Turn in our hymnal, it's number 223.
And we'll sing our first hymn,
Springs of Living Water.
Everyone have a hymnal?
["Springs of Living Water"]
On the first.
I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame
and nothing satisfying there I found.
But to the blessed cross of Christ one day I came
where springs of living water did abound.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
happy now am I, my soul may satisfy.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
oh, wonderful and bountiful supply.
How sweet the living water from the hills of God.
It makes me glad and happy all the way.
Now for a click of blessing mark the path I trod.
I'm shouting hallelujah every day.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
happy now am I, my soul may satisfy.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
oh, wonderful and bountiful supply.
Oh, singer, won't you come today to Calvary?
The fountain there is flowing deep and wide.
The singer now invites you to the water free.
Where first experience can be satisfied.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
happy now am I, my soul may satisfy.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
oh, wonderful and bountiful supply.
Amen, wonderful singing.
Brother G, will you open us a word of prayer, sir?
Yes, sir.
I want to thank you most for gathering us here, Lord.
Please bless us that are able to come and bless those
that are not able to come.
We need to find a way to you, Lord.
That's the service and the hero prayer is in this passage.
Amen.
Turn over to 349 of your hymnals, please.
Number 349.
Number 349, The Comforter Has Come.
On the first.
Oh, spread the tidings round wherever man is bound.
Wherever human hearts and human woes abound.
Let every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound.
The Comforter has come.
The Holy Ghost from heaven,
the Father's promised gift.
Oh, spread the tidings round wherever man is bound.
The Comforter has come.
The long, long night has passed.
The morning breaks at last.
Then, harsh to the dreadful wail
and the fury of the blast.
As o'er the golden hills,
the day events fast.
The Comforter has come.
The Holy Ghost from heaven,
the Father's promised gift.
So, spread the tidings round
wherever man is bound.
The Comforter has come.
Lo, the great King of kings,
with healing in his wings.
To every captive soul,
a full deliverance brings.
Then, through the vacant cells,
the song of triumph brings.
The Comforter has come.
The Holy Ghost from heaven,
the Father's promised gift.
So, spread the tidings round
wherever man is bound.
The Comforter has come.
O, bow this lovely mine!
How shall this tongue of mine
two wandering mortals tell?
The matchless grace divine
that I, in child of hell,
should in his image shine.
The Comforter has come.
The Holy Ghost from heaven,
the Father's promised gift.
So, spread the tidings round
wherever man is bound.
The Comforter has come.
There we go.
While he's finishing up there,
I'll go ahead and look at the front cover of our bulletin
and read the verse of the week,
which is Matthew 5, 45.
That ye may be the children of your Father,
which is in heaven,
for he maketh his Son
to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.
That is Matthew 5, 45.
This is not the current bulletin.
Can I have a bulletin?
Oh boy, good night.
Time travel!
Let's take a look at the real verse of the week.
It's more Bible you read all week anyway.
Psalm 92, 12.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree.
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Psalm 92, 12.
That's the actual verse of the week this week.
Let's take a look at the inside of our bulletin.
On the left-hand side, you'll see our church schedule.
On Sunday mornings, we have church at 11 a.m.
and our afternoon service is at 4 p.m.
We're currently in the 630 p.m. Wednesday evening Bible study.
Thank you so much for being here this evening.
Also, our soul-winning times are listed as well.
On Sundays, we have soul-winning at 1.30 p.m.
We have soul-winning today at 5 p.m.
And on Saturdays, we have soul-winning at 11 a.m.
And speaking of soul-winning, we didn't have any soul saved
because we got way too dark, way too fast,
and I was just like, ugh.
So next time, we'll get it next time,
but man, it's super dark out there.
Good night.
Anyway, preaching schedule is outdated.
We'll be getting one pretty soon,
but we have Pastor Thompson up here from Vancouver
to preach for us this evening.
Looking forward to hearing that.
And our salvations are 186, I believe it is.
That's the current, it's 186.
And we're still pushing, if we can, towards that 200.
If we can, just keep praying for opportunities
and just pray for the soul winners
if we can't get out, okay?
Let's take a look at the recent tithes and offerings,
also our recent attendance, upcoming events.
This Sunday, Brother Sean Conley will be ordained
as evangelist to Shearer Foundation Baptist Church Seattle.
So hopefully we'll give him a nice warm welcome.
Maybe we'll get some round table pizza when he comes up here.
But anyway, but they're having round table pizza
down at the Vancouver location in celebration of that event.
And make sure we give him a warm welcome
when he does come up here.
On December 15th will be Dr. Phil Stringer's
last preaching event for Vancouver this year.
Don't know if we'll be getting back,
but it'd be kind of cool if we do.
We'll be getting back to the King James Conference
or rather than May.
Oh, that's going to be a thing.
So in May, we're going to have a King James Conference.
So that's sweet. Awesome.
But if you do get a chance to go down there on the 15th,
that'd be a good time to hear him preach.
And we already said happy birthday to Brother Victor.
Oh, we can sing.
We're singing happy birthday.
Let's fire it up.
Gotcha.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, God bless you.
Happy birthday to you.
Right on. Happy birthday, brother.
All right.
So that's how old are you today?
I'm 30.
30.
Just hit 30.
Man.
Here's the many, many more, sir.
All right.
So that's enough of the announcements.
Real quick about the building.
Please leave the bathroom lights off.
The doors open and the fans going as a courtesy
for the next folks going in.
We have a large trash can on the back
that we can throw away stuff that we are not taking out
so we can keep our area clean.
We do have cold water back there
if you need something to drink.
Plenty of bottles of water back there to slake your thirst.
Please go running in the building.
Please be careful outside.
It's been a little bit slippery and also foggy
and super dark because we're waiting for those lights
to get repaired.
So please be careful out there.
Sell out your cell phones at this time.
And with that, we'll sing one more song
and then we'll receive the offering.
So if you would please turn over to number 301.
We'll say a sweet hour of prayer.
Number 301.
On the first.
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer
That calls me from a world of care
When it is me at my mother's throne
Make all my wants and wishes known
In seasons of distress and grief
My soul has often found relief
And oft escape the tempter's stare
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer
Thy wings shall my petitions bear
To Him whose truth and faithfulness
Engage the waiting soul to bless
Then since He bid'st me seek His face
Believe His work and trust His grace
I'll cast on Him my every care
And wait for the sweet hour of prayer
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer
May I thy consolation share
Till from Mount Kiska's lofty height
I view my home and take my flight
This robe of fresh I'll drop and rise
To seize the everlasting prize
And shout while passing through the air
Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer
Amen. Beautiful singing.
At this time, we'll go ahead and receive our offering.
And, brother Ned, will you please bless the offering, sir?
All right. Dear Heavenly Father, friends, we bless the gift of the given Lord.
And thank you for gathering here today, Lord.
Our friends should protect us and watch over us as we make our trip home in this foggy and unsafe weather.
Praise and keep us safe. Praise to heal those that are under the weather.
And restore them and bring them back to church, Lord.
Praise to a field past and constant with your spirit.
To thou, most heavenly Father, who may preach a wonderful sermon as always.
Lord, we praise you, continue to be with us and guide us.
In Jesus' name we pray, Lord. Amen. Amen.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Good evening, everyone. Will you please turn your Bibles to John chapter 15.
John chapter 15.
It's a custom to this church, we like to read the whole chapter.
John 15.
John 15, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads,
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth my fruit, he taketh away.
And every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself.
Except it abide in the vine, no more can ye.
Except ye abide in me, I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.
For without me ye can do nothing, if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch,
and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Wherein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.
So shall ye be my disciples, as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love,
even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you, henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth.
But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit,
and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of my Father in my name, he may give it you.
These things I command you, that ye love one another.
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because ye are not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you.
Remembering the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they have kept my sayings, they will keep yours also.
But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin.
He that hateth me, hateth my Father also.
If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin,
but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled, that is written in their law,
they hated me without a cause.
But when the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from my Father,
from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father,
he shall testify of me, and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Brother Stevens, if we could pray.
Dear Lord God, thank you so much for the opportunity to worship in your house this evening, Lord.
I pray that you bless us, Lord, and that we hear from your word, and know that Pastor Thompson,
with your spirit, Lord, who you boldest to preach, and help us to have a ear to hear
in our hearts to understand the message that he brings to our voices.
Our pills will start coughing as soon as they get up here.
All right. Well, I haven't seen you guys in a while. Sorry about that.
Last time you saw me, I didn't have any hair. I grew my hair back.
So, just to see if I could.
But it's been a while. We haven't been in, I think the last time I was here was on a Sunday night,
and I preached about Kurt Cobain and Buddhism or something.
So, that was in September, September 29th, I think.
So, anyway, we're back here in John 15, and I'll actually be here the next two.
So, I'll be here three Wednesdays in a row, this Wednesday, next Wednesday, and the Wednesday after this.
So, Brother Ramon can't make it next week, so I'm taking his place.
And that was scheduled for the weekend after that anyway.
So, you got me the next three Wednesdays, so we'll get John 15, 16, and 17 in, Lord willing.
So, anyway, let's just get right into it here.
And the title of the sermon is Hate of All Men, but that's not the whole subject of the sermon.
But actually, probably a smaller part of the sermon, but anyway.
So, the first point of my sermon is how to abide in the true vine, how to abide in the true vine.
And you get in verse one, it says, I am the true vine.
This is one of the seven great I am statements from Jesus Christ.
And actually, there's probably actually more than seven, but you have this saying here,
I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman.
So, what does that mean? What does he mean by he is the true vine?
Well, he is the true source of life, and there's no way to get life outside of him.
There's no way to be saved outside of him. There's no way to get people saved outside of that source.
And so, when it's saying he's the true vine, you know, we are branches or we are the fruit of his vine,
and the only way to get more fruit on that vine is to go through that source.
So, if you think of it as, it's easier for us to probably think of things as trees,
because we have a lot of them here, we understand that system a little bit easier.
But if you think of him as the trunk of that tree and all these branches,
well, you know, we only can get our source from the tree itself.
And, you know, if you think about like when it talks about how the Jews were broken off for their unbelief,
they did not abide in the vine, did they? And so, God cast them away, didn't he?
So, there no longer has chosen people, he no longer seeks to reach people through the nation of Israel,
and has chosen instead to reach the people through a spiritual nation,
which is the spiritual Israel, which is, you know, saves people in every nation.
So, he is the true vine, and he says,
My father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away,
and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
So, you know, when it's talking about this, you know, people will start to say like,
well, if you don't bear fruit, you know, a lot of Christians don't even believe that fruit is just talking about soul wanting.
But the fruit of the Spirit, you know, is talked about a lot, but that's the fruit of the Spirit, that's not our fruit.
The word that we bear would be, you know, getting other people saved, other Christians, right?
That's what we believe, and when people start thinking about, well, you don't have any fruit,
and it's like, they're talking about something else.
They're talking about like, you know, you're not a very nice Christian,
or you don't have a soup kitchen at your church,
or you don't walk old ladies across the street with their groceries, and you know, things like that.
You know, obviously that's good works, and I believe that we should do good works,
but running a soup kitchen for people that don't want to work, I don't agree with that either,
but that's a different subject for a different time.
But when it's talking about bearing fruit, it's talking about, you know, Jesus wants us,
He came to seek and save that which was lost, and so therefore He wants us to go and bear fruit.
And He says those that don't do that, He takes them away.
Now, some people will try to interpret these passages that are coming up that they are not saved,
and He throws them in the fire.
Now, I don't believe that's what this is talking about.
Some people would say that it is.
Now, I mean, if you wanted to apply this parable in a way where, you know,
there are people that are fake Christians that pretend to be saved,
and they don't, you know, if you're applying it in that way, I guess you could,
because you can apply parables in different ways,
but I think the main interpretation of this parable is talking about people that abide in Christ and do what He says,
because, I mean, really the whole context of this chapter is like keeping His commandments, doing what He says.
What is He saying to do? Bring forth fruit. Get people saved. Go soul winning.
And if you do that, if you are a soul winner, He's going to purge us.
He's going to purge our branches. What does that mean?
Well, He's going to start to take things out of our lives or work on things in our lives that we need to get rid of
so that we can bring forth more fruit, just like you would a branch that's growing wrong.
You know, you get these nubs that will grow some gnarly part of a branch on it, right?
If you've ever trimmed trees, you understand that that kind of is,
and you kind of have to snip that off, and so it won't keep growing weird or whatever.
And so those things hurt, right?
If you get purged in your life for things that you should no longer have in your life,
those things hurt because you're used to doing them, you've been doing them your whole life maybe,
or maybe it's just something that you like to do,
and it's taking time away from things that are more spiritual in your life that you should be doing.
Look, I'm not saying don't ever have fun, don't ever do anything.
You should just be on your knees the minute you wake up in the morning,
reading the Bible all day long, praying all day long, and soloing the rest of the time,
going to church all the time you have left over.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't have any fun or shouldn't have any hobbies or anything like that,
but God does want us to bring forth fruit. This is what he says, right?
And so the people that are bearing forth fruits, it kind of doesn't seem fair.
Well, the ones that are doing the most, he's like, I'm going to purge these other things away from you.
I'm going to take away your fun.
But really, they're things that are hindering our spiritual life,
and they're hindering other people's eternal life, if you think of it that way.
And if it's something that we shouldn't have in our life, then we should be happy to really get rid of it.
But sometimes those things hurt. Sometimes those relationships that God severs hurts.
Sometimes those hobbies that we are really into, whether it's collecting some kind of memorabilia,
or working on a car, or whatever it is, maybe you're just following some sport really zealously.
I mean, I've been at times in my life where I've followed sports very zealously, multiple sports.
And you can get so into it that that's all you're consumed with, right?
So God wants to have us bear more fruit than just a little bit of fruit.
He wants us to bear much fruit, and it says that he'll take our branches and he'll purge those things.
You know, maybe ladies would understand this more when it comes to talking about pruning rose bushes and things like that.
If you don't prune your rose bushes, they start looking wild and crazy, too.
So that might help you picture these things a little bit better.
But then it says that it may bring forth more fruit.
So God wants us to be fruit-bearing branches, not these gnarly-looking, weird-looking branches that aren't really producing what they should be.
He wants us to produce what we should be producing, because the Father's the husband-man.
He just kind of is up there in heaven, and he's directing everything behind the scenes that we don't really see.
And Christ is the branch that he's brought forth. He's the source, and God the Father is the husband-man.
And we are co-laborers together with God to bring forth the fruit.
But we can't do it without Christ. We can't do it without the Father.
And so Jesus Christ is the true vine, or the true faith, or you could say the true and only way of salvation,
the true word, and the true head of the true churches.
So if you have a fake Jesus, then you're going to get fake salvations.
If you have a fake Jesus, you're going to have a fake gospel, and your church is worthless.
They're going to be spitting off balconies and stomping on floors, right?
So what do vines do? Well, they bring forth things.
Whether they're vines that bring forth pumpkins or watermelons, which I really dig, or grapes.
You know, grapes is probably the thought here. Grapes were a big deal in this part of the world.
But they're a big deal in parts of the world that we live in too.
But usually vines bring forth things, right? They bring forth fruit. That's why we have a picture here.
A husbandman is a person who cultivates land, like a farmer, or in this case, one who takes care of a vineyard.
So that's what a husbandman does. They're the ones that kind of just manage or farm the land.
And, you know, he's kind of like you would say the overseer of the property that makes sure all the stuff gets done.
And so we're like the laborers that labor together with the husbandman to make sure all that stuff gets done.
And, of course, if you remember the...let's go ahead and turn to Matthew.
Keep your finger here and let's go to Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21 verse 33.
Now, this parable kind of helps us keep it in perspective as to what Jesus is talking about.
Because I feel like this parable of the vineyard is kind of...will help us keep this into perspective.
But it says...Jesus says, here's another parable.
There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a wine press in it and built a tower and led it out to husbandmen and went into a far country.
So who are the husbandmen in this story? The husbandmen in this story are the children of Israel.
God the Father is the one that built all this stuff and got it all going.
He's the main husbandman but he lent it out to these people and it says,
And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it.
And the husbandman took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another.
So this is the children of Israel that are...God's sending them prophets and he's like, hey, where's my fruit?
There's no fruit and they've gone bad.
This is like a cycle that Israel was in for a long time and it says,
And the husbandmen took his servants, beat one, killed another and stoned another.
Again, he sent other servants more than the first and they did unto them likewise.
So these are bad husbandmen. These are bad workers.
You know, they were supposed to be doing the job but they're not doing it.
They're doing an awful job and then they're killing people and stoning them
and mistreating the ones that are supposed to be coming and setting all this stuff straight.
And it says,
But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.
But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves,
This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance.
And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him.
When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
So this is talking about Jesus, of course. Jesus came. He was the final one sent unto them and they killed him.
He said, Oh, they'll reverence my son, but they didn't reverence the son, did they?
And he's really the source. He's the one that's supposed to inherit all these things
and they kill him and try to take the inheritance for themselves.
That's what the Pharisees wanted to do. They wanted to take the kingdom for themselves.
And so obviously God's not going to let that happen.
But verse 41 says,
They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen,
which shall render him the fruits of their seasons.
Jesus saith unto them, Did you never read the scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected?
The same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes.
Who's the stone that the builders rejected? The Lord Jesus Christ.
And so, if you will, He's also the vine. He's the true vine. He's the thing that everything's built upon.
He is the vine. He's the source. He's the rock. He's everything.
So, Therefore I say unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof.
So this is what He's setting up. And He's setting up and telling these things to His disciples.
And remember, you know, we're, we're moments, we're real close to the crucifixion here.
And the last several chapters of John is taking place in a very short time span.
Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse number 5.
1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse number 5, the Bible says,
Who then is Paul, who is Apollos, but ministers by whom he believed?
Even as the Lord gave to every man, I have planted Apollos water, but God gave the increase.
So, you see how it's kind of just likened again to something that you're planting, it's some kind of a farming system.
I have planted Apollos water, but God gave the increase.
See, God's the husbandman. He's the one that ultimately makes it all work.
But it says, So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither is he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
For we are laborers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
So, we are laborers together. People will say, Well, you don't get anybody saved, it's only God that does it.
It's like, yeah, we understand that. He's the source. He's the way that we get people saved.
But it also says we labor together with God.
So, we do have a part in it. I'm not saying that we died for anybody's sins or anything like that.
But when Paul says that he saves, I become all things to all men that I might by all means save some.
Is Paul wrong? No. He wrote this passage, too, by the way.
According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder,
I have laid the foundation, another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
For the other foundation can no man lay, then that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Again, the vine, right? And the foundation and the chief cornerstone.
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire.
And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
So, the reason I read this passage to you is because if you're thinking about the passage that we're actually in,
and it talks about they're removed and burnt in the fire or whatever,
this fire that it's talking about here is similar to the fire that it's talking about in that passage because,
yeah, your works are going to be burnt up because they mean nothing.
If you're just not getting people saved, if you're just not a soul winner,
then your works that you thought you were doing that were so great,
some people just think that showing up for choir practice and not doing anything else at some church that they go to
is giving them some great rewards. And maybe there will be some rewards for that.
But, you know, the people that show up for karaoke at church where they sing some canned tune,
which, again, I've been blessed by music like that at a church, at an old IP church.
I'm not saying that there's nothing to be gained from that, but in comparison to,
like, I mean, I went to a church and I was like, I preach a sermon about,
hey, if we don't start going out soul winning, then we're going to lose our candlestick.
And I said, hey, I'm willing to train people how to go soul winning, show up on Saturday,
and you know how many adults showed up? Zero.
You know, and literally that church two weeks later caught fire
and they were not able to meet there for, like, over two years.
And I did not start that fire, by the way.
I have to say that.
But it was really weird because, like, I said that literally two weeks later,
the church burned up to become unusable.
And it's just like, but, you know, I was preaching that.
I was like, hey, you know, that's pretty weird that that happened, isn't it?
You know, but, you know, you think that they're going soul winning still? No.
But they've got a nice brand new building, you know.
So I guess that's all that's important, isn't it?
So some people think that things are important.
But the reason what made me think about that is that they have a choir and they have special music,
and the pastor spends a lot of time listening to the special music to make sure it doesn't have too many drums in it.
But does he go soul winning? No.
Would he say, hey, bless you going soul winning, pray for us and stuff like that?
But he would never go with us.
And the people that were in the choir, they'd show up for choir practice every week.
But, you know, I feel like you shouldn't be allowed to have a choir unless you're going soul winning.
That should be kind of a rule.
But it also should be a rule that the pastor actually goes soul winning too.
So if the pastor never goes soul winning, you kind of have a problem there.
So, but, you know, we're going to build upon what?
The foundation that's already been laid for us.
Jesus Christ. And that's what we have to work with.
And so we have to do it the way he said and we have to do things the way he said to do it.
And we have to preach the gospel the way he said to do it.
We have to preach the right gospel. We have to preach the right Jesus.
And we have to abide in the work that he set before us.
He set the stone there and everything else is built upon that stone.
The building is set upon that cornerstone.
That cornerstone is what everything is built upon.
And we are lively stones that, you know, once we get saved, we're kind of cleaned up.
And, you know, even if we're not that clean, he's still going to build us upon that cornerstone,
upon the apostles, upon the prophets.
And then we're going to be built up as a great building unto the Lord.
But if we're not building on the right things, if we're not abiding in the vine,
you know, if we want to take that branch and saw it off and try to stick it onto another tree or something,
or stick it into another vine, I mean, those types of things can be done.
Have you ever seen where people try to, you know, try to take a tree and put it onto another,
you know, they try, you know what I'm talking about?
I forget what it's actually called, but transplanting.
But what else? Grafting. Yes, grafting in.
So things can be grafted into the right tree again, according to Romans chapter 11.
But Israel could be grafted back in because they're part of the original tree.
But, you know, if we go and try to get grafted into some Islam tree, that's not going to work.
Because, you know, they might say they have the same God that we do, but they don't.
They have the moon god Allah, which is not the right God.
And they don't believe the right thing.
And they believe Jesus was a doppelganger on the cross, and that he switched, you know,
he was, you know, just the dumbest thing you could actually possibly believe,
that, you know, his face was not the real, you know, it was like made to look like his face or something.
Isn't that kind of what they believe? Something weird like that?
And that they crucified someone that looked like him, but it didn't really look like him or something.
Or it wasn't really him. It was doppelganger Jesus.
Anyway, let's go back to our text here in John 15 verse 3.
John 15 verse 3. It says,
Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
You are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
And that verse actually kind of, like, I wrestled with that verse for a long time.
More of a long time than I want to admit.
What does that mean, though?
You're clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Well, first of all, you know, he preached the gospel. He's preached the gospel to people.
But I think predominantly a lot of the disciples were already saved when he got to them.
So, but what else about his word cleans you up?
Well, let's go ahead and flip over to Psalm chapter 119.
Just, again, keep your finger there.
I just want to show you this really quickly because God's word can clean us up.
And that's the reason why Bible preaching is so important in churches.
That's the reason why, you know, it just, we can't be one-trick pony Baptist church
where it's an 11 a.m. service about salvation every single week.
And then, like, if you don't, you know, a lot of people just are Sunday morning onlys.
So those people that are Sunday morning onlys are listening to a salvation message
every single service that they come.
They don't show up for the evening service, which is usually geared more towards families.
And then a Wednesday night is a Bible study, right?
So, and then if they only come once a week and they're hearing that one service,
well, they're not getting everything that they need to get.
They should come three times a week anyway.
But anyway, let me show you verse 9. It says,
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
So how can a young man cleanse his way? Well, how can a young woman cleanse her way?
Well, same way. Taking heed thereto according to thy word.
Not just hearing the word of God, but taking heed to it, listening to it, applying it to your life.
It says, With my whole heart have I sought thee.
O let me not wander from thy commandments.
Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
What is David saying? Well, he's saying, hey, I put the words that you've had for me,
the words that were given to me by you, I memorize those things.
I put those words in my heart that I might not sin against you.
So the things that we struggle with, those are the good verses for us to memorize
so that when we're struggling with sin or we're having some issue within our hearts
that we just, like Jesus did with the devil.
He's just quoting scripture, quoting scripture, and that's how he defeated the devil.
He didn't defeat him by showing how strong he was,
by calling 10,000 angels to his side, by smacking him in the face or anything like that.
Could he have done all those things? Could he have beat him in an arm wrestling match?
Of course he could have. He could have done, you know, with one pinky and his eyes blindfolded
and, you know, backwards or whatever. He could have just, he could have beat him easily.
But that's not how God wants us to do things.
I'm just saying that so Jesus said, now you're clean through the word which I've spoken unto you.
What does that mean? Well, you know, God wants us to use his word to help clean up our life.
And so that's what Jesus is talking about.
He's teaching them all the way along through this whole process.
And where are we at? We're at the end.
And he's trying to say, hey, I've taught you all these things.
You're clean through the word that I've spoken unto you.
Look at verse 4, abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except that abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
And he says, I am the vine, you're the branches.
He that abide in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit,
for without me ye can do nothing.
And so he just wants to emphasize this point once and for all also that, you know,
if you think you can just do things without Christ,
if you think that you're going to just get people saved without Christ,
if you think you're going to do great works without Christ,
if you think you're going to be a great Christian without Christ,
you're wrong about that.
You have to abide in him.
You have to do everything through him and by his power
and by the power of the Holy Spirit which he's given to us as that down payment
or the down payment that we received from the Holy Spirit.
So the earnest of the Spirit is what it's called.
And so that's basically like when you buy a house,
for those of you who have bought a house before,
you have to give up that earnest money that you say,
you know, it's kind of like I'm really serious about buying this house
and you have to kind of just give up some money for that.
Well, the Holy Spirit, you know, was given to us as an earnest money saying that,
hey, I've really redeemed you, here's the proof, I've given you the Holy Spirit.
Look at verse number, let's see.
Well, a couple other things about this verse.
We only have the power to get saved through Jesus, of course,
and through the Holy Spirit, I already mentioned that,
but this also proves that the unsaved can't get people saved.
Because without me, you can do nothing.
Did Judas have Jesus?
Then he could do nothing.
So Manly Perry, wrong.
And so just the fact that Manly Perry even brought that up,
and I mean, I know he's long gone and all this other stuff,
but he's still a bozo, it just makes me think he's not saved.
Because how could you think, dream that up,
and just think that the guy, that Judas is getting all these people saved?
Don't you always hear at the door when people bring up Judas,
or when you bring up Judas, or they'll bring up Judas,
they'll say, oh, well Judas was saved and he lost his salvation.
That's the kind of thing that unsaved people come up with.
So when you come up with, you know,
unsaved people are getting more people saved than the rest of the disciples,
it's like, duh?
That's just a dumb thought.
It's something that would come from an unsaved mind.
And you're like, well, I don't know if you should be saying that, Pastor Thompson.
Well, I don't know if he should have been saying that people don't burn in hell either.
So, which of course supposedly he took back.
Well, yeah, after he got all the ridicule about it, he took it back.
People don't just burn in hell.
You can say they roast like a hot dog, but, you know,
that makes for good preaching, but, you know,
it's like, no, people do burn in hell.
That's what the Bible says for all eternity.
It might not make sense to your mind, right?
Because in the mind of an unsaved person, they're going to think,
well, something eventually just burns up and goes away,
just like a Jehovah's Witness, just like a Seventh-day Adventist.
They think that just things can't just burn forever.
We know God can make things burn forever, can't He?
He can make burns hurt for a long time
to remind you how bad you don't want to go to hell.
Have you ever just been burnt, just like a little burn,
but it just like hurt really bad for a long time,
and the blister just like stays?
Anyway, turn to Matthew 7.
Let me just back that up with some scripture.
Matthew 7, verse 15.
Why do you got to go after other pastors?
Well, because they're wrong. That's why.
Because it's idiotic, and because people keep saying,
oh, He saved him.
He's not saved, folks. He's just not.
I don't believe that for one second.
Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
You shall know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
When you go out and pick stuff,
people pick like blackberries or raspberries
or just stuff that's good to eat.
Normally people don't just go,
hey, let's go pick these thorns.
Right?
So every good tree bringeth forth good fruit,
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
That's what they bring forth.
They bring forth the thorns.
They bring forth the thistles.
They bring forth evil fruit.
Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Judas could not bring forth good fruit.
That's what the Bible says.
Every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit
is hewn down and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.
That's what the Bible says.
Only through Jesus can we bring forth salvation,
and only through Him can people be saved.
Look back at your text in John 5, verse 6.
It says, If a man abide not in me,
he is cast forth as a branch and is withered,
and men gather them and cast them into the fire,
and they are burned.
So don't get this confused with the last passage
we just read, though,
because this is not what that's talking about.
If you go back to the one I was talking about before,
the one in 1 Corinthians 3,
the works are burnt up.
Having the right kind of works,
those things will be burnt up.
It says, And if you abide in me,
and my words abide in you,
you shall ask what you will,
and it shall be done unto you.
So what does that word abide mean?
It means to wait.
That's what it means.
It means to wait or stay in.
So when Jesus keeps saying abide in me,
He's saying wait in me, or stay in me.
You know, stay connected.
If you're talking about vines
and branches attached to the vines,
He's like, don't get disconnected.
That's what He's saying.
So we don't want to lose our connection
and go off into the world
and stop caring about the things of God.
He says, Herein is My Father glorified
that you bear much fruit.
So shall you be My disciples.
So, I mean, there's other ways to be,
you know, obviously loving one another
is another way to show.
That's how people will know
that we're His disciples.
But He says, Herein is My Father glorified
that you bear much fruit.
So shall you be My disciples.
He's not saying that's how other people
will know you're My disciples.
He's saying that's how I'm telling you
you will be My disciples.
That's the difference.
So like when it's talking about,
I forget what chapter it was.
I can't remember.
It's been a while.
I'm not exactly sure what chapter that was.
I think it is in chapter 14,
but I'm not 100% sure.
But anyway, He does say
that if you love Me,
or here's a new commandment I give you
that you love one another.
And that's how people will know
that you are My disciples.
But here He's saying that you bear,
bear, is that mine?
Oh man, will you grab it out of my...
I don't know how that happened.
Pastor Shelley's preaching
during my sermon.
You can just break it out.
You got it paused?
Okay.
Thanks Pastor Shelley.
It's that rumble that automatically
just starts going for some weird reason.
Anyway, sorry about that.
So John...
Let's see.
Where was that?
John 15?
Let's see.
Oh yeah.
Here, okay.
That you bear much fruit,
so shall you be My disciples.
So now let's go jump over to Matthew 4.
Matthew chapter number 4.
Verse number 18.
So He says that you bear much fruit,
so shall you be My disciples.
What was the first thing
He asked the disciples to do
when He met them?
Well, it says here in Matthew 4, 18,
It says that Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee
saw two brethren.
Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother,
casting a net in the sea,
for they were fishers.
And He saith unto them,
Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.
So He said, Follow Me.
And it says,
And they straightway left their nets,
and followed Him.
So how do you...
What is following Him?
Well, that's being His disciple.
And what did He say to do?
Follow Me, and I'll make you fishers of men.
He's talking about soul wanting, isn't He?
He's talking about getting other people saved.
And they straightway left their nets and followed Him.
So they just immediately stopped what they were doing
and did what He said.
And so, how is the Father glorified?
That we bear much fruit.
So shall you be My disciples.
Matthew chapter 5,
just one page over in your Bible probably.
In verse number 13,
it says you're the salt of the earth.
But if the salt hath lost its savor,
wherewith shall it be salted?
It is henceforth good for nothing,
but to be cast out,
and to be trodden underfoot of men.
So here's another example of,
if you're not being salt,
if you're not being light,
well, what's He saying?
You're really kind of not good for anything.
This is our purpose here.
Otherwise He would...
So if people aren't really doing the work
that He wants them to do,
He's like basically saying,
hey, you're just kind of not good for anything.
That's kind of harsh.
But hey, I didn't write this.
That's in red letters in case you didn't realize it
if you have a red letter Bible.
It says ye are the light of the world.
This is Jesus talking.
Everybody would say that He's the light of the world, right?
He's there right now.
But He's saying ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on the hill cannot be hid.
People just know that you're a Christian.
Did you know that?
Somehow they just figure it out.
You're a Christian, aren't you?
How do they know?
They just know.
Sometimes by the way you act,
but somehow they just figure it out, right?
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel,
but on a candlestick,
and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men
that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
We are the last hope of this world,
and it's really important.
I hate to lay this in your lap tonight,
but it is our responsibility,
and you might not like that,
but it's your responsibility nonetheless,
and that's basically what Jesus is saying.
If you're my disciples, you're going to bring forth much fruit,
and if you don't do that,
then you're kind of good for nothing,
and that might be a harsh reality,
but that's what he's saying.
You can read, can't you?
Isn't that what he's saying?
Yes, sir.
Okay, so I don't really have to interpret that for you.
You've read everything that I've read to you.
You've read along with me.
I'm not up here just whistling Dixie, you know?
So we can't, you know, we've tasted,
or I'm sorry, we've been tasked with an insurmountable task.
We've been tasked with this insurmountable task
that seems like how can we ever possibly get it done?
Well, one door at a time, one week at a time,
one month at a time, one year at a time,
one decade at a time, one lifetime per individual,
and then your family, your converts,
the people that we bring into this church over the years,
and then the next generation.
You know, we're going to die someday,
and we're going to go to heaven someday,
and the people that we impact in this world
that are part of our small circle in this little world that we,
you know, it's a big world that we live in,
but we're a little circle in this world,
but we can have a big impact,
and we can make a difference in this world,
and our converts, you know, can affect the next generation,
and, you know, maybe this church won't be here in 70 years.
I don't know, but something will come out of this church
in another generation.
I mean, it's faith to faith.
Usually churches don't last past, you know, 70 years or so.
That's just kind of reality.
The next pastor comes in, he's a bozo.
The next pastor comes in, he's a work salvationist or whatever.
I mean, just think about the great, you know,
just think about Jack Hiles.
I mean, his son-in-law comes in and ruins everything,
and then now it's like a shadow of its former self.
You got J. Frank Norris.
I mean, J. Frank Norris was like the fundamentalist for his time,
and he was kind of like a Steven Anderson on steroids for his time.
He was just like, I mean, he was having like chimpanzees come up
while he's ripping on, yeah, he like borrowed chimps from the zoo,
dressed them all up in suits and ties and outfits and stuff,
and preached against evolution.
I mean, think about that, going to that sermon.
Someone died on the road drunk driving.
His dad was an alcoholic, and he hated alcohol.
He went to the scene of where it happened,
and this is before they had like all these rules and stuff,
took a broken bottle of booze, scraped up the brains and guts
of the guy that died from the drunk driving,
and preached with it in his hand the next day in his sermon
and preached against alcohol with that in his hand.
You think that some of our things are shocking?
This is J. Frank Norris.
J. Frank Norris shot a Catholic in his office
because the guy threatened to kill him.
It was like the trial of the century.
It was like a worldwide trial, and he got off on it
because the guy threatened to kill him.
He said, I'm going to come over and kill you,
and then he walked in and J. Frank Norris was like,
no, you're not.
His houses were burnt down.
His churches were burnt down.
He would say, I'm preaching against this banker, this guy,
all these gamblers.
He would preach against people that were well-known businessmen,
and he was really hated.
He had the two biggest churches in the country at the same time.
One was in Fort Worth, Texas, and the other one was in Detroit.
The original building that had like 11,000 members in it
or something right now is like a Black Lives Matter
community center or something.
It's gone, huh?
The church building that he was in before
is not some power of independent fundamental Baptists.
I'm going off on something that has nothing to do with what I was talking about.
I'm just saying that we don't know what the impact is going to be for us right now,
but fundamentalism still lives on, doesn't it?
It's not as big as it was then,
so we can see that the times are changing.
When the biggest Sunday school programs in the world
were independent fundamental Baptists,
and now we're a blip on the radar compared to some of these big fundamental
or non-fundamental, non-King James only circles,
it used to be that Jack and Jack Hyles had the biggest Sunday school in the whole world
and the biggest church in the country.
And now the Baptists are just shrinking and going away.
And you wonder why.
Because anybody that's ever been to an old IFE church
and you see how they preach anymore, it's just like watching paint dry.
I mean they just have lost it in most cases.
And if they are preaching hard about something, it's about politics.
It's about Israel.
It's about the preacher of rapture that's not even in the Bible.
It's about stuff that just isn't there.
And people wonder why.
And they wonder why nobody wants to go to their churches.
So anyway, let's go on to point number two,
which is like 35 minutes into the sermon now.
That's how I roll.
Alright, John 15.9.
The second point is obedience over sacrifice.
John 15.9.
And as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love.
So God the Father of course loved Jesus.
Jesus loved the Father.
And He wants us to continue in His love.
So we should never let our love grow cold
and start thinking that everything is lost.
And yeah, fundamentalism is shrinking.
Maybe there's only ten people in church tonight or whatever.
But we should never lose hope.
We should never lose faith.
We should just keep going.
Keep going and keep loving people until we're done.
Until our time on this earth is over.
Look at verse 10.
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love,
even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.
So now He's kind of going into a direction where He's talking about keeping commandments.
And of course we're not saved by keeping the law.
No one's ever been saved by keeping the law.
But God still wants us to keep His commandments.
They're not suggestions. They're commandments.
And so Jesus kept the Father's commandments.
Look, He didn't make us be saved by grace through faith so that we could break His commandments.
That doesn't make sense.
Look at verse 11.
It says,
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you,
and that your joy might be full.
What? What things?
To abide in Christ, to bring forth much fruit, to be His disciples,
to keep His commandments, to continue in His love.
That's what He's talking about, all these things.
And it says in verse 12,
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Which of course is exactly what He did.
So literally, He did this in the sense of the life in this world.
The greatest thing we could do is if we laid down our life literally for one of our church friends,
one of our church family members,
that there's no greater sacrifice than that is what He's saying.
There's no greater love than that.
And also, if you think about it,
to lay down that life in our regular life,
not just our physical death, but the life that we hold so dear,
all the hobbies and all that stuff I was talking about earlier,
that we lay down that life for our friends.
Because we're together in this thing, and we need each other.
And when we're not here together, when it's just a few people here,
it can rub off on everybody else.
It's really important that we're here as much as we possibly can be.
So look at verse 14.
It says,
You're my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.
So there's a stipulation on that, isn't there?
So He's like, you're my friends if, if you do whatsoever I command you.
So it's like, you know, you can walk around going, yeah, Jesus is my friend.
You know, there's those shirts that say Jesus is my homeboy.
Which I hate those shirts, but He's not your homeboy if you're not doing what you command.
And I doubt it very seriously that you're His homeboy
if you're wearing a shirt that says you're His homeboy.
I mean, it's just, that's just, man, cringey, right?
Cringe factor 10.
But, you know, what are we doing in our life that's just more important
than being there for our brothers and sisters in Christ?
I mean, obviously life happens and we get busy and things like that.
But, you know, Christ commands us to keep His commandments.
And He says, you're my friends if you do it so ever I command you.
So are you in church? Are you soul winning? Are you fellowshipping?
Are you keeping the Lord's commands?
Or are you just giving God your scraps of time that you have left over?
These are good challenges to give ourselves because if we're failing in any areas
then it's good to shore ourselves up and say, hey, you know, we need to do kind of an about face.
You know, sometimes we go AWOL in some area of our spiritual life
and we need to, you know, do that about, you know, you're in the military so you know exactly what I'm talking about.
You know, sometimes you got to like, when you're getting into the sloppy regiment, right?
And you're like, maybe you got the, do your commanding officers ever like line you guys all up
and then like make you go through the motions that you're supposed to go through like with your,
and like maybe when you're getting sloppy or something they're like,
you know, they're just like you have to hold your gun a certain way and, you know,
you flip your gun around or whatever. I don't know, I've seen Full Metal Jacket before.
Anyway, they make you do push-ups if you do stuff wrong.
I'm just saying that the reason why they do that is because they want you to just like get back into the form
that you were supposed to be in to begin with.
The reason why they drill that stuff into your mind is so that you are ready to go.
So like you don't, you're not even thinking about it when you have to spring into action.
So it's good for us to just revisit, hey, what are we supposed to be doing?
And sometimes we just have to go back to the basics and go, hey,
what are the main things that God wants me doing right now?
Let's get back into our ranks, you know, because soldiers get into ranks.
And guess what? Even though you might not have known it when you called upon the name of the Lord,
as soon as you did that, it's like you signed your name on the line
and you didn't realize that you became a soldier at that point, a soldier of the Lord.
And the Lord's army has called us for a higher calling.
And He wants us, you know, that's Uncle Sam picture where it says, I want you.
It's like, Jesus, I want you. I want you to go soloing. I want you to go to church.
I want you to do all these things, right?
So, you know, are we giving God our leftovers or are we, you know, being all that we can be?
I'm up here doing like a military.
I've never been in the military, but I've heard all these commercials drilled into my head for my whole life, right?
Verse 15, henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth,
but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
We are more than servants to our Lord, right?
We are friends.
So that's a pretty cool thing because it's true.
If you're just working for somebody, a lot of times they don't tell you why they're telling you to do something.
Unless you're just like one of those inquisitive workers.
It's like, why are we doing this, boss? Why are we doing that?
And so sometimes your bosses will just say, would you quit just asking questions? Just do what I said.
Has anybody ever had that happen to them at work before?
Yeah. Ten hands.
It gets annoying.
But Jesus is saying, hey, you're not just servants.
Otherwise I just wouldn't even tell you what I'm doing.
If you were just my servants and you were just my workers,
you wouldn't be allowed to know the private things.
He's left us a whole manual to know his thoughts and what he cares about and who he cares about and why he cares about them
and how much he cares about us.
And he's saying, I want to be your friend.
You're more than just a servant to me. You're more than just a pawn on a chess piece.
You're more than just a risk piece on the risk board.
You are my friend.
And I'm telling you why I want you to do these things.
And one of those things is keeping his commandments.
So now make no mistake about it, though, we are servants.
Yes.
But we're volunteers.
We are volunteers.
And so the volunteers are volunteers because we don't have to do it or we lose our salvation.
But we do it because we want to.
Go ahead and turn to Romans chapter 12 verse 1.
I keep reaching for your water there, Steve.
Did you already open that?
Oh, lovely.
To use the English saying, lovely.
Like English in England, you know.
They say that a lot.
Oh, how lovely.
They say that a lot.
All right.
Don't make me think of that.
But all right.
What a heavy turn.
Romans 12 verse 1.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
It's reasonable that we serve him.
And what's his service?
That he wants us to be a living sacrifice.
He doesn't care about us giving all this different stuff and bringing our best animals to chop them up and have a barbecue or whatever.
That's not what he's talking about.
For us to be the sacrifice, for us to serve him with our bodies and with our minds and souls and all of our strength.
And he says that's our reasonable service.
I mean, he saved us.
It's reasonable for us to serve him.
Ephesians 2, 10.
I won't have you turn there, but Ephesians 2, 10 says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
So we're not saved by works, but we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
So we should serve him.
We should, you know, it's reasonable and acceptable for us to serve him, but not everybody does that.
But we should do those things.
And John 14, 15 says, if you love me, keep my commandments.
So, you know, point number two is, I forgot what it was.
What is it?
It's obedience over sacrifice.
So should we sacrifice?
Yes, we should sacrifice, but he wants obedience over sacrifice.
So he says, if you love me, keep my commandments.
A lot of people say I love Jesus, but they don't keep his commandments.
So are they telling the truth?
No.
You know, not everybody always obeys.
Turn to 1 Samuel, chapter 15, verse 22.
Not everybody always obeys, of course.
None of us in this room always obey.
But a perfect man, or a perfect woman, you know, we're well-rounded and do the best we can.
We fail, we confess our sins unto God, we try to make things right.
David was a man after God's own heart, not because he was perfect as in he didn't sin.
Of course, he had lots of great sins that he committed,
but he was still a man after God's own heart because of the way he dealt with his sin.
He wasn't just a proud person that just said, I'll just keep doing it no matter what, I don't care.
But Saul, he made excuses for his sin.
The difference is, when Nathan said, Thou art the man, David was like, I have sinned.
In this chapter, Saul's like, well, he just starts making excuses as to why he,
you know, we saved the best sacrifices for you, and the best cattle, and we saved Agag.
And Samuel's just like, what are you doing, man?
You were supposed to kill everybody and everything.
Now this old man, who's probably in his 80s or whatever,
has to chop this guy up into pieces because Saul refused to do it.
But look at verse 22, it says,
And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Hey, offerings and sacrifices are great,
but he doesn't care about them as much as he cares about obeying the voice of the Lord.
So yeah, but he said, I don't want sacrifices from these things.
He said, kill them all. Destroy them all.
I don't want anything from the Amalekites.
But then he's like, we saved the best ones.
You might think that you're doing things for a good reason,
but if you're not doing them the way God said to,
then he's not going to be happy with that.
Look at verse number 23, it says,
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as the iniquity of idolatry,
because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord,
he hath also rejected thee from being king.
So what was the problem with Saul?
Well, he was a rebellious person.
So when we're in rebellion against God,
when we're just not wanting to do and get on the program that he has,
what's he say?
You might as well just be reading Harry Potter while you're sitting home and not going to church.
Why don't you just open up Harry Potter
and start reading whatever book it is.
I've never even read any of them.
I've never watched any of the movies.
Ever.
I've just seen the dumb commercials for them.
But that's what it's saying.
It's like the sin of witchcraft.
So if you're just going to rebel against the things of God,
then you might as well just do some magic tricks while you're at it.
And stubbornness is as the iniquity of idolatry.
You might as well just go get a Buddha and start giving him drink offerings then too.
Because it's basically the same thing to God.
That's how much he despises rebellion.
He despises stubbornness.
He's always saying you always do resist the Holy Ghost.
And your stiff neck.
Be no more stiff neck, but circumcise the heart.
He wants to circumcise the heart and not the flesh.
So God wants us to obey.
And that's more important to him than any sacrifice that we could ever give.
And just think about this.
Husbands, if you're a husband in here, and future husbands,
here's a word to the wise.
If you have a big fight with your wife,
walking up and giving them flowers is not going to cure the problem.
It might help.
If they really like flowers.
Or if you just buy them something.
If you've been a big jerk all day and you just walk up and you go,
here's a bracelet.
Does that solve the problem?
It doesn't.
It might work on TV.
Or on some dumb movie you've watched before.
Oh, I love you again.
In real life they're like,
throw that against the wall,
rip the flowers out,
that's what really happens.
So don't be fooled by some dumb TV show or something that you've watched before.
But it's the same thing with God.
You broke his commandments and you're just like,
here God, here's some money in the offering plate or something.
Here's something above the tithe just for you, God.
Just for you.
It's just like, no.
That's not going to work.
That's not going to cut it.
He's not going to be happy about that.
So the best thing to do is obey.
Number three.
That was quicker, right?
Number three.
Soul winning is ordained of God.
This is a really short point because I already covered soul winning a lot.
Soul winning is ordained of God but it says it in verse 16.
It says, you have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you.
Isn't that true?
He chose the disciples.
And ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit
and that your fruit should remain.
He shall ask of the Father in my name he may give you.
These things I command you that you love one another.
So what did he ordain?
That you should go and bring forth fruit.
So I've chosen you.
I've ordained you that you should what?
Bring forth fruit.
What is that talking about?
He's ordained soul winning.
Number four.
So soul winning is not just something that they were supposed to do either by the way.
A lot of people say, well that was just for the disciples.
Well then Christianity would have been a very short religion, right?
Anyway, number four.
Hate of the world.
This is John 15 verse 18.
It says, if the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.
So, don't get so sad in thinking it's all about, oh they just hate me.
No, they hated Jesus before they hated you.
As a matter of fact, can you think of them hating the disciples before they hated Jesus?
Like all throughout their whole ministry, you can just think about like,
when can you think of them actually hating on the disciples?
They don't.
Until Peter is outside and they're like messing with him because he was a Galilean and he was with him too or whatever.
And you know, he gets picked on at the very end.
Until after Jesus died and rose again, they really didn't mess with the disciples except for Peter that one time.
That's because he's outside warming himself by the world's fire and he's hanging out with the enemy.
Then God kind of, you know, he denies the Lord three times as a prophecy.
But other than that, you don't really see it.
So, Jesus really shielded them from all that stuff.
And once he died and rose again, then it was open season on the apostles.
And they were getting beat and dragged before people.
And Paul, you know, of course you know what happened to him.
And it was just horrible.
But before that, they hated Jesus, right?
So it says, if you were of the world, the world would love his own.
And so that's why you see all these false prophets that the world loves.
If the world loves them, they're trash.
They're not real. They're not really of the Lord.
Billy Graham, not of the Lord.
If the Pope loved him, if the Pope loved him, he's not of God.
I mean, get real folks.
If they love, you know, I mean Joel Osteen, nobody loves him.
But, you know, I guess some people do.
But he really is kind of loved of the world in a way.
But any of these people that are loved by the world, they're not of God.
It says, but because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you.
So these people that say we're bad because everyone hates us
and even other Christians hate us, so we must be doing something wrong.
No. Jesus said they hate us because they hated him.
And the reason why they hate us is because we're preaching his words.
And we're preaching them raw, unfiltered, and unapologetically.
We're preaching things that they're afraid to preach that they hide online
or they don't put online because they don't want to be persecuted.
And, you know, God is just, he's just not going to allow those people to get very far ahead.
You know, as far as like, they're not, well, I mean, when you're getting persecuted,
you're not getting ahead as far as the world is concerned.
But I'm just saying that like, you know, the world might love them,
other Christians might love them, but, you know, these false guys.
But people are going to hate us when we preach the truth.
Because if they hated Jesus, they're going to hate us too.
If we're preaching what he preached, we're going to be hated.
We're going to be hated of all men.
So, like I said earlier, these Christians that hate us, even the IFB, hate our types of churches.
You know, with their Fox News Baptist theology, their pre-trib,
and, you know, they'll say that Jesus could come back at the end of the service.
He could come back at any moment.
How many times have you heard that in an old IFB church?
Too many, and I needed a barf bag, you know, by the time I was done.
I just, I couldn't handle it anymore.
It's just like, dude, stop.
He couldn't come back at the end of the service because something has to happen first.
The Antichrist has to come first.
And, you know, the whole Israel-loving garbage.
You know, if you're loving that Israel over there that's bombing people over and over again,
and still, you know, they said, they've been saying, we'll give you back the hostages for a year.
Just stop bombing us.
And they're like, nope.
I mean, they just want to kill them.
They want to wipe them off the face of the planet.
They want that land.
So, they're just evil.
And these Baptists and these other, you know, it's not just Baptists, it's Evangelicals.
They're just, and look, you Trumpsters, Trump has been putting, you know,
these lovers of Israel into all these key positions ever since.
And, you know, I know that things might be easier for us for a while,
but, you know, that North Dakota, what's her name?
She's the one that passed the anti-Israel thing in North Dakota.
She's the governor of North Dakota.
I can't remember what her name is, but they have one synagogue there,
and she passed like some anti-Israel thing where you can't say that the Jews killed Jesus
because, you know, it's anti-Semitic or whatever.
Jason preached a sermon about it for me.
He preaches against all the women in politics or whatever.
He gets a Newsweek magazine for it or whatever.
But, also the loving of the homos.
I mean, I don't know.
They kind of play both sides of the fence, like they really, I don't think really want them in their church,
but some of them do let them in.
They're like, you don't leave them alone, just let them use the bathroom or whatever.
I remember one time this tranny came into our church in a Baptist church.
The pastor didn't say anything.
They were just like, and then they were like, yeah, if he goes downstairs.
It was a guy obviously dressed like a woman or whatever, but they wanted to be loving.
So we were having a potluck that day, and the dude just disappears,
and everybody's looking for him.
His church is out, and he was spotted in the downstairs.
Everybody's looking for him.
All the deacons are looking for him.
All the ushers are looking for him.
Can't find him anywhere.
So they're just like, oh, maybe he just left.
Well, the potluck's going on, and the pastor goes upstairs
and finds him in the baptismal, naked, baptizing himself for whatever, you know, yeah.
And then he takes him out.
It's like, well, maybe if you just never let him walk in the door,
like right when you saw him in the first place, I mean, looking like the lead singer of Queenswright,
just throw him out right when he walks in the door.
Good night.
What a psycho.
But that just shouldn't be happening.
But these guys are loved by the world because they let the mayors of the city come in,
and they let the chief of police come up and speak in the Baptist church,
and it's like, just show me in the Bible where Jesus did that.
Show me in the Bible when he said to do that.
I mean, the only time I see him is when he's talking crap to the public officials
or saying, hey, tell that fox to go jump in the lake or whatever.
He's not answering their questions.
He's like, if you had any power, it was given from my father.
He's just like, or just not answering them.
He's like, don't you know that I have the power to release you?
The power to condemn you?
He's just like, you wouldn't even have any power.
He's just like, totally gangster about it, right?
But we're supposed to just have the flags in here and just blah, blah, blah, right?
So let's turn to 2 Chronicles 19, verse 2.
I know I've got to hurry up here.
You guys are probably getting hungry.
I'm going to read a couple of verses in Psalm 139,
the one that Chad Orgon didn't like being sung in our church in Spokane
because it was just too mean or whatever.
Surely thou will slay the wicked, O God,
Depart from me therefore, you bloody men,
for they speak against thee wickedly,
and thine enemies take thy name in vain.
Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?
And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
I hate them with perfect hatred.
I count them mine enemies.
But apparently that we need to just take that out of Scripture,
never read that again, according to some of these churches.
That was the Old Testament.
David was just being, he just was having a bad day that day,
and he didn't mean to write that.
No.
People just don't understand the difference between our enemies,
we're supposed to love our enemies and bless them that curse us and all that,
but God's enemies is a different story.
Those that hate the Lord, we are not supposed to help them.
We're not supposed to love them.
We're supposed to hate them and not pray for them, right?
Look what 2 Chronicles 19, 2 says,
And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer,
went out to meet him and said to king Jehoshaphat,
who was a good king, by the way, and a saved guy,
Shouldst thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord?
Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.
So, you know, he sends this prophet out to preach to the king of Israel,
who's the, you know, he's the head of the whole land here,
and he says, hey, God's wrath is upon you because you're helping people that are ungodly,
you're helping those, you love people that hate the Lord.
So do you think that this is just something that God doesn't feel anymore?
Or do you think he still feels this way?
So when people are just letting homos come into their church,
just carte blanche, and say, I love you, God loves you,
they're lying to them!
Or they're just too stupid to read scripture and know exactly what it says.
And they don't love the kids in their church,
they don't love the people that they bring in the Sunday school bus,
they would rather just allow them to have some predator, you know, be around them,
than to just do what the Bible says and keep them away from them.
And the Bible says that, he says, I hate them with perfect hatred,
I count them my enemies.
If you hate someone with perfect hatred and you count them your enemies,
do you let them come into your church?
I don't.
And if God hates them, then we should hate them too.
Look, you can get mad all you want about it, but that's what the Bible says, friends.
And he still feels that way today.
Let's finish off the chapter here, verse 20, in our text here.
It says, remember the word that I said unto you,
the servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
So what we read, what we preach, you know, if they kept my saying,
they're going to keep yours also.
So the things that we say from the pulpit that were already his words,
they're going to listen to what we say and they're going to hate us for it too.
They're not going to say, well, we know that was just Jesus saying that
and you're just repeating it so we won't hate you.
No, they hate us too for the same thing.
They will persecute you if they persecuted him.
But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake
because they know not him that sent me.
They're not saved.
And I'm not saying that all Christians that are against us are not saved.
I'm not saying that, but some of them probably aren't.
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin,
but now they have no cloak for their sin.
He that hateth me, hateth my Father also.
And he's specifically probably talking about the Jews right here
because they'll say, well, we believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Moses, right?
But Jesus said if they hate him, then they hate God the Father too.
So the Jews do not love the Father because they hate Jesus.
Yet how many IFB pastors would rather love so-called Jews than hate Christ,
than hate, they'd rather love Jews than hate and hate Christ,
people that are saved like us.
They would just rake us over the coals and say that we're bad and evil
because we don't love God's chosen people.
It's like we do love God's chosen people.
You just don't know who God's chosen people are
because you don't even understand the Bible
because you think that God's chosen people are blue-eyed white people
that are in Israel right now.
That they left brown-eyed and came back white and Polish
and that they're God's chosen people.
So it's bizarre.
They'll hate us.
They'll love fags more than they love brothers in Christ
because we'll preach against them, but they'll still take their side.
How dare you preach against the LGBT?
Well, first of all, I don't call them the LGBT.
I call them fags.
I call them homos.
I call them burnt biscuits or whatever.
They're destined for the flames of hell.
They cannot be saved.
They cannot stop at the 1 Corinthians 6-9 garbage.
The Bible does not say homosexuals unless you have a modern Bible version.
So verse 24,
If I had done among them the works which none other man did,
they had not had sin,
but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.
So they saw Jesus and they hated...
What does that mean?
They have hated both me and my Father
because Jesus looks like the Father.
He acts like the Father.
He's just like Him.
So they've basically seen what He's like and they hate Him too.
But this cometh the past that the word might be fulfilled
that is written in their law.
They hated me without a cause.
What does that mean?
For no reason.
They hated Him for doing good in reality.
And if they hate Him without a reason,
they'll hate us without a reason.
Have you ever had someone say to you they're a Christian and it's like...
They just get mad instantly?
Like they just automatically hate you and treat you wrong?
Just because you said you're a Christian?
Well, they're going to hate us because they hate God.
So verse 26 says,
But when the comforters come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth,
proceedeth from the Father,
he shall testify of me,
and ye also shall bear witness,
because ye have been with me from the beginning.
So the comforter is talking about there, of course,
the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth.
And that is what we were talking about at the very beginning of the sermon there.
And he said,
And ye shall bear witness,
because ye have been with me from the beginning.
So this is kind of alluding to the fact that they have this
because they were with him from the beginning,
they're going to be the ones that bear witness from the beginning when he resurrects.
So that's why they think that they have to replace Judas with Matthias
at the very beginning because Judas hanged himself.
But God does choose, I believe, the apostle Paul to replace him.
So Jesus went away, but sent us the comforter.
And so I'm glad that even though he sent us, he went away,
but we still have God in us, the hope of glory.
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
And pretty soon, I'm not going to maybe be up as much.
I'm still going to try to come up and see you guys.
I'm still going to be the pastor of this church.
But I am sending a man up here that's going to be here permanently,
Brother Sean Conlon.
And I hope you treat him well.
I hope you treat his family well.
And I hope you get behind him and encourage him and help him
and just be here and follow him as he follows Christ.
And he's a good man.
And I hope you're a blessing to him and his family.
And I hope that you appreciate the gift that he is.
And I know that people give Pastor Shelley a lot of, you know,
he made this like saying he's a gift that's coming to steadfast or whatever,
and they give him a lot of crap about it.
But it's true, the Bible says that, you know, that having a pastor is a gift.
Having an evangelist is a gift.
And so, you know, a lot of churches don't even have a pastor.
They don't even have an evangelist.
So, you know, you guys should count yourself fortunate that you're going to have somebody
that's an evangelist that's going to be here all the time now.
He's going to be able to baptize.
And he's going to be here preaching most of the sermons and stuff like that.
So I just wanted to let you know that.
But I'm still here for you if you guys ever need me.
And I'll be up here to preach from time to time and definitely three weeks in a row.
So all right, let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for the Bible and all the great things that we've learned from it.
And Lord, even though we're hated of all men, all the world will hate us.
And Lord, just because we're preaching what the Bible says,
Lord, I pray that you'd help us to just have grace.
Give us grace, Lord, and help us to get through those tough times
when we're feeling like everything's against us.
And Lord, that we have a huge, insurmountable task of winning the world of Christ.
I pray that you just give us grace to get through it.
I pray that you just bless this church as it changes into a new phase of having evangelists here.
And I pray, Lord, that you just help and keep this church secure.
And Lord, that you bring more people here.
And Lord, that you'd help this church to grow with more people, Lord, more quality people.
I pray that you just bless all things done here.
I pray that you bless our fellowship tonight and the food that we're going to eat later.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right. Let's go ahead and turn to our final hymn for the evening.
Number 150.
My faith has found a resting place.
Number 150.
On the first.
My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed.
I trust the ever-living one.
His rules for me shall plead.
I need no other argument.
I need no other plea.
It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.
Enough for me that Jesus saves.
This ends my fear and doubt.
A sinful soul, I come to him.
He'll never cast me out.
I need no other argument.
I need no other plea.
It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.
My heart is beating on the Word, the written Word of God.
Salvation by my Savior's name.
Salvation through his blood.
I need no other argument.
I need no other plea.
It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.
My great physician heals the sick, the lost he came to save.
For me his precious blood he shed.
For me his life he gave.
I need no other argument.
I need no other plea.
It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.
We'll go ahead and have a word of prayer and then we'll dismiss.
We'll get this stuff taken down and we'll head on over to the common place.
So with that, Brother Victor, will you please close us in a word of prayer, sir?
I thank you for the opportunity to be here in the Word of God.
I thank you for Pastor Thompson and Brother Sean as we come up here.
I pray that you can take them both and everyone here in the church will do it.
And you help us to be here in the Holy Church.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.