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

The entire book has a certain theme to it, which is what I want to preach on tonight. He begins by talking about this in great detail, then he ends up the book by talking about it. We're going to go through a little bit of it tonight. But look at what it says in verse number 2, Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him. Again, he begins to talk about knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. Look at the last verse of 2 Peter, which is 2 Peter 3.18. The Bible says, But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory, both now and forever, Amen. All throughout this book, a great theme of the book of 2 Peter is knowledge. He talks about it again and again. He starts with it, he ends with it, but look if you would in chapter 1. He says in verse number 2 that grace and peace will be multiplied unto you through knowledge. He says in verse 3 that God has given to us all the things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. He says, Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness broadly kindness, and to broadly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in what? In the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you have to understand that knowledge is one of the key things that we need as Christians. All throughout the Bible it's emphasized again hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. It's all about knowledge, knowledge, know God, know the Bible, know what you believe. And yet we live in a time where knowledge is not being emphasized. We live in a time where it's all about feeling. You come to church for worship, experience, but I'm here to tell you, I come to church to gain knowledge. Not just to get some feeling, not just to get a vitamin, or a motivation, or a pick-me-up that's going to get me through the week, or that's going to build me up, or stir me up. Yes, it's good to be stirred up. Yes, it's good to be motivated. Yes, it's good to be comforted. Yes, it's good to be edified. But I come to church to learn the knowledge of God, because knowledge is the main thing. God said wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding. He said you need to know. You need to understand. You need to learn. You need to be wise, understanding, knowing what the will of the Lord is. Knowledge is everything. Knowledge is power. The Bible calls the Spirit of God the Spirit of knowledge. I mean, God wants us to know what we believe, why we believe, know what we're doing. I mean, can you imagine if you went out in Phoenix and spent all these hours not even going solely, and you didn't know what you were doing? What a waste. There are people all over America that are in churches, they go out and do something that they call evangelism, but because they don't know what they're doing, they pop us nothing. I mean, they stand on a street corner and hand out a bunch of tracts all day. Why? Because they lack knowledge about how to get somebody saved. I mean, can you imagine if the people in our church that were out solely today would have just went out and handed out tracts, how the results would have been different? You know what the results would have been? Zero. And what were our results? A ton of people saved. Why? Because we went out and did it in God's way. How did we know that? Because we learned it, because we were taught it, because we received that knowledge from the Bible, and that knowledge can turn one day of what Faith Award Baptist Church does into something that produces eternal fruit for God, and yet other people can go out and spin their wheels, spin their wheels because they don't know what they're doing, because they go out and waste time doing things that don't work, that God never even mentioned, like handing out tracts. Show me a Gospel tract in the Bible. There's no Gospel tract in the Bible. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Open your mouth boldly and they've known the mystery of the Gospel. Don't hand out some pamphlet, some flyer, some advertisement. Throw your stupid advertisement in the trash. Hey, speak God's Word with the Spirit of God upon you. That's God's method. That's what works. But some people, honestly, it's not that they're bad people. It's just that they don't know that. They lack knowledge, and they waste their time. It's sad. I think it's sad to waste your time. I think it's sad not to know what you're doing. And then other people, they know, they have the knowledge from the Bible that soul winning is what works, preaching the Gospel, sitting down with someone one-on-one and taking the Bible and showing them how to be saved. They have that knowledge, but then they don't really know much about winning people to Christ. For example, they don't know that eternal security is something that needs to be emphasized when you talk to people about salvation, eternal life, everlasting life. And so what happens? They go around and they talk to people, and they give them maybe a very brief presentation of the Gospel, and if they walk away, that person still doesn't understand that it's not works, that it's all through faith, because they still walk away thinking, well, if I sin, I'm going to lose it. If I do wrong, I'm going to lose it. And so we know that, right? We know that when we talk to somebody about the Gospel, it's important that they realize that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for their sins, that Jesus physically rose from the dead. We know it's important to warn them of the dangers of hell and to show them that they're condemned to hell. We know that they must know that it's eternal life, that it's everlasting life is the gift of God. We know to explain to them it's not works, you can't lose it, even if you were to kill somebody or commit suicide, God will not break his promise and take away his life. We know. We know these things. That's why we're not barren or unfruitful. Do you see that in chapter 1? That's why we bring forth fruit, because we have knowledge. But do you realize that there are other areas of life where we all need to be gaining more knowledge? Now, when it comes to so many, we have the knowledge. What about the whole rest of our life? What about when it comes to raising our kids? What about when it comes to our job? What about when it comes to our church, how we run things? We need to have the knowledge of God, or we're going to do things wrong, even if we have the right intentions, even if we have the best place where our heart is. If we don't know what we're doing, we don't know what we're doing. We don't know how to do it. We're going to do it wrong. We're going to waste our time. We're going to make mistakes. And so knowledge is so, so important, and it needs to be emphasized. God emphasized it. Again and again in 2 Peter, it's knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. Now look at 2 Peter chapter 2. We're just going to quickly blow through 2 Peter and get into a few other things. Look at 2 Peter 2 verse 1. He says, But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there might be, is that what it said? No. Even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily, shall bring in, I mean literally, shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves, swift, distracting. Now there are people who bring in false teaching, false ideas. It's a fact. They will come in. Look at verse 14. This is a fascinating chapter. I'm not going to deal with it much right now, but it says in verse 14, Having eyes full of adultery. Isn't it amazing that the same guy who's teaching false doctrine also has eyes full of adultery? It's the same person. I mean, if you read 2 Peter 2 and Jude, which are parallel passages, they're both about false prophets or false teachers, and they both describe people who are perverted, who defile the flesh, even as Sodom and Gomorrah. You know what they were doing in Sodom and Gomorrah. That's the way these false teachers defile the flesh. Deal with it. Face it. It's what they do. They're queers. They're weird. Their eyes are full of adultery. They cannot cease from sin. Not these false preachers and false teachers who sneak in to destroy churches and destroy Christians and God's people, but he says, having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin beguiled, look at the next word, unstable souls. You see, if you're grounded in what you believe, if you have the knowledge to be firmly rooted and grounded in the faith, you will not be beguiled by the false preacher and false teacher, because he beguiled unstable souls. On the heart, they have exercised with covetous practices, cursed children. But look at chapter three, verse one. So one reason we need to have knowledge is because of these false teachers and false preachers. But look at verse number one in chapter three. This second epistle, beloved, I now write under you, in both which I stir up your pure, what's the next word, mind, by way of remembrance, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing, you see that, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days, scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are what? Ignorant of. They lack knowledge. Some people willingly lack knowledge. He said they are willingly ignorant of the fact that by the word of God, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished, conferring the flood. But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but his long suffering to us were, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. See, this is the same thing we talked about this morning, people not understanding that one day they will reap what they've sown. And they begin to mock in the last days, which we're living in, and the last times the scoffers will come and begin to mock and say, Where is the promise of his coming? Where is the God of judgment, is what they said in the book of Malachi, chapter number 2, before Jesus Christ came the first time. Where is the God of judgment? Where is the second coming of Jesus Christ? Where is the retribution for all these things? It sure seems like everybody's getting away with all the sin and the filth in America. No, my friend, one day God will wake up and judge this country, as I said this morning, and cloud up the rain on us, but he says here, They are ignorant that God has already destroyed it one time, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah 120 years. You remember that? 120 years God waited in the days of Noah. And God's waiting right now. Why? Because He's longsuffering to us for it. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. You see, there are people out there, if God were to, let's say God were to, you know, bring forth His wrath today, it's obviously impossible in light of prophetic events, but let's say He were to just bring down His full wrath today and just destroy the whole world. I mean, we know that's not going to happen, but let's say He just destroyed the whole world. There are a lot of people who would go to hell, but we might get saved next week. Do you see what I'm saying? I mean, next week we're going to get people saved. If God ended it today, those people would go to hell, because they're not saved today. Do you understand what I'm saying? So God's very longsuffering, because He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Oh, repent of their sins? No. Repentance as in change what they believe, and believe on Jesus Christ for salvation. And so God wants everybody to be saved, and so God is willing to wait and to put up with a lot of the sin and garbage, because He wants to give others a chance to be saved. And while God is waiting to bring His judgment, we're going to go out and get as many people saved as we can in the meantime. Because that's the whole purpose for God waiting, so that we go out and get people saved in the meantime. And so, are we going to get everybody saved? No. But I believe that this church can present the gospel to every person in this city, and that's what we're going to do. And in other little towns all over Arizona, we will at least give people a chance to accept or reject the free gift of salvation. And so that's what we're going to do. Why? Because that's the whole reason why God is waiting and staying His hand of judgment on this world, so that we can do that. But look, the world's ignorant, the Bible says. Now, many of them are willingly ignorant. Some of them are ignorant, through no fault of their own. I don't want to be ignorant. As God's people, we have no excuse to be ignorant. Do you have a Bible? Hold up your Bible if you have a Bible with you. Look, everybody here has a Bible. Is there any excuse to be ignorant? I mean, some poor savage in some other country who doesn't have a Bible, maybe he just has one book in the Bible. Look, he might be ignorant, and God bless him, I feel sorry for him. You have the whole Bible. How many years of human history did people not even have the complete Bible? And yet, you're sitting here in 2008 with the entire Bible, every word of God. You have no excuse to be ignorant of anything. There's nothing that you could be ignorant of legitimately, because you've got the Bible with all the answers to everything. Why in the world would you want to be ignorant? Why in the world would you want to be deceived by these lying, false teachers? Why would you want to be deceived by the world, the lust of the world, all the different temptations that are out there, because of the lack of knowledge? Why would you want to go out-souling and not know what you're doing, because you didn't study the Bible and learn how to read souls? There's no reason to be ignorant. But if you would, turn to Ephesians 4. Just back a few books toward the beginning of the Bible, Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4, the Bible reads in verse 11, He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Why did God give you the pastor and the teacher and the preacher? To give you knowledge. That's what the Bible says, so that we could all have the same knowledge, so we could all learn what we need to learn. He says that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind and doxor, by the sleight of men and pennycraftiness, whereby the line wait to deceive, but speaking the truth and love may grow up into him, in all things which is ahead, even Christ. Look at verse number 17, This I say therefore, testifying the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles are, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, and being past feelings, have given themselves over into lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness and greediness, but ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the form of conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Okay, so how are you going to get the knowledge that you need? How are you going to learn what you need to learn? Number one, church. Come to church, listen to the pastor, the preacher, the teacher, get up and teach you the Bible. You will learn something if you come to this church. If you come to this church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, you will not be an ignorant Christian. You will learn the Bible. The Bible is preached here, it's read, it's expounded, it's explained, it's made clear, there's nothing hazy or foggy about it, it's laid right down on the bottom rung where everybody can see it and understand it. Come to church. But number two, you must read the Bible cover to cover. If you don't want to be ignorant, if you're going to have the knowledge that you need to learn, you must read the Bible cover to cover. The Bible says, Man should not live by bread and alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. How can you know anything about Christianity or say, I know the Bible, I know what I believe, I know what church is supposed to be, I know what someone... If you never read the Bible cover to cover, you are missing. There are huge gaps in your education. You don't even know about certain subjects. You're completely ignorant about certain things unless you've read the Bible cover to cover. You must read the Bible cover to cover. But number three, you must read the Bible every single day. The Bible reads in Deuteronomy 17, 19, and it shall be with him and he shall read here, I'm talking about the Bible, all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them. You've got to read the Bible every day. You say, well, I'm going to read it extra one day and then skip it the next day. I'm going to read 80 chapters one day and not read it at all the next day. God says that you must read it all the days of your life. There's something about daily reading it. You'll end up reading it more if it's daily than just one big marathon of reading. Now look, reading marathons are great. I've had some marathons. One time I read the entire New Testament in one day. It took me 18 and a half hours. Somebody said that it was impossible and so I wanted to prove them wrong. So I got up at midnight and started reading the Bible. I was proving that I could read the New Testament in one day. I got up at midnight and read the whole New Testament in one day. I took breaks. I finished at about 1130 the next night. With all the breaks, I figured that it took me 18 and a half hours of reading time to sit down and read through the New Testament in one day. But you know what? The next day I did, I read the Bible a little bit. Not a lot, but I did read the Bible a little bit the next day. Because one, it's important to read it daily, every single day, building upon what you've learned, adding to your knowledge every single day. Number four, get the Bible on CD and listen to it constantly. Here's a verse in the Bible on that. Revelation 1-3. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy. Did you hear that? You're both blessed if you read and blessed if you hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the times at hand. Listening to the Bible, I'll be honest with you, I get more out of it when I listen to it. That's just the way I am. Some people are more of a visual reading type learner. Some people are more of an audible learner. And I'm telling you, I learn ten times as much listening. Now I still read it. I still physically pick up the Bible and read it. But I get ten times more out of it listening to it. And I listen to it ten times as much as I read. And I listen to it driving down the road. All day long I've got that thing on. I'm listening to it constantly for hours on end. And I'm telling you what, I can learn so much by listening to the Bible. And I'm telling you something. You will multiply your Bible knowledge by getting the Bible on CD or the Bible on tape if you don't already have it. There's only so much time in the day that you can really spend reading. Let's face it. I mean, in today's world, we live such a busy, fast-paced life. I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm always go, go, go, busy. And to sit down and just stop and read. It's something that I can do for a little while, but I mean, I can't sit down and read the Bible for two hours a day. Just because it's so busy. But you better know I want to give two hours of Bible. So how do I do that? Because look, probably everybody in this room spends at least an hour in the car every day. Probably. I mean, maybe some of you don't. But a lot of you probably do, right? Who thinks that you probably spend about an hour in the car a day? Forty-five minutes to an hour. I mean, I spend like a whole day in the car a lot of times. I spend like eight hours in the car. Twelve hours in the car. But even if you just spend an hour in the car a day, if you turn off the stupid talk show and talk radio and the news and turn off your golden oldies and the rock and roll and turn off all this other junk and just turn on the Bible just for driving. One hour of Bible every day? One hour of Bible every day? You would complete the entire Bible in three months by listening to Alexander Skorpion read the Bible for one hour. Three months you've read the whole Bible cover to cover. Think about that. I mean, you can read the Bible four times cover to cover a year. How many pastors do you think even... You know, a lot of pastors don't even read the Bible four times cover to cover a year. A lot of them are lucky to read it through once a year. And so that's not our standard, what man does. We need to decide that we're going to step up above the standard, above what people consider acceptable. The norm, if you're an independent fundamental Baptist, it's like if you read the Bible once a year, you're right with God. Look, does it say that in the Bible? No. The Bible just says knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, read, read, listen, listen, learn, learn. My meditation all the day is supposed to be the Word of God. And so you can't get too much of it. So listen to the Bible. You say, I can't afford the CDs. Memorize Isaiah 53 and we'll give you the CDs. We'll buy you the CDs. And then you'll have them. Because I'm telling you, if you listen to the Bible on a CD, you will multiply your Bible knowledge, you'll multiply what you know, you'll multiply your reading by fourfold. I mean, just by putting that thing in and listening to it every day. Just leave it in the car, just never turn it off. Just get in, it comes on. When you get to work, it shuts off. You know, don't even touch the power button. Just leave it on. Leave it going. Loop one CD for a long time. You know, just switch it up to a different CD. And go through and listen to God's Word. Listen to the Bible. You say, oh, when I listen to it, sometimes I miss things here and there. Well, just worry about the part that you got and not the part that you missed. Right? You'll get it next time around. OK? You know, it's better than nothing. I mean, as a supplement to your reading, I mean, it'll help. Listen to it. I don't understand everything. Well, just worry about the part that you didn't understand. Do it. But now, with that, Psalm 119, memorize the Bible. Psalm 119 verse 99 says, I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. Now, it must have been frustrating for David. You know, somebody's trying to teach you the Bible, they don't even know what they're talking about, because he's the one who's memorizing the Bible all day. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. You see, memorizing the Bible will give you knowledge and understanding that other people don't have who don't study and memorize the Bible. The Bible says, it says in 2 Theta, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly divine in the word of truth. If you don't study the Bible, God does not approve of you. You're not approved by God. He says, study to show thyself approved unto God. And if you don't study, you ought to be ashamed, and you're going to be ashamed before man. You ought not endure soul winning. Some Jehovah's Witness or Mormon should not be able to stump you, and throw something at you, and you don't even know what they're talking about, because you don't know the Bible. They're the ones who don't know the Bible. We should know the Bible ten times better than them. We ought to spin them in circles. We ought to be able to spin them around, because we know the Bible at the back of our hand. And you know, it's a shameful thing when God's people don't know the basic stories of the Bible. You start talking to people about a story in the Bible, and they look at you like, You know, when you go out solely, I mean, look, the world doesn't know the Bible stories at all anymore. It used to be that the world had a basic understanding of the Bible stories. They knew Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, right? I mean, the basics, Jonah, they knew Noah, they knew a little bit about Moses, Jesus, the disciples, Peter, James, John. I mean, they knew the basics. These days, you'll be trying to talk to people about eternal security or something, and you'll say, have you ever heard of Samson? No, and these are people who go to church, who've been in church their whole life, literally. You know that story. Anybody who goes to someone and knows that you'll talk to somebody who's been a Pentecostal their whole life or a Protestant or a charismatic their whole life, and you'll say, Do you know Samson? Samson. What's that? You know, remember Lot? Like, who's Lot, you know? He'd be like, Oh, David. Remember David and Goliath? You know, right? I remember David of Bathsheba. Bathsheba? Oh, OK. Well, you know, that guy actually was a good guy at one point, too, you know? He didn't just commit adultery. And that's because they saw a movie or something. You know, probably a lot of people's Bible knowledge is just because they saw Charles and Heschel and the Ten Commandments. So they at least know a little bit about Moses. You know, they know a little bit about, I mean, it's because they saw these Hollywood movies that used to be about Bible stories and everything. But the point that I'm trying to make is that, look, the world lacks knowledge. Church is lacking knowledge. Christian is lacking knowledge. Why would you want to go through, like, lacking knowledge? Lacking understanding. And we waste so much time in our life. I mean, every single day, you should be so much more knowledgeable than the day before. Because you have 24 hours. You know, obviously you have to sleep. You have to eat. You have to take care of yourself. You have to go to work. But there's so much time that we waste. You know, if you want to entertain yourself, why don't you entertain yourself with something that's going to help you know more and learn more? I mean, why not sit down and read the Bible? Why not sit down and talk with somebody about the Bible? Why not discuss the Bible at home? Why not talk to your friends and your family about the Bible? Why not make use of your time learning, growing, maturing, instead of just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, so much of what we talk about is just worthless. I mean, just sitting around and, oh, yeah, the weather this, and sports this, and, oh, blah, blah, you're Barack Obama and John McCain. It's like, who cares? Shut up. Say, oh, I just want to care about that stuff. I'm supposed to be involved. Why would I care? What do I care about these idiots? You know, if there was somebody good running for office, maybe I would care about it. Maybe that would be interesting. Right now, to me, it's the most boring thing in the world. People try to talk to me about it sometimes, and it's like, let's talk about something else that's really boring me. Well, it takes a hearing about it. You know, I mean, if there were a good candidate that I was excited about, then maybe I'd want to talk about it. Maybe I'd find it interesting. But, oh, I don't care. Is it going to be Devil A or Devil B? Oh, man, I don't know. Oh, wow, I'm really on pins and eagles. Can't wait to find out which way our country is going to get screwed up. Is it going to move fascism or communism? I don't know. I guess we'll find out. Who cares? It's stupid. Quit talking about politics. Be done with it. It's worthless. Talk about God. Talk about the Bible. Talk about Jesus. Talk about things that matter. Learn something. And, you know, kids, especially kids, have free time on their hands. You ought to be using that time, kids, not to just fritter it away and games and fun and playing. You ought to sit down and say, I'm going to read the Bible. I want to learn the Bible. I'm going to memorize the Bible. And, you know, kids also, you need to study your other subjects, too. Learn math. Learn history. Learn science. Learn English. Learn the English language. Learn grammar. These are the things that are going to help you serve God when you grow up. These are the things that are going to help you be smart enough to not be fooled and deceived by a man's cunning craftiness or by lies that wait to deceive. You've got to have some knowledge in your life. Don't go through life being an ignoramus and a fool that can be deceived by any government, deceived by any church, deceived by every liar that comes down the pike. Have the knowledge to live your life on track of what God wants you to do because you know how to live. You know how to run a business. You know how to work. You know how to go to church. You know how to win somebody to Christ. You know how to memorize the Bible. You know how to talk to people. You know how to win them to Christ. You know how to spend time teaching people and training people. Don't waste your time on amusement. Don't just waste your time on games and fun and wasting time. Hey, do something that matters with your time. Shut off that stupid TV and pick up a book and read it. Amen. People used to be in this country. They'd pick up and read a book. You ever wonder what people did before TV? You know, that's what people always say. What did people do back then? I used to wonder the same thing. What did people do back then? And I just, I pictured people. Like this is when I used to watch TV all the time when I was growing up. I used to picture people just like sitting in a wooden rocking chair in a dark house with candles. This is what I pictured. Cause I was so ignorant. I just pictured people with like candles and they're wearing like homemade clothes. And they're sitting in a dark room just reading books for hours. You know, and they're just sitting around and just doing nothing. And then wow, TV and now they've had something really important to do with their time. That's what people think though. People ask me all the time. I tell them I don't have a TV. What do you guys do? Like they literally think that we just like sit around staring at each other. You know what I mean? Like we just sit around and just... So, how'd your day go? I mean look, people before they had a TV, they had a brain. They used to actually not be an idiot. And you know what? People, you know, oh don't please say TV rocks your brain. It's true, it does. I believe it. I believe that from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet the TV rocks your brain. It makes you stupid. Not just when it comes to the Bible. It's stupid in every area. I believe that. We live in a nation of people that are stupid. How are we going to fix it? They're ignorant. The Bible says they're willingly ignorant. They're stupid. They don't know anything. He said I don't want you to be like the other Gentiles who are ignorant and who don't know anything. Who don't have the knowledge of God. He said I want you to grow up and have knowledge. But look, how are we going to cure the ignorance of America? Is it through pumping money? It's by bonds, right? We need these new bonds for Tempe and we need more money pumped into the school system, right? We need to put our children first and put education first and pump more money. Better teachers. Higher pay for teachers. Better accountability. Standardized testing. None of that's going to help at all. The cure for ignorance is to get those people safe, drag them in here, set them down, and scream and yell at them until they throw out their stupid TV and learn what it's like to pick up a book and read it. Pick up the most important book in the world, the Bible, the only book that really matters, and read it and end it again. Look, I've seen people who were not that smart of people. Let's face it. They picked up the Bible and started reading it. They became a television person. It's true. I mean, this book will help people to succeed at their job. I mean, I've seen people who are not the sharpest tool in the shed get into this book and read it and walk away being an intelligent person. Seriously. I mean, I've won somebody to Christ before who was not that smart and watched them become smarter over the course of weeks and months for reading the Bible daily and coming to church. It's true. I mean, God can make you wise. God's word will give you wisdom. God's word will give you knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And people who don't read the Bible and don't come to church, they're ignorant of a lot of things. Now, there are some people out in the world that are smart, intelligent, wise people who read and stuff. But, you know, when it comes to things that really matter, I mean, if they don't read the Bible, they're going to be ignorant of things that matter. They could be a genius in the world, but when it comes to things of God, this is what really matters anyway. But, you know, most people in the world are not even intelligent in most areas. But the Bible will give you that knowledge and the Bible will give you that intelligence to succeed at your job, to succeed in the world, to be able to run your finances. Different than the U.S. government runs their finances. Like actually spending less than you bring in. You know, instead of just spending whatever you want. You know, actually keeping track of your money within reasons where you actually, okay, it's how much I make, it's how much I have to spend. You know, the intelligence to train your children, to run a household, to be smart and wise about your money, to be frugal, to be hardworking, to know how to succeed on the job, how to get ahead in business school. All the answers are in the Bible. If you take the work to find them and dig them out, if you want to get the knowledge of how to succeed at your job, how to raise your children. Oh, man, I'm afraid my kids aren't going to travel. Look, the answer to get your kids to turn out to write is all found in the Bible. If you would take the time to dig it out and find it. But it's going to take work of reading it cover to cover again and again, daily, cover to cover, reading it again and again and again, memorizing it, listening to it, coming to church. The Bible says in two times, God has manifested his word through preaching. God's word will be manifest or apparent or we can see it and understand it through preaching. I mean, God's word is exposed through preaching. Now, you can still get the same thing on your own reading at home, but you get more, you know, you get more out of a passage when you come to church and you're to preach in church. There's something about being in church, you learn something. Things come out of the Bible that you didn't see before when you were on your own, okay? And so, knowledge is key. Don't ever get to the point where you're coming to church for anything other than to learn and say, Well, it's not, it doesn't matter. I feel more comfortable so and so in the church. Are you learning? Are you learning something? I mean, if you're not learning anything in this church, go find another church. Seriously. I mean, if you're coming to this church week after week and your knowledge never increases, you just know the same thing, then go find another church. It's the wrong church then. Because church is supposed to be teaching you knowledge. You're supposed to be constantly learning, learning the Bible stories, learning what they mean, learning Bible principles, learning Bible teaching. Why? Because knowledge is going to make you the soul learner that you need to be. Knowledge is going to make you the parent and the worker and the husband and the wife that you need to be. Tomorrow morning, get up and read the Bible. Tomorrow, throughout the day, have the Bible with you. Have it beside you. Pull it out and read it. Listen to it in the car. Memorize it. Have it on note cards. Have a New Testament with you. Take it with you. All the time. When you sit down and talk to somebody, Monday, talk about the Bible, read the Bible, learn the Bible, and you will know the Bible. And when somebody begins to talk to you about the Bible, you'll be able to intelligently have that conversation. You'll be able to understand and comprehend what's being said. You're going to understand church more. I mean, when you come to church, sometimes on grief, you might just be like, what in the world? What's he talking about? What does this about? It's not me. It's not me. It's not me. It's not me. Seriously. I mean, it might just be that you lack some knowledge. I mean, I get nasty emails every day. Like, currency's probably easier. And these emails just lack knowledge. So now I'm starting to get hateful text messages. This is a new development. Just this week, I'm starting to get nasty text messages. Never before. I mean, I got letters in the mail. I've got like a five page handwritten letter in the mail. I've got several handwritten letters in the mail. I get phone calls, yes. Voicemail, yes. Email, yes. Letters, yes. Now I'm texting. I give up. You know, I give this text. This is what the text came in. Hate is wrong Pastor Anderson. Look at how stupid David is. Hate is wrong. Okay, then why does God hate? Why did God say that it's a sin for us to love those that hate the Lord? Why did David say I hate them with the perfect hatred I count the Miamis? Why did God say, do not I hate them that hate David? Why does it say that God loved Jacob and hated Esau? Why did God hate the bloody and sequel man? Why does God hate violence, the violent and wicked perverts and list all these things that God hated, he abhors, he loathes, he despises, which hate is wrong. It's like, okay. That just shows that you have no knowledge. It shows that you've never read the Bible. The Bible talks about hate. Look, let me give you a great scripture on hate. The Bible says, and I wish I could find it. I think I know where it is. But it says, I'm just going to quote it to you. It says, let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave that which is good. So he says, look, many people's love is, what's dissimulation? It means it's fake. Like if you're in a simulator, are you really fine? No. He says, your love is fake if you don't hate that which is evil. You say, oh, I just love everybody. I love everything. I mean, I love rapists. I love murderers. I just love pedophiles. I just love people who violently kill other people. I love Saddam Hussein. I love Adolf Hitler. I mean, what kind of a weirdo are you? And then they say, I love you. I don't believe you. Because anybody who loves everybody, their love is fake, according to the Bible. He says, let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil. Otherwise, your love is fake. But see, people have ignorance. They don't understand. People don't understand my preaching because of ignorance. They come into church. And I get up and scream and yell about how wicked Catholicism is. Remember that sermon a week ago or two weeks ago or whenever it was? I got up and screamed about how wicked Catholicism is. And you know what people will respond to that? Oh, man, how are you going to get Catholics saved preaching like that? There's no Catholic in the service. It's a Baptist church. People are literally like, oh, man, you preach like that? You're not going to get the Catholics saved preaching like that. Hello, I'm not trying to get any Catholics saved. I'm preaching to a room full of Baptists. But I'm preaching to Baptists that they will go out and win Catholics to Christ by the hundreds. And how are they going to do that? When they realize that Catholics aren't saved and why they're not saved. And what a wicked religion there is. Then they're going to go out and find the Catholic and win for Christ. I mean, somebody literally wrote to me, I preach against John Lennon. You know, I preach against the Beatles. And I said, John Lennon was a God-hating Communist devil. I got an email saying, you know, preaching like that is not going to get Paul McCartney saved. Like, I guess Paul McCartney is still alive. Is he alive, dead? I don't know. I think he's still alive. I think that my sermon is going to be a real stumbling block to get him saved. You know, I'm preaching to Christians on why they shouldn't listen to this rock music. And these people are worrying about like, well, what if one of these rock and roll stars gets the tape? And then Paul McCartney, you know, he was probably just on the verge of getting saved. He's going to hear you call him names. Or his buddy, you know, his dead buddy, John Lennon. And then he's not going to get saved. I mean, you'd say, come on, that's a pretty ignorant statement, right? Pretty foolish. You know, they preach why Billy Graham is on his way to hell. You know, oh man, well if Billy Graham isn't saved, don't we want him to get saved? Shouldn't we be trying to get him saved? Somebody who's been a false prophet and a false teacher for the last 60 years, I'm sure he's going to get saved now. I'm sure all of a sudden he's going to realize, oh, whoops! I've been preaching for the devil for the last 60 years. I just realized that I've been preaching to millions of people that you have to repent of your sins and give your life over to Christ to go to heaven. And I've been putting my arms around the Pope and wearing a dress and preaching for the Pope. And now all of a sudden he's going to get saved? But you know what? People are so ignorant that they think that everybody in this world at any moment could just turn around and get saved tomorrow. They don't realize that there are people who are beyond salvation. And I don't care whether you think that or anybody. That's what the Bible says, that it's too late for their reprobates. These false prophets are evil trees, children of the devil. They bring forth corrupt fruit. They're awaiting damnation. Billy Graham can't get saved. It's too late for him. He could have gotten saved. He could have gotten saved. About 70 years ago he could have gotten saved. But you know what? He's gone too far. There's no way he could get saved. Don't be ignorant. If you'd read the Bible, you'd know that what I said is Bible doctrine. If you'd read 2 Peter 2, if you'd read the book of Jude, if you'd read Romans 1, if you'd read Hebrews 6, if you'd read Proverbs 7, you'd know the world is saying it's true. But you might be ignorant and then you get mad at preaching because of ignorance. I mean, wouldn't it be terrible if you got mad at the preaching in a church that's preaching right where you could have grown, you could have learned how to be a soul winner, you could have become a great, fiery Christian that would be out winning people to Christ, on fire for God, raising your family for God, turning out children for God, turning many to righteousness, winning people to Christ, living a clean and godly life, life, joy and the Holy Ghost. You could have lived that kind of life, but you walked out of church because you got mad at what the preacher said because you were ignorant and you didn't realize that what he was saying was true because you lacked knowledge. And it happens all the time. They hear the pastor say something and they say, oh man, you shouldn't say that, that's harsh, he's this, he's that, I'm leaving, I'm calling somewhere else. Why? Because they don't know that what I'm saying is true and I can prove it in the Bible. And every week I get up and prove these things in the Bible, but people don't get it if they don't know. They don't know what the truth is. I mean, I can't teach the whole Bible in every sermon, you know what I mean? And so you got to walk into the sermon with some basic knowledge in order to comprehend the sermon. And that's why you got to be reading it every day. And if you're not reading it at home, you're not staying at home, you're going to come here and you're going to hear things that you don't understand. And some of them might make you mad and you might quit the church. But really it's just that if you wouldn't have been reading, you'd be saying, oh yeah, I remember reading about that. Oh yeah, I remember reading about God hating people like 25 times. That's ringing a bell. Loathing people? Oh yeah, I remember saying he loathed and was disgusted and hated people. I forgot about that. But now, oh yeah, I guess he's right. People quit the church because they lack knowledge. People don't win souls because they lack knowledge. People's kids go to the devil because they lack knowledge. They didn't know any better. Well, shame on you for not knowing better because you got the book right in front of you. You can learn everything that I've learned, everything that the people next to you have learned. You've got the same Bible, the same Holy Spirit, the same audio CD. Is it Alexander Scurvy? That's the same one I've got. The same version. Is it the one with no music in the background? The same one I've got. Hey, you've got the same tools that I have. You have no right to be ignorant. And if you're ignorant, it's your own fault. You're willfully ignorant. If you walk out of Faithful Word Baptist Church and don't know what's going on, it's because you're willfully ignorant. You're choosing not to know. Put aside all the entertainment and the fun. Look, is it wrong to have a little entertainment? Of course not. Is it wrong to blow off a little steam? No. But you know what? If your life is just about fun, fun, fun... And I'm talking to the youngest child in this room. Don't spend time on just blowing off steam fun, fun, fun. You take the time when you're a youth and seek your Creator in the days of your youth. Use these days when you're young to be preparing yourself so that when you turn 18 years old, you go, oh wow, now I guess I better grow up. No, when you're 18, you've got to be already ready to enter the workforce. You're ready to get married. You're ready to raise a family. You're ready to preach. You're ready to win souls. Even before that, you're ready to preach, ready to win souls. Hey, learn what you need to learn now while you're young. And whatever age you are, it's not too late for you to begin to learn and understand knowledge. This body is going to work perfectly.