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Now, Mark chapter 14 is a pretty long chapter, you know, there's no way that I'm going to be able to cover all of this in one sermon tonight. I'm just going to have to hit some of the highlights here in Mark 14, it has 72 verses in it. But beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads, After two days was the feast of the Passover, and of unleavened bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious. And she braked the box and poured it on his head, and there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone, why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me, for ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will you may do them good, but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could, she has come a forehand to anoint my body to the burial. Now if we read all four Gospels and we get the different angles of this story, we understand that it was Judas Iscariot who was the one who was really piping up and getting the other people to say that this was a waste of the ointment by anointing Jesus' head, which is what the woman did. Now when Jesus is done rebuking that mentality of saying, Oh, let's not do it for Jesus, you know, let's give that to the poor instead, it says in verse 10, And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests to betray him unto them. So notice, Judas going to betray Jesus is a direct result of this interaction over the ointment. Okay? Because if we read it in other Gospels, we get different details and kind of put it all together and see that that was something that made Judas angry. Now the Bible says that Judas brought this up not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and he had the bag and he had the power over what was put there in and so he wanted that money to be something that he could get his hands on and he would get some of it to the poor, but a lot of it would just end up in his own pockets. Now this mentality exists today and I'll hear things like this all the time. When you try to preach God's word and you try to go out and knock a lot of doors and just give people the gospel of Jesus Christ, just getting them the plan of salvation, how to go to heaven, you know, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. And a lot of people will say, you know, that we need to be out feeding the poor. You know, what are you doing preaching the Bible and giving the gospel and doing all this? What you really ought to be doing is, you know, fixing the community of Tempe by feeding the poor and, you know, don't preach against fornication, you know, instead you need to just open up a hotline and a help center for every single mom and, you know, don't preach on the homos, just open up an AIDS clinic, you know, is what they'll say. You need to basically just do all this social good and today there are many churches that believe in what's called a social gospel. Instead of a gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, it's a gospel of just do good, just help people, just feed the poor, just, you know, heal the sick and that's it. But is that really what the Bible teaches that our primary objective is as the church to just better society, to just feed people? Now look, of course we believe in helping the poor and the Bible says here that Jesus told them, you know, whenever you want to, you can do good unto the poor. And the Bible does teach that if we help the poor, we're lending unto the Lord and that which we have paid, you know, we will receive again and so forth. And we know that it is good to help people and help our community and help society but at the same time, that is not our primary mission as a church. Our church's primary objective is to go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Christ commanded us, not just certain parts but all things that are commanded in the Bible, we're supposed to teach those things. So we're supposed to win people to Christ, baptize them and then teach them all things that Christ taught, all of them. Now that is our mission as a church but a lot of people will say, well, what good is that going to do? But you know who's saying that? A bunch of atheists and unbelievers today because they can't see the spiritual kingdom. They don't believe in heaven and hell. All they believe in is the here and now. So they sit there and think, well, what good is that going to do somebody to give them the gospel? You know, you need to feed and clothe and house and mentor and everything else. But the bottom line is, we look at their social gospel and say, what good are you doing spooning moto meal into that kid's mouth unless you're going to tell him about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Because what is he profit if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Now we as Christians should be good people and benevolent and we should be helpful to people and we should help those that we know that are in need. First of all, the Bible tells us that we should do good unto all men, especially those that are of the household of faith. So we should always give preference to first helping our brothers and sisters in Christ that are in need. I mean, if I had brothers and sisters in Christ that were in need and then I saw people outside of the faith that are in need, I would help my brothers and sisters in Christ first. You know, whether you like that or not, that's what the Bible teaches, that we should first do it for the household of faith, you know, first do it for those that are in Jesus Christ. But our job and our goal as a church is a spiritual goal, not just a carnal goal of doing social good. Now first of all, in the United States of America, 2014, there is no need for us to open up a food pantry and a soup kitchen and all these different things because we're already having huge amounts of money extorted by Judas Iscariot, also known as our government, who's going to take our money away and give it to the poor for us, isn't it true? But here's the thing that our government and Judas Iscariot have in common. They have the bag, they bear what is put there in, and they take a little bit for themselves, okay, they take a lot for themselves. You know, these charitable organizations today, a lot of them don't get very much of the money that you donate to the actual need in question. For example, Bono, the lead singer of U2, and by the way, a lot of people will try to identify Bono as a Christian, Bono is not a saved Christian. If you believe that he is, listen to my sermon that I preached a while back called The Gospel According to Bono, and I show you how he does not believe the gospel, he doesn't believe the Bible. But Bono is one of the big voices that you hear for this social gospel, okay, another big one is the United Methodist Church, you know, this is what the United Methodists are all about. If you talk to people who go to these United Methodist churches, a lot of them don't even believe the Bible whatsoever, they don't even believe Jesus really even rose again from the dead, they don't believe he's born of a virgin, they are just there for the social gospel of just, we're going to help the community, and on and on. But they're not really believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. But Bono has a charitable organization that he runs called The One Foundation, and it was found out in the news that 96% of what's donated to The One Foundation doesn't make it to Africa, you know, where he's supposedly helping with AIDS and whatever else in Africa. And by the way, brother Tyler Baker reminded me of this, I'd heard this a long time ago, AIDS did not used to be called AIDS, it used to be called a grid. When it first came out, it was called grid. And if you look up any of the history of AIDS, it was called grid, gay-related immune disease. Then after a while, they changed the name to AIDS to make it more politically correct. In July of 1982, they coined that new term AIDS, but before that it was called grid, okay. And why am I saying that? Well, because I'm still, you know, in the news almost every day about this and getting all the phone calls and the hate mail and the emails about this. So I'm just kind of throwing that as a little commercial break tonight. But anyway, you know, this One Foundation of Bono, you know, 4% of what's donated even gets there. The rest of it's just all there, just administrative costs. Basically a fat paycheck for everybody involved. And a lot of times you got to be careful not to just donate to whatever charity, you don't really know where that money's going. A lot of times you could be paying to some foundation or some charitable organization that supposedly is helping in Africa or something when in reality they're sterilizing people in Africa or, you know, or doing other things that you wouldn't really agree with. So what I'm saying is that there are a lot of people who will pay lip service to loving the poor, but the Bible says they don't really care about the poor. Judas was the ringleader of these people, but there were other people who chimed in with Judas and say, yeah, why don't we give it to the poor? And they want to take it for themselves, and today our government talks about how much they love and care about the poor, but they steal so much from us every week. They take so much out of our paycheck, and very little of that money goes to help poor people. Very little. Because everything they do is extremely inefficient, there's a ton of waste, and they put it in a bag with holes in it, and it barely even gets to the people that actually need the help. That being said, because they take such mass amounts from us, honestly, any poor person in Phoenix, Arizona today is not going to starve to death. Because there are already all kinds of government programs and food stamps and wick and pantries and soup kitchens, and there are so many government-run programs. Now it ought to be that the church would take care of that, but honestly, our church is not going to spend any time on that, because every one of our church members is actually already going out and working and paying taxes out the wazoo to pay for this stuff anyway. So we're already doing all of our forced charitable giving for the poor. I'm not going to sit here and open up some redundant soup kitchen here. I'm going to go out and preach the kingdom of God. I'm going to preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what our church's resources are going to be used for. Now look, our church has truly helped out people in need, people who go to our church. We will help them out when they're in need. And we've bought groceries for people or helped people pay this bill or whatever when they were in a bind. But honestly, it's not something that we're constantly doing. It's not a big part of our budget, because honestly, in America, it's the land of opportunity, and people can go to work and pay for themselves. There's a day laborer place in this parking lot you could go to. There are all kinds of government programs that are already extorting money from people and giving just a tiny bit, but it's enough to keep people going and so forth. So I'm not going to sit there and spend my time and effort furthering this social gospel of let's fix Tempe. First of all, you're never going to fix Tempe. Tempe is doomed and damned. Just quit trying to, you're wasting your time. But you know what we can do is we can get somebody saved. We can preach the truth. And by the way, the United Methodist Church, who is doing so much to help the poor and the needy and the downtrodden, no they're not, because sin brings a curse on any town or any state or any country, and what you do to do more to help an area is to preach against sin and get people living a righteous life. Because it's the most unrighteous, ungodly places in this world where there's the most curse and the most hunger and the most poverty and suffering and pain and violence is in places that are ungodly and that are filled with sin. You know, if we would follow the law of God, we would do no ill to our neighbor and we wouldn't have all these problems and issues. But the godless United Methodist Church, and let me tell you something, the United Methodist Church is one of the most wicked religions in America today, period. Fifty percent of their clergy is female. When the Bible clearly says, I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be at silence, let the women keep silence in the churches. That just means nothing to them. So they have 50 percent female clergy, 50 percent male clergy, 10 percent open homosexual. And right here in Tempe, they have the rainbow flag on the United Methodist Church in Tempe. And elsewhere in the city, you'll see the same thing. So these churches have this social gospel, oh, and by the way, one day, they're going to brag to Jesus and they're going to brag and say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name of cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works? And he will tell them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Because when you're preaching a false gospel, when you don't believe in the death barrel and resurrection, it doesn't matter how many people you feed and clothe while you disobey all the commandments of God and disregard everything that Jesus taught and you just latch on to a few statements here and there that you parrot. You know what? Though God doesn't accept that work. That's the fruits and vegetables of cane that you're bringing to God when you bring those works instead of bringing the blood of the lamb. Look, our religion is a spiritual religion. Our works are spiritual works. The outcome of the works that we do is not all seen in this lifetime. Much of it will be seen when we get to heaven. You know, we go out and win somebody to Christ, there may not be a tangible result that we could see, but the results will resound for eternity and that when that person is in heaven as a result of hearing the gospel, that is more valuable than anything else. And so we need to stay focused on the spiritual mission and not get diverted onto this social gospel of, well, you know, we just need to make sure and feed the hungry and if we can just get all the hungry fed, then when we're done feeding the hungry, we'll start preaching the gospel. Well, here's the problem with that. The poor you have with you always. So you're never going to fix it. You're never going to eradicate poverty, okay? And not only that, but there are evil people who want to make sure and keep Africa poor, for example. There's no reason for Africa to be poor today. Africa is filled with natural resources. They've got all kinds of diamonds. They've got all kinds of oil and great mineral and soil resources. There is no reason in the world for sub-Saharan Africa to be in the condition it's in except that evil people are keeping it in that condition because they want to just take all the diamonds and take all the resources and become, you know, uber wealthy and let those people starve and suffer. And they want them to starve and suffer because it's all part of their plan to become wealthy at their expense. And not only that, the other problem with Africa is a sin problem amongst the people of Africa. So you've got evil leaders that are abusing them, but then you also just have a sin problem amongst much of Africa where there's a lot of sodomy and there's a lot of promiscuity and a lot of fornication and, you know, God judges that sin. So there are a lot of problems over there, but, you know, the answer is not to just keep sending money to Bono and keep sending money to spoon malto meal and vaccinate and sterilize everybody over there. You know, there's a deeper problem to it. You know, and if we preach the Bible, we could cut down the tree at the root and not just keep fighting the symptoms of the social problems in Tempe or Africa or anywhere else. Okay, now what is it that the ointment was used for? To anoint Jesus' body for the burial, which is a reference to one of the key events of the Gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection. And then not only that, it says in verse 9, verily I say unto you, wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken for a memorial of her. So according to the Bible, this story is something that's going to be heard around the world. You know, she got her 300 penny worth of that ointment. If that story is used to teach and preach for centuries to follow. And of course, being anointed for his burial, you know, he's fulfilling prophecy. There's all kinds of symbolism here. This story is exalting the central theme of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is what it's all about. Now it says in verse 10, Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, one of the chief priests, to betray him unto them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him. And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples said unto him, where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover? I'm just going to skip down for sake of time because there's so much to talk about in this passage. But they go to this upper room that's made ready where the Passover is going to be served. And it says in verse number 18, and as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, verily I say unto you, one of you which eateth with me shall betray me. And they began to be sorrowful and to say unto him one by one, is it I? And another said, is it I? And he answered and said unto them, it is one of the 12 that dipeth with me in the dish. The son of man indeed goeth as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. Good were it for that man if he had never been born. Now the most amazing part about this passage is that the disciples did not readily suspect Judas. They, is it Judas? You know they, he said one of you shall betray me, it wasn't like, you know, it was like is it I? Now think about that. They suspected him so little, they suspect themselves more than him. Could it be me? Is it I? Am I going to do it? No one believed it. And then if we read this in Matthew and in John we get more details and it talks about the fact that John leans over to Jesus and asks him, who is it Lord? And he says it's the one that I give the sop to after I've dipped it. He dips the sop, hands it to Judas and says, that thou doest do quickly. Judas gets up and walks out of the room. At this point you think, okay, everybody knows it's him or at least John and Peter, the ones who asked the question, would know. But no one knew. They all thought, even when it was just right in front of them, they thought, oh, he's just buying something for the feast. He must just be sending him to pick up dessert, you know, and go get something else to eat. What in the world? But that's because Judas was so slick that you never would have suspected him. No one would have. Now think about this, they'd been soul winning with Judas. They were sent out two by two. You know, I want to know who was Judas' scariest soul winning partner, you know, when they went out two by two. You know, maybe they all rotated through, you know, with Judas. But he went out soul winning, he talked the talk, he, you know, looked like he was walking the walk. All along he was stealing from the pot. Now first of all, the fact that Jesus put Judas in charge of the money shows that money was not a theme of Jesus' ministry. Think about how many preachers today make money a central theme. Where they're always raising money and fundraisers and money, money, money and preaching on money all the time. Look, there's a time to preach on money, but when you see it as a central theme, that's nothing like Christ's ministry. He said, okay, I'm going to give everybody a job. You'd think if he knows that Judas is the traitor, he's going to give him a least important job. And I think God purposely put the money with Judas just to show us this is not what it's about. Yeah, he's stealing the money, but you know what, I'm not really even that worried about it because it's really not that important. If Jesus really cared about the money, he wouldn't have given the money to the traitor to take care of. But he's trying to show us that it's not the central part of his ministry. Now the Bible promises us, and flip over to 2 Peter chapter 2. The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1, but there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you. Does it say that there might be? It says, there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness, now what did Judas do, he stole, he coveted that money. Through covetousness shall they with fainted words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. Go back to Mark 14. You know we could read the whole chapter of 2 Peter 2, also the book of Jude. He says these are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. So that means that when we get together as a church and eat a meal together, when we have food after the service, when we have a barbecue, the Bible says people like Judas, people that are false prophets, people that are evil, wicked adulterers, people who defile the flesh as Sodom it says in Jude verse 7, people who bring in heresies and false doctrine, they will certainly be eating among us. And he didn't say they might. They will be there. There will always be a Judas Iscariot among us, and if there's not one among us now, there will be one tomorrow. You know, constantly there are infiltrators and bad people. This is why you should not just implicitly trust everyone because they come to church here. And a lot of people, they just think, oh, you're from church. And they'll trust them financially, and people will lose thousands of dollars because they just assume that everybody from church is trustworthy, and they make that mistake. But not only that, but people will trust other people with something much more valuable than their money, which is their children, and just drop their kids off with someone to babysit because they're from church. I've gone to churches where they wanted us to go on some overnight couples retreat, okay, for our marriage and betterment of our marriage, and they wanted us to drop our kids off with people to babysit them overnight, and I didn't even know who these people are. I'd never even laid eyes on these people, never even met them, and people were just like, oh, no, don't worry about it. They're from church. Oh, okay, in that case, I mean, think about how crazy that is in the day that we live in, in the world that we live, to drop off your little kids at someone that you've never even met because they go to church. You know, we live in perilous times, and we need to guard our children and not let them out of our sight and not sit there and allow our children to just be babysat by any person that just is from church. You know, we need to use some discernment and not just, I don't let anybody from church watch my kids when I'm not around. You know, we don't just turn them over to people, spend the night at so-and-so's house. Look, there are way too many people getting abused and molested to just take that kind of a chance. And plus, churches often attract predators because they like the trusting atmosphere where they can be trusted. Also people will come here and try to commit fraud business-wise because they think, you know, I can find some suckers down at the church that are just going to trust everybody because we're all Christians, and as long as I say praise the Lord and hallelujah, they're going to sign on the dotted line and think everything is fine. And there are all kinds of stories about finance. There was a financial advisor that was a deacon from First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana under Jack Scopp, and Jack Scopp was teaching all this voodoo, squirrely financial stuff, and he sent his deacon around as an apostle of, you know, financial freedom and wealth and laying up treasures on earth. He sent around this deacon, Thomas Kimmel, as an apostle of Scopp's financial program, and it turned out this guy was going around and telling people to take their retirement and take their money and to put it into this wonderful investment. And this wonderful investment is going to return, you know, 10 or 12 percent a year and it's a totally safe investment. Does that sound legit? No way. It turned out it was a used car dealership that they were investing in, but they gave it some fancy name to make it sound like it was some, you know, legitimate investment, and it was some car dealership that was just totally underwater financially, totally messed up. And this guy would go around and say, you know what? Before you make a decision like this, you should talk to the man of God, you know. Get godly counsel from the man of God. Talk to your pastor, and if he tells you not to do it, then don't do it, you know. But if he says that it's a good idea, if he looks at it and thinks it's good, then go ahead and do it. Turned out he was giving the pastors commission. Talk about the conflict of interest, of getting up and acting like you're just a neutral. He would act like he was preaching a Bible sermon on finances. It was a Bible-based financial thing. And then he'd just throw in, oh, by the way, I know these good investments, you know, ask your pastor, ask the man of God, good godly counsel. The pastor is getting commission. So you think he thinks it's a good idea? Yeah, it's a great investment. Yeah. Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. OK, these are the type of things that people go into. And by the way, now that deacon is going to prison because he defrauded people of about $4 million, I think it was, huge amount of money. People lost $4 million investing in this fraud. And now he's going to prison. But he says, well, I thought it was a good investment, you know, liar. And paying off the pastors and everything, that's all highly illegal, by the way. But these kind of people are out there. They are predators. By the way, the guy who did that, I've met the guy, I've shooken his hand and talked to him, the deacon that did that. And I didn't think there was anything wrong with him. You know, he seemed like a nice guy to me. But he's stealing from people. He's lying to people. There are a lot of bad people that you never would suspect. And a lot of the people that have turned out to be evil infiltrators of this church, I was blown away. And I'm like, what in the world? You've got to be kidding. I never would have suspected. But hindsight's 20-20. You know, you've got to be careful. Now my motto is this, suspect no one, trust no one. I'm not saying go around suspecting everybody, but, you know, just, but don't go trusting people either. You know? And here's the thing. If you're going to have a financial dealing with someone in the church, which is usually a bad idea, but if you're going to have, just any time you loan something to somebody, be ready to kiss it goodbye. And don't ever trust anybody for more money than you're willing to lose. You know, and I'm not willing to lose my children, so I'm not going to trust you with my children. I mean, it's amazing how people are just so flippant with who they drop their kids off with. I mean, I would, would you drop off a suitcase of a million dollars with people? Would you put a suitcase of a million bucks on the bus? Okay, bus driver, take care of this, take it to school for me. But that's what people do with their little kid, which is worth more than a million dollars. And just as defenseless as that million dollar suitcase, little tiny five-year-old or six-year-old or seven-year-old or whatever. We got to be careful. We're living in perilous time. They said, is it I? They did not suspect Judas, we see here. And of course, Jesus is talking about, woe unto Judas. It would be better for that man if he'd never been born, okay? It says in verse 22, as they did eat, Jesus took bread and blessed and break and gave to them and said, take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And when they had sung in hymn, they went out into the Mount of Hollis. You know, I love how they got together and sang in hymn. And you know, this is something where if I could have been there, it would be a cool thing just to hear Jesus and the disciples sing in hymn, wouldn't that have been neat? And you know, I just love getting together in a group of God's people and singing the hymns. It's, you know, it's so much more enjoyable than just watching someone perform. You know, notice what it doesn't say, Peter stood up and sang a special. And they all listened in. You know, it says when they had eaten, it says when they had sung in hymn, they went into the Mount of Hollis. So they all sang. Now the Bible says, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. The Bible says also, in the midst of the congregation, I will sing praise unto thee. And I think that it's far more scriptural to sing praises to God than to just listen to praises of God. Show me scripture on listening to praises of God. I don't see it. I'll show you hundreds of scriptures commanding you. Sing unto the Lord, praise the Lord, lift up your voices and sing. I mean, just in the book of Psalms alone. And in fact, if you take the entire Bible, the command that is given more than any other command, the imperative verb that you'll find over and over again is praise. Just hundreds of times he's telling you, sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, lift up your voice. You say, well, I'm doing it in my heart. But he says, to open your mouth, to lift up your voice and sing. And so never let the congregational singing, when we come together as a church and sing, never let that become a time where you just go through the motions of just, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice, praise the Lord. You know, you should sing it out with a loud voice. You know, make a joyful noise unto the Lord and really sing it out and praise the Lord. But not just at church. There is a teaching of singing in the midst of the congregation. But you know what? It will change your life if you start just singing the hymns throughout the week. It's life changing. And I'm not just saying that to be dramatic. I've had many days where I was discouraged, I was upset, I was just going through a hard time spiritually and I just started singing the hymns and it will change your attitude like that. I mean, I can't even count how many times I was so upset or angry or down and I started singing the hymns and just immediately, immediately it changed my attitude. You know, it's hard to be depressed when you're singing out loud, to God be the glory and blessed assurance and on Christ the solid rock I stand. And that's why the Bible says be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your heart to the Lord. That will help you to be Spirit filled when you sing the hymns and praises unto the Lord. It will really change your life. Now some people say, you know, I have an awful singing voice. But honestly, God just wants to hear you sing even if you sing poorly. It's kind of like sometimes you'll hear your children sing and they get all the words wrong and they get the tune wrong. Don't you still love it anyway? You like to just hear their sweet little voices singing. But that's how God feels about His children. And so do you when you're singing badly, He just looks down and says, isn't that sweet, you know. Now, let me tell you something. Musical talent is virtually a myth. A lot of people think, oh, it's such a musical talent. You know what? It doesn't really even exist. I would say that music, and I'm a musician, I know a lot about music, I've studied, I've read science books about music, big thick books, and I've been into music my whole life. I've been playing piano and singing ever since I was a small child. I know about music and I'll tell you something, music is about 10% talent and about 90% hard work. A lot of people you say, well, that's not true because I've seen people who work and work and work and work and they can never get good at music. That's true, you're right. But it's because they're starting too late in life. That's why. And then you say, well, other people, it just comes naturally, it's just easy, they just pick up an instrument and start playing it. That is simply because that person started very young and put a lot of time and effort and work into it. That's what the talent is. I guarantee you, my friend, I've studied it, I've looked at scientific studies on it, I've read books about it, I've lived it, and I can tell you right now that what is mistaken often for talent is hard work. Or it's just taking an interest in it at a young age. Some kids at a young age are going to walk around the house singing and they're going to play on the piano, other kids have no interest. Now let me tell you something, there are a lot of people in our church who are not proficient enough to sing to the point where they can come up and lead the singing. Because of the fact that they didn't grow up in church. Okay. Thank God our church isn't just filled with people who grew up in church. I'm glad we were reaching people that did not grow up in church. That means we're winning souls. But let me tell you something. Kids who grow up in church sing better than kids who don't grow up in church. And let me tell you why. Kids who grow up in church are getting together three times a week and what are they doing? Singing congregationally. Now kids in the liberal church where they just sit and watch the band and sit and watch the performances all the time, they're not getting as much training as kids in a fundamental Baptist church where we sing four songs, three or four stanzas each. So they're getting practice a lot if they come three times a week in music. Just by singing the hymns. And you'll notice that kids who grow up in church can carry a tune. And a lot of people who didn't grow up in church or didn't grow up singing congregational singing can't carry a tune. Because it's learned. It's through practice. And, you know, it's never too late but, yeah, sometimes it is kind of too late. There are certain cutoffs psychologically where, you know, age seven is one cutoff. But then there's another major cutoff at age 30. I mean if you're a person who never touches a musical instrument and never learns how to sing and you're 30 and you're like, okay, I'm going to start learning how to sing. I'm going to start learning how to play piano. I'm going to start learning how to play guitar. No you're not. You know, I mean, you're going to try. And you can get a little ways with it, especially with musical instruments. But singing, you know, you may have missed the boat at 30 because there's a major, you know, cutoff at 30 for your brain learning new things. That's why it's been proven that people don't, they don't accept new music after 30. That's why, what do people listen to their whole lives? Whatever was popular when they were in their teens and 20s, right? And you know, you find people in their 50s and 60s. What's always going to be their favorite music? You know, the stuff from back in the 60s and the 70s. And they're just stuck on that and they'll never get out. They might pretend to like new music, but that's what they really like the most. Because it's what they were into before they were 30. Because, you know, there are certain neural pathways that just kind of close when you're 30. Unless you've already been, you know, for example, I've always hated jazz music. I don't, who likes jazz music? Oh jazz, I've never liked it, always hated it, had zero interest in it. Here's the thing. I'm 33 years old. I don't go to the grave hating jazz of all kinds. It's too late. Not that I want to like jazz, but I'm just saying. It's too late to change it. Because it's just, you get locked in. You say, Pastor Anderson, why in the world are you taking the time to talk about this? What is this relevant to my life? I'll tell you what the relevance is. The relevance is that when you bring your kids to Faithful Word Baptist Church or another church like it, another old-fashioned Baptist church, your kids are learning how to sing and they're also being programmed at a young age to love this kind of music of the hymns. Okay, now go ahead and program them to love all the hard rock and all the rap music and all the country western, all the things that you know the lyrics are teaching them all the wrong things and getting them down all the wrong paths. At least bringing your kids to church, they're learning how to sing hymns. Hymns is what I'm talking about today. What did Jesus sing? A hymn. What do we sing at church? A hymn. Okay, and when we sing the hymns, we're praising and glorifying God and also we're helping our children grow up with a talent that they could use for the Lord of singing, playing the piano, etc. And we're also ingraining in them the right kind of music and not all the wrong kinds of music, not this effeminate, sissy, liberal music of the church down the street, but actually teaching them the God-honoring Bible-based hymns of, you know, of many generations. And so, you know, that's just another great reason to be in church and to be singing songs. But look, sing them seven days a week. And look, if you do not own a hymnal, take one of the hymnals that we have. We buy extra hymnals because we want people to take it home. Who does not own a hymnal today? You do not have one of these hymnals in here. You need to take one of these home with you today and you need to take it home and get it out during the week. I remember when my son Solomon was first born, he would love it if I would sing to him. I would sit with him and just turn the page of the hymnal and just sing through the entire hymnal with him. Just sing to him, sing to him, sing to him. And you know, here he is. What? Playing the organ now. Why is he musical? Oh, that's his talent. He got struck by the lightning of talent. No. The reason that he has talent and he has more talent than I ever thought of having is because of the fact that when he was a baby, I sang to him for hours. My wife sang to him for hours. He went to church three times a week and from the time he was a toddler, he's singing and hearing it and learning it and growing it. Look, we need to do the same for our children and bring them up with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that they might spiritually benefit thereby. And you know, we need to sing every day for our own benefit. I'm talking about driving down the road, in the shower, around the house. I can honestly say that I sing hymns pretty much, I mean, Juzha, do I sing hymns all the time? I mean virtually all the time. And you know what, by the way, you know, my son Boaz, just a tiny little infant, he will, when he's really upset, he will only accept two songs. And it's awful because it's really boring to sing those two songs over and over and over. Now if he's in a little better of a mood, you can start going through the hymnal. And that's a lot more fun to actually just sing different songs, sing through the hymnal. And you know, Stephen, he always, baby Stephen always accepted a multitude of songs. Boaz will only accept two songs if he's in any kind of discomfort whatsoever. He must have, Jesus loves me and Jesus loves the little children. And that's it. So I've been trying, it's just like these two songs and I've just sung them hundreds and hundreds. And I told my wife last night, because he was really fussing and upset last night. And so my wife was dealing with Boaz, so I told my wife, I said, honey, I'll deal with him for a little while, you know, so you can get some stuff done. And I sat down and just sang over and over and over and over, Jesus loves me. Then I switched to Jesus loves the little children for a while. And I told my wife when I walked out of that room, I said, you know what, there's one thing that he's never going to doubt, that Jesus loves him. I mean, there's one thing, there's one thought that's never going to cross his mind, it's that Jesus doesn't love him. I mean, he's just heard it just over and over and over and over again. So you know, these things are going into your children's mind, they will never forget them. The power of music to just ingrain, I mean, I could sing worldly songs that I hadn't even thought about in a decade or two decades, I could sing every word for you today, because it just ingrains it in you. So you got to think about what kind of things you're singing to your kids, or you say, well, I'm not singing to them at all. Well, you know what, you're missing an opportunity to really ingrain in them biblical truth, and to sing those things, and just to help your own attitude. So you know, follow the example here where they sang in him, and they went into the Mount of Olives, it says in verse 27, Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. But after I am arisen, I will go before you into Galilee. But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I. And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice, and he spake them more vehemently, if I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all. So Peter's the most vehement, but you know what, the other disciples chime in and say, yeah, we won't betray you either. Of course, we know what's going to happen in verse 66, jump down to verse 66. This is after Peter sees Jesus get arrested, and what happens in verse 65? Some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to sand him, prophesy, and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands. Now Peter, right after, you know, Jesus is arrested, beaten, spat on. It says in verse 66, and as Peter was beneath in the palace, there come one of the maids of the high priest. Now doesn't that sound pretty scary, a maid? I mean it doesn't say some big bad dude with a big weapon. No, one of the maids comes up to him and says, she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and said, and thou also was with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the ports and the cock crew. So he says, you know, no I wasn't, and I don't know what you're talking about, and he leaves. He goes outside, he leaves the building. And it says, and a maid saw him again. So these are some really formidable opponents that he's dealing with. A maid saw him again and began to say to them that stood by, this is one of them. She's saying it to them. He denied it again. And a little after they that stood by said again to Peter, surely thou art one of them. And to swear saying, I know not the man of whom ye speak, and the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, before the cock crow twice, thou shall deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept. So this is Peter denying the Lord Jesus after so vehemently saying, I'm willing to die for you. I'm going to go anywhere with you. I will never deny you. Let me tell you something. There are people today who give lip service to how they're willing to die for Jesus. They'll take a stand for anything. And you know what? This is what will really happen when any opposition comes their way. And we ought to, you know, we ought to take a lesson from this that, you know what, when it comes down to theoretical kind of way, you know, like when it's someone else or something, you can think like, oh yeah, if I was him, you know, it'd be easy. I'd be taking a stand. I'd go through the persecution and I could handle it. But you know what? When it's you, though, it's harder than you think, because I don't think Peter was just lying when he said, oh yeah, I'll die for you. He meant that. He actually meant that. But he didn't understand and he underestimated how hard it is to stand, you know, when your life is in danger or when you're in danger of getting arrested and beaten or when you're, you know, not sure about your safety or when you're confronted in an environment where everybody's against you, even though it's a few maids and a few guys standing around. You know, you just think to yourself, you know, everybody here disagrees with me. Everybody's against me. And human nature is to deny that you know him. You know, it's just to deny that you believe the Bible or deny that you know Jesus. I've known people who were devout, serious, Bible-believing Christians who somebody said to them, you know, well, you're not a Christian, are you? No, no. And they were. But they were just ashamed and didn't want to even be identified, because the people that they were with were mocking Christians. And they said, well, are you a Christian? No, I'm not. But they really were. I mean, isn't that sad? And you know what? They felt bad about it, too, you know, because obviously Peter here, he wept bitterly about that. But let me tell you something. The independent fundamental Baptist preachers of America today, yeah, this is like most of them. They're like scared of their own shadow and scared of a maid. I mean, they'll stop preaching something if a woman in their church comes up and tells them that I didn't appreciate that. I mean, maids are literally shutting the mouths of America's preachers today. You know what's funny? Because obviously I'm going through some persecution right now. And you know, the persecution that I'm going through is a light persecution, OK? But you know, I am being persecuted and attacked right now and hated of all men and execrated and threatened and everything else. And you know, everybody's trying to do everything that they can in their power to try to harm me or fight against me because of my sermon that I did a week and a half ago. And you know, here's the thing. This isn't my first rodeo. I mean, I've already been through this repeatedly. And you know, tribulation work with patience and patience experience. And I've got experience with this. You know, I've been through this repeatedly. And it gets easier and easier to deal with because you've already been through it so many times. It's just like, all right, here we go again, you know. But you know what's funny is that right now, you know, I'm being attacked and hated and persecuted. I mean, we had all these protesters showing up and I'm getting all kinds of horrible things in the mail and I'm getting all kinds of phone calls and emails and you know, even my own neighbors and stuff. Now some of my neighbors have been extra nice to me this week. I think they liked what I said because I had some people be extra friendly with me too. But you know, because there are a lot more people out there that agree with me on this than you think. It's the silent majority, you know, that believes in this stuff. But you know what's funny is that, you know, I got an email from a pastor today that said, you know, can you please take me off of your directory of Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches on your website? Because he said, because you know, I love your church and I really appreciate you and what you do, but you know, I just don't want to be associated with this controversy at all. Because he said, I got a call, and this guy by the way is pastoring three hours from here. Three hours away. I got a call from somebody in Phoenix that asked me if I agreed with you on this. So this is, I mean, get me off that directory. So you know, it's funny, and here's what he said, oh I don't believe in the old Mosaic Law of Capital Punishment. You know what, I guarantee you, I'd be willing to bet a thousand dollars right now that that guy believes in capital punishment for murderers. I've never met an Independent Baptist pastor in my entire life who didn't believe in the death penalty, and I'd be willing to bet a thousand dollars right now that he believes in it. So where did he get that from? That old Mosaic Law? You know, but, oh, you know, and he said, I'm a mild dispensationalist. No you're just mild. You're just mild, period. And this church is extra spicy hot. Because God said he wants us to be cold or hot, not mild. And you know what, I don't eat mild salsa, okay? You know, what's the point? But here's the thing, it doesn't taste like anything, right? But anyway, I was just blown away by the fact that this guy just, he's just, ah, ah, ah! I mean look, that guy's already known what I believed all these years, he's been on that directory for years, he already knew what we believe, he's always been, oh God bless and blah, blah, blah, but oh no, he got a phone call from somebody in Phoenix that wanted to know if he agreed. But these weakling, spineless cowards won't stand on anything. Yeah, well, they just don't, yeah, they don't agree with the doctrine conveniently because they don't want to get persecuted. So this is what they hide behind. Instead of just saying, oh, we're weaklings, we're cowards, we don't want to be persecuted, so we're just not going to talk, here's what they say, well, I just don't agree with Pastor Anderson, I just don't agree with Pastor Anderson. No, you don't agree with God, it's in the Bible, I didn't write it. I mean it's just not, these people are insane. And isn't it so funny that they want to just distance themselves from this controversy. You know what you want to do? You want to get along with everybody, you little compromiser. You wimp. You can't even stand up, and look, you can't even stand up, and he said, well, I'm not into tolerance, yes you are, yes you are into tolerance. If you think that we should just live in this AIDS-infected, filthy society where sodomites just run rampant and just molest everybody and just turn everything to filth, and that we should just go to the store with our kids and see men in dresses and men in drag, and that we should all just use the same restroom, you know, because nobody knows what gender they are and everything. I mean if you think that they should just be allowed to just take over and then just once a year we're going to get behind the pulpit and say, oh, by the way, homosexuality is still a sin. And you know what's so stupid about that is that I don't go to church to hear people state the obvious to me. Why would I put gas money in my car and drive down to a building and sit in a chair to have some pastor stand up and tell me that homosexuality is a sin? Anyone who doesn't know that is a complete idiot. Anyone who doesn't know that is just a complete unbeliever. There's no saved person on the planet that thinks homosexuality is not a sin. Everyone who believes that homosexuality is not a sin is going to hell because they don't even believe the Bible at all. But these guys are like, yeah, I'm willing to take a stand and tell you that homosexuality is still a sin, amen, yeah. It's nothing. It's worthless. You're not preaching what the Bible says about it. And then they have the goal to start talking about gay marriage. That's never mentioned in the Bible. Quit talking about it. Talk about what the Bible talks about. What does the Bible say about it? You know what the Bible says about it? Exactly what I preached about it. Because I preached exactly what the Bible said and these guys are all, ah. And you know what? It's not enough to just be willing to stand for the Gospel Jesus preached. He said don't be ashamed of me and my words and this adulterous and filthy generation. And you know what? All of the words of Christ. And did you know that Christ wrote the Old Testament? Did you know that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us? I mean, Jesus Christ, He is the Word. You know, a lot of people say, well, just go by the red letters in the Bible. You know what? The whole Bible should be in red letters. I mean, if it says the words of our Lord Jesus Christ are printed in red, that should be the whole book. Think about that. Is there something in this book that Jesus didn't say since He is the Word made flesh? And so it's just ridiculous to sit there and say that, you know, oh, I just don't believe the doctrine and so I'm just going to disagree with you on this. I just don't believe in capital punishment. You liar. Every independent Baptist believes in the Gospel. You know why they believe in it for murder but not the other stuff that God said it was for? Because it's socially acceptable to believe in it for murder and it's not socially acceptable to believe in it for homosexuality or for adultery or for rape or anything else. They don't believe in it because it's not popular. So they adjust their belief. You know, the proof is this. The New Testament, we've been living in the New Testament for about 2,000 years now, right? So why did this dispensational doctrine conveniently not come around until the mid 1800s? How come in the 1400s, 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, everybody believed that those verses still applied. Everybody thought, yeah, this stuff still applies. I mean, this stuff is still Bible. Why all of a sudden? I'll tell you why. Because of the fact that social pressure and society has changed their view on this subject. Look, I promise you, I've got a bunch of old preaching tapes at my house. The sermon that I preached a week and a half ago, you could have preached that in any independent Baptist church virtually in 1990 and it would have been fine. In the year 1990, you could have preached that sermon in any. I could pull out tapes for you of people saying all the same things, everything I said in that sermon from the 90s. But it's just ever since about the year 2000, in 1999, the year 2000, they've just been really pushing this and these pastors are scared. But you know, I bet they're all willing to die for the Lord. I bet they're all willing to die for what they believe, right? They're all willing to die for the Lord Jesus. But why won't they take a stand on even this? They might get a phone call about it. Somebody might, somebody might think that, you know, I mean, it's so ridiculous. It's so sad. It's an embarrassment. It's ridiculous. So, you know, it's easy to talk big. I'll stand up to the persecution. Yeah, when you're not going through any ever. Because whenever you get in the hot seat with some maiden in your church, you're done preaching on women's clothing. Or as soon as you get in the hot seat with some maiden in your church, all of a sudden, you know, you're never going to preach about, you know, committing fornication or about whatever. Because it's just anything that offends, look, you get up and preach, hey, you know, don't let fornication take place in your house. I had somebody quit the church over that because they had their child living at home with them with their boyfriend. And they left the church and got angry over that. Oh, well, you know, I'm not going to tell you what to do just as long as you're not the one doing the fornication. Let your kids do it in your home just as long as you're not doing it. No, it shouldn't even be allowed to go on in your home. Because as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You know, and you preach stuff and it offends people. And if you can't stand up and do that, how are you going to do it when your life is on the line? How are you going to do it when you're being actually persecuted and beaten and attacked and arrested? It's not going to happen. Now let me just point out one last thing. I don't have enough time to do everything in this chapter. But I want to point out something that has been brought out as one of the contradictions of the Bible. You know the atheists, they love to come after the Bible and say, oh, it's filled with contradictions. And I always say to them, name one. You know, name a contradiction for me. And usually they're just like, oh, well, you know, there's just a lot of them. Oh, okay, well, if there's a lot, you shouldn't have any trouble naming one. But they usually can't. But sometimes they will name something. And one of the things they'll name, and it's really ridiculous, they'll name this, they'll say, well, in Mark, it says, you know, before the cock crows twice, you'll deny me thrice. And then elsewhere it says, before the cock crow, you'll deny me thrice. And in this one, if you read it, a cock crows after the first denial, right? Because if you read in verse 66, as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest. And when she saw Peter warn himself, you know, verse 68, he denied. And when he went out into the porch and the cock crew. So you have the cock crowing after the first denial. And so they'll say, okay, well, if Jesus said in the other one, before the cock crow, you'll deny me thrice. Peter's a cock crowing and he only denied once. So that's a contradiction in the Bible. Has anybody ever been confronted with that one? Have you heard this one? Brought out a few people. But basically, anyone who is mixed up on this has probably just never owned a rooster. Because if you actually own a rooster, let me explain something to you. Roosters crow at the weirdest times. Because you think of it as, as soon as the sun breaks above the horizon, right? Who's ever had a rooster? Does it do that when the sun comes? No. Midnight, 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m., you know, just the crazy, middle of the daytime. Just all the time. So I don't even know where this idea. Maybe there's another breed of rooster or something that does it that way, that's real consistent with it. But from my experience with having a rooster, it just crows when it wants to, for no reason. Okay. Now, I think the mistake that people are making here is that they're assuming like that there's one rooster in the whole world. You know, the cock. You know, and before, the cock crow twice or once. And it's a contradiction if it happens in between. I believe that what Jesus was saying when he says, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice, or before the cock crow this very night, thou shalt deny me, it's just that he's going to deny him that night. He's not being specific about a certain rooster that is just this, you know, angelic rooster there to just give this message to Peter. You know, I believe that it's just a figure of speech that he's using of just saying, hey, before the cock crow twice, you're going to deny me thrice. Meaning, you know, before the cock crow twice as in, you know, giving some time to go by of the night to wear on. Okay. Now, the reason I say that is because obviously the Bible does talk about a rooster crowing after the first denial and then another rooster crows after the third denial. Now, when Peter hears the rooster crowing after he denies him the third time, he remembers the words that the Lord had told him how he was going to deny him and then he goes out and wept bitterly. So God allowed him to hear that rooster just as something to trigger his memory that he had, you know, blown it and that he had fulfilled Jesus' prophecy that he was going to deny him that very night. But I don't think that God was trying to just be that specific and I think that there were multiple roosters crowing. I mean, you're in a big city and back then people had chickens and roosters. I mean, even in Phoenix, a lot of people have chickens and roosters and everything. I mean, I live in a very residential area. I don't live on a farm. You know, I live in a little neighborhood with a small backyard and we have a lot of chickens and a rooster and a lot of other people have the same thing, you know. And so he's not trying to just sit there and say this one rooster. Obviously there are just a lot of roosters in Jerusalem and they're all crowing at various times throughout the night and the only thing that is significant is just that that's the rooster that Peter heard, that Peter happened to hear. And the Bible just tells us about the rooster crowing previously just because of the fact that he did say before the cock crow twice, that should deny me twice. Now that doesn't mean that there was no cock in the whole city that crowed twice until the last denial came out of his mouth. You know, people are just grasping at straws to just try to pick it apart at that point and get real nitpicky about it just to try to find a contradiction in the Bible. You know, and if that is going to destroy your faith in the Bible, you know, this whole rooster thing, you know, you need to go buy a rooster for a while and see how sporadic and how often they crow and then how many there are and then, you know, just kind of get over it. But anyway, hopefully that helps you think about that passage and interpret that in case anybody hits you with that contradiction. Just tell them, hey, there's multiple roosters. It's just a figure of speech. Hey, before the cock crow twice, that should deny me twice and the only reason it mentions a literal rooster crowing is because that was something that Peter heard and so it was jogging his memory of the Lord's words. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for the hymns, Lord, and we thank you for the example that you set when you and the disciples sang a hymn during your hour of need. We know that that was a rough night for you, Lord, when you were praying in the garden of Gethsemane and we see that you sung a hymn at that time, Lord. Help us to sing hymns when we go through hard times in our life that will help us to have a good spirit and to be filled with your spirit. And Lord, help us to take a stand, not just when it's easy and popular and everybody loves us, but Lord, help us to preach the unpopular portions of scripture and to take a stand and not just jump on the trendy, convenient, comfortable doctrine wagon just to give us an excuse for not standing up to the evil of this world, just so we can go hide somewhere when the battle is raging, Lord. Help us to actually stand in the evil day, having done all to stand, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, let's sing a song. All right, we broke the record tonight. How many people do we have? One hundred. First time we've ever hit a hundred on a Wednesday night and so we're going to have ice cream for everybody after the service. Let's sing one song and then stick around for ice cream.