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I actually want to go back a few verses. We're going to get into chapter 4, but if you go back just a few verses to chapter 3, look at chapter 3, verse 14. The Bible reads in James 3, 14, But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated. Full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Now, the title of my sermon is this. It's found at the beginning of verse 17 where the Bible reads, But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. And that's the title of my sermon this morning, First Pure, Then Peaceable. Flip back just one book in the Bible in Hebrews. You're in James. Go back one book in the Bible and look in Hebrews. You see, I don't believe that anything is in the Bible by accident. I don't believe anything is coincidental, incidental, or accidental. Every word of God is pure. It's there for a reason. And God is very careful to tell us that the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. He could have just said, well, it's pure and peaceable. But he said, no, it's first pure, then peaceable. And that theme is consistent throughout the Bible. For example, look at Hebrews chapter 7. This is about Jesus Christ in Hebrews 7.1. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all. Watch this. First, being by interpretation, king of righteousness. And after that, also king of Salem, which is king of peace. Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth the priest continually. The Bible is clear again that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who the Bible says, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, eternally existing, no beginning, no end. Mary is not the mother of God. Without mother, Jesus Christ, the high priest, the Son of God, the Bible says that his name by interpretation here, Melchizedek, king of Salem, is first king of righteousness, and after that, king of peace. Do you see the order there? First pure, then peaceable. First righteousness, then peace. Look, if you would, at Matthew chapter number 5. Here's a really famous passage of scripture that you know, and this is known as the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. Look at Matthew chapter 5 and watch how the Bible is consistent again. Look at verse 8. The Bible says, one of my favorite verses by the way, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. See how consistent the Bible is? First purity, then peace. Now back to James 3, if you want to turn there. You see, peace is a wonderful thing, and I'm not preaching against peace. Peace is something that we should want, and desire, and long for. The Bible says, for example, don't turn there, you turn to James 3. But the Bible says in Isaiah 9-6, here's a good Christmas verse, For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called, Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. So there, Jesus Christ is called the Prince of Peace. Just like he was called in Hebrews 7, the King of Righteousness, and also the King of Peace. Peace is a wonderful thing. That's why it says in Romans 12a, If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. So God wants us to have peace. Who doesn't want peace? We want to have peace. Nobody wants warfare, and killing, and violence, and brutality. We all want peace, but not at the expense of purity. Not at the expense of what's right, which is what righteousness means, that which is right. You see, to everything there is a season, the Bible says, and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to love, and a time to hate. A time of war, and a time of peace. There's a time of war, and a time of peace. Now, look if you would at James 3, because I want to show you where war comes from. Because we want peace, not the expense of purity, not the expense of righteousness, but where does warfare come from? Where does fighting come from? Where does strife come from? He said in verse 14, If you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descended not from above, but where does it come from? It's earthly, sensual, and devilish. For where envy and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. Look at verse 1 of chapter 4. You see, sometimes the chapter divisions, we can stop and think it's a whole new thing, but really he's just continuing the same thought here. He says in verse 1, From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? So basically what God is saying here is that external warfare, whether it be nations fighting against one another, or whether it be me fighting with you in a fist fight, or whether it be me having strife and envy and battling with you on a personal level, it says it comes from the war that's going on inside your body. It comes from the lusts in your body that are warring against you on the inside, and that manifests itself in external warfare. Look at verse 2. Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain, Ye fight and war, yet ye have not because ye ask not, Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lust. So the cause of the warfare and fighting that's in this world is the lustful, sinful, sexual heart of man that is greedy and covetousness and wants more, desires to have things that belong to someone else, desires to obtain something that belongs to someone else. The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil, and so my lust for someone else's money, or someone else's house, or their land, or their wife, or their ox, or their ass, the Bible says, is what causes war. It's what causes strife and fighting, and the devil wants it to be so. It's devilish, the Bible says. It comes from the devil. It doesn't come from God. You see, in a perfect world we wouldn't have any warfare. In a perfect world we would have peace. When Jesus Christ comes back to this world and sets up his kingdom on this earth, it will be a time of peace. The lion will lay down with the lamb even in nature. But today we live in a world that's filled with sensuality, lust, and sin, and evil, and therefore we don't have peace because before peace comes purity. And when you have no purity, and when you have no righteousness, you can't have peace either. You see, purity comes before peace. Now, let's apply this first of all in our personal lives. What is more important to us? Purity or peace? Righteousness or peace? This can apply in your own home, for example. Flip back if you went to 1 Timothy 3. Go back a few pages. You're in James. It should just be a few pages back in your Bible. Look at 1 Timothy 3. What was the title of this sermon? First pure, then peaceable. Okay, that's the order. Peace is wonderful and purity is wonderful, but get the right order. First pure, then peaceable. Look if you would at 1 Timothy 3. This is a famous passage of scripture that's talking about the requirements for someone to be a pastor of the church. In order to be a bishop, or what the Bible calls a bishop or a pastor, you must meet certain criteria, certain qualifications. The Bible says... Oh, I'm in 2 Timothy. That's the problem. 1 Timothy 3, it says in verse 1, This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, this is the kind of person that should be the pastor, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lubrication, not a brawler, not covetousness, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Now, according to the Bible, I am the ruler of my house. And if I'm not, I shouldn't even be pastoring a church. And the Bible says I should have my children in subjection with all gravity. That means that in my house, the children are not in charge. I'm in charge. The children do not run the show in my house. Now, if I wanted to have peace, sometimes I could just say, here, you know, shut up and eat some ice cream. And that's a good way to have peace. But wait a minute. First pure, then peaceable. First righteousness, then peace. It's more important to me that my children grow up pure, that they grow up righteousness, that they grow up doing what's right, than that I have peace in my home. You see, my goal in my home is not peace at all costs. My goal is purity at all costs, righteousness at all costs. And today, people will just let their children run them up because they want to get along with their children, which means peace, you know, they want to get along. They want to be their children's buddy. And this is a dangerous thing too when you get into a divorce zone. Now, today, there are many, many, many divorce zones. I mean, almost everybody you run into these days is divorced because our culture, our society is very permissive of divorce and so, therefore, lots of people divorce. And the danger becomes when the parents are competing with one another for the favor of the child. Then the child becomes the boss. The child is no longer in subjection. And then this competition becomes, I'm going to be my child's friend. I'm going to be their buddy. Hey, it's great to be your child's buddy. It's great to have peace in the home and get along and have harmony with your children. But you know what? Sometimes you got to be the bad guy. Sometimes you got to sacrifice peace for purity. I mean, if my daughter were walking out of the house, and thank God my daughter is so young that this isn't an issue yet, but if my daughter grows up and is walking out of the house in that miniskirt or in those short shorts or in that low-cut top or in that tight-fitting outfit, hey, there's not going to be peace. There will only be peace if she says, Yes, Dad, I will dress modestly and feminine and godly. But if she says, No, Dad, this is what I'm going to wear. It's my life. There's not going to be peace. I will declare war and say, We must stop you from dressing this way because I am going to rule this house, and you are going to be pure in my house. But today we have parents who have children fornicating in their own home. And they say, Well, you know, there's nothing we can do about it. Hey, you are not have children fornicating in your own home. I don't care if they're teenagers or adults. Hey, kick them out. Throw them out on the street if they're going to fornicate in your home if they're over 18. And if they're under 18, then take a bell and spank them like the Bible says. Spare the rod. You hate your son, the Bible says. And so many people today, they just want to have peace and love and sunshine. If you love your child, then keep them pure so they don't destroy your life. If you love your child, you'll want them to live a righteous life. In fact, they're not going to be happy living an ungodly, filthy life. And so if you want your child to grow up and do right, you'll chasten them, you'll chastise them, and maybe it will be a little bit less peaceful at times. But thank God you'll be pure. Thank God you'll be righteous. There are things in my home that I don't love. Now, sometimes there could be a strife of somebody trying to bring something into my home that I don't allow. Well, I'm willing to stand up and fight for purity and righteousness in my home and to keep that home pure. And so, no, I will not let my children dictate to me what is pure and right. I will dictate to them what is pure and right. And my children are the happiest kids you'll ever meet. You say, oh, you sound abusive. You sound like a tyrant or a dictator. I give my children a lot of freedom. They have a lot of fun. They're the happiest, most smiling kids I've ever known. But you better know that there is no question in my house whether they're in charge or I'm in charge. That's the only way it can be. And I'm not always just trying to be their buddy. I'm trying to be their parents. I'm trying to be their father. I'm trying to be an authority figure, not just a friend or a buddy. And so it's important that you get first pure, then peaceable. This could go in many other areas of life. For example, our church. Our church is desirous of being a peaceable church. We want to get along. We want to have one accord, unity. I don't want there to be any strife in our church. The Bible says that strife in the church doesn't come from God. It comes from the devil. He said envying strife. He said it's because of the lust of man. It's because of his pride. We should have peace and harmony and get along and so forth. But guess what's more important than peace in the church? Purity. Guess what's more important? Righteousness. If somebody comes in here bringing false doctrine, we will stand up and fight for what's right. We will fight to keep false doctrine out of this church. We will fight to keep uncleanness and sin and wickedness out of our church. I think of 1 Corinthians 5 when the apostle Paul was writing to the church of the Corinthians and they had fornication in the church. And he said, Such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. And he said, And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. He said, But present in spirit have judged already as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed. He said, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, with my spirit and the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, you gather together and deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved. In the day of the Lord Jesus, your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Did you hear that? He said, A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. He said, Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We need to get the leaven out of our home, get the leaven out of our church, because a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. And it's more important that this lump stays pure, than that we have peace. Now look, we don't have rules here, we don't dictate to people how they live, we don't tell people what to do. You know, you have total freedom in this church. But let me tell you something. The Bible does command in certain areas, just a few necessary things are the word that he uses in Acts chapter 15 and in 1 Corinthians 5. There are a few necessary things that he said that you cannot allow in your church. There are a few necessary things that you just can't allow. And one of them is people who've been saved a long time, people that are called a brother, and we're not talking about somebody who just got saved last week, but somebody who's called a brother who's a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or an extortioner, or a drunkard. He says, With such and one know not to eat. Now he said, Look, if somebody's an unbeliever and they're a fornicator, he said, You can eat with them. That's fine. You don't need to separate from them. He said, If you have to separate from every unbeliever who's a drunkard, or a fornicator, or an idolater, or a covetous, he said, You pretty much just have to leave the whole world. That's what he said. He said, Then you'd have to go live in a compound somewhere or something. He said, No. I don't want to take you out of the world. He said, I just want to keep you from the evil. We're in the world, but we're not to be of the world. But he said, If somebody who's a Christian, somebody who's claiming the name of Christ, and we're not talking about a new believer, but somebody who is called a brother, known as a brother, is doing these things, he said, You don't want to be around that person. Put away from among yourselves that wicked person. And this man in 1 Corinthians 5 that was sleeping with his stepmother was commanded to be cast out of the church. Because he said, You need to get that filth out of your church. And I'm sure that it caused division. I guarantee you that when that happened and that took place, there was division. Some people probably thought it was being too harsh. And then other people... And they could have just avoided the whole thing by just pretending like it wasn't going on and just having peace. But no. First pure, then peaceable. We don't want to just have peace at all costs. First purity, then peaceable. You see, my goal is not to get along with every single person in the world and to be their friend and to be their buddy. Now, I would love to get along with every person. But it's more important to me to do and to preach and to say what's right. And the problem is, it's like David said in Psalm 120. He said, My soul hath longed well with him that hateth peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. You know, that's what David said. He said, I'm not the aggressor. I'm not the instigator. He said, I'm for peace. But when I speak, they are for war. And you know, I've found that to be true in my life sometimes. Sometimes I speak and all of a sudden people want to fight me and people hate me and want to attack me. It's not that I don't love peace. It's just that I'm first pure and then peaceable. See, I may not be the most peaceable person that you've ever met. I may not be, you know, pastor peacenick up here. But I do love peace and I do try to get along with people the best I can. But not at the expense of doing what's right and preaching what's right and saying what's right. There are times when I preach things that cause division that make people upset. Jesus said, I came not to bring peace but division. He said, I'm come to set a man at variance against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's enemies shall be they of his own household. That's what Jesus Christ said. He said, I am come to bring division. But not only that, so we see in our personal life, we try to have peace, we try to get along with everybody who can but not at the expense of doing and saying what's right. You see, you can get along great with the people at work when they want to tell you a dirty joke. You just listen to a dirty joke and give them a courtesy laugh. But is that really the right thing to do? I remember one time that there was a family member of mine, not my immediate family, but an extended family member of mine. And this was an extended family member of mine that I had some strife with in the past. Somebody that I hadn't gotten along with very well in the past. And this person said to me, Steve, sit down and watch my favorite movie with me. You know, I said, okay. Because I want to get along. This is the person I've had strife with in the past. I wanted to get along. I said, okay. And I sat down and watched the movie, and the movie was ungodly, as most Hollywood movies are. Excuse me. As all Hollywood movies are. I'm sitting down at this movie, and it was ungodly. And I knew it was wrong. But yet I continued to watch the movie. This is a long time ago. I haven't seen a Hollywood movie in about, what, eight years now or something? Seven or eight years. But I'm sitting there watching this movie, and I knew it was wrong, but it was more important to me to have peace with this person that I had strife with. You see, that's where I put peace before purity. Because I didn't keep my mind pure like I should have. Now I kept peace, but I lost purity. And it's amazing how I eventually ended up having more strife with that person. You know, because if you try to sacrifice purity for peace, you're not going to end up with real peace. I never had peace with that person. I still don't have peace with that person. Watching the movie didn't help anything. But it did corrupt me. You know, it did bring ungodliness into my mind. And so as I watched the movie, I decided I want to compromise. I said, I'm just going to go to sleep. Because I'm tired. Anyway. So I basically just, you know, as narcoleptic as I am, I just lean back, and I can pretty much sleep anywhere. So I pretty much just cocked my head back and just went to sleep. So I only saw half. But you know what? That was all right. I really should have just kindly and peacefully said, hey, look, no offense, nothing is. You know, I don't really want to watch movies like this. You know what I mean? There's stuff. And you know what would have happened if I would have done that? Oh, you know, you're so holy. You're so righteous. Oh, we're sorry. You know, and you're going to have friction with people sometimes. But that's the price of standing up for what's right. And you do it as peaceably as you can. You know, you don't say, what in the world filth are you showing me? You know? Your mind is a cesspool. You know? I would just say this. I would just say, hey, no, I'm sorry. I don't want to watch. But you know what? Is there really a kind way of saying it? It's hard, isn't it? But you've got to say it as kindly as you can. And you're going to be called the Mr. Goody Two-Shoe or whatever. But you know, you've got to just do what's right. As much as is possible, as much as life, then you live peaceably with all men. But first purity, then peaceability. That's number one in my personal life. Number two in the church. We want it to be peaceful, but we will have war against people bringing in another gospel. Turn from your sins to be saved. You just declared war on Pastor Stephen L. Anderson as you tried to bring that into this church. And we've had people try to creep into our church with another gospel, which is not another. But there will be some which will pervert the gospel of Christ. The gospel of Christ is Jesus paid it off. The gospel of Christ is the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not by works of righteousness what we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. The gospel of Jesus Christ is that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. It's not whoever quits drinking shall have eternal life. It's not whoever joins the church shall have eternal life. It's not whoever gets baptized will have eternal life. It's not whoever repents of their sins will have eternal life. It's not whoever lives a good life. It's whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. If somebody tries to bring in another gospel, we'll fight them. We've done it before. We'll do it again. Somebody's tried to creep in with this before and here's what I told my wife in the home. I said, honey, I will preach every sermon on that subject until these people either get right or get out because we're not having another gospel in this church. And so I got up and every sermon I preached on and just kept preaching and kept preaching until they got out because I'm not going to let the leaven of another gospel the Bible says if anybody preaches another gospel there will be a curse. He didn't say just, oh yeah, just try to get along. Try to come to a common ground. Find the part you agree on. Well, we're all sinners. We agree on that part. OK, great. No. Wrong. You can't tamper with God. I remember I kept preaching on it and preaching on it and preaching on it. It just wasn't solving the problem. I preached this one sermon where I just breathed fire on it. And I remember I took out my Bible that I'd been winning souls with for years. The Bible was falling apart. It's a Bible that I no longer use. I've been soul-winning with this Bible for years and years. I've given the gospel to so many people it's fallen apart. I said this is a Bible that I've won souls with for years and years. And I opened it and I marked every verse in John, Acts, and Romans just those three books that said that salvation is by faith alone. And believe me, there's a lot in those three books, John, Acts, and Romans. So I just read every verse for like 25 minutes. I'm just reading every verse that says faith alone. And I said, do you mean to tell me I've been preaching the wrong thing? When my Bible says this 100 times? I took the Bible and threw it into the wall and it exploded. It was like when Moses broke the Ten Commandments. And I mean, I threw the things. I said, we will. And then that's what solved the problem. It was that sermon that did it. But you know what? I love preaching peaceful sermons. I've got a lot of peaceful sermons. Just keep looking. You'll find them. But I'm not going to have peace at all costs in the church. But let's move outward. We went from the home. And really, there are three kingdoms in this world, if you really think about it. There are three bases of authority in this world. Number one, there's the whole. Who's the supreme authority in the home? Dad. Who's next to dad? Mom. Then the children. That's the authority structure in the home. Husband, wife, children. Then there's the church. Who's the authority in the church? Jesus Christ, not Pastor Anderson. The head of the church is Jesus Christ. That's the authority, and Jesus is the Word. And so this book is our authority, the Holy Bible. This is the supreme authority in the church. But then let's say we back it out to the third area of human authority, which would be the nation. What about in the nation? We want to have peace as a nation. Now let me ask you this. Where does war come from, according to the Bible? Lust, covetousness, desire for something that belongs to someone else. It's amazing how if you look back at all the wars throughout history, the love of money truly is the root of all evil. If you go back and look at all the wars, it's always that country A wants territory that belongs to country B, and there's war. Or country A wants the wealth or resources of country B. That's what the Bible told us. You fight in war because you desire to have something that you don't have. That's always what it is. Now there are some people that are just on the defense. Somebody's coming at them. Now, as Christians, we should not be for our country taking over other countries. Now this should be a basic doctrine. But when it comes to war versus peace, look if you would at Genesis 10. And this is just a basic doctrine from the Bible. Say, all right, you're getting political. I can say and preach whatever I want, if it's found in the two pages of this book, because God told me to preach the Word. And he said to preach the whole counsel of God. And if it's in this book, I'm going to preach it whether you think I should or not. And you say, oh, don't preach policy. Don't preach what the Bible says, and it doesn't matter what it's about. Don't preach on the way I dress. Hey, if the Bible says that women are supposed to be adorned in modest apparel, with shame, face, and distance of variety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing loneliness with good works, if the Bible says that we should be dressing a certain way, I'm going to preach. Don't tell me I don't wear my hair. The Bible says to shame for a man to have long hair, 1 Corinthians 11, but that a woman's hair is her glory. I'm going to preach it. You know, like it or lump it. And when it comes to anything political, if it's in the Bible, I'm going to preach it. Because I preach the whole Word of God. I'm not going to let somebody tell me, don't preach that part of the Bible. Because that's a no-no. So look at Genesis chapter 10. Look at verse number 31. The Bible says in Genesis 10, 31, These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, tongues means languages, in their lands, after their nations. These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations. And watch this. And by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. Now, notice that in chapter 10, we're talking about different languages here. We're talking about different nations in different areas. And it says that by these, by the families of Noah basically, is how they divide it into different nations. Now, if you look at the list, I'm not going to read the list, but look at the list from Genesis 10 verse 2 all the way down to Genesis 10 verse 30. Now, do you see all those names? That's a lot of names. So basically, each of those represents a different nation, a different separate country. Basically, you have, of course, the Canaanites is one group. You've got the Cydonians. You've got the Nineveh, which would later become the Assyrians. You've got Akad, which became Sumeria, S-U-M-E-R, the Sumerians. And all these different places, all these different groups. You have Arphaxad, which basically was the group that Abraham came from. So you have all these different people's names and these different lists. Well, according to that, God divided the earth after the flood, because it says here at the end of verse 32, by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. Then in chapter 11, he explains to us how that division took place. Look at Genesis 11.1. And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. So in Genesis 11.1, everybody's speaking the same language, right? He says, It came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven. And let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the towers that some men build it. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language. And this they began to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. So the way that God divided people after the flood, because they all joined together at one city, one tower, to build their own way to heaven, is basically what they were doing. They said, We're going to build a tower to heaven. And they had this religion, and this society, and this state, it was all like a one world state. And God came down and said, No. He said, We will change this. And so what he did was, in order to get them to split up, he confused their languages. He caused them from one moment to the next to speak a different language. So this is where language comes from. God divided the languages in the earth. So basically, you know, we're building the tower, and I'm asking him for a hammer. And all of a sudden, I'm speaking English, and all of a sudden, you know, ting-tong-tong-tong. He's like, What? You know, so pretty soon they're like, OK, this isn't working. So they kind of went their two separate ways. And they went in a multiplicity of different ways. So let me ask something. Is it God's desire to have one nation or multiple nations? God said that because of the Tower of Babel, if we compare Genesis 11 with the end of Genesis 10, we see that God's plan, in order to keep everybody from joining together like this, was to create separate nations. He said, I'm going to divide people into nations. So it's not God's desire that we have one nation. Now, we are going toward one nation. Because of the fact that the Bible prophesies that one day there will be a place metaphorically called Babylon in the book of Revelation. You know, Babel, Babylon? Same thing. A one-world government, a one-world religion. This is where we're headed in our world today. And it's just like what they had here. God says separate nations. Now, according to God, if we're to be in separate nations, and that there are going to be nations that we see all throughout the Bible trying to take over other nations, trying to take over their territory, trying to get involved in other people's politics or involved in their other struggles, that is not right, because of the fact that God set up these different nations, and here we are. We're the United States of America. Our country has existed for over 200 years. Here we are. And it is not our job to rule the entire world. One nation ruling the entire world, is that what God wanted? No. Separate nations. And so it's not our job to rule the Middle East. It's not our job to rule Asia. It's not our job to rule Europe. It's not our job to rule in Africa. It's not our job to rule in South America. That is not the area that God has given us. It would be just like if I went over to Brother Dave's house. Listen to me now. It'd be like if I went over to Brother Dave's house, and I said, Let me tell your wife what to do for a while. I don't like the way your wife is, and so I'm going to give her orders for a while, because I don't think you're doing a good job. Now, I'm using Brother Dave because I don't have that problem with Brother Dave. I don't have that problem with anybody. Because you know what? My own wife or kids is enough for me to deal with. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, the bottom line is, I'm not going to go to somebody else's house and tell him how to handle his wife, or how to handle his... Your financing messed up, Brother Dave. Let me do it for you. And he says, No, I don't need your help. And I just shove the door and say, No! I'm here to help you! Your wife is suffering because of your poor leadership. Your unborn child is suffering because you aren't running things right. So I'm going to come in here and make you do it my way. In fact, I have a gun. I'm going to put this gun to your head and tell you to do it my way. How would you like it if another church came into our church and told us, We don't like the way Pastor Anderson is interpreting the Bible. We're going to show you. And it's the Southern Baptist Church across the street. And they're going to come in and bring in the worship service and the new international version. And they're going to show preaching with compassion or whatever. Not that I don't have compassion because I do. But the point is, I don't want some other church coming into my church. And in fact, I'm not going to go to some other church and tell them how to do it. I don't want somebody coming into my house telling me how to run my house. I'm not going to go tell somebody else how to run their house. So why is it America's job to run the whole stinking world is what I'd like to know. And we do it with the United Nations, which is an anti-Christ organization, to bring in a one-world government. Hey, in the 1980s, when I was a little boy, the age of Solomon and Isaac, I sat in church and I heard Baptist preachers get up in a pulpit in the 1980s and preach against the European Common Market. And they said, one day Europe will all be united into one nation and have one single currency. And people thought they were crazy, and yet today they're all united. They have one currency. And today the whole world is uniting and the United States is where it's based, in New York City, in the United Nations. And it is not right for us as Christians to endorse bloodshed and murder and killing in another country when it's none of our business to go to the Bible. The Bible says, He that meddleth with strife not belonging to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. And if you remember, King Josiah was a great king. In fact, I think Josiah was the greatest king. The Bible says there was none like him. None like him before or after him, such a great king of Judah. And yet Josiah's downfall was that he went and fought against the king of Egypt. The king of Egypt was attacking a totally different nation. And the king of Egypt wrote to Josiah and said, I don't have a fight with you. I don't have a problem with you. Stay out of my business. And yet Josiah went and fought against the king of Egypt and died in battle. And God said if he hadn't have died, he would have lived and died of natural causes. The Bible says he would have lived a long life and died in peace. But yet he got involved in someone else's fight, someone else's battle. Don't you get it? Don't you understand that when the United States has troops in 136 countries, it's because they're trying to take over the world? Do you not see that? Do you not understand that one country after another, the United States is taking over the world, putting their puppets in place so that we can all have the same culture, the same godless rock and roll and Hollywood culture, we can all get along, we can all be united, and it's all in the name of peace. It's all in the name of peace. We'll all be united. And I'm going to tell you something. What's really going on, according to the Bible, is that these wars are sparked by people's lust for money and power. That's really what's going on. The reason why we're really fighting wars all over the world and why all these hundreds and thousands of troops of ours are all over the world is because there are people who have a lust to make money. There are people who have a lust for power. There are people who have a lust to take over those lands and get into the natural resources. Stop and think about it. If you really stop and think about this, why is it that Obama, and Obama gets up and says, like, oh, I want peace, when he's running for office. You remember that? Remember, I'm bringing the troops home. Why is it that he was criticizing Bush for all of his war-mongering, and then Obama says, oh, I'm going to bring the troops home? Why are there 120,000 troops in Iraq right now? And why haven't we increased the troops in Afghanistan to where there will be 100,000 in a couple of months in Afghanistan? That's like the biggest warfare zone in the world. Why is it that whether it's Bush or Obama, whether it's the Republicans or the Democrats, we are fighting wars all over the world and uniting the whole world into one system? Because it's not Bush is not the problem. Obama's not the problem. The problem is that Satan is setting up his one world government. Satan is setting up his one world community, because we're living in the last days. We are living in the last days, and the devil is behind it. The devil is behind all this warfare. We should be minding our own business, living in peace. Yes, defend ourselves. And that is the only legitimate warfare we should be doing, is to defend ourselves. You see, I'll defend my house. I'll defend my church. That's when I'll fight. But I'm not going to go aggressively attack someone else. And so we are wrong, my friend. And you can say I'm unpatriotic for standing up for what our forefathers died for, which is a free country. And George Washington said we'd stay out of other people's business, stay away from entangling alliances, that we would not meddle in other people's foreign affairs. That's what our country is supposed to be based on. And we ought to long for peace. Now we'll fight if we have to. We'll defend ourselves if we have to. We'll fight for our freedom. We'll stand up for what's right. But let me tell you something. It is not our job to go be involved in fights. We're literally fighting on every continent. We're fighting in South America. We're fighting in Africa. Most people don't even know that. But we're fighting on every continent. Because we have a global world empire. It's not a god. It's wrong. And as a Christian preacher, I'll stand up and preach against it and tell you that I don't agree with it. I don't believe in it. I don't think it's right to kill people. I don't think it's right to blow people up, to kill innocent people, in order to give someone money or power or land or whatever. I don't think it's right. I think we should live in peace. Now first we'll have purity. First we have rights. If somebody comes into my house, tries to take over my house, I'm going to kill them. If somebody breaks into my house tonight, I'm going to blow their head off. And the Bible tells me to in the book of Deuteronomy. You know, and I'm in use of 45. Because that's who I am, by the way. But I'm not going to go out with my 45 out, looking for a fight now. No. You see, my desire is never to use my 45. I hope that I go to the grave never pulling that trigger. But if I need to pull that trigger, I'm going to pull that trigger. And that's the way we should be. We should be peaceable people. We shouldn't just say, well first pure then peaceful, so forget peace. Let's just go fight the whole world. Let's just go fight everybody and kill everybody. No. I don't want to fight anybody. I'm for peace. But when I speak there for war, then I'll defend myself. You know, I don't want to, people say, oh, you know, you're fighting against the government. I don't want to fight the government. I want to get along. I just want to live my quiet and peaceful life. But you know, there comes a time where the government, you know, just enslaves you to a point where you start to fight back eventually. You know, nobody wants to do it. But if you have to do it, you have to do it. There comes a point where you have to stand your ground and say, hey, this is right. This is what's right. This is my family. These are my children. This is my nation. I'm born free in America. I have to come to a point where I'm going to take a stand and fight. Nobody wants to fight, but if you have to fight, you have to be willing to fight for righteousness, for purity. So let's just back up and do a quick review of this. What's the right reason to fight for righteousness and purity? What's right? What's the wrong reason to fight for lust, covetousness, personal, financial gain? That's the wrong reason to fight. Now, in every fight, every fight is motivated by these things. The good guy is the one who's fighting for righteousness and purity. The bad guy is the one who's fighting for lust and taking something that belongs to someone else. Or you might just have two people that just want to take something from each other, and they're going to fight each other. But let me tell you something. Purity comes first. Rights just come first, both in my personal life, in my home, in the church, and in our nation. We have to stop and ask ourselves, is what we're doing as a nation right? You say, well, how can you speak against America? You mean America that basically takes your tax dollars and spends it upon abortions and murder? America that puts a gun to my head and forces me to give them money so I can finance abortions, so I can finance murder that I don't believe in? They're forcing me to pay for something that I think is murder, and I'm paying for it. And if I don't, they'll come put me in jail. Look, God's not blessing our country. No, he's not. God is cursing our country because we're wicked and ungodly. And what we need to do instead of just saying, well, America can do no wrong. God bless America. What we ought to say is, let's get America pure, and then we'll have peace. You know why we're in a continual state of warfare? And here's my prediction. I predict that our country will never be at peace again. That's what I predict. We have been at war nonstop for the last nine years, and I believe that we will never be at peace again. I think after Iraq, it will be Afghanistan. After Afghanistan, it will be the next place. Iran, Yemen, Africa, whatever, it doesn't matter. We will never be at peace again because our country keeps getting more and more wicked. And there's no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. That's what the Bible says. You can't have peace if you don't have righteousness. You can't have peace if you don't have purity. One day, there will be peace in this world when Jesus Christ sets up a righteous kingdom. But until then, there will be no peace. We can't have peace when fornication, drunkenness, pornography are just the normal culture of the United States. We can't have peace. You know, wear your peace symbol around your neck as you disobey all of God's commands. You're bringing war. You're bringing curse of God on this country. You're bringing evil upon our nation. You go out and have your free love and your free dope while you wear a peace symbol. That's the 1960s generation that destroyed our country. And they said, oh, we're for peace. We're for peace. Well, now that they're all in charge, we don't have peace. We have more war than we've ever had. And the more we have just the drug use and the drunkenness and the pornography and the fornication, the homosexuality, the Hollywood, all the garbage, it's just going to get more violent. Period. God said that in the days before the flood, the earth was filled with violence because the thoughts of the imaginations of the heart of man was only on evil continually. That's why you had violence, because of the wicked single heart of man. And when you teach people that there's no God, when you teach people that we came from an animal and that we basically are an animal, and that's what kids are learning today in the public school, when you teach them that they are an evolved animal instead of what the Bible says that we're created in the image of God, when you teach them that they're a beast, then they're going to act like a beast. And beasts are violent. They kill each other in the wild. And I'm going to tell you something. We will never have peace and prosperity in our country until we have purity and righteousness, because first comes purity, then comes peace. America says, oh, we want peace, but we want to be dirty, filthy hippies. You'll never have peace like that, my friend. You'll never have it. Oh, I want to be a dirty, pot-smoking, fornicating, homosexual hippie. You are not going to have peace. You're bringing the curse of God in our whole country. We're going to be fighting wars until doomsday, and that's what's happening. Continual warfare. Continual dying and bloodshed. And eventually it's probably going to come to the streets of America, because what's our man Soweth that shall he also reap? We sow all this killing and destruction, and eventually it's going to come back here and kill us. So what's the answer? If my people, which are called by my name, shall pray and humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their life. So walk out of here today and say, you know what? I want to be a peaceful person. I love peace. I'm going to stand for peace. But more importantly, I'm going to stand for purity, because I know that's what brings peace. More importantly, I'm going to stand for righteousness, because I know that when you do what's right, you don't end up getting in these fights that are all based on lust and covetousness, because the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy, because the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God, but blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Father, please just help us, dear God, to have peace in our lives. I beg of you, dear God, that I and my family will be able to live a quiet and peaceful life. I pray that no one would ever break into my house, dear God. I pray that no one would ever bring false doctrine into our church, dear God, I pray that no one would ever physically assault my house or my country or my city or my state, dear God. I pray that I could just live a life of peace. I hope that I never have to draw the sword or have a sword drawn on me, dear God. I beg of you to let me live in peace. And I beg of you to let every single person in our church live in peace. But Father, help us to be pure and righteous first. And Father, help us never to put peace at the expense of purity and righteousness, but to always first seek to be pure and godly and righteous first. Peace second. We love you and thank you so much for dying on the cross for us so that we can have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we praise you and thank you for everything you do for us. Give us a great year and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.