side by side,
you will see that Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible,
or maybe tied right there with Psalms.
Read the book of Jeremiah.
Fifty-two chapters of some of the hardest preaching that you will ever read in your life.
I mean, that book of Jeremiah,
I literally, when I'm doing my Bible reading,
and I've read a lot of Bible, my friend,
I'm going to tell you something.
I would say that the most negative, meanest book in the Bible is Jeremiah.
I mean, there's sixty-six books in the Bible.
I would say the one that will really, really let you have it is the book of Jeremiah.
I mean, it's a negative book.
It's a fascinating book.
But there are books in the Bible that are more positive than others.
And Jeremiah is not one of them.
Jeremiah was a preacher.
Jeremiah preached things that were unpopular.
Jeremiah was thrown in jail.
John the Baptist was thrown in jail.
John the Baptist was beheaded.
Jeremiah was called a traitor to his country.
He was called a traitor to Israel.
He was called, he was thrown in jail for treason.
He was thrown in jail for preaching.
He was thrown in jail for speaking out against the king and what they were doing.
Elijah, John the Baptist, was thrown in jail for preaching that Herod was committing a sin
by marrying his brother's wife, his brother Philip's wife.
He said, it's not lawful for you to have her.
He said, you're wrong.
And Herod threw him in jail for preaching against King Herod.
Stop and ask yourself, is it a coincidence that Jesus was compared to a powerful preacher in all three cases?
Is it a coincidence that Jesus was compared to somebody who was a man in all three cases?
I don't believe it was a coincidence.
The disciples knew He was the Son of God.
They knew He was God in the flesh.
They knew He was the Savior of the world.
They knew He was Christ the Messiah.
But what did people think of Him?
What did your average Joe think of Him?
There's a guy who preaches like John the Baptist.
There's a man who preaches.
There's a guy who's got the power of God all over.
Now look, let's do this.
Let's sample a little bit of Jesus' preaching.
I mean, think about this.
Wouldn't it be great if Jesus Christ were the guest preacher this morning?
Can you imagine if I said, here we are, we're at Faithful Word Baptist Church,
and we're in for a special treat this morning.
We have Jesus Christ Himself is coming to preach to us.
I mean, Jesus has made it.
And obviously this could never happen, never would happen.
But Jesus Christ, He's right at the door.
Jesus is going to come and preach through the sermon this morning.
I'm just going to sit down with you in the congregation.
I'm going to sit down and relax, and we're going to hear what Jesus says.
But can you imagine that?
Now, you'd be listening to every word, wouldn't you?
You think you'd fall asleep?
Then you'd start going off.
Oh, I had to work late last night.
Jesus would have to call you down.
Wake up!
But, you know, think about it.
If Jesus were here, you'd hang on every word of His preaching.
You'd be excited. You'd be on the edge of your seat.
And you'd say, man, I want to know.
Everything He says is going to be true.
Now look, when I preach, you shouldn't just think everything I say is true.
You should be sitting there saying, is this true?
The Bible says that while I preach, you should be judging.
See, you don't know that, do you?
But in 1 Corinthians 14, it says when the preacher is preaching,
the person appears to be judging, making sure that what he says is right.
Don't just be this kind of a, you know, come to church, like,
boop, boop, boop, boop.
You know, and whatever the pastor says, you're just going to blindly accept it.
But, man, if Jesus were preaching, you could blindly accept it.
I mean, if Jesus were preaching, you'd know that everything He said was right.
You'd know that what He said was the truth.
He is the truth.
And so, imagine if Jesus were here, but we've got the Bible.
We can read word for word Jesus' sermons.
Let's take just a little sampling of Jesus' preaching this morning.
Let's sit out in the front row at one of Jesus' preaching services,
where He was compared to Elijah, where He was compared to John the Baptist,
where He was compared to Jeremiah.
Look, if you went to Matthew 23, we're in Matthew.
Let's just take a little small sampling of some of Jesus' preaching.
Let's get a feel for His preaching.
Because I need to know what I'm supposed to preach like.
You need to know what kind of a church to go to, what kind of preaching
you ought to expect to hear when you come to church.
It ought to be the kind of preaching that Jesus did.
It ought to be the kind of preaching that the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ did in the book of Acts.
But look down, if you went, at Matthew 23.
Let's get a little bit of a feel for Jesus' preaching.
Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to His disciples, saying,
The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do.
Be nigh ye after their works, for they say and do not.
For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne,
and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
But all their works they do, for to be seen of men.
They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments,
and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues,
and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
But be nigh ye, called Rabbi, for one is your Master, even Christ,
and all ye are brethren.
And call no man your Father upon the earth, for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
Neither be ye called masters, for one is your Master, even Christ.
But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant,
and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased,
and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
Now, listen to Jesus as He turns up the heat in this sermon.
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men,
for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer,
therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For ye can pass sea and land to make one proselyte,
and when he is made ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say,
Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing.
But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
Watch the next words that he says, ye fools and blind.
This is some hard preaching.
See, Pastor Anderson, I don't like this kind of preaching.
Don't talk to me about it.
Talk to Jesus after the service. This is not my sermon.
Look, let me just show you the difference. This is my sermon.
This is Jesus' sermon.
I'm going to take this sermon and put it over here,
just so that nobody gets confused here. Who's doing the talking?
I've got Jesus' sermon in front of me. This is my outline.
Ye fools and blind, for whether it's greater, the gold,
or the temple that sanctified the gold.
And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing.
But whosoever swereth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
Ye fools and blind, for whether it's greater, the gift,
or the altar that sanctified the gift.
Whosoever therefore shall swear by the altar, swereth by it,
and by all things thereon.
And whosoever shall swear by the temple, swereth by it,
and by him that dwelleth therein.
And he that shall swear by heaven, swereth by the throne of God,
and by him that sitteth thereon.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrite, for ye pay tithe
of mint and anise and cum and cumen,
and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.
These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone,
ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
Listen to Jesus' preaching.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for ye may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter,
but within there full of extortion and excess.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter,
that the outside of them may be clean also.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for ye are alike unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful outward,
but are within full of dead man's bones and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto man,
but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
because ye build the tombs of the prophets,
and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say,
If we had been in the days of our fathers,
we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves,
that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers,
ye serpents, ye generation of vipers.
How can ye escape the damnation of hell?
That's a pretty hard sermon. That's pretty rough preaching.
You see, Jesus was a real preacher that wasn't afraid to preach on sin,
and he wasn't afraid to point out the false teachers.
He wasn't afraid to point out the false religions and name them,
and name the names, and point right at them and say,
You're a fool, you're blind.
He said, You're a blind leader of the blind,
and you're both going to fall in the ditch.
I'm just trying to ask you if you have the right picture of who Jesus is.
That's all I'm trying to say this morning.
Jesus said, Who do men say that I am?
Oh man, they think you're Benny Hinn.
Who do men say that I am, Peter?
They think you're Santa Claus.
Who do men say that I am?
They think you're the Easter Bunny.
Who do men say...
They think you're the tooth fairy.
Is that what they said? No.
Who do men say that I am?
They think you're the Dalai Lama.
They think you're Mr. Dalai Lama.
Oh, who do men say that I am?
They think you're Billy Graham.
They think you're Benny Hinn.
They think you're...
No, they didn't.
They said they think you're John the Baptist.
They think you're one of these hard-nosed, fundamental, hellfire and damnation preachers
like that we read about in the Old Testament,
like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel,
Hosea, Joel, Micah, Amos, Nahum, Mediah.
He said, that's the kind of man they think you are.
We haven't had this kind of preaching for three or four hundred years
until John the Baptist came on the scene and started preaching hard.
That's the only thing that we can even compare him to in this generation.
Otherwise, we've got to go back to Elijah.
I mean, the only living person they compare him to is John the Baptist.
They said otherwise, we're going to have to go back to like Elijah or like Jeremiah
or one of these old-time preachers because there just aren't that many left.
We were out soloing yesterday and we walked up to about ten guys and a girl
and they're building something and making something.
I didn't know what they were making.
And we walked up to them and I said,
Hi, how are you doing? I'm Pastor Steve Anderson.
I just want to invite you to Faithful Word Baptist Church.
And I said, by the way, what are you guys doing?
And they said, we're building a float for the Gay Pride Parade.
Is that true? Is that what they said?
We're building a float for the Gay Pride Parade.
I said, are you serious?
I was like, you're kidding. Is that what I said?
I was like, are you serious?
They're like, yeah.
I said, man, I don't want anything to do with that.
I said, get me out of here.
And we walked away.
But you know, it's funny because we were, you know,
and then they were all, they were mocking us and making fun of us,
throwing the invitations on the ground and railing on us
because the Bible says in Romans chapter one that the homosexuals are haters of God.
And you know, it always rings true what the Bible says.
And so we're driving, we drove, we went soloing and did all this.
And then we came back and we were walking back to our car,
you know, a couple hours later or whenever it was,
and walking back to our car and they're staring at us and whatever,
and we're getting in the car.
And I said, you know, there's guys, these bunch of queers that are staring at us.
I said, you know, they should take a picture because it'll last longer
because we're not going to be around much longer.
I mean, we're like an endangered species.
I mean, we're like going extinct, you know.
People like us who actually believe and preach the Bible.
I said they should take a picture or something
because this might be the only time in their life
that they ever lay eyes on a real fundamental Baptist preacher
who preaches the truth and preaches on sin.
Hey, they don't even know that what they're looking at is endangered right now.
Endangered species.
You know, these queers are all into saving the environment
and, you know, saving the endangered species.
Man, they should put us on like a watch list.
They should be donating money to keep us around,
keep us alive, keep faithful.
We're Baptist Church alive!
It's going extinct!
And so, let's look at a little more of Jesus' preaches, shall we?
Look at, let's see, how about Mark chapter number...
You say, well, that's Matthew.
Okay, Mark.
Let's go to Mark chapter 9.
See, what am I saying?
It was going extinct back then.
It's going extinct now.
You know why?
Because that was the first coming of Jesus.
That kind of preaching was going extinct back then.
We're approaching the second coming of Jesus.
It's going extinct once again.
And so, John the Baptist was the only man in his generation
that Jesus was ever compared to.
Everyone else he was compared to was somebody
that they'd read about in the Bible way in the past.
And it's no wonder, since Jesus is the one who wrote the book of Isaiah,
Jesus is the one who wrote the book of Jeremiah,
Jesus is the one who wrote the book of Ezekiel,
and Jesus is the author of the Bible, of course.
But look at Mark chapter 9, verse 43.
Imagine this.
Imagine coming to Jesus Christ, pastor Jesus, okay?
You're at this church, and Jesus is the pastor back then,
and you come to Jesus for counseling.
You know how churches nowadays are all into their counseling sessions
and their psychology?
Imagine coming to Jesus for counseling and saying to Jesus,
Jesus, I need counseling.
I'm really struggling with pornography.
Will you counsel me?
You know what Jesus would say?
He had heard that it was said by them of old time,
thou should not commit adultery.
But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after
hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
I know Jesus, but I need counseling.
How do I get over my pornography addiction?
And if I write, this is the next verse,
and if I write, I offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.
Jesus' counseling for your pornography addiction.
Remove your eyeball and throw it in the trash.
Next!
But see, preachers have become,
Oh, you poor baby!
This is a modern day preacher now.
Oh, you poor baby.
Oh, what are we going to do?
Let me, was it something that your dad did when you were a kid?
Was it your mom?
What was it?
Did your dad not take you on enough hiking trips and camping?
He didn't spend enough time with you?
Oh, did he call you a name one time?
Did he spank you?
Did he spank you with the bell?
Is that the problem?
Why have we changed?
Jesus said,
Hey, quit doing it!
You got a problem with pornography?
Stop!
I can't!
Then rip out your eyeball and throw it in the trash.
That's what the Bible says.
Look down at your Bible in Mark chapter 9, verse 43.
And if I hand-offend thee, cut it off.
It is better, boy, really understanding, Jesus.
Cut it off!
It is better for thee to enter the right name
than having two hands to go into hell,
into the fire that never shall be quenched,
where their worm dieeth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Now let's read the next five verses.
You tell me if Jesus was a hell-fire-and-damnation kind of a preacher.
And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off.
It is better for thee to halt in the light
than having two feet to be cast into hell,
into the fire that never shall be quenched,
where their worm dieeth not, and the fire is not quenched.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.
It is better for thee to enter the kingdom of God with one eye
than having two eyes to be cast into hell-fire,
where their worm dieeth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Let me tell you something.
Jesus was a preacher who preached on hell.
John the Baptist preached on hell.
Jesus preached on hell.
Where is the preaching on hell in 2008?
Where do you go to hear a pastor get up and preach a sermon on hell?
We've gotten away from the Jesus of the Bible.
We've gotten away from the truth.
We've gotten away from Bible preaching.
What we've got to get back to is the preaching
that God ordained in the Bible.
It's the way they preached all the way back in the days of the prophet Abel.
Abel was a preacher.
I'm talking about Cain and Abel.
The Bible says Abel was a prophet.
Abel was a preacher.
And his sermon sure made somebody mad
because he ended up killing him.
It was his own brother.
I mean, we're talking about all the prophets,
from Abel to Zacharias, from A to Z,
that have preached the truth,
the truth had been men that were like Elijah, John the Baptist, Jesus Christ.
These men called a spade a spade, and they were men.
You know, you get so upset about these woman preachers, right?
Oh, man, I can't believe that the Baptists are starting to have women preachers.
Oh, man, the Methodists have women preachers.
Oh, the Episcopalians have women preachers.
Hey, what's the difference?
We've got a bunch of male preachers who act like women,
so what's the difference?
How big of a jump is it to put a woman behind the pulpit?
You've got a woman in a man's body behind the pulpit the whole time.
Amen, that's right, because that's the truth in most churches.
The church is run by a man who's not a man,
who's just like this all the time.
What's popular?
Or he's just like, you know, it's all about bitch, you know.
What am I going to preach on, you know?
Well, you know, we've got to make sure that this is all right, you know.
We've got to make sure that this offering plate's full,
so better tone it down a little bit.
Look, if you would, at the book of Luke.
We're just taking a little stroll through Jesus' preaching here.
Well, this is Matthew and Mark.
Okay, how about Luke?
Luke chapter 11.
Listen to Jesus' reaction to criticism.
Okay, this is Jesus' reaction to opposition to what he was saying
and what he was preaching.
Look at Luke chapter 11, verse number 44.
The Bible reads in Luke 11, 44,
Lo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for ye are his graves which appear not,
and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.
Now look at verse 45.
Then answered one of the lawyers and said unto him,
Master, thus saying, thou reproaches us also.
One of the lawyers, he says, wait a minute.
Hold on a second, Jesus.
When you preach against the scribes and Pharisees,
he said, that applies to us too.
You're preaching against me.
Did you hear that?
I'll read it for you again.
It says, then one of the lawyers,
answered one of the lawyers and said unto him,
Master, thus saying, thou reproaches us also.
And Jesus said, I'm so sorry.
I didn't mean it.
Okay, look what he says.
I love what he says next.
And he said, Lo unto you also, ye lawyers.
Now he just says, okay,
now I'm just going to direct the whole sermon to you then.
Thank you for reminding me
what I forgot to emphasize in this sermon.
I forgot all about the lawyers.
I should be preaching against them.
Woe unto you also, ye lawyers,
for ye laid men with burdens grievous to be born,
and ye yourselves touched not the burdens with one of your fingers.
Woe unto you, for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets,
and your fathers killed them.
Now do you see how Jesus responded to that?
Somebody said, wait a minute.
You're preaching to me.
He says, okay, if the shoe fits, then wear it.
Now I'll just name your name.
Woe unto you, lawyers.
Look at John.
We've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
We're covering the whole gamut here.
John chapter 6.
Look at John chapter 6.
Look at verse number 60.
The Bible says in John 6, 60,
many therefore of his disciples,
Jesus just finished preaching a sermon,
many therefore of his disciples,
when they had heard this, said,
this is a hard saying.
Who can hear it?
This is hard preaching.
Wait a minute.
He says, nobody can handle this preaching.
Okay, let's see what Jesus says.
When Jesus knew in himself
that his disciples murmured at him,
he said unto them, does this offend you?
Did I offend you?
He's like, does this offend you?
What if ye shall see the Son of Man
ascend up where he was before?
It is the Spirit that quickened it.
The flesh profited nothing.
The words that I speak unto you,
they are Spirit and they are light,
but there are some of you that believe not.
He's saying some of you aren't saved is the problem.
There are some of you that believe not,
for Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not
and who should betray him.
And he said, therefore said I unto you
that no man can come unto thee
except that were given unto him of my Father.
Watch verse 66.
From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him.
A lot of people left his church right there
when he preached this one sermon.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve,
Oh, please stay.
You guys are the only ones that have left.
Everybody else left.
You guys at least please stay.
This church is getting too small.
Look what Jesus said.
Jesus answered them, I'm sorry.
Then Jesus said unto the twelve,
Will ye also go away?
So, you guys want to leave too?
There's the door.
I guess that's what it says.
I didn't write the Bible.
It said, Then said Jesus unto the twelve,
Will ye also go away?
Want me to pack your bag for you?
Then Simon Peter answered,
And Lord, to whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life.
And we believe and are sure
that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God.
Jesus answered them,
Have not I chosen you twelve,
and one of you is the devil?
He spake of Judas Iscariot,
the son of Simon.
For he was that should betray him,
being one of the twelve.
Now, let's look at some of the Bible mandates
of how it is that we're supposed to preach
as a preacher.
Okay?
God has not only given us an example
of the life of Jesus,
and obviously I was being a little bit
one-sided in my show of Jesus preaching,
but I think we already know the other side.
I'm trying to balance by giving you a side
of Jesus preaching that maybe you haven't seen.
Okay?
But now let's look at some of God's mandates
when he commands and says,
This is how I want you as a human being to preach.
Look, if you would, at Isaiah 58.
Back in the Old Testament,
Isaiah chapter 58.
Back in the Old Testament,
toward the end of the Old Testament,
you have these three big long books,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
And so look at Isaiah chapter 58,
and we'll look at God's command to a preacher.
Isaiah 51.
You say, Pastor Anderson,
why do you preach the way that you do?
I preach the way that I do,
because I'm number one,
following the example of Jesus,
and number two,
I'm following the command of Jesus
on how to preach.
Preach on love.
I preach on love.
I preach the whole book.
I preach the whole concept of God.
If you come Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night,
you'll get a very balanced diet in this church.
I mean, on Wednesday night,
it's all about Jesus versus John.
On Sunday morning, it's one thing.
On Sunday night, it's something else,
and we get a balance of the whole book.
My goal is to preach through the entire Bible,
cover to cover.
I mean, I'm preaching every chapter
by chapter on Wednesday nights.
In twenty-three and a half years
of our church's existence,
we'll preach every chapter of the Bible,
verse by verse.
And that's not even counting
what we're doing on Sundays,
a lot of Bible preaching.
But look at Isaiah 58, 1.
This is God's command to a preacher.
Cry aloud.
Spare not.
What does that mean, spare not?
Don't leave anything out, he's saying.
Don't hold back.
He's saying, cry aloud.
Spare not.
Lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
and show my people their transgressions,
and the house of Jacob their sins.
Wow.
He's saying, you need to stand up and yell
and show people their sin.
Show them what they're doing.
Show them what's right.
Show them what's wrong.
Cry aloud.
Spare not.
Lift up thy voice like a trumpet.
Now what does a trumpet sound like
when you blow it?
It's loud.
Have you ever actually had somebody
practice a trumpet in your house?
It's pretty loud.
It's not something where
you can just kind of close the door
and you don't hear it anymore.
I mean, trumpets are very loud.
Trumpets have been used throughout history
to sound the battle,
that they can be heard many yards away
and they can sound a trumpet
and everybody in the whole area would hear.
A trumpet is a loud instrument.
But we've got many preachers that
they get up on Sunday morning
and they open the Bible
and they're ready to preach
and they're like...
Or we've got preachers
that get up on Sunday morning and say...
Or it's like...
Hey, we need a trumpet-like preacher.
You need a preacher who's going to
sound the trumpet and say,
sound the pipe.
Sound the trumpet for the battle.
Let's sound the trumpet
to proclaim God's greatness.
Praise the Lord, for He is good,
for His mercy endureth forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
which He has redeemed out of all the earth.
Hey, it's our job to proclaim
the greatness of God,
to proclaim the good news.
Jesus paid it all.
Oh, the hymn I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain
and He washed it white.
Hey, to proclaim,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
Being justified freely
by His grace,
through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, we have peace with God
through faith in our Lord Jesus.
Hey, that's what our job is,
to preach and to say it loud.
And not only that,
but to show people their sins.
To preach and say fornication is wrong.
Drinking is wrong.
I'm talking about watching the filth
and strut that the world
puts out on television is wrong.
We were talking about this
a little bit before the sermon.
Hey, who do you think controls the TV?
You know who controls the TV?
The people who crucified Jesus
and said His blood be on us
and on our children.
That's who.
The Jesus Christ rejecting Jews
controls the television.
Like all your heroes,
like Steven Spielberg
and Jeff Goldblum.
Oh man, I can't believe you're saying that.
You're a racist.
I'm not a racist.
I believe that God has made
all nations of the earth of one blood.
I think that every person,
red and yellow, black and white,
they are precious in His sight,
but Judaism is a wicked false religion
that rejects Jesus Christ.
The Bible says,
who is a liar but he that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ,
he's anti-Christ,
that denieth the Father and the Son.
And so, I'm not going to watch TV
that's controlled by a bunch of
Christ rejecting, God hating,
ungodly people.
Oh, wait a minute.
You're going to argue with that?
Are you going to tell me
for one second that Jesus Christ
is down twisting the knobs
down at the TV station?
You think He's the one
that's giving us Seinfeld and Friends
and Will and Grace
and Shadowback Mountain
and all these perverted shows
that are on TV?
You think that He's the one
that's twisting the dial
down at the TV station,
giving you a bunch of queers
on primetime television,
giving you a bunch of lies,
a bunch of twisted, slanted news?
You think Jesus is the one
that's down there saying,
This Bud's for you,
Coors Light, Tap the Rockies?
You think that came from Jesus?
It didn't.
It came from the devil.
And if you watch it,
if you've got a cable television
in your house,
you've got a wire to hell.
And if you've got a TV
with rabbit ear antennas
that stick up all the way
to the ceiling,
you've got antennas
that are pointed straight to hell.
You've got a big old TV antenna
on top of your house.
That antenna can pick up the signal
all the way from the devil's hell.
And that's what comes out of TV,
a bunch of smut, garbage-filled,
fornication, lies, adultery,
drinking, uncleanness, drugs,
everything that's wrong,
everything that's sin.
You say, Oh, I can't believe
you'd say that.
I can't believe you'd say,
Oh, I just watched the news.
The news is the most
slanted thing on there.
The news is just trying to
program you to be a socialist.
Why?
Let me just tell you this.
Did you know that,
and I'm not anti any race,
and if you call me a racist,
you go ahead and walk out the door
and tell everybody I'm a racist.
I'm not a racist.
Look around this church.
Is everybody the same race?
No.
I don't even believe in racists.
The word race is not even in the Bible.
But I'm going to tell you something.
The 10 people who control
the 10 biggest news organizations,
I'm talking about Associated Press,
Reuters, all these things are Jews.
And guess what?
They're not born-again Jews.
They're not Jewish Christians.
They're Judaism Jews.
They're Jews who reject Christ
and say,
His blood be on us and on our children.
Crucify Him.
Which both killed the Lord Jesus
and their own prophets
and have persecuted us.
That's what Paul said.
Read 1 Thessalonians 2
before you disagree with me.
That's the truth.
And yeah, we ought to try to get them saved.
We ought to try to get everybody saved.
But see, most people think Jew is a nationality.
Jew is a religion.
It's not a nationality.
The nationality is called being a Hebrew.
It's called being the children of Israel.
I'm talking about a religion,
like Islam is a wicked as hell false religion.
Like Catholicism is a wicked religion.
Like Islam.
I'm sorry, is this preaching bothering you?
Judaism is a false religion.
Hinduism is a false religion.
Kabbalah is a false religion.
The Dalai Lama is on his way to hell.
He's a false prophet.
The Pope is going to split hell wide open.
Billy Graham is going to split hell wide open.
All these people that are preaching
their false doctrine, false heresy
are going to go to hell.
Like Jesus said, they go to hell.
Jesus said they'd go to hell 2,000 years ago.
I'm not going to stand up here and lie to you.
I'll give you the good news that you can be saved,
but I'm going to give you the bad news also.
There's people that are going to go to hell.
Yeah, we ought to give them the Gospel and get them saved,
but let's not lie to ourselves
and say that they're all going to heaven,
because they're not.
Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in their eyes,
because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto light,
and few there be that find it.
And you're not going to find it on HBO.
You're not going to find it on Showtime and Cinemax.
You're going to find it in the old black book,
the Holy Bible is where you're going to find it.
And so cry aloud.
Spare not.
Lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
and show my people their transgressions
and the house of Jacob their sins.
Flip over if you would to Ezekiel chapter 6,
just two books forward.
If you're in Isaiah, just turn to Jeremiah,
and then Ezekiel chapter number 6.
Man, do you always preach like this?
You know, I don't always preach like this,
but you know what?
This morning I'm preaching like this.
This morning I'm preaching a reset, buddy.
I want people to think that because we're getting in some new building,
we're going to change or something.
You better know things aren't going to change.
The only thing that's going to change is that the building's going to be bigger.
The only thing that's going to change is going to be nicer.
The only thing that's going to change is that we're going to put up a big giant map
in the foyer of all the soul winning we've done,
and say, go out, soul winning, and mark off the streets on this map,
until we've knocked every single street in this valley.
I'm talking about Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Chandler.
You say, that's a half hour away.
We're going to go everywhere in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Levine, Avondale, Buckeye.
We're going to go to the outermost part of the earth.
And when we're done with the whole county of Maricopa County,
four million people, you know what we're going to do?
We're going to do it again.
We're going to start right here.
We're going to do it again, and again, and again, and again.
That's what this church is about.
But look at Ezekiel, and you say, why?
Why would you do it?
Why knock all the doors?
One word, love.
We love the unsaved.
We love Jesus Christ.
We love the good news.
We love the gospel.
The free gift of eternal life.
We love it.
We're going to preach it.
But look down at Ezekiel chapter 6 verse 11.
You say, well that's great Pastor Anderson.
I mean, I think it's wonderful that we're going out and knocking the doors.
Man, I think it's wonderful that we're preaching the gospel to every preacher.
Man, I think it's wonderful that when Jesus said,
go ye therefore and teach all nations, that we take that command seriously.
Man, I think it's wonderful that when Jesus said,
as the Father has sent me in, and so has sent I you,
and go ye therefore and preach the gospel to every preacher.
I think it's wonderful that you're sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with the valley.
But I still understand what that has to do with this preaching.
Because we're going to go out and get them saved and give them the good news.
Then we're going to bring them to a church like this,
and we're going to have the kind of preaching that Jesus wants us to have,
which is the kind of preaching that calls out sin by name.
Why? Because you're not going to be the soul winner that you need to be,
unless you get the sin out of your life.
You see, before Gideon could go out and sound the trumpet,
and break the pitchers, and shine the torch,
you remember the story in Judges chapter 6?
Before Gideon could go out and deliver his people from bondage and slavery,
before Gideon could cry out and say,
the story of the Lord of Gideon, and watch God perform a great victory.
God said, before you even pick up a torch,
before you even pick up a pitcher, before you even pick up a trumpet,
before you do anything, Gideon, you've got to do something first.
You need to go at night and break down the altar of Baal that's in your father's house.
Your dad has got the altar of Baal in his backyard,
you're going to throw it down, or else I'm not going to do anything with you, Gideon,
until you throw down that wicked idol.
And so before we go out and conquer Maricopa County,
with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, before we pick up the sword,
hey, you've got to throw down some Baal altars that are in your house.
You've got to throw down the altar that's in your heart.
You want the power of God to be upon you, so that you can be a witness,
both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and all of us probably here,
you've got to throw down the altar of Baal in your life.
If you want to be a vessel that God can use, you want to be a clean vessel.
If God's going to pour the Holy Spirit's power,
the oil of gladness, the Holy Ghost upon into your vessel, it better be clean.
It better not be a dirty, filthy vessel.
Jesus said, I beseech you therefore, brother, by the mercy of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable service.
He wants you to present a body to Him that's clean, that's holy, that's righteous,
and say, okay God, here I am, reporting for duty, clean.
Reporting for duty, holy.
Reporting for duty, righteous.
Reporting for duty, sanctified.
He's not saying, just come to me and be filthy and dirty.
And you know what, we all came to Him filthy and dirty.
But do we have to stay that way for the rest of our life?
I mean, look, we've all, you know, some people have lived in sin worse than others.
I grew up in a Christian home, you know, I didn't really go into the depths of it.
But I'm going to tell you something.
Maybe you've been down at the depths of it.
You've been down at rock bottom.
But I'm going to tell you something, do you have to stay there?
No.
Clean it up.
Clean yourself up and say, you know, I'm ready for surgery.
You say, well, I don't have nice clothes.
Nobody said anything about nice clothes.
But you have clean clothes.
Because soap and water is pretty cheap, right?
How much does it cost for soap and water?
To give yourself a bath, clean yourself up, wash your clothes,
and show up ready to serve God with a clean body and clean clothes.
You say, well, what are you talking about?
Look, how about spiritually doing the same thing?
You see what I mean?
I mean, no matter what your past is, okay, if somebody came in here today
and they hadn't taken a bath in a year, use your imagination.
I mean, they just stayed to high heaven.
They've never taken a bath in a year.
They've been wearing the same clothes for six months.
You could take that person, and no matter where they've been, no matter how dirty,
you could take them, turn the shower up real hot, right?
I mean, scalding hot.
Give them like three bars of soap and two bottles of shampoo
and send them in there and say, don't come out until you've used all three bars of soap,
all three bottles of shampoo, and one bottle of body wash.
When you're done with all this, come on out.
They've probably come out clean.
I mean, you might have to hand them some Brillo pads or SOS pads,
or you might have to give them some kind of a scrub brush or something.
But you could clean them up.
No matter what your life has been like, God can clean you up.
You can clean yourself up if you want to be clean.
So we're not talking about a fancy outfit.
We're talking about a clean outfit.
We're not talking about perfection.
Nobody's perfect.
But you could at least clean up that vessel that's called your body and say,
I'm going to present my body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
I'm going to give Him my best.
I'm going to clean up my life.
I mean, I want to give God a mind that's not filled with TV and rock music and dirty stuff.
I want to give God a clean and pure mind.
When I show up for soul winning, I want to have a clean heart.
I want to have a clean body.
I want to have a heart that loves God.
I want to have a mind.
How about this?
How about showing up for soul with a mind that's full of Bible verses that you memorize?
God could use you more.
Believe it or not, God could use you more.
The more Bible you have memorized, He could use you more.
Because you're ready.
Because you're prepared.
Because you've cleaned up your life.
But when you're walking down the street with your Bible to go soul winning, believe me, I've been there.
Because when I was 17 years old, I walked into a fundamental Baptist church.
I was telling you guys yesterday, the first time that I preached ever, I was 17 years old.
And I've been in a fundamental Baptist church for only five months.
And before that, we were in all the liberal churches, really worldly and everything like that.
I'd been in a fundamental Baptist church for only five months.
And we had what was called the youth service.
And the youth ran the whole service.
It was great.
So, there were two youth services.
The first one, I played piano.
And the second one, I got to preach.
I wanted to preach the first and they said no.
I said, you haven't been here long enough.
So, the youth service came around.
And all the youth, I mean, they took up the offering.
They led the singing.
They played the piano.
It was just something where the teenagers ran the whole service.
One Sunday night every three months.
So, I got up.
This is the first time I ever preached in my entire life.
I was 17.
And I studied my sermon and learned it.
I had on a white shirt, tie, right?
I was up there.
I was ready to preach with bleached blonde hair.
Okay?
Bleached out blonde hair.
That was my first sermon I preached.
Okay?
I mean, just to let you know, you know?
I mean, you should have seen how I looked when I first walked into a fundamental Baptist
church.
I had like these corduroy pants that like they were all worn out around the knees and
messed up.
I had like an untucked gray button up shirt.
My hair was bleached blonde and everything like that.
I mean, I looked like a worldly punk teenager.
But you know what?
Two weeks later, I was out soul winning.
But I looked the same way.
You know?
I mean, I would show up for soul winning twice a week.
I mean, I was going soul winning.
I was going Wednesdays and Saturday mornings.
And man, I would spend time out soul winning.
But you know what?
I'm going to tell you something.
When I was walking down the street soul winning, I had all this rock music going through my
head.
You know?
All the wrong stuff in my mind.
As I started to clean up my life.
Started to clean up my mind.
Clean up my appearance a little bit.
God began to use me a lot more than when I first started.
Now God was glad that I was out there.
You know what I mean?
And I did see a few people saved.
And man, God was just thrilled.
He looked down at me and saw my heart was right.
Because the first thing I did was I cleansed first that which was within the cup and platter.
And then over time, you know, the outside got cleaned up also.
But the point that I'm trying to make is if you want to be used for God maximum for Jesus
Christ, you've got to throw down the altar of Baal that's in your living room.
You've got to throw down the altar of Baal that's in your bedroom cupboard.
You've got to throw it down.
You've got to tear it down and say, I'm going to present myself to God with a clean mind,
a clean body, and a clean heart.
Now, Ezekiel 6-11.
Thus saith the Lord God, smite with thine hand, this is to a preacher, stomp with thy
foot, and say, alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall
by the sword, by the famine, by the pestilence.
He's saying, when you preach, smite with your hand.
Stomp with your foot.
Cry aloud.
Shout.
Yell.
I'm telling you what, one of the hardest things to get a preacher to learn is to be
dynamic.
You know, I've tried to train people to preach, and I've successfully trained people to preach.
Like the preacher said in the back, he's one of my success stories, and I've tried
to train people how to preach, and I remember when I was in college being trained, you know,
and people were trying to train me to preach, and other people, and they'd say this, some
of these guys would get up and preach and have a great sermon, great content, great
outline, and I remember the teacher, he would always say the same thing to every single
one of them.
He'd say, get some fire with it.
He'd say, every single one.
God would get up and preach a sermon, he'd say, great sermon, get some fire with it.
Get some fire in that sermon.
You need to get some fire in your sermon.
And he'd start yelling at them to try to get them, come on, preach, yell, shout, do something.
You're dead as a doornail.
Preach hard.
But, you know, it's something that you just can't teach in a classroom.
Jeremiah said he had a fire that was burning inside his heart, shut up within his bones,
that he could not forbear.
It's not something that can be taught in a classroom, to preach with fire, to preach
with power.
You know, you can train somebody to preach and beat the pulpit, you know, and they'll
be like.
You know what I mean?
Come on, beat the pulpit.
Hey, it's gotta just be something that's in you to beat the pulpit.
Huh?
It's gotta be something in you when you preach with fire, because you believe it, because
you feel it.
I remember telling you when you were preaching, I said, you know what, if you feel it, if
you believe it, if you're excited about it, you're gonna be dynamic when you preach it.
This is what God has commanded, the kind of preaching.
You go to the church where the pastor, he's just more of the teacher type.
You know, he's up there, you know, twisting his hand, that's where the.
He prays like this.
No, and he's mellow, he's calm, but he doesn't believe anything.
He doesn't want to fight anything.
He's not excited about anything.
Why would you be excited to listen to somebody preach if he's not even excited about what
they're saying?
Like if you're not excited about what you're saying, why should I be excited about what
you're saying?
Think about it.
I mean, if you're bored and you're the one preaching, what's the guy in the pew feel
like?
I mean, when the preacher himself is boring himself.
I mean, it's one thing when you fall asleep, when the pastor falls asleep last night.
You know, he's preaching a lot of you.
Where am I?
You don't have to turn there.
Deuteronomy 27.14.
Turn to 2 Timothy 4.
I'll read this for you.
Deuteronomy 27.14.
And the Levites shall speak.
These are the preachers of the Old Testament.
The Levites were the messengers of the Lord of hosts, the Bible says.
And the Levites shall speak and stand to all the men of Israel with a loud voice.
I'm going to underline that in my Bible right now.
Preach with a loud voice.
He said, preach with a loud voice.
Smite with your hand.
Stomp with your foot.
Cry aloud.
Spare not.
Don't hold back when you see the visitor.
Don't hold back when the visitor with the money bucks comes in.
Don't hold back when you see the visitors come in.
You know, this is my rule.
I never change what I'm going to preach.
Sometimes I'll see somebody and maybe what I'm preaching applies to them.
And I'm like, man, you know, they're cutting out that part of the sermon.
I don't do it.
Now at the same time I don't add something.
Like somebody walks in, oh, I'm going to ring their bell.
I don't do that either.
You know, I write the sermon.
I write down what I'm going to preach and whoever shows up lets the chips fall where they may.
And I don't preach anything personal to anybody ever.
It's always just, you know, preaching the Bible, preaching the truth.
But you know, I preach sermons about men wearing long hair and there are men wearing long hair
in the building.
I'm not going to change my sermon.
I preach against women wearing pants.
Women wearing pants while I'm preaching it.
I'm not trying to offend anybody or hurt anybody.
I'm more than kind to everybody and love everybody.
But I've got to preach the Bible.
I've got to preach it sometimes.
Because you know, when the church gets to a certain size, probably not a service is
ever going to go by when there's not a guy with long hair.
So I guess I can never preach on that again.
And I mean, when the church gets to a certain size, there's always going to be a lady that's
wearing pants.
Or there's always going to be something where it applies to you.
Or you know, you can't preach against divorce unless somebody's divorced.
Well, you can't preach against lying because somebody lied.
I mean, where are you going to draw the line?
Well, you can't preach against TV because there's one member in your church that has a TV.
It's like, okay.
It's always going to be like that.
I mean, we should always have.
I hope that a Sunday never goes by in this church if there's not a man with long hair in this church.
And I'm serious.
Because that means we're reaching people.
That means we're getting people saved.
That means we're bringing visitors.
That means that we're doing something.
Hey, I hope that every single Sunday there's a long-haired man, a long-haired hippie,
some woman in pants, some woman in a short skirt.
I hope that there's women that have so much makeup on, they look like Tammy Faye Baker.
I hope that there's Liberal Democrats.
I hope that there's every single kind of person that we're reaching to win in the Lord.
But I hope they don't stay that way week after week after week.
But I hope, I honestly wish that every single service there was a guy with long hair.
But I hope it was the guy that we just won in the Lord a week ago.
And we've had plenty of guys around here with long hair get a crew cut.
Yes, we have.
And so, that's how they got a crew cut.
Because it's preached upon.
Otherwise, they'd probably still have long hair.
And so that's the way it works around here.
Jesus preached like this.
In the last day of that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried,
saying, With any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
He didn't stand up and say, With any man thirst.
That's not what cry means.
And the Bible says cry.
It's like my shouting.
He cried out, With any man thirst!
Ooh, quiet down.
My ears are ringing.
Oh, my ears.
I was just kidding.
Oh, my ears are ringing.
Oh, it hurts.
You know, oh, it's too loud.
You know, he cried aloud.
He yelled.
It's alright.
He's sitting back there.
He's firing up a weight or it's not hurting his ears.
But look down at your Bible.
This is where I'll close.
But 2 Timothy 4, verse number 1.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 4, I charged thee therefore before God.
Now, that's a pretty strong word.
I charged him.
He's basically saying, This is something that you must do.
I mean, that's a charge.
I mean, he's saying, This is an order.
I'm giving you a direct order right now, he's saying.
I charged thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall judge the quick and the day of his appearance,
kingdom, preach the word.
Be instant, in season, out of season.
When it's popular, when it's not popular, he's saying.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
Reprove means to correct somebody.
Repute means to say you're wrong.
Exhort means straighten up.
And so these are the 3 words that he's using here.
Exhortation means, hey, let's do it.
Let's do it different than you're doing right now.
You need to start soloing him.
You know, that's exhortation.
Or rebuke, you need to quit doing this and that.
You know, this is the kind of preaching that he commands me to do.
Now, I can sit here and say,
Well, that's not the kind of preaching that builds a church.
That's not the kind of preaching that's popular.
But you know, I don't have the right to do that.
I only can just sit down, put my hand upon my mouth,
read what the Bible says, and say,
That's the final word on the subject.
That's how I got to preach.
But let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer this morning.
Father, I pray that you would help.
The message to sink in, dear God.
Who did men say that you were?
Well, they thought you were John the Baptist.