you
Find a seat rather and grab a hymnal, either order that you want to do that.
Hymn number 96 will be our first this evening.
God leads us along.
Hymn number 96, 96, God leads us along.
1996 God leads us along right there on the first in shady green pastures so
rich and so sweet God leads his dear children along where the waters cold
flow bays the weary ones feet God leads his dear children
Some through the water, some through the flood.
Some through the fire, but all through the blood.
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song
in the night season and all the day long.
shines so bright God leads his dear children along sometimes in the valley
in darkest of night God leads his dear children along some through the water
great sorrow, but God gives a song. In the night season and all the day long, though
sorrow's before us and Satan opposes, God leads his dear children along. Through grace
God leads his dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the blood.
Some through the fire, but all through the blood.
God leads his dear children along.
Away up in glory, eternities day.
God leads his dear children along.
Some through the water, some...
a song in the night season and all the day long.
Amen.
At this time, we'll open with a word of prayer.
If you bow your heads with me.
Heavenly Father, we thank you again
for an opportunity to come together this evening,
to sing praises and worship in your name
and learn from your word.
Lord, I just want to thank you for the eight salvations that we had this afternoon for just
leading us to those that are receptive and we just pray that you'd continue to use us and guide
us in the right paths that we could be good and faithful, profitable servants for you. Also pray
for this service that everything would be done decently and in order. These things we pray in
Jesus' name, amen. All right, for our next hymn, number 31, he lives. Excuse me, hymn number 31.
He lives
Him number 31 we'll sing there right on the first I serve a risen save
Your ease in the world today. I know that he is living
Whatever men may say I see his hand
see I hear his voice of cheer and just the time I need him he's always near he
lives he lives Christ Jesus lives today he walks with me and talks with me alone
He is leading through all the stormy blast The day of His appearing will come at last
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today He walks with me and talks with me a long
salvation to import you ask me how I know he lives he lives within my heart
rejoice rejoice so Christian lift up your voice and sing eternal hall and
Jesus Christ the King, the hope of all who seek Him, the help of all who find, none other
is so loving, so good and kind. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks
life stare away. He lives. He lives. Salvation to.
go through some announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, raise your hand and Usher will bring
you one. On the front as a reminder, we are in Galatians chapter one for our Bible memorization
verse number 23. So only a couple more weeks left to memorize this chapter. We do have on the inside
our service times listed Sunday morning at 1030 Sunday evening at 430 and our Wednesday Bible study
Below that we have our soul winning times and all those meet here at the church building
as well as our year to date statistics for soul winning and we had eight
salvations today out soul winning so praise god for that it was a really
receptive area you know you know you're in a nice part of town for soul winning that is
when you're in the middle of preaching to someone and these three dudes walk through all messed
You know someone who just messes with my Accura, you know,
huffing and puffing through the area?
Like, that's good soul winning and stuff like that happens.
So, you know, it's just we go to those type of areas for a reason.
Below that, we have our upcoming events.
Father's Day is June 15th, and for that evening service,
we're gonna have pizza and root beer Coke floats.
So make sure to join us and stick around after that service.
June 22nd is the men's preaching night.
We've got three guys signed up so far.
If you wanna preach, please sign up on the back over there.
June 28th is the Tinker air show and definitely is a good time to prepare for that if you need to
buy lawn chairs or you know stuff for the kids sunscreen all that good stuff it's coming up
pretty quick. June 29th brother Ben Naim from Steadfast is going to be preaching both services
really excited to see him again. August 27th through the 31st Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship
at Steadfast and October 6th through the 11th is the Bahamas mission trip.
We do have on the right our prayer list.
Make sure to keep these requests in prayer throughout the week.
If you have any requests,
please do email me and I'd be glad to add that for you.
It's going to be it for announcements this evening.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
Let's sing it out together nice and loud.
Third hymn this evening,
137 in times like these.
137 in times like these don't forget this one since it's not super popular
after you get through that last line where it says the only one you're seeing
the be very sure part one more time there's like a little s above it in the
chorus if you don't know what I'm talking about just watch in times like
137 there, on the first.
In times like these, you need a Savior.
In times like these, you need an anchor.
Be very sure, be very sure, you're a-
The drug is me.
I'm very sure, I'm very sure, my anchor holds and grips the solid rock.
Amen.
As the offering plates are being passed, turn if you would to 2 Timothy chapter number 4.
Second Timothy chapter 4, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead as appearing and his kingdom.
Preach the word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
But watch now in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof
of thy ministry, for I am now ready to be offered.
And the time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."
Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love
is appearing.
Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me, for Deimos hath forsaken me, having loved this
present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, Cretians to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
Antiochus, have I sent it Ephesus. The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, will now come as bring with thee in the books, but especially the parchment's.
Alexander the Coppersmith did me much evil, the Lord reward him according to his works,
of whom be thou where also, for he hath greatly withstood our words.
At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me.
notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me under his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Salute Priscilla in Aquila, in the household of Onesiferous.
Erastus abode at Corinth, but Trophimus have I left at Miletum, sick.
Do thy diligence to come before winter, Ubulus greeteth thee, and Pudence, and Linus, and
Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. Let's pray.
Amen second Timothy chapter 4 verse 6 the Bible says for I am now ready to be offered
and the time of my departure is at hand.
I fought a good fight.
I finished my course.
I have kept the faith.
The time of my sermon this evening
is fight the good fight.
Fight the good fight.
You know, here we are at the end,
towards the end of the Apostle Paul's life.
and as he's towards the end of his life,
he's ready to be offered,
he's ready to depart and be with Christ.
And what's in his mind during this time is verse seven
where he says, I have fought a good fight.
And you know what that means?
That means that the apostle Paul to that point
has been fighting the whole time.
His whole ministry, his whole life, his whole service for God has just been one long fight.
That's why he said, hey, I have fought a good fight.
He's not saying like, I just now started fighting right now, or I was fighting 20 years ago,
I was fighting 50 years ago.
He's like, no, I've been fighting a good fight.
I have fought a good fight.
And what you need to understand is that if you are doing Christianity correctly,
If you are serving the Lord,
if you are making a big difference
and you're trying to do something great for God,
your whole life is just going to be a fight.
The spiritual, the life of a Christian,
spiritually is going to be one of a fight.
And all throughout the years,
you know, the last 10, 11, 12 years I've been in church,
I've heard from dozens and dozens of people.
This is not just one person that had to said this.
I've heard so many times, it's not even funny,
Christians expressing to me their weariness with,
the fight. And this is just a common thing. You know, if you've said something like that,
I'm not mad at you because this is something I just hear people say all the time. They express
a weariness with fight. They express a weariness with drama, with battles. But I just want to show
you in this sermon tonight that Christianity, if you're doing it right, is a fight and that we
are going to have lots of fights in our life. Go to Luke chapter number 12.
And of course, let me say this, you know, just by wave introduction, of course there are bad fights.
Of course, there is such a thing as a carnal fight that we shouldn't get involved in.
Of course, there's, you know, Christians fight because of gossip and railing and backbiting.
Of course, all those things happen and we should avoid those type of fights.
But there still is a good fight that we should constantly be fighting.
That's why Paul said, hey, I fought the good fight.
While you're turning to Luke 12, Exodus 15.3, the Bible says this,
the Lord is a man of war.
The Lord is his name.
So if God is a man of war, that just goes to show that not all warfare is bad.
Right.
In the same way, look at Luke 12, verse 51.
Jesus said, suppose he that I'm come to give peace on earth.
I tell you, nay, but rather division.
So we see God is a man of war, not all warfare is bad.
Christ said that he's not going to come bringing peace on earth.
He's come to bring division.
That means that not all division is bad either.
And division is kind of like a bad word in our society.
But you know what? God's a man of war.
There's a good warfare to be fought.
Jesus Christ came to bring division.
There is a good division that is just the result of serving God.
You know, if you want to actually separate yourself and you actually want to be serious
about being a disciple of Christ, you are going to be divided from some things in this
world.
You might be at odds with carnal family members.
You know, if you actually get saved and want to serve Christ, you know, your grandmother
who doesn't get saved and not doesn't want to serve Christ, you might be separated from
her.
You might be at a little bit more of a distance than you would be with your brothers.
in Christ. These are just natural results of serving God. So let's talk about the different
types of fights that is a good fight that we should be fighting as Christians. Go to
Romans chapter number seven, Romans chapter seven, number one this evening. Let's talk
about the fight against yourself.
the fight against yourself.
You know of all the fighting that is out there,
the fight against yourself is probably
the most important fight.
And if you are really good at the fight with the flesh,
the other fights aren't gonna be as big of a deal.
But look at Romans chapter seven verse.
14. The Bible says this, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold
under sin. Here's the Apostle Paul, who's one of the greatest Christians to ever live,
said that he is carnal. And you know what I learned from that? You know what that means?
It means that I'm carnal, and that means that you're carnal. It means that all of us are
carnal. We have the flesh. If the Apostle Paul is recognizing that, you know, I think
Then he says in verse 15 for that, which I do, I allow not.
He's saying, hey, there are some things that I do that I forbid other people from doing.
That I say, hey, you know, the Bible says not to do this.
And then yet Paul finds himself doing those very things.
For what I would, that do I not.
But what I hate that do I so notice I mean if you didn't understand that the Bible teaches that we have the old man
And the new man you'd kind of read this and think like is this a
You know schizophrenic person or something like he's doing things that he hates and he doesn't allow
No, but this is just the reality of life that we all have the flesh
We are all sinners and though we want to do right
We want to always be at every soul winning time in our spirit.
But yet sometimes our flesh gets lazy.
Sometimes we get backslidden and we don't do the things that we will.
But he doesn't make excuses for it because look at verse 16.
He says, if then I do that, which I would not,
I consent unto the law that it is good.
He's saying, hey, the Bible's always right.
I'm not saying that when I sin, you know, I'm excused from it.
No, God's always right. The law is good.
Now, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
He's going to explain what that means, for I know that in me, notice that is in my flesh,
dwelleth no good thing.
For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good? I find not."
He's saying, look, in my flesh, there's nothing good about my flesh. And in our flesh alone,
we can't, like, reform ourselves just in our flesh.
You know, we actually have to, if we want to please God and separate ourselves from some of the sins in our life that we struggle with,
We do that by walking in the spirit.
You can't just reform the flesh out of the will of the flesh.
He's not able to do that.
He says in verse number.
Let's go to the verse 20 now if I do that I or I'm sorry verse 22
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members
notice this word
warring
against the law of my mind and
Bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. So what are we talking about?
We're talking about fighting the good fight
the right type of fight and he says hey there's this war that's going on inside of him between his
spirit and his flesh. That is a fight that we should fight every single day.
And though, of course, we are never going to achieve sinless perfection, anyone who tells you that is a false prophet.
We are always going to have sin in our lives. We are always going to fall short and come short.
I'm sorry, we're always going to come short of the glory of God.
That does not mean that we should just give up in this battle though.
And just don't even try to resist sin anymore. Don't even try to walk in the spirit. No big deal because we're sinners.
No, we should still try.
of this death, right? When we're delivered of our fleshly bodies, when we die someday, when we get
a new glorified body, then this war will be over.
We're not going to have this battle inside of us anymore between the flesh and the spirit
because we're just going to have the new man only.
And you know, once we're in our glorified bodies, one of the really great things about
that is that we will never sin again.
And you know, that is going to be amazing when we don't have to fight the flesh.
We don't have to worry about sin and the consequences thereof.
We could actually just be in the spirit at all times.
He says in verse 25, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.
Now go to Galatians chapter five.
So.
We see in Romans 7 that in the life of the Apostle Paul and in the life of every single Christian there is this war that's happening between the flesh and the spirit and you will never be delivered from this battle until you are in heaven, until you get your glorified body.
So while we're on this earth in these bodies, excuse me, how do we fight this battle effectively? How do we war this warfare? Well, look at Galatians 5 verse 16.
The Bible says this I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
So these two things are at odds and they're always fighting to get the upper hand in your life, the spirit and the flesh.
And so to fight this battle effectively, what do we have to do?
We have to...
walk in the spirit.
We have to be filled with the spirit of God.
And of course, this is talking beyond just the indwelling
and sealing of the Holy Spirit that happens at salvation.
This is walking in the spirit,
being filled with the Holy Spirit.
And the Bible says we could do that, for example,
by singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs,
you know, making a melody in your heart to the Lord.
That's a great way to get filled with the Spirit.
And by walking in the Spirit, the Bible says,
you're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So understand, every single Christian will continue to sin.
But you know what?
Christians who wake up every day and read the Bible
and get filled with the mind of Christ,
get filled with the word of God,
who prayed to the Lord and ask God to help them and ask God to fill them with the Holy Spirit.
Christians who go to church, Christians who sing out the hymns,
those Christians are going to have a lot less sin in their lives.
Those type of Christians are going to be fighting this battle against the flesh
much more effectively than the guy that we just got saved at the door
and then just doesn't do anything for Christ.
Because there's this idea out there that people will say,
well, if you get saved, you're going to have a changed life.
Let me tell you something that's not necessarily true.
Now, let me say this, if you get saved and you walk in the Spirit, you will have a changed life.
That is true because if you walk in the Spirit, then you're not going to fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
And some people get confused because they think about their own testimony and they think, well, when I got saved,
my life changed drastically. And I will say for myself, when I got saved, my life did change greatly.
But you want to know why?
Well, maybe it was because I was reading the Bible
as soon as I got saved.
And I was soul winning as soon as I got saved.
And I was three to thrive as soon as I got saved.
Yeah, obviously, if you're getting that much input
of spiritual things, then the flesh
is going to start cleaning up a little bit.
But the Christian who just gets saved,
a soul winner goes to their door
and they call upon the name of the Lord in faith.
Hey, that person is saved.
They have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
But you know what?
There might not be that much of a change in their life.
And, you know, we don't necessarily need to doubt people's salvation because,
oh, this person says that they believe in Jesus, but they still drink.
Yeah, it's a lust of the flesh.
Oh, you know, this person says they believe in Jesus, but they haven't cleaned up their life.
Well, if they're not walking in the Spirit, they're going to continuously fulfill the lust of the flesh.
And here's the thing, here's the warning for all of us.
That is true of all of us.
If you cease to read the Bible, if you stop coming to church, if you stop soul winning,
you absolutely will backslide into a life of sin.
You want to know how I know that?
Because you have the same flesh as all of us.
And if Paul says, hey, I am carnal, sold under sin,
let me tell you something about you, you are carnal too.
and sold under sin.
And y'all not think, well, you know,
I'll never backslide, I can never get into alcohol,
I can never get into these wicked sins
that the Bible warns about.
Yes, you can.
That's why, you know, he that thinketh,
he standeth, take heed lest he fall.
And realize that you are not too spiritual
to keep reading your Bible.
No, you need the Bible every day.
You need church every single week and you are never going to arrive at this place spiritually
where you just suddenly don't need these things anymore.
No, because this battle with yourself, the battle with the flesh, it will always exist.
And I tell people out so many all the time, you know, hey, this is also a good reason to prove that we can never lose our salvation
because if you could lose your salvation, you would.
If I could lose my salvation, I would. Why? Because we will always have this flesh.
And this flesh causes us to sin.
And you know what, the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin.
I'm probably going to have a foolish thought this week.
You're probably going to have a foolish thought this week.
And if you could lose your salvation by sinning,
you would lose it every single day.
But you know what, you can't lose your salvation.
Praise God.
But this battle is still going to happen within us.
We got to fight this battle by walking in the Spirit.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9.
1 Corinthians chapter 9.
Look at verse number 24 of 1 Corinthians chapter 9.
This is also the Apostle Paul.
He said, no ye not that they which run in a race,
run all, but one receiveth the prize.
So run that ye may obtain.
And notice the fighting language here in verse 25,
and every man that striveth for mastery
is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,
but we an incorruptible, I therefore so run,
not as uncertainly, so fight I,
not as one that beateth the air,
but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection,
lest that by any means when I have preached to others,
I, myself, should be a cast away.
What are we talking about the fight against yourself and the Apostle Paul saying here? Hey, I fight I
You know I fight not as one that beat at the air
He keeps under his body meaning he's fighting to put his flesh down to put his flesh in
Check and he kind of compares that to an athlete how they have to be temperate
You know athletes like all the same foods that we do but athletes are temperate and tell their flesh no
No M&Ms, no ice cream, no donuts.
It's not like their taste buds are different
and they just don't like the taste of those things.
It's that, hey, they're in a fight,
they're in a competition,
and they're gonna put their body's desires
on the back burner,
and they're gonna wake up early anyways
and work out even when they don't want to.
And eat the green, and eat the healthy foods,
all those things, because they're fighting for that.
temporal crown and we're fighting for the eternal crown and so how much more
should we put our energy into this fight? He doesn't want to become someone
who's preached to others and then notice it becomes a cast away.
Again, even Paul recognizes that though he's being greatly used by God, though he has a
great ministry, he doesn't just take it for granted that he'll always be some great Apostle,
that he'll always be some great servant of God, because he's saying, look, if I don't
keep my body in check, I could become a castaway.
I could be cast away from my position as a preacher, as an Apostle, and you know, all
of us, we can be cast away to the side too, and we need to remember that and take it very
Go to first Peter chapter number five, first Peter chapter five.
So number one, we talked about the fight against
yourself. That is a good fight that you will fight
until the day you die. You need to just get comfortable with the fight.
Oh man, I'm just so sick of all the fighting. Well, you're gonna be fighting every day
until you die if you're serving God correctly. You're gonna be fighting against
the flesh. Here's another fight that we fight. Number two, the fight
1st Peter 5 8 the Bible says be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion
Walketh about notice this seeking whom he may devour
So notice the devil is often selective in who he comes after and you see in the Bible
sometimes the devil comes after a big name, a big target that he wants to bring down.
He wants to go after Job because Job is a super righteous person and the devil wants
to target Job.
You see the devil come after the Lord Jesus Christ and the wilderness.
you see the devil come after even Peter, you know, because Jesus told Peter that Satan has desired
to sift him as wheat. So sometimes you see the devil being selective in who he comes after,
because they're like a big target. Other times you see them, you see him rather being selective
on someone who's easy prey.
Sometimes he goes after a big name.
Sometimes he goes after easy pray.
This is why in 1st Timothy 3,
he talks about how the pastor needs to not be a novice.
Otherwise he's gonna be lifted up with pride
and fall into the condemnation of who?
The devil.
So someone who's prideful is just easy pray for the devil.
He's gonna come after you
and he is going to destroy you
if you are a prideful person.
So this is a fight
that we're constantly gonna be in spiritually.
go to Galatians chapter number six.
And of course, how do we fight this battle?
You know, it's very similar to the way
that we fight the battle against ourselves
by walking in the spirit.
And Galatians six gives us some more details on this
in verse 11.
It says, put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of what?
The devil.
So again, we're in this battle with the devil.
Verse 12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
So, you know, we fight against the devil
and how does this work from a
practical standpoint, oftentimes we're fighting against the devil's proxies.
We're fighting against the devil's minions.
You know, sometimes in the Bible, the devil or devil's plural will have influence over
world leaders, people that are high in government.
And so our battle with the devil could often be through human beings,
but yet it's still a spiritual battle.
It's not like we're gonna go fight against people
that are high in government with firearms
or anything like that.
Now we're fighting a spiritual battle
and it tells us in verse number 13,
wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day
and having done all to stand.
So in the battle against the devil,
God tells us that we need to put on the whole armor of God.
Now, I've never been in the military.
Some people in here have, but I would just imagine,
I think I'm correct in saying this,
that if you're gonna go out to a battle,
you would want all the defense you could possibly get.
You know, if there's some sort of armor protection
that's available to you, you know,
I would want that personally
if I was going out to a fight.
The Bible says that when we're going out,
we gotta have the whole armor of God.
It gets more specific.
It says,
stand there for having your loins.
Girt about with truth, so you know the loins it's saying kind of like you'd put on a belt
around your loins.
You want to gird your loins with truth.
You know if you ever seen someone trying to run without a belt on, usually it's a police
video and someone's running from the police and usually they're sagging their pants because
they don't have a belt.
not wearing a belt.
You know, I always wear a belt.
I don't understand how people don't wear a belt,
but I guess the only time I don't really wear a belt
is like if I'm wearing swim trunks.
And even swim trunks, you know,
even though it's got the little tie,
I'm not as confident to run and jump
and do all these things with those things
because I don't have a belt.
I wouldn't want to get in a fight wearing swim trunks.
OK, and just like I wouldn't want to get into a fight
without a belt, imagine like going into war sagging your pants.
Like you're going to get destroyed.
And that's why these people can never run from the police
is because even if the cop is eating doughnuts and out
of shape, it's like the bro doesn't even have a belt on.
So yeah, they're always going to catch the guy.
So we got to have our loins gird about with truth.
confidence right just like a belt gives you confidence to run and jump and be
mobile and all those things you know having the truth gives you confidence
that you're even in the right fight that you're even on the right side by
knowing what the Bible says that that's the truth that gives you confidence to
fight
Then it says this, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
So you know today we have like the body armor plates and the Bible is saying that we need
to put on the breastplate of righteousness.
We just talked about Proverbs chapter 10.
Proverbs 10 and Proverbs 11 both have this quote, righteousness delivereth from death.
And so the Bible is saying, hey, you want to put on that breastplate of righteousness.
Why? Because it delivers from death.
If you get shot through, you know, on the armor, you know,
even one of our church members has tried this many times.
It actually does stop bullets and it'll deliver you from death.
Well, you know what? The Bible says righteousness delivereth from death.
So, if you're in a battle, if you're in a fight, if you are going through a hard time,
you know, who is it that God is often going to deliver those who are righteous, those
who are taking the things of God seriously, not people who just go to church on Easter,
go to church on Christmas, you know, God's looking to deliver people that are righteous.
And this is how I believe it'll be during the tribulation period.
You know, the Bible says,
He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
I believe that the people who God is going to deliver are the ones
that are actually risking something,
that are actually continuing to serve God through the dangerous times.
Look at verse number 15.
In your feet, shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, right?
So you wouldn't want to go out to a fight.
wearing in nothing and being barefoot.
You know, your feet are shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace.
Above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewith you shall be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked.
So of course,
Even being righteous and even having the truth, fighting for the Lord and being involved in a great work for God is still going to take a lot of faith.
And even if you've been through something before, you've got to go through it again, you've still got to keep putting your faith in the Lord to deliver you.
Then it says, and take the helmet of salvation.
You know, I've always heard this preach and I agree with it
that taking the helmet of salvation,
it doesn't mean like getting saved.
I think it means like knowing that you're saved
and being assured of your salvation,
knowing the doctrine and not being, you know,
wishy-washy on it.
And the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
So,
The only offensive item that's listed in the full armor of God is a sword and that sword is the word of God.
So again, why is the Bible called a sword if we're not in a fight?
You know, these people that have this idea that the Christian life is just going to be peaceful and no battles and no problems,
then why is this a sword? Why did God give us a sword if everything's just going to be peachy and roses and fine?
And it's like the reason why a lot of Christians and a lot of churches don't understand this idea
is because if you're not doing a bunch, if you're not fighting really hard,
if you're not taking it to the enemy, well, then yeah, maybe then you'll have some peace,
maybe then you'll have some quiet.
But if you're actually doing something, if you're actually really taking it to the enemy,
taking it to the devil, then you're going to need your sword.
You're going to actually need to be ready for a fight.
Then it says praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching
there unto with all
perseverance and
supplication for all saints. Why does it say praying always?
Why does it say with all
perseverance? Because this is something that's just going to keep happening throughout your whole life.
The Christian life is that of constant fights
and constant battles and the only reason you're not having any battles is because you're not really
taking it to the enemy. It's because you're not really striving to do something great.
So what are we talking about? We're talking about the fight against the devil.
The devil is selective in who he goes after.
God tells us how we fight against the devil.
It's by putting on the full armor of God.
And let's look at an example of a battle between Jesus and the devil.
Matthew 4 verse 1,
Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
When he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights after he was afterward and hungered.
And when the tempter came to him, he said,
if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
But he answered and said, it is written,
man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.
One of the ways that the devil often attacks us
and tries to come at us in war is to play on our pride.
is to play on our curiosity.
This is like what it was in the Garden of Eden.
You know, Eve wanting to have the knowledge of good
and of evil, and the devil's kind of taunting Jesus here
like, oh, if you're really the Son of God,
if you really are who you say that you are,
why don't you just command
that these stones be made bread?
But Jesus didn't fall for it. He responds with scripture. He says man shall not live by bread alone
But by every word that precedeth out of the mouth of God
Now this is a really important reason why you should memorize scripture is that it is very useful in the
Spiritual battle that we wage both with the flesh and with the devil
You know when you're going through a hard time or when the devil's coming after you through, you know
the TV or social media or college or some person that wants to give you an unbiblical worldview
or a worldview that's coming from the devil, what helps you overcoming that is scripture that you
have memorized in your hearts. And you know, I really want to encourage every single person.
I really want every single person to participate in our memorization of the Bible. This is not
just something for just the man or just the adults. You know, the Bible says,
that I might not sin against thee.
This is something that every single Christian should be doing,
and I want everyone to take that seriously,
that it is important to memorize the scripture.
Look, I'm not saying you have to be some savant
that could just memorize the entire New Testament
or something like that.
Now, if you could do that, amen, that's awesome.
Strive for that if you can, that's wonderful.
But I mean, asking you to memorize one verse a week,
is not hard, folks.
And you do not have that busy of a life
where you cannot memorize one verse a week.
It is important to do this and it will help you
in the spiritual battle that we fight against the devil
to have scripture memorized
because we see that was Jesus' tactic.
When he was in spiritual warfare with the devil,
he says, ah, it is written.
Man, if not lived by bread alone, but by every word that preceded out of the mouth of God,
that is a great tactic.
And just as a side note here, also this is important.
Why do you have a King James Bible and not one of these modern versions?
Because this is removed from the modern versions, where in the modern versions Jesus just said,
man shall not live by bread alone the end.
You know what's important is to have every word of God.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 1, 1 Timothy chapter number 1.
So we're talking about the fight against the flesh, the fight against the devil.
Here's another fight that we will constantly be fighting in the Christian life.
Number three, the fight for correct doctrine.
This is something that we will just continuously, over and over, need to fight for, and this fight is not going anywhere.
1 Timothy 1, verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope,
unto Timothy, my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord, as I besought thee to abide still.
Excuse me.
At Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, notice that Thou might as charged some, that they
teach no other doctrine.
You know, Timothy, I'm sorry, Paul is leaving Timothy here at Ephesus, presumably to watch
over people who could potentially become elders and ordain elders, and he's saying,
hey, you need to charge these people that they teach no other doctrine.
You know what that means?
Doctrine is worth fighting over and so many churches today.
They don't like to get specific about doctrine.
They don't like to make a big deal or take a hard stance on doctrine.
But here Paul is saying hey, charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
Saying you need to command that the right doctrine is being preached.
And look of course there are secondary.
and small differences that we have with other baptises
and certain interpretations of scripture.
And that's totally fine.
But you know what, the core doctrines
that we believe here are not up for debate.
They are not up for being changed.
You know, we might be wrong about some things
I don't know of any, because obviously I'm only
trying to preach to you guys the truth.
But look, I know that we're right about the things
in our doctrinal statement.
That I know.
And we are not going to change on eternal security.
Someone came here a few months ago and I was explaining to them after having preached the gospel to them after having conversations with them
I explained to this person. We do not allow the doctrine that you could lose your salvation at Anchor Baptist Church
We do not allow it. We are going to preach what the Bible says and we're gonna charge some that they teach no other doctrine
You know, obviously, we don't have this issue
But obviously if I allow another man to preach behind this pulpit
I am not going to allow them to preach doctrine that our church disagrees with, and especially
the fundamentals, the important doctrines of our church that is not happening.
You know, and even small things, you know, if you disagree with the pastor on a doctrine,
that shouldn't be the thing that you preach about.
That should be something that you just keep to yourself and you know, why don't you get
ordained and you become a pastor someday and then you could preach what you think is right.
But here at Anchor Baptist Church, I'm going to follow what Paul said and I'm not going
to allow people to preach other doctrine.
We are going to preach the doctrine of the Bible and guess what?
That's a fight that we will always fight.
Second Timothy chapter number four, look at verse one,
I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.
Be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
You know what's another way of saying that?
Reprove with long-suffering and doctrine.
Rebuke with long-suffering and doctrine.
Exhort with long-suffering and doctrine.
The long-suffering and doctrine portion of that is applied to all three.
You know what that means?
Doctrine should just be constantly being preached.
Whether you're reproving, you know, if I'm correcting something,
I better do it with doctrine.
I better do it with the Word of God, not with my opinion.
And you know one of the distinctives of Baptists and the things that Baptists believe is that
we obey the authority of the Bible.
We don't elevate man's creeds or church councils or pastor's opinions over what the
Bible says.
No, what we believe is preach the word.
And if I'm going to reprove something, if I'm going to rebuke something, if I'm going to exhort you with something,
it better be with doctrine.
It better be with the Word of God, not with my personal opinion.
My job is not to get up here and preach my opinion.
And I just hate it when pastors use their platform and just always talk about their
opinion, always push their opinion, you know, it's an abuse of their authority.
It's an abuse of their position.
And look, if I preach my opinion to you, I'm going to make it clear that it's my opinion.
That's what I'm going to do.
I'm not going to just get up here and constantly preach my own philosophies, my own ideas.
I always wanted to follow a pastor that was following this.
Why? Because I want to serve Jesus.
I want to follow Jesus.
And so I wanted to follow a pastor that really cared about the words of Jesus Christ.
And it is a red flag when a pastor is constantly putting their ideas
and their opinions and their philosophies over what the Bible says.
That is a red flag.
And this is why it's so important that ministers, you know, take heed to themselves and take heed to the doctrine like the Bible says and constantly be reading the Bible and not just allowing their minds to be tainted by the philosophies of this world and the doctrines of this world.
Because what does doctrine mean? It just means beliefs. It just means teaching, right?
Then it says in verse 3, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
But after their own lusts, shall they heep to themselves teachers, having itching ears?
It is so important for the pastor just to be rock solid on the doctrine of the Bible, why?
Because people in general don't want to receive sound doctrine.
And so what that means is that human beings in general are going to naturally be pressuring pastors
and pressuring preachers to turn from the right doctrine
and to turn from the sound teaching of the Bible.
And so if the pastor is not rock solid in the doctrine,
he's going to be more likely to give in to that pressure, right?
Because there's some people that just, they turn away their ears from the truth.
They want to be turned unto fables.
That's why it says, but watch thou in all things.
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
You know, preachers and pastors should care about doctrine, not care about people's opinions.
This is why in Galatians 1-10, Paul's like, you know, hey, do I seek to please men or God?
You know, he's saying like, if I was gonna please men, then I wouldn't be the servant of Christ.
And so when we preach, we need to make sure that we're giving heed to the doctrine.
Go to Galatians chapter number two Galatians chapter number two
And we won't read this, but of course in Galatians chapter one we see an example of the Apostle Paul
reminding people, he's saying, you know, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.
Right? So the doctrine of salvation, Paul is not going to allow to be up for debate.
He's saying, look, if anyone preaches another gospel to you, let him be accursed.
And what you have to understand is that
Doctrine, if it's serious enough, can cause relational strains or separations from other
Christians, even sometimes other good-saved Christians.
And there's an example of this in Galatians chapter 2 verse 9.
The Bible says when James, Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me,
they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
Only they would that we should remember the poor the same which I also was forward to do.
But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
is calling out Peter and of course Peter is great.
Peter is a great man of God. I mean we've got the epistles of first and second Peter.
He is just a rock star Christian but you know what sometimes men of God can be on the wrong side
of issues when they're not giving heed to doctrine, when they're allowing their mind to take on
the world's philosophy or unsaved people's philosophy.
rather than what the Bible says.
You know, even great ministers, great pastors,
this great apostle can be in serious error
to the point where they might even need to be corrected
and might even need to be called out.
And look, Peter was called out to the face.
I mean, people complain about vague preaching.
I mean, Paul went to his face and just corrected him to his face.
You know, if you can't handle being corrected by just the truth being preached,
I mean, imagine just getting called out to the face.
Verse 12 says,
So notice, not because of what the Bible says, did Peter change his behavior?
Peter used to eat with the Gentiles.
Why?
because God came down in that vision and explained to him
that what God has cleansed, that call not thou common.
You know, the New Testament doctrine is that there is
neither Jew nor Greek that were all one in Christ Jesus.
And so, of course, Peter understands that.
At one point, he's eating with the Gentiles.
He's believing the right thing,
but then he was afraid of the circumcision.
He was afraid of people's opinions and he allowed the politics of the ministry to cause him to no longer sit with the Gentiles.
Now he's ostracizing them and you know why this is a problem is because the New Testament, the authors of the New Testament are constantly trying to get people on the New Testament program
and trying to get them to understand, hey, being of the seat of Abraham isn't special. It doesn't make you special.
the Old Covenant is done.
You need to get on Christ's program
and then here you have Peter
starting to become Judaized
and get into this Old Testament system
which could give the appearance to people
of serious false doctrine.
In fact, of salvific doctrine
because it says in verse 13,
and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him.
So notice it affects other people.
and so much that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
This is why...
false doctrine has to constantly be fought against.
Because whether you like it or not,
whether you think you're so steadfast in the faith
and you're so smart and you'll never fall,
what I see in the Bible is when people preach false doctrine,
I see people getting carried away with them.
And you know what I see in real life?
When false doctrine is preached,
good people get carried away with the air of the wicked
or just with the air of false doctrine.
It says in verse 14, but when I saw that they walked not uprightly notice, according to the truth of the gospel,
I said unto Peter before them all, if thou being a Jew livest after the manner of the Gentiles,
and not as do the Jews, why compelest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
He's saying, look.
You are a Jew, ethnically, and you are living like the Gentiles.
You're not withholding yourself from the needs that were unclaimed in the Old Testament.
You're living the New Testament life.
Why are you now compelling the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
And you could see how this could get into mudding the waters of salvation very quickly.
Even though of course Peter's saved, of course he knows the right gospel.
He's kind of giving an appearance though to Judaism which does taint the gospel, which
does corrupt that doctrine.
Which is why he reminds him in one of the most repetitive passages that I just love
in verse 15.
that a man is not justified by the works of the law.
He's like, hey Peter, you know that people aren't saved by the law.
We're saved by faith.
He goes, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ,
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ
and not by the works of the law,
for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
So notice, this is kind of like Paul's rebuke to Peter.
He's saying like, you know this.
You know we're not.
saved by works, not saved by the law.
So why are you appearing like that's what you're having people do?
Why are you giving the appearance that you're having the Gentiles live like the Old Testament Jews?
You know, it's kind of muddying the waters of salvation and can cause someone to infer wrong doctrine
and believe wrong doctrine.
So you know what? It needs to get corrected. It needs to be called out.
Go to Colossians chapter number two.
Every single person, and I'm sure every single pastor
is gonna come to a point in their ministry
where they realize that they were wrong about something.
And you know what, that's okay.
Like we're human beings here.
We're just men, we're just doing the best we can.
But you know what is, if we get correction,
if we are corrected with the scripture,
you know what we should do rather than getting offended,
rather than getting mad,
rather than complaining about people correcting our doctrine,
we should just correct the doctrine.
We should just change.
And you know what?
I'm glad that Peter didn't get all offended and, you know, get mad at Paul and stop being
Paul's friend.
You know what he did?
He just went on to the ministry and he kept doing great things for God and we read that
he did wonderful things.
You know, that's what we should do.
You know, if my doctrine's ever corrected someday, I'm sure it'll sting in my flesh.
I'm sure for that temporary moment, it'll hurt.
But you know what?
In the long run, the best thing to do is just take the correction and then just believe
And look, if you're right with God, if you're an earnest, sincere servant of Christ, you're
going to want to be in line with the Bible anyways.
You're going to want to be on the right doctrine.
You don't want to lead people astray.
You don't want to preach false doctrine.
And so, you know, even if it does, you know, offend me temporarily, I want the truth always.
I want the right doctrine always.
And let me just tell you this.
and go from being wrong to being right,
I don't think that's going to make people lose respect for that person.
In fact, it'll probably make people gain respect for that person.
You know, I've seen pastors over the years correct things here and there
and I just thought, praise God, that's a great person.
That's a wonderful man of God.
Why? Because it just shows like this man wants to be what this says,
wants to follow what Jesus says, not their own opinion.
And if I find out that any of my ideas are wrong,
well, guess what? The Bible's right.
And I'm ready to believe what the Bible says.
I'm ready to submit to what the Bible says.
That brings me to number four, another fight that we're going to have in life always, the fight against bad philosophies.
You know, the Bible warns about wicked philosophy.
Look at Colossians 2 verse 6,
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him,
and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving,
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the
world, and not after Christ. The Bible warns us about philosophy and the man's traditions,
the rudiments of the world, things that are of the world, not after Christ. And why does God
And, you know, if someone is not in the Bible, this is also why it's so important that everyone in the pews is reading the Bible
and checking daily whether those things are so.
Because if a pastor gets up and preaches his opinion and preaches his philosophies that he's been getting from the world,
you know what it could do? It could spoil you.
And what I've noticed is that every time there's a fight,
Christianity. Every time there's a fight over doctrine. Every time there's this
like dividing line between right and wrong. You know what I constantly see
happen? I constantly see Christians falling away. I constantly see Christians
being spoiled through philosophy, through bad ideas. This is why we have to be
aware of these things. This is why you know on Wednesday I called out that idiot
Jordan Peterson.
Why? Because he's like this modern philosopher who wants to teach you and it's like he can't
even answer the question, do you believe that Jesus rose again from the dead? Well, that
depends on what you mean by Jesus. Vain philosophy, folks. A complete idiot. But you know, if
you just listen to Jordan Peterson all day and you just soak in all of his books, you
don't even have a critical mind when you read it and you're just listening to his podcast,
You know, you got these authors, Frederick Nietzsche, you read those authors, you just
soak all that stuff in, it will affect you and you have to beware of vain philosophy
and deceit.
Look at John chapter number 11, John chapter number 11, John chapter 11.
cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
But he that is in hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not,
seeth the wolf coming, and leaveeth the sheep, and fleeth.
And the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep, the hireling fleeth, because he is in hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
So Jesus is the good shepherd, and he explains us some characteristics between a good shepherd and a hireling.
A hireling sees the wolf coming.
What does the wolf represent? The wolf represents danger, peril, death, and this pastor, this shepherd, sees this hireling pastor, sees danger coming towards his sheep, towards his flock, and what does he do?
He flees. He runs away. He doesn't confront the issue. You know, what a good pastor would do if they're watching over their sheep and they see the wolf coming is they would put a 556 right through that wolf's heart.
They would shoot that sucker and kill that wolf and protect the sheep.
You have these people today that criticize new IFB pastors because they will say, well,
there's always drama and there's always issues being addressed.
But let me just tell you something that a loving pastor does.
If there's danger coming in, if there's bad philosophies coming in, that means that their
flock is in danger of being spoiled.
and address the issue, and not run from it, and not hide from it, and not always stay silent.
Yes, there's a time to stay silent, but you know what? A pastor is not someone to stay silent.
You know that? You know that my job is to speak? You know that my job is to warn?
You know that my job is to reprove and rebuke and exhort with all authority?
You know, I'm not, I'm supposed to not let people despise me and despise the Word of God.
My job is to warn you.
And you know what?
I would be doing you a disservice if there's all these worldly philosophies going around
amongst Christians and bad ideas and bad doctrines and I just never addressed it.
You know what?
I'll tell you what.
It would be easy to just preach soft sermons and just preach basic, really easy sermons.
My job would be easy.
I wouldn't even have to really study that hard, but you know what?
Your soul, the Bible teaches that pastors watch for your soul.
I care about your spiritual well-being and I get personally offended and personally saddened
when I see Christians fall away into bad philosophy.
When I see Christians believe the right doctrine and then stop believing the right doctrine,
living the Christian life the right way and then seeing someone spoiling them
It's why I'm a pastor because I care about these things.
I am truly passionate about these things.
And so I'm not going to just see any danger coming from my congregation and just be silent
about it.
It's not going to happen.
I'll read for you this.
Pay attention to the words that I'm reading for you.
Isaiah 62 verse 6, I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace, day nor night.
Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence. You know what a pastor is? A pastor is a watchman.
He watches over the flock.
He's watching for the sheep.
He's watching for the wolf that's coming.
And the Bible says that watchmen will never hold their peace.
Yes, there is a time to speak
and there is a time to keep silence.
But when you are a watchman,
it is not a time to keep silent.
And you know what?
If you preach behind this pulpit,
I don't want you to be afraid to preach what the Bible says.
Don't keep silent.
Don't be scared to preach the truth, don't be scared to address the issues of our day.
You know what?
A pastor and a preacher needs to not keep silence.
And yes, it may seem like there's drama going on in the new IFB, but that's because new
IFB pastors are willing to call out the vain philosophy, the bad ideas, the bad doctrines
that creep into churches and other pastors won't do that.
because they want the service to be so nice.
and so wonderful and so clean and so you know just perfect you know there's no
drama it's real comfortable it's real nice but you know what it's real easy
just to be the hireling that just runs away when the wolf is coming you know it
actually takes some strength and takes some grit to address the wolf and to
address the problems coming in and if you think that I'm gonna stop doing that
I'm telling you I will never let the culture change when it comes to this
You know, I really like that the new IFB, you know, I'm a fan of the new IFB, let me just tell you.
I really like that the new IFB has some grit.
I like that it has some grit. You see, you can go into an old IFB church today and everything will sparkle and shine.
And it's going to be a beautiful, magnificent building.
And hey, there's nothing wrong with big buildings.
And the program is going to be so smooth.
And the music is going to be absolutely perfect.
And the lighting is spot on.
And the temperature is spot on.
And everything is just run so perfectly.
And the pastor is just going to be immaculate.
And he's never going to trip over his words.
And his vocabulary is just going to be amazing.
But you know what is going to happen though?
He's not going to preach hard.
Right.
He's not going to preach hard.
He's not going to get specific.
He's not going to call out things that need to be called out.
He's not going to make you feel uncomfortable.
You know what I like about the new IFB?
Is that when I sit in the pew, sometimes
I feel a little uncomfortable.
Yeah, there's some grit.
There's some fight to the pastors in the new IFB.
And I like that.
I am not going to be ashamed or afraid or shy away from fights
because the watchmen are supposed to never hold their peace.
And so I'm going to strive as the pastor here to not hold my peace about things that I believe can harm you.
I believe that I would be doing you a disservice as a pastor to not talk about things that I think can truly harm you.
I mean, don't you agree with that? If I just kept my mouth shut about something that I think was going to hurt you, would you say that's being a good pastor?
I don't think so. Just to look all professional and nice. I think it's a bad idea.
Number five, go to 1 Timothy 4.
Another thing that we're gonna constantly be in a fight over
is the fight against bad behaviors, right?
So we're fighting for good doctrine.
We are fighting against bad philosophies, excuse me there.
Also, we're fighting against bad behaviors.
1 Timothy 4-12, notice what the Bible says,
let no man despise thy youth.
But be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
You know, there's certain ways that we have been commanded to act as Christians in the house of God,
and when it comes to church authority.
And, you know, Timothy is a young pastor here, I can kind of relate to this,
but Paul's telling him, let no man despise thy youth.
You know what that means is that Timothy as the pastor, he's also supposed to fight
against bad behaviors that creep into church.
And you know, over time, people can develop bad habits
and have bad behaviors, and it's the pastor's job
to fight against those things.
And so one of those things here, he says, hey, let no man despise thy youth.
You know, I'm not going to allow people to disrespect me just because I am a young pastor.
And look, you get to follow any pastor you want.
You come here willingly.
If you're uncomfortable with following a young pastor, go to a different church.
But while you're here at Anchor Baptist Church, you're not allowed to despise my youth.
You're not allowed to despise the fact that I'm a young pastor.
And it says, be that an example of the believer.
Timothy's behavior should be an example to other people.
He should be setting the tone for that thing.
Look at Titus chapter two,
a couple pages over Titus chapter number two.
The Bible says in verse 12,
teaching us, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly, righteously and godly
in this present world.
Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God in our Savior Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Then he says this, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority.
Let no man despise thee.
Right? So we're supposed to be an example of the believers as pastors.
We are supposed to be denying ungodliness and worldly lust.
You know, so we're supposed to be zealous. We're supposed to be an example.
But as a result of that, pastors are supposed to speak and rebuke and exhort with all authority.
And they're supposed to not allow people to despise them.
And look, I hope you know me enough by now.
You know, in August, I'll have been here for a year.
I hope you know me by now
that I'm not like some overbearing person.
I'm not some like authoritarian jerk.
I feel like I'm pretty mellow guy.
Obviously behind the pulpit, I get worked up
because that's my job.
But just on a one in one wet level,
I'm pretty just easy going.
But look, please don't make me have to change that.
And no one's no one's tempted me with that.
Okay, I'm not saying there's an issue going on,
but please don't try to despise the pastor.
Please don't try to start being disrespectful to the pastor,
because then I will have to change that attitude
and I don't want to.
You know I saw some clown on YouTube is commenting on one of my sermons and he had a couple positive comments on other sermons
But in this one comment he basically called me an idiot. He said I was daft which that just means stupid or an idiot
You know don't ever speak that way to a pastor
It's extremely inappropriate. It's extremely disrespectful and I will not allow people to despise me
and if someone wants to come at me being disrespectful
I'm just going to give you an opportunity to change the way you're speaking otherwise we're not having the conversation.
I'm not going to give people the time of day who are going to speak to me disrespectfully.
Hey, I'll help you with your issues.
If you have a problem with me, please come to me.
I want to, you know, talk things out with you.
But if you do so disrespectfully, I will not engage with you.
That's just how it works.
You need to learn some respect.
People in our generation have just forgotten respect for authority.
But you know what?
A pastor is a real title and it is not because I am special, but it's because this office
And anyone who has respect for the Word of God would have respect for a pastor as well.
First Timothy chapter number five, notice what this says in first Timothy five verse one.
Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren.
You are not allowed according to the Bible to rebuke an elder, period.
And let me just say, this doesn't even go for me.
I don't allow people to rebuke or trash talk.
Other pass other pastors period end of story and even pastors that I don't even really like
I don't even allow people to just drop the pastor title because you don't like someone
You know, I notice sometimes people do this, you know, they stop liking a pastor and it just becomes Shelley
Anderson
Thompson look, I don't care if you don't like a man of God if he is a saved pastor
I'm not talking about false prophets right now if he is a saved pastor you call him pastor so-and-so
Don't call me Dylan
Don't call me bro. It's pastor Oz. It's pastor Shelly. It's pastor Anderson
You just need to get this through your head because this is Bible doctrine
Okay, and I don't and it's not just me because you know I don't allow other pastors to be disrespected either
And you know woe unto you if I see church members going online saying pastor so-and-so is a B word
or F pastor so and so.
You know what's going to happen if that happened at this church?
Is that you would be confronted and forced to repent and if you didn't, you'd be kicked out of church.
We are not going to allow railing and rebuking of men of God in this church
that is a cancer that mark my words will harm a ministry.
And I care too much about our ministry here to allow these bad behaviors to creep in.
1 Timothy 5 17 let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor
Look at verse 19 against an elder receive not an accusation
But before two or three witnesses them that sin rebuke before all
That others also may fear
If I catch you receiving accusations against pastors without evidence, so much more if
I catch you repeating those accusations, railing against pastors, gossiping about pastors,
rebuking pastors, you're going to get rebuked before all.
And, you know, I'll probably come to you and give you a chance to get things right,
but if you're stubborn and you dig in, you're going to get called out.
Why? Because I will not allow a culture of disrespecting authority to enter Anchor Baptist Church.
It will not happen. We're not going to be like the old IFB that just refuses to get specific and refuses to preach these things.
No, no, no. We're going to call it out like the Bible says.
Go to 1 Corinthians 5. We're almost done this evening.
You know, when it comes to correcting bad behaviors,
this is something that we see
all throughout the New Testament.
In fact, in 1 Corinthians 5, there's a whole chapter
where Paul is saying people who do certain behaviors
are not allowed in church.
They're supposed to be kicked out.
First Corinthians 5, one, it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife.
So there's fornication in the church and beyond that it's extremely gross version of fornication committing fornication with his father's wife.
And notice the church's attitude. It says and you are puffed up and if not rather mourned.
that he that have done this deed might be taken away from among you.
You know, that's got to be a frustrating situation to deal with
where there's this huge sin in the church.
There's this 1 Corinthians 5 level sin going on in the church
and the church, or at least many people in the church,
they're not grieved by it, they're not mourning of it,
they're not wanting to repent of it, they're puffed up.
They actually think they're better than other Christians.
They actually think they're great,
as they're committing 1 Corinthians 5 sins.
And this attitude you will see in Christians sometimes.
Notice Paul's reaction,
for I, verily, as absent in body,
but present in spirit, have judged already.
It's like, I'm not even there.
And I can give you the right judgment on this.
As though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together,
and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to deliver such in one unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus,
your glorying is not good, know ye not that a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump,
purge out, therefore, the old leaven.
That you may be a new lump as you're unleavened for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us
We're not going to read the whole chapter, but he goes on to list certain sins where he says hey
If you are called a brother and you're into these things like fornication like railing like idolatry like
Covichessness like extortion if you're into these type of things. Hey, you have to be cast out of the church
You have to be delivered unto Satan and you know, that's another thing that I really appreciate
about the new IFB is that we exercise church discipline.
We are not going to allow church to become a circus
and a free-for-all and be like these pastors
that allow pedophiles in their congregation, literally.
Or their staff are convicted pedophiles
and they don't turn them over and preach against them.
They just shuffle them off to another church.
You know, that's wicked.
And that's, you know what it's going to do?
It's going to harm the congregation
because it says a little leaven.
That's why a loving pastor would not allow these type of behaviors in church.
If you love the flock, you can't allow these bad behaviors.
Number six, the fight against bad people.
Go to Titus chapter number one.
Titus one, I'll skip some of this for the sake of time.
Titus chapter number one, the fight against wicked people.
that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
But there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers,
especially they of the circumcision.
So there's all these bad people out there.
There's all these bad prophets, these false prophets.
They're deceiving people.
They're speaking vainly, just empty words.
They're unruly.
They're not able to be corrected with the word of God.
And then it says, especially they of the circumcision.
It's like, there's all these false prophets, especially Jews.
Especially these Jews that are out there.
Verse 11, whose mouths must be stopped.
Why?
Why should we care if people are out there preaching false doctrine?
Why should we care if there's wicked people that are false prophets?
Well, here's why.
It says they subvert whole houses.
teaching things which they ought not
for filthy, lucur's sake.
Here's why we fight against wicked people
is for others, is for the people that they harmed.
Why do we call out false prophets?
Why do we say their name?
Why do we make it clear what we're talking about
so that people who are under that pastor can be warned?
You know, why do we preach about, especially in June, the sodomites?
Why do we preach against this sin?
For the children that they molest to protect them.
And you know, if I just didn't care about kids and I didn't care about victims, well,
I wouldn't really be as motivated to call them out and to fight against the wicked.
So you know what?
Hey, the Christian life is a fight and we're always going to be fighting.
for right doctrine, we're always going to be fighting against the flesh, we're always going to be
fighting against bad philosophies, we're always going to be fighting against bad behaviors,
we're always going to be fighting against bad people, just buckle up and get used to it.
Because that is the Christian life. You know, last point I have for you is really quick.
Number seven, how to have no fighting. You want to know how you have no fighting? Do nothing for God.
This is how you will have no fighting. Don't preach hard sermons.
Don't fight for doctrine. Don't fight against the false prophets. Don't get in the news by preaching against the sodomites.
You know, don't correct bad behaviors, don't have the backbone to cultivate a biblical culture in your church,
don't ever kick out the trash, don't ever get the leaven out of the church, then you know what you'll have?
You'll have very little fighting.
Maybe not no fighting, but you'll probably have very little fighting.
And it's like people will criticize the new IFB for always fighting.
You want to know why we're always fighting is because we care about doctrine.
We care. We're not just indifferent about it. We're not just going to let things go.
No, we care about what the Bible says.
We care about the flock.
So when bad philosophy comes in here, I'm going to preach against it.
When wicked people are trying to pull you away, I'm going to preach against them.
Because I care about the flock.
And you know what? I just love that about the new IFB.
I love that the new IFB has some fight.
I love that the new IFB gets in the news.
I love that the new... And here's the thing.
The new IFB is doing great things for the Lord.
I mean, we thank God, by God's grace, our church this year has had 622 salvations.
And our total in 2024 was like 524 salvations.
We're in June and we've already beaten our all-time year record.
You know, we're trying to do something for God at Anchor Baptist Church.
We're trying to fight
for the doctrine of the Bible.
Hey, we're trying to fight against the wicked
sodomites of our city.
We're not just indifferent to it.
We're not going to be quiet to it.
We're going to hold fast the faithful word
as we have been taught.
And we're going to exhort and convince the gainsayers.
We're not going to stop fighting.
If you're looking for just a nice, relaxing, easy-going church,
just go to any old IFB church in this city.
And I'm telling you, it'll be clean.
There'll be no loud kids in the service
because they're not family integrated.
They'll allow pedophiles in their church.
I mean, they won't preach hard doctrine.
They won't get in the news.
They won't fight.
Why?
Because they're not really striving to do a big work for God.
Maybe they did in times past.
Maybe the founding pastors of these big old IFB churches,
they probably were fighters.
I mean, look at Jack Hiles.
Pastor Jack Hiles was a fighter, folks.
But you know what, sometimes these churches,
the culture just slips over time, over time, over time,
and then all of a sudden,
it's just like a completely different church.
And you know what, I am not interested
in going to the most easygoing, nice, polished church
as possible.
I want to go to a church that fights.
Fights for the right doctrine.
Fights against bad philosophies.
Fights against false prophets.
Fights for the Word of God.
Fights against the sodomites. All these things.
You want to know why though?
It's because it means that we're doing something great for God.
Last verse, go to second Timothy chapter four.
You know, I shared on Facebook a few days ago
this picture of this World War II bomber
that was just torn to shreds.
It was absolutely destroyed,
and yet it somehow landed and got through combat.
And the reason why it was torn to shreds
is because of flak, where basically the enemy
would shoot these anti-aircraft cannons up into the air,
it would explode, and all that molten metal
would just shred through the airplane.
And you know, the airplanes that were flying
that were doing the most damage to the enemy,
they were bruised and beat and torn to shreds
and looked ugly, but you wanna know why?
Because they were actually fighting,
because they were actually taking it to the enemy.
And if you're going to a church,
that's actually taking it to the enemy,
things might look ugly sometimes.
There might be some drama.
If you're fighting a war, there's gonna be drama, okay?
But look at what Paul said,
2 Timothy chapter four, verse six.
For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight.
I finished my course. I have kept the faith. You know, let us at Anchor Baptist Church
fight a good fight.
You know, we are in the first year of Anchor Baptist Church and I'm trying to do everything I can to
set the tone for the future of this church to
dig down and get some roots in this church, but let me just tell you what I want for the culture of
Anchor Baptist Church. I want us to have some grit. I want us to have some fight. And I'm just
telling you, if you're tired of the fight, if you're tired of the drama, it is not going to change.
So either get on board and join the Lord's army.
and endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ or just go ahead and go to the old IFB
because we're going to fight at Anchor Baptist Church. Let's pray Lord we thank you for your
word and we thank you for the ministry that you've given to us and Lord there's nothing
more important to fight for on this earth than the word of God, than the ministry of Jesus Christ,
than the teachings that you've given us.
I pray that we would not get weary in well-doing,
that we would not get tired of the battle,
but that we would embrace hardness as good soldiers
in the spiritual war.
We love you and Jesus, and we pray, amen.
We'll be number 257.
Look and live.
hymn number two hundred fifty-seven two five seven look and live
two hundred fifty-seven we'll sing they're starting right on the first
And you look
Oh, my friend, for you, there's a message from above.
Hallelujah.
Jesus said it, and I.
Cheese
that you are dismissed.