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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] We're at Baptist Church. Take your seats. And turn in your song books. We're going to sing song number 16. Majestic sweetness sits enthroned. Song number 16. Song 16. Song 16. The greatest saints have come. The hardest saints have come. There's heaven with rain and glory's light. It is with with praise our Lord. It's with with praise our Lord. The Lord will bring the King from here. Above the sons of man. There is He in all the faith Who filled the heavenly drain. Who filled the heavenly drain. To solid clouds and heathen stress And through whom I believe. For me before the shameful cross And carry all my grief. And carry all my grief. To give my own, my life, my prayer And all the joys I have. The days we triumph over death And saves me from the grave. And saves me from the grave. Father in heaven, thank you for everyone that's gathered here today. Thank you for the privilege of being in this church. I pray that you'll bless all aspects of the service. And bless Pastor Anderson's preaching. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, it's for our second song. Song number 18. Or, I'm sorry. Sorry, watch it. We're going to do the Psalm 117. I don't know if those are... Can you pass those out, please? I should have switched it. Get a minute to pass those around. Psalm 117. Psalm 117. Praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people, For his merciful kindness is great toward us, And the truth of the Lord endured forever. Praise he, the Lord. Praise he, the Lord. All right, it's time to go for an announcement. If you don't have a bulletin, step up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. And then Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. Tonight we're in Psalm 54. We've got the soul-winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. And the birthdays and anniversaries for the month are listed there. On the back, keep praying for Brother AJ Castillo going through cancer treatment, surgeries, chemotherapy. I mean, he's going through a really hard time, but so far everything's been going well. All the reports that I've heard have been good. Surgeries were successes. Procedures were successes. But it's obviously a really rough process, so keep praying for him. Brother Joe Rodriguez recovering from major surgery. And then Romans chapter 15, verses one through six. Who's working on memorizing this little passage? All right, great. It's an excellent portion of scripture. And we've just got a couple more weeks to go on that. And then also, keep in mind, wash your hands. Fist bumps instead of handshakes. Be cautious about the coronavirus. And then below that, the preaching class is every Tuesday night at 7. It's open to participants only, so no spectators. And then we've got the Tucson shuttle every Thursday if you want to ride down to Tucson with your brother Corbin Russell. Do the soul winning. He'll take you to dinner. Go to church down there. Get to fellowship with a lot of the great people down there in Tucson. You just show up here at 3.30, but you won't get back till 10 or 11 at night. But if you ever have a free Thursday, that's available. Other upcoming events this Thursday, a competing event this Thursday, is the Spanish night. So this is open to all skill levels, but there's no English allowed. So before the service, after the service, the fellowship is 100% Spanish. You can use charades. You can use a dictionary. You can use an app, but just don't use any English. And that is about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days going back to Monday, which was the sixth. Anything from Monday? Okay, gotcha in the back. All right, gotcha. Is that two? All right. Anything else from Monday? How about Tuesday? Anything from Tuesday? Got two for Tuesday in the back. Got four. Okay, one. All right, anything else from Tuesday? And then how about today? Anything from today? Today, gotcha. Okay, anything else from today? All right, keep up the good. Oh, one for the band? All right, very good. All right, keep up the great work on soul winning. Yes. Song number 19. Oh, I'm sorry, 18. Song number 18, Take the Name of Jesus With You. Song number 18. Song number 18. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. 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Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. And song number 19. Song number 20. And song number 21. And the song number 21. The song number 22. And call it right in. May the Jay planned just retiring greater than they know. They're entitled to their view. But I strongly believe that it doesn't really matter who baptized you. As long as you were baptized by immersion, after salvation, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, then I would not say that you need to get re-baptized. Now, if you want to get re-baptized, if it bothers you or something, then we'll re-baptize whoever wants to get re-baptized. But I strongly believe that your baptism is valid because of the fact that the Bible is so clear that you're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And who baptized you isn't the issue. Because here's the problem with having this attitude that says, well, you know, the person who baptized you matters, and they better be legit. You know what you're going to have then? You're going to have people saying, well, I'm only willing to be baptized by a certain person. Right? Or demanding it. Say, well, hey, I need Pastor Anderson to baptize me. I don't want a deacon to baptize me. I don't want any other staff to baptize me or something. You know, it's got to be Pastor Anderson. You know what? Isn't that exactly what the Bible condemned in 1 Corinthians 1? Basically demanding to be baptized by a certain person or saying, well, I'm baptized by him. I'm with him. And Paul is even refusing to baptize people because he doesn't want to feed into this mentality of making it a big deal and putting him up on too high of a pedestal, like, I was baptized by Paul. It's meaningless, friend. Now, I will say this. OK, at our church, what we practice, we practice the idea that only somebody who's an ordained minister baptizes people. That's what we practice. OK? So the only people who baptize anybody at our church are people who've been ordained. OK? But here's the thing about that, though. Is there a clear scripture that teaches that in the Bible or demands that we do it that way? No, there isn't. I can't point to any clear scripture in the entire Bible that tells us who has the authority to baptize. There's no clear scripture like that. Now, what we do see is the examples in the Bible where people are getting baptized, they're always being baptized by an apostle or a deacon or somebody like that. We don't have any examples of just randos doing a baptism. OK? But we can't stand up and be dogmatic about something that the Bible doesn't mention. Now, some churches will even have parents baptize their own children. Or just anybody who's saved baptizes someone else. They even have a woman baptizing someone else or something. Now, look, we don't practice that. We just follow the biblical example. But at the same time, I can't get up and just dogmatically say, that's wrong. Because I'm not going to stand up and preach for doctrines the commandments of men. And if there's no clear command on who can baptize, we can use common sense. We can follow the Bible's best practice. But at the end of the day, there's no clear scripture on this. But I'll tell you one thing that is clear is that you're baptized by immersion. That means going underwater, not sprinkling or pouring. I'll tell you another thing that's crystal clear. You're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And I'll tell you another thing that's super clear. You get baptized after salvation. So me personally, I don't care who baptized you as long as it was in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Because of the fact that he's the one, God is the one who's actually executing that baptism spiritually. And the guy who's physically dunking you underwater is just a proxy or an ambassador for Christ or a representative of the Father, Son, the Holy Ghost doing that baptism. I hope you all understand what I'm explaining there. Are you there in Matthew chapter 18? It says in verse 5, and whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. Look at chapter 18, verse 20. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Flip over to Matthew 7. Go to Matthew 7. I'll just read to you from Mark. It says in Mark 941, for whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name because you belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. John 14, 13, whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. So we see that the name of God or the name of Jesus has power. There's power. There's power to save you as far as getting you to heaven. There's also just the power of invoking the name of Christ that basically he will get involved. You're asking something in his name, and he'll do it. You assemble in his name, and he's there with you. So God's name isn't just referring to a combination of letters that make a word that we use to identify who he is. His name basically just encapsulates his presence, his power, his identity, his reputation. This is all wrapped up in his name. And that makes sense because obviously when we hear the name Jesus, I mean, that's a pretty loaded word, isn't it? I mean, if I said to you the word Jesus, if I said, you know, take out some paper and a pen, write about this word, Jesus. I mean, you could just write thousands of pages about the name of Jesus, right? Look how many songs there are in the hymnal just talking about the name of Jesus. Take the name of Jesus with you, all this. Why? Because it's not just five letters there. It basically encapsulates the Son of God, his sinless life, his miracles, his preaching, his death on the cross, his burial, his resurrection. I mean, that's all wrapped up in this person Jesus and in this name Jesus. Whereas if we pulled out some other name and we just said, you know, intelligent design, supreme being, creator. You know, creator doesn't necessarily mean somebody who died on the cross or rose again, but that's what Jesus means. So that's what we mean by the name. But I want to point out in Matthew 7, though, that the name of God or the name of Jesus, though, is not like a magic spell or an incantation or a superstitious thing where, like, those five letters are what has the power. OK, because the Bible warns there could be another Jesus. So just saying the name Jesus, that's not where the power is. It's got to be the right Jesus, and it's got to be invoked by the right person. Because look what the Bible says in Matthew 7, verse 21. Not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. So we could take the verse that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, and say, well, yeah, just anybody who says Lord is saved. But is that what the Bible says? The Bible says not everyone that says to him, Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. And of course, if we study the Bible, what is that will of the Father? Jesus tells us in the book of John, he said this is the will of the Father that ye believe on him whom the Father has sent. I'm paraphrasing that. But if you look up the will of the Father, you'll see it has to do with believing in Jesus. When it says do his will, what that's saying is you have to do it his way. You have to go to heaven his way. It's his plan of salvation. It's through the blood of Christ. It's not through your own way where you make your own way to heaven by helping little old ladies across the street, and donating to charity, and living a good life. No, it's his will. It's his way. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied, notice, in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. These people three times bring up that name, don't they? Why do they keep bringing that up? Because they think, well, as long as I said the name Jesus, it's just an automatic, I'm in. But in reality, what they need to understand is that the name of Jesus isn't just a magic word. It's actually having your faith in that person behind the name that gets you saved. Calling upon the name of the Lord is just a reference to the fact that when you're calling upon Jesus, you're calling upon a specific savior whose name is Jesus, not just a supreme being or just God in general. So he says to them in verse 23, then while I profess to them, I never knew you. Depart from me that work iniquity. It always cracks me up when people try to use this verse to say you can lose your salvation. When he said, I never knew you. Define irony, right? I didn't say I used to know you. He said, I never knew you. Depart from me that work iniquity. Because here's the thing. When you're unsaved and you're going around doing a bunch of stuff in Jesus' name, you're doing these wonderful works in Jesus' name, those are works of iniquity. Because you're going around doing stuff in the name of Jesus when you don't even believe on Jesus as your savior, that's not just a neutral thing. You're actually doing a bad thing. How would you like a preacher to spend his whole life preaching the Bible, but he doesn't believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Is that guy just, well, at least he did something? He's a negative. He's hurting the cause of Christ. So these wonderful works that people are doing in the name of Jesus when they're not even saved are works of iniquity. So if you would flip back to Psalm 54 with all that in mind. I wanted to just kind of spend a little time on that subject, because it's kind of interesting the way that's worded. Save me by thy name. How is a name going to save him? How is a word going to save him? Well, the reason it says save me, oh God, by thy name is because God's name invokes the presence of God, the power of God. It's the identity of who God is. He's praying to a specific God. He's not just praying to God in general. He's calling out to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's calling out to Jehovah, God, saying save me, oh God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength. Verse 2, hear my prayer, oh God. Give ear to the words of my mouth, for strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul. They have not set God before them, Selah. Now if you would, just keep your finger there. Flip over to Psalm 36. Psalm 36, verse 1. He said, strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul. They have not set God before them, Selah. They've not set God before them. Look at Psalm 36, verse 1. I love this verse. It says, the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes. The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes. Here's what he's saying. When I look at the transgression of the wicked, when I look at what wicked people do, it tells me this person doesn't fear God. You know what I mean? I see somebody doing something super wicked. I'm going to say, hey, this guy clearly doesn't fear God. Their transgression tells us that. In our heart, we're thinking to ourselves, does this person have no fear of God? So back in Psalm 54, he says, for strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul, they have not set God before them. Selah, these people don't have God on their mind. God is not in all their thoughts, the Bible says. They don't have God in front of them. They don't call upon God. We saw that in Psalm 53, which is related. He said, they have not called upon the Lord. They don't have God before them. God is not in their thoughts. There's no fear of God before their eyes. That's why they have the boldness to attack God's anointed, because David is the king of Israel. So he's part of the chosen people. He's the anointed king of the chosen people. And yet, they have no fear to just assault him, and attack him, and oppress him. And obviously, they ought to be afraid to do that. The Bible says in verse 4, behold, God is my helper. The Lord is with them that uphold my soul. So he's saying, look, people that are siding with me, people that are defending me, people that are fighting the battle with me, hey, God's with them. And the people that are against me, there's no fear of God before their eyes. They don't have God before them. Says in verse 5, he shall reward evil unto my enemies. Cut them off in thy truth. Now, stop and think about this. God told Abraham, I will bless him that blesseth thee, and I will curse him that curseth thee. And then the Bible tells us in the New Testament in Galatians chapter 3 that the promise of Abraham comes upon Abraham and upon his seed. And the Bible tells us in Galatians that if we be Christ, then are we Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. So what the Bible is saying is that if you are a saved child of God, that's it. It doesn't matter if you're Jew, Gentile, bond-free, male, female, not important. If you are in Christ, that promise applies to you that God will bless those who bless you, and he will curse those who curse you. This is why the Bible told us, and we read this verse earlier, that if someone gives you a cup of cold water, God's gonna bless that person, right? Whosoever giveth unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. You know, Jesus said, as much as you've done it unto one of these, the least my brethren, you've done it unto me. And so if we do ill unto people that are in Christ, people who love God, people who serve God, and we do ill unto them, then ill will come to us. And if we are a blessing to them, then blessings are going to come upon us. And you know, a lot of evangelical Christianity understands this concept, except they apply it to the Jews. Like, hey, if we support Israel, then we're gonna get all these blessings, and oh man, if you say anything bad about Israel, or if you don't support Israel, or if you are negative toward Israel, God is gonna come down on you and curse you. Now of course, that's a false doctrine, because the so-called state of Israel today, the Bible says is in bondage. With her children, they do not have the son, they do not have the father, they don't believe on Jesus Christ, they are totally doomed and damned, okay? They are under God's wrath, and that's a whole nother sermon, it's easy to prove that from the Bible, six ways to Sunday. But take that concept that you may have learned, maybe you learned that in the past when you were taught that Zionist doctrine, you know, because a lot of churches taught that, I grew up learning that. Take that concept and apply it to Christians, and then you actually end up with a wonderful promise. And you also end up with a dire warning, telling you, hey, don't mess with God's people, don't mess with people that are serving Christ, don't mess with people that are in Jesus Christ, why? Because God is going to punish you if you do. And when you see people that just don't even hesitate to attack godly people and attack men of God or attack Christians, whether they be man, woman, boy, or a girl, it tells you that they just don't fear God. Because otherwise they'd realize what kind of wrath of God they're incurring upon themselves. Because God will bless those who bless his people, and he will curse those who curse his people. You know, the Bible says that God rebuked kings, he reproved kings for their sake, talking about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. God is not a respecter of persons when it comes to who's a king or an important rich person or whatever, but he does defend his servants. He does defend those who are in Christ. And so when strangers are risen up against us and oppressors seek after our soul, they haven't set God before them. Because obviously God didn't lead them to do that. Obviously they're not filled with the spirit. In many cases they're not even saved. But even if they are saved, they're outside the will of God if that's what they're doing. It says in verse four, behold God is my helper. The Lord is with them that uphold my soul. So he's gonna bless those who bless him. He's with those that uphold his soul. And he's gonna curse those that curse him. It says in verse five, he shall reward evil unto mine enemies. So that's the curse them that will curse David. He will reward evil unto my enemies. And then at the end, after he just makes the statement that God is going to reward evil unto his enemies, he prays a curse upon his enemies saying, cut them off in thy truth. So this is what we would call an imprecatory Psalm. Imprecation is a curse, okay? And so he is praying a curse upon his enemies that are coming after him and destroying him. And the wicked have bent their bows against him. And he says, cut them off in thy truth. Cut them off. Now, is he asking God to bless these people? No, I mean, other Psalms, he says, break their teeth in their mouth, oh God. Let them go down quick into hell. You know, there are multitudes of statements like this in the book of Psalms where David is praying an imprecation upon people. Now, a lot of people today in 2020 would tell you this is never okay. This is never okay to pray these kinds. You know, we're supposed to just love everybody and bless every single person. But you know, that's just oversimplifying the Bible. A lot of people wanna just oversimplify the Bible. They don't wanna study to show themselves approved and rightly divide the word of truth and understand all the intricacies and nuances of what the Bible has to teach. They just wanna oversimplify, just love everybody, bless everybody. That's not what the Bible teaches. You know, the Bible says, shouldest thou help the ungodly or love them that hate the Lord? Therefore, wrath is upon thee from the Lord thy God. So we see that we don't want, and you say, well, that's the Old Testament. Okay, how about the New Testament where the Bible says, if they're coming unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed for he that biddeth him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds. So even in the New Testament, he says, look, if you bless these people that are preaching a false gospel, you're a partaker in their evil deeds. Even if you simply say to them, Godspeed, God bless you, have a great day. If you help them and assist them and comfort them and bolster them, he's saying, you're a partaker in their evil deeds. So we don't wanna oversimplify. We wanna understand that there's a time and a place to get on your knees and pray, God, cut them off in thy truth. This is a, you say, well, it's Old Testament. That's why, because the New Testament told us to sing the Psalms. So are we supposed to sing this, you know, cut them off in thy truth. Oh, just kidding. Actually bless them. Don't cut them off in thy truth. No, you can't just throw out Psalms. And this is a big part of Psalms includes these kind of curses. Now, how do you square this with, you know, love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Again, people just wanna oversimplify and they wanna take a scripture that's teaching you to love your enemies and bless those that curse you. And they wanna just oversimplify it to just love everybody. Love everybody, love the Pope, love pedophiles, you know, love Charles Manson, just love everybody. That's crazy. That's not what the Bible teaches. And here's the thing, if you can actually say, I love Charles Manson, you know, I just love these violent predators and I just love it. Here's the thing, if you say that it just, all you're telling me is you just don't even know what love means is what you're telling me. Or you just have some warped concept of love. Why you love serial killers and serial rapists, you've got something wrong with you is all you're saying. You're just telling me that there's something wrong with you or that you just have no concept of love. See, the Bible says, love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, clean to that which is good. You can't love the flowers without hating the weeds. All right, if you love everybody, then you love nobody. It's just, that's just a platitude, just I just love everybody, you know. That's a meaningless statement made by vain people who are just kind of just empty people who are just full of fluff and hot air because no one actually loves everybody. God doesn't love everybody. I don't love everybody, but you don't love everybody. That doesn't make any sense because there are some horrible, harmful people that how could we love their victims and love them at the same time? That doesn't make any sense. Okay, so don't get sucked into this worldly, love wins, gay pride, weirdo stuff. Okay, that's not what the Bible teaches. Okay, let's get a biblical view of what love is. And so how do we square this? How do we square getting on your knees and praying for God to cut someone off or praying that God will break their teeth out of their mouth, which is probably one of the most painful things you can imagine, or praying for God to send these people quick into hell. How do you square that with love your enemies? Because you know what, I believe both. I'm not gonna pick or choose. I'm not gonna say, well, discard the one and no, no, they're both God's word. And it's not a contradiction. It's just that the Bible answers this in Ecclesiastes chapter three when it says there's a time to love and a time to hate. So there's a time for both. That's what we find if we actually dig deeper into the word of God and study, there's a time for love, time for hate, time for war, time for peace. That's why it's not a contradiction because we're talking about different times, different situations. Okay, let me give you an example. You know, let's say I'm at work and one of my coworkers has it in for me. And he lies about me and gets me in trouble with the boss. Now here's, you know, maybe he messes something up and he blames me and throws me under the bus. And I ended up getting held accountable for something that I didn't do. Now, do you think that's ever happened before in the world? I mean, maybe not to you or me, but that happens, doesn't it? Now, here's the thing about that. Should I, if somebody does me dirty like that, should I just drop to my knees and just be like, oh God, rain fire and brimstone on this person, you know, break their teeth out of their mouth, destroy them? No, that would be wrong. You know, because God tells us to overcome evil with good, love your enemies, bless them that curse you. Let's say you have somebody who treats you like a jerk at work every day and they just give you a bad time, they hassle you, they make your life miserable. That's not who you're praying to be doomed and damned. You should be praying for that person to get saved. You should show that person the love of Christ. And a lot of times you're gonna be able to win that person over anyway and overcome evil with good and maybe eventually that person will be your friend. And that happens a lot too. But even if they're never your friend, you still would just pray, Lord, you know, forgive them. Forgive them for they know not what they do. You know, loving people and forgiving things and letting things go, that's part of being a Christian. Okay. So this other situation though is, you know, David's in a situation where, you know, let's say there's just some invading army that's just coming to murder and rape and pillage or something. He's not just gonna turn the other cheek here. You know, he's basically got to defend the nation, defend himself, defend his family and so forth. This is a different situation. Not only that, but when we're dealing with people who hate the Lord and are the enemies of the Lord, that's a big difference from somebody who's our personal enemy. Okay. Now obviously, those who hate the Lord are also gonna end up being our personal enemies sometimes too. But here's the thing. Is that guy who, you know, stole from your, he stole your lunch from the fridge at work, is that guy a hater of God or a reprobate or just some vile scum that needs to be thrown in the trash? No, but he's your enemy. I mean, he's harming you. Okay. That's the person that you wanna love. And maybe he says, hey, bleep you, you know. Hey, bless those that curse you, right? Do good to them that hate you. Pray for those that despitefully use you and persecute you. People who persecute you today could be your friends tomorrow. Look at the Apostle Paul. Started out persecuting Christians and then he became the great friend of the Christians and a great preacher of Christ. So we wanna be able to distinguish between the truly rotten scum where we're just like, God, just kill these suckers versus people that are just doing wrong by us. Does everybody see the difference? Somebody could do wrong by us, somebody could hurt us, somebody could be our enemy, but not be a horrible person. So some people that don't like me or even harm me, they may not be horrible people. Maybe they're just wrong on this one issue of not liking me, all right? So maybe other than that, they're a great person, right? And I think there are a lot of people out there who really, now I don't wanna say that there are people who actually hate me who are right with God because I'm a child of God. And so if people hate God's children, then that brings into question their love for God, doesn't it? But I will say this, I do believe that there are a lot of good people who strongly dislike me. Good, godly Christians that are serving God and they strongly dislike me. And part of that could be maybe they just don't know me or maybe they've just heard bad things about me that weren't true. Or maybe there's something that I said that just really struck a nerve with them. It's a really big issue to them and we disagree and so they're really mad and whatever. And they could still be good people and not like me. So that's why I'm not just gonna just start praying down the wrath of God on everyone who's my enemy. I'm supposed to love my enemies because a lot of them are decent people or maybe even good people, maybe even great people, okay. But then you have just these bottom dwelling scum, just wicked, vile people, just haters of everything that's good. They hate the work of God, they hate the soul winning, they hate the preaching of the gospel, they hate church, they hate the Bible, they hate the word of God, they hate God's people or whatever and they are just evil people. Now the Bible is saying here, cut them off in thy truth. And that's why it says in verse seven, for he had delivered me out of all my trouble and mine eye had seen his desire upon mine enemies. The his there is referring to his eye. So his eye saw his eye's desire upon his enemies. So he's saying he wanted to see these people bite the dust. He wanted to see these, that's what he's praying, cut them off, okay. And this is legitimate. Now some people will try, well, it's just David talking. Folks, it's the word of God. When the New Testament quotes the book of Psalms, it says, well spake the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David the prophet. If you're reading the book of Psalms, this is God's word. This out of the mouth of God, you can't say, well, it was a bad prayer that he prayed when he said cut them off. He was just in a bad mood, he got a little carried away in 19 different Psalms that he said stuff like that. Out of 150, 19 of them are classified as imprecatory Psalms, praying God's wrath on the enemy. So it's not like it's one verse or two verses or five verses. We're talking about 19 chapters in the book of Psalms alone dedicated to just praying down wrath on the enemies. And so look, let me just explain something to you, is that when you go to a church like Faithful Word Baptist Church, there's a great door open and effectual. And there's a great door, there's a great opportunity to do a lot of great work for God. I mean, look at all the souls that are being saved around here. Look at all the people that are being baptized. Look at all the great works that have taken place over the last 15 years. But you know what, with the great door open and effectual, you know what else comes with that? There are many adversaries. That's what the Bible says. There's a great door that's open and there are many adversaries. And let me tell you something. Our church has a big target on it and there are literally millions of people just foaming at the mouth hating our church. I mean, look, our church and myself personally are banned from entire nations. 36 countries, it might be 37, I lost count, but 36 or 37 countries have literally banned me. Okay, literally almost every nation in the world has had a newspaper article condemning me, condemning our church, condemning our staff, condemning missionaries that we sent and people like that. So there are just a lot of enemies and a lot of haters. And a lot of people wonder, man, why is there so many problems? Why is there so much drama? There's just one thing after another. Folks, it's because we have so many enemies. We are constantly under attack all the time. It's a spiritual attack all the time. It's a physical attack. It's an internet attack all the time, every single day, nonstop, we are being attacked. And folks, the attacks don't just come from without, they infiltrate and come from within. I mean, the apostle Paul said that it was from within and without that he was getting it. He said he was in peril of false brethren. He was in danger of false brethren. Folks, our church, just take this to the bank. Our church is always gonna have infiltrators in it. People who come here, when you have millions, just use a little common sense. You got millions of people all over the world foaming at the mouth just hating my guts and hating this church and everything we stand for. I mean, does anybody doubt that for one second that there are literally millions of people like that that feel that way? It's a fact. Okay, well, if you have that many people that just hate us, okay, then obviously don't you think that some of them are gonna come here to mess with us? When the Bible talks about how they're gonna be false prophets, but they're gonna creep in privily and they're gonna do all these things, obviously it's going to happen. The devil is going to come and he's gonna sow tares among the wheat. And we're gonna sow all this good seed and plant all these good crops and we wake up and we're like, whoa, from whence then are these tares? Where did all these weeds come from? Now look, some people have an attitude that just says, well, you know what, I just can't handle it. Well, you know what then? If you can't take the heat, then get out of the kitchen. You know what I mean? Because a lot of people just have an attitude that just, oh, I just want to go to a church where there aren't any problems and there's no drama. Well, you know what, just go to church that's not doing anything. Go to a church that doesn't put their stuff online at all. Because you know what, it's a two-edged sword, friend. You put your stuff online and you can reach literally millions of people and get literally hundreds of thousands of people saved and reach millions of people with the message. But you know what, the downside of that is you also reach millions of demons and millions of weirdos and millions of sycophants and psychos and stalkers and haters and infiltrators. And you know what, some of them are going to move out here and creep in and come into our church and just try to cause as much damage as they can. And you know what, they become exposed for what they are. As soon as they get caught, as soon as they get thrown out, they immediately show their true colors. And you want to know what those colors are? You want to know what the colors are? Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. That's the true colors. Isn't it funny, and why don't I just name the name? Isn't it funny that we throw the Fosters out of the church and Katie Foster's promoting gay pride twice in a row on her Instagram within a week. And you can say, well, if it was just one picture, maybe it was an accident, she's promoting gay pride twice in a row. Can somebody explain to me how somebody goes to this church for years and years and then they're promoting gay pride within a week of being thrown out? Now ask me if I regret throwing them out. And ask me if I regret throwing out the people who want to sympathize with them, hang out with them, follow them, promote them. When they're promoting gay pride the next day, that's how these people are because they're rotten, lying devils who infiltrated our church is what they are. That's why those psycho stalker freaks moved in 150 feet from my house because they're weirdos. And you know what, don't move in right next to me or I'm gonna think you're creepy too because that's not normal. When we're in a city with four and a half million people, you just gotta move in right next to the pastor and just be right there. As you talk bad about him every chance you get, as you're constantly stabbing him in the back, always siding with his enemies, why are you even here then? It makes no sense, actually it makes perfect sense. You're here because you're evil. And that's what's going, and that's one example. You know it's funny, the first people that we ever threw out that we found to be infiltrators, and this was all the way back in 2008, okay, there was a family in our church and back then I wasn't as tuned in to the flattery and the red flags. I was young and I was like in my mid 20s and so I didn't really know as much about these things and so I just thought these people really liked me. They're just really nice people who were so friendly and they were always praising me and I was just like, oh man, these people just really love our church. Where has this church been all our life? You know, nowadays I would spot some of that flattery right away. You know, looking back at some of the things that they said that were weird and over the top. But anyway, at the time, you know, I didn't know what was going on. But one thing I did notice is that we'd have a lot of visitors show up to our church and they'd show up and they'd be real excited about the church and I was like, oh cool, you know, we got some new people. And then it was like they didn't come back. And it always seemed weird to me, like man, how come so few people come back when they were so excited and they loved the church and they thought it was so good. And I noticed this lady getting their phone numbers on Sunday mornings, like she'd be the first one to go greet them and she'd get their phone number and then one of those people told me that she called them on Monday to warn them about our church and stay away, it's a bad church. And this is, to my face, these people were my biggest fans. Like to the point where even my wife was warning me these people are over, you know, she was more tuned in to the flattery. She was like, these people are weird, like they're overboard. And guess what? Turned out, they're getting people's phone numbers, they're buddying up to brand new visitors and then calling them and talking bad about the church. Does that make any sense? When they moved here because they love the church and where's this church been all our lives? The best church ever. But then they're gonna get people's phone numbers and call them and warn them, stay away. Look, is that an infiltrator or what? Okay, so then not only that, these people told me, they said, oh, here's how we found your church, Pastor Anderson, we found your sermon on why Billy Graham's going to hell and we just loved it, it was the best sermon ever and that's what got us hooked, right? Okay, the day after they get thrown out, they're online starting a whole blog about how bad we are and how bad I am and how bad our church, this is back in 2008, okay? It's a long time ago, maybe early 09 but it was around 2008, 2009. And here's what they said, they said, this Pastor Anderson, he's so arrogant, he'll even preach against a godly man like Billy Graham who's done so much for the Lord. Folks, that's the sermon that they said got them in and literally, the day they get thrown out, it's like all of a sudden, Billy Graham walks on water the next day and they're quoting other versions of the Bible within two days online. You know, after they're just gung ho, King James. Folks, these people are phonies is what they are. They're rocking people and they creep and you know what, it makes me mad because here I am serving the Lord, trying to work hard in the house of God and then you just have these creeps and weirdos coming in and it makes you mad. But those weirdos that we threw out back then, it's amazing how they just change on a dime. Overnight, you go from being the greatest preacher ever to just being this monster and so horrible and so bad. Folks, that's how they always felt. That's what they always thought. They were there, oh and by the way, after we threw the people out, their daughter played the piano for us. Her journal was left in the piano bench, okay. She left like a little book in there. We found it, we're like, what's this? And in the book, it's talking about they've been thrown out of all these other churches. It's like, what in the world? And then not only that, I had a super weird conversation with them one time where they were telling me how their pastor in San Diego refused to perform their wedding ceremony. And I was like, oh, that's weird. So I was like, what was his issue? And they're just like, yeah, he just wouldn't perform our wedding and this and that. And I said, well, is one of you divorced? No, no, we're not divorced. And the story wasn't really adding up. And so I kept asking them, because here's the thing, if they're divorced, okay, tons of people in our church are divorced and remarried. My parents are divorced and remarried. Obviously people have their past and that's their past and there's nothing you can do to change that. So I wouldn't have been offended if we had other people in our church that were divorced. It's not a big deal to just tell the truth about it, right? I mean, what's the big deal? Just, yeah, but they're like, no, no, neither one of us had ever been married before. Are you sure? So you hadn't been married? So you hadn't been married? Because the story wasn't adding up. So I asked like three times and they're just like, no. I was like, that's really weird. Hey, then later, Brother Stuckey, because Brother Stuckey used to go to our church back then, now he's in the Philippines preaching over there. Brother Stuckey comes to me and says, after they got thrown out, he said, well, they told me that, you know, I think she'd been married twice. He'd been married three times. His ex-wife's a lesbian. It was just like, what in the world? How could you lie about something that huge? Yeah, they just forgot. Exactly, yeah. Forgetting those things that are behind. But folks, I'm telling you, they're, you know what, and I know it's hard to believe until you actually start seeing this stuff, it's really hard to believe. Because you're just like, no, they were so nice. I hung out with them. You know, I was in their little front yard party every week and everything. It's like, you know what, let me tell you something. If these people didn't put on a show, then how did Judas get away with it? Explain that. Explain how everybody at the Last Supper's like, man, is it I? They were more suspicious of themselves than they were of Judas. They were looking at themselves. Am I the traitor? And then he gives, he pretty much flat out says, it's Judas, and they're just like, I don't get it. You know, it's the one that I give the sop to after I've dipped it. He dips the sop, gives it to Judas. Judas, that's not Judas, do it quickly. Oh, he must be going to buy stuff. They just don't get it, because that was the last person they would have suspected. But I'm telling you, in the age of the internet, in the age of the internet, there are so many more weirdos finding out about our church. There's so many more creeps, and you just sit there and think, well, I just don't want to go to a church where I can't trust the people, because there could be infiltrators. Folks, first of all, any Bible-believing church that's doing something for God's going to have a Judas in it, period. It's just we have a lot of Judases, because we're doing a lot, and because we have a big internet presence, so every weirdo on the planet is alerted to our existence. Now here's the thing. If we could just stop broadcasting to YouTube, we could just stop putting stuff online, and just stop recording the sermons, and just preach here, and you know what, we'll attract less weirdos. But you know what, we'll also get less people saved. We'll also have less of an impact, and you know what, it's worth it to do both. But here's the moral of the story. Do not assume that because somebody is from church that you can trust that person, and that's the mistake that people make. Do not think, and I've preached this, I've preached this for the last 15 years. I've preached it till I'm blue in the face. I was preaching it, you can find entire sermons in 2006 dedicated to this subject, warning you, do not assume that because people go to our church that they're good people. Oh, and by the way, if somebody's friends with me on Facebook, one mutual friend, Steven Anderson, that means Jack. Okay? Oh, it's safe. Let me tell you something. Do not let your children go spend the night at other people's houses. Oh, they're church people. Do not just let people babysit your kids, and have a sleepover. Folks, there have been bad people at our church in the past. I'm sure there are bad people here now, and there will be bad people here in the future. You must be on your guard. And not just assume that because somebody comes to our church, that they're not some evil psycho stalker witch from hell. Because you know what? Maybe they are. Because if you were a cyber stalker witch from hell, you know, you might come and mess with Faith Ward for a while. Folks, people come here, people, weirdos come here sometimes and literally just take pictures of themselves in the building, like, hey, look at me, I'm behind enemy lines, you know. There's some weird people in this world. If you want to just be, look, how can you be completely safe? How can you be 100% safe? Never leave the house. Right? How can you be totally car accident free? Never drive. Right? How can, you know, look, I can give you a guaranteed way to never get coronavirus. Just, you know, I'll show you how to just plastic all your windows, duct tape, you know, air filters, and just, you never leave the house, and everything gets fumigated before it comes in, all your Amazon deliveries. But here's the thing, life involves risk. Life involves risk, okay? So that's why we're supposed to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves, because look, this life is a minefield. And you know what, sometimes church can be a minefield. And a lot of people are just like, oh, church is supposed to be this sanctuary where we go and just get away from everything that's bad. It's like, dream on, sucker. It isn't true. You have a wrong expectation, because how can we prevent weirdos and bad people from coming into our church when Jesus said that they will be among you, there will be terrors amongst the wheat, there will be false prophets among you, they will creep in, they will beguile unstable souls, they will have eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin. You're gonna have all of these people who will privately come in, they'll bring damnable heresies, they wanna bring disciples after them. Folks, you are guaranteed that the church is never a safe space from bad people. It never will be. If you find me a church that has no bad people in it, it's a church that the devil's just like, well, this one's not even worth my time. They're not even doing anything. So to sit there and think, well, I just go to church to get away from every bad person and every bad influence and every danger, you have a warped view of reality and a warped view of church because church has never been that place and it never will be. I wish I could guarantee you that. I wish I could tell you, hey, you know what, all the kids at church are great kids for your kids to be friends with, but I'd be lying if I said that. Hey, everybody in church is a great person to babysit your kid. I'd be lying if I said that. Hey, everybody at church, yeah, go ahead and do business transactions with them. They'll never rip you off. It'd be a lie. And so you need to adjust your expectation because Jesus never said, hey, church is gonna be this safe space where everybody knows your name and everybody's glad you came and nobody's gonna hurt you or harm you and it's out in the world that you're gonna get, no, you know what, some of your worst enemies could be the ones that are from church, unfortunately. I'm just not gonna go to church. Well, then go be a loser then. But you know what, you gotta just understand that God has ordained the church, but Ananias and Sapphira are gonna be there. Judas is gonna be there. You know what I mean? Weirdos are gonna be there. That's just life. So don't let it get you down. Don't let it discourage you because of the fact that, you know what, there are a lot of great people at church and sometimes just a few bad apples can get people disillusioned with the whole barrel. But in reality, the vast majority of people at our church do love the Lord. They are great people. They will continue to serve God. But what about the Bible said, they went out from us because they were not of us. I mean, this is all through the New Testament, folks. So just adjust your expectation and understand the fact, hey, look, I wanna make friends at church. I get great fellowship at church, but I'm not gonna be so naive as to think that everybody at church is real. Now, here's the thing about it though. Everybody at your job's not real. Everybody at your school's not real. Everybody in your neighborhood's not real. We live in a fallen world. Yeah. So it's not just church where phonies and hypocrites abound. Guess what? Phonies and hypocrites abound in your neighborhood. They abound at your job. This is life, okay? And folks, we live such a good life in the United States of America and we're so blessed. But you know what? This world, just don't let that disguise the fact that this world's a very dark place. Most people in the world, I was just talking to somebody from Venezuela today and they're talking about how they don't have any food, they don't have any water, and they can take a shower for like 15 minutes a day is when the water turns on so they can take a shower and they have the coronavirus is spreading and they don't have any, and they were just talking about how horrible things are there. Here we are up in America, things are pretty good for us. Amen? Venezuela's one example. There are lots of other examples of bad places that you don't wanna be. Why are those places bad? Did God make them bad? Did God send a big dark cloud over that country? No, wicked, evil, satanic people turned Venezuela from a beautiful place into a hellhole. That's what communism and socialism will do for you, by the way. So they turn it into a total hellhole. Who did that? People did that. And you know what? The Bible says the dark places of the earth are fully of the habitations of cruelty. And so there's all kinds of darkness and evil in this world and that evil will sometimes creep into the local church. And they'll corrupt, they'll beguile unstable souls, they'll take young people aside and corrupt them and influence them and get them into sin. And folks, the same thing was going on when I was a kid in the Christian school. People were constantly trying to bring in drugs and bring in alcohol and bring in sin. It's just the way the world is. We've gotta put on the whole armor of God because of the fact that this is a battlefield that we're in and church is not like, oh, let's take off the armor. We're at church now. No, you better put on the armor before you come to church because the church is part of where the battle continues to take place sometimes. So the Bible says here, he has delivered me out of all my trouble and mine eye has seen his desire upon my enemies. So look, in the end, the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe. So at the end of the day, all things work together for good to them who love God. Even when you're going through the weirdest stuff and the worst stuff and the hardest times, you know that in the end, God, look, the bad guys lose and the good guys win every single time. Even though it may not seem that way in the short term, God will deliver us out of all trouble and God will destroy the enemies, period. And whether it happens, whether our enemies get destroyed this month or this year or 20 years from now, it doesn't matter to me because I know that they're gonna get destroyed. And I know that I love God. And so I know all things are gonna work together for good for moi, you know, and I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I love the Lord. And if you love the Lord, everything's gonna work out for good for you too. But are you gonna be surrounded by enemies? Are you gonna be in peril of false brethren or are there gonna be fightings within, fears without? Yeah, that's what Paul did. That's what everybody said. So the whole Bible said, it's by our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your protection, Lord. Thank you for going to bat for us against our enemies, Lord. And Lord, the people that attack us that are super wicked, reprobates, weirdos, freaks, Lord, I pray that you'd break all their teeth out of their mouth and destroy them, Lord, and let our eyes see our desire upon them, Lord. And Lord, those who are attacking us or harming us that are not horrible reprobates, Lord, then Lord, I just pray that you would please just open their eyes to the error of their ways, Lord, and help them to get right with you and not to make such grave errors. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's turn our song books to song number 19. There is a fountain. Song number 19. Song 19. There is a fountain filled with blood from God in annual flame. And sinners, what we need that blood to lose all their guilty spades. Lose all their guilty spades. Lose all their guilty spades. And sinners, what we need that blood to lose all their guilty spades. The dying thief rejoices to see that fountain in his name. And there may a new file I see wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there may a new file I see wash all my sins away. Dear dying thief, my precious blood shall never lose its power. Till all the hands of church of God be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. Till all the hands of church of God be saved to sin no more. There sins by faith I saw the street by glowing woods of blood. Be ye he who has been my thief and shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. Be ye he who has been my thief and shall be till I die. In a dull first winter snow I'll see the power to save. When it is for this peace every night I'm silent in the grave. I'm silent in the grave. I'm silent in the grave. When it is for this peace every night I'm silent in the grave. When it is for this peace every night I'm silent in the grave.