(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome back to our services here at Faithful Word Baptist Church. So nice to see you all here for our Sunday night service. Find your seats now. Take a song book and go to hymn number 432. We'll get started tonight. Hymn number 432. Angels from the realms of glory. Hymn number 432. Once you've found your place, let's begin together. Right on that first verse. 432. Angels from the realms of glory, bring your flight o'er all the earth. Number 432. Sing it out now. Angels from the realms of glory, bring your flight o'er all the earth. Hymn say, creation story, now proclaim the science birth. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn king. Come and worship, worship Christ the newborn king. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn king. Shepherds in the field of fighting, watching o'er your flocks by night. Godly men is now exciting, yonder shines the infant's light. Come and worship, come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn king. Saints, leave your contemplation. Brighter visions leave afar. Seek the great desire of nations. Seek and seek his little star. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn king. Saints, before the altar bending, watching long in hope and fear. Suddenly the Lord descending in his temple shall appear. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn king. Come and worship, come and worship, come and worship, come and worship, come and worship, 4-2-0, there's a song in the air, there's a star in the sky. 420, sing it out together now. There's a song in the air, there's a star in the sky. There's a mother's beware, and the babies will cry. And the star is inspired while the children sing. For the danger of Bethlehem, pray, O son, hear. There's a new voice of joy for the wonderful birth. For the virgin sweet woman is the Lord of the earth. And the star is inspired while the beautiful sing. For the danger of Bethlehem, pray, O son, hear. In the light of that song by the ages in turn. And the storm from afar has stepped over the world. Every earth is a flame, and the beautiful sing. In the homes of the nations that Jesus built. We rejoice in the light, and we echo the song. That comes down through the night from the heavenly dawn. I reach out to the lovely eventual they bring. And we greet in this parade, O our Savior and King. This time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we will be in 2 Chronicles, chapter number 31. We've got the soul-winning times listed there below, as well as salvation and baptisms. The online soul-winning marathon was a huge success. And what this is, is where they go on this website called OME TV. And they do video chats with people. And they just kind of crank through people that aren't interested. And so it's really just like soul-winning at the door in the sense that you're one-on-one, you're face-to-face, you're talking to people. And so forth. And so they end up, they had six soul-winners that participated. And in four hours of this event they had 26 people saved. Because they're able to just kind of crank through and get to the people that are interested. And so it's pretty cool how the technology has opened new doors for reaching people with the gospel in our modern time. And so it's exciting to see people being creative and finding ways to leverage those things for getting the gospel out. Below that we've got the note about the expectant ladies. Just pray for them that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. So there's the prayer list right there for that. And then on the back we've got the thank you to everyone who came to the cookies and caroling on Tuesday. We've got a wedding coming up on January 18th. We don't have the exact time yet. But it's going to be Saturday, January 18th at some point during that day. At the church building right here. Everybody's invited. So don't be shy about coming. You say, well I don't even know who that is. Well that's even more reason you need to show up and figure out who these people even are. And so it's a good time of fellowship. There's cake, punch, and so forth. So that is coming up. Oh yeah, and we're also on January 22nd Wednesday night. We're going to have Pastor Aaron Thompson preaching at our church. So that's on a Wednesday night, January 22nd. So you can make a point to be there for that. I just had a chance to preach on Friday night at the church in Spokane there. And then of course we've got the big King James conference coming up in Vancouver, Washington. Not Vancouver, British Columbia, but Vancouver, Washington. Right outside Portland, Oregon. That's coming up in the month of May. So people who are looking for a conference to go to and they're lamenting the fact that there's no Red Hot Preaching conference in 2025. Don't worry about it because we've got the King James conference and Portland, Oregon is a really cool area. Pacific Northwest is beautiful. I mean look, Arizona is the best. I get it. I'm there. I believe it. You don't have to convince me that Arizona is superior, but it is still one of my favorite parts of the US. You know, besides Arizona is the Pacific Northwest. It's a lot of natural beauty up there. Very nice. It's a great place to visit. And so I'm excited about that coming in May. All right. I think that's about it for announcements. Let's go and count up the soul winning for the past few days. So going back to Thursday. Anything from Thursday? OK. Gotcha. Gotcha. OK. Anything else from Thursday? How about Friday? OK. OK. All right. And then what about. OK. Saturday, of course, we had the 26 from the online deal. And then how about outside of that event? Anything else from Saturday outside of that? OK. And then how about today? Sunday? All right. But Scott. OK. Got it. And then. OK. The other groups from today. Gotcha. OK. Got it. OK. All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us. All right. All right. You should find the insert in front of your hymnal with two songs. We'll start with Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel. Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel. And ransom down give Israel. That mourns in lonely Elohim until the Son of God appear. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel. Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, thou rod of Jesse, free. High home from Satan's fear and need. From death, somehow thy evil say. And give them victory o'er the plain. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel. Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, thou dazed spring, come and cheer. Our spirit by thine advent year. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night. And as dark shadows pull to flight. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel. Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, thou key of David come. And open wide our heavenly home. May safe the way that leads on high. And close the path to misery. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel. Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, oh come, thou Lord of might. Move to thy sides on side by side. In ancient times forgive the wrong. In cloud and majesty and law. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel. Shall come to thee, O Israel. O holy night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth. Long lay the world, in sin and ever-finding. There'll be a year, and the soul found its worth. A trail of hope, the weary world rejoices. For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices. O night divine, O night when Christ was born. O night, O holy night, O night divine. Led by the light of days, the ring beaming. With glowing hearts, by his cradle he stands. Over the world, a star is streaming gleaming. Out comes the wise and the glorious land. The King of Kings laid us in lowly danger. In all our trials, born to be our friend. In crowns are we, our weakness is no stranger. Behold your King. Behold your King. Behold your King. Truly he taught us love for one another. His law is love, and his wrath's full is peace. Shame shall we pray. The slave is our brother. And in his name, all oppression shall cease. Sweet hands of joy, in grateful chorus raise we. With all our hearts, we praise his holy name. Christ is the Lord. Oh praise his name forever. His power and glory evermore proclaim. His power and glory evermore proclaim. His power and glory evermore proclaim. Alright, this time we'll pass the offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Leviticus, chapter number 14. The third book in the Bible is Leviticus, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, chapter number 14. As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Alex Larson as he reads Leviticus 14, beginning in verse number 1. Leviticus chapter 14, the Bible reads, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought unto the priest, and the priest shall go forth out of the camp, and the priest shall look, and behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper. Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedarwood, and scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedarwood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field. And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water that he may be clean. And after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days. But it shall be on the seventh day that he shall shave all his hair off his head, and his beard, and his eyebrows. Even all his hair he shall shave off, and he shall wash his clothes. Also he shall wash his flesh and water, and he shall be clean. And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one you lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering mingled with oil, and one log of oil. And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And the priest shall take one he lamb, and offer him for a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and weigh them for a wave offering before the Lord. And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and the holy place. For as the sin offering is the priest's, so is the trespass offering. It is most holy. And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering. And the remnant of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord. And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness, and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. And the priest shall offer the burnt offering, and the meat offering upon the altar, and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean. if he be poor and cannot get so much then he shall take one lamb for a trespass offering to be waved to make an Atonement for him and one tenth deal of fine flour mingle with oil for a meat offering at a log of oil and two turtle doves or two young pigeons such as he is able to get and the one shall be a sin offering and the other a burn offering and he shall bring Them on the eighth day for his cleansing unto the priest under the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord and the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering and the log of oil and the priest shall waive them for a wave offering before the Lord and he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and Put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is be cleansed and upon the thumb of his right hand and upon the great toe of his right foot and the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand and the Priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord and the priest Shall put of the oil that is in his hand Upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed and upon the thumb of his right hand and upon the great Toe of his right foot upon the place of the blood of the trespass offering and the rest of the oil that is in the priest's Hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed to make an atonement for him before the Lord And he shall offer the one of the turtle doves or of the young pigeons such as he can get Even such as he is able to get the one for a sin offering and the other for a burn offering With the meat offering and the priest shall make an atonement for him that is be cleansed before the Lord This is the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy whose hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing and the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron saying when you be come into the land of Canaan which I give to you for a possession and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession and He that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest saying it seemeth to me There is as it were a plague in the house Then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priests go in to see the plague That all that is in the house be not made unclean and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house And he shall look on the plague and behold if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes greenish or reddish Which in sight are lower than the wall and the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut Up the house seven days and the priest shall come again the seventh day and shall look and behold if the plague be spread in the walls of the house Then the priest shall command that they take away the stone that which the plague is and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city and he shall cause the house to be scraped within roundabout and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place and They shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones and he shall take other mortar and shall plaster the house And if the plague come again and break out in the house after that he hath taken away the stones and after he hath scraped The house and after it is plastered then the priest shall come and look and behold if the plague be spread in the house It is a fretting leprosy in the house It is unclean and he shall break down the house the stones of it and the timber thereof and all the mortar of the house And he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place Wherever he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even and he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes and If the priest shall come in and look upon it and behold the plague hath not spread in the house after the house was plastered Then the priest shall pronounce the house clean because the plague is healed and he shall take to cleanse the house two birds And cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop and he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water and he Shall take the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet and the living bird and dip them in the blood of the slain bird And in the running water and sprinkle the house seven times and he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the running water and with the living bird and with the Cedar wood and with the hyssop and with the scarlet and he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open Fields and make an atonement for the house and it shall be clean this is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy and skull and for the leprosy of a garment and of a house and For a rising and for a scab and for a bright spot to teach when it is unclean and when it is clean This is the law of leprosy Father in heaven, we thank you for Lord Savior Jesus Christ. We thank you for pastor Anderson We thank you for faithful word Baptist Church Lord We ask you to bless pastor Anna sermon fill in with your Holy Spirit and bless every aspect of his sermon Let it pertain to our life today. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen Man, the title my sermon this evening is fretting leprosy in the house fretting Leprosy in the house now the word fret We typically when we think of the word fret We think of like worrying or stressing or being upset about something and the Bible does use the word fret that way in Several places this is a different meaning of the word fret if you look it up in the dictionary dictionary Dictionary definition number one is the one I just mentioned but number two is to cause corrosion To gnaw into something number three to make away by gnawing corrosion wearing away etc Definition number four to become eaten worn or corroded, right? So when we talk about a fretting leprosy, we're talking about corruption corrosion plague Something that spreads and eats away and destroys and makes something rotten. It makes something worthless and Unusable now throughout the Bible this word leprosy is used to discuss various diseases and plagues It could be a skin disorder or it could even be Rot and corruption in a piece of clothing or as we see in the passage tonight Even in the walls of a house and if we were to try to think of a modern Analog of this we could think of having mold in your house, right? sometimes people have found black mold to be in the walls of their house and it's very Bad because it's something that spreads it makes the house unlivable It can cause people to be very sick and it causes all kinds of horrible problems And so it's kind of a big deal when you find mold in your house You have to get rid of it and you have to go through all of these steps to get rid of those hazardous Materials and that's what we see even thousands of years ago There's nothing new under the Sun Rot and corruption being in the walls of a house how to make sure it's clean how to get rid of the corruption Before it just spreads and destroys the entire house So in tonight's sermon we're gonna think about not a physical house that we live in But we're gonna make a spiritual application about the house of God, right? Because there could be a fretting leprosy that could enter into the house of God, right? There could be a fretting leprosy that could enter into our church And so I want to show you some places where the Bible uses this analogy go if you would to 2nd Timothy chapter 2 Verse 15 in the New Testament 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 because first of all, I want to tell you that heresy meaning serious false doctrine is A fretting leprosy that will contaminate the house of God right false teaching Heresy is like a fretting leprosy that will contaminate the house of God. I'm going to show you that in the Bible Look at 2nd Timothy 2 15 It says study and he's talking to Timothy who is also a preacher. This is one of the Pastoral epistles because you know Timothy is his young protege in the ministry and he's telling this pastor or this preacher Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly Dividing the word of truth So if Timothy does the proper study and don't let bozos come along and tell you that this doesn't really mean study Yes, it does. The Greek word means study. The English word means study is talking about studying Okay, and that's why it then talks about rightly dividing the word of truth And so if the man of God studies, he's going to be able to rightly Handle the Bible he's going to be able to divide between that which is literal that which is symbolic that which is Prophetic that which is historical on and on and so he's going to be able to preach good doctrine Because of having done the requisite study, but then it says in verse 16, but shun profane and vain Babblings for they will increase Under more ungodliness. So you've got on one hand a right man of God Timothy who's studying the Bible He knows the Bible. He's got the Spirit of God and he's teaching good doctrine He's rightly dividing the word of truth. Then you've got bozos coming along with a bunch of profane and vain Babblings just a bunch of blah blah stupid teachings and stupid doctrines The Bible says that those bad doctrines those babblings or stupid things or or false teachings Profane babblings. They need to be shunned now. What does shun mean? It means to avoid them Shut them out, right? Shun them why Why is it a big deal? Why don't we entertain them? Why don't we just allow them to flourish and and and the church and just kind of have the church be a free-for-all where everyone's ideas are welcome and and All doctrines are respected and all teachings are allowed to be thrown out there because it says their word first of all it says they will increase under more ungodliness and Their word will eat as doth a canker of whom is hymenaeus and Philetus and even names the names of Some false teachers and says these are the kind of guys that you need to get rid of because they're vain Babblings their false teachings will increase ungodliness and they will spread like a cancer Okay, because if you look at the word canker, this is actually from the same Lexical route from which we would get our word cancer Okay, the C and the K have swapped out this is where the word cancer was invented from this word right here The older word we still use this word right talk about like a canker sore or something We still have this word in our vernacular a little bit Okay, but these things will eat like a cancer. They'll eat like a canker like gangrene They will spread like a fretting leprosy if they're not dealt with Okay, and so we need to profane we need to shun those profane and vain babblings now When we talk about this we're not talking about just little minor differences of opinion and we're not talking about Side doctrines that don't really matter peripheral things that aren't super important we're talking about Essentials we're talking about Important doctrines. Okay, so we don't want to just label every little difference of opinion as heresy We have an example here given of what the false teaching of Hymenaeus and Philetus was that was so serious that Paul says you got to shun this you got to get rid of this stuff because it's gonna spread and corrupt the body Here's what they had wrong verse 18 who concerning the truth have erred Saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some So the serious false doctrine here Is that the resurrection has passed already and this was overthrowing the faith of some meaning some people are getting sucked into this Stupid doctrine and it's spreading and it needs to be nipped in the bud Okay. Now what does this mean that the resurrection is past already? You could look at this a few different ways But any way you look at it, it's bad So on the one hand you could say the resurrections past already Meaning that there was already some bodily resurrection in the past But that there's nothing still coming in the future if the resurrections past already then you know what that sounds like to me Sounds like to me that there's no life after death. It sounds like to me we die. We're in the grave We're done and that's it because the resurrection is past already. That's a pretty serious heresy You know, and of course The Apostle Paul deals with this with the church of Corinth in chapter 15 He says how in the world do you have people in your church and I'm paraphrasing, you know teaching that there's no resurrection Look, there's no resurrection. I guess Christ didn't raise from the dead then I guess our whole religion is vain What's the point of anything and he rebukes that doctrine hard of saying that there's no coming resurrection And he makes it clear that there's going to be a second coming of Christ There's going to be a resurrection of the dead the dead in Christ will rise first the Trump will sound etc He teaches that throughout his epistles Another way that you could look at this heresy of well, you know The resurrections past already is that maybe they're interpreting this as some kind of a figurative Resurrection like well, well the resurrection already happened the moment you got saved Because when you got saved your spirit was resurrected, which is true Your spirit is resurrected but to say the resurrection is past already any way you slice It is saying that the resurrection is not still coming and that's a big problem. That's heresy You see look there are different people have different views on end times and it's pretty hard to find any two people Any two preachers for that matter that are gonna have the exact same views on end times Bible prophecy. It's a big subject It's a difficult subject It's a complicated subject and so we should have grace with people who have a different understanding of end times events or their sequence or their Interpretation because it's a little bit of a challenging subject, you know, of course But there's still a certain Essential component that we all must believe in and that is the second coming of Christ in general Right, I mean if someone says that there's no second coming of Christ that is Heresy that is just to completely fly in the face of the clear teaching of Scripture So somebody might believe in a preacher rapture a post-trip rapture, you know different views on these things and it's not Necessarily a deal-breaker but saying that there's no resurrection coming in the future according to the Apostle Paul is a deal-breaker Saying that there's no resurrection no heaven and hell no afterlife no bodily resurrection for the saved No second coming of Jesus Christ. I mean that's heresy You know You must believe in the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the just and of the unjust Those are essentials of the faith people might have different little details Wrong, but they're heretics if they deny the second coming or the coming resurrection And so he says, you know that kind of serious heresy must be dealt with because it will eat like a canker Nevertheless verse 19 the foundation of God stand is sure having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his and Let everyone that name at the name of Christ depart from iniquity, but in a great house There are not only vessels of gold and of silver But also of wooden of earth and some to honor and some to dishonor Here's the thing if you have a tiny church Then it's possible that you don't necessarily have a bunch of heretics creeping in or false teaching in the church or anything like that But if you you know in a great house and great there's talking about size If you have a big church with a lot of people There are gonna be some vessels of gold and silver in that church and they're gonna be some vessels of wooden of earth There's gonna be some vessels unto honor and some vessels unto dishonor and the Bible says if a man therefore Purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor Sanctified and meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work And so there are some certain people that have to be purged Right. There are some people that need to be shunned because they are heretics They are false teachers teaching damnable heresy denying the fundamentals of the faith And again, we're not talking about their views on Israel or end times or minor issues or just you know different small things we're talking about the big fundamentals of the faith and So it's clear here that those things need to be dealt with Galatians Also talks about the same thing if you want to quickly flip over to Galatians chapter 5 Galatians chapter 5 I got a hurry here, but Galatians chapter 5 The context here is that the entire book of Galatians is really dealing with the Judaizers that had come into the churches of Galatia and are corrupting the church with that and Some of the problems are of course works-based salvation That's of course a horrible problem other things like Judaizing in the sense of expecting people to be circumcised or to keep Jewish holidays or to keep Jewish dietary laws and things like that and the Apostle Paul deals with all those things in the book of Galatians Galatians is a Seventh-day Adventist worst nightmare It's the Hebrew roots movements first nightmare of a book and so it says in Galatians chapter 5 verse 4 Christ has become of no effect unto you Whosoever of you are justified by the law you're following from grace Well newsflash if Christ is of no effect unto you It sounds like you're not saved because if you think you're justified by the law, you're not saved Okay, so the Bible says we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, right? We don't have our righteousness by the law by the deeds that we do Following God's laws, you know thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not covet It's not by following the rules that we go to heaven It's by believing in Jesus that we go to heaven and he says for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision But faith which worketh by love ye did run well Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you and then here's the key a little leaven leaven at the whole lump and so sort of like our fretting leprosy back in Leviticus 14 or our canker in 2nd Timothy we have this idea of leaven which is something that is an organism that Spreads and it corrupts everywhere it goes Galatians 511 if you just look down two more verses it says I brethren if I yet preach circumcision Why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offense of the cross ceased so look the teaching of works based salvation or Judaizing type teachings trying to bring us under these kind of ceremonial laws of the Old Testament telling us to get circumcised And follow dietary restrictions and and hock phlegm hakala gondola, you know Shabbat shalom kind of stuff You know that kind of stuff is Heresy That's the kind of stuff. That's serious heresy like whoa we got to put a stop to that Okay, saying that the resurrection is passed already. That's serious works based salvation. That's serious. Okay Judaizing that's serious So That is a fretting leprosy in the house of God But number two not only is heresy a fretting leprosy in the house of God grievous sin go over to 1st Corinthians chapter 5 you would Quickly, I'm not gonna spend too much time here because it's such a familiar passage that we talk about a lot but grievous sin is also a fretting leprosy that contaminates the house of God and in this passage the specific sin in question is Fornication now, here's the problem with fornication in the church the colossal problem is that everybody knows about it and Therefore it becomes normalized and this causes it to spread. Okay, that's why it says in verse 1 it is what? reported commonly look everybody knows that these people are living in fornication and when they're members in good standing What message does that send to the congregation? Hey, this is just another way to live your life You know these people over here are married, but you know what? Hey these people they just live together and they're not married and you know Everybody just kind of turns a blind eye and so this is going on There's fornication going on in the church And so he says in verse 6 your glorying is not good Know ye not that a little leaven leaven at the whole lump right that organism That yeast that leaven you can just put a little bit in and it will spread forever Literally, it'll just keep multiplying and growing That's why you can have that starter sourdough and you can just keep feeding that starter and you can be eating that sourdough 50 years from now, you know and just keep that same culture going you could theoretically do that I'm not recommending it but that is what you theoretically could do. Okay, because it'll just keep going It'll just keep spreading and keep going and so it's like that fretting leprosy or that canker in that sense And so the Bible says that a person who is living in fornication in the church must be cast out of the congregation We should not eat with them we should put away from ourselves that wicked person says in verse 5 to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the Flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Of course down at the bottom It says in verse 13 and the latter part therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person Because you don't want that to spread right because look we live in a society where in many cases fornication is considered Okay Among a lot of people and we don't want the church to have that culture Now look nobody's expecting anyone to be perfect Right where we've all seen and come short of the glory of God There's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not I am not sinless No one in this church is sinless. We all are a work in progress but there's a difference between saying well, I'm not perfect and living in fornication You see you can be not perfect and not be an alcoholic Right because there are certain major sins that the Bible brings up in 1st Corinthians 5 one of them is fornication Another one is drunkenness Another one's idolatry. Look. Yeah, we're all sinners, but we're not all idolaters We're not all drunkards. We're not all fornicators. We're not all railers We're not all extortioners, right? And so we don't want to hide behind this thing of well, we're all sinners therefore anything goes Yeah, that's true. We are all sinners, but there still has to be some basic standard To make sure that the house of God doesn't become totally corrupt Okay, and so yeah, nothing's ever gonna be perfect but certain things must be shunned so number one Heresy is a fretting leprosy number two grievous sin is a fretting leprosy Now let's go back to Leviticus 14 with this in mind. This is just that was kind of a foundation now Let's get into the actual text that we're looking at tonight Leviticus chapter 14 about the fretting leprosy in the house because my third point is this the man of God Must be on the lookout For Serious heresy and grievous sin in the congregation, right? It's part of the job to kind of protect the flock from these things and kind of be on the lookout For these things and so the Bible says in chapter 14 verse 35 Leviticus he that owneth the house Shall come and tell the priest Saying it seemeth to me There is as it were a plague in the house now Here's the thing the common man here is not necessarily an expert on Leprosy in the wall of the house So he's bringing in an expert the priest is a guy who deals with this all the time Why because when you have this in your house you call the priest so this isn't the first time he's dealt with it It's not gonna be the last time he's dealt with it. He is a specialist. He is a pro It'd be just like if I thought that I had mold in my house, you know I'd probably bring in some kind of a contractor that's gonna come look at it and tell me What it is what we need to do to get it fixed and there are companies that do this right these kind of mold remediation type companies and and companies that fix water damage and things like that and So in this case the priest in the Old Testament is the specialist Who is better at kind of identifying? Okay, this is harmless and This is something serious that needs to be dealt with right so the person who calls him says well it's seemeth to me There is as it were a plague in the house Like hey, it seems like it to me But I don't know because I'm not necessarily the expert you need to come and take a look at this, right? So he brings the priest in so then the priest follows a certain protocol and the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priests go into it to see the plague that all that is in the house be not made unclean and Afterward the priest shall go in to see the house And he shall look on the plague and behold if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes Greenish or reddish which in sight are lower than the wall Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days and the priest Shall come again the seventh day and shall look and behold if the plague be spread in the walls of the house Yada yada yada so the idea here is either the plague is spreading or it's not Either it's greenish and reddish in color or it's not either It's sunken in or it's not these are the signs that you're dealing with something really bad malignant Dangerous versus just something harmless. You know every discoloration on the wall may not necessarily be This horrible mold problem or leprosy or or fungus or whatever the problem is okay? It may some things are harmless They're not a big deal And so I think the application we could draw from this is that you know not every false doctrine or sin That we come across in the church is necessarily a problem that needs to be addressed Right because there could be some wrong ideas or wrong doctrines that people have that are just kind of harmless like I said They're not really essentials. They're not a big deal They're just kind of side issues or matters of opinion, and they're just not necessarily a big deal Obviously every sin does not need to be addressed by the church otherwise we would just be addressing sin all day every day all day long because nobody's perfect and So if we were addressing every little sin, then that's all we'd have time for It is just dealing with everybody sins. That's not what we're doing okay, and So there are going to be times when people will come to the pastor I've had people come to me and say hey You know if someone in the church is doing so and so the sin is that something you need to know about and? Sometimes if it's something minor. I'll just say no I'm not worried about that. That's none of my business. That's not a big deal. Let's not worry about that Let's mind our own business on that right, but if somebody comes to me And they bring an issue where someone's involved in these grievous sins like they're living in fornication Or they're a drunkard or they're on drugs or something right then we might need to invoke some of these Bible passages about Disciplining people you know as far as kicking them out of the church and so forth and so there's got to be some discretion here right about whether This problem is even a big enough problem to even need to be addressed You know and so that's what the priest is looking at he's looking at it and saying okay, is it greenish or reddish? Because if it's not it's probably not a big deal is it sunken in the wall cuz if not no big deal And then even if it is he says that he goes out of the house and Locks it up for seven days and then comes back seven days later to see if it's spread at all Right so maybe he puts a little chalk mark or something okay? This is where it stopped and then he comes back and sees if it went further than that and then he can tell is it Spreading okay, because these are the things that we're worried about as Pastors right we don't want a bunch of heresy spreading throughout the church because here's the thing Maybe there's someone who believes a false doctrine, but they're not spreading it at all right sometimes those people might just need a little time to learn and Grow right we can't just expect everybody to just walk in here and just know everything about the Bible and know all the doctrine that You spent years learning right you spent years learning all this stuff, and then somebody walks in and gets something wrong You don't want to just freak out and just think oh man this person is a heretic This and start telling people off right because it could be that this person is just Wrong, but that they just haven't learned they haven't been taught and so here's the thing if somebody believes something That's wrong even if let's say somebody's not saved let somebody says somebody comes in and believes in work salvation Let's say somebody walks through the door, and we ask them about salvation, and they're wrong on salvation It's all I get out of here you heretic No because here's the thing about that is that our goal is to get them saved So somebody comes in here, and they're wrong on salvation That's okay, because then we will preach the gospel to them And they may not get saved the first time they hear it they may need to hear it a few times They may need to come back a few times So here's the thing you got to be able to tell the difference between the person that believes a false doctrine or believes a heretical doctrine and the person who is teaching and spreading heresy I mean think about what if you Let's say it's Christmas or Easter or something like that Or it's your birthday or something and and and you want to bring your unsaved family member to church and let's say your unsaved family member is some kind of Roman Catholic or Charismatic or what you know whatever Seventh-day Adventist or what you know Is it like well you can't bring them because they're a heretic well the thing is you know we would want to bring them so that they could hear the gospel so they could hear the truth right and You might even bring them a second a third a fourth time I mean we've had people in our church who brought unsaved family members to services repeatedly They might bring them a few times a year They might bring them three four services in a row, and we're not just gonna say why is this Catholic coming to our church? It's a Baptist Church That'd be a ridiculous way to respond wouldn't it, but what if we had someone coming into the church? And they're handing out pamphlets about how we need to be worshiping Mary And how Mary never sinned that we need to be praying to Mary and everything There's a difference between somebody coming into the church to spread heresy. That's the fretting leprosy Right that's where it's it's spreading. It's not just one person has a wrong doctrine Well, you know poor guy. God bless him Let's see if we can recover this guy out of the snare of the devil here this person's deceived Let's see if we can get this person saved. Let's help this person out So do you see the difference between someone who is just? Wrong, but sincerely wrong versus the false teacher coming in and spreading heresy Going around and trying to Judaizer look we could have some Judy Judaized guy come in and He comes in and he's all Judaized and hopefully through the preaching of God's Word We can get him past that and crack open the book of Galatians and show him the error of his ways But the Judaizer who comes in and tries to Judaize us There's the door because we don't want that fretting leprosy in the house Everybody see the difference so we want to make sure that we're not just paranoid and Just have this atmosphere of just kind of suspecting everyone and just everything, you know There's leprosy in that wall that walls got leprosy. There's leprosy, you know, we don't want to just start seeing leprosy everywhere. We look Right and sometimes the man of God can sometimes have Experience in these things to be able to kind of calm people down and say hey relax This this person is not a threat this doctrines not a threat. This isn't a big deal Let's cool it because we don't want to be just on a hair trigger to just tell people off throw people out of the church be rude to people right want to be kind and loving and Reach out to people and try to meet people where they're at but at the same time there are grievous wolves that come in and There are false teachers that come in and we also have to protect the flock So you see there's a balance between these two ideas and that's why we need to look and say, okay First of all, is it even serious? Is it even greenish or reddish? Is it even sunken into the wall? and then secondly if it is well is this person even spreading it or is this just someone that hopefully We can work on and reach and correct Let's give them some time. Let's give them seven days, you know Let's give them a chance to learn and get right and not worry too much about it So not all false doctrine needs to be Addressed some doctrines are non-essential doctrines They're not the greenish and reddish type of heresy that we're worried about and some of them aren't spreading And so we're just you know We're just bringing people in and trying to reach them and so forth obviously most of our reaching people takes place out there But again, there's nothing wrong with bringing an unsaved person to church and and and hoping that they'll get saved But you know also some sins are not of the variety that gets you kicked out of church as we already mentioned You know, we're only talking about really serious stuff like drunkenness fornication Extortion that's the kind of stuff that we're that we're worried about okay, and so some people are holier-than-thou and They're just kind of expecting everyone to be perfect and they're just kind of going around Criticizing people for things that aren't even mentioned in the Bible or something just kind of their little pet issues or pet doctrines their little hobby horse that they are obsessed with and you'll have and look I've talked to my pastor friends and heard About situations where somebody will just get like a pet doctrine in their mind and maybe it's even something that they're right about but then they'll just go around and make sure that everybody in the church agrees with them on their little minor doctrine and Whoever doesn't they're just declaring them a heretic and this person's a reprobate and everybody's a reprobate and whatever, you know So we got to be careful of that mentality The the word Bishop literally means overseer Okay, and so, you know it's that's part of the job of the pastor is to kind of look for dangerous things and and Watch out for the wolves and you don't have to turn there You can stay in Leviticus 14 But in Acts chapter 20 the Bible says take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the witch The Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the Church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood So that the overseer or the bishop his job is to Basically Feed the flock right? So feeding them with knowledge feeding them with doctrine So the Bible preaching is is teaching you truth from error. That's gonna go a long way to protecting us from these cancers From false doctrine or sinful lifestyles Bible preaching is gonna go a long way to protect us from that, right? But then he says this for I know this that after my departing Paul says Shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock So he's saying look I know that they're gonna be these evil grievous wolves that come in also of your own selves shall menorize Speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears And so the Apostle Paul saying look they're gonna be bad people who creep in and then even people among us will rise up and start teaching a bunch of twisted doctrine in order to just kind of get their own little following or get Disciples to draw away after them leave the church and take a bunch of people with them or whatever have their little group So the bishop is supposed to be watching out for this and guarding against this Okay, he's kind of checking out the possible leprosy's in the wall and seeing what needs to be dealt with and what doesn't So back in Leviticus 14 verse 40, it says this then the priest So if it has spread if it is spreading if it is the bad kind it says in verse 40 then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is and They shall cast them into an unclean place without the city And so this removing of the stones that have the leprosy in them would be removing the people that are contaminating the flock So the person who's living in open unrepentant fornication or drunkenness, right you get rid of that person We throw them out of the church. That's what first Corinthians 5 said we shun them. We avoid them We cast them out we get rid of the heretics people that are spreading false doctrine or people that are living in grievous sin We got to get rid of them Okay Why we're trying to save the house because what you're gonna see in a few verses here is that if we don't do this, right? We could lose the whole house. The whole house can be destroyed So it's actually an act of mercy on the rest of the house to get rid of a few bricks That's been like oh, I just really like those bricks. I really like that wall That's something that's kind of my favorite part of the wall and we just you just can't bear to see it go Well, you want to lose the whole house? You want the whole house to be? Freted with leprosy you've got to cut out the cancer Right and look we've possibly known people in our lives who had cancer and they had to have parts of their body amputated To get rid of the gangrene to get rid of the cancer now look nobody wants to get their foot chopped off No woman wants to have her breasts chopped off right and except maybe Angelina Jolie But like no, no, nobody wants to have their hand chopped off or to lose fingers or or body parts like that But here's the thing if I were told hey you have cancer in your finger I'd say chop off this hand Because I don't want the whole body to die Just to try to save some finger I'd rather lose the whole hand if I have to lose an arm in order to keep the body alive. I'll do it We don't want to lose a finger. We don't want to lose him and we're not saying that hands don't matter We're not saying that the hand isn't important look the Bible teaches that every part of the body is important Okay, I don't want my gallbladder removed. I don't want my tonsils removed right you know I don't want anything chopped off I want to keep everything But if something needs to be chopped off then you got to chop it off my friend right your right hand offends You chop it off and so obviously the hand is important the nose is important the ears bar But if I had cancer or gangrene in one of these areas, and I were told hey we can save your body But we got to cut the cancer out of your body then I'd say yeah Do what you got to do remove what you need to remove everybody understand what we're saying and so it's not that we take Joy in ex communicating people or that we're just looking to drop at the drop of a hat to just Excommunicate people or just cut people out or just get rid of it. We're following the Bible the Bible tells us that this is something that we need to do okay and It needs to be done to save the rest of the house and so you got to take those stones in which the plague is Those people that are contaminating the flock right and we got to cast them out into an unclean place Look at the next verse verse 41, and he shall cause the house to be scraped Within a roundabout and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place so picture a house That's made of stone Masonry brick right and you've got this stone house Right you could picture whatever kind of masonry bricks or whatever Okay, you've got the blocks where you can see the greenish or reddish where you can see the indentation And you know that the plague is in those bricks those bricks have to go get them out. They're gone. They are the problem But then even after those bricks are gone. You know what you're wondering though. Wait a minute hold on a second what if these bricks have already contaminated some of these other good bricks and We just can't see it yet. It's just a microscopic Microscopic infection right because just because we remove the offending bricks. Does that really mean that we got it all Have you ever known someone where they had surgery to remove the cancer and they said we got it all and then six months later Ah, we didn't get it all That's the thing and so therefore there's a danger that you think you got it all out, but you didn't get it all out So therefore the next step is after we remove the offending stones We must scrape the entire inside of the house. So, you know I'm not saying that this is you know Accurate from a construction point of view of you know, how ancient houses were built or something like that But we know that we're talking about houses that are built of stone. We know that so, you know, I'm just in my mind I'm just picturing like a sin like a cinder block type of a construction, right? because I lived in a house before my current house that was from like the 1950s here in Arizona and probably many of you also live in a house that's from that 1950s 60s 70s era and You know It has the stones of the house and you could really picture kind of like scraping The outer layer of those stones and creating a dust as a result of just kind of just scraping it down and Getting rid of that outer layer that could contain some of the Contagion some of the corruption right and then once you're done scraping the stones You're gonna have all this powder that you've created and then you got to scoop up all that powder and you know I hopefully the these guys are wearing a dust mask While they're doing it and they're gonna scrape it and get all that powder and go put it in an unclean place And so the children of Israel would have certain places outside the city that are like a trash dump. That's a designated This is a dirty place. So we put all our diseased Corrupt junk over there and just you know, you know to stay away from it. You don't live in it Okay, and so here's the idea the scraping of the house Represents how even after we throw someone out for a particular set is that preaching needs to happen on that subject? Okay. So for example, you know many many years ago almost Yeah, I don't know what eight years ago now or nine years ago or something. We had a faction in our church We had some gangrene in our church where this false teacher was denying the Trinity and Teaching like a Jesus only baptism and This is damnable heresy. It's a false doctrine. It's sometimes called modalism It's most famous for you know among the oneness Pentecostals that believe in this Jesus only baptism and that there there is no Trinity that Jesus is God the Father and That basically it's just it's just God is just one person instead of three persons Okay, and I'm not gonna preach the whole sermon on this and maybe when you first hear about this if you're uninitiated When you first hear about this you might just kind of think what's the big deal about that? As long as they believe Jesus is God or something. Nah, man, it's bad you know because I remember when I first heard of this I was a teenager and This guy in the church. He told me about it and we ran into it out soul-ending a few times this Jesus only movement and When I first heard about it when I was a teenager, I was kind of like, oh is that really that bad? But then the guy's like well, here's why it's bad and he explained why it was bad to me And then I was like, oh man that is bad You know and that's why I have preached against it since day one of pastoring this church despite liars and idiots out there I've preached against the Jesus only movement since literally 2006 and this whole oneness idea and This denial of the Trinity right the Trinity is an essential doctrine. It's not a side doctrine It's not having a different view on Israel or something I mean, it's literally believing that Jesus is the Son of God yeah, that's kind of a core doctrine and Modalism oneness this doctrine ends up being a denial that Jesus is the Son of God Basically, and there are a million problems with it that I've already preached about because I did a lot of scraping back when this happened You know because back when this first happened we threw the people out of the church that believed this heresy They were spreading it. They were doing it secretly. They knew I disagreed with it They knew that I was against it and they knew I felt strongly about it because two months before the whole thing blew up I preached a sermon about this this book. That's called the shack It's a radical book and in that book on the shack. I spent like 10 minutes just rebuking this doctrine hard okay, and These guys are all sitting in the congregate and I didn't know that they were teaching this They're sitting in the congregation and I'm just rebuking it hard So they're they're keeping it from me But they're kind of testing people and trying to spread it and they had a faction of this thing so it's funny when when someone first came to me and told me there seemeth to be a fretting plague of leprosy in the house I Remember it like yesterday because I was coming out of the Salvation Army Kroc Center gym because I used to swim laps there Okay, so I just finished swimming laps and my wife was picking me up from the Kroc Center and I came out and When I was first told about this, I was you know I was kind of just hearing about some of this and I just said oh well you know, it sounds like maybe he's just a little mixed up because I'm always trying to have grace with people and And and and give people the benefit of the doubt. So I'm like, I'm like, hey He's probably just using some bad analogies about the Trinity and he sounds like he's just a little mixed up might be a misunderstanding You know, let's work with them and whatever, you know, cuz they're like, hey, you know, look at this plague over here You sure this isn't green and red, you know, and and I was like, yeah, you know I don't think it's a big deal, but then they said well because he's talking about how you know, we need to be baptizing in The name of Jesus only and that's what my alarm bell went off cuz I was like, whoa because he was trying to change the baptismal formula to Baptizing them in name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and that name is Jesus so that like Jesus is the name of God the Father, you know And so that's what I knew because I knew that whole movement of the oneness Pentecostals Started back at the beginning of the early 20th century at the Azusa Street revival and then they had this campground and this guy had this revelation about Jesus only baptism and it split the Pentecostal movement into 75% that stayed with the Trinity and 25% and and that's the modern numbers today 75% are Trinitarian 25% are oneness back then I don't remember the exact split but they had a big meeting and they split over at the tree So whenever I heard that Jesus only baptism, I mean that's the hallmark of oneness Modalism this heresy and so whenever I heard that it was like boom. This is sunken in the wall This is reddish in color and Then it was like then it was like oh this person he spread it to I'm like this thing spreading in the house This is a fretting leprosy. And so what did we do? We took those stones and we cast them out into an unclean place called Jacksonville, Florida And so we cast those we took those stones out of the house and we cast them to an unclean place and Here's the thing about that is that after the stones were removed that wasn't enough It wasn't enough to remove the stones then we had to do some scraping and so Wednesday night I did some scraping with a sermon called oneness Pentecostalism exposed Sunday morning I scraped more Sunday night I scraped more right because we're trying to just scrape the good stones are the good people that are still in the church But we want to make sure that they didn't get that contamination on them so they need to be scraped a little Okay, and you say well, you know pastor it why is it that when you when you throw people out of the church? Then you preach against those people. I'm scraping Why don't you want to scrape the house? I? Just don't think you should preach against people after they get thrown out. Well, look we got a scrape Because and look I'm not saying that necessarily people need to be preached against by name Sometimes they do if they're false prophets and false teachers. They need to be marked and avoided by name But typically these people their names aren't really relevant because they're not actually people that you know Are known or out there that would need to be marked and avoided or something like that It's more like just the doctrine that needs to be dealt with right? So we'll throw someone out and then say hey Here's what the Bible says about this issue and we'll scrape that thing and we got Don't be weary of the scraping Because here's the thing. Yeah, it'd be a lot easier to just remove a couple stones put in some new stones Spackle it up and just go about your life Okay, but you're kind of risking the house Scrape it The scrapings a hassle the scraping takes hard work. The scraping is gonna create a bunch of mess But guess what? We need to scrape Then once we gather up all that dust we get rid of all of it then we can at least have some confidence Okay, we think we got it all and you know I've heard about people who had cancer and they're given a choice Like do you want us to cut off the finger you want to cut the hand you want to cut off the arm? You know, where do you want and it's like you're kind of like well you want to cut off as little as possible But you want to make sure you got it all, you know I would almost probably err on the side of cutting off more, you know If you knew that it was a really bad cancer or something, but I don't know. I've never been in that situation. Thank God But don't be weary of the scraping right the pastor's job When there's a cancer is to get rid of the cancer and then to scrape the inside of the house Okay, the outside isn't getting scraped. It's the inside that's getting scraped It's us that need to get scraped after there's been a cancer But the last thing I want to show you here is that if that doesn't work you have to tear down the entire house Look what the Bible says in verse 42 They shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones And he shall take other mortar and she'll blast us by the way when we throw people out isn't interesting how other people just immediately Come and fill their spot Like I remember when we when we because in that whole debacle eight nine years ago or whatever when we Cast out the the Trinity denying sect it was about 30 people because it was families You know we cast out about 30 people You know it took price six months and and all the stones were replaced and plastered and and it was like the tenants was The same okay, so here's the thing God is able to replace These we shouldn't just be like well. We just need as many bodies in here as we can now You know sometimes you got to remove some stones, and then you just put in new stones We get we're constantly reaching new people Right where it's not like we're just stuck with the same old stones We're not just gonna have a hole in the wall You know we're gonna We're gonna replace We're gonna plaster and if the plague come again and break out in the house After the idea taken away the stones and after he had scraped the house and after it's plastered I mean imagine if we had cast out the non Trinitarians I'm just using this one example we could use other examples, but this is this is probably the easiest best example You know from our own experiences those who've been here a long time Okay, here's the thing is what if we had dealt with this issue? We threw out the heretics We preached all the hard sermons scraped the house of all the oneness modalism And then all of a sudden is just popping up again, and it's just and it's just taking over again And there's just another huge faction of I mean whoa then there'd be really something wrong with that picture be pretty bad, right? So that's what's happening in this house, it's like they've done everything they can they removed the offending stones They scraped the whole house, and then they come back and it's back Okay and The plague is spreading in the house. It's like where they thought they got all the cancer. Oh, it's metastasized now it's everywhere in your body and then it's like You got this much time to live your stage for cancer You're gonna be gone soon right and so it's a fretting leprosy. It's unclean it says in verse 45 Don't miss this he shall break down the house The stones of it and the timber thereof and all the mortar of the house And he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. I mean think about this This is a worst nightmare for a homeowner. Oh, sorry your home's trashed We're gonna tear it down and throw the whole thing in the trash and now you have to start over That'd be here. That'd be terrible Nobody wants this now. Do you see why we're moving a few stones isn't a big deal now Do you see why you should probably put up with a little bit of scraping? After those stones have been removed because this is a worst-case scenario You don't want the whole house to be destroyed and I think that the whole house being destroyed is analogous to what Jesus said in Revelation 2 & 3 where these churches had serious wickedness and he said if you don't fix it I Will remove your candlestick out of his place. What's he basically saying? He's saying look I will tear it down to the ground you know, I will destroy you and so the point is That it's much better To just get rid of the offending stones and scrape the house and follow the protocol Because this is your worst-case scenario right here. You don't want to lose the whole house Okay and then the last thing I want to show you is that Being in a heretical church or a church filled with grievous sin will contaminate you because the Bible says in verse 46 Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even He that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes Look, what's the whole point? Why are we so freaked out about this leprosy in the house? Is it just because we don't like the color? We don't like the greenish reddish color. We don't like the little indentation in the wall I mean, why don't we just hang a picture over it? Why don't we just whitewash it every once in a while and just kind of cover it up Right, and this is what a lot of people want to do, right? Just kind of just let's just cover it up Let's ignore it. Let's pretend it isn't there hang a picture over it paint it That's not the problem is that it's unhealthy. I mean people have mold in their house can develop serious Illnesses it gets in their lungs and they're inhaling spores and everything and it can make them really sick it could even kill people and So you nobody wants to live in a house with mold in it, right? You got to get out of there and even while they're working on it they got to have all this hazmat gear and you got to be out of the house while they're scraping it because you don't want To get contaminated and God's saying look if you're around the stuff, it's unclean. So here's the thing. Don't go to a church that is teaching serious false doctrine and Don't go to a church where serious sin is allowed to abound and have look let's be frank What could be worse than going to a church where open faggots are in the church and just welcome there? What could be worse than a transvestite sitting in the front row But you know what you think you say that's crazy. That would never happen. I can't even count How many times people have told me then their old IFP church and obviously I'm not trying to paint with a broad brush Because every independent Baptist Church is different. That's why they're called independent Baptist churches But I'm telling you King James soul winning type independent Baptist churches and they said I had to quit the church There's a transvestite coming every week. I Mean, I've been told by friends of mine that they had transvestites coming to Sunday school Every week for like a month or two And then finally when it when it tried to go in the wrong bathroom the pastors like that's it Fox News told me I'm not to allow this You know, it's like it's basically like the by the Bible Yeah, doesn't matter but then it's like well Fox News I heard this I heard about this on Sean Hannity You know, you can't use that bathroom And then that's when the pastor put a stop to it was when it went in the wrong bathroom Folks that's not going the wrong bathroom is not the problem being there at all is the problem and So the thing I mean, can you imagine just going to a church where just open sodomites are just welcome And I mean look there was a pastor I forget this guy's name is old guy on YouTube that said, you know That the homosexuals are welcome here. He said we'll roll out the red carpet for him What what like how can you say I'm gonna roll out the red carpet for homos This is this is the world we're living. It's getting weird out there man. It's a jungle out there Okay, you know for all the people who want to glorify the old IFB right now Well, be careful because it's a jungle out there Because you know what? There's a lot of heresy a lot of sin And I'm not talking about stupid views on Israel and in times because those don't really matter in you know Relatively speaking. I mean everything matters. Don't get me wrong. Everything matters. What I'm saying is Relatively speaking. Those are smaller issues then say How about turn from your sins salvation instead of salvation by faith alone? That's kind of a big one that has infected a lot of Independent Baptist churches and you know what if I go into an old Independent fundamental Baptist Church and I go into the church and they're teaching Repent of your sins for salvation. They have guest speakers coming through teaching Hey, if you're not willing to stop sinning, you're not saying you got to get the sin out of your life Or you know, you got to repent of your sins to be saved You got to turn from your sin this kind of turn or burn or oh, you know You're still doing the same sins that you did before you were saved. Well, you're not saved this kind of stupid teaching You know, I'm like this is looking greenish This is reddish This is something why aren't you teaching salvation by faith? By faith alone through grace alone to God alone be the glory not well You know, you're smoking cigarettes and you think you're saying tall Yeah, I do Now I don't smoke and I don't chew and I don't go with girls who do but you know what that has nothing to do With the fact that I'm going to heaven. I don't just for the record. Don't get me wrong. I don't smoke. Okay at all You know, even if smoking weren't to sin I just wouldn't smoke because it's bad for you anyway, because why would why would anyone want to do something? That's bad for your health. I don't understand that. You know, I want to be healthy. I Want why would you want to why don't want to spend money to destroy my health? Yeah, here's $10 give me something that's gonna make me sicker Stupid right But you know what guess what they're gonna be a bunch of people who smoke and go to heaven They're gonna be people who do all manner of sins and go to heaven. Why because Jesus died for all our sins now I'm not condoning a life of sin because whom the Lord loveth he chaseneth and Scourgeth every son whom he receiveth and we don't want to live a life being disciplined by God We want to live a life being blessed by God We don't want to be that kid who just can't stop getting spanked over and over again We want to be the kid who gets the message and straightens up and flies, right? and so these kind of doctrines of Repent of your sins for salvation and you you know You have to be willing to give up your sins and and in order to be saved and stuff instead of just that what Christ did is enough and That you just believe on Christ, but this kind of like self Reformation type of a gospel Okay, it's a fretting leprosy in the house. It's serious Okay, and and sometimes the Judaizing can go over the line, too And I'm not the one who said it you read the book of Galatians and you figure out where the line is but the book of Galatians is pretty clear on some things and so Churches with just open homos Churches where you open fornication is a lot look again I've seen in a Baptist Church where literally Bible studies are being hosted at the home of a man and woman Living together in sin not married two people living together in fornication Bible studies at their house That's a fretting leprosy Here's the problem being in a heretical church or being in a church with grievous sin will contaminate you That's the problem. Okay. That's why this stuff matters. That's why we need to remove the stones That's why we need to scrape the house. We want our church to live we want our church to survive we want our church to be healthy and we want our church to thrive and So if we have to get rid of a few stones in order to save the integrity of the house, so be it It's a small price to pay Because you don't want to lose the whole house And that's why you don't want to be weary of the scraping if there's a if there's a Trinitarian controversy you should expect several hard sermons on the Trinity back-to-back and Sometimes the scraping, you know might take you know, ten sermons Depending on what the issue is don't be weary of it For me right to Say the same things unto you for me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe Sometimes things do need to be repeated and and some eyes some eyes we might need to scrape You know a little deeper sometimes just to make sure that we get it all depending on how bad the leprosy is And so, you know what I've noticed and I'm almost done But you know what? I've noticed throughout my life prideful people because because what was the final point being in the contaminated house? Contaminates you so don't go to a heretical church some churches can't be fixed You Know it's like the Roman Catholic Church It's done. You can't fix it. There's no they can't reform it It's trash and this is why new churches have to keep being started Because the old churches get corrupt and many churches cannot be fixed There are a lot of churches that you just can't fix but you don't have notices that there are these prideful people These prideful church hoppers who think that it is their ministry in life and they will flat-out tell you My ministry is to like fix bad churches Right, you've known people like this They have this they're these prideful people and they think it's their minute. They think they're God's gift to the sucky Church Right and that it's their job to go around and fix bad church. That's a stupid way to live your life Here's a better way to live your life get in the best church in your area You know anybody who's listening this online get in the best church in your area Well, my sucky Church needs me now get in the best church in your area and let the dead bury their dead Because you can't fix stupid and you cannot fix a Messed up Church if it's if it's once it's beyond a certain point. It's just trash at that point Okay, and and by the way, even if the church is not over the line Even if the church is just maybe just in the early stages of problems or just a dead church or something Here's the thing this kind of like bottom-up Reformation doesn't work Reformation of the church has to come from the top down Okay, what do I mean by that? What I mean is if the pastor is not a soul winner if the pastor has bad doctrine You're not gonna fix the church from the bottom You're not gonna come in and straighten out the pastor and straighten out the church or whatever. It's not how it works It's a fool's errand You're much better off Get it. You know what? I didn't make this up. In fact, most of the things I preach I have a confession to make my sermons are filled with stuff that I just took from other people. I Did not invent these things myself. I am not as creative as you think that's my confession to you Okay, because you know what? This is the preaching that I heard 20 some years ago This is what they said don't go to the church that needs you go to the church that you need You know what faith word doesn't need you bye Think about it. There's nobody in this room that could walk out that door and the church would Seriously, like have a hard time functioning I Everybody understand Faithful word doesn't need you now. Faith Ward loves you faith Ward wants you But we don't need you. We love you. We want you. We do not need you. Bye But here's the thing. There are other church right? Oh, I got to go to this church because they really need me Now look One exception to this is I can understand if a church is starting up It was a brand new church starting from scratch and you're like, hey, I'm gonna go help this guy start a church. That's great Amen, you know you want to help someone start a church Someone's starting a church from scratch a good guy started church and you want to help him start up. Amen That's great and he might need you because he's just starting up but I'm saying like these churches that are just they've been around and they're failures and They're flops, but the end boy they could really use you though because your family would just like Transform it would you you're just gonna double their congregation and transform their program and you're gonna breathe you're bringing like more energy than the whole rest of the church combined and You know what prideful people love this because then they could feel like a big fish in a little pot So prideful people they love to come from a church like faithful word Where they're you know in a bigger pond and then they love to go to like some lame church all of a sudden They're just like a superstar Because here's the thing in in our church. You're just kind of like Another awesome person, but there's a lot of awesome people. There's a lot of people that are super into soul winning There's a ton of people that know the Bible real well There's a ton of people that are really zealous about serving God But if you go to one of these really like dead churches like high steeple few people kind of churches You're just a rock star They need me. I'm gonna fix things. I'm gonna I know this place is dead, but I'm gonna fix it You know, that's a bozo move and I'm telling you I've known people like this for decades Perennial church hoppers who go from one lame church to another and then when there's a good church, they're not interested Some awesome church will start in their area or they'll move to an area with an awesome church They're not interested because they only want to go to lame churches Because then they're gonna fix it They're the lame church fixer, well, you know what that's not the way leadership works that's not the way Church works That's not the way life works Okay, here's the deal The guy who removes the stones is the priest he's saying hey get these stones out of here put these down You know you you're not necessarily gonna be able to just make those decisions for other people in Place in situations where you don't have authority you can't just like March in and be like, hey, I'm just the self-proclaimed Leprosy inspector and we're gonna get that rock out. We're gonna scrape here. It's like who are get out. Who are you? right There's a proper authority structure in the church And if the pastor is not on board You're better off going and finding a church where the pastor it wants to do things for God And if the pastor wants to do great things for God get under his leadership Follow him as he follows Christ and be a part of that team But if the pastor is a dud don't be like well, I'm gonna lead from the rear I'm gonna lead from behind it doesn't work Okay, and I'm telling you it's a prideful attitude where people want to go to these lame churches because they think they're gonna fix them No, they're just gonna get contaminated and just get worse. Okay Go to the best church in your area Go to the church that you need not the church that needs you. Okay, go to the church that's feeding you That's blessing you not the church where like well they you know, they totally suck. But when I now that I come they're gonna be awesome Sounds like you just have like some kind of a prideful Complex where you you're just going around fixing everything and it just doesn't work And and that's why these people are church hoppers for the rest of their lives And these people will literally go to ten churches in 20 years They go to this church for two years. They go to this church for two years They go to I've known people like this my whole life You know, I've been here for 19 years right man has been here for 19 years Right many of you have been here for over a decade. Don't be a church hopper Now look obviously there's if there's a reason to switch like I said switch by all means go to the best church in your area If you think that there's a better church in this area than faithful word, then please go there Okay, but the thing is switching for the sake of switching or switching at the drop of a hat or switching Cuz you're a church hopper who's gonna go fix everybody and straighten everybody out is a bad way to live your life I'm out of time. Let's borrow doesn't have order prayer father. We thank you so much for your word Lord. Thank you for our church Thank you that we have such a great group of people Lord and thank you that in the past when we've had Fretting leprosy and and heresies and sins that needed to be dealt with Lord. Thank you that you've allowed us to Survive that and and get through the removal and the scraping process Lord God help us to always cherish and love our church and to be faithful to it and to understand the importance of having a church with the right doctrine and an atmosphere free of Gross sin and in Jesus name we pray. Amen Amen all right ladies and gentlemen take your hymnals, please turn to him 433 433 Away in the manger him number 433 will sing this out together and be dismissed tonight number 433 Oh I Oh They get things nice we are dismissed You You