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An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen. In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of huge stone. For if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. Father, thank you so much for your word, dear God, and for the perfection of your word, and for its preservation down to us today in 2011. I just pray that you please just open our eyes this morning and help us to see what we need to see from your word. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, the subject that I want to preach about this morning is the subject of altars. Now, the word altar is used in the Bible 433 different times. So this is something that's mentioned a lot in the Bible. Now, the vast majority of the mentions of the word altar are in the Old Testament. I'm going to explain why in a moment. But first of all, let me just hit a few highlights of Exodus chapter 20 here. This is, of course, the famous passage of the Ten Commandments. And in verse number 1, this is one of my favorite verses in the book of Exodus, the Bible says, And God spake all these words same. And that's a great verse on the inspiration of the Bible. The Bible is not written by man. Even though a man might have pinned it down or a machine might have printed the ink on the page, God spake all these words. And that could go for the entire Bible. God spake all these words. Because even all the other scriptures were not of old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. God spake through man and it was written down. That's what we have here in the Bible. Now, in Exodus chapter 20, we have God laying down some very foundational and basic laws and principles. He goes much deeper later in the book of Exodus. In Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, he gets into greater detail. But in chapter 20, he starts out with just the basics, the Ten Commandments. And then he has a few other things to say about idolatry and about altars. Now, let me just point out a couple of things quickly as a way of showing you how to interpret the Bible. It says in verse number 4, this is of course the second commandment. It says, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. So God tells us, don't make a graven image of animals, of people. This is a carved statue. Later he says, don't make a molten image, a melted metal statue of any animal, of any person. Look what he says in verse 5. Thou shalt not bow down myself to them, and look at the next word, nor serve them. So is he saying it's okay to bow down to it as long as you're not serving it? No. Does he say bow down to it as long as you're not worshipping it? He says no, don't make it. Number 1, don't bow down to it, nor, nor worship it or serve it. He's saying, don't do either one. Don't make it, don't bow down to it, and don't serve it. So sitting there and bowing down before a statue of any man, of any person, of any creeping thing, of any animal, just the act of bowing down to it is sin. And when you're worshipping it, that's a double sin. And many people will bow down today, Roman Catholics will bow down before saints and Mary and images of Jesus Christ. And they'll say, I'm not worshipping it, I'm just bowing down before it. Wait a minute, you've already broken the second commandment. In fact, the guy who made it broke the commandment. And so God's real clear on this. But it seems that there's rebellion inherent in man, and not only that, I believe that the devil is behind it. But go to, keep your finger on Exodus 20, I'm coming right back there. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter number 4. This is before I get into altars, because I'm trying to set the scene here by showing you some things that are in the context of Exodus chapter 20 about idolatry. In Deuteronomy chapter 4, God refers back to the events in Exodus 20 where he gave the 10 commandments. And in Deuteronomy 4, 12, the Bible says, And the Lord spake unto you, referring back to Exodus 20, Out of the midst of the fire, you heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude, only you heard a voice. He's saying, you didn't see my image, all you did was hear a voice. Look at verse 15. Take ye therefore good heat unto yourselves, for you saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you, Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure. I mean, God's being very clear on this. The likeness of male or female. The likeness of any beast that is on the earth. The likeness of any winged fowl that quieteth in the air. The likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground. The likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the hosts of heaven shouldest be driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole earth. So what's he saying here? He says, look, I don't want you to make any graven image. I don't want you to make any molten image of any animals or people or anything. He even specifically brings up two animals. He said, don't make a fish of the sea, and don't make a fowl of the air. He says, but really just don't make any animal, male, female, human, animal, whatever it is. And he says, don't worship the sun, moon, and stars either. He didn't even mention not to worship these animals and other images. He just said don't make them, because you can't worship something if you don't make it. And God said that when they came into the land and found these images, that they were supposed to destroy them, break them, burn them, melt them down, because it's not just worshiping it that's wrong, it's even having it that's wrong. And so God's real clear on this. Now people today will blow this kind of thing off today. And I think that there's, I don't know whether it's just man's rebellion, or whether the devil is just out to get God's people to disobey God's word. I don't know if that brings in joy to get us to disobey God's word. But what are the two molten images that people put on the back of their car more than any other in order to show everybody, hey, I'm a Christian. That's why I have a metal fish on my car. That's why I have a metal bird. The two specific animals that God said not to make are the two that are the so-called symbols of Christianity. I'm sorry, but my Christianity is not symbolized by a metal image of an animal. And especially not the two that he brought up. Why is it those specific two? Because it's of the devil, that's why. Now go back to Exodus chapter 20. I just wanted to get you in the right frame of mind here about what God's saying. You say, well, that's Old Testament. Well, in the New Testament, God very clearly said, keep yourselves from idols. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. Idolatry is a common theme of the New Testament as well. That has not changed. Now, Exodus chapter 20, we go through that part about graven images. We go through the whole Ten Commandments. God reiterates the part about graven images in verses 22 and 23. Then in verse 24, he gets into altars and explains altars. What is an altar? Well, like I said, it's mentioned 433 times throughout the Bible. Now, the vast majority of these mentions are in the Old Testament. Every time God mentions an altar, every time God tells somebody to make an altar, every time God commands an altar, it's always for the purpose of making offerings upon that altar. They were to make an offering, and sometimes they would burn incense upon the altar as a sweet saver unto God. That was a different type of altar. That is what the altars were for. They would use an altar to offer a lamb as a sacrifice, to make a sacrifice of rams or goats or whatever the case that God had told them to offer at that time. They would offer those upon an altar. Now, in Exodus chapter 20, he gives a teaching on altars in general, and he says in verse 24, An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings. You see, there it is. And we're not going to turn to all 433, but that's what you're going to see over and over and over and over again. So he says, You'll sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen, in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee and I will bless thee. And make me any kind of altar that you want. That's not what he said. He said, If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, Now, what did he say to make it out of it in verse 24? He said, An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me. This is dirt. This is earth formed into an altar. But he says, If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone. So not a pile of nice bricks. He says, No, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. So he says, Here's a few things about altar. He said, Number one, make it out of earth. Number two, if you're going to make it out of stone, use just whole rounded stones and pile them up. Do not use a tool upon it. And he says, Do not go up by steps unto the altar. Now later, he explains to them, when he's talking about building the tabernacle, because this commandment came first. So right away, they're building altars out of stone and earth, as they had done for hundreds of years prior to that. We see Abraham and Isaac building altars and so forth. Well, right after this, a little bit after, God begins to give the plan for the tabernacle and all the things that go with the tabernacle. And he tells them to build a brazen altar. And this altar is to offer their burnt sacrifices on. And that altar was made of brass. And the Bible says with three cubits high, which is approximately four and a half feet high, right? So what, right about here? Okay. About this high. And he said it was to be five cubits by five cubits, which is seven and a half feet by seven and a half feet. He gave very specific instructions on how to build that altar. Throughout the Bible, you'll see the same thing. Now in the New Testament, God mentions the altar only to either refer back to the Old Testament altar and just mention what was already there under the Old Testament, or he refers to the altar in heaven. Because the Bible says that all the things that they build in the tabernacle, the altar, the labor, everything, the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant, it was all based upon what already existed in heaven. And God told Moses, See that thou make all things according to the pattern which was showed thee in the mount. God showed Moses the heavenly things, and he was to make a replica of them on this earth. In the replica, they would sacrifice animals, lambs. The Bible says those could never take away sins. Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. When he came, he was sacrificed for our sins. He was the Passover Lamb, and the Bible says that his blood was sprinkled upon the mercy seat in heaven. He entered into the holy places in heaven as our high priest and fulfilled the ceremonies of the Old Testament being the final atonement for our sins. That's why when Jesus died on the cross, the veil was ripped in half. And God does not want us to sacrifice animals anymore. It's over. Jesus was slain once, and we are no longer under that system of offering sacrifices and a blood sacrifice and a burnt offering. The Bible is very clear on that. That's why the only mentions you have in the New Testament of an altar are to talk about the Old Testament sacrifices on an altar or to talk about Jesus Christ being sacrificed and talking about the altar in heaven or the incense altar in the book of Revelation. That's it. Not a complicated subject today. An altar is an altar is an altar. Now, here's what's interesting. There are people today who in churches, and this is very, very common. They will have what's called an altar call. Who's ever heard of that? Everybody has. They have the altar call or the invitation. And here's what they say. Come forward to the altar. Pray at the altar. Abraham. And I've even heard this many times. Abraham built an altar. Isaac built. You need to come down to this altar. And they'll compare it to the altar of the Old Testament. Well, the problem with that is there's no sacrifice going on here. Now, there's a church out there. There's a religion out there, my friend, that does believe that there's a sacrifice going on every week. It's called the Roman Catholic Church. And they believed that every single week as they eat the cracker and drink the juice that Jesus Christ is being offered again and again and that it's becoming His broken body and His blood and it's a continual offering over and over again. It's called the Mass. We are Bible-believing Christians. We are Baptists. We do not believe in that. We don't have an altar. The only altar we have is the altar that's in heaven. Jesus Christ has already been sacrificed. The blood has already been sprinkled on the mercy seat. It's done. It's over. It's gone. But they'll say, come forward to the altar. And you say, well, what in the world is wrong with that? Well, let me start by saying this. Everything that we do in church should be Bible-based. Amen. Now, a lot of people want to worship God in their own special little way. But the problem with that is that God wants us to worship Him according to His Word. Now, God and the Old Testament give very clear instructions about how they would worship Him, what they would wear, what they would build for an altar, what sacrifices they would bring. And there were a couple of guys named Nadab and Abi. And these guys decided, you know what? I'm going to worship God in my own way. I'm going to light up a censer with incense and just burn some incense because I feel like it. And they both died. Okay, that's how God feels about just doing all this stuff of your own accord. Now, let me explain this to you real quick. When we have church, and you say, well, you're, you know, what are you talking about? By the end of the sermon, you'll know what I'm talking about. You'll understand why I'm even preaching this sermon. But first of all, what we do as a church is biblical. Every part of what we do as a church is biblical. And if it's not, then we wouldn't be doing it. For example, we have singing at church. We have congregational singing where we all sing songs. That's biblical. In Matthew 26 at the first church with Jesus and His disciples, the Bible says that when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. Jesus and His disciples together sung hymns as a church. They sung together. Not listen to music. They all sang as a group. In Ephesians 5 19, the Bible commands us to sing as a church, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Colossians 3 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. The Bible says we should teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing together, singing the hymns. You say, what about the offering? Well, the offering is scriptural. The Bible says, now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye upon the first day of the week. Let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. The Bible is clear about the early church being told, come together on the first day of the week. Take the collection. Reading the Bible, reading the scripture out loud. Timothy, a young preacher, was told, till I come. 1 Timothy 4 13, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Preaching is biblical. We see Paul, the other apostles, the disciples, preaching in the early church. God has chosen to manifest his word through preaching. The Bible talks about coming together as a church and praying as a group. The Bible reads in Matthew 18 19, again I shall say unto you, and the context here is talking about the church. If you read about three verses before, read the whole passage. But in verse 19 of Matthew 18 it says, again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And the Bible talks in 1 Corinthians 14 about public prayer being made, and the congregation saying amen to what has been prayed for, agreeing with what has been prayed for, that it might be granted to us of our Father which is in heaven. But this altar call just really has no place in scripture. It's just not found. It just isn't there. The invitation time just simply isn't there. So you say, Pastor Anderson, why does Faithful Word Baptist Church not have an invitation? Where's the altar call? Where is it in the Bible? It isn't there. Now, I have a problem with saying it's an altar. And let me say why. Number one, the Bible used the word altar 433 times and it never defined the steps at the front of the church as the altar. Never. This is what's strange about this. The altar was an Old Testament item and a heavenly item. Not any mention in regards to the New Testament church except for the altar that's up in heaven. We don't do sacrifices. We don't need an altar. That's what an altar's for every time, okay? Except there are a lot of men in the Bible who made altars for other reasons and for false gods and whatever. But whenever God's telling them to make an altar, it's always for sacrifice or for peace offerings or for the burnt incense. The reason I have a problem with calling it an altar, you say, well, call it what you want. No, I'm going to call it what God wants. You see, there is no such thing as an altar in the New Testament, number one. I'm not going to go in my backyard and scrape a bunch of earth together and build an altar because I don't have any sacrifice to offer. I'm not going to pile up a bunch of stones to make an altar because I don't have a sacrifice. You see, the New Testament believers today in many cases will have a church building with a platform. Now, the church building has a platform so that the preacher can be elevated above the people. Now, the purpose for that is so that you can speak to a large group. Now, we do not have a platform simply because our church is not so large that I would need to be up on a platform to be seen. But when people are really far away and you have a really big group of people, you have to get up a little bit higher in order to be seen. Makes sense, right? Jesus Christ, when he preached to great multitudes, he stood up on top of a ship so that he could be higher, so that he could preach. Nehemiah and Ezra in chapter 8, they got up on a platform, they got up on a pulpit that was elevated so that they could be seen by the people that they were speaking to. Jesus preached from a hillside so that he could be up higher. Nothing wrong with having a platform. Now, how do you get up to a platform? With a staircase, with steps, right? So they have a platform and they have steps going up to it, and here's what they say. They point at those steps and say, this is the altar. Now, wait a minute. What was the first thing that God said about altars? Do you remember this part? He said, do not have steps going up to the altar. Now, why? Why? I just asked myself, why? I mean, why not just take this chair and just say, hey, this is the altar? I mean, if you're not going to do what God said, you don't care what the Bible said about it, if you're going to overlook and ignore 433 verses on the altar, why don't you just say, you know, this is the altar. It's a chair. Why do you have to take the one thing that God said, don't do, and say, that's the altar, the stairs? Now, you say, you're making stuff up. No, the Bible said no stairs on the altar, no steps. Don't do it. Okay, let's do it. Go to Isaiah 65. And I'll tell you something right now. I've been to a lot of churches and a lot of preaching services that have this so-called altar call. I refuse to bow my knees before a staircase that's being called an altar. The Bible says it's not of God. The Bible groups it in with idolatry. The Bible groups it in with religions that involve uncovering your nakedness. I don't want anything to do with it. And you say, well, that's not what they're doing. It doesn't matter. If the Bible said no, I'm not going to do it. And I will never, as long as I live, bow my knees at a staircase that's being called an altar. Never. You go ahead and bow down to it and show me in the Bible where you got that. But it says in Isaiah... I'm sorry, where did I turn? Let me turn there myself. Isaiah 65. You see, God doesn't like it when people rebel against His Word. Even if it's on little things. Because we say, oh, that's just a little thing. But it's the attitude. It's an attitude that we have when we're doing stuff that's not in the Bible just because somebody told us to do it or because of the tradition when it actually contradicts the Bible in His no-stair-step prohibition on altars. You say, well, do we need to have no stairs? We just don't need an altar. But anyway, if you're going to have one, make it right. And then figure out what you're doing when you're piling up all those rocks. When Jesus Christ already died for our sins 2,000 years plus ago or a little less than 2,000 years ago, whatever the exact number may be. But in Isaiah 65, God talks about His anger. And He says in verse 3, Now, it's one thing to talk bad about somebody behind their back, right? But it's another thing to get in their face and just rip them to their... just get in their face and just flaunt it to them. You know, it's one thing to bad-mouth somebody behind their back. It's another thing, you know what? You know, come right up to them. Get right in their face. And God says, that's what I feel like people are doing to me. God said people are provoking me to anger continually to my face. It's like they're just right in my face about it. And He gives some examples. He says they sacrifice in gardens. Now, you say, why is that significant? Well, we'll turn there for sake of time. But in Deuteronomy 16, 21 and 22, God clearly said, do not plant a grove of trees anywhere near the altar. He said, why not? What's wrong with trees? He said, don't plant a grove of trees anywhere near my altar. But wait, what's wrong with it? I said, don't plant a grove of trees by my altar. It doesn't matter what's wrong. God said not to do it. Now, I can explain to you what's wrong with it. I can explain to you what's wrong with the steps. But it doesn't matter. He just said, don't do it. So don't do it. The heathen always worshiped in the groves. The heathen loved the elevated altars and worshiping in high places. God said, build it four feet high and do it on the ground. You don't need to go up to a high place. And He even talked about kings who did right in the son of the Lord, but He said that their heart was not perfect because they kept going in the high places to worship. He said, do it on the earth. Do it four feet high and do not do it. But He said, no, they just provoked me to my face. They sacrificed in gardens. And burn incense upon altars of brick. He said, what's wrong with burning incense on an altar of brick? He said, if you make it out of stone, don't make it into bricks. He said, use an uncut, un-hued stone, just a pile of rocks. Do not carve that stone. He said, why does this stuff matter? Hey, it seems like it matters to God because it's Him being obeyed. Now, sometimes I might give a commandment to my children at home, and it might be a very insignificant commandment. Like, it really doesn't even matter. Now, I have major commandments to my children, but I might just give them an insignificant commandment. But when a commandment is blatantly disobeyed, it doesn't matter how insignificant it is, it makes you mad. I mean, something just so insignificant like, hey, shut the door. And they won't shut it. It's nothing. It means almost nothing. But it's the fact that I told you to do it and you're refusing to do it to my face. You know, I don't have a rule in my house, for example, that says, you know, that my wife at every meal must serve me first. I do not have that rule in my house. But sometimes I specifically say to my wife, honey, give me the first plate. You say, oh, you're a male chauvinist monster. But look, sometimes I just, you know, maybe I've been working hard or maybe it's been a long time, say, and I say, honey, give me the first helping. How do you think I feel if she just starts beating everyone else? Just, no. Now, that's very insignificant, right? Waiting 60 seconds, waiting 90 seconds to eat. I'll wait all day, but not when I said I want it now. And I'm just dad. I'm just husband. This is God we're talking about. And when he says jump, we need to ask how high on the way up and not sit there and try to say, well, why? Why can't I do it? And you say, why are you preaching on an insignificant subject like Aldrich's? Because it shows a whole mentality amongst man of disobedience to God's word and of not caring what God said. He said, these people make me so mad. What's making you mad, God? Is it the adultery? Is it the murder? Is it the thievery? Well, that stuff makes me mad, but what really makes me mad is how they just blatantly just call it an offering unto me when they do it with bricks and a garden, everything I said not to do. That makes me mad. Why are they doing exactly what I told them not to do? He says in verse number, let me find my place here. He says in verse three that they sacrifice in gardens and burn incense upon altars of brick. Those seem like pretty insignificant things to me, but you know what? They're significant because God told them not to do it and they did the opposite. Verse four, which remain among the graves. These are the Gothic crowd. They hang around the tombs. What God told them, stay away from dead bodies. Stay away from the tombs. Don't go there. That's where they go. That's where they want to hang out. I mean, is it really fun to hang around in a graveyard? I can think of a lot of cooler places to hang out in than a graveyard. You know why people want to hang around in the graveyard? Because God told them not to do it. That's why. You know why people want to make an altar out of bricks? Because God told them not to do it. You know why people want to sit there and plant a grove right next to the altar? Because the devil wants us to do what God told us not to do. That's why. He says next, he said, which eats swine's flesh. There was nothing wrong with eating swine's flesh in the New Testament. But under the Old Covenant, there was a prohibition on that. It was specifically changed in the New Testament. But at that time, it was wrong. And he said, it makes me angry. And that's why these things matter. Now go if you would to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. I'm going to go a little further into this subject here. You say, well, Pastor Anderson, get real. It's not really an altar. Okay, then don't call it an altar. And quit using Bible verses about altars to tell me I need to go there. If it's not an altar. And you say, well, I'll just call it whatever. You know, would a rose be any less beautiful by any other name? Yeah, except that the Bible says, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. We ought to use God's terminology because words really do matter. That's why I use the word hell, not heck. That's why I use the word heaven. That's why I use the word Jehovah. That's why I use the word Jesus Christ. Because words do matter. And I use biblical words out of my English King James Bible, the preserved word of God. I use these words like damnation. I use words that the Bible uses like propitiation. Like atonement. Like charity. Like blood. I use biblical words about biblical things. That's why I call this the church. I'm going to church. Let's go to church. Why? Because that's a Bible word. Church. I don't say like, faithful word ministries. It's faithful word Baptist church. Nothing wrong with ministries. But wait a minute. This is a church. Let's call it a church. Let's call God by his name, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's call him Jehovah. Let's call him the Lord God. Let's call him what the Bible calls him. Let's call it baptism. Let's call it being saved. Not a commitment to Christ. Let's call it being saved. Let's call it believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, not ask him to come into your heart. Let's use Bible terminology. Bible words. We'd stay way out of false doctrine and false practice if we just used the Bible's word. Because when you start changing words on people, you change the meaning. And you change people's attitudes. And so don't sit there and take a Bible word that's used 433 times and then just invent some new concoction of a staircase, you know, made out of bricks or whatever, and saying, this is the altar. Now, what is the altar called? Well, there are two types of altar calls today in churches. And you say, why preach on this? Well, every Baptist church I've ever been in had an altar call. I don't think I've ever been to one that didn't. I mean virtually every single one. And it's always an old stairs at the front. I don't know if people just aren't reading the Bible. I don't know if Exodus 20 is a night on the list or what. But I've been in church after church, the Pentecostals are doing it. Billy Graham's doing it. Joel Osteen's doing it. This is the way they do it. And there's two types of altar calls. And usually they're kind of combined into a hybrid altar call. Now, they have an altar call for two types of people. For the saved and for the unsaved. First I want to deal with the altar call for the saved. Now, according to practitioners of this invitation or altar call system, the altar call for the saved is for those who are already saved to come down the aisle and get right with God and pray at the altar, confess their sins, or just get right with God, do business with God at an old-fashioned altar. Well, here are some problems with that. First of all, we're going to deal with the one for believers. There's always a guilt trip for those who won't do it. This is never optional. It's never if you want to. If you want to, it's there. If you want to bow down at a Sumerian ziggurat, if you want to bow down on steps like people did thousands of years ago when they worshiped Satan, come on down if you want. No, it's always, hey, you need to be down here. Some of you haven't been down here in several weeks. That is what they say, my friend. Some of you, it's been months since you've hit an old-fashioned altar. Hey, I haven't hit an old-fashioned altar in 2,000 years. I need to hit that altar. And they say, it's been months. It's been weeks. You need to be down here. You've got to get right with God. You're back-slittin'. Now, hold on a second. You know what this reminds me of? Matthew 15, 9. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Where did God command you in the New Testament to go to an altar? And the only old-tested command for an altar was to go there and burn a sacrifice on it. He says in Mark 7, 7, howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. He said, you're worshiping me in vain when you're commanding stuff that I didn't command. And look, in fact, it's making me mad. We ought to have movement across America of people going to altar calls with incense and lighting it on fire. And saying, this is an altar. But then again, that would be sin, because it's a staircase up to it. But it says in Ecclesiastes 12, 13, and this is a key verse, listen clearly. Ecclesiastes 12, 13, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Did you hear that? Fear God and keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man. When you fear God and keep His commandments, you're done. You have done the whole duty. Other duties being put upon you by man are not required. This altar is not required. People will say the altar is old-fashioned. If you're an old-fashioned Baptist church, you will have an altar call. I remember I talked to a pastor, and he said to me, he said, you know, my dad, you know, he's not really exactly like we are. He's a great preacher, he's a great guy, you know, and I love him with all my heart. But he said, my dad is just not quite as fundamental, old-fashioned as we are. He said, for example, he only has an altar call on Sunday morning and Sunday night. He doesn't have it on Wednesday night. Can you believe it? I mean, he only has the invitation twice a week instead of all three. Now, that's the example, apparently, that you're not old-fashioned. Okay. Now, when people say old-fashioned, sometimes they're going back like 100 years. That's the problem. Well, the problem with that is that in Jeremiah 6, God told us, Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see and ask of the old paths, where it is a good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. Now, God was telling us over 2,000 years ago, walking the old paths. He wasn't talking about the 1800s AD. Yeah. Yeah. He was going back a little older than that. He wasn't going back 150 years. He was going back to the beginning. This is the old way. Because, see, the Bible never changes. So anything we do that's biblical must, of necessity, be old. Because the Bible is as old as time itself. Because in the beginning was the Word. So if we're doing things that are different, they're new. And God says, wait a minute, go back to the old way. Go back to the way that's been in the Bible all along that has never changed. Do it the old way. And so there's nothing old-fashioned about a staircase altar. It just isn't there. Others have called it, and I've got three for the sake of time, but, others have called it the mourner's bench. And they promote and they actually glorify coming to the altar, so-called, and weeping, crying. Well, the Bible actually commands that it's a sin to cry on God's altar. Did you know that? It says in Malachi 2.13, And this ye have done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, that's for the Pentecostals, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, nor receiveth it with good will at your hand. And also, if you remember the story of Nadab and Abihu, when they died, and Aaron and Eleazar and Ithamar approached unto the altar, they were commanded, Do not cry. Do not shed a tear. Let others be wailed and cry for the day. You will not. You are approaching the Lord to do his service, and so forth. So it's just unbiblical upon unbiblical. But look at Matthew chapter 6. Here's another problem that I have with it. It says in Matthew chapter 6, verse 1, Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them. Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father, which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know, with thy right hand do it, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly. Verse 5, And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. For they love to pray, standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets. Why? That they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. The Bible says that when we fast, and when we pray, and when we weep and cry out to God, it should be done in private. It should be done in private. Now there are times for public prayer. We talked about, for example, leading in prayer where one prays and everyone else says amen. We saw that in 1 Corinthians 14. We see that concept in Matthew chapter 16. But this attitude of let's all go up in front of everybody and get on our knees and pray and weep, that is not biblical. It's not commanded in the Bible. And in fact, the Bible says it's a sign of hypocrisy. To do it publicly, to be seen of men. Why go forward and pray at the steps? Why not pray in your seat? Why not pray at home? Why not pray in the closet? Why, my friend, would you walk to the front of the room and pray in front of everyone in the midst of a church or synagogue, but to be seen of men? You say, well, heads bowed and eyes closed. But here's the thing about it. Not everyone's heads are bowed and eyes are closed. No. No, the priest, his eyes are open. He's watching. He knows. And yeah, God bless you. I see that man. And also, many times, his assistants, his deacons or assistants, they're watching. And they see that, oh, God bless you. The altars are filled tonight. The altar is filled. God's moving. Yeah, he's moving somewhere else. Because he's sick and he disobeys. And so you say, oh, you're splinting hairs. No, I'm preaching the Bible. Amen. The Bible says that hypocrites like to pray in the middle of church where everybody can see them, and real Christians pray on their own in their closet with the door shut. Now, there's a time for public prayer and a time for private prayer. But public prayer is done out loud in a language that everybody understands so that everybody can say amen. Amen. And private prayer is not done in public. And when you're praying silently or in an inaudible tone or in a language that people don't understand, you're praying privately. So do it in private. Why do it in the front of the world? Because you're doing it to be seen of men. Now, maybe everybody's not doing it to be seen of men, but that's what it creates, and that's what Jesus warned us about, and that's what Jesus told us not to do. And then he also said, when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. Now, this is what's also preached. Hey, you need to come down the aisle regularly, frequently. And I've even heard this. If God speaks to your heart in the sermon, you need to come to the altar. If he doesn't speak to your heart, you need to come to the altar to find out what. Maybe you just haven't been down to the altar in a while. Just come down just because it's been a while. Come down and pray. Put your fanny up in the air in front of everybody and pray on the altar, on your knees, on the stairs. Now, this is not biblical. It's not scriptural. It promotes hypocrisy. But now I want to get into the second phase of the sermon. This is really the most important part of the sermon. Not that anything I have said so far wasn't important, but this is the really important part that I really want you to pay attention to. The altar call for the unsaved. This is the one that I'm really against. And this one takes the cake. Go to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. And sometimes this altar call for the saved can even resemble a confessional booth. Because in the confessional booth of the Roman Catholic religion, you go to the priest and you tell him all the bad stuff that he did. And he won't tell anybody. It's just between you and him. All the bad stuff you did. Well, that's kind of what these altar calls can be sometimes. Because they'll basically say, you know, if you're struggling with so-and-so to the sin, come on down here and make it right. Well, everybody's eyes are shut except the priest. He sees you come down there. So he knows that, you know, who's been struggling with pornography? Come on down to the aisle. Oh man, are you serious? You gotta be kidding me. But he's getting it right tonight. You can tell by his crying. Look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11. The Bible reads that he gave some apostles, this is talking to the local church at Ephesus, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Why did he give us a pastor? Why do we teach the Bible in church? Why do we have an evangelist? He says, for the perfecting of the saints. Who are the saints? Those who are saved, yeah, the believers. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So who are we trying to build up with this church service? The unsaved? Unbelievable? No. God's people, the saints, the body of Christ, the local church, till we all come in the unity of the faith. Who's we? We that are already saved. And of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Of course, we're never going to get there. That's why we need more preaching and more teaching. Verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children. Not talking about unsaved people. We're talking about children of the Lord, babes of Christ, children of God, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth and love may grow up unto Him, into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplied, according to the effectual working of the measure of every part, listen to this now, making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. The purpose of church is that the body of Christ can edify itself. I'm part of the body of Christ. You're part of the body of Christ, the church. Christ is the head. When I preach unto you, I'm edifying you, or I'm not doing my job. I'm helping you increase. Perhaps I'm sitting in a chair. Someone else is up here preaching, which takes place from time to time. I'm being edified by them. We all sing praises together. We edify one another. Where is the non-believer mentioned? That's because the non-believer is not designed, church is not designed for the non-believer. This is not for the believer. It's clear. Now, do non-believers sometimes come to church? Yes. And God says if we're doing what we're supposed to do in 1 Corinthians 14, that when a non-believer comes in, hey, he's judged of all. He's convicted of all. He's convinced of all. He's judged of all. That sounds judgmental, but anyway, he comes in and he'll confess of a truth that God's in you. So sometimes an unsaved person comes in, but do we hear our service toward the unsaved? No. For example, my sermon today that we noticed is not an evangelistic sermon. Is this sermon all about how to be saved through the blood of Christ? No. Because I'm not... Okay, let me just illustrate for you very vividly. Look around the room, everybody. Put up your hand if you're saved. Put up your hand if you're saved. Do you notice something? Did you notice something? Yeah, that pretty much everybody's hand is up that they're saved. So wouldn't it make sense to preach something other than how to be saved this morning? Since pretty much everybody's already saved. And here's the funny thing about a lot of people that are not saved, they think they're saved. So having a thing at the end where I say, all right, everybody, have your heads bowed and eyes closed, who here is not saved? Would you slip up your hand? Guess what, a lot of people who really aren't saved, that hand's not going up. Because they think they're saved. Or they just don't want to raise their hand. Maybe they just don't want to do that. Or, you know, how many of you know you're saved? Maybe not every hand goes up. Maybe hands go up of people that aren't saved. It doesn't matter. You say, wait a minute, Pastor. I say, we need the altar call to get the people saved. Well, first of all, my church service that I'm presiding over here, which is obviously, yes, it's God's time. And it's funny, people always get mad at me when I say my church. But then they'll go over and say, hey, you should visit my church sometimes. This is my church. Is it your church? Who would say right now, this is my church? Yeah, exactly. Because it's all of our church. Okay, and people get mad. I'm like, all right, you said it's your church. Well, you invite people every week, I hope, and say, hey, come visit my church. Meaning the church I go to. Well, this is the church that I pastor. Therefore, it's my church, okay? Yes, I know it belongs to God. It's the house of God. But let me explain something to you. My preaching is not geared toward unsaved people. And my running of this church service is not geared. That's why I don't gear the music toward unsaved people. If I did, it'd be rock and roll and hip hop. That's what they want to hear. I don't gear the preaching toward unsaved people. Otherwise, I'd be preaching the plan of salvation over and over again, over and over, over and over. I don't want anything in this church to be geared toward unsaved. I don't want unsaved people to walk in and just feel right at home. This is for me. This is seeker sensitive. No, this is a church for the safe. You say, well, how are we going to get the people saved? Well, two ways. Number one, God told us to go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to command that my house may be filled. And he's talking about in his father's house there are many mansions. If you get the context, he's talking about the marriage supper of the lamb, if you read that context. He says, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every preacher. He says, go ye therefore and teach all nations. He said, daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. You see, the invitation is for people who don't go soul winning. That's who needs that crazy thing. That altar call, that staircase altar, that's for people who don't go soul winning because we go out soul winning and win people to Christ on their doorstep. And in the streets and everywhere we go, we give the gospel. That's God's plan, to get people saved out there and to bring our sheaves with us, to win them to Christ, and then bring them to church to be baptized, to join the church, to learn and grow. But they should get saved out there. You say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, what about the unsaved people who show up to church? Here's what we do. We talk to them. Amen. Can you believe it? We walk it up to them and we give them the gospel. Amen. And you know why that's about 10,000 times better than your stupid altar call? Yeah. I'll tell you why. Because we give it to everybody. Amen. I've been in churches where I brought unsaved people. This is when I was a lot younger. I was not a soul winner. I didn't really know how to win people to Christ. I was a babe in Christ. And I would bring friends that were unsaved that they might hear the gospel and come down the aisle at the altar call and be saved. And guess what? They didn't come down the aisle. So no one gave them the gospel. Now, at Faithful Word Baptist Church, I hope that never happens, because at Faithful Word Baptist Church, what we do is when there's a visitor who's here, somebody's never there, we stop and ask them if they're saved and we talk to them one on one. We don't seek to embarrass them before everyone. And this idea that you have to come down an aisle to be saved is not found in scripture event. And basically only the bold can be saved, because the shy are not going to come down that aisle. They're embarrassed to do it. Only the bold can then be saved. And people and preachers use this as an excuse not to witness the people with the gospel. It's an excuse to cop out. Because they think, oh, they already heard the plan. They already had the invitation. They already had the opportunity. I'll wash my hands in innocency. I'm good to go. No, you need to give it one on one, the gospel of that person. You should be giving the gospel to people out in the world, everywhere you go. And in church, it's like shooting ducks in a barrel. You know some of the greatest soul winners in this church? It's because they're good about talking to visitors. They're getting more people saved than you in many cases. Because why? Because they talk to the visitors and get them saved and give them the gospel. Why? Because it's ten times more effective. I sat in a service where a guy gave the invitation, raised their hands, a person raised their hands so they're not saved. He played ten more stanzas of Just As I Am, and he begged that person to come down the aisle. He said, we'll take the Bible. We'll show you how to be saved. Come down the aisle. You raised your hand earlier. Do it. And he pleaded, we're going to play it just one more time. When you hear the first note play, up out of your seat and come down out. And listen. He went through the whole thing. The guy never got up and went down the aisle. That same guy walked up to that preacher on the way out the door, shook his hand, and you know what that preacher said to him? Hey, good to have you here today. Have a good one. Why didn't he say to him, hey? I saw you raise your hand. Would you like me to take the Bible and show you how to be saved? Well, he'd already done the invitation. He's already good to go. I remember I was involved in a preaching service. I was the guest speaker at a service where there were going to be a lot of unsaved people present. And people were bringing unsaved people. And somebody said, hey, gear your sermon toward salvation, toward the plan of salvation. Because all these unsaved people come and I said, I won't do it. And I said, here's why. Because if I preach on the plan of salvation, people aren't going to give it as effectively as one-on-one. And then that will just give everybody an excuse not to give the gospel to their cousin, their brother, their sister, their mother. I said, instead, I'm bringing a group of people with me and there are people in that church that are going to be instructed to give the gospel to every visitor and to take them aside one-on-one and to lovingly one-on-one show them the gospel. Because, hey, I'm not interested in getting 100 people saved, 1,000 people saved, and 10,000. I want to get one person saved. One. One is worth everything. One. And you get one. And you get one. And you know what? All of us together will get hundreds and thousands of people saved. I can't get thousands of people saved. I am one person. Now, over a lifetime, yes. But we work together as a team. Not one guy doing it all. The pastor, Mr. One Man Show Up here. Hey, I said this is my church. It's your church. You get people saved. You preach the gospel. I don't want to get to heaven and I get all the rewards. You get the rewards. You do something. Let's all do it. Beat me to the front of the line up there. Because the bottom line is that people use an evangelistic church service as a cop-out for biblical soul-witting and they don't do it. They don't feel like they have to do it because they feel like it's already been done. But it is not as effective to preach the gospel to a large crowd as it is one-on-one. It just isn't. I mean, I've been doing this for... I've been out knocking doors now for pretty much about 13... well, going on 13 years. I've been... Oh, let's see. So right when I turned 17, I'm 30 now. Yeah, I've been doing it for over 13 years. And I'm telling you, I've preached a lot of evangelistic sermons and I've done a lot of one-on-one soul-witting. And I've preached sermons where the whole hour I just hammered the plan of salvation and I walked up to people afterward and said, hey, what do you believe a person has to do to be saved? Oh, live a good life. Go to church. I'm trying. And you're like, what? And then I talked to that same person for 10 minutes one-on-one on their level, showing it to them from the Bible. That's the way to do it. And you know what? We ought not be this lazy man Christianity that's a once-a-week Christianity. Sir, we should be seeking to win souls every day if possible. I mean, if we're... Look, you come into contact with unsaved people and listen to me, I'm talking to you. You, not the people around you. You come into contact with people all the time that are not saved. Give those people the gospel. Give those people the gospel or quit hanging around with them. You need to give people the gospel. I had an opportunity to give somebody the gospel just this week in a really weird way. I was out running. I was running. And I was running barefoot. And so I was running. I ran a few miles, and I was running barefoot. And this guy saw me and said, why are you running barefoot? He said, you must be training for some kind of a fight. And I said, yes, I am. And anyway, so here's the thing. I was trying to break my record for running. So I didn't want to stop. But this guy stopped me. So I continued to run in place, and I gave him the entire plan of salvation, running in place. The whole thing. I've never done that before. And I gave him the whole plan of salvation, went through the whole gospel with him, went through all the, quoted him all the scriptures, talked to him about some of it, and, you know, he was really interested in what I had to say. He was really listening, very receptive. I'm hoping he's going to visit the church. He says he's going to come by. He didn't get saved at that time, but he was very close. I mean, the seed was planted. You know, he understood what I was saying, because when I asked him if he knew he was going to heaven, he said, no. He didn't understand that part. But I expounded that to him, and, you know, it was just a cool opportunity that God gave me, just to give the gospel to somebody in my day life, just to talk to them. And we talked about a lot of other stuff. He's a great guy, a really nice guy, and I was able to talk to him. You know, and see, here's the thing. Stuff like that comes up, and it's funny, because when I first started, I didn't want to... I couldn't just start talking to him about fitness or something. You know what I mean? But it's like, I just wanted to get the subject on the gospel. That's what should be our instinct. If somebody walks up to you and starts... Like, maybe you drive a hot rod-type car, you know? And I know nobody in our church drives that or anything. Although I think I see one out the window. You know, you might drive a hot rod car, and if somebody comes up to you and starts telling you how cool your car is, why don't you tell them how great it is to be saved? You know, you can use opportunity. We all have opportunities. Maybe you're out running and somebody talks to you. Maybe you're showing your car. Maybe you're on the job. And here's a rule of thumb, too. Whenever you're alone with somebody, give them the gospel. Now, there are other times you should give the gospel also. But for sure, if you're alone with somebody, that's a great opportunity. You're in the work truck. You're driving along. Hey, bring it up. Give them the gospel. Get people saved. Hey, I'm all for getting people saved. But that's not what church is for. There is a time and a place for everything. There is a time for every purpose under heaven. There is a time to embrace. There's a time to refrain from embracing. There's a time to sow and a time to rent. There's a time for everything. 24 hours a day is not sowing time. When I'm sleeping, I'm sleeping. When I'm showering, I'm showering. When I'm with my wife, I'm with my wife. When I'm playing with my kids, I'm playing with my kids. When I'm eating a meal, I'm eating a meal. When I'm working at my job, I'm working at my job. There are times and places for everything. Everybody understand what I'm saying? Church is not time for winning souls. It's time for edifying the body of Christ. And that is important too. Is getting people saved important? Absolutely. Right now, what I'm preaching right now is more important than getting people saved. Don't skip church to go soul winning. No, you be in church. When it's church, it's time to be in church. It's not time to be out soul winning. There's plenty of other times to go out soul winning. This is the time to be built up in the faith and learn God's word. Now, as soon as this church service is over, soul winning time. But while this church service is going on, it's not about soul winning. It's about edifying the body of Christ. And that's what I'm going to spend my time doing. I'm not going to spend my time soul winning right now. I'm going to spend my time edifying the body of Christ. And when it's time to sing praises unto God, I'm going to be singing praises unto God. Not soul winning. Because that's what's important at that time. There's important times that you spend with your family. Those times should not be neglected. There's important times that you spend with your wife. That should not be neglected. There's time that you spend nurturing and bringing up your children. Don't neglect it. There's times when you physically labor by the sweat of your brow. Do it. God commands you to do it. Do everything God has commanded you to do. There's a time for soul winning. Now look, we get all kinds of soul winning opportunities daily. Don't miss it when you're chatting with an unsaved acquaintance or coworker or friend. When you're here, when you're there. Whatever the case is. Maybe you're, you know, whatever. Take those opportunities. But that is not what church is about. But when you have your altar call, well that's what church is about then. It's about preaching them down the aisle. I don't believe in it. It's not biblical. You won't see it in the Bible. You won't see Jesus giving an altar call. You won't see Jesus inviting the unsaved to come down an aisle and so forth. And let me give you one last illustration before I close. My wife got saved just through me giving her the Gospel repeatedly. I've been to the Gospel for the main time. A couple of other people gave me the Gospel. And she basically got saved in the home of my parents is where she got saved. Now she'd been saved for a few months. And we're going to church. And we're going to a great church. I mean we were learning soul winning. We were doing soul winning. I was taking my wife out soul winning and showing her the ropes. And she was reading the Bible. And we were reading the Bible together. And she was learning a lot. And there would continually be this preaching on the altar call and the invitation. Big emphasis at the church we were going to. And they told a story about people, a few different times, about people who were not saved but they were embarrassed to come down the aisle. And how weeks and weeks would go by. And they even told a story where the pastor's wife was not saved. This is the story now. I know it's going to sound ridiculous but I'm not the one telling the story am I? I'm just relaying it to you what was told unto us. That this woman was the pastor's wife and she wasn't saved. And she knew she wasn't saved. And she'd heard all this preaching of her husband for so many years. But she was just too embarrassed to come down the aisle and get saved. And so she struggled with it for months. And then finally after months, she said, I'm not going to go to hell but this is this, I'm going down that aisle. Whoo! You know, the price is right or whatever. And so, you know, she just said, I'm going to do this. And my wife came to me and she said, She said, Stephen, she said, I know that I'm saved. But she said, why are these people saying that you have to come down the aisle to be saved? Because she said, I know I'm saved, I'm not doubting that. But she said, it seems like they're making it out. Because if that woman had really been in church for decades and heard the Bible preached for decades and was sitting in her seat, why couldn't she just be saved right there in her seat? If it's just believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. If it says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If it's just confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has raised me then. Why did she have to embarrass herself by coming down the aisle? Why did she remain unsaved for a month? That makes no sense. Does that story make sense to anybody? Can you put up your hands so you can explain it to me after the service? Because it makes no sense to me. And I had to explain to her. I said, honey, don't let that bother you. It's just faith. You just believe on Christ and just ask Him to save you. It's not about coming down an aisle. You could come down an aisle, but I told my wife, I said, the reason that people would come down the aisle is if they don't know how to be saved. Then somebody meets them there and shows them how to be saved, which is great. But I'm just skipping the Satan altar, the step one, the one that God told us not to build. I'm just skipping that part and just go straight to open the Bible and show them. And I remember it confused people. Listen to me now. I don't think my wife is the only one who was confused by that. Do you expect me to believe that my wife is the only person who's ever been confused by that? No. That's a confusing story. And I've heard a lot of stories like that. People, they came week after week, and the pastor would say, come, come down the aisle, come. And they would, oh, I don't know. I'm scared. That's not salvation, folks. That came out of some Pentecostal thing, some charismatic Benny Hinn, Charles G. Benny, rolling in the aisle kind of garbage. That is not biblical at all. Biblical doctrine and biblical church and biblical salvation is just believing on Christ, and you just, look, it's not that complicated, folks. You just walk up to somebody and show them how to be saved, and they pray and get saved. They pray and get saved. They don't have to cry on some Sumerian ziggurat to get saved, some pyramid. They can just pray and be saved. And look, if you're not right with God, if you're living in sin, you can confess your sins to God and do it on your own. I don't need to see it. You don't have to show me and show everybody. Look at me, everybody. Look what I'm doing. Do it yourself privately. Now, look, I'm not trying to split hairs this morning, but what I am trying to do is stop people from being confused about salvation, number one. Number two, I'm not up here to be an evangelist this morning, trying to get people saved by coming down the aisle. I'm going to be out this afternoon going out and getting people saved, and I hope you'll do the same thing with me and with others. And, you know, when it comes to an altar, I don't have an altar. I don't worship in an altar. I will not have an altar, except for the only biblical altar that I'm supposed to have is the one that's in Hebrews 13 up in heaven. That's the only one that I have. But if you are going to build an altar, my friends, you better make it out of a pile of rocks and have no staircase going up to it, and it better be this high and no higher. And if it has steps going up to it, then you are in disobedience to God. But guess what? You don't even need an altar, so it's a silly discussion. So let's just close in prayer and go home. Father, we thank you so much for the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and we thank you that we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. We thank you that we have an altar in heaven, that Jesus Christ's blood has already been sacrificed once for all. We don't need any more altars. We're done with that. The altar in heaven is the only one that I ever hope to see with my eyes. And Father, I just pray that you would please just help every person that's here to understand that when you say something, they need to take it seriously. When Mom and Dad tell them something, they need to take it seriously. When the boss at work tells them something, people need to take it seriously. Help us to take your commandments seriously and not to just blow it off and say, well, it doesn't matter. Help us to use the right words and the right methods that are biblical. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.