Now, let me read this for you first of all, you know, you guys paid me these articles,
but, eight-year-old boy returning to class as a girl. This is out of, let's see, what
part of Colorado? Castle Rock, Colorado, Douglas County School District in Colorado, the United
States. An eight-year-old boy is preparing to return to his home school district in Colorado
as a girl. So, school officials are designating two school restrooms as unisex facilities
and preparing to counsel other students. Isn't that wonderful? Did you hear that? Preparing
to counsel other students on the issue of transgenderism. The report comes from KUSA
Television in Denver, which did not identify the third grade student or his family in the
Castle Rocks suburban district. But the report said the student had attended his home district
several years ago as a boy and then had taken class in another district for a time. One
parent identified by the television station as Dave M. said, children in the elementary
school are going to wonder what's going on. Why, thank you, Dave. That was very insightful
of a comment for you. I'm glad you withheld your last name from that controversial comment
that you just made. I see this as being a very difficult situation to explain to my
daughter, to explain why someone would not want to be the gender they were born with,
he told the station. His daughter will share a classroom with the boy dressing as a girl.
I do think that there's going to be an acknowledgement that, and I like this part by the way, those
of you ladies who think it's okay for women to wear pants, I think there's going to be
an acknowledgement that why are you in a dress this year when you were in pants last year?
Okay, you see that right there? He said, a spokeswoman for the Douglas County School
District in Castle Rocks said, the district's calling is to educate all kids no matter where
they come from, what their background is, beliefs, values, it doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter what your beliefs are, this is what they're saying, this is what the school district
is saying, the people who are in charge of educating kids of America, it doesn't matter
what your beliefs are, it doesn't matter what your values are or lack thereof, it doesn't
matter what your values are, nothing matters, right? Your gender doesn't even matter. It
says, why Wong, what kind of a name is that? W-H-E-I Wong, why you Wong? Okay, why you
Wong about this? Why Wong, the district spokeswoman, said the school is preparing two unisex restrooms.
I'm not making fun of people of Asian origin, I'm just making fun of this Wong idiot who
is having some stinking cross dresser in the classroom. The school is preparing two
unisex restrooms for the student to use and teachers have been instructed to address the
student by name instead of using a he or she pronoun. Why don't we just use it, that's
the neuter pronoun. She also told the television station the school is handing out packets
of information to other students, wouldn't you love to be living in the school district
sending your child there? They're handing out packets of information to other students
containing information about transgender people and officials will answer questions from other
students about the boy seeking to be girl in order to protect the child as much as possible.
It's something we haven't had discussions about before. It's something that we haven't
really had to think about before, but now we will. Family therapist Larry Curry told
the station that the student's age is very early to be having such issues. Eight, eight
years old. I don't know too many parents who are equipped to answer that kind of question
or deal with it without some other support. Yeah, they need your help. They need the school's
help to explain it to their kid, right? But Kim Pearson of the Trans Youth Family Advocates,
can you believe that such an organization exists? Trans Youth Family Advocates which
lobbies on behalf of such students, says students as young as five years old are realizing their
true gender identity? How is that the true identity? Her group works to break down obstacles
for such students, she said. Initially there was a lot of resistance in the Douglas County
District, she said. Now their position is they want this child to be safe at their school.
Her messages were not a comfort to Dave M. who believes his daughter is not ready to
think about the transgenderism, his eight year old daughter. I don't think a third grader
does have the rationale to decide this life altering choice, he told the station. He also
is upset that although the district has been making preparations for months, officials
just recently let parents know what was going on. I just find it ironic that they can dictate
the dress style of children to make sure they don't wear inappropriate clothing, but they
have no controls in place for someone wearing transgender clothing. Wong confirmed mental
health professionals would be provided for other students, staff or parents if there
are any concerns at all. You know, just in case somebody's worried about it, just in
case somebody's a little bit concerned with a cross-dressing eighth grader being in their
kid's class. Listen Dave moron, pull your stupid kid out of the school, pull your, do
you love your daughter at all? Get her out of that cesspool of filth inside of me. Good
night Dave. No, I'm not talking to you Dave. But listen Dave M. M stands for moron because
this guy is still going to send his daughter to such a weirdo school. These people are
out of their mind. Now we have a problem in America. Now we can go ahead and stick our
head in the sand and ignore it, right? And the pastor can refuse to preach about it.
We can all just put our head in the sand and pretend like it doesn't. And you know, probably
there are probably people in this room right now, and I don't blame you, who probably don't
even believe that that's really, I mean I don't know if you believe that or not. I mean
when I read it I can scarcely believe it. But yet I know it's true. I mean I know that
it's coming from the news and I know that this is really going on. I've been exposed
to it. I've seen it. But isn't it just almost unbelievable that that could be happening
right now around us? Let me, I have a question for you. Which of the presidential candidates
is talking about these issues? None. Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that? I
mean which of them is saying we need to stop what's going on with the transgender, how
our morality has gone out the window, we've got to do something about it. None of them.
It's a non-issue. It's over in their mind. We have a huge problem in America. And I'll
tell you where the problem is. The problem is in the church houses of America. That's
where the problem is. The problem is with God's people. Now my sermon has nothing to
do with what I just read to you, but I'm just reading that to you just to illustrate to
you there's a big problem. Let me tell you about another problem in the United States.
The problem is that I get phone calls every week from people who are trying to find a
good church in their area and they can't find one. And we're not setting the bar that
high. I mean they're not trying to find the perfect church. The perfect church is not
out there. This church is not perfect. You're never going to find the perfect church. Every
church has, you know, shortcomings. But I'm going to tell you something. There are people
in America that call me from major cities, let alone all the small towns that are scattered
across the United States, from major cities and they can't even find a church that fits
these basic criteria. Number one, that believes that salvation is by grace through faith plus
nothing minus nothing. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Number
two, King James Bible only. Whatever degree they believe that to, just at least that's
all they use. We believe that the King James Bible is the word of God without error. But
I mean I'm just talking about even a church that just believes that salvation is only
by grace through faith, that is King James Bible only, to an extent at least, come on,
and has door to door soul winning, house to house, daily in the temple and everywhere
else. I mean what the Bible teaches about going out and winning the loss. We're not
talking about they have to be exactly like us or exactly like anybody. I mean I'm just
talking about a church that fits these three basic criteria. I mean wouldn't you think
that if you're going to go to church it would need to fit those three basic things, that
they believe the Gospel, that they use the right Bible, and that they win souls to Jesus
Christ. Come on, I mean that's what a church is, that's a legitimate bonafide church. There
are places in this country, major cities of a million people who do not even have a church
that fits that bill. Now maybe I don't know about it, but I mean I've called every Baptist
church down the phone book in certain cities. I've gone down the list with them and I couldn't
find one that fit that bill. In major cities across the United States, there's a big problem.
And that's not to mention, there should be a church, I mean wouldn't it be a wonderful
thing if every church in America of at least 10,000 people or more had a church that was
believing and preaching the Bible across this country. Wouldn't that be a blessing? We live
in a city of 4 million people almost, you know if you count the whole county of Maricopa,
I believe it's up to about 3.75 million. 3.75 million, how many churches in this town
fit that bill of just those three basic things? You know, Soul Winning, King James Bible Only,
and Believe the Gospel. Well there's us, and then there's Brother Minerva, just two miles
down, he fits that category. And then there's one on the Far East side of town, Apache Junction,
there's some things I don't agree with that much. Brother Minerva, I love him, I like
him a lot. But you know, on the Far East side of town, there's a guy that I don't agree
with a lot of things, but he fits that bill. And then I know of one other one that Brother
Dave recently told me about, and I'm in Gilbert. Now literally, those are the ones that I know
about. Now I'm not saying that there aren't more, I'm sure that there are a couple more.
I don't know all, see all, and I'm not really calling down the list because I know of a
great church that, you know, everybody in the valley should be going to. They've born
back to church. But anyway, you know, so I don't really research it incessantly. But
still, for a city of 4 million people, this place could use a lot more good, sowing churches.
You know, we shouldn't be the only game in town. There should be, I mean, and it takes
an hour and a half to drive from one side of this place to the other. I mean, to drive
from Avondale to Apache Junction, and there's nothing but just solid city. And that's an
hour and a half drive right there. And so, this is a big city. Sacramento, California,
there are only a couple of churches that fit that bill, a city of 2 million people. Those
two churches that I know of, and maybe there's a third one, they're not going to be able
to reach a city of 2 million people alone. And those are, and there are other cities
that don't even have any churches. We had people drive up from Casa Grande today, which
is an hour each way, to come to our church because there was nothing that they could
find. They said there was one independent fundamental Baptist down there, they went
there, it was wrong, it was not what they wanted, it was a joke, and they came up here
this time. That's a sad condition. Casa Grande's a big city, you know, and it's growing. In
Tucson there are a few, but Tucson is huge. It's massive. It takes an hour and a half
to drive from one side of Tucson to another because they don't have any freeways, that
crazy city. But the bottom line is, all over America, people are struggling to find a good
church in their area. They're struggling to find it. And the sad thing is, there are less
good churches now than there were ten years ago. And there are much less than there were
twenty years ago. I mean, it's getting few and far between. I mean, you just can't find
them in so many areas. We've got people called from the south, in the bible belt, that could
not find a church that even remotely fit those three categories. They were driving an hour
and a half one way to go to a church. And the church that they went to, that was an
hour and a half away, there was a man smoking a cigarette, working in the nursery. A man
working in the nursery. We don't even have a nursery. But good night. Can you imagine
dropping your baby off with a man in the nursery? That's a little weird. And the guy was smoking
a cigarette, I think, in the nursery, wasn't he? Or right out front of the nursery or whatever,
he's smoking a cigarette. And then he's going to take care of it. He's going to put a diaper
on Junior. Okay, that's not exactly an ideal condition. And so, what I'm saying is, there's
a girth of churches. But, at the same time, we're watching the number of good fundamental
soul-winding churches go down, we're seeing another number go up rapidly. You know what
that number is? The number of independent fundamental Baptist bible colleges. Boy, they're
springing up like you wouldn't believe. And not only that, their enrollments are all up
this year. I mean, they're starting up everywhere. You know, Ohio's Anderson, their enrollment's
up. Golden State, their enrollment's up. West Coast Baptist, their enrollment's up.
And now there's a new one up in Michigan. There's one in Arkansas springing up. There's
one in, they're all over Texas. I mean, I'm getting advertisements like you wouldn't believe.
They're all over Oklahoma. In the northern states, the southern states. We get advertisements
all the time from brand new bible colleges that are springing up all over America. Because
they, you know, they have us on the list. Because we're an independent fundamental
Baptist church. They want to recruit students from us. These colleges are springing up everywhere.
And not only that, they're all growing. They're all thriving. I have a question for you. I
know this is a silly question. I know it's kind of an odd question. But where are all
the students that are graduating from these colleges? I mean, wouldn't you think that
if these bible colleges are just pumping out all these preachers and pumping out all these
souls, wouldn't you think that there'd be all kinds of independent fundamental Baptist
churches springing up all over America? I mean, wouldn't that make sense? Isn't it kind
of weird how, and I'm just picking Hiles Anderson because that's the one that I know the most
about because that's where I went. Isn't it amazing how Hiles Anderson has been quoting
the same statistic about how many pastors that are out there graduating, that have graduated
from their, that are out pastoring that have graduated from their college? They always
quote the same number, 700. 700. 700. 700. 700. It's been 700 for decades. Don't you
think that's a little weird when they're putting out hundreds upon hundreds of graduates every
single year? Are any of them going out of the ministry? Are any of them starting churches?
Where are they all? Is the question I ask. That's what people ask us about our soul winning.
Hey, I'm asking about these colleges. Hey, where's your product? Guess what? What you're
doing is not working. Period. Now I'm going to preach to you a sermon tonight and don't
come into this with a preconceived idea. Let's let the bible speak for itself. I'm going
to preach to you why the whole concept of bible college is unscriptural and wrong and
why we will never start a bible college and why I would never recommend for any person
anywhere for any reason to attend a bible college. Say, woo! I can't believe you would
say that. Look, first of all, I'm drawing attention to the fact that while bible colleges
are springing up all over America, the number of good churches in every city in America
is going down. I don't think anybody could seriously argue that point with me, that the
number of good fundamental baptists, soul winning churches in each city is going down
in America. That's a fact. Talk to anybody you want that's the truth. They're all apostatizing,
they're all quitting soul winning, they're all this, they're all that. Let's look at
some scriptural reasons from the bible why I believe that bible college is wrong. It's
the wrong approach. It's the wrong idea. It's a bad idea. There's so many reasons.
I'm just going to give you like five because there's a lot of reasons I can think of. But
first of all, let's just look at one little anecdote here. We're in Matthew, right? Just
flip over to Matthew 23. Let me just make a point right now. This isn't one of my reasons
why it's wrong, but let me just show you a point right now. Look at Matthew 23 and let's
begin reading in verse number 7. And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi,
Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi, this is Jesus talking to his disciples, be not ye
called Rabbi, and not just the twelve by the way, he's talking to all of his followers.
He says, be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ. You see, Rabbi is
Hebrew for master. So he says, don't you be called Rabbi, 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. Now here, Jesus just prohibited the use of three terms to refer to a religious
leader. He said, number one, I don't want a pastor or religious leader to be called
Rabbi. And he said, here's why, because Rabbi means master, and there's only one person
who's your master, that's Jesus Christ, and so therefore it's blasphemous for you to be
called Rabbi. Number two, he says, you are not to be called Father, and not to call any
religious leader or pastor or anybody Father. The Roman Catholics are wrong when they call
a priest Father, it's blasphemy, it's wrong. When they call the Pope Holy Father, and kiss
his big toe, hey, it's wrong! But not only that, it says, neither be ye called masters,
for one is your master, even Christ. Now, I've grown up in Baptist churches, I've heard
so many preachers preach and say, call no man Father, right? And they say, don't call
the priest Father, that's blasphemy! I mean, I've heard it so many times I can't even count.
And yet, what did Jesus say right before that? Don't call him Rabbi, which means master.
And right after that he said, don't call anybody master. Now, why in the world, and this is
just to show you how Bible college is a worldly, it's just a basically a worldly institution
plus Jesus. You know, it's like they've just Christianized a worldly institution of college.
Jesus didn't invent college, God didn't invent college, the world had colleges, and now we've
got our Christian version of a Bible college. Let me prove it to you! Because the system
of what you get when you graduate, a associate's degree, a bachelor's degree, and then you
get a degree if you go there for six years that says, master of theology. I mean, Stephen
L. Anderson, master of theology. Stephen L. Anderson, master of divinity. Stephen L.
Anderson, master of education. Is that right or wrong according to the Bible to give yourself
a title like that? It's wrong! I mean, the sign line, the hardest sign line, Stephen
L. Anderson, M.E. Wrong. Master of education. Wrong. I'm not a master of anything. I'm not
going to get up and say, I went to a Bible college and now I'm the master of divinity.
What is this, like He-Man and She-Ra, the masters of the universe? That's what these
people think they are. You've got to be a certain age to understand that one. Masters
of the universe! That's what Stephen L. Anderson! Look, I'm not a master of anything. I'm dead
sure not a master of divinity. Divinity is God. It means God, like Jesus is divine. It
means that He's God. I'm not the master of God and I'm not the master of the study of
God. Theology. The study of God. Oh, I've mastered that. No, wrong. You haven't. Now,
you say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, you're splitting hairs. No, I'm making a point. No
Bible-believing Christian invented the term master's degree. I mean, nobody read the Bible
and said, you know what, let's come up with degrees. Let's call it bachelor and then let's
call it master and then let's call it doctor. Wrong. You know what happened, don't you? You
know that the worldly system came up with those terms. It wasn't invented by a Baptist church
somewhere. It was started by worldly colleges, worldly universities. They came up with that
program and the Bible colleges, because they want to fit in with the world, be like the world,
be accredited by the world, be accepted and acknowledged by the world, have patterned
their school system exactly after the world's school system, even to the point where they
would take a blasphemous term like master and confer it upon their graduates. It's wrong. I
would love for anybody to argue that point with me, that it would be right for me to put a dress
on a man and put a funny stupid hat on his head that looks like the top of a chimney and with a
little tassel hanging down and then walk up to him and say, I now pronounce you master of
divinity. Wrong. It's not right, it's wrong. And where did all this robe, where did the long
robes come from? I'll tell you where it came from, the Pharisees. They loved to make their
long flowing garments is what the Bible said and the Catholics loved their long flowing garments
and the rabbi, the Jewish rabbi, I saw him at the airport, he was wearing a long flowing garment,
calling himself master in another language. So here Jesus said twice not to be called master,
once not to be called father, yet every Baptist in America preaches against being called father.
He's got something hanging up in his office that says he's master. I'm sorry, but it's wrong. But
that's just kind of an anecdote, just to kind of make that point right there. But not only that,
turn if you would to 2 Kings chapter 22 verse 14. I'll tell you the next reason why I don't approve
of Bible college. Now I think this is an important sermon because I've seen kids be ruined by Bible
college. I could name for you person after person, the names are going through my head right now.
You know, the names will be changed to protect the innocent. But there are people's names I
could tell you right now. I mean, I'm talking about girls, boys, both, who grew up in a Christian
home. They grew up in a great church. They were teenagers who loved God, loved soul winning,
had a zeal of memorizing the Bible, reading the Bible, winning souls. They went to Bible college,
and I saw them three months later. Okay, let me tell you about the girls. When they came back
three months later on Thanksgiving break, they had dark thick eye makeup on like a hooker. You
know what I'm talking about. You know, this real dark black eye makeup, like a prostitute. And I
remember I said to one of them, I said, what have you done? What are you doing? Why do you look like
a whore? You know, and people got mad at me for saying that. I don't know why. But you know,
that's what I said. I said, I said, get that stupid makeup on your face. You look like a whore.
And she did. You know, and then other people, you know, that I know, I watched them come back
with the same thing, you know, that I didn't say that to. Because it was, you know, it was somebody
that I knew closely that I said that to, obviously. You know, there are a lot of other people who came
back with the same thing. And I didn't say anything, but I was thinking to myself, why did
you come back from Bible college looking like a prostitute? Why did you come back from Bible
college and the first thing you did is get in the car and go to the movies? Why did you come back
from Bible college and you look sleazy, you're dressed sleazy, you act sleazy, you look bored in
church, you're missing church, you're out being worldly and ungodly. Hey, these people used to be
good people and they went to Bible college and got messed up. I'm going to tell you why Bible
college is unscriptural and wrong. You don't have to just look at the results tonight, but let me
just explain to you from the Bible why we shouldn't even be there in the first place. Number one,
because the only mention of college in the entire Bible, there's a woman preacher. Look down, look
for yourself. 2 Kings 22, this is the only place in the Bible that mentions the word college. Now,
the same exact verse is found in two places, 2 Kings 22, 14 and 2 Chronicles 34, 22. It's the
same verse, okay. It's parallel passage. But all it says is this, so Hilkiah the priest and Ahicham
and Achbor and Shaphan and Azahiah went unto Huldah the prophetess. Okay, you say,
tell me what that is. That's a female preacher, okay. It says, they went to Huldah the prophetess,
the wife of Shalom, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhaz, keeper of the wardrobe. Now,
she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college and they commuted with her. That is the only time that
college is mentioned in the Bible. Doesn't that verse just make you want to just jump up and start
a Bible college? Doesn't that verse make you just want to send your child to a Bible college
so that Huldah can preach to your son or daughter? You say, oh, but Pastor Anderson,
the Bible colleges of today don't have women preachers. Well, number one, when God wrote
the Bible, I think he knew what he was doing when he only put the word college in one time.
If it's so important, right, if it's the answer, if it's going to save America,
then why isn't it in the Bible? The only Bible college in the Bible, there's a woman preacher,
but I'm sure that's a coincidence. How can that be a coincidence? This is God's word.
And by the way, when I was in Bible college, there sure were women preaching to me.
You'd sit in class and I had a woman English teacher, I had a woman teach speech class,
and these women would get up and, you know, several English classes with women,
you know what they'd do at the beginning? They'd give a little devotional. They'd get out the
Bible and they'd stand in front of a class full of grown men and teach us the Bible for five
minutes at the beginning of each class. I remember just sitting there thinking, this is not right
for a woman to teach a man. This is not right for a woman to be teaching me the Bible or even
English for that matter. I'm not going to sit here and be taught in a classroom by a woman
in the college. But see, the college hasn't changed. It was the same thing back then,
it's the same thing now. But I'm going to tell you something. I believe that the Bible,
and this will change the way that you interpret the Bible. Remember this statement,
the Bible has everything I need to know about every subject. That will change the way you
interpret the Bible. You want to know about Junior who dresses like a girl at age eight?
Just look it up in the Bible. Just study it in the Bible. Look at the Sodomites in the Bible
and you'll find everything you need to know about that subject. You look up every occurrence from
Genesis to Revelation, that subject, it will change the way you look at that subject.
And so I want to know about college. So I look up the word college and this is what I find,
I'm sorry, it's not a very strong case so far. But not only that, you say,
wait a minute Pastor Anderson, the word college was not used back then. The word school is used.
School is the word, right? School. Remember Elisha had the school of the prophets? Who
remembers that? Put up your hand. I've heard that my whole life. Did you know that it does not say
that in the Bible anywhere? I mean, if you tell a lie often enough, people will start to believe
it. And I remember when I was, I preached a sermon somewhat, not totally on this subject,
but I dabbled in this subject. And when I was preparing the sermon, I went to look up that
verse. And this was like a year ago. I thought it was in the Bible because I mean, I'd heard it so
many times. I was like, I looked up school in my concordance. I thought my concordance was wrong.
I thought there was a mistake in my concordance. I said to myself, I know that it says school.
And so you know what I did? I just went back and just read the whole second Kings,
just looking for it and it wasn't there. And I realized my concordance was telling me the truth.
There's only one place that the Bible uses the word school. Look at Acts 19, Acts chapter 19.
Because people will tell you that Elisha had a school of the prophets and this is our mandate
for Bible college in 2008. We should have Bible colleges in our local churches because Elisha
had the school of the prophets. We should look at that and pattern ourselves after that. Well,
no, he didn't have the school of the prophets. Nowhere does it say school of the prophets
anywhere in the Old Testament. It's made up. It doesn't exist. Show me that word in the Bible.
I'll show it to you. School. Acts 19, let's begin reading verse 8. And he went into the synagogue
and spake boldly, this is Paul, for the space of three months disputing and persuading the
things concerning the kingdom of God. Verse 9, this is the only verse that uses the word school
in the entire Bible. But when divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way
before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples disputing daily in the
school of one, Tyrannus. Okay, so Paul is over at this Tyrannosaurus Rex school and he's preaching
to unbelievers. Do you see that? Because it says first he's in the synagogue, right? He's preaching
the Bible. He's arguing with them because the Jews were so hard and they didn't want to hear it. So
because they were hardened, because they believed not, he was disputing with them. He's arguing
with them. He's trying to preach them. Finally, he just gives up and says, okay, enough. So he
leaves the synagogue and he goes to Tyrannosaurus Rex, you know, college or school or whatever.
He goes there and he starts disputing with them. Same thing. He goes there and he's preaching to a
bunch of unbelievers trying to win him to Christ. Was this an institution that Christians were
sending their son and daughter to be trained? No, it was a place, a worldly place, an unsaved place
where Paul was going to preach to unsaved people and argue with them because they were actually
difficult to get saved. I mean, he had to dispute with them. He had to argue. They were unbelievers.
Isn't that clear? That's the only time you'll find the word school or college in the Bible, but you know
what? You're going to find another word over and over in the Bible. It's called church. Good night.
Are we going to be labored by turning to every verse that says the word church? It's hundreds if
you include the word congregation, especially in the Old Testament. Hundreds, just on and on and on
and on. We have to look at them, but we're not going to for sake of time because you know that the
word church is very prevalent in the Bible. But number three, look at Genesis chapter one. This is
not in my sermon. This is just, I just had a word of knowledge. I'm just kidding. But look at that.
Look at Genesis chapter number two. Genesis chapter number two, and we'll see the third reason.
The Bible says in verse 23, and Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father
and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked,
the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Say, why are you reading that verse? What does that do
to the Bible? Well, because the Bible college has, well, the word of God here has a plan for a young
person's life. That plan is laid out right here in Genesis two and in the New Testament it's
repeated in Ephesians chapter five and Colossians chapter whatever it is. And then it's repeated
again saying that a man is to leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife. Does it say that
a man, therefore shall a man leave his male roommate and shall cleave unto his wife? Is that
what it says? Oh, but God didn't know what life was going to be like in 2008, right?
This book was written thousands of years, this book wasn't written thousands of years ago. This
book was written eons ago. This book was written in eternity past. This book always was. There was
never a time when these words did not exist. This book cannot be constrained to any one time period
or culture. It's as eternal as God is. And so the Bible here is laying out God's plan for a
young person to leave mom and dad and to go to be with their wife. Does it talk about a female or
male roommate? Does it talk about them going and living with the dorm supervisor? No. Does it talk
about them going and living in the fraternity at the Bible college, in the dorm house, with the
dorm supervisor? Therefore shall a man leave his dorm mother and shall cleave unto his wife.
He shall leave his dorm father and cleave unto his wife. Wrong. Listen to me. You're supposed to
live with your parents and then guess what? You leave your parents and you get married and then
you have your own house that you live in. And we've taken, now there could be rare exceptions
to that. Agreed. But why is it that the goal of 90 some percent of independent fundamental
Baptists in America is that their little 18-year-old Johnny goes to a Bible college
to live in a room with another man? That's their goal. That's what they want. They want little
Johnny to turn 18 and go bunk with three other guys in a bunk bed. That's what they want. And
then they want him to go from the bunk bed to cleave to his wife and they too shall be one
flesh. I thank God that I skipped the whole bunk bed there. I mean I thank God that I went from mom
and dad and when I turned 19 years old, a couple weeks after I was 19, I moved in with my wife,
praise God. And I had my own house, my own wife, you know, a year after that we had our first child
and then we had another one and we had another one and we had another one. And hey, that's what
normal people are supposed to do. That's what I want my son to do. I want my son to live with
mom and dad and then to get married and move out. I don't want him living in my house when he's
married. I want him to get out of my house and get married. I don't want him to go
jump in a bunk bed. I don't want him arguing with some other 18-year-old who gets the top bunk.
I mean I don't want him to argue with that. I want him to be in a single level
bed with a woman and not a man, okay. I know that's so weird and radical. I know I'm such
a fanatic. Sorry for, I'm sorry. I guess I need to mellow out. But look, doesn't the Bible make
it clear where God's plan is? Where did we get this interim stage between living with mom and
dad and being married? Now look, you say, well I don't think everybody should get married when
they're 18. Fine, great. Why don't they stay living with their mom and dad? Wouldn't that be great?
Because if they're so, if they're such a baby, if they're such a kid that they're
incapable of getting married, then maybe they need mom and dad, right? Like maybe they need
some authority. I mean maybe they need somebody to pay their bills. Maybe they need somebody to
take care of them. Why don't they live with mom and dad then? Instead of just rushing out,
I'm 18, I'm gonna go get a roommate with my buddy. We're gonna be two men living together.
You know, I talked to an old man. He came to this church for a while when it first started
and he told me that when he was younger, and this was a very masculine man. I mean there was,
there was nothing feminine about this guy. Very masculine man. He was, he was 92 years old
and he said that when he was a young man, he got, him and another guy just moved into an
apartment together. They just had a roommate and people thought that they were sodomites.
Just because back in those days, that was something that you just did not do.
You did not move in with another guy and just live together in an apartment. It was just unheard of.
Now now it's just the norm. Now it's encouraged. Go to Bible college and jump in a bunk bed with
these three other guys. You know, it's encouraged. Now I'm not saying there's anything gay about that
or anything. I mean this guy was a totally normal guy, but I'm just trying to illustrate how our
society has changed to where in those days it was bizarre to people. It flipped people out.
Now it's become normal because we're straying from God's word and God's plan.
Children and teenagers and young adults, if they're not mature enough and old enough to
be married, then they should be living with their mom and dad where they have some rules
and some authority and some structure. Look, either they're old enough and, and, and man
enough or woman enough to go out and get married or they're not. And if they're not, they should
be staying home with mom and dad until they, until mom and dad finish raising them. And if
it takes till they're 30 to raise them or 31 or 35, 40, hey, I guess everybody develops at their
own pace. Okay. But I'm just telling you something. God's ideal, God's plan, God's will is for people
to live in a family. Isn't that, this is radical, isn't it? Families. Guess what? Did you know that
Pastor Steven Anderson has always lived in a family from the time I was born to the time
I'm standing here right now. I've always lived in a family because first I was with my family,
with me and my two sisters and my brother and my mom and dad. And then I lived in a family
with me and my wife and subsequently we added children and again and again and again. Okay.
And so this is God's plan. What's wrong with America? We've broken down the American family.
That's the problem. The American family has shattered apart to where more than half of
families in the city of Tempe, Arizona right now do not consist of a man and a woman at the center
of that family. You know, a married man and woman. Less than half of the family, less than half of
the households, I'm sorry, in Tempe, Arizona are a man and woman at the center who are married.
That's, that's, that used to be the norm. I mean, that used to just be what life was about.
You've got a man, woman, and children, and then the man goes out and the woman goes out,
they get married, and then they have children. And that's God's plan. I don't see Bible college
coming into play. But number three, look at Ephesians chapter four, if you would,
Ephesians chapter four. I'm just trying to give you some things to think about.
Let me give you a quick review. First of all, the number of good churches in America is going down.
Number two, the number of Bible colleges in America is dramatically increasing and their
enrollment is all increasing that fit those three categories. King James only, right?
Soul winning and salvation by grace through faith. That number of Bible colleges is increasing that
fit those three categories. And their enrollment is increasing. Yet the number of churches across
America that fit those categories are going down. So maybe their goal of putting out all these
churches and pastors and Christian leaders is not working. See, we're using the scientific method.
That's my hypothesis. Now I'm giving you the observational data. We see in the Bible,
first of all, that Bible colleges are patterned up to the world, which is why they're using a
blasphemous term, Master of Theology, Master of Divinity, Master of Education, which is preached
against in the Bible. If you really take the Bible literally, it says not to use that word.
Well, that's not what he meant. Well, I guess that's not what the priest means when he calls
himself father and dresses like mother. Okay. He didn't mean that either. Well, what does it mean?
What is Jesus prohibiting here? Why are you not supposed to bow down to a man? That's not what it
says. It says don't call him master. Don't call him rabbi. Don't call him father. And so look at
Ephesians chapter four. And this is, I think, this is my biggest point. This is the most important
point of the whole sermon. All right. Everybody listen up. This is the big one. Ephesians four,
verse 11. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors
and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ. It's not about the church, the body of Christ. What is the purpose of the
pastor? What is the purpose of the prophet? What is the purpose of the teacher? What is the purpose
of the evangelist? This is the purpose to edify the body of Christ. That's what it says. It says
the purpose is to perfect the saints and edify the body of Christ and to do the work of the ministry.
So my job, my function is to go out and do the work of the ministry. Go out, knock on doors,
preach the gospel, teach the Bible. Why? To teach it to people that are saved. To build you up.
Edify. You know the Spanish word edificio? Right? What does it mean? Building. Edificio. Okay?
So I'm supposed to build you up through my teaching and preaching. And I'm supposed to
perfect you. Right? None of us is perfect. We all need perfecting. And so you get your perfecting
as a Christian in the house of God in church. But here's the problem. With the advent of Bible
colleges, now the local church has ceased to become a place of teaching and preaching
for God's people. You don't come to the average church and learn Bible doctrine anymore because
church is becoming geared toward an unsaved audience. I mean, I preached a sermon. I had a
visitor sit in this church. I preached a sermon. That very visitor, he was so bold and powerful.
He had so much courage that he wrote nasty comments about me on the visitor card.
And then he just like rushed out the door as fast as he could. And he just got away fast as he
could. He wouldn't even talk to me. He was just like. And I always try to go up to every visitor
after the service. But this guy was gone. And then I got home and he's written me a little email.
You know, I can't believe you're a church. You didn't even give the plan of salvation
during your sermon. Are you even saved? That's what he said to me. Because I didn't give the
plan of salvation. This guy is assuming that I'm going to preach the plan of salvation in
every sermon. Why? Would you like to hear the plan of salvation for the 500th time?
Now look, I've preached the plan of salvation 500 times last year. More like a thousand. It's
called out-soul winning. I knock on doors, I preach the plan of salvation. And I usually have
somebody standing next to me listening. But when I get behind the pulpit, I'm going to edify the
saints. When I get behind the pulpit, I'm going to perfect the saints. I'm going to edify the
body of Christ. I'm going to feed the church of God. That's what the Bible says. You don't have
to turn there. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the
Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God. That's my job. Which he had
purchased with his own blood. Now, have you ever heard people say this, well I quit going to that
church because I wasn't being fed. Many times they're telling the truth. Because they're
coming on Sunday morning and it's the plan of salvation, the plan of salvation, the gospel,
the gospel, the gospel, the plan of salvation, the plan of salvation. And I've heard pastors
my whole life get them and say, well if you're tired of hearing the plan of salvation, then
there's something wrong with you. You should want to hear it again. Yeah, but what about all the
other things that we need to be hearing? The Bible's a big book. There's a lot of things that
we all need to learn. There's a lot of things that we could all work on and be a better Christian
and be perfected and edified. And I don't believe that it's my job to to gear my service towards
some visitor that walks in and say, oh he might not be saved. I better preach the plan of salvation.
No I'm not. I'm going to finish my sermon and if I can catch him, I'm going to run as fast as I can.
I'm going to chase him through the parking lot. I'm going to catch him and give him the gospel.
And usually I get there and somebody else is already talking to him. You know, somebody
else has already got their Bible. One of our people has got their Bible and they're already
giving them the gospel. I mean I can't even get to them fast enough because I'm up here and you
guys are back there. You give them before I can even get to them. That's the way it ought to be.
That's the way it should be. Literally. We had a service not too long ago. It was a big Sunday
morning. We had a real big attendance. Big crowd and it was full. You remember, it was
a few months ago. A lot of visitors and everything is just really full. And I kind of went like,
talk to that guy. Remember? I mean I got to see him. I said get that guy the gospel because I
thought they were legal. And he's like, I can't. You know, because he was he was blocked in by
people. He's like, no I can't. And he's like, he's already gone. And so I mean I ran out there.
I literally sprinted across the parking lot. He'll tell you. I mean I ran across that parking
lot. They were already in the car. The window was up. They were starting to drive away. And I said,
wait a minute. Hey, how you doing? And what happened was it was this it was this couple
and they didn't like it at all. They were they were fundamental Baptists.
And they did not like that sermon at all. And they wanted to get out of here fast. And so they
jumped in there. And they brought a young guy that was like a college student. You know,
you can just tell he's just a guy out of the world, you know. And they were trying to get him
in church. It turned out they were the ones that needed the church. But they got what they needed
while they were here. But they didn't like it. Okay. But I chased them down. And the guy was
sitting in the backseat. I knocked on the back window. And he opened the back door. And I said,
hey, how you doing? Thanks for coming today. I said, let me ask you, I'm here to die today.
Do you know for sure that you go to heaven? Now I didn't mention the Gospel in that sermon at all.
Not one bit. I was preaching a lot of Bible, but I didn't mention the Gospel. And so I
shook his hand and I said, do you know for sure if you died today? And he sat there for a minute,
didn't say anything, looked a little embarrassed. He said, you know what, to be honest with you,
I don't. And I said, well, can I just show you how you know that? Take like five minutes.
So I opened my Bible. I started going through the plan of salvation with him,
giving him the Gospel. The guy from the front seat pipes up. He starts arguing with what I'm
saying. I couldn't believe it. I'm trying to get this guy saved. I thought that was why he
brought them. And they called the day before and said that they were going to be coming down. They
were bringing this guy and everything. I'm going to be asked. He starts arguing with me about some
small, insignificant point. And I just said to him, I said, you know, let's just,
let's, we can talk about that in a minute. You know, let's get to that later.
So I go back to give them the Gospel and, and he says, well, you know, you know, he
pipes up again. It was something, it was a question about hell, something about hell.
He pipes up again and he said, well, you know, you gotta understand the word Hades and Sheol,
you know, blah, blah, blah. That's not really hell. It's Sheol. I, I just, I just looked at
him and I raised my voice to an angry voice. Have you ever heard that voice before? I don't know.
But I raised my voice and I said, the word Hades is not in my Bible. That's exactly how I said it.
Maybe not quite that loud, but I said it in that tone. I said, the word Hades is not in my Bible.
I said, let me finish. And he went, and I saw him up front, you know, turning his little Bible
showing his way. He wasn't pointing at Hades cause it's not in the Bible. Unless you got the NIV,
you know, the, the non-inspired version. But I finished giving this guy the gospel cause I
didn't care what that guy thought. I didn't care if he's coming back. I didn't care if she's coming
back. I cared about getting this guy saved. I wanted this guy to go to heaven. And so I finished
giving him the gospel. He bowed his head. He prayed and trusted Christ as Savior. He thanked me.
He was happy. He said, man, thanks so much. I, and he said, I really enjoyed the sermon and I, and
thanks for showing me that. And he knew it was going to heaven. And one day I'm going to see
him in heaven. But I wonder if the people in the front seat are going to be cast out. I don't know.
Maybe they were saved. I hope they were saved. I hope to God they were saved. I'm sorry if I
questioned the salvation of somebody who would interrupt somebody who's trying to get somebody
else saved just because of pride, because of their little issue with the sermon. I find that
a little bit strange. Now I'm not saying he wasn't saved. I hope to God that he was saved and that,
and that his wife was saved. I hope that we'll all be walking on the golden streets together.
But I'm going to tell you something. That guy in the back got saved. Praise God.
And I didn't have to change my whole sermon. I preached what God wanted me to preach. I preached
what you need, what I need. Period. You know who I think about when I prepare the sermons?
I don't think about the visitors who call and say they're going to be here. I don't think about the
visitor who I think is going to be here, who might be here. I don't even think about it for one
second. You know who I'm thinking about? You, you, you, you, you, you, you. That's who I'm thinking
about when I'm preparing the sermon. Period. I don't care what an unsaved person thinks about
or gets from my sermon. Here's a newsflash. Church is not for unsaved people. It's the assembly of
born-again baptized believers in Jesus Christ. Period. If an unbeliever walks in, great. Sit down,
listen to it too. But it's not for you. It's for us. And when you're done, we'll win you to Christ
and then you'll be one of us. And then we'll baptize you. And then we'll teach you how to
win souls and you can come to church and hear Bible preaching the whole counsel of God.
And, and you know, we try to get them before the service. I love it when you bring a visitor
and you bring them 10 minutes early, 15, 20 minutes early, and I can have time to, to give them
the gospel. Sometimes we've even started the service a few minutes late because we were too
busy getting somebody saved. Praise God. I'm not going to sit here and gear my service toward a
bunch of unsaved people with a bunch of unsaved music, a bunch of music that sounds like the world,
people up here that are dressed like the world, preaching that sounds like the world.
I want this church to, you walk in and you feel like it's church. You feel like it's Christianity.
You feel like it's the Bible. You don't walk in and say, oh, this feels like a sporting event.
This feels like my bowling league. This feels like, uh, this feels like a nightclub. This
feels like a rock concert. I remember, uh, I think it was my brother told me he went to this,
he went to this convention for businessmen and he heard that former president, uh, Gerald Ford and
all these, you know, there are all these really, uh, well-known famous people. And they were given
a seminar with somebody he went to for the business that he was in. And, um, what's this
guy's name? He's a, he's a, I don't know if anybody knows this. He's a Mormon football player. His
last name is Young. Steve Young. Is he Mormon? Steve, Steve Young. Mormon Steve Young gets up
and he's speaking about, you know, business, leadership, management. It was one of these
kind of conferences and he was using the Bible. Right. And he's up there. He's talking about
Jesus. Jesus. He was using the Bible. He was talking about love. And you know what?
Did you know that he didn't say one thing that was wrong? He didn't say a thing that was wrong.
And my brother came back from this thing and he told me, he said, he said, Steve,
he said, Steve Young was there this morning. And he got up and he, he opened the Bible
and he was teaching, you know, and talking about this different stuff that, and he used Jesus and
some things in the Bible to illustrate. He said, did you know that he didn't say one thing wrong?
And he said, I figured out what's wrong with these liberal churches.
He said, it's not that they're necessarily saying anything wrong. It's just that they're not saying
anything. You know, I mean, he's just talking to businessmen, just giving basic principles that
could apply to anybody, but they're not saying anything. And that's what unsaved people,
I mean, unsaved people sat there and listened to Steve Young. It didn't bother them one bit
that he brought up Jesus in the Bible. Not one bit. Unsaved people can walk in and sit down in
church and listen to some kind of a motivational speaker. Who in the world is offended by a
motivational speaker? Who in the world is offended by somebody telling you, you can live your best
life now? That's just not that offensive. And so if you want unsaved people to be able to come
to this church and not be offended, that's the way my preaching would have to be, right? I mean,
for an unsaved person to walk in and not be offended, it would just have to be very generalized
terms. We can talk about Jesus, the Bible, love, love, and, and we could talk about, you know,
do others and, and be a better person. If your fullest potential, you know,
that's not going to offend people. But I'm going to tell you something. If I knew that every single
person here was a born again, saved Christian, they've been baptized, they love God, they love
so many, don't you think that would change my preaching? If that's who I'm gearing my sermon
toward? Absolutely. Absolutely. And if I'm perfecting you, I'm going to be preaching some
specific things because to make something perfect, you're going to get pretty specific.
I mean, this is kind of in general what you're supposed to be as a Christian. No, no, no,
perfecting of the saints. You see what I mean? I mean, it's got to be, we want you to be perfect.
The Bible says, be therefore perfect, even as your Father is in heaven is perfect. You're
going to preach everything in the Bible, every rule, because the only way you're going to be
perfect is to follow every rule. The only way you're going to be perfect is to learn everything
in the Bible. So I'm going to preach everything in the Bible to try to perfect you. Now, none of us
ever going to be perfect, but let's, let's try to perfect ourselves. Let's get there. Let's,
let's be in that process of sanctification. And so the problem is, churches are gearing
their service to the lost and then they quit going soul-willing. They just start bringing
unsaved people to church and try to preach them down the aisle, which aisle we don't have,
which invitation we don't have. We don't have invitations. We don't have altar calls. We have
chase them out the door call. We have sit down and open our Bible call. We have roll down your
window before, I know your wheels already rolling out of the parking lot, but when you roll down
your window and stop that car and sit down and listen to me for five minutes, you listen to me
for an hour, listen to me for 10 more minutes. And so what happens, now you say, wait a minute,
you're off subject. I'm not off subject. Let me tie it together for you. The reason I brought
that up is because now that churches have stopped teaching Bible doctrine, the only place a person
can go to learn Bible doctrine is a Bible college. And so if a young person wants to learn how to
pastor, if a young person wants to learn how to preach, if a young person wants to learn about
the deep doctrines of the Bible, they must go to a Bible college to learn it. Well, not here brother
at Faithful Word Baptist Church. If you come here Sunday morning and Sunday night, you're going to
learn the Bible. Come here Wednesday night, you will learn a deep Bible lesson. We're not going
to keep it shallow for Mr. Joe unsaved in the back. Hey, we're going to preach the whole thing.
Everything that I learned in Bible college that was worth anything comes across this pulpit Sunday
morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. Period. You see, I don't believe that a person should have
to go to a Bible college to learn the Bible and come to church for a motivational speaker.
Because then only the young people who are going to Bible college are going to the Bible. I want
the common layman in the pew who's never going to go to a Bible college. I want Mr. Layman to get
the Bible teaching too and everybody get it. Everybody needs to learn the whole Bible and so
why should we have to have this other place where you go learn the Bible and then you come to church
for your spiritual vitamin, your spiritual multivitamin. No, you're going to get strong meat.
You're going to get breakfast, lunch and dinner Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night.
You don't need to go somewhere else to learn all this stuff. Hey, learn it here in the house
or learn it somewhere else but learn it in a local church. But the problem is because the
church has stopped teaching doctrine, people feel like they have to go to a Bible college to learn
doctrine. So now the demand for Bible colleges is increasing, right? Because that's where you
got to go anymore. I mean, you can't learn the Bible in church. The pastor's not teaching the
Bible. So then that creates these big Bible colleges that are growing. Now the pastor looks
at the Bible college and says, great, now I can teach even less Bible doctrine because they're
learning it over there. Now I can totally gear my service toward unsaved people and baby Christians.
My service is not geared toward babies. Grow up. Quit being such a baby. Take the pacifier
out of your mouth, get that diaper off, put on some big boy pants and come to this church
ready to learn the Bible and to chew on some strong meat from the Bible.
I'm not going to stick a bottle in your mouth. I'm not going to warm up the formula for you in
the microwave. I don't even do that for my own kids. We had to do that one time. My wife had
surgery and she was not able to nurse the baby. And I had to make, that stuff smells awful.
That formula, I'd rather change diapers than smell that stuff. I mean, I'm not even kidding.
That stuff smells awful. I did that for one day because my wife was in the hospital
and it's the only way to feed the baby, you know, and they've all just been nursed a hundred
percent. But I mean, I smelled this stuff. I sat there and I was spilling, you know, I'm not,
I don't know how to do this. I mean, that put this kind of stuff. So I'm spilling it all over
the, I mean, I spilled it, you know, I put it together, you know, you feel like assemble the
bottle. I put it together and I turn it upside down, you know, and it's supposed to just little
drops come out the end of it. I turned upside down. It's like squirting out because I had the
valve in, you know, I had some valve in backwards. They're saying, yeah, there's all these little
valves and stuff. I turned upside down. Just dumped it all over the kitchen. And then I'm
heating it up. And then it's like, first it's cold, then it's boiling hot. I can't get the
balance right. I just talked to myself. Good. That you think I want to do that Sunday morning,
Sunday night was I prepare a bunch of baby bottles. Now look, I have a much easier time like
barbecuing hot dogs. Okay. Making mashed potatoes. I can do that. So if you come to church, you're
going to get mashed potatoes and gravy. You're going to get, you know, Hey, I can put a piece
of meat in the oven. I can barbecue a steak for you. And that's what you're going to get in
church. I'm not Mr. Bottle Boy. I'm not up here juggling bottles for you. And you know, I got to
warm, I got to warm your, your sermon for you just right. I got to make your preaching just the right
temperature, right? Because if it's too cold, you can't take it. And if we heat up the preaching a
little too much, it's going to burn your, your sensitive little baby mouth. Your little sensitive
baby mouth needs to grow up a little bit because we're going to make, we're going to cook it up as
hot as this oven can make it. We're going to crank. I want to bring it to your table. You know,
you know the flambéed stuff that you get at restaurants where there's, it's still flaming
when they bring it. It's like, you know, you go to a real fancy restaurant, they bring out your table
and they're like, they flambéed at the table. Here's your sermon.
Shut up you big baby and eat it.
But anyway, look, Bible college is, you know what Bible college is producing by the way?
A bunch of spineless wimps and pansies. I mean, my biggest question about these,
when I was at Bible college, my biggest question about the kid sitting next to me was whether he
was gay or straight. And I'm not even kidding. I'm not, I mean, I'm not trying to be, I mean,
I was being funny a minute ago. Now I'm being serious. I used to sit in Bible college and,
and look around the class and, and wonder which kids were gay or straight. That's what I did for
fun. When I was bored, I just sat there and looked, there's no way that guy's straight.
And I'm not even just kidding. I'm not saying he was effeminate. I'm saying like, I was going
through the class looking, I'm saying, this guy's a faggot. This one's a faggot. This guy is
effeminate tendencies, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. This guy's a fat,
this guy's straight. He's straight. He's straight. I'll give this guy the benefit of the doubt,
but you know, I'm going to still sit on the other side of the room.
This guy's for sure a certifiable queer. I've now pronounced him a queer right now.
Why? Because it was never God's plan in the first place to put four 18 year old punks in a room
together. Why? Because it was never God's purpose in the, in the first place to take a young person
out of their parents' home so that some stranger can raise them in a Bible college when they're a
grown man. Why? Because it's, they're supposed to be in the local church to learn the Bible.
They're supposed to be trained in the house of God, not trained in a parachurch ministry.
I don't care if it's under the canopy of the local church, the umbrella of the local church.
My Bible doesn't even say the word canopy or umbrella.
Jesus wasn't walking around with an umbrella. What was I, what did you read about John the
Baptist having an umbrella? Or he had a little canopy out in the wilderness. The only preacher
that had a canopy was Jonah. He had a gourd hanging over his head for his canopy. Tell me
about the canopy of the local church. It's not a church. If it looks like a duck and quacks like
a duck, it's a duck. Okay. And a local church is an assembly of believers of all nations,
of all genders, of all races, of all ages who get together in one assembly, in one accord,
in one place. That's not what a Bible college is. It's not a local church.
Oh, but it's under the canopy of the local church. It's not a church.
You're sitting in a church. There are churches all over this city,
but a Bible college is not a church, my friend. It's a school. And Jesus did not say,
uh, upon this rock I'll build my school and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
He said upon this rock I will build my church. Man builds schools. God builds churches.
Just remember that. Man builds schools. Man builds colleges. Man builds associations.
Man builds denominations. Man builds buildings. But God builds churches.
He's not in the school building business. God's not a principal up in heaven. God's not some
administrator up in heaven. God is the shepherd, the pastor up in heaven.
God's a pastor. I don't know if you know that. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
The Bible calls God, Jesus Christ, the bishop of our souls. Did you know that?
So the Bible calls God the shepherd. It calls him the bishop.
That's what a pastor is. A pastor and a bishop and a shepherd.
And so God's a shepherd. God's a pastor. He builds churches. He doesn't build schools.
Men build schools. Schools are man-made institutions. Church are God-made institutions.
You know who's gonna build this church? God. Sit back and watch God build this church.
But see, a man can build this kind of church. Only God can build this kind of church.
And men can build schools all day long. But number four, I gotta hurry, I'm out of time.
Number four. First of all we saw that the only mention of college in the Bible is a woman
preacher. Secondly we saw, you know, Bible college adds a stage in the life of a child
between their house and getting married. Between mom and dad and marriage. It's not in the Bible.
Number three, Bible college has replaced the local church as being God's institution for
the teaching of Bible doctrine. Church has become evangelistic, per se. And Bible college
has been the place to go to learn, when really you should be coming to church to learn everything
you need to know about the Bible. And if I'm not teaching it to you, that's my fault. Okay?
You should be able to come to this church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night,
and learn it all. And if you're not learning it and you feel like you have to go somewhere else,
then that means I'm failing as a preacher to teach you what you need to learn.
So, I mean, I hope I'm teaching it to you. But you know what? If I'm not, then go to a church
that does, not a school. Go find it. If you're not learning it here, go to a church that will
teach you how to win souls. Go to a church that will teach you the Bible. I mean, if we get back
to the local church and work God's plan, we'd get something done. We'd have churches growing up all
over America. You know, I'd love to take the staff. I'd love to take the staff of hundreds
and scores of staff that are staffing these Bible colleges, right? That are putting out all these
great pastors. Wouldn't it be great if every Bible teacher professor at these colleges would go out
and start a church? Tomorrow we would have a fundamental Baptist soul winning church in every
city in America. Tomorrow. I mean, if you just took the staff of these colleges, took these guys out
and just said, look, let's start with the biggest cities and work our way down. And let's just send
you guys out to just start churches all over America. Let's just get one in all 50 states.
And then we'll get one in all the major cities. And then we'll start working our way to more
minor cities. We would have it tomorrow. I mean, if they all just got in the car tomorrow and just
went out and started preaching. And you know what? Some of these guys, some of these guys at
Highlands Anderson and other places, when I was there, you know, they were good preachers. I mean,
they'd stay in the classroom and preach. And they were great preachers. They knew the Bible.
It'd be great if they'd go work for an institution that God sanctioned, like the church instead of a
school. They could fill the void across America for Baptist churches that's so needed and desperate.
But lastly, this. Not only has the Bible College replaced God's institution, the local church,
for being a place of teaching and training, leaving the layman out in the cold, hung out to
dry, not learning the Bible like he should, unless he's willing to pay $500 a month to go to a Bible
College. That's just the tuition, by the way, from the college that I went to.
You say, well, you're preaching against Bible College and you went to Bible College.
Well, look, I've told a lie before, too, and I still preach against lying.
Well, I can't preach against lying because I've lied before. That would make me a hypocrite.
I can't preach against stealing. I've stolen before. I can't preach against having a bad
thought because I've had a bad thought. So that'd be hypocrisy. I can't preach against not reading
the Bible because there have been days when I didn't read the Bible. I can't preach against
not praying because there have been days when I didn't pray. Well, I can't preach against not
soloing because there have been times when I didn't go soloing. Does that make any sense?
I'm not perfect.
Number four, the Bible Colleges centralize too much power and create denomination-like
ties between churches. Bible Colleges have become a denomination, period. What do I mean by that?
Well, more people will say this. They will look at a church and they'll judge that church based
on what college they send their kids to. I will. I mean, if I want to know about a church,
I called up a church for my sister that she was going to go to. I called them up and I said,
are you guys independent Baptists? Yes, sir. Do you, uh, King James Bible only? Yes, sir.
You guys go door to door soul winning? Yes, sir. I said, what Bible college do you send your kids to?
That was just a quick way to just figure out where they're coming from,
to categorize them into which denomination they belong to. I said, which Bible college
do you send the teenagers to? And he said, uh, I don't send any Bible college.
But he, uh, he said, I don't really, I'm not really big on Bible college.
I said, great. And then we talked more and it turned out to be a great church.
But other, other times I've called them and asked them and they said, you know, West coast.
And I'm like, okay, you know, I kind of know where you're coming from then. Okay, great.
You know, or, oh, how's Anderson or, oh, you know, uh, we send our kids to, uh, you know,
whatever. And that gave me a feel and, and, and people, people will identify churches with what
college they're affiliated with. You walk into the pastor's office, you look at which posters
on the wall that he's promoting to his teenagers of which college to go to. But how many people
identify a Bible college? They, they're looking at a Bible college and they want to know if it's
the right college. So they say, well, what church sends their kids here? Nobody's even heard of the
churches. But if I, the colleges that I listed off, almost every independent Baptist in America
has heard of those schools. So the school has become the common denominator. You understand
what I'm saying? I mean, the school has become the pace center. The school has become the one
that we pattern ourselves after, right? Doctrinally we say, my doctrine lines up with the college.
And so now that college has become the central authority that lays out what we're supposed to be
like. And we just pick one and line up with it and get in that camp. And we go to that conference
and we go to that school. And so we've taken the emphasis off church and we put it in a school.
We've vested the authority in a school. It's become a denominational headquarters.
And, and the bottom line is this, the local church as an institution has been de-emphasized
by all the parachurch ministries, the promise creepers, the hocus pocus on the family, the,
the, uh, our daily bread or, or the, the sword of the board, you know, it's so boring. I'm sorry,
the sword of the Lord. Um, you know, whether we send our kids to Hyles Anderson or clown college,
clown call, I mean, crown college or go to cap Baptist college with Dr. Treebrook in Santa Clara,
or whether we send our kids here or there or there or there, because that's what's really
important. The Bible college, the Christian law association, worldwide ministries, Inc. Uh, the,
the, uh, blah, blah, blah, whatever ministry. Oh, okay. What mission board? There's no mission
boards in the Bible, no Bible colleges, no associations, no denominations. There's a church.
And if we get back to the basics, my friend, we would see people saved. Like you wouldn't believe
we'd see churches spring up all over America. If we would get back to the basics of saying,
this is our, this is our methods, reading the Bible, memorizing the Bible, pray, soul winning,
fasting, preaching, singing, the local church. That's all we need. God has given us enough.
We don't need to go form a bunch of corporations out there somewhere. The only corporation we need
is the body of Christ. That's what corporation means. By the way, it's like the word corpus
in Latin body. We only need one corporation, the body of Christ. We don't need the body of college,
the body of association. We don't need it. And I'm going to tell you something. We get back to
the local church, our church. Have you ever noticed how our church is a little bit small?
Cause we just started two years ago. So it's small. It's still growing. It's still in its
infant stages. It's only two years old. Have you noticed that our little tiny small church wins a
lot of people to Christ? Have you ever noticed how fast we canvas whole areas on the map?
Have you ever noticed how fast we blow through a neighborhood and we knock every single door?
I'm telling you, if you get local churches all over America doing the same thing,
we'd knock every door in the United States. But the Bible college only knocks the door
in their big city. What we need is local churches in every town in America,
not one big denominational headquarters where we send all the kids to, and they're the ones
that knock the doors. We need to have local churches all over America that are knocking
the doors. God help us when there are places all over America that don't even have a church,
and yet we're building another Bible college. Don't build another Bible college. Send that guy
to go build a church somewhere. Send him to Phoenix, Arizona to build another church,
because we need all the churches we can get here, and everywhere else in America is even in worse
shape. Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer. Father, I hope I express myself. I don't know if I
express myself properly tonight, but God, I just pray that everybody who's here would
understand the fact that we don't need to invent a new institution that's somehow better than the
church that you died for and gave us. God, I happen to like your institution. I happen to love coming
here Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night and meeting with your people, singing with
a loud voice, songs of praise to you, learning the Bible, preaching the Bible, and then going
out with my brothers and sisters in Christ and winning souls side by side. I happen to like your
methods through, God, and I thank you so much for giving them to us. Thank you so much I don't go
to the bunk bed. Thank you so much my kids aren't going to go to bunk bed Baptist college. I just
pray that you would please just help those that are here to understand my heart tonight and to
see the point of what I'm saying and to honestly pick up their Bible and read it and weigh the
facts and come to their own conclusion and see that Bible college just isn't in the Bible, and
in fact, I think it's hurting the cause of Christ by taking these kids in and ruining them like I've
seen so many that have been ruined by these Bible colleges. I just don't think God blesses worldly
institutions. Father, I pray that you bless our church and help our church to grow bigger, dear
God. I'd love to see our church grow bigger so we could have more people out stolen, get more people
saved, knock more doors, and God, what I really wish even more than that is I beg of you, I plead
with you, dear God, that you would send forth laborers into your harvest that would start
churches across America. Nothing breaks my heart more, God, than somebody tells me that they can't,
that they're dying to go to a good church in the area and they can't find one. God, that breaks my
heart. How are we going to win the unsaved across America if we can't even get a church for somebody
to go to that already loves you and is already saved? God, please, I beg of you, stir in the
hearts of every young man across this nation, every young man in his teenage years, in his 20s,
in his 30s, I pray that you would place a burning desire in that young man, wherever he may be,
from one end of this country. He may never even hear this sermon, dear God, but would you please
answer my prayer and put it in the heart of that young man, not to teach at Christian school, not
to principal at a Christian school, not to be some kind of a parachurch leader, but God, I pray that
you would put it in his heart right now to start a church like you died for, dear God, and to watch
you build that church and see great things happen for the glory of God. Father, please, would you
just call young men all across America to start and pastor churches and to get out of these
parachurch ministries. We love you, dear God, and thank you so much for our church. Please bless it,
please help it to grow, and please help us to do the best we can to reach this area, dear God.
We're just flawed, human, weak vessels, dear God, but with your spirit and your power and your word,
we can do something great for God, every single one of us. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
All right, let's go ahead and sing a song.