Okay, we're in Acts chapter 20,
and the title of the sermon tonight
is Having an Acts 20 Vision.
Now, I'm sure you've heard the term
have an Acts 20, 20 vision,
but I'm gonna talk about things in this whole chapter
because I think that we need to get a vision
for this chapter.
It's not just about soul winning.
Obviously, soul winning's a big deal,
and there's a part of my point of the sermon,
one of my points of the sermon is concerning this,
but there's a lot of things that happen
in the Christian life,
and we need to understand that things
aren't always gonna be hearts and flowers
and puppy dog tails and whatever else you wanna say.
The Christian life is a battle,
and the Christian life,
there's gonna be times where we're being betrayed,
we're being maligned and lied about,
and there's also gonna be great times
when there's great victories like today,
having 11 salvations,
and just this whole last couple weeks
has been victory after victory, right?
We haven't really had any hard fought battles to fight
except for just picking up our feet
and going and preaching the gospel,
and it's been a great time,
and I'm very happy about that,
happy about our trip,
and I do wanna thank once more the church
for having us here,
and obviously, I'm the pastor,
but hey, you guys made sure that the trip happened,
and I've taken seven COVID tests since I left home,
but yeah, my nose is a little sore,
but I'll be okay,
but anyway, I just wanna thank you once again.
This is a great church,
and again, once again, you've exceeded my expectations.
Just wanna thank Ms. Lisa also for all the hospitality,
and she really cooked up some great meals for us
while we were here,
and just the fellowship with the Tavener family
has been great,
and brother Ian is already a good friend of mine.
I mean, we've been working together for a while,
but getting to know their family,
they're a great family.
You guys are so blessed to have them.
So let's have a word of prayer,
and we'll start the sermon, okay?
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much
for this great church
and for all the great victories that they've already won.
Lord, I pray that you'd strengthen them, Lord,
because Lord, you know that sometimes
the Christian life can be a battle.
Lord, I pray that you'd help each and every single person
here to stick with the Christian life
and to not get knocked out of the battle,
not knocked out of the race.
Lord, that they'd finish the race,
and they'd keep the faith, Lord.
Pray you'd help me to preach this sermon,
fill me with your spirit,
and also boldness and power.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
All right, so Acts chapter number 20,
having an Acts 20 vision.
Well, one thing that we need to have a vision about
from Acts chapter 20 is there will be uproars and treachery.
There will be uproars and treachery.
What's it say in verse number one?
It says, and after the uproar was ceased,
well, what uproar is it talking about?
Well, he just got through going through this
greatest Diana of the Ephesians whole issue,
where they were trying to rip him from limb to limb
for what, preaching the gospel, getting people saved,
having people that were given over to idols
get rid of them, and when the devil's people
start having their businesses damaged,
then that's gonna cause an uproar.
When the people around here start getting saved,
and when people around England start getting saved
and baptized and their lives are starting to change,
there's gonna be a big target on the back of this church,
and things will go easy at the beginning.
Believe me, I've done this before.
I'm living this life right now,
and when we first started the church,
everything was all great.
There wasn't a lot of battles to go through,
but as I've gone through in the last five years,
there's been some battles.
There's been some treachery.
There's been some uproars, and when you go out
sowing, sometimes there's an uproar, isn't there?
Sometimes people are yelling and screaming at you
and all this other stuff, but look what it says
in verse one.
It says, and after the uproar was ceased,
Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them
and departed for to go into Macedonia.
And when he had gone over those parts
and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece,
and there abode three months.
And when the Jews laid weight for him
as he was about to sail into Syria,
he purposed to return through Macedonia.
So one thing you wanna notice is there's always
gonna be someone laying in wait.
Back then, they had the Jews were always laying in wait.
They were always traveling and trying to intercept Paul.
They were trying to kill him.
They wanted to kill, they wanted to murder Paul
because the man that once destroyed the Christian faith
was now their greatest opponent.
And so these Jews hated Christ.
They obviously had him nailed to a cross.
That doesn't mean you like somebody
when you do something like that, right?
So Paul the apostle, he became a Christian,
and what his friends, his old friends,
all these guys were friends that he used to be.
He was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel.
He knew a lot of the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
and at this point, they all wanna kill him.
So don't be surprised when people trade against you
and your family betrays you.
That's what the Bible says is gonna happen.
I mean, it shouldn't be a big surprise to us,
but it always seems to be.
And a lot of the things in this chapter,
we forget that the Bible is real, okay?
And when we go through our lives,
the book of Acts is showing us things
that we're gonna have to endure also.
And this chapter just kind of encapsulates
some of the Christian life that's gonna be hard sometimes,
and people just not being able
to endure sound Bible preaching.
It's just the Bible comes to life
as you live the Christian life.
True Christians are gonna go through
these types of battles and treachery.
And have you ever heard that term
with friends like you who needs enemies?
Ever heard that term before?
That's actually the truth.
There's people in this life, in the Christian life,
even people maybe even amongst us in this room
that might turn against you.
They might trade against you.
They might be one person one day,
and then the next week they hate you,
and they hate this church, you know?
That's one of the things that I've seen happen.
The show's strange to me that somebody could just be like,
yeah, I love this church, I love all this stuff,
I love soul winning, and then the next thing,
they're just your bitter enemy.
It's because there's people that are just phonies.
They're fakes, they're not real.
They're spurious, is that how you'd say it?
Okay, spurious, yeah.
That means not genuine, not real.
But sometimes people could just,
they want to go to whatever different kind of church,
they don't want to be in a battle like this.
And that makes splits happen, right?
So the apostle Paul over John Mark split up.
And so with Barnabas, and then he chose Silas
as his missionary partner after that.
But Paul had a thing where he had friends,
and they would betray him.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter four, verse number 10.
2 Timothy chapter four, verse number 10.
So Paul had people that traveled with him
and helped him minister, and things like that,
but there's gonna be times when there's tumult,
there's gonna be times when there's uproar,
and we need to stick with our leadership
when those kinds of battles happen.
Because there's a lot of misinformation
that gets spread out there.
People are always just trying to just lie about,
especially pastor friends of mine, yours truly.
People will try to lie and say things about us
that aren't true, and the gullible are gonna believe it.
The gullible people in this world are gonna believe it.
The simple believe everything, right?
And sometimes the first thing that someone says
that accuses you, people automatically believe that person
without ever coming and talking to you personally.
It's just so weird how that seems to be the case,
but it's true.
So 2 Timothy chapter four, verse 10 says,
For Demas hath forsaken me,
having loved this present world.
So Demas was one of the apostle Paul's companions,
and went soul-wanting with him,
and went and did all these things with him,
tearing the world upside down.
But look what it says.
Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.
So instead of loving God, instead of loving the soul-wanting
and doing all the things that a missionary would do,
he loved this present world more.
And so when someone loves the world more,
there's a big chance that they're gonna just go back
to what they were before.
And it says he's departed unto Thessalonica,
Creations unto Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia,
only Luke is with me, take Mark.
So after all these years later,
now he wants Mark to come back.
This is the apostle Paul.
Maybe he wasn't wrong,
but he necessarily wasn't right either.
So Mark, he went back and didn't go to the work with him,
but apparently he redeemed himself.
He actually was a faithful man.
And it says take Mark and bring him with thee,
for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
So the apostle Paul had a change of mind about Mark,
didn't he?
So the Christian life is measured in decades.
We're supposed to be measured in decades, obviously,
but sometimes people are gonna forsake us.
Sometimes people are gonna betray us.
Sometimes you're only gonna have one person
standing with you.
That's what the apostle Paul went through.
Do you think he deserved to have everybody forsake him?
No, he was a great man of God, wasn't he?
It says in Tychicus, verse 12,
have I sent to Ephesus the cloak that I left in Troas
and Carpus, when out comest bring with thee.
And the books, but especially the parchments,
Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil.
The Lord reward him according to his works.
So it doesn't really say what evil he did to him,
but this man Alexander, who's obviously trade
is being a coppersmith, it says he did him much evil.
But what's the apostle Paul said?
The Lord reward him according to his works.
So the apostle Paul doesn't say,
well, when I see Alexander the coppersmith,
we're gonna have a fight.
He didn't say that,
because the Lord is the one that fights for us.
The Lord is the one that avenges us.
You know, avenges his mind, saith the Lord.
And so we need to just kind of give those things
over to God's hand.
And you know, sometimes you get angry,
and you wouldn't mind working somebody over,
but the thing is, as a Christian,
that's not what we're supposed to do.
As a pastor, I'm not supposed to be a striker.
You know, I can only just imagine those things,
and then I just gotta put those away.
Right?
The old man wants to lash out.
The old man wants to just settle it
how I used to settle it.
But that's not what God's called us to do, amen.
Look at verse 15, of whom be thou where also,
for he hath greatly withstood our words.
There's people that are gonna be just this thorn
in our side, always trying to turn people away
from the faith, these betrayers, these treacherous people.
You know, and there's gonna be people
that can greatly withstand words.
You know, this guy wasn't,
it doesn't say he was Alexander the Pharisee.
He's Alexander the coppersmith.
He's just a regular guy.
But obviously he has, you know, some kind of satanic gift
to be able to greatly withstand the words of, you know,
if they're withstanding the words,
this is our words, you know, the apostles' words.
So these guys, you know, these evil people,
they can seem to be right.
They can turn people away from the faith, you know,
but in the last sermon I preached,
you know, we have to be able to withstand these people
and resist these gainsayers
and turn them aside with our preaching.
You know, sometimes people are just gonna believe
who they wanna believe, and that's just the way it is.
Look at verse 16.
It says, at my first answer, no man stood with me,
but all men forsook me.
I pray, God, that it may not be laid to their charge.
You know, there might be a situation that comes up
in the future where Ian's having to make a stand
or I'm having to make a stand.
You know, God forbid that all men
should forsake Brother Ian.
God forbid that all men should forsake me.
That's what happened to the Apostle Paul, though,
so we shouldn't be surprised, you know,
when that kind of stuff happens,
where people are just like, you know what, I'm done.
And I don't know why they would just not stand with him
except for they were being threatened with death
or something like that.
Maybe that's what it was, I'm not really sure.
But look, here's a comfort, you know, to you.
When everybody forsakes you, nobody likes you,
the dog won't even play with you, you know.
You know what, God's always gonna be there for you.
He said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Look at verse 17, it says, notwithstanding,
the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.
See, God is always gonna be there to strengthen you
and to stand with you when you're on the side of right.
It says 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 lions.
So the apostle Paul was delivered,
even though no man stood with him,
even though he had no allies, God stood with him,
God strengthened him.
Look at verse 18, and the Lord shall deliver me
from every evil work and will preserve me
unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever.
So, and even if we do get martyred at some point,
God is gonna give us a better resurrection.
It doesn't feel good to go through persecution.
It doesn't feel good at all.
It doesn't feel good to be threatened
to have these types of people threaten you
and people betray you, people you thought you were friends
and they turn on you and they stab you in the back.
It doesn't feel good, but you know what,
God's gonna comfort you and God's gonna get you
through those times.
Number two, the second thing out of this chapter
is that long preaching and fellowship are biblical.
Now, that's a good thing we can get from this chapter.
Long preaching and fellowship are biblical.
You know, maybe I will crack it at 12 tonight,
you know, see who falls out the window.
No, I'm just kidding.
We got food, we can't do that to Baptists, okay?
We gotta, that would be a wicked sin.
No, but we need to understand that long preaching
and fellowship are biblical.
Don't be weak, all right?
Stay with the preaching.
Hey, it might be a long sermon,
but maybe you need to hear something out of it.
And I don't think everybody hangs on my every word.
You know, if you get something out of the sermon though,
that's a good thing, and the longer I preach,
the more you might get something out of it, so.
But look at verse seven in Acts chapter 20.
Look back in our text.
Long preaching is a biblical concept.
Look at Acts chapter 20 verse seven.
It says, and upon the first day of the week
when the disciples came together,
so they're going to church, right, to break bread,
Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow,
and continued his speech until when?
Midnight.
That's some long preaching right there.
I don't think I've ever done that before.
You know, maybe it was midnight in a different country
or something, but like, never have I preached that long.
I preached some long sermons.
I mean, I can't get some, my first sermon here,
I preached it an hour and 20 minutes,
so that was a long sermon.
And, but you know, you got a lot to say sometimes.
And while I'm over here, why not unload the whole truck?
While I'm here, why not give you
as much as I can possibly give you?
Because I'm not going to be back for another year or so.
So, but the apostle Paul continued his speech
until midnight, and there were many lights
in the upper chamber where they were gathered together.
And there sat in a window a certain young man
named Eutychus being fallen into a deep sleep,
and as Paul was long preaching, see, it's biblical, isn't it?
Long preaching, he sunk down with sleep
and fell down from the third loft
and was taken up dead, because apparently
they didn't care about the building code.
And so Paul was worthy of death.
No, I'm just kidding.
But yeah, I mean, he was long preaching,
it put somebody to sleep, you know?
It put Eutychus to sleep, and you know,
his name is Eutychus, and the joke is that Eutychus too,
if you would have had to sit
into that preaching for that long.
But anyway, it's a stupid joke, but,
still funny, though.
But you know, he was long preaching,
and you know, Eutychus fell down from that third loft,
was taken up dead, and says the apostle,
that Paul went down and fell on him and embraced,
embracing him, said, trouble not yourself,
for his life is in him.
And so what did he do?
He went down and he rose and back from the dead.
So you know, be careful about falling asleep
in church services, you know?
You might just fall down dead, right?
Just kidding.
Like, there's people already out there sleeping right now.
But, I know you're tired, guys, it's all right.
So, you're already asleep, this sermon's for you!
Wake up!
But it says in verse 11, it says,
when he therefore was come up again,
and had broken bread and eaten,
and talked a long while, even till break of day,
so he departed.
So, not only was the apostle Paul long and preaching,
but he was long in fellowship, wasn't he?
I mean, they hung out and talked together
until the break of day.
And it says, and so he departed.
So he preached till midnight,
then they talked in fellowship,
until the daylight came, what, six in the morning,
five, six in the morning?
And then he left.
So, and it says, and they brought the young man alive,
and were not little comforted.
So, you know, the thing is that, you know,
there's nothing wrong with long preaching, okay?
So if Ian's going along sometime,
if Pastor Thompson goes along tonight,
and you don't get your fish and chips right on time,
I'll try to do that.
But there's nothing wrong with it.
That's biblical preaching.
So, you know what's not biblical preaching?
It's for someone to get up and preach for 15 minutes,
and give you a poem, one scripture verse,
you know, and some stupid, you know,
three or four stupid stories about how they're
the star of the show or whatever in every story.
That's not biblical preaching.
Now, there's nothing wrong with telling stories.
There's nothing wrong with having a poem
or whatever every once in a while.
But, you know, you should be preaching the Bible.
And so when you come to Sure Foundation Baptist Church,
you should be hearing the Bible, not one verse,
and then a bunch of stories and a bunch of other fluff.
You know, I just can't understand how these preachers
get up and just, they do anything but preach the Bible.
And they just have one scripture they go to.
Have you ever been in a church like that?
And you're just like, you're like,
they read that one scripture and you're just like
waiting for them to go to the next one.
Come on, just give me some Bible.
But then you'll come to a church like this,
oh man, he preached too long.
Well, if it's only an hour or whatever,
that's not too long, because the Apostle Paul,
that Sunday night service probably started
at six o'clock at night, you know,
just like most, or four or five at night.
I mean, he's preaching till midnight.
That's like a Pastor Thompson, Pastor Shelley
combined sermon, right?
So anyways, I'm teasing, we both can preach
some long sermons though.
But there's nothing wrong with that, it's biblical.
And so, a thing in Acts 20 that you should pick up on
is that biblical preaching is sometimes long preaching.
And fellowship is sometimes long.
And fellowship usually includes food.
So amen, we're gonna have some food tonight
and fellowship together, and we'll be flying out
on a jet plane tomorrow.
So number three tonight, things you should get
from Acts chapter 20, to have an Acts 20 vision,
realize that biblical preaching doesn't hold back or spare.
And I kind of brought this point up this morning,
but I kind of want to expound on it a little bit more.
Let's look at verse number 17 in our text.
It says, and from Miletus, he went to Ephesus
and called the elders of the church,
and when they were come to him, he said unto them,
you know from the first day that I came into Asia,
after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
serving the Lord with all humility of mine
and with many tears and temptations which befell me
by the lying weight of the Jews, and how I have,
oh excuse me, I kept back nothing that was profitable
unto you, but have showed you and have taught you
publicly and from house to house.
So he calls these elders of Ephesus to him,
and he says, hey, I just want to remind you
how I kept back nothing that was profitable to you, nothing.
And so what does that mean?
He preached the whole counsel of God.
And so as a preacher, and biblical preaching
should be preaching the whole counsel of God,
and you know, and it says and have taught you publicly.
See, when we go and we have a church service in here,
but we put that on YouTube, that's public, isn't it?
That means anybody in the public can view that sermon,
and we're not trying to keep back anything from anybody.
Why do we go on YouTube?
People criticize us about that.
There's a lot of preachers that won't even go on YouTube,
and they just think it's, you know,
we're just trying to be popular or something.
No, I'm trying to make Christ popular.
That's who I want to be popular.
I want Jesus Christ to be popular.
I want his words to be popular.
I want his words to go out through the whole earth.
That's the reason why we have our stuff on YouTube.
I remember when I first started the, you know,
the church with Pastor Jimenez,
and it was Verity Baptist Church,
I said, Pastor, do I have to go on YouTube?
I didn't want to go on YouTube.
It's, I just, it's not something that I just enjoy,
you know, but it's something that's necessary.
Why is it necessary?
Because the whole world needs to know about Christ.
And hey, there's people that can't travel here.
There's people stuck in other countries.
We get emails.
We get all kinds of messages from people in other countries
or people that are in some desolate part
of the United States,
and they don't have a good church for miles.
They don't have a good church that they can go to.
And sometimes they just need to be able
to get some biblical preaching,
or maybe their church is lame
and they wish they had a church like this.
You know, you guys are very privileged
to have a church like this.
And even though you have to travel
for some miles to get here,
hey, at least you got a church in England now you can go to.
Because I saw you guys struggling.
I saw the struggle.
I know the struggle because the struggle
was real for me too at one point.
You know, there was a point when we didn't really
have a great church to go to in our area.
And so, you know, we started that church there in Vancouver,
and it's grown, it's doing well.
We've started other churches.
We have a church in Canada that's doing well, it's growing.
And we have this church here.
We have a church in Spokane that's thriving.
And I want the whole world to be filled
with the doctrine of Christ.
Not Pastor Thompson's doctrine,
the doctrine that's found in the Bible.
And so in order to do that,
we need to not keep back anything that's profitable.
And so sometimes the sermons get
a little bit gnarly, don't they?
Sometimes the sermons get a little uncomfortable,
and you're like, ah, man, that's rough.
But sometimes we have to preach the rough stuff too.
And you're like, well, you preach about it too much.
Well, it's out of season, isn't it?
Some of this preaching is out of season.
And you know, there's just a lot of things
that we preach about, that I preach about,
that would be this very upsetting to people.
It doesn't just have to be about the homos.
It's a lot of stuff, just about how you dress standards,
hair standards, you know, just Bible versions.
Now people get upset about that.
But we have to keep, we have to preach
what's profitable onto everybody.
We can't hold anything back.
And biblical preaching does not hold back.
It does not spare.
And you know, we have to teach it publicly.
And the Bible says, and from house to house.
Paul preached everything, he threw everything in,
he unloaded the whole truck, he threw all everything in,
including the kitchen sink, right?
Turn to Isaiah chapter 58, verse one.
You know, and people get upset by yelling and screaming
and pounding on the pulpit and stomping and clapping
and rah, you know, preaching loud and preaching hard.
People get upset about this stuff.
Why?
Why would they get upset about it?
The Bible teaches us that this is what we're supposed to do.
We're supposed to get up and lift up our voices, right?
Look at Isaiah chapter 58, verse one.
It says, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice
like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression
and the house of Jacob their sins.
Have you ever heard Joel Osteen
lift up his voice like that before?
Never.
You've never heard it.
He's just like, don't let the devil steal your joy.
God's not mad at you, he's never mad.
That's not true, God gets mad at people.
And when we're out, you know, this guy,
this bozo we were talking to earlier,
when we're out soloing, he's just trying to tell us
all this stuff about Hinduism and all this other stuff.
And he's like, Jesus just teaches about love.
I was like, well, he teaches about other things too.
And he does.
Obviously, love is a big part of the Christian religion.
I'm not denying that.
I think it's the most important thing we do.
When we go and knock on people's doors,
we're loving people, aren't we?
We're loving our neighbor as ourself like the Bible says.
People are like, well, you guys just try to hide
all this stuff and all the hate with going and just say,
well, as long as we're going soul winning.
Well, you know, going soul winning is a big thing.
A lot of churches don't do it.
Are there churches in England that do it?
I'm sure that there are.
Maybe they just don't call it soul winning.
They call it evangelism.
Which, there's nothing wrong with that word.
Evangelist, evangelism, you know, it's a good word.
But why do people hate the word soul winning so much?
Why do pastors hate the word soul winning?
Because they're not doing it.
Because they're soul losing.
That's why.
They're soul losers.
And so why would they hate something so winning?
That's a positive statement, isn't it?
We've saved someone's soul.
Oh, you don't save anybody.
Yeah, we do.
We help the process.
You know, we didn't die on the cross.
But we tell people about the Jesus that died on the cross
and rose from the dead.
And we need to lift up our voices.
The Bible says to cry aloud.
That means it's not talking about your tears.
It's talking about crying out,
crying with your voice loudly.
Spare not.
Don't spare people's feelings.
You know, you gotta step on some toes every once in a while
when you're preaching.
Biblical preaching does not hold back or spare.
When somebody's doing something wicked
and it gets called out in a sermon,
then, you know, it just gets called out in a sermon.
You know, pick up your toes,
make sure you count all your toes,
and then go home and get it right.
Or get it right where you're sitting.
You know, the word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even through the divine asunder of soul and spirit
and the joints of the marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
And so when the Bible's preached,
it's gonna cut you to the quick.
It's gonna cut you where you need to be cut
and maybe slice off a chunk of fat
that needs to be sliced off.
You know, the Bible says that we're gonna be pruned.
We need to realize that God's gonna work on us
until the day of Christ.
You know, he's gonna work on us, and how does he do that?
Well, he perfects the saints by the preaching of his word,
and we're not supposed to spare.
We're supposed to lift up our voice like a trumpet
and show my people their transgression.
So we're supposed to show people the sins.
How do we do that, Bible preaching?
The house of Jacob.
You know, who's the house of Jacob now?
Who's the Israel of God right now?
It's saved people, right?
And so this doesn't just go away after the New Testament.
No, it still applies today.
Jesus wants us, the Lord wants us to preach hard
and to preach the Bible.
Look at Ezekiel chapter six, verse number 11.
Ezekiel chapter six, verse number 11.
It's not like this is just the only verse that says this.
How did the prophets preach?
How did the prophets act?
Were they a bunch of sissies?
No.
Were they wearing pink shirts out in the wilderness?
Was John the Baptist wearing a pink shirt out there
with a little alligator on it?
No offense.
You know, if you like the alligator shirt,
they'll look, what's it called,
La Costa or something like that?
Hey, I like those shirts, but not a pink one.
John the Baptist was in a coat of camel's hair.
You know, he was eating locusts and wild honey.
He was a man's man, he had a belt.
That means he had pants, right?
He wasn't wearing some dress.
I've seen multiple people, men wearing dresses here.
And they're just like, they're part of a religion.
It's like, what in the world are you wearing, bro?
Have some dignity.
It's just unbelievable to me.
It's like, bro, you're in a dress, do you realize that?
They got their little cosplay wizard outfits
and the Friar, we saw a guy, he was like a Catholic guy.
He had the whips on him,
where he whips himself in the back or whatever.
Then he had like, what do they call those prayer beads?
You know, he was like, he's Indiana Jones or something.
He had these things like hang on.
And he just wore it at the train station
and he just walked through and was like,
oh, it's the Friar Tuck, you know?
But he looked, he had the little leather belt.
He looked like he just came out of the monastery
from the 1500s.
It's like their outfits, their costumes, you know?
But look what Ezekiel chapter six, verse 11 says.
Thus saith the Lord God, smite with the hand,
stamp with the foot, and say, alas,
for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel.
See, it's once again, the house of Israel,
for they shall fall by the sword,
by the famine, and by the pestilence.
See, you know, as Christians, we can't lose our salvation,
but God can still put the pestilence on us.
He can still curse our lives.
And you know what he's gonna do?
If we're not keeping his commandments,
he's gonna curse our lives.
He's gonna curse us.
If we're not tithing, he's gonna curse us.
You know, if we're committing some sins
and not, you know, making those things right,
he's gonna curse us.
You know, and is he waiting,
like I was saying at the door, you know,
I say this to people at the door.
I say, he's not waiting with the big cricket now,
just waiting to smash you in the face
every time you do something wrong.
But you know, if you just keep doing wrong,
and you never get corrected by the preaching,
then God is gonna come down on you,
and he's gonna hit you full steam ahead
with that cricket thing, whatever you call it.
What is it called, a cricket?
What is it?
Bat, oh, it's actually called a bat.
That's just like a little wide one.
Is that because they can't hit the ball?
Gotta be extra wide.
Baseball, a bat is like this big, right?
Okay, anyway, sorry.
About to start talking about some American football here,
and you guys are gonna throw me out.
But anyway, true sport.
None of this Queens rules stuff, okay?
Anyway, sorry, I lost the crowd now, sorry.
I know how to play croquet, Queens rules, right?
Anyway, don't you wear those little polo shirts
when you play croquet?
I like croquet, actually.
Anyway, but that's not what I'm talking about tonight.
But people ask, why do you yell?
Why do you smack the pulpit?
Because God said to?
Why do you cry aloud and spare not?
Because God said to?
It's important that the Bible gets preached in this church,
and if you get up to preach,
hey, have some respect for this pulpit.
Guys, when you get up here,
don't just preach your own agenda,
your own hobby horse,
whatever it is you want everybody to know
that you know that nobody else knows, you know that?
Hey, get up here and preach the Bible.
You know what's gonna make me happy?
Is when I get up and see men preach the Bible.
And not about, you know, obviously,
we're not trying to get YouTube clicks,
we're trying to get you to be a better preacher.
So if you have a desire to preach in this church,
get up and just preach the Bible.
It doesn't have to be some, you know,
thing about the six,
I figured out the mark of the beast and what it really is.
You know, there's nothing wrong with preaching stuff.
If you're more advanced and you know how to preach
that kind of stuff, then that's cool.
I don't have a problem with that.
But like, hey, just get up here
and preach the straight doctrines.
What about baptism?
What about salvation?
What about eternal security?
And just the easy truths of the Bible,
and then start getting into some more complicated stuff.
You know, you gotta have the milk first, right?
And before you can just try to chew on that meat.
So, you know, how is it that these sissy britches,
sissy britches preachers out here,
they get up and they're afraid
to speak what the Bible says?
They only preach the positive stuff, don't they?
They just, that's all they are,
is positive only preachers.
And the Bible is actually pretty negative.
If you've actually read it before,
there's some pretty negative stuff.
Like I try not to read Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel
back to back to back anymore.
I try to mix it up a little bit,
because it can get depressing when you get,
when you've finally gotten into Ezekiel,
it's like, man, these people are wicked.
You know?
And it can be depressing, you know?
But that's just how people are.
You know, but how do you see them preaching?
They preach hard, they preach the Bible, right?
And so, look at verse 27 in Acts chapter 20.
You know, people have been preaching
these sissy sermons for over 20 years now,
and what's that gotten us?
Do you think that our, this nation's better off
with that kind of preaching?
Absolutely not.
Why do people get shocked and they're in horror
when they hear a hard preaching sermon
from one of the pastor friends that I have?
Or just a hard preaching sermon by a Baptist in general?
Why do they just, ah, what is this?
This is Bible preaching.
This is the truth, yeah.
This is the truth, and God wants us to preach the truth.
Look at what it says in verse 27.
For I have not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel of God.
So he has not shunned, he has not not preached it.
He's preached the whole counsel of God unto them.
It says, take heed therefore unto yourselves,
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers.
See, that's what an elder does.
They oversee the flock to feed the church of God,
which he hath purchased with his own blood.
And that's exactly what he did tell Peter.
He said, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed my sheep.
That's what pastors are supposed to do.
We're supposed to feed the sheep.
We're supposed to oversee the flock,
and part of that is not shunning to declare unto you
all the counsel of God.
And so hey, if you're offended about something in the Bible,
then you need to, you're the one that's wrong.
You're like, well, you didn't have to preach it like that.
That's not what the Bible says.
We gotta get up and rip hard on sin.
That's what's gonna fix you.
You got a problem, it's called sin.
And the only way to get sin out of your life
is hard preaching.
Don't just shut your ears off.
Don't shut your eyes off.
Don't close your eyes like Eutychus and fall asleep.
Hey, listen to what the word of God's telling you
and fix what's going on with you.
Fix your life, fix your errors,
fix the problems that you have.
Hey, if you're not getting edified by God's preaching,
by the preaching of the Bible,
then something's wrong with you.
It's not something wrong with the preacher.
The preacher's supposed to do that.
And in a church like this, that's what you're gonna get.
Amen.
So let's move on to point number four.
Point number four is biblical soul winning
does not hold back the truth.
Biblical soul winning does not hold back the truth.
Let's look at Acts 20-20.
Now in Acts, in 2020, I thought that year
was gonna go way different than it did.
But here's what I've learned about that as a pastor,
is that you can't, your plans might not fit
what God's plan is for that year.
Just because it's like, yeah, it's 2020-2020,
Acts 20-20 vision.
But that's not how it went.
We had the worst year's soul winning
that we ever had at our church for 2020.
Now we still had a lot of people saved,
but it just wasn't, it was just kind of like
a shortened season.
Sometimes teams go on strike in America,
where those professional players are.
They go on strike and they have short seasons,
and it's like they don't have,
people don't have as productive of a year in the sport,
or whatever, it's like an asterisk next to the year,
because it just didn't turn out the way it was supposed to.
Well, that's kind of how it happened in 2020,
is things didn't really turn out
the way they were supposed to.
And so we can't just, we can make plans,
but just because we make plans
doesn't mean they're gonna happen.
But one thing I do know is that we need to
not hold back in our soul winning presentations.
Sometimes we have a tendency to just,
you know, I don't wanna offend them,
but sometimes, if someone's 69 years old,
you know nobody's ever gonna go to their door again,
you need to tell that person the truth.
You don't have to go, yeah, I got one to have, you know.
Doesn't have to be like that, but you can just say,
look, you know, the Bible says that Jesus
is the son of God, and he died for your sins,
he wants, you know, he's the only way of salvation,
and if you don't believe that truth,
you are gonna go to hell.
You can say it just like that, you know,
and if somebody gets mad about it,
well, where are they gonna go, hell number two?
You know, we don't wanna offend people,
but sometimes you have to tell people the truth.
You can't hold back in your soul winning presentation.
And how do we do soul winning?
Well, we do it door to door, like the Bible says,
look what Acts 20-20 says, and how I kept back
nothing that was profitable unto you and have showed you,
and have taught you publicly, and what's it say?
From house to house.
How did Paul get that church started in Ephesus?
Well, he went from house to house,
knocking on people's doors.
You know what we went out and did today?
We went from house to house, knocking on people's doors.
And 11 people got saved today, praise God.
And that's because you didn't wanna hold back,
you wanted to show people.
You know, and sometimes we try too hard, right?
But, you know, I don't really fault people for that
unless it just gets into the ridiculous mode.
But like, if you try to say, well, hey, you know,
I'm gonna give you a verse.
And then that person, like, listens to the verse,
they're okay with you giving it to them.
But then that person, you know, you ask them,
hey, are you sure you don't wanna hear it?
And they say, no, I don't have a problem
with people doing that.
I think that's good.
Because sometimes people do still wanna hear it.
But most of the time, once they've said no
the first time, they're done, right?
But there's nothing wrong with that.
And you know why people do that?
I know why people do that,
because they want people to get saved.
That's why.
And you don't wanna spare them,
you don't wanna hold back the truth to them,
you want them to hear the truth.
But the facts are is it's just some people
just will not get saved.
They don't care, they don't wanna hear it.
But we should still do our job,
we should still knock every single door.
And regardless, you know, sometimes after you've been
still wanting for a long time, you see the body language,
you see the look on their face,
you know they're not gonna hear it,
you know what their answer's gonna be,
but you know what, you still have to say what you say anyway.
And there was a few doors I was like,
and they were like, nah, not interested.
Nah, nah, mate, not interested.
I mean, probably three or four doors, huh, brother Ben?
Yeah, so, but you know, if they shut you down,
they shut you down, but you should still,
you know, sometimes you'll say well,
hey, you know, just trying to invite you to church,
and they're like, and they'll say okay,
and then you're like, are you 100% sure?
And they're like, closing the door, closing the door.
You know what I'm saying?
They do do that.
They're like, but wait, there's more.
But hey, when we get the chance,
we gotta give them all we got.
We gotta give them all we got.
Look at what it says in verse 21.
Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks,
repentance towards God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
We gotta tell people, hey, there's a heaven to gain
and a hell to shun.
There's a heaven to gain and a hell to shun.
But it says, and now, behold I go,
bound of the Spirit unto Jerusalem,
not knowing the things that shall befall me there.
See, and when you go out and preach the gospel,
you don't know what's gonna happen.
You know, obviously, none of us have ever been
maybe physically attacked out there,
but Paul didn't live that reality.
Like, anybody could have turned on him at any minute.
He was actually going through some severe persecution.
And that could be how it is for us one day.
But right now, we don't have that problem.
You know, if someone gets mad and tells you
you're weird or whatever, who cares?
If someone cusses you out at the door,
that's not a big deal.
It's when, you know, they start siccing their dogs on you,
you know, using you to light their lamps in their garden,
things like that.
That's when we have to get a little concern, right?
Like Nero.
But it says, you know, the things that,
he didn't know the things that were gonna happen to him
once he went there, but it says,
save that the Holy Ghost witness it in every city.
So God wants us to witness in every city,
and we're a far cry from that right now.
But we're trying.
We're trying to get it done.
You know, we just need a whole bunch of people
to get saved in all these cities,
and we can start with, you know,
the Holy Ghost is gonna witness in every city,
regardless of whether it's our church or not.
But we gotta get there.
We gotta get to these cities.
We gotta get to these towns.
We gotta get to these small towns,
and big cities, little cities.
But there's a lot of ground to cover.
There's like, I think, 7.9 billion people
in the world right now.
And we're just like carving a little tiny dent in that.
But you know, God can do great and mighty works
through a small amount of people.
Yeah.
He can.
And that's why, like, YouTube is a big deal.
That's why some of the technology that we have
is a big deal, because people can still hear
the word of God through this multimedia
and all this other stuff.
And look, I'm not big into like,
so Facebook is like, you know,
basically you can't say anything on there
without getting in trouble.
I'm always going to the clink because of things I say.
But what is the other one?
Instagram.
Like, I really don't understand Instagram.
It's just like you're taking pictures or something.
Anyway, but I'm not big on selfies either.
So, but you know, we can use this stuff
to reach people with the gospel,
and I think that we should try to do that,
because save the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city,
saying that bonds and afflictions abide me,
but none of these things move me.
Neither count I my life dear unto myself.
See, that's the attitude that Paul had,
was that, hey, none of these things move me.
Whether someone's going to kill me or not,
whether someone's going to yell at me or not,
whether someone's going to cuss me out at the door or not,
you know, what's he say?
I don't care.
You know, none of these things move me.
Neither count I my life dear unto myself
that I might finish my course with joy.
Remember what we were talking about this morning?
Finishing.
You know, in basketball, I'm sorry, basketball,
I'm going to have to bring up,
you guys know what basketball is, right?
Okay.
In basketball, Michael Jordan was a great finisher,
wasn't he?
When he didn't just roll up and just like
do little finger rolls and stuff like that,
he was just like, ah, jammed it on people.
That was called finishing.
When you get to the basket, you want to finish
so you score the points, right?
And so that's kind of what he's talking about.
We need to finish.
You know, we need to finish, you know,
if you're a sports team and you're up,
you know, finish them off.
You know, those people are just like,
oh, you're playing not to win, you ever heard of that?
They're playing not to win.
They're like just easing up and trying to play safe.
We don't need to play safe.
We need to go full steam ahead and press on the mark
so that we can finish our course with joy.
And that was his big goal, wasn't it?
He talked about it a lot.
He talked about finishing.
He talked about, you know, getting to that marker, right?
And so that's what we need to do is, you know,
when it comes to soul winning, you know,
we need to finish the map, right?
Get the maps finished.
Brother Ian was talking about the maps.
You know, we got to finish each area.
Why?
Because it's a goal.
It's a mark we're meeting.
It's a mark we're setting.
And in that mark, in that goal,
we're trying to reach this whole city with the gospel.
And we can't hold anything back.
We got to give it all to him.
And the apostle Paul didn't hold anything back,
even unto his own hurt.
So it says that I might finish my course with joy
and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus
to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
And now behold, I know that ye all among whom
I have gone preaching the kingdom of God
shall see my face no more.
Wherefore, I take you to record this day
that I am pure from the blood of all men.
Now, you know, what's the good thing about, you know,
giving everything we can when we're sowing?
Because nobody can say we didn't try.
That person at the door that you tried with every effort
and they just went, no.
Hey, you tried.
You're free from the blood of that person
that rejected the gospel, that rejected the good news.
We go to people's doors and people probably
haven't been to that door in centuries.
You know, there's places here that are centuries old.
And people have lived in these houses over and over again.
And there probably hasn't been someone
that knocks some of these doors that we knocked today
for a long time and came with the true gospel
to preach to them and they just rejected.
But you know what?
You're free from the blood of those people.
Just like the apostle Paul said,
hey, I take you to record this day.
I am pure from the blood of all men.
1 Corinthians chapter nine, verse number 16.
The Bible says, for though I preach the gospel,
I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me.
Yea, woe is unto me if I preach, not the gospel.
So there's a woe.
What does that mean?
It's hurt.
It's destruction.
It's, he's saying, woe unto me.
Hey, this may bad things happen to me
if I don't preach the gospel.
That was the apostle Paul's attitude.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 13.
1 Corinthians 16, verse 13 says,
watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit ye like men.
Be strong.
Hey men, we gotta be, you know,
there's a lot of wimpy looking men out there today.
Dress strong, look strong, act strong.
When you get to the door, be strong.
Quit you like men, be strong.
It says, let all your things be done with charity.
I beseech ye, brethren, you know that the house of,
you know the house of Stephanus
that is the first fruits of Achaia
and that they have addicted themselves
to the ministry of the saints.
You know what I see when I look at this church?
I see a lot of people addicted to the ministry.
You know what our ministry is?
The ministry of reconciliation.
The ministry of reconciliation is what our job is
and I see a lot of people in here addicted to that ministry.
Praise God for that.
Don't lose that zeal though.
Because like I said before in another sermon,
you know, the newness is gonna wear off.
When you start doing something all the time,
it's not gonna feel as special.
You've been going for seven months,
you've been going for more than seven months.
Some of you guys have been doing soul winning
for a long time.
But don't lose your zeal.
Go out of duty.
Because, you know, you're not always gonna feel addicted
to the ministry.
But while you're feeling it right now,
get out there and do it.
Hey, even when you're not feeling addicted to the ministry.
Maybe you don't feel like going out soul winning.
Maybe your body hurts.
Maybe you're hurting.
But go and try and do what you can
and do it out of duty.
Because, you know what, you're gonna get
that zeal back again.
And just keep fighting.
Keep trying to finish the mark.
Try to get to that mark and finish your course.
Number five, beware of wolves in sheep's clothing.
Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing.
I'm gonna finish off the last 15 minutes here
talking about this.
I think this is a very important point.
And I know it's kind of a negative point.
But it is important.
Look at verse number 29 in our text,
Acts chapter 20, verse 29.
It says, for I know this,
that after my departing shall grievous wolves
enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Also of your own selves shall men arise,
speaking perverse things,
to draw away disciples after them.
Therefore watch and remember
that by the space of three years,
I cease not to warn everyone,
night and day with tears.
One of the things that we need to get
is that there are gonna be wolves in sheep's clothing.
It was warned about by the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was warned about by the Apostle Paul.
It was warned about by John.
It was warned about by Peter.
It was warned over and over again.
There's so many warnings about
false prophets in the New Testament.
Why?
Because they're gonna increase
as we get closer to the end times.
And there's teachers having itching ears.
These heaps and heaps of teachers.
Do you think there's more godly
Bible believing pastors and preachers
than there are false prophets?
You're out of your mind if you think that.
I mean, if you just rounded up all the pastors in England,
how many of them do you think would be saved?
A few?
Yeah, yeah.
Only a few.
Yeah, only a few.
That's a sad state of affairs, isn't it?
But that's what it's like everywhere in the world.
There's probably countries where
there might not even be a saved pastor.
I mean, the world has gotten worse.
And the Apostle Paul is sitting here saying,
hey, after my departing, grievous wolves,
shall grievous wolves enter in among you,
not sparing the flock.
So he's saying, hey, even of your own selves
shall men arise.
Even people within this church, men will arise,
speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.
What's the goal?
To speak perverse things, to make up lies,
to draw people out of this church.
And hey, when wolves get exposed,
sometimes they drag the sheep out with them.
They want to try to destroy as many people as they can
so they act all innocent.
Oh, I can't believe that they're doing this.
I can't believe they're kicking me out.
Sometimes people have to get kicked out,
a little leavened, leavened at the whole lump.
Ian's probably gonna have to kick somebody out
at some point.
And I'm not saying go hunting, brother Ian,
and looking for people to kick out,
because despite what people say,
we're not on a hair trigger to just kick people out.
If someone gets kicked out,
they deserve to get kicked out, period.
I haven't even had to kick out that many people,
but I've had people leave.
I've had people leave that I asked not to come back
because it was revealed that they were wolves.
Look at what Jesus says in Matthew chapter seven.
To have an Acts 20 vision,
we need to realize, we need to see
that there's gonna be wolves in sheep's clothing
that are gonna come in.
And no matter how, look, Paul said
that in the space of three years, I cease not.
That means he didn't stop.
I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears.
Sounds like he preached about it a lot, doesn't it?
Night and day, he was with tears.
He didn't stop.
And then people will be like,
Pastor Thompson, you talk about false prophets too much.
Well, the Apostle Paul talked about it a lot apparently too.
He was warning people.
I don't preach every sermon about false prophets.
There is some other things I preach about,
but it's an important topic
because it happens all the time in churches.
And which ones does Satan wanna infiltrate the most?
The ones that are doing the most work.
The ones that are doing the most good.
Matthew chapter seven verse 15, what's Jesus say?
Beware of false prophets which come to you
in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
So Jesus said that there's gonna be,
beware of these people.
But no matter how many times I preach about stuff like this,
it seems like when someone leaves
or someone turns on our church or something like that,
then other people go with them.
It's just like, did you not hear
the sermons that I preached about this?
Have you not read the Bible where it just over
and over again expounds on this and talks about this?
And people are just like, oh, well, I think they're good.
I think they're right.
Sometimes legitimate bonafide Christians
get pulled out of churches over false prophets.
That's why Jesus said to beware of them.
That's why the Apostle Paul warned about them day and night.
And you know what?
They turn, is the Church of Ephesus around anymore?
Does anybody know?
Anybody been to Turkey and been to the site of Ephesus?
Is there a dragon slaying, King James only Baptist church
just tearing it up?
Obviously it'd be a different language.
But, you know, a good Bible version,
they're just tearing up the preaching.
Is the Church of Ephesus still around?
Jesus said he was gonna remove their candlestick
if they didn't repent and do the first works.
So I think that happened long ago.
I'm pretty sure there's not a great Baptist church
in the place where Ephesus was.
And why?
Well, you know, when you let false prophets in
and then you just allow them to just tear up the sheep,
then it's gonna tear up your church.
And we need to be warned about that.
Jesus said beware.
Look at Matthew chapter 24 verse 11.
Matthew chapter 24 verse number 11.
The Bible says, and many false prophets shall rise.
Does it say a few?
No, it says many false prophets shall rise
and shall deceive many.
Does it say they're gonna just deceive a few people?
No, it says many, doesn't it?
They're gonna deceive people.
Look at verse 24.
For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets
and shall show great signs and wonders in so much
that if it were possible,
they shall deceive the very elect.
This is how good they are,
that if it were possible, they would deceive the elect,
the very saved people that he's trying to warn.
He's just saying, hey, they're gonna do so many things
that make you think that they're really saved,
but you'll have the Holy Spirit,
you'll know the difference at this time.
Look at Mark chapter 13 verse 22.
Mark chapter 13 verse 22.
I'm gonna try to just rifle through some of these.
Mark chapter 13 verse 22 says,
For false Christs and false prophets shall rise
and show signs and wonders to seduce if it were possible,
even the elect.
A parallel passage there.
And look at Luke chapter six verse 26.
Matthew, Mark, Luke six, 26, it says,
Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you,
for so did their fathers to who?
The false prophets.
If people didn't hate me,
then you might wonder if I'm a false prophet, right?
Because the false prophets, everybody likes them.
Everybody likes Billy Graham.
Everybody likes Ravi Zacharias.
All these bum, loser, false prophets.
Ravi Zacharias was very careful about his doctrine,
let a lot out on the internet, saying what he believed,
but he was a false prophet, right?
He was a loser, he was a false prophet,
he's roasted in hell.
Just like Billy Graham and just like his son,
Franklin Graham, is gonna be roasted in hell someday.
People get mad about that kind of preaching,
but look, these guys are false prophets.
They're the worst kind of scumbags
that you could possibly imagine.
What do they wanna do?
They wanna kill, destroy.
They work for the devil.
And we're like, oh, I don't know,
maybe they could get saved.
They used to be saved.
What are you talking about?
They were never saved.
But Billy Graham used to preach like,
he never preached right.
People loved him because he was a false prophet.
Look at 2 Peter 2, verse 1.
2 Peter 2, verse 1.
And people are like, he doesn't even say he's a prophet.
It doesn't matter if they say they're a prophet or not.
Teacher, prophet, whatever you wanna call it.
Look at what 2 Peter says in chapter 2, verse 1.
It says, but there were false prophets
also among the people, talking about in the Old Testament,
even as there shall be false teachers among you
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them
and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
So there was false prophets then.
You know what, but there is false prophets now.
Because Jesus said to beware of false prophets.
Does that mean, it's talking about in the future, right?
So he's calling them false prophets.
So people that say this thing like,
there's not even prophets anymore.
It's like, yeah, there is.
There are false prophets.
Are you calling Jesus a liar?
Because he said, so did their father, the false prophets.
So he also said, there'll be false Christ
and false prophets.
So Jesus is right, and you were wrong.
1 John chapter 4, verse number 1.
The Bible says, beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits whether they are of God.
Because many, what's it say?
False prophets are gone out into the world.
So you don't believe everybody, you try them.
What do you try about them?
What, is what they're saying matching up to this book?
If it's not matching up to this book,
then they're a false prophet.
If they're teaching salvation by anything but grace
through faith, false prophet.
If they're preaching the word of God,
and they're saying you gotta repent of all your sins,
and they mean you really gotta repent of all your sins,
that person's a false prophet.
Now, I will agree that sometimes people get mixed up,
and preachers get mixed up with this, but here's the thing.
If they can't be corrected on that issue,
then what does that tell you about them?
If somebody just gently tells that pastor,
hey, you know, the Bible doesn't teach that,
repenting of your sins is a work,
and then you show them the scriptures about it,
and they're like, no, you still have to repent
of all your sins, it's two sides of the same coin.
You know, you gotta repent, you gotta be sorry
for your sins, or you can't be saved,
that's a false prophet.
Amen.
I don't care what anybody says, that's a false prophet.
If they cannot be corrected on that doctrine,
they're preaching a false gospel,
they're preaching lies, that's not how you get saved.
It says many false prophets are gone out in the world.
Look at Matthew chapter 13, verse 24,
Matthew chapter 13, verse 24.
I'm getting close to my deadline here.
Oh, my watch says 1723, I got eight minutes.
All right, another parable,
put he forth unto them, saying,
the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
which sowed good seed in his field,
but while men slept, his enemy came
and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
And when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit,
then appeared the tares also.
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him,
Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field?
From whence then hath it tares?
He said unto them, An enemy hath done this.
The servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go
and gather them up?
But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares,
ye root up also the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest,
and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers,
Gather ye together first the tares,
and bind them into bundles and burn them,
but gather the wheat into my barn.
So the person that's, you know,
this parable's talking about how there's gonna be
wheat and tares that grow together.
There's gonna be, in the congregation
there'll be wheat and tares.
But you know, sometimes we'll know,
like as a pastor sometimes we get a little bit different
of discernment than other people do,
and I'm not saying better, we're better than anybody
or anything like that, but as a pastor,
I see things that other people don't see in the church.
And you know, and I'm sure brother Ian
has that same discernment.
But the thing is, is that sometimes you're just like,
ah, I don't know about this person, you know?
And I don't like to think bad about anybody,
but the Bible says we're not supposed to say anything
until we know for sure.
That's basically what it's saying, don't pull them up.
You know, if I thought somebody was bad
and I don't have the goods on them,
I'm not gonna say anything.
You know, but once I have the goods on them,
that's when I'm gonna say something.
Once they reveal themselves,
sometimes these people just reveal themselves,
they can't help it anymore.
Sometimes people are just total clowns
when they first come to church.
But you know, you're not always gonna be,
you know, some people are just better at hiding it
than others.
But rest assured that the Bible's true
that there will be tears among the wheat
and we have to be on guard for this, right?
If someone's saying weird stuff,
look, sometimes we like to give people
the benefit of the doubt because they're our friends.
And look, I'm not saying go on some kind
of heretic hunt here, okay?
I'm just saying that sometimes we'll give people
that we're friends with the benefit of the doubt
because we wanna see the best in people.
And most Christians are like that.
But don't forget about those weird things, you know?
And don't go around just trying to route people out.
I'm not saying that, but what I am saying
is that once they're revealed,
that's when it's time to kick them out.
We don't go around trying to remove tears
without knowing for sure that that's what they are.
And honestly, the ones you don't see coming
are the ones that you gotta worry about.
Because like, weren't the apostles,
weren't they fooled by Judas?
They were, weren't they?
So you know, and sometimes I've picked a couple people
who turned out to be bozos as leadership.
I've befriended and trusted people
that turned out to be losers and bozos
and haters of God later on.
But you know, Jesus knew who Judas was.
But you know, none of the other guys thought that.
Everybody else thought Judas was great.
The guy we went out and talked to,
preached in the gospel today,
he thought Judas was great too.
He thought Judas died for your sins or something.
I don't know, that was weird.
But what I'm saying to you is this.
You know, it's the one you don't see coming
that you gotta worry about.
And you're not always gonna see that person.
Sometimes, you know, when you're not in church
for a long time, or you've never been to a Baptist church,
you don't know how to behave yourself in the house of the Lord.
Seems like everybody here is doing
a pretty good job at that.
But you know, some people just,
if you're not in church, you're a little weird, okay?
You kind of have a little bit of quirks about you.
Maybe something, you know, you have some real strong
feelings about certain doctrine.
But it doesn't mean that that person is a wolf.
Maybe they just need to be straightened out.
Maybe they just need to be free to thrive in church.
But anyway, I'm gonna finish up here.
We gotta be careful about the false prophets,
but I don't want you going around heretic,
hunting people and stuff.
Just let the leadership deal with that kind of stuff.
But obviously, if someone's just doing something
really weird or something, maybe come to Ian about it
or whatever, or me.
So, but anyway, let's finish up here.
Acts chapter 20, verse 25, it says,
And now, behold, I know that you all among
whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God
shall see my face no more.
Skip down to verse 32, it says,
And now, brethren, I commend you to God
and to the word of his grace,
which is able to build you up and to give you
an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel.
Yea, yourselves know that these hands
have ministered unto my necessities
and to them that were with me.
And I have showed you all things,
and how so laboring you ought to support the weak.
And remember the words of the Lord Jesus,
how he said it's more blessed to give than to receive.
Look at verse 36, and it says,
When he had thus spoken, he kneeled down
and prayed with them all, and they all wept sore
and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him.
Sorry, most of all, but the words which he spake
that they should see his face no more,
and they accompanied him unto his ship.
Now, it's a possibility that you might not ever
see my face anymore, and I'm not comparing myself
to the apostle Paul, I'm just saying,
I'm a visitor in this country,
and I'll do my best to get back here.
But you know, the reason why we didn't announce
this trip in the first place is just because
they would have tried to get me banned for sure, okay?
So is it a possibility that I might be banned
for life from here?
It's a possibility, you know?
And I'm sure that they'll try.
So, but I can't predict what will happen after this trip,
whether I'll be allowed to return or not,
but I will say this, regardless of whether you see
my face again here in England, I'm still your pastor.
I still care about you.
We pray for you all every single week,
and I'll do my best to make myself available to you
should you ever need me.
And I hope it's not the last time I see your faces.
Well, maybe some of you, no, I'm just kidding.
I'm just joking.
No, I wanna see your faces again.
I just wanna say I've been blessed on this whole trip,
and hopefully I get to come back.
That's my goal.
But even if I don't, I want you to still
press towards the mark of the high calling
of God and Christ Jesus.
And regardless of whether I ever get to come back here
again or not, you need to keep the course.
You need to finish your faith.
You need to set yourself towards the mark and finish,
all right, regardless of what happens.
Because, you know, we can still do great things for God,
even if I can never come back here again.
So I have faith in this church that it's gonna grow
and do great things.
So let's pray and dismiss in prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much
for this wonderful day, this wonderful trip.
Lord, I pray that once again that you would
just protect this church, Lord, and help Brother Ian
and Miss Lisa, help the leadership here,
and just all the people here in our church, Lord,
they all play an important role
in the integrity of this church.
And they all have a specific purpose in the body of Christ.
I pray, Lord, that you just bless each and every one of them
help them to be strong and help them to be courageous.
And I just pray that you would help them
to finish what they've started, Lord,
and that many churches would come forth
out of this church, Lord.
And I pray that you just bless them.
In Jesus' name, pray, amen.
Amen.
All right, let's sing another song.