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

The part of this check that I'd like to focus on is in the beginning of verse number 13 where the Bible reads, And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small courts, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen poured out the changers' money and over through the tables, and said to them that sold doves, Take these things hence. Hence means from here, away from here. Take these things hence. Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise. Now, today, churches, in many cases, have become a house of merchandise. And many churches that aren't even trying to disobey the Bible, they have no desire to, you know, upset Jesus or anger Jesus Christ, have done so because I believe that since the Bible says Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday and today and forever, that if Jesus was angry then about people making his house a house of merchandise, he must still be angry today about people who make his house a house of merchandise. Now, if we're going to understand this, we have to understand, first of all, what does the word merchandise mean, okay? Turn, if you would, to Revelation chapter 18. You see, when I want to know what a word means, I could run and grab the dictionary, but the dictionary is written by a man. Now, most of the definitions in the dictionary are probably accurate, they're probably right, but oftentimes the dictionary can be flawed or make mistakes because of the fact that it's written by a human being. Now, if you look up the word merchandise in the dictionary, it'll give you a correct definition. Anything that is bought or sold is merchandise, anything that you buy or sell. But let's go to the Bible and let's see that even proven from the Bible, not just from a dictionary but also from the Bible. Look at Revelation 18.11. And the merchants of the earth, what's a merchant, someone who sells something, shall weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise any more. Now he's going to begin to break down what that merchandise was. The merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones, of pearls, these are all things that get sold, of fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet, these are fabrics and textiles and all fine wood. All men are vessels of ivory, all men are vessels of most precious wood, and of brass and iron and marble and cinnamon and odors and ointments and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flour and wheat and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots and slaves and souls of men. Now, obviously the Bible condemns slavery, but there are people in this world who buy and sell even human beings, slaves. But the Bible also says that people can buy and sell food, textiles, objects, cutlery, crockery, as my wife used to say when we first got married, she was coming from the UK, all these different accoutrements. Look, that list is pretty encompassing. Animals, chariots, that could be cars, vehicles, clothing, food, anything that is bought or sold is classified by the dictionary or the Bible as merchandise. And then it's interesting, we'll get back to that last phrase, and souls of men. That's an interesting phrase, we'll get back to that. But look at John chapter 2. Jesus said, make thou my Father's house a house of merchandise. Now this idea of Jesus going into the temple and throwing out those who bought and sold and the money changed is found in all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We're going to look at four different passages here, but let's start with the first one in John. What did he find when he went in there? Those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changes of money saved. Now why do you think these four groups were in the temple? Well I'll tell you why. The reason that there were money changers there is because they were selling things in the first place. If you're selling something and people would come from all over the world to the temple in Jerusalem to worship the Lord, and they would come from other nations, they would have foreign currency, and they would need to exchange that currency before they were buying something in the temple. Now is it wrong to exchange currency? No. Is it wrong to sell a sheep? No. Is it wrong to sell a dove? Is it wrong to sell cattle? Not at all. But it's wrong to sell it in the house of God. That's why he didn't say stop selling doves, stop selling sheep. He just said take these things hence. He just said get it out of here. Sell it somewhere else. Nothing wrong with buying and selling. But when you're selling in God's house, hey, that's where it becomes wrong. Now, why were they selling sheep, oxen and doves? Because of the fact that when people would bring a sacrifice to the temple, which they were commanded to do, these are the three most common animals that they were commanded to bring. They were commanded to bring a lamb. They were commanded to bring two doves if they were too poor to afford a lamb. They were commanded to bring a young calf, you know, the blood of bulls and of goats the Bible talks about. That's why they were selling these sacrifices. Now, was it wrong for them to sell an animal that would be used in sacrifice? No. In fact, in the book of Deuteronomy, the Bible tells us that if people were very far off from the temple, they didn't want to bring an animal all the way to the temple, they could go ahead and sell the animals, turn them into money, bring the money, and buy the sacrifice when they got there. So, it's not that what they were selling in the temple was unspiritual, because what they were selling was for a spiritual purpose, making an offering unto the Lord, which He commanded to do. What they were doing when they were exchanging the money was for a spiritual reason, because they were having them exchange the money so that they could purchase these sacrifices that they needed to serve God, and yet Jesus Christ, in anger, made a cord of whips. Look what it says there. It says that He was making, verse 15, and when He had made a scourge, a small cord, so He didn't buy one, He made one. He sat there and made a whip. It says He drove them all out of the temple. Now, do you think He threw them in the back of the truck? Hop in, guys. I'm going to drive you guys out. No. Driving here is like, yah! He chased them from the temple with a whip, because He was so angry, it says in verse 17, Hey, the seal of thine house hath eaten me up. Jesus was just eaten up by the fact that they would turn His house into a marketplace, that they would actually have the audacity to buy and sell within God's house. Now let me ask you something. How many times did Jesus make a whip in the Bible? One. How many times did He chase people? I always see one. How many times did He exhibit this amount of anger? Only one. And so this must be a pretty important sermon that I'm preaching this morning, if it's such an isolated incident in the Bible. But it's covered in all four Gospels. Look at Matthew 21. Now people will try to twist this passage, they'll try to explain it away, and say that's not what it means. It is okay to sell things in church. They'll try to explain it away, but the Bible is clear. He said, take these things hence, made not by Father's house, house of merchandise. And yet today, the typical church has the bookstore, selling books, selling CDs. Oh wait a minute, those are for a good cause. It doesn't matter what it's for. God said no. And so it doesn't matter what the money is going to a good cause. Oh, we're selling something spiritual. No, we will never sell anything in this church, because this house will never be a house of merchandise. This will be a house of prayer for all people, but it will never be a house of merchandise. You see, I don't care whether it's the CDs, the t-shirts, the books, I don't care if it's Bibles. This church will not sell Bibles. Those Bibles go out in the lobby. You'll see a big row of about, what, 30, 40 Bibles. Those are free. They're for people who need a Bible to take one. It's for you when you win somebody Christ to give them a Bible, so that they can grow in the Lord. It's not being sold. The preaching CDs are not being sold. They're free. It's always been free in our church, and it always will be free, because it's God's command. But look at Matthew 21. Let's get another perspective here. It says in verse 12, And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out them that sold and bought in the temple. So you see, according to the Bible here, the purchaser was also guilty, you know, of doing this transaction within God's house. He said he cast out, he threw out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers. I mean, he actually went to their table, where they had their cash register set up, they had all their different money laid out, and he just grabbed the table and flipped it over. Amazing. And yet people will condone this today in 2009. And the seats of them that sold does. That means he picked up their chair and threw it. And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of feast. Now, I've heard this, when people were trying to explain these passes away, they would turn to Matthew and they'd say, Well, here was the problem. The money changers were ripping people off. That was their sin. They were stealing everything. Oh, they were ripping people off. And when they were selling the oxen, you know, they were gifting them. They weren't giving them their full change or whatever. Now, did that say that, and you weren't lying about anything, about anyone ripping anybody off? No. He said, Take it hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise. He said, Well, then wait a minute, pastor. I said, Why is he calling them thieves? I'll tell you why. This is why they were thieves. Let's use an example, Wal-Mart. Okay? Wal-Mart, who in this room has never heard of Wal-Mart? Everybody has heard of Wal-Mart, right? Okay? Why have you all heard of Wal-Mart? Because of advertising. Because you see these giant signs on the side of the building. Wal-Mart. Somebody came to church today because they saw our sign. That's a form of us advertising, okay? When they see the sign on Wal-Mart, or maybe they saw a TV commercial for Wal-Mart, maybe they saw a magazine ad for Wal-Mart, maybe they heard it on the radio, go to Wal-Mart. That is advertising, and it always costs money to advertise. Maybe somebody came in the mail that said, Shop at Wal-Mart, or maybe all of the above, like 500 times on the average American. Now, let's say I go down to Wal-Mart, and I set up a little booth out front, and I begin to sell some of the same products even, or let's say I sell a little different product. Let's just say I sit out there, and I sell hot dogs and lemonade. I set up a little hot dogs. Actually, you know, something they don't sell at Wal-Mart, that would be impossible. Is that what you're thinking? So they sell everything. But let's say I'm out front, and I've got like a hot dog stand and a lemonade stand. Okay? And let me ask you this. Do you think that Wal-Mart would just be okay with that? You're fine with that. What if I just set up my own little shop, and I'm selling all kinds of clothing, I'm selling all kinds of CDs and books out front of Wal-Mart? I would be thrown out. Now, why would they throw me out? Because, let me ask you this. Why am I even there? Why would I choose to sell things in front of Wal-Mart? Because I know that Wal-Mart is a place where lots of people are going to be. Now, they paid money to bring all those people there, and I'm trying to take away some of their revenue by selling things to their customers. Okay? Therefore, I'm stealing from them. I mean, I should have to do my own advertising, bring my own crown, get my own customers, and sell them. I can't just ride on the coattails of Wal-Mart, because they spent the money. They should be making the money. I mean, if they spent the money to advertise, they should be reaping the increase, not losing money to me, because I'm standing at the front door, selling my own wares, which people at $20 they were going to spend at Wal-Mart, they decided to spend it on me. Does that make sense? Does everybody understand? Look, people didn't come to church today to buy your junk. They didn't come to church today because they wanted to buy Amway from you. We didn't advertise in the Yellow Pages, come to Faith Ward Baptist Church, to buy Mary Kay and vitamins and Amway and all these different goods. The Yellow Pages guy, we were trying to find different categories to list our church. What about, you know, Christian books? Do you guys have a bookstore? I said, no. No, this is God's house. This is the house of prayer. It's not a place where we buy and sell. And so we advertise, and really, people didn't even come here because we advertise. Okay, who here has never heard of Jesus? Okay, right? More people have heard of Jesus than have heard of Wal-Mart. Okay? Jesus Christ is known throughout the entire world. He died on the cross, He shed His blood, He was buried, He rose again, in Him we have redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Hey, that's why I'm here this morning, and that's probably why you're here. Because of the Holy Bible, because of Jesus Christ, because of salvation, through faith in Him, because of eternal life. And then when you come here, you're not going to be taken away from that and said, no, come purchase something from me, from my own financial gain. Hey, you are a thief. You are stealing from God. When you take the attention off of Him in His house, when you take finances from Him in His house, it's wrong. That's why He said they were invented thieves. Because if it was really true what people say about this, oh, they were ripping people off, then why did He call the buyer and the seller a thief? Were they ripping each other off? You know what I mean? I mean, that doesn't make any sense. You see what I'm saying? I mean, He just said no. Out. Get out. Don't make it a dead thief. Look at Mark 11. See, I want to cover this passage in detail. I want to cover this subject completely. I'm not trying to just show you one angle here. I'm showing you all four times that this is brought up. But we'll look at them all and you can see for yourself. Look at Mark 11, verse 15. And they came to Jerusalem, and they would come to Jerusalem, and Jesus went into the temple and began to pass out them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of money changes and the seats of them that sold dust. Watch this. And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. He would not even allow them to carry merchandise through the temple. Even if they weren't buying and selling it there. He said, don't even carry it through the temple. Now, that's pretty strong prohibition here. I don't think there's a lot of room to bend this. He said, and he talked, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? But ye have made it a dead thief. Look at Luke 19. Luke 19.45. Luke 19.45. And he went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold them and that bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but ye have made it a dead thief. And he taught daily in the temple, but the chief priests and scribes of the people sought to destroy him and could not find what they might do, for all the people were very attentive to hear him. So very clearly again, same thing. So we saw all four passages. Now, these are actually describing two different events, though. Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Notice the chapter numbers. Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19. This is toward the end of Jesus' ministry. John chapter 2 was very early in his ministry. So he actually did this twice. He went into the temple two different times and cast them out. That's why he said two different things. Notice the last three we read, he gave a statement about dead thieves. The first one we read, which chronologically was at a dramatically different time in his ministry. It was about three years before. He said it differently. He said, take these things hence, make not my Father's house a house of merchandise. The second time he just explained it to him a slightly different way. But look, turn if you would to John 12. You're in Luke. Look at John 12. You see, buying and selling in church is something that we come to accept because we're used to it. It's kind of like because everybody's doing it, we're just going to go ahead and do it too. Now the Bible clearly says, thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. Just because the crowd is doing something, and by the way, the crowd is almost always wrong. Broad is the way. It's interesting. I was giving the gospel to a young lady last night on the airplane that was a Mormon, okay? And I went through the gospel with her and I was showing her that it's by faith, it's by grace, it's eternal life. And you know, you don't have to turn from your sins and turn over and you leave. The Bible says Jesus paid it all, you know? And I'm showing her all this. It's by faith alone. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And whosoever believeth in him shall not perish for that eternal life. I get that I show her all this and she understood it and she comprehended it. And she even agreed with it. She said, you know what? That's what it says. But here was the problem. She was so steeped in this Mormon religion that she'd grown up in. She could not understand the fact that anybody was going to hell at all. She said that in her religion, and I don't know if this is speaking for the Latter-day Saints in general, but this is what she said that she was just graduating from their four-year Bible college, so I assume that she knew what she was talking about. She said, our religion believes that the only people who go to hell are those who've, like, basically been following the right religion, like, basically a Mormon who then turns away from Mormonism, okay? She said that's the only people, and even then it's only temporary, she said. Is that pretty accurate? She said everybody else is going to go to heaven just at different levels, you know, the terrestrial, the telestial, whatever. And she said, and so I told her this. This is the last thing I told her, and also she still believed in multiple gods. I was trying to show her there's one God, Jesus Christ, the God in the flesh. There's only one God. There's not life on other planets as they teach, okay? And, you know, we live on Earth. There is the only human beings that there are. Adam was the first man, and so forth. Well, anyway, this is where I left her with this thought, because, you know, she didn't get saved. I mean, I made a lot of progress without planting the seed. I pray to God that one day she will get saved, but I left her with this thought. I said, broad is the way which leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in their act, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be to find it. And I said, does that line up with what you're saying, that basically the vast, she said the vast majority is going to heaven. Just if you're not a Mormon, you'll be at a lower level, you know? And it's all just made up stuff, obviously. It's not in the Bible. It's in the Book of Mormon and all this stuff. It's not found in the Bible. And I showed her about hell in the Bible. She couldn't believe it. She's like, well, that's what it says, but that's pretty horrible. I said, but that's what it says. She's like, right, that's what it says. I said, think about what I'm saying. Broad is the way that leads to destruction. Narrow is the way that leads unto life, and yet we tend, we all understand that about salvation. I mean, we comprehend that when it comes to being saved. But wait a minute. Then we just believe that most Christians must be doing the right thing. If everybody's doing it, it must be right. Let's follow the crowd, right? Follow the trend. Wrong. Yeah, amen. Wrong. Look, 99% of churches buy and sell. 99% of churches will have that bookstore. It's all money, money, money, money, money is the theme of most churches, but that doesn't make it right. It was the majority in Jesus' day, it's the majority today, but the majority is always wrong. That's why, you know, that's why our form of government in America is not a democracy. It never had, did you know the word democracy is never even found in the Constitution one time? It's a republic. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. Because a democracy means 51% can rule over 49%. Think about that. 51% can put 49% into slavery if it's a democracy. No, the whole point of the United States moral government is the rights for the minority, and not even just the minority, the individual. The individual. The individual. Okay, to protect the one person from the will of the majority, right? That's why we elect officials who are supposed to understand that, who are supposed to protect us from the mob rule of, well, you know, if most people believe a certain way, then that's what we're going to do. The problem with democracy is that most people are wrong. Most people are not smart. Most people don't believe the Bible. Most people are immoral and wrong. And so that's why that moral government never has worked and never will work, okay? That's why we're supposed to have a republic that safeguards our freedoms and liberties as individuals and as minority groups. I mean, just by being saved, we're part of a minority. By being baptized, we're part of the minority. You know, by being a Bible-believing Christian, we are in the minority, and we always will be. And let me tell you something. Just because everybody else is selling doesn't mean it's okay. Now, I told you to turn to John 12. I'm sorry, turn to James. Sorry about that. We'll get back to that. Look at James, chapter number 2. Let me give you some examples of this. We already talked about selling books, selling CDs, selling tapes, selling shirts. I don't care where the money's going. It's a violation of scripture. Let me tell you a story. My niece, Jessica, lives in Fort Worth, Texas, okay? Well, she's almost 15 years old, and this is a couple years ago when she was about 13. Well, she came to Phoenix for a youth conference out of the Apache Junction, okay? And this was like an independent fundamental Baptist, you know, youth conference, where she was coming, and her youth pastor was one of the preachers, and it's a thing where youth from a bunch of different churches get together, and, you know, they sing to hymns, they hear some preaching, they play games and whatever. Well, I wanted to see my niece, okay? Because, you know, my niece is in, now it's only 35 minutes away. So I said to myself, you know what? I think I'm going to go on one of the nights of this conference, because, you know, I wanted to go see her, and maybe we could buy her an ice cream cone or, you know, slip a $10 bill in her hand or something, you know, to buy some while she's out doing these outings with the youth group. So I didn't know the details, and I wanted to surprise her. So we were just going to kind of show up and surprise Jessica, you know, buy her an ice cream, you know, and everything like that. Well, so I call up the church, and I said, hey, I'm calling about the conference, you know, I know that tonight there's going to be services tonight, preaching service. I said I'd like to come, and I would just like to know the details. And she said, okay. She said, you know, it starts at 6.30, and this is our address, and she said it's $10. Okay, and I said, wait a minute. I told her, I was very polite to her. I said, well, listen, I said, you know, I'm not bringing any teenagers or anything. I said, I just want to come and hear the preaching. That's all. I said, you know, whatever you're giving away or anything, I said, I don't need any of that. I said, you know, I just want to come for the preaching. I just want to hear the preaching. She said, well, it's still $10. Registration, per person. And I said, just to come and listen to the preaching, I said, I don't want to pay $10. What else? Well, you say, were you poor or something? You know what? Just because I'm not poor doesn't mean I'm just going to throw money around, number one. But number two, didn't Jesus say them that bought and sold were cast out? I don't want to be cast out. You know, I don't want God to be upset with me. I refuse to not only sell things in church, I also refuse to buy anything in church. I've been visiting another church at like a preaching conference before, sell something that I wanted and was about to buy it. I said, nope, not going to buy it. I'll get it on eBay or I'll get it on the internet or something, you know, whatever book, whatever item. Or I just said, give it to me for free. I walked up and said, this is God's house. Give this to me for free or I don't want it. And they're like, OK. One time my brother, get this, one time my brother was in church and he had just won somebody to Christ and brought them to church and they had a little bookstore in the back of his church and this guy didn't have a Bible. And so he said, well, here's a Bible. He walked over, right in front of the pastor, right in front of everybody, took it out of the package, handed it to him and said, here's your new Bible. And everybody looked at him like, what are you doing? And when he told me the story, he said, hey, I just felt like it was God's Bible. And I felt like God would have wanted this guy who just got saved to have a Bible to read to learn from. I didn't feel like I had to pay for it in God's house. And so, you know, so she said, no, it's $10. I said, well, I don't want to be a $10. I said, you know, I said, I just want to come to preaching, but you know what, I don't have the $10 to spend on that. And here's what she said. She said, well, I guess it'll be all right. Listen. But she said, just sit in the back. As sure as I'm standing here, I promise you, God is my witness today that she told me, it's okay, but sit in the back. I was told to sit in the back if I didn't pay the $10. Now, in light of that, look at James chapter 2. James, this was about a year and a half, two years ago, but I remember it very clearly. Listen to this. My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with respect to persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, sit thou here in a good place, and save the poor, stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool, are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? God says that's evil to tell the poor to sit in the back. That's right, man. Oh, you're poor. Sit in the back. Sit under my footstool. Oh, you're going to be standing room only. Oh, boy, you have a gold ring on. Oh, why don't you come sit right here in the front, in the padded chair? That's evil, God's saying. Look what he says. Harken, my beloved brother, in her spite, hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he had promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not let rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which you're called? If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Ye do well, but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced that the law is transgressors. Hey, where, oh, sit here in a good place. Sit there. You're poor. You're ugly. Sit in the back. You don't have any money. Sit in the back. Hey, it's wrong. You know, or even if it's a racial thing. You know, like, oh, Indians over here. Black over here. Hey, it's the house of prayer for all nations, the Bible says. All nations should come together in one house. He said there will be one fold and one shepherd, whether you be Jew or Gentile. Bond or free. Do that. Bond or free. Poor. Rich. Hey, it doesn't matter. Hey, it's equal in church. It's equal in God's house. We don't give preferential treatment to somebody because they have money. And if somebody says, I don't have the ten dollars, we're not going to make them sit in the back. Man, where's it wrong? But see, churches have become a merchandise house. That's right. Or even worse, they've become a fashion show. Ah, that's it. You say, well, you're dressed nice for church. You know, I'm wearing a suit and tie. You know, this is what I wear to church, the best I have. But you know what? I'm not going to go buy some expensive, fancy, schmancy just to impress somebody. I'll wear the nicest thing I've got. You know, the nicest thing that you've got is a pair of blue jeans and, you know, hey, praise God that you're not committing a sin by wearing that. You know, I just, I wear nice clothes to church. You know, I'm not going to come to church in dirty clothes. You know, I'm going to wash my clothing. But you know what? I do think it's wrong to wear expensive, fancy clothes. The Bible commanded women to adorn themselves in modest apparel. He said, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array. Costly array, did you hear that? He said women should not be dressing in costly array. He said they should be adorned with good works. And I think that could go for male or female putting on a $1,000 suit and coming to church, a $2,000 suit and coming to church. Hey, who are you trying to impress? God sees the heart. He's not impressed by some fancy clothing. Hey, it's not a house of merchandise. It's not a fashion show. It's not a place where the rich are treated one way and the poor are treated another way. Hey, it's God's house of money tiser. It's not about money. It shouldn't be about money. It shouldn't be about money. It shouldn't be about buying and selling. It shouldn't be about money, how you're treated. But you know what? The sermon shouldn't be all about money either. Now look, the Bible does talk about money. And so obviously I have to preach the entire Bible. But you know what? Some churches, they can't let a sermon go by without it being money, money, money, money. And the Bible says this out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaking. What kind of a person has their mind on their money and their money on their mind all the time? You know what I'm saying? Does that sound like a Godly attribute? The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evils. He says where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. You got money in the stock market, oh, your heart has sunk now. I feel fine. I feel great. Because my treasures are not on this world. Lay not on yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust are corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Where neither moth nor rust are corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And I want my heart to be on the things of God and so I'm laying up treasures in heaven. You say, how do you do that? By dumping a fat wad of money in the plate? No. Go out and win souls. You'll earn a crown that's perished if not. If people save, you'll earn a crown of gold. You know, it's not going to be a contest when you get to heaven of how much money you could earn. The money you earn, it's nothing wrong with earning money or even earning a lot of money, but the Bible says it's wood, hay, and stubble. I mean, it's good. Wood has value. Hay has value and stubble has value, but it's not eternal value. You know, have you ever read the story of the three little pigs? You know what I mean? It's not going to last. But yet... I'm going down with you. But look, gold and silver and precious stones, God said that's going to abide the fire. He said that's going to be a reward that's eternal. That's the things that you do with your life that are of eternal and lasting value. You say, well... And you know what? Turn, if you would, to John chapter 12. No. Let me give you another story. I was out soloing in Indiana one time, and this lady went to a church that was out in, I want to say Bolingbroke, but it was somewhere out, you know, in the southwest suburbs, somewhere like Logan. It was a real big church, and it was right off the 55, I think, or the 80. And they were on TV. She told me, I kid you not, you paid an admission fee to get into church. There was literally a term style, an admission fee, and she said that they would only make sure that the people who looked the best sat in the front so that the cameras would pick up people who were good looking. I'm talking about physically attractive. I'm talking about nice clothes. She said they would line you up in the front, and the woman I was talking to was very overweight, and she said, you know, they would put me somewhere off camera just because I'm not as pretty as someone else. Isn't that horrible? Charging money. Listen, now, charging money to attend church? I mean, charging money to come to church? As she said, you buy a ticket, and you'd be assigned a seat because of the fact that they want certain people up front, and you could pay more for some of those premium seats as well, if you look around. Wow. But anyway, check this out. John chapter 12, verse 6. This is about Judas Iscariot. This he said, he's talking about Judas, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and watch this, and had the bag and bear what was put there. Look at chapter 13, verse number 29, next page. For some of them thought because Judas had the bag, what does that mean he had the bag? He handled the money. That Jesus had said unto him, buy those things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor. Look at John 6. You're in John 13, just back a few pages to John chapter 6. And I'm going to show you this about Judas. It's said in verse number 70 of John 6. Jesus answered them, have not I chosen you 12, and one of you is a devil? Now wait a minute, which comes first in the numbers? 6 or 12? 6 or 13? So back in John 6, did Jesus know who the traitor was? Oh yeah. He said, have not I chosen you 12, and one of you is a devil? And yet he put Judas in charge of the money, even though he knew who was the devil. Boy, that shows you that money is the most important thing to God, right? Money is the most important thing about church. Hey, this was the first church that Jesus was the first pastor in the New Testament church. He said, okay, you handle the money. Because you know what, that's the least important job, so you do it, traitor. Look at this, Revelation says that the streets are paved with gold. It's like dirt, it's like asphalt to God. He owns the wealth and every mind in the cattle on a thousand hills. He gave Judas the job of handling the money, because he said money is not what my ministry is about. And yet so many ministries are based upon money. They got thermometers on the wall here, spin the dial, I saw a church where you spun the dial to see how much you were going to donate. Are you for real? You spin the dial, whether you're giving 50, whether you're giving 100, whether you're giving 200, you know, you were not saying big bucks, no whammy. You were hoping for that, you know, Ulysses S. Grant to pop up. You didn't want to be, you know, paying 100 or 200 or whatever. Another one, if you donate toward their building program, you donate $200, you win at Church of Great America. You donate $500, you get to go on like, I think you have to give like a thousand, you get to go on a cruise with the pastor. Okay. And this was an independent fundamental Baptist church, soul-winning church. Actually, I will praise that. Independent fundamental soul-winning house of merchandise. I mean, churches today are setting up a Starbucks in the lobby. You know, I preached against whatever the church is called, you know, Gospel Light Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas, because my friend went there and saw Starbucks in the lobby. And everybody wrote to me and said, you're lying, there's no Starbucks there, there's no Starbucks, you're a liar, you need to check your information, you're a liar. But see, I did check my information. After my friend told me that he was driving over here, he stopped at Erica Pacey's church and saw the Starbucks, then I went on the internet, I went to the phone book, I looked at his yellow pages ad in the phone book and said, Gospel Light Baptist Church, Hot Springs, Arkansas, Erica Pacey, we proudly serve Starbucks coffee. And yet I'm called a liar. And they weren't giving it away for free, it was for sale, my friend. The coffee shop. You say, that sounds like a great idea. It does sound like a great idea if you don't believe the Bible or you're a heathen and you don't care what Jesus thinks, then yeah, it is a great idea to make a little money. Hey, we all love to make a little money, right? But we're going to go out and make money. We're not going to come in here and make money. Because this is God's house and it will not be degenerated to where it's about money and a house of merchandise. Look at Acts chapter 8. If you're in John, just go forward one book in the Bible and look at Acts. Acts chapter 8. So let's do a quick review. Oh, I'm going to go to church and buy something. Wrong. Oh, I'm going to start selling something at church. Wrong. It's a fundraiser. Wrong. Get this, people have... Take a look at my Bible this morning. This is a really nice Bible. And, you know, half the time I'm using one of these Bibles. You know, this is a gift to the work Bible. This is the ones that we hand out in the lobby there that are free. We paid, you know, four or five bucks for them. It's a good King James Bible. It doesn't have any notes or any of man's wisdom. It's just the text of the Bible. I like these. You know, we got them all lined up there. And half the time I use something like this, but, you know, usually when I'm preaching or going sowing, I have my nice Bible. And this is my nicer Bible that I use. And this is made by a company called Cambridge. And it's a company out of the UK. It's been around for like 400 and some years, actually. And the reason I like this Bible is because, you know, it's made of leather. It falls open. You know how sometimes the Bible, you're kind of like prying it. This one just kind of falls open. It's a nice place. Well, I had this Bible. And I was talking to somebody and they were showing me their Bible and I was showing them my Bible. We were talking about what we liked about, you know, certain Bibles, how they stay open or how they are leather or whatever. And this guy said to me, he said, well, you know what? He said, you shouldn't buy that Bible from that company. He said, you ought to buy your Bible from the local church. He said, there's this company called Bear Impressive Seed and they're a local church that produces and sells the Bible. That's where you shouldn't be buying it from those heathens. You should be buying it from the local church. Now, wait a minute. Does that jive the scripture? You shouldn't be buying anything from the local church, my friend. And he was acting like I was in the wrong. You know what? I'd rather buy from Barnes and Noble, Borders, okay, whatever the case may be, than to buy it from church. Than to buy it from church. Because you know what? Church is not a house of merchandise. Now, Cambridge is a house of merchandise. You know, and if we were going to boycott every company who did anything wrong that we don't like, we could never buy anything again. You know what I mean? People tell me, like, oh man, this company's wicked and Pepsi's promoting homosexuality and Disney. And you know, I would buy from Disney because I have no desire to watch all their stupid cartoons and movies that have a long message in most cases. Okay, but I'm going to tell you something. If I want to buy Fritos, I'm going to buy Fritos, whether it's owned by Pepsi Corporation or not, because I want to eat some Fritos. Because I mean, if that was the test, you know, Coca-Cola is part-owned by the Mormon Church, you know. And if you go down this road of like, well, I got to boycott this and boycott that and boycott S.C. Johnson Wax and boycott Coke, boycott Pepsi. I mean, I'm sure that Bible-believing Christians are not running the Fortune 500 companies in America. So you're probably going to have a hard time, you know, finding anything to buy. So you know, God said it's not wrong to be in the world. You're going to be in the world, you're going to interact with unbelievers. You're going to be around, you know. But wait a minute. Don't violate scripture by buying it from church. Buy it. I don't care if Borders is heathen. I don't care if Barnes and Noble is heathen. This is what God's really mad about. God's not mad at somebody manufacturing a King James Bible who might manufacture other books that are wrong. Hey, they're selling the Bible, I'm going to buy it. But I'm not going to sell it, because I'm the pastor of this church. And so, you know, no, I'm not forbearing precious teeth. No, I don't believe that the local church should be selling Bibles. Look at Acts chapter 8 and verse... I think a business should sell Bibles. How about this? A merchant. Selling merchandise. Sounds good. Look at Acts chapter 8 and look at verse 17. It says in Acts 8, 17, Then laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostle's hand, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money. Watch this. Saying, give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Now look, this guy was saved, that he's speaking to. Because as you go up in the chapter, it says that he believed on Jesus Christ. And the Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what I'm saying. But this man was in error, because he actually thought that he could purchase God's power. And he said, no, your money perish with you, and by the way, your money will perish with him. He said that you thought the things of God could be purchased with money. Today we think that the answer to all of God's problems is money. I mean, I've sat in church and been told in a missions conference, the reason the world's going to hell is because you're not giving enough money to missions. Wrong. That's not the reason. Because it doesn't cost any money to give somebody God's pull. It doesn't cost anybody to knock a door. It doesn't cost anybody to come and sing and preach and fellowship and go out and win the loss. It doesn't cost the time. You see, buildings and palaces and mansions, those cost money, but the Gospel is free. Look at 1 Corinthians 9. You say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, who donated money when you started this church? Who donated the money? Nobody. Nobody did. I started this church with about $200 that I donated. Jesus. 200 bucks. And you know what I bought? I bought a couple chairs and a couple songbooks. But you know what? I could have had the first service even without that. We could have sat Indian style on the floor and sung Jesus Loved Me and everybody would know the words and preach the Word of God. Then we could have passed the plate. People could put in their tithes. And we went from there. See, I always knew money was coming in when I started this church because I put in my own tithe. I gave my 10%. And you know what? The Bible does teach tithing, whether you like it or not. And so I gave my tithe. I gave my 10%. And you know what? We started with nothing. That's right. And as the Lord provided through tithes and offerings, that's what this church has always operated upon. And we could have started with no money. Whatever money was there, we used it. You know, we used it to buy an ad in the Yellow Pages to help get the Word out of our church. We used it to buy more chairs, more songbooks. Today we're in a building because we outgrew the living room, you know, where we started. But we were in another building before this that's a little smaller. We've moved into this building. We will use the money that comes in, but guess what? If we were to have no money ever come in again, this church would continue to exist and thrive. All right. Partly because we've been in Arizona, so the weather's always good. You know, so I can set up an awning or whatever. But either way, you know, I don't care if we had to jam into somebody's house and be hanging out the window and harringing them. Hey, this church does not require any money to exist. No church does. And you know, the reason why the world's not getting the gospel is because we have a bunch of missionaries who are attending their tulip garden, spending years in some language school. You know, they could have learned it for all the years they drove around in their RV, but they were too lazy to study to show themselves the proof of the God and learn the tongue and the language of the country they were going to. So they get there and they want to suck up a salary to sit in a language school all day. They want us to pay them to sit there and garden. Hey, they ought to be out in God's vineyard winning souls to Christ. Look. Stand up, Roy Stuckey. Okay, this is our employee. Okay, he works for Faithful Word Baptist Church. And you know what he's paid to do? Go out and win souls. Okay, he works for us. He's an employee. And we take some of the money in the offering and we pay him to go out. And by the way, on Sundays he goes soul-winning on his own accord, just like we all do. But he does throughout the week, Monday through Friday, while we're all at work doing our jobs, he goes out and knocks doors and wins souls to Christ. Now listen, right now he's on a modified schedule. We've slowed down a little bit. But in the past he was working 50 hours. He spent 25 hours taking care of the business of the church because I have my own full-time job, okay. He spent 25 hours a week, in addition to his own personal soul-winning, just knocking doors, giving people the gospel. Now look, get that. 25 hours doing the business of the church, 25 hours winning souls to Christ. What if every missionary in the world that was a Baptist missionary worked his schedule? Go ahead and sit down. What if every missionary in the world worked his schedule? Is it that much? I mean a 50-hour work? I work more than that in my job. A 50-hour work week, 25 hours of winning souls. How many missionaries do you know that spend 25 hours a week winning souls? I've been on the missions field. I spent three months in Germany. That's been another three weeks in Germany. I spent time in Romania. I spent time in Norway. And that was a great missionary. He was doing the work. But how many missionaries do you know that really spend the time working and they're getting the paycheck? It's not the money. And by the way, just so many in Phoenix. You want somebody to learn from what? Ethiopia? OK, I want somebody to learn. Who was with me when I won that guy? What country was he from? Eritrea. E-R-I-T-R-E-A. Eritrea, East Africa. I want somebody to learn from Eritrea a week ago. I mean, he'd come not too long ago from Eritrea. I've won people who have learned from Iran. I've won Iranian and Muslim to the Lord. In Phoenix, I've won a Serbian Muslim. Or I don't know if they were Serbian, but they were from Bosnia. I don't know which one is which. The Serbian is the Croatian. But I've won a couple of Bosnian Muslims to the Lord on two different occasions. I've won people to the Lord from Germany. I've won people to the Lord from the UK. I've won people to the Lord from Scotland. I've won people to the Lord from Ireland. I've won people to the Lord from China. I mean, if you just go out and win souls, you'll find people from all over the world that get saved. It's not about money. It's not about how much money you can throw in the plate. You're not going to get rewarded in heaven because of money. God said if you give money, you know, He'll bless you. But you know what? You think it's just going to be, well, you know, this guy gave all this money, so he's going to get the reward. When you give to heaven, no. It's going to be according to preaching the gospel. God said it's going to be them that turn many to righteousness that will shine like the stars for all eternity. But look at 1 Corinthians 9.18. He said this. Look at verse 60. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. You got that? He said, but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me, what is my reward then? Verily, that when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge. That's it. That's it. That I have used not my power in the gospel. There are people who are abusing their power in the gospel. Jesus. When they charge people to hear them preach. Jesus. Hey look, is it wrong to pay a pastor to have a full-time salary? No. God ordained that those who preach the gospel should live up the gospel. Now personally, I choose to be like Paul. Paul made tents and preached. That's what I do. I don't make tents, but I sell fire alarm systems. That's a modern day, you know, it's sort of like making a tent, except it's with conduit and wire and electricity, okay? Computers. I do my fire alarm business and I work. I choose not to. I probably will never take a salary because I like what I do. I like to work full-time. Now is it wrong for a pastor to take a salary? Absolutely not. I think it's great for pastors that work full-time for the church and they spend their time like Mike Stuckey, you know what I mean, doing the soul-winning and if they're really working, great. Praise the Lord. But you know what? He said, I'm not going to charge somebody to do the gospel. Jesus said, freely you've received, freely give. I'm not going to copyright my sermons, copyright my information because I got to sell it or something. Wrong. People are abusing their power in the gospel when they make it a charge, when they make it cost money. There's no charge. It's free. One last scripture, 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 3. It's the last place we'll turn, right? The end of the New Testament. Now listen. The Christian school movement, okay, the Christian school movement is something that I call the Christian fool movement, but the Christian school movement, you know, we started in the 60s pretty much and has, you know, grown until now. The Christian school movement is accepted by most independent Baptists because of the fact that this is what they say, the church should educate your child, the local church. And you know, independent Baptists say, you know, local church, local church, local church, man, I'm all for local church. From the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, I'm not into the universal church. I believe in the local church, the body of believers, you know, assembled here today. But let me tell you something. These independent Baptists, they justify their Christian schools, which is actually bigger than their church, which is actually more of a financial Leviathan than their church is. And they say it's church. They say Christian school is under the canopy of the church. It's part of the church. Let me ask you this. Where did the Bible ever mention school or Christian school? Never. One time the word school was mentioned, it was the school of unbelievers. One time, scholars was mentioned, it was a woman preacher in the Old Testament, well, in the college. And so they justify their Christian school, even though it's not found in Scripture, because they say it's an extension of the church. Okay, well, then it should be free. It's not a thing about that. If the Christian school is part of the local church, are you telling me that you're charging people to attend church? That you're charging people to hear the preaching of God's word? Because the Bible says, the Bible says that the church is the house of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Church is God's house in the New Testament. So either the Christian school is part of the church or it's not. I say it's not, the church means congregation. And all believers are not congregated, all the church is not assembled Monday through Friday at the Christian school. It's just a few teachers. I believe you should raise your own child. I'm not going to let the government raise my child. I'm not expecting the church to run my child. I don't think it takes a village to raise a child. I think it takes a mom and a dad to raise a child. God says, Thou will teach thy children. That's singular. In the King James Bible, thou is singular, ye is plural. Thou will teach it to thy children. And so I'm going to teach my own children. But they say, well, the Christian school, the Bible college, even though it's not found in Scripture, it's just a local church. It's part of the church. Then why are you charging a young man money to go to that Bible college and hear preaching? When I was in Bible college, I spent $500 a month on tuition. It wasn't for room and board. It wasn't for food. It wasn't for anything. It was to listen to five hours of preaching a day in Bible college. Is that right or wrong according to Scripture? Either it's not church, then why? Okay, it's not found in the Bible. Maybe we should stick with Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. You know, the house of God when the whole church comes together. Or else, if it is church, how do you justify selling all the books, selling the tuition, selling the preaching, and having the pay to attend? But we live in a day of hypocrisy. The Bible says, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. They say and they do not. The Bible says and they do not. The last place we'll look, and I gotta hurry, but 2 Peter 2, verse 3. And through covetousness, what is covetousness? The desire to possess that which you do not have, whether it be money that you don't have, items that you don't have. And through covetousness shall they with fainted words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbers not. People under the name of religion are out to make a buck, and they're out to make merchandise of you. This whole, you know, the Christian bookstore industry. Now, am I against the Christian bookstore? No, because it's a business. It's not a church. It's a separate business. But, you know, it's really not a Christian. There's really nothing Christian about a lot of stuff that they sell. I call it the Bala Mite bookstore because they follow the ways of Bala, of marrying the world with church. And when you go to the Bala Mite bookstore, you know, maybe in the back corner you'll find the King James Bible, you know, on clearance. You know, everything must go wall-to-wall blowout on King James Version. You know, you have to dig through all the New King James, and the NIV, and the HIV, and the STD, and the American Central, all these different acronyms, and find the King James Version, you know. And then, but the big thing out front is a bunch of Christian rap, Christian rock, heavy metal, jam for Jesus, and then you'll even find now, and this is a new development because I grew up, when I was growing up, I went to the Christian bookstore when I was a teenager. They didn't used to have Catholic paraphernalia, but today they sell rosary beads, they sell, you know, rosary books, Catholic prayer books, water water, you know, mints, sanctified mints, red mints, you know. They've been sanctified, I guess. Anyway, like, I went to the Christian bookstore with my son to buy some Bibles, and the lady handed to my son, my son, Sullivan, a rosary bead, and said, here, you can play with this. It was like a little bracelet of rosary beads. I said, no, no, no, I don't want him to play with that. So she's like, okay, you know, I was polite. I said, no, no, no, it's okay, I don't want to play with that. Next thing I knew, they come over, they hand my son a picture, a coloring book, of like this really long-haired Jesus. And boy, did he look sweet. He looked like a real sweetheart. You know what I mean? But that's not the Jesus of the Bible. The Bible says, Now look, if you want to grow your hair long, that's, you know, you have the freedom to do that, but the Bible says it's a shame in the manner to have short hair. Read 1 Corinthians 11. But I'm going to tell you something. They want to make merchandise of you. They want to use Jesus' name as a marketing tool. It's true. I mean, you open the phone book, to look for a plumber, you see the Jesus fish. Oh, I think I'm going to go with him. Wrong. Next. I go to the next ad. When I see that fish, I go to the next ad. Number one, Jesus is not a fish. Okay. And the Bible said, not to make any graven or molten image of any fish that's under the sea or any fowl that fly up in the air or any beast that creepeth upon the earth. So number one, Jesus is not a fish. Jesus is not represented by a fish. I will not bow down to a fish. I will not install a molten fish on my car and say that it represents Christianity. You want a symbol to represent Christianity? Amen. Amen. Come on. The Word. Yeah. Hey, if you want to grave, oh, I know you're a sculptor, right? You love sculpting and you want to make a graven image. Well, there's one thing God said to engrave, His Word. Yes. You want to engrave something, why don't you engrave God's Word on the wall of your house like I told you to do? Amen. But I'm not going to grave some animal and say this represents Jesus. Jesus is not represented by an animal, by any animal. He's the fisherman. He's not the fish. Okay, I'm kidding. You know what I mean? Hey, we confuse the fish and the fisherman. It's like a cartoon or something, a fish who's fishing for fish. It's cannibalism. Okay. But what I'm saying is look, I don't believe that we should use our religion and hey, our religion is the right religion, the only religion. Neither is there salvation in any other or there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The name of Jesus Christ. But you know what? The name of Jesus Christ is not a marketing slogan. I'm not going to use it to sell my firearm business. I'm not going to use the name of Jesus to sell anything because Jesus Christ's name is sacred. It's the name above all names. It shouldn't be a marketing tool. It shouldn't be a means of financial aid. Let God make that word of prayer. Father, we love you and thank you for this church dear God and thank you that we attend a church where nothing is bought or sold, where every church activity is free so that the poorest person in the world, the person who is so poor they don't even have two nickels to rub together can come to every activity of faithful word. The food will be provided for them. Cold drinks will be provided for them. Everything will be provided so that no one is left out dear God because we love the poor as you command us to do. We don't want anyone to be left out. Praise God for faithful word Baptist church and for all other churches everywhere who have caught this from the Bible and said, hey, it's not about the money. It's about Jesus. It's about preaching. It's about people. Help us to let that sink down into our hearts and we love you in Jesus' name and pray. Amen.