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

Now this is a really interesting chapter and there's a lot of great things that we can learn from this chapter and so I want to try to cover as much of it as I can tonight. Now first of all we see that these nations are all confederate with one another. There's a whole list of nations that are aligned with Keterlayomer and Tidal and all these other kings. And then there's a list of nations or cities that are confederate with the king Now if you remember in chapter 13, that's the first place where we're introduced to Sodom. And in chapter 13 last week we saw that Lot chose for himself the well-watered plain and the Bible says that he pitched his tent toward Sodom. Everything sounds fine and dainty until God tells us, but the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And so we know that Sodom, even in chapter 13, was already a very wicked and exceedingly sinful city. And Lot made the mistake of pitching his tent toward Sodom. Well now that we're in chapter 14, notice what it says in verse number 12. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt where? In Sodom. And his goods and departed. So in chapter 13 we just see him sort of pitching his tent toward Sodom. Next thing you know, there's nothing in between, just boom, he's in Sodom. And so the thing we can learn from that is that if you pitch your tent toward Sodom, you're going to end up in Sodom. Even if you're saved, even if you're a believer. We know that Lot was saved. The Bible says that he was a just man and that he was a righteous man. Of course not having his own righteousness, but he was saved. He was a believer. He'd call upon the name of the Lord. He had his faith in God. And so he was saved. And yet pitching his tent toward Sodom caused him to end up being in Sodom. Now, America today has their pitch, or not their pitch tenant, but their tent pitched toward Sodom. And in reality, that's almost an understatement. I would say probably 10 years ago, we had our tent pitched toward Sodom. Now we're starting to get to the stage of being in Sodom. That's what we're transitioning into. Now you see here that God allowed this calamity to come upon Lot, where he's kidnapped, he's taken his whole family is kidnapped and taken as a prisoner of war in chapter 14, and all of his goods are taken. And he was a man of great possessions and great goods. He loses everything. He is taken as a prisoner of war. His whole family is taken captive. Now, this is clearly God's judgment upon Lot for associating himself with a wicked nation and with wicked people. You see, he chose to pitch his tent toward Sodom. He didn't have to do that. Then he moves his family into Sodom, which is a wicked and sinful, perverted, disgusting place filled with sodomy, which is where we get the word sodomy, which is homosexuality or queerness or whatever you want to call it. And he's there in this city. And the next thing you know, bad things are happening to him. Now, do you think that's a coincidence that he's in Sodom and bad stuff starts happening to him? And a lot of times, God will send these type of warnings to us. And he'll send chastisement and chastening to us to try to get our attention. And this should have been a wake-up call to Lot, because everything's been going great for Lot in his whole life up to this point. Things are going great. He's serving God. He's with Abraham. Abraham is guiding him in the righteous way of life. He separates from Lot, starts hanging around with a bunch of queers and sodomites, and boom, the next thing you know, bad things are happening to him. And a lot of times, God will send us these kind of warnings. And when these kind of warnings come in our life, we need to take heed to these warnings, these kind of wake-up calls, where we commit sin. And I'm not saying every time you do something bad... I'm sorry, let me back up. I'm not saying that every time something bad happens to you, it's a result of something bad that you did. For example, there are people like Job, who did nothing wrong, but yet bad things do happen to good people, don't they? But when you know you've done wrong, when you're clearly sinning and doing wrong, and then something bad happens to you, you need to be smart enough to put two and two together and realize, hey, God's chastening me. God's trying to get my attention. God's chastising me. And when these kind of warnings come in your life, you better take heed to that warning, because something worse is around the corner if you don't take heed to that first shot across the bow, that first warning sign that God gives you that you're on a bad path. And that's exactly what happened here with Lot. This is a warning. This is a bad sign for Lot. And why did he end up getting taken captive? Because the enemies of Sodom came and attacked Sodom, and he ended up suffering with Sodom. Obviously, God was bringing some judgment upon Sodom as well. Now, did Lot heed this warning? No, because Lot just continues to be in Sodom. He continues to be yoked up with them. He continues to be in the cage. And does something worse happen to Lot? Yes, because the next time God's judgment falls, his wife dies, and his two daughters become sinful and wicked and perverted. And if he had any other children, which if you can trust what comes out of Lot's own mouth, he had other daughters as well. Because if you trust what Lot said when he talked about having two virgin daughters and at least two married daughters, that means that some of his children died in Sodom, his wife most certainly died, and his two remaining children that lived became wicked, sinful perverts in the end of chapter 19 of Genesis. And so Lot should have woken up from this wake-up call and realized, hey, I need to get out of this place. God's not blessing me here. This isn't good. What's happening? Now, let's analyze this event of what took place in chapter 14. Of course, we already read the whole chapter, but it starts out by listing all these kings that are confederate with one another and united together. And they're in major warfare with one another. Now, it probably is not as many people as it sounds like, because these kings were not necessarily kings over entire nations as we would think of them today as being a nation with 40 million people or 80 million people or several hundred million people. Obviously, these were more like city-states. These kings were more over a city like the king of Sodom. He's just king over that one city. And a lot of these kings were that way. Now, Kedorlaomer and these other kings that are associated with him are tyrannical kings that are ruling over the whole area. And the Bible says in verse, let's just read the beginning here. It says, it came to pass in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Ariad king of Eleazar, Kedorlaomer king of Bela, and the title king of nations, that these mates swore with Vera king of Sodom and Mabirshad king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Sheviver king of Sibon, and the king of Bela, which is Zor. All these were joined together in the veil of Sittim, which is the salt sea. Now, the word veil there is like our word valley. It's just a little bit different spelling and pronunciation. Verse 4, 12 years they served Kedorlaomer, and in the 13th year they rebelled. So this Kedorlaomer is a guy who's basically, when it says that they served him, if you study the Bible, basically he's taxing them. He's making them give him money and goods in order to have protection. But really it's a tyrannical way of him just ruling over other nations and other people. 12 years they served him, and in the 13th year they rebelled. So then he comes in with all his other kings and all his warriors, and he goes in to fight against them, to force them back into submission, to bring them back under his yoga. Now, I think that a major thing we can learn from this is that there are all kinds of wars that go on in our day as well. Throughout the last hundred years there have been many wars, and many of them involved nations that were joined together. It wasn't just one nation versus another nation. It's usually a group of nations against another group of nations. Is it not? I mean, if you look at, for example, the war in Afghanistan that's going on even right now, it's easy to look at that and to think of it as a conflict between the United States and Afghanistan, or the United States and certain elements within Afghanistan, but nothing could be further from the truth because there are literally troops there from all the scores of nations. I mean, there are troops there, and even countries that you wouldn't even think of, they'll send like 20 troops. Like, you know, even though the United States is maybe, and again, I'm not an expert on this, and you know, if my numbers are wrong, I don't really care, because I don't want to be an expert on this garbage, because I really couldn't care less what goes on on the other side of the world, okay? But I'm just trying to relate the Bible to this, okay? They'll have like a really small number of troops from Canada, Australia, you know, and even just all these tiny, Norway and Sweden will send a few troops. I mean, just these small countries that are not really there, they just always like to get as many involved, and it's just kind of getting it used to more of a world government, where the world kind of all joins together, and we all pitch in and fight these wars. Now, if you look at the wars of the last hundred years, it was usually groups of nations fighting each other, like World War I, World War II. The reason it's called that is because it was just nations all over the world were all joined in warfare. Now, one of the things you can learn from this chapter is that our tendency in America, and I know this has been my tendency the way I was brought up, and it just seems to be universal in our country, is to basically look at every war that ever takes place and decide which side was the right side and which side was the wrong side. Now, who knows what I'm talking about? I mean, that's my tendency, is we just automatically, we hear about a war going on somewhere else in the world, really far away, and we automatically say, well, let's look at this. I want to see who's right in this, and that's our tendency, and that's our mentality, and you say, what's wrong with that, Pastor Anderson? Well, here's what's wrong with it. A lot of times, nobody's right. A lot of times, they're both bad. A lot of times, bad people fight each other, but you see, our tendency is to always take a side, and the Bible says that he that meddled and striked not belonging to him is like one that taken the dog by the ears, and it seems like our nation of late just gets involved in every conflict in the world, either by actually sending troops or just by voicing our opinion and say, yeah, bombing or whatever, but saying, hey, we're going to make a resolution from Congress declaring which side is right and which one's wrong, or the United Nations will make some declaration which one's right and which one's wrong, and even just private individuals, just when they hear about things in the news, they have this automatic tendency to just pick a side, and I guess it's just like a sporting event or something. You just pick a team. A lot of times, when people watch sports, they don't even care about the teams. Maybe it's not even their team, and I've never been a fan of watching team sports, but it's not even their team, but then they're just like, well, I need to pick a team just to pick who I'm going to root for, except that warfare isn't really a game. That's the difference, and so we always think, oh, which one's right, which one's wrong? Now, a lot of people have said this as well, and I hope you're following the logic tonight. A lot of people have said this. My enemy's enemy is my friend. Now, that's not always true either, because sometimes your enemy's enemy is not your friend, and in this case, as we look at this war that took place between this big group of nations on one side and a big group of nations on the other side, which one of these two was right? Which one was the right team? Well, on one end, you have Pedro de Omer and his nations. They are tyrants that are extorting money out of these other nations, and later, when Abraham goes in and just destroys them and defeats them, and the Bible says that Abraham slaughtered them, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, in the form of Melchizedek, says, Blessed be Abraham. Blessed be thou, the most high God, who has delivered your enemies into your hands. So does that sound like it was the right team, the one that Abraham slaughtered and that God praised him for slaughtering them? They must not have been a good side, right? So we know Pedro de Omer and his side were not good people, because Abraham slaughtered them all, and Jesus Christ came and basically patted them on the back for doing it. But then on the other side, we have Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboam and Zobel, and we know that those were wicked and sinful nations before the Lord exceedingly, then a few chapters later, God's going to rain fire and brimstone and destroy himself. So in chapter 14, God has Abraham destroying one side, just through the force of him and his troops, and then in chapter 19, God himself destroys the other side. So was there a righteous side to this war? Were either side worth backing and worth promoting and saying, hey, you know, let's get behind it? They're both wicked. In their own way, they were both wicked. So guess what Abraham did? The smart thing. He just wasn't involved in it. He's just not affiliated with any of these people. He's affiliated with Mamre, Eschol, and Adar, which are just, you know, for all we know, they seem like righteous good guys that he's hanging around with, and he's just not involved. He has nothing to do with it. Now, the only reason he even steps into this is because his brother Lot, who was actually his nephew, but he was like a brother to him, and the Bible used the word brother loosely, was kidnapped, and so he just goes in just to rescue his family. I mean, that was his whole purpose. He's not trying to align himself with one side or the other in this fight, and that's proven by the fact that at the end of the chapter, once he has defeated Kedorlaomer and all those nations, the king of Sodom tries to form an alliance with Abram at the end of the chapter, because of course your enemy's enemy is your friend, right? And so because Abram had defeated the enemies of Sodom, the king of Sodom tries to give all kinds of goods and money out to Abram in return, and he refuses to accept it. He says, I won't jump down in your Bible, and we're going out of order tonight just because I'm trying to explain the chapter to you, but jump down, if you would, to verse 21. The king of Sodom said unto Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. So the king of Sodom is saying, look, you know, you've basically brought back all the prisoners of war, all the people that were kidnapped, but all the goods that you've recovered. He's saying you can have it as payment for saving us out of the hand of Kedorlaomer. Abram does not accept the money. He's not a mercenary. He's not just a paid, hired, you know, soldier that's doing this for the money, and he doesn't want to be yoked up with the king of Sodom, because he knew that the men of Sodom were wicked before the Lord had seen him, and he wanted nothing to do with them. So does Abram answer him politely? Does Abraham say something nice to him? No. In fact, Abram answers him in a very rude way, because Abram wanted nothing to do with the king of Sodom. Look at Abram's answer. Abram said to the king of Sodom, I've lift up my hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldst say I have made Abram rich. So he's even accusing the king of Sodom of giving him the money and the goods with some strings attached. And he said, I don't want you to bring this out later and say, well, I gave you all that money. I gave you all those goods. I made Abram rich, you know. He owes me something. He said, I don't want any of them. He said, don't even give me a shoelace. I want nothing from you. And he says, save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, and asked to call Mamre, let them take their portion. So he says, you know, I'm not going to speak for my three friends. I'm not going to speak for them. If you want to give them goods, if you want to give them a portion of the spoil, that's fine. But I'm not taking any of it. I don't want anything to do with it. That was not a polite answer. That was not an answer of, hey, let's join. Let's be an alliance. Because both sides were wicked, and Abram didn't want to get involved in this fight. He rescued his family, and then he just walked away and said, I want nothing to do with this. You can look at history and see the same thing. You know, on one hand, you know, you had, for example, World War II, the famous example, of course. You know, you've got the Nazis on one side, and you've got the Soviets on the other side. Well, guess what? They were both just as wicked to one as the other. And what do we do? We take a side, and we look at it as, well, if these ones are bad, then the other one must be good. But that isn't always the case, because a lot of times, the one side's bad, and the other one's bad too. You know, you see the Catholics fighting against the Muslims. You know, which it's both wrong. It's both a wicked religion. You see the Jews fighting against the Muslims. They're both wrong. They're both ungodly religions. They both deny the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, and you're always being forced to take sides. You know, Calvinism versus Arminianism. They're both wicked. They're both false doctrine. And, you know, I hate it when people call me an Arminian, because I preach against Calvinism. Now, I don't preach against Arminianism, because nobody's even heard of it. But I preach against Calvinism, because Baptists tend to be Calvinist sometimes. So I always get up and rant and rave about Calvinism. And then people are saying, you're an Arminian. You're an Arminian. And, you know, Calvinists accused me of that recently. And I told them this. I said, you know what? I said, if I had to choose between Calvinism and Arminianism, I would choose Calvinism. Because the only thing worse than Calvinism is Arminianism. Because I told them, I'll tell you right now, that every single Arminian is on their way to hell right now. Because Arminianism teaches that you can lose your salvation. And I said, I believe that anyone who believes that, and listen to me, let me just make this real clear. Anyone who believes you can lose your salvation is not safe. Period. Yeah, I don't agree with that. Well, the Bible says, he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave him his Son. And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. He said, you either believe that record that God gave us eternal life, meaning it lasts forever, or he said you're making God a liar. That's why the Bible used the exact same wording when he said, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. And so this doctrine that says you can lose your salvation is just a thinly veiled work of salvation. Because when you really get down to brass tacks, anyone who says you can lose your salvation is basically saying you have to do works to stay safe. That's what it comes down to. So you have people that say, well, it takes works to get saved. And then the Armenian says it takes works to stay safe. It's still a works-based salvation. It's still believe on Jesus plus how I live my life, plus enduring faithful in church or whatever they believe is the acid test, when really the acid test of the Bible is just belief, just faith. And look, people that aren't saved, they've never believed on Christ. That's why it says in John 3 18, he that believeth is not condemned. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed. That's past tense. He hath not believed. He never has believed, it's saying, in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And I told this guy, I said, if I had to choose, I'd be a Calvinist and an Armenian, because every Armenian is going to hell. And maybe some Calvinists might be saved, depending on how screwed up into Calvinism they are. But I'll tell you right now, they're both false doctors. They're both wicked. I hate Calvinism with a purple passion, but that doesn't make me an Armenian because that's even worse. And don't mix up with the country in Europe. Somebody got mad and said, what's wrong with being an Armenian? Something totally different, all right? It's not the country in Europe. So the bottom line is, the devil will often try to get you to align yourself with one side or another in a wicked fight when both sides are wrong. I am neither Calvinist nor Armenian. I am, oh, now I'm saying Armenian. I'm neither Calvinist nor Armenian. I don't want to be with Kendra Leomar, and I dead sure don't want to be with the king of Sodom. And I shouldn't have to choose between those two. And so be careful about taking sides of fights that you're not involved in, because a lot of times both sides are wrong. Now, when there are two people fighting, it's impossible for both sides to be right. They can't both be right. One side can be right, and the other side can be wrong, but there's a third alternative. Both can be wrong. Right. Can both be right? No. But can both be wrong? Absolutely. Okay. And so be careful about that. Now, I think that the main theme that we see of this chapter is telling us that we should not be associated with the wrong people, or we're going to get ourselves into trouble. We see two people in this chapter. We see Lot, who is associated himself with Sodom. He ends up suffering as a result. We see Abraham, who refuses to associate himself with Sodom, and we see him being blessed by God. We see him exhibiting nothing but strength, and we see him veiling out his weaker brother and saving his hind end from destruction because of his foolish decision to even be in Sodom in the first place. Now, we need to be careful who we yoke up with. The Bible is clear. Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Of course, the famous passage comes to mind, which says in 2 Corinthians 6, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? He says, what conquered hath Christ with Belial? He's saying there's nothing common between Christ and Satan. What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? You know, if we're truly living a life that's a Spirit-filled, consecrated life, we're not going to have a lot in common with the unsaved because they're in the flesh and we're living in the Spirit. Now, if we as believers are walking in the flesh, we're going to have everything in common with those that are unsaved and in the flesh. But when we put on the new man, when we're walking in the Spirit, there's not going to be a lot of common ground there. He's saying, look, what fellowship hath the temple of God with idols? What conquered hath Christ with Belial? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? You know, there's no communion between light and darkness. These are two things that are very different from one another, and we as Christians should be separated from unbelievers. That's a clear distinction. We should not be associated and lumped in with unbelievers. That's why we don't want unbelievers in our church because our church should be filled with believers, should be filled with the saved, not the unsaved. We're trying to go out and win the loss, but we're not trying to just fill our church with as many unbelievers as we can. That is something that is not our goal. But even amongst those that are saved, we should be careful whom we associate with. Now, let me put it to you this way. Unity today amongst people that are not of the same church, not of the same family, but this idea of unity amongst all Christians, or unity amongst all Americans, or even worse, unity amongst the whole global community, is highly overrated and unscriptural. It is not a scriptural doctrine. Now today, this is the rallying cry of many, and many people who even have good intentions, they shout this rallying cry of, let's all put aside our differences and get together. Let's join hands. Let's be unified. There are a lot of people who are freedom-oriented people who basically, they constantly are beating this drum. Put aside our differences. Let's all unify. The government wants us to find it so they can control us. We need to all unify. Look, this is not a biblical doctrine. This is not right for us to all be unified. For example, a pastor said, Brother Dave was telling me, this pastor had said, you know, you need to put aside a lot of biblical doctrine and just go to the church that's the most freedom-oriented church, the one that's right politically. That's a bunch of garbage, let me tell you right now. It's a joke. And I'll tell you right now that I don't want to be unified for the cause of freedom. I want to be divided all day long. Now you say, you know what? I'm not going to join hands with a bunch of Roman Catholics and homosexuals and a bunch of Mormons and a bunch of Muslims and be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. And so I'm not one of these that just, you know, and look, I'm for freedom. I'm for liberty. And maybe my goals of liberty also line up with maybe some homo's goals of liberty or some Catholic's goals of liberty or some Mormon's goals of liberty. But you know what? I don't need to join hands with him and fight with him for the cause of liberty. You know, I'll fight with him in a back alley. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, that was a joke. But what I'm saying is I don't want to get sucked in to be unified with the wrong people and putting aside our differences to fight a common enemy because my enemy's enemy is my friend. Well, guess what? My enemy's enemy is not my friend. And so we need to be careful of this because this is something that you're going to hear counted into you all the time from all sides. Put aside our differences. Be unified. It's funny because I talked to a guy from Calvary Chapel and here's what he said. He said, we as Christians are so divided and so nitpicky about every little doctrinal difference and everything. And here's what he said. He said, imagine what we can accomplish if we would all join together. And I thought about that statement. Who's heard statements like that? Almost every hand goes up. But you know what? The more I thought about that statement, and I've heard that statement my whole life, it finally clicked with me last night why that is such a stupid statement. Because that guy from Calvary Chapel, he ain't winning souls now. That Calvary Chapel, and I don't care which. You say, you don't even know which one. It doesn't matter which one. Because I've gone soul winning right next to every Calvary Chapel in this area. I've gone soul winning across the street from Calvary Chapel and talked to their members who I asked if they know for sure they're going to heaven. Some of them said yes, but a lot of them said no. And look, these people from Calvary Chapel are not out knocking doors preaching the Gospel to every creature. They're not out on a daily or weekly basis knocking doors preaching the Gospel of Christ. And you think them joining up with me all of a sudden is going to make them start knocking doors and winning souls? Do you think if they join with the Methodists or join with the Presbyterians or join with the non-denom or join with us because we've stopped being nitpicking and all of a sudden we just stop pointing out all their rock and roll worldliness and we stop pointing out all their false Bible versions and their new King James and their new American Standard and their new living translation. You think if we put aside all our differences and joined up with all these denominations, all of a sudden they're going to start serving God? They're not serving Him now and they're not going to serve Him if we join up with them. If they want to serve God, why don't they join up with us? Because anybody who really wanted to actually do some hard work for God, they'd go to a church like this. Now they might not go to this exact church, but they'd go to a church like this. They would show up to a church like this that's going to put them out to work preaching the gospel, serving God. They don't want to serve God. They want to sit around and swing and sway and jive and jam for Jesus at Calvary Chapel. And they want to come as they are and be casual and be laid back and come and not be serious about preaching against sin, not fighting the good fight, not ripping face like the Bible does against sodomy, against drunkenness, against boredom, against witchcraft, against worldliness. That's not what they want to preach. That's not how they want to be. They don't want to go out and knock doors. They don't want to knock every door in the ghetto and give the gospel to every creature. And so why in the world would it change anything for us to be joined up? I mean, does anybody understand what I'm saying right now? Like if I join up with that guy, is he all of a sudden going to start serving God? Because guess what? I'm not the problem. Look, I'm winning souls every week. I'm out there doing it. You're out there doing it every week. Are we the problem? No. If we're out knocking doors, if we're out preaching the gospel, if we're taking a stand, if we're reading our Bibles, if we're praying, if we're doing what we're supposed to do, are we the problem? No. So what in the world good is it going to do for us to join up? Am I going to win more souls if I join up with them? How? How am I going to win more souls by uniting with other Christians who do nothing? So somehow me, Mr. Soul Winner, and you, Mr. and Mrs. Soul Winner, and you, Little Miss Soul Winner that are in our church, whether you're man, woman, boy, or girl who actually are serving God, who are actually doing something for God, who are actually accomplishing something with your life for the kingdom of God, what more would you be getting done by linking up with them? It's nonsense, but it sounds good. Yeah, if we all joined up, we'd get more done. How? How? I don't get it. I mean, somebody explained to me after the service because I don't get it because all I see is that I'm going out preaching the gospel and you're going out preaching the gospel. We're doing the work of like 10 churches. Look at our map. We're out there doing it. Yep. Why would us joining up with people who are doing nothing, why would that help us serve God more and get more done? Imagine what would get done. No, because this is what happened. We'd all be liberal then. That's all that would happen. It would be meaningless. So here's the thing. By us joining up with them, is that going to get their lazy rear end out there slowly? No, because if their lazy rear end wanted to go slowly, they'd already be going to a real church instead of some bogus little play toy church. If they really wanted to do something for God, they'd already be in the right church because guess what? The right church has been sitting here all the time and we're not the only one. There are all kinds of other soul winning churches that they could join up. If they actually wanted to serve God, they could go to a fire breathing church that actually preached the Bible. They're not doing it because they're lazy or they're not saved or they don't care or all of the above. So if I joined them, I don't see how it's going to make me do any more for God. It's probably going to be a bad influence on me. And if they joined me, they were lazy before they joined me. And they're going to be lazy after they join me. It don't make any sense for us to be all linked up. But it's just this lie that you just keep telling over and over again. Right? You know, join up. If we all joined together, if we'd all be unified, if we'd all just be together, we'd all get so much done, we'd get nothing done because they get nothing done. And if we join with them, we're going to become lazy like them and become losers like them. And yes, Calvary Chapel is a bunch of losers. It's lame folks. It's stupid. I've been to Calvary Chapel. My relatives have been to Calvary Chapel. My family's been to Calvary Chapel. They don't take a stand on anything. They're weak. And I don't like weakness. The Bible says be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. It didn't say be a weakling, be a sissy, be a coward, be a feminine, be afraid to preach on sin, be afraid to preach on women wearing pants and dressing like men and going to work and ruling over other men with their short hair and to preach against men having long hair. And the Bible says it's a shame for a man to have long hair. And they'll say, oh, you're judgmental. You know, yes, I am judgmental. The righteous man will judge all things. The spiritual man judges all things if he himself is judged of no man. I don't want to be a liberal. I don't want to be watered down. I don't want to be scared to get up and preach the Bible. I don't want to be scared to preach against the King of Sodom. I'm going to preach it all day long. But we want to be a bunch of lots today. We want to be the lot and want to hang around with the world. And maybe life can be a good influence when it goes to Sodom. And he grows out of his hair. And maybe when he gets his Sodomite music going, his REM and his YouTube and his, who are these bunch of Sodomite musicians? He gets his Elton John cranked out, his Ricky Martin. And he gets his, you know, Rolling Stones. You know, the lead singer of Rolling Stones is the biggest stinking Sodomite in the world, Mick Jagger. And people listen to his music called Classic Rock or Classic Film. Classic Garbage is what that is. You know, you got your Lady Gaga and your David Bowie and whatever else you listen to. And you know, oh, you could be a light shining in the darkness. Is that what Lot did? He got zero saved. How many people did Abraham get saved? Abraham got a bunch of souls in Herod. Abraham had a bunch of people trained in his house that he trained in the ways of the Lord and in God's Word. And God said in Abraham in chapter 18, I know Abraham that he'll teach his household. I know he'll teach his family. I approve of what Abraham is teaching and doing. How many did Lot get saved? How did he teach his family? He failed in every way possible. Why? Joining up with a bunch of Sodomites, joining up with the world, being tolerant and loving. He called them brethren to the Sodomites. Okay. And what did he accomplish for God? Nothing. What did Abraham accomplish? Everything. He told the Sodomites, I didn't want a shoelace of yours. Get away from me. Get out of my sight. I don't want nothing to do with you. He even told Lot to take a hike. Because Lot was so stinking worldly. And so the bottom line is that we need to be careful who we associate ourselves with. And we don't need to be more unified. We need to be more separated. We don't need to be going around and trying to get along with everybody. We need to get along with Jesus. And we need to get along with the Bible. And you know what? You say, well, this term is too harsh. But you know what? The Bible says that it's a shame for a man to have long hair. The Bible says that if you make God's house of merchandise and sell things in church, that God, the Lord Jesus Christ chased people out with a whip and swung a whip because people were selling things in church. And you look at these things and say they're a small issue. I had a guy one time that went to our church and he quit the church. And here's what he said. He said, it's funny. I actually agree with you on a lot of the small issues. Just some big issues I have a problem with. And I said, well, what are the small issues you agree on? He said, like not selling things in church. I said, you know what? That's not a small issue. I said, it didn't seem that small when Jesus dealt with it. Yeah, yeah. It's just a small issue. According to who? Oh, just a little small issues about the way you wear your hair. Just a small issue. Oh, really? Then why did the Bible devote half of a chapter to it in the New Testament? It's such a small issue. And who are you to decide what's small and what's big? And didn't Jesus say, whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, the little commandments that shall teach men so the same should be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever shall do and teach them the same should be called great in the kingdom of heaven. I mean, didn't Jesus say to obey the little things and the big things to obey it all, to keep the whole counsel of God. And who are we to say these things don't matter and we can be accepting and accept queers and accept long hair on men and accept short hair on women and accept women going out in the workforce and ruling over men and doing their own way and accept the daycare for our children instead of bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and using the wrong correction to raise them and accept a daycare such don't, daycare should be called don't care. Don't care. Drop them off and don't care. Okay. No, I'm not going to drop them off at daycare. I'm going to raise my own children. My wife is in subjection to me. She's not going to wear the pants in the family either literally or figuratively. And so why would I join up with Christians who have none of these values? Everything that I just articulated to you is not Calvary Chapel. Who thinks it is? I mean, is anybody going to tell me that Calvary Chapel is going to preach on those things? No. And so I don't want to be yoked up with them. I don't want to be yoked up with the Methodists who think you can lose your salvation. I don't want to be yoked up with the Presbyterians who are Calvinists. I don't want to be yoked up with the community church that doesn't take a stand on anything, doesn't want to believe anything. Look, I'm not here just to evangelize and get people saved and if we can all just join together. No, I'll do that all day long. But I'm also going to fight sin and hate sin and preach the truth. And I shouldn't have to choose between one or the other. I'm going to do both. And guess what? I don't need your help, Calvary Chapel. I don't need your help, New Evangelical Community Church. Somebody said to me last night, oh, the community churches are growing a lot faster than the Baptists and the Baptists. So what? The weeds in my house are growing a lot faster than the real plants. So what? They're all going to be cast into the oven one day. It means nothing to me. Oh, they're growing faster. Hey, the Roman Catholic Church has a billion members. There's a successful church. The Mormon Church is growing too. So what's your point? I'm growing as a person. You should be growing as a person. I don't care about how fast we're growing and how big our church can be because you know what? I want to do what's right and I'll die before I sit there and drop my guard, drop, dip my sails and say, let's be like the world. Let's get along. We can do so much more for Christ if we take the name Baptist off of our sign. I mean, if we could just take Baptist off of our sign, we'll get more done for God. But you know what? We're still going to go out. And look, bottom line is this. You know how many people it takes to go souling? One. Are you listening to me? You say, how do you know that? Because I did it for years by myself. That's why I know that. It takes one person to go souling. You say, well, the Bible commands you to go two by two. Can you show me chapter and verse on that? Because it doesn't command that ever. It talks about souling hundreds of times and it talks about the disciples going out and preaching the gospel. And one time it says he sent them out two by two, one time. It doesn't say you have to go two by two. It doesn't say that there has to be two people. It really only takes one person to open your mouth. It takes one person to walk up to somebody and give them the gospel. One person. So how do we need all this unity to get people saved? Can somebody explain that to me? Can somebody explain who I have to be unified with to walk out that door and grab the first person I see and give them the gospel? Who do I have to be unified to do it? I'll tell you who. The Holy Spirit. That's who. And nobody else. Me and the Holy Spirit and this Bible can go out and get somebody saved and I don't need anybody else. Now, so much the better if we go two by two. I like going two by two. I'm all for going two by two. At our church we go two by two. And I prefer to go two by two. But you know what? Me and the Holy Spirit can get it done also. We'll get it done. And if I have somebody to go with me, then so much the better. But I don't need a hundred people. I don't need a thousand people to do it. I need just one person, two people. And you know what? We'll beat the fire out of a big mega church, swinging and swaying and jamming for years on end. We'll get more done in one afternoon. That's right. We'll do more in one afternoon with a Bible by ourselves with no help than they'll do in years with millions of dollars, expensive musical instruments, and all kinds of resources and talent and speaking ability and dramas and places. Welcome to reality, my friends. The reason the world's going to hell is because of individuals sitting on their backsides and not preaching the gospel. That's it. End of story. And look, if we can join together in a local church where we all believe the same thing and we're all interested in the same kind of preaching that's real, that's not a dream land, but that actually addresses the problems of our society and actually preaches every chapter of the Bible, then great. And the bigger that church can get, the better. But I'm not interested in linking up with people I have nothing in common with. And you know what? You gain nothing by linking up with Sodom. And look, you think Abraham needed all of the King of Sodom's goods? He had a bunch of goods before that and he had a bunch of goods after that. And you know, I don't need the goods of these other people. Now, a lot of people have, and I'm almost done, but a lot of people have a doctrine that says, be linked up with all believers. They'll say, well, yeah, be separate from unbelievers. But if people are saved, we need to be linked up with them. Did I have to turn to 2 Thessalonians 3? And people even said this, they said, you know, hey, we're going to be in heaven with these people all throughout eternity. We need to learn to get along with them now. And they said, we, as God do, are all brothers and sisters in Christ. And it doesn't matter what the difference is, what the doctrinal difference is, as long as they're saved, we need to be linked up. But look what 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 says. It says in verse 6, now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every what? Brother. Is that talking about the saved or the unsafe? Saved. He says that you withdraw yourself from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us, for we behaved on ourselves disorderly among you. So he says, look, if there are people that are disorderly, if there are people that are not following the tradition that they received from the Apostle Paul, he says, you need to withdraw these people. It's my suggestion? He said, no, we command you, brethren. And he said, not only am I commanding you, he said, I'm commanding you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. And what is the definition of disorderly? Not after the tradition which you received from us. Now jump down if you would. He says in verse number 11, for example. He says, for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly. Here's another type of disorderly. Working not at all, but are busybodies. Now then the words that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him. So how many times is he telling us to separate from people? Separate from people that aren't walking after the tradition that you receive from us. Separate from those who don't work and that sit around and live off of other work. He says separate those that will not obey our word by this epistle and have no company with them that they may be ashamed. And look at verse 15. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. So are we talking about the saved or the unsaved? This is all talking about the saved. And so look, is Calvary Chapel my enemy today? Absolutely not. They're my brother if they believe in the gospel. Now I've met some that are saved, some that are not. But guess what? Just because they're my brother and just because they're not my enemy, that doesn't mean that I want to hang around with them and learn their ways of liberalism, learn their ways of all accepting anything goes, scared to preach on sin. And look, the Bible says be filled with the Spirit. Any preacher who is afraid to preach the whole Bible is not filled with the Spirit. Because if you're filled with the Spirit, you'll speak the word of God with boldness. That's what the Bible says in Acts 4 31. And so any preacher that's not preaching bold is not filled with the Spirit. Take it to the bank. Just take it to the bank. I mean, I guarantee you that any preacher who does not preach boldly is not filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm not saying he's not saved, but he's in the flesh. Because when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon you, you preach with boldness. Now there's nothing I preach. People might not like the way that I presented the information tonight. Go back to Genesis 14. But there is nothing that I preach tonight that's unscriptural or wrong. Nothing. Nothing. What's wrong is the things that I preached against. What's wrong is the gender-bending garbage of our society. And it fits right in with this thing of Sodom. We ought not be patterned after Sodom. And when you as a man are growing your hair long, and when you as a woman are cutting your hair short, you're patterning, you're pitching your tent unto Sodom. Because, I mean, you're basically part of a Sodomite agenda that says, bend gender roles. Listen to me now. Blur the distinction between man and woman. Isn't that the agenda of the Sodomite? Blur the difference. Men act feminine. Act queer. Act like a sissy. Women, you know, be manly. Be dressed like a man. Be walking and talking and acting like a man. When the Bible says that the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment. For all that do so are abominations of the Lord thy God. But I'm supposed to sit back and let abomination go on in the house of God and not say anything about it. I'm supposed to, as a pastor, just have a church filled with women dressing and cutting their hair like men. And I'm supposed to just love them. Well, I'm speaking the truth in love. And I am not going to sit back and just allow the church to be filled with women dressing like men and just act like it's okay. Women living a man's lifestyle and act like it's okay. Men that are effeminate and queer and sissy need this kind of preaching. And so I have no interest in becoming a community church or one of these non-denom style churches. If that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere. Because that's not the direction I'm going. I want to go deeper into the Bible. I want to get more aggressive with my soul wedding. I want to preach more biblical truth. I want to cut through the garbage of our society and I'm not interested in getting unified with anybody. I want unity in our church, unity around this book. That's something that can unify. I want unity in my family, unity around this book. I want unity in our nation if it's around this book. But guess what? That ain't happening. So you know what? Nuts to it. Nuts to everybody who doesn't want this book. Help me out, Brother Garrett. Maybe you know where this is. Where is that scripture about the anathema maranatha part? Is that 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians? Somebody find that for me. Somebody got a concordance where they can find that. I just want to close with that thought. What's that? 16? There we go. 1 Corinthians 16. It says in verse 21, The salutation of me Paul with my own hand. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. Now, I don't fully know what that means because that's another language. But it don't sound good. You know what I mean? His first print is 1622. That doesn't sound good. Because you know, even if we just don't know what it means, because sometimes when you don't know what things mean, you just go by the context. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever it is, it's not going to be good. Let him be anathema. Whatever that means. And I know what it means in English. I understand what we believe it means. But it isn't good. I mean, he's just saying, look, and this is the same book where earlier he talked about separation. He's going to talk about it more in 2 Corinthians. He talked about casting out the wicked person in 1 Corinthians 5. We need to just not get sucked into this attitude of just unity all day long. Tolerance, unity, it's the devil's doctrine. We need to just say, hey, if you don't love the Lord Jesus Christ, there's something wrong with you. If you don't love the Lord Jesus Christ, it's time for me to move on to the next friend. You know what I mean? Because this is what the Bible teaches. And you're not going to find this doctrine of, hey, let's try and get along with the Pharisees. Let's get along with the Sadducees. Maybe this is all a big misunderstanding. We can all kind of join around the Torah, right? We can all kind of join around Moses. It's not a biblical philosophy. And so we need to realize that getting yoked up with the wrong people pitching our tent towards Sodom can destroy us. It destroyed Lot. Abram came through everything unscathed. He's like a rock because he never joined up with the forces of evil. At the beginning, he wasn't joined up. And in the end, when they're offering him all kinds of money, he walked away from the money and said, I don't want to be joined up with you. I don't want anything to do with you. And let's bow our heads in that word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God. And Father, I just pray that you would help us to be stronger. There's so much pressure all the time from all sides. Everybody always wants us to back down and everybody wants us to join hands and be unified and all these things. But Father, if we're unified with the unsaved and if we're unified with worldly and lazy Christians, we are hitching our cart to a bad horse and it's going to take us to the wrong place. There's nothing that we can gain from it, Lord. And help us to just realize that it's better to stand alone for what's right than to join up with everybody and just put aside our doctrine. Help us to dig in on our doctrine more than we ever have. And help us to highlight the differences between Biblical Christianity and apostate, false, lying Christianity. Help us to shine the light brighter and expose the differences, not put aside the differences. And we know that we'll be blessed if that's what we do. And help us to have the strength and the courage to do it. Jesus, we pray.