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

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our services. Today here at faith forward Baptist church. So nice to see you all here for our Sunday morning service. Find your seats now. Grab a song book and go to hymn number 410. We'll begin this morning. Hymn number 410. 410. Faith is the victory. Hymn number 410. Once you find your place, we'll begin together on that first. 410. And camp along the hills of faith. Hymn number 410. Lift your voice on that first together now. And camp along the hills of life. Ye Christian soldiers rise. And press the battle air. The night shall veil the glowing skies. Against the bow and veils below. Let all our strength be hurled. Faith is the victory we know. Faith is the victory we know. Faith is the victory we know. Faith is the victory we know. Faith is the victory we know. Faith is the victory we know. That overcomes the world. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. Oh glorious victory. That overcomes the world. It's better over us, Is life. Our sword, the word of God. We tread the road, The saints above. Faith is the victory we know. Faith is the victory we know. Faith is the victory. Oh glorious victory. Oh, the saints of love, which shout, so triumph trod. By faith they are like a world, which friends swept on o'er ev'ry field. The faith by which they conquered death is still our shining shield. Faith is a victory. Faith is a victory. Oh, glorious sanctuary that overcomes the world. On ev'ry death above we fly, drawn up in drenner rain. Let tense of ease be left behind, and onward to the grave. Salvation's helping on each end, way through the gird of hell. The earth shall trample deep our tread, and echo with our shout. Faith is a victory. Faith is a victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. To him that overcomes the foe, white ravens shall begin. Before the angels he shall know, his name confessed in heaven. Then onward from the hills of life, our hearts will love a flame. We'll vanquish all the hosts of night, in Jesus' offering name. Faith is a victory. Faith is a victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. Amen. Good start to our singing this morning. Do you want to go before the Lord and ask his blessing on the service? So I have asked for the Fidel Gonzalez, if you would lead us in prayer, please. Father in heaven, we thank you for sending us your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for all the souls that have been won this year so far, Lord. We ask you to bless Pastor Anderson, fill him with your Holy Spirit, and let his message be edifying to us all. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. 405 is next. Number 405, the banner of the cross. Hymn number 405, there is a royal banner given for display. Hymn number 405, lift your voice together on that first note. Hymn number 405. There's a royal banner given for display to the soldiers of the King. As an ensign fair, we lift it up today, while as ransomed ones we see. Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss. And to crown him King, toil and save, meet the banner of the cross. Though the fall may rage and gather as the flood, let the standard be displayed. And beneath its folds as soldiers of the Lord, for the truth be not dismayed. Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss. And to crown him King, toil and save, meet the banner of the cross. Over land and sea, wherever men may dwell, they will glorious tidings on. Of the crimson banner that the stories tell, one more shall claim his own. Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss. And to crown him King, toil and save, meet the banner of the cross. When the glory dost destroy, very dear, it is hasting day by day. And before our King, the foe shall disappear, and the cross the world shall sway. Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss. And to crown him King, toil and save, meet the banner of the cross. This time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7. We have our Bible study. This week will be in 2 Chronicles chapter 35. We've got the soul-winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. If you are saved but you have not been baptized after you've been saved, then you can get baptized this morning. You should get baptized this morning. The Bible commands you to be baptized. And we do have the water set up. We have change of clothes, towels, and everything. If you got baptized before you were saved, you didn't get baptized. You just simply got wet. So if you'd like to be baptized, we can do that for you this morning. Across the page, thank you to those who went out soul-winning at the First Friday Art Walk event. They had ten soul-winners out there with seven salvations. And then, also, we were tallying up some statistics about our church, and we just realized that we broke a thousand baptisms. So that was pretty exciting. And so, thank you to everyone who pitched in on all that work. I mean, if I would have known, I would have had, like, a special prize or something, you know, for the thousand. No, I'm just kidding. But then, below that, there's also the note about the donations of food on Wednesday nights, typically. On the back, keep praying for the expectant ladies, that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. And then, don't forget, we've got a special guest preacher coming up, Pastor Jonathan Shelley, next Wednesday. So it's not this coming Wednesday, but a week from Wednesday, we have Pastor Jonathan Shelley coming out from Steadfast Baptist Church in Cedar Hill, Texas. And so, even if you're normally a Sunday morning only, then make a point to be there for that one, and you won't want to miss that. And then, also, in the other upcoming events, next month, we've got Pastor Corbin Russell preaching on March the 12th. And then, we've got the Bahamas Cruise Mission Strip coming up on March the 23rd through 28th. And then, we've got a KJV Conference coming up in Vancouver, Washington, May 15th through 18th. I'm pretty excited about it. It's a great lineup of preachers, and it's going to be good. It's a beautiful part of the country, too, if you've never been up to the Pacific Northwest. It's a beautiful area to visit. I know a lot of people were sad about the Red Hot Preaching Conference being canceled in Sacramento, but this is a great replacement because it's, you know, kind of that same, it's still kind of sort of the West Coast, and hard preaching, a lot of the same preachers, and so I think you're going to like it. Alright, that's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. Alright, you should find the insert in front of your hymnal with the song entitled, Seek Ye First, the Kingdom of God. If you don't have an insert, you can raise your hand and you'll receive one. We'll sing it on that first together. Seek ye first, the kingdom of God. Seek ye first, the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all his things shall be added unto you. Allelu, alleluia. Ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Allelu, alleluia. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Allelu, alleluia. Man, good singing everybody. Take your hymnals now and go to hymn number 64. Hymn number 64, Shall We Gather at the River? Hymn number 64. Hymn number 64, Shall We Gather at the River? Where bright angels feed up trod. Hymn number 64, lift your voice on that first now. Shall we gather at the river? Where bright angels feed up trod. When this crystal time forever flowing by the throne of God. Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river. Gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God. On the bosom of the river, where the Savior King we own. We shall meet in sorrow never, meet the glory of the throne. Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river. Gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God. Ere we reach the shining river, laying every burden down. Grace our spirits will deliver and provide a Roman crown. Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river. Gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God. Soon we'll reach the shining river, soon our pilgrimage will cease. Soon our happy hearts will quiver with the melody of peace. Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river. Gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God. Man, good singing. Alright, this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Numbers chapter 17. Numbers chapter 17, as we always do. We'll read the entire chapter, beginning with verse number 1. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Numbers chapter 17. Follow along silently with brother Corbin Brock as he reads. Number 17. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods. Write thou every man's name upon his rod, and thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi, for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers, and thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you. And it shall come to pass that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom, and I will make to seize from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you. And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince won according to their fathers houses, even twelve rods, and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. And it came to pass that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel, and they looked and took every man his rod. And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels, and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me that they die not. And Moses did so, as the Lord commanded him, so did he. And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold we die, we perish, we all perish. Whosoever cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die, shall we be consumed with dying? Father, thank you for the opportunity to come and hear your holy, precious word. I ask you feel, Pastor Anderson, with your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and our ears to hear your word. I pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Man, the title of my sermon this morning is The Rod of Aaron Budded. The Rod of Aaron Budded. In this story, Numbers chapter 17, we're in the aftermath of the famous story with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And of course, all throughout the history of the children of Israel, leaving the land of Egypt with Moses and going into the promised land and wandering in the wilderness, all throughout that time, they're constantly murmuring, complaining, whining. And often you'll see the statement that they spoke against Moses and they spoke against Aaron. So instead of being happy that they've been delivered from Egypt and that God is doing something great in their lives, instead they complain and become bitter against the leadership, which is Moses and Aaron. Well, in Numbers chapter 17, God is going to perform a miracle in order to demonstrate to them, in order to make it very clear to them that Aaron is the God-ordained leader, that he has chosen the tribe of Levi and that he has specifically chosen Aaron to be the high priest. And so it says in verse number 2, speak unto the children of Israel and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers. Of all their princes, according to the house of their fathers, twelve rods write thou every man's name upon his rod. Now the idea of a rod here is a symbol of authority. It's something like a king would have a scepter or something. It symbolizes rule, authority, patriarchy, and you've got the twelve tribes and you've got the leaders of the tribes, and so they have a rod sort of symbolizing their authority. And so they write their name on their rod, and then they deliver their rods to Moses. And it says, thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi, for one rod, verse 3, shall be for the head of the house of their fathers, and thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony where I will meet with you, verse 5. And it shall come to pass that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom, and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel whereby they murmur against you. And so the idea here is that the rod represents authority, leadership, power, and then the blossoming represents the idea of bringing forth fruit. Okay, look what the Bible says in verse 8. It came to pass that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded and brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds. So there are buds, there are flowers, and then there's the actual fruit that is produced, which in this case is almonds. And the idea is that there is fruit being born in various stages of development, right? Some of it is just embryonic, some of it is a fully developed ripe fruit of almonds, but there's fruit in various stages being produced by Aaron's rod. Moses, verse 9, brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel, and they looked and took every man as rod. And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept for a token against the rebels, and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me that they die not. And he says, look, they need to shut up. They need to quit talking trash about Aaron. They need to quit whining and complaining and speaking against Aaron. This will shut them up so that they don't die because he's saying, frankly, if they don't shut up, I'm just going to kill them. You know, God is angry. He's done with putting up with all their talk against the man of God in the story. And then it's funny, they just turn around in the next few verses and continue to complain about God and about Moses, and they're like, oh, we're all going to die. How can we avoid dying? Here's how you avoid dying, right? You do what God told you to do, right? If you'd obey the Lord, you'll be blessed. If you disobey, you'll be cursed. And then they walk away saying, oh, no, we're doomed, we're cursed. You can see already an intention to not obey the word of God and that they're not getting the message. When we get to the New Testament, this is actually alluded to in the book of Hebrews, this story, because it talks about what was contained in the Ark of the Covenant. And we think of the Ark of the Covenant as containing the stone tablets that Moses brought down from the mount. But it also contained the golden pot of manna. And it also originally contained Aaron's rod that budded. It was actually kept in the Ark of the Covenant. So this is a pretty significant event. Now flip over to John chapter 15. And what you're going to find is that this principle that is laid down in Numbers chapter 17 is taught over and over again in the New Testament. It is reiterated over and over again that the good tree brings forth good fruit and that the corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. And that God will help us to identify real pastors, real men of God, real churches, real Christians, right, by the fact that they're actually being fruitful and productive. That is a sign that they are actually right with God and abiding in Christ. This is what the Bible teaches. Look what the Bible says in John chapter 15, verse 1. It says, I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Right? Another word for husbandmen would be like a vine dresser. So Jesus is saying, I'm the vine and my father, talking about God the Father, is the vine dresser or the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. And look at verse 4. This is really the key verse that needs to sink in this morning. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. And then at the end of verse 5, we have this beautiful statement, without me, you can do nothing. Right? Jesus Christ says, without me, you can do nothing. In order for a branch to be productive when it comes to producing spiritual fruit, it must be plugged into the vine, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, how am I going to be a fruitful Christian? How am I going to bring forth fruit? How am I going to be productive in my Christian life? How am I going to win people to Christ and see God do great things? You've got to be abiding in the vine. You've got to be abiding in Christ. You have to walk with God. You have to be plugged into the source of where the power is, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. But we have this foolish narrative today that says, oh, there's these bad churches, but they get tons of people saved. How does that jive with what we're seeing here in John chapter 15? Oh, he's a terrible pastor. He gets a ton of people saved, but he's a bad pastor. Really? A ton of people saved, but he's not right with God. Church is super productive, but it's a bad church I don't recommend, even though they're getting multitudes saved. I don't believe it for one second. I don't think it exists. It's a fake. It's a fairy tale. It's a fable because I just believe the Bible, when Jesus says, without me, you can do nothing. You see, it is impossible to accomplish great works for God without abiding in the vine. No man who is not walking with God is going to accomplish great things for God. You think you're just going to not walk with God and accomplish great things for God in the flesh? It will never happen. The only way to have success outsolding is to walk with God. The only way to have sex, excuse me, to have success in winning people to Christ and training them and teaching them. The only way is to walk with God. You have to be plugged in to the vine. You can't just say, oh, you know, I'm just going to do it on my own. I'm just going to copy somebody's methods. It's not going to work. Okay? For example, you know, you could look at big churches that are growing and they're reaching a lot of people, quote, unquote, and they have a building packed full of people, but you say, well, they're clearly not preaching the right gospel, or they have wrong doctrine, or they're clearly, you know, worldly, sinful people. How is that happening? How can we see these people with false doctrine and all these things? How can we see them, you know, having these numbers then? But here's the thing about that is that if you actually went and talked to those people, the so-called numbers, you'll find out that they're not actually saved. You see what I'm saying? So what I'm not saying is that, hey, if a church is growing numerically, that is a right church. That's not what I'm saying. Right? I'm not saying, hey, if the numbers are going up, that guarantees that that pastor is a good man of God and that's right because of the fact that the fruit has to be good fruit. Okay? Because here's the thing. Those of us who actually go out soul winning and knock on the doors and talk to people and preach the gospel to people, we know that there are tons of members of these non-denom megachurches that are not saved. So when we go and knock on the doors of the members of a certain church and person after person after person is not saved, what does that tell you about that church? There's something wrong with that church. If somebody came here and started interviewing people from our church, asking them about salvation, asking them what it takes to be saved, asking them, you know, what do we have to do to go to heaven? If somebody came here and asked that, they're going to get the right answer from 99% of people. And the 1% probably just showed up a week ago or something, you know, and just hasn't been reached yet. But if you ask the people of Faithful Word Baptist Church, they're going to know what the gospel is. But isn't it funny how we go out soul winning and we talk to person after person after person from a lot of these big megachurches and it's just, oh, I hope so. I'm a good person. So what do you think it takes to get to heaven? I don't know, live a good life, keep the commandments, right? That's not good fruit because that person is unsaved. Just because they started going to church, that doesn't make them a Christian. In order to be a Christian, you've got to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to put all your faith and trust in what Jesus did on the cross, okay? And you cannot be trusting in your own works. And so, obviously, we're not just saying, oh, big church equals right with God. Lots of numbers equals right with God because there has to be a quality of the fruit as well. It has to be good fruit. It's funny, I was out soul winning recently and we knocked on a door and it was somebody went to like Christ Church of the Valley, I believe it was, which is a big giant church up on the north side. I think they have different branches around here as well. And we knocked on the door of this person who went there and they've been going there for years. And I asked this person, what do you have to do to go to heaven? Oh, live a good life, keep the commandments, just total wrong answer. I was like, how long have you been going there? Oh, five years. It was a long time. It was a very long, many, many years. Might have even been longer than that. And I walked away from the door and I said to my soul winning partner, I said, you know, I said, there's no way that that is what that church's statement of faith says. There's no way that if I went to the pastor of that church and asked them what they believe, there's no way he's going to tell me, keep the commandments, live a good life. There's no way. And my soul winning partner was a little surprised by this. And I said, well, let's Google it right now, you know, and let's check it out. And we Googled it. And sure enough, we went there and it actually on paper had the right gospel as far as, oh, salvation is by faith alone and you can't lose your salvation. And here's the funny thing is that a lot of these big liberal churches, a lot of them have the right gospel on paper. In fact, I would be so bold as to say this, every single Baptist church in the state of Arizona on paper is going to say, salvation is by faith and you can't lose your salvation. You know what I mean? Like they're going to at least give some lip service to that somewhere in their statement of faith. And they might kind of contradict it somewhere else with some confusing wording and whatever. But in general, I was just talking to somebody after the service the other day and this lady was trying to convince me that you can lose your salvation. And I told her, I said, you know, I gave her some verses and everything, but she wasn't really listening. And so finally I just said, you know, you do know this is a Baptist church, right? And I said, do you realize that every single Baptist church in the entire state of Arizona believes that you cannot lose your salvation? That is literally just a Baptist doctrine that every Baptist church in California or Arizona is going to for sure believe that you can't lose your... I said, you should go to a Pentecostal church if you think you can lose your salvation because that's where you belong because that's their doctrine. This is a Baptist church. And so, oh, maybe so, bye. You know, and look, don't you want to reach her with the gospel? I tried to reach her with the gospel. I tried to give her the scripture. She wasn't listening. Finally, I just said, you're in the wrong place because she was trying to push her doctrine on me and other people in the auditorium. And I'm just like, you're in the wrong place. The Pentecostal Charismaniac Holy Roller Church is down the street because that lose your salvation doctrine is not a Baptist doctrine. Okay. We believe that nothing could separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in his son. And so we strongly believe that you cannot lose your salvation. But here's the thing about these big non-denom mega churches that they typically fall into two categories. There's either the ones that are hiding the fact that they're Pentecostal, but they're just calling themselves non-denom. And then there's the ones that are hiding the fact that they're Baptist and calling themselves non-denom. But pretty much your non-denominational churches can be carved into two categories. There are the ones that are Baptist and there are the ones that are Pentecostal. They don't go by those names, but that's what they are. Because they either have a doctrine that says that you're saved by grace through faith, not of works, you can't lose your salvation, that makes them Baptist. Or they believe you can lose your salvation and they're rolling in the aisles and talking in tongues, that makes them Pentecostal. Okay. And the point is that these mega liberal churches, a lot of them fall into the Baptist side of things. Like, like probably half of them literally almost would have a Baptist doctrine or they'd say we're Baptistic in our doctrine. But here's the funny thing about that is that when you go to the members of those churches and start doing a fruit inspection and you start asking people about salvation, you get wrong answer after wrong answer after wrong answer. And you'll get some right answers, but you get a lot of wrong answers. And you know what? Something's wrong with that picture when huge swaths of the congregation are not saved. And we're not talking about people who just started attending or they're brand new or something. We're talking about people that have been going there for years. And look, I grew up with this. I went to some liberal Baptist churches when I was a teenager. And of course, if you talk to the pastor, you're going to get the right answer. But then just member after member after member isn't saved. Why is that? How do you explain that? Why is it that these churches that on paper have the right doctrine are filled with so many unsaved people who haven't got a clue here? I'll tell you why. Because winning someone to Christ is a spiritual activity. That's why. Because getting people saved requires the power of the Holy Spirit. That's why. OK, you have to be saved. But not only do you have to be saved, if you want to be effective at winning people to Christ, you've got to be abiding in Christ. You've got to be abiding in the vine. You've got to be walking with God. You've got to be filled with the Spirit if you really want to be effective at winning people to Christ. That's what you've got to do. Because without Jesus, you can do nothing. So why would it then surprise us that some pastor who's super liberal, super worldly, preaching a bunch of wrong doctrine because he doesn't take the time to read his Bible. He's right on salvation, but he's wrong on a bunch of other things. He's clearly not deep into the Bible. He's a compromiser. He's trying to do what's popular just to build a big church. Isn't it amazing that that same guy has trouble getting his own people saved, let alone winning people outside the church to the Lord. He can't even evangelize his own congregation. I mean, why can't he, three years later, get his own church members even saved? What is wrong with that picture? I'll tell you what's wrong with it is that he's not abiding in Christ. Those are not good churches. They're not good churches. That's why the pastor and that's why the leadership of those churches is not winning people to Christ. And the people that are saved in those churches, a lot of times they got saved somewhere else. Oh, I got saved as a kid in a Baptist church or whatever. Because a lot of fundamental Baptists, they wash up in these fun centers. They get burned out, backslidden on serving God, and then they just wash up and end up in these fun centers. But the fun center didn't win them to Christ. Folks, I will never for one second believe that unsaved people are winning people to Jesus Christ. But that's the dumb doctrine that's out there in this world that, oh, unsaved people can win people to Christ. And you could just be this horrible person, and even if you're saved, you could just be this super backslidden, worldly, sinful, wicked person, and you're just going to get a bunch of people saved. I don't believe that for one second. I believe that in order to be effective at soul winning, you must be right with God. That's what the Bible is actually teaching. In order for the rod to bud, you've got to have God be blessing you. You know, God is blessing Aaron. God is putting his stamp of approval on Aaron. Aaron's rod is budding because he is a legitimate man of God, in the will of God, doing what God has told him to do. That's why his rod is budding. And then in the New Testament, Jesus is teaching the same thing, saying, look, if you want your branch to bring forth fruit, you've got to abide in me. You've got to, because without me, you can do nothing. You have to abide in me. He says in verse 5, I'm the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me, you can do nothing. So we have two statements here. One is that if you're not abiding in Jesus, you're going to bring forth zilch, right? If you're not walking with God, if you're not abiding in Christ, if you're not tapped into that power source from the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to accomplish zilch of actual meaningful spiritual value. Now, you might get a bunch of bodies into a building. You might go through the motions with a bunch of people. You might go out and accomplish things carnally or physically or in a worldly manner. You might be able to bring people to your little rock concert and your little TED talk. But as far as actually doing something of spiritual significance, getting people saved, having people's lives actually changed, preaching real, transformative, spirit-filled sermons, you're not going to do it without being in the vine, without being plugged into the vine. But then, when we flip that over, the Bible says in verse 5, he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. The Bible is saying, if you are plugged into the vine, if you are walking with God, if you are tapped into that spiritual source of power, you will bring forth much fruit. You are going to bring forth a lot of fruit. And so the reason why today Christians are bringing forth so little fruit and why Christians are winning so few people to Christ and why 99% of Christians are doing like no evangelism and like 1% of Christians are doing all the evangelism is because of the fact that people aren't walking with God. People aren't serious about their walk with God. People aren't abiding in the vine. Look, Jesus said, if you follow me, I will make you fishers of men. Right? Did he say, well, go ahead and follow me and, you know, I'm going to pick just a tiny little 1% elite kind of special forces to do the soul winning. And the other 99% are just going to sort of be along for the ride. No, he said, if you follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. You know, if you abide in me, you'll bring forth fruit. You will have spiritual accomplishments. If you don't have spiritual accomplishments, you're not abiding in Christ. If you're abiding in Christ, you're going to have a bunch of spiritual accomplishments. If you're sitting there saying, I want to have spiritual accomplishments, you've got to get plugged into the vine. Right? You've got to be reading your Bible. You've got to be praying. You've got to be walking with God and you've got to get out there and preach the gospel to every creature. You've got to go. You've got to preach and you've got to walk with God. Right? Because that's what it's going to take to get it done. Look at verse six. It says, if men abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they're burned. Now, look, this is not teaching. Some people would twist and say, oh, see, if you don't bring forth fruit, you're going to hell. This is not about hell. Men gather branches and throw them in the fire. Why do men gather branches and throw them in the fire? Because they're not good for anything. Right? So, for example, if I have an orchard and I have a tree and I have branches that are producing fruit and branches that are not producing fruit, then I'm going to go in and I'm going to chop off the dead weight. Chop off the ineffective branches and keep the ones that are bringing forth fruit. That's called purging the tree. And when you think about this word purge, look at the first three letters of purge is pure. Pur, right? Purifying. Another word for purging is purifying. Okay. And so you're purifying the tree, cutting off things that are not bringing forth fruit. Okay. And here's the thing. It's not really about cosmetics. If you're running an orchard and you have a really ugly branch that's bringing forth a lot of grapefruit, you're still going to love that branch. Whereas if you have this really pretty, beautiful little branch and it's not bringing forth any fruit or hardly any, you're chopping it off. Because, hey, we're not running a museum here. We're running an orchard. We're trying to get production. We're trying to get fruit here. And so God purges the tree so that it can bring forth more fruit. And then the branches that don't abide in Christ, that are not productive, God ends up discarding them. And again, this is not saying that they're not saved. This is not saying that they're going to hell. It's just saying that God's not going to use you. You know? And then it's just saying, just like men, just gather them and throw them into the fire and just burn them to get rid of them because they're just not helpful. Right? And this is when you see people that are unfruitful, unproductive, people that are not walking with God get out of church. God is actually just purging the church of dead weight and people that are unproductive in many cases. And obviously there are multiple legitimate ways to interpret this parable. This parable is very deep. You could also think of it this way that if you're a branch that's bringing forth fruit, God's going to purge you so that you bring forth more fruit, meaning that God might cut things out of your life that are holding you back. Right? He might purge you of sins that are holding you back. He might purge you of friends that are holding you back or whatever. He's going to chop some things out of your life to make you more productive. But also you could think of the branch as the church and God could actually purge the church so that the church could bring forth more fruit on a macro level. And so it says in verse seven, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. And notice that part of abiding in Christ is having God's word abide in you. Meditating on the word of God, reading your Bible, pondering the word of God, thinking about the Bible, memorizing scripture. Right? This is all helping you be spiritually minded, walk with God, filled with the Spirit, letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom so that you can be effective at bringing forth fruit and winning souls to Christ. The Bible says in verse eight, herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. God wants us to be very productive. He wants us to bring much fruit to perfection. And in order to do that, we've got to be walking with God. We've got to be abiding in the vine. I believe that when churches are filled with unsaved people, it's a sign that the pastor is not a legitimate man of God or he's backslidden or he's not walking with God. He's apparently failing to do the job because, look, obviously we should be reaching people out there with the gospel. You can't even get the people in your own church saved. The people in your church are going there for years and don't know how to be saved. And you say, well, yeah, but the pastor preached the plan of salvation from the pulpit. Yeah, but he preached it in the flesh and that's why it didn't get through. The pastor's getting up and preaching a sermon that's not Spirit-filled. The pastor's getting up and preaching in the power of his own flesh. Look, someone could just get up and just imitate verbatim my Bible Way to Heaven video or something, right? Like my Bible Way to Heaven video, I've had literally thousands of people literally walk up to me and say, hey, I got saved watching that Bible Way to Heaven video. Okay, so what if someone just memorized that video, went out and gave that message? I predict zero salvations because it's not just about an intellectual assent to fact. It is about the Holy Spirit. And you cannot be effective as a robot for God. Okay, you've got to be walking with God. You've got to be filled with the Spirit. And so people could get up and just ape the gospel and just these liberal pastors can get up and give lip service to the right gospel and say the right things. And then you wonder why all the church members are unsaved. It's because the power of God is what's missing. The Holy Spirit is what's missing. Okay, you've got to have the Holy Spirit's power. You've got to be plugged into the vine. I mean, look, am I making this up or is this right in the Bible right in front of you? That you can't bring forth fruit without being plugged into the vine. Look at verse 16. You've not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. And whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. Right? So the Bible is saying, look, I've chosen you. I've ordained you to bring forth fruit and for your fruit to remain. This is my plan. This is God's plan. I'm the vine. He's the husband man. Let's bring forth some fruit. You've got to abide in me and you're going to bring forth much fruit. That's the game plan. Look at chapter 12, verse 24. Just go back a few pages to the left in your Bible. John chapter 12, verse 24. 12, 24 says, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Now, look, obviously, again, there are multiple ways to interpret this parable, but here's one great way to interpret this parable. If we're going to bring forth much fruit, we've got to die to self. Right? We've got to, and what did Paul say? I die daily. The Bible says we should mortify our members upon this earth. We have to kill the old man. We have to put on the new man. We have to walk in the spirit, and if we die to self, we can bring forth much fruit. Okay. Now, what does this mean when it says, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone? See, if we have a kernel of wheat, you know, it's, in essence, that's a seed is what we're talking about. Right? And so, if the seed is just on the plant, still living, then it's just by itself. It's just a seed, but it has to die and go down into the ground and be buried, then after it dies and is buried, now new life can be produced. And instead of just one seed, now we're going to produce hundreds of seeds. Right? Now, obviously, this is also prophetic about Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. We realize that. But the point is that bringing forth fruit is talking about getting people saved. Okay? Now, if you would, go to Colossians chapter number one. Colossians chapter number one, getting fruit is talking about, excuse me, producing fruit is talking about getting people saved. Now, a lot of people, they hate this part because, and here's why they hate it, because they don't do any soul winning. People who don't do soul winning hate this doctrine. They're going to hate this whole sermon. People who never witness for Christ, people who don't open their mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, people who are not fishers of men, they're going to absolutely hate this sermon. And they hate this doctrine because here's what they want to believe bringing forth fruit is. They think bringing forth fruit is just love, joy, peace, long suffering, and that is not your fruit. That is the fruit of the spirit. What does fruit mean? Fruit means product, result, right? Offspring. Those are some of the synonyms of fruit. So here's the thing. When we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, then he bears fruit in our life. He produces what in us? When the Holy Spirit's in us, he produces love in our heart. He produces joy in our heart. He produces peace in our heart. He produces goodness in our heart. But that is not you bringing forth fruit. You're just sitting around all loving and peaceful and joyous. You still haven't brought forth any fruit. The Holy Spirit brought forth fruit. You brought forth nothing. You brought forth zero. And this is why when the Bible talks about Christians bringing forth fruit, he says some 30, some 60, some 100. That's not 30 love, 60 peace, and 100 joy. That doesn't make any sense, right? And here's the thing. Without me, you can do nothing. Are you telling me that somebody can't have any, you know, any feelings of love or something? Or at least even they could mime feelings of love and joy and peace. But the Bible says that the way that we'll know false prophets, we'll know them by their fruit. So, oh, we just got to see if they're happy. Just got to look and see if they're joyous. This guy lacks joy. He must not be. Is that what the Bible is saying? No, because here's the thing. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, temperance are pretty easy to fake. Extremely easy to fake because what do we know about false prophets? They're wolves in sheep's clothing. They are in sheep's clothing. Of course, they seem super loving and super peaceful and super joyous and they're just so wonderful and they're so good. But it's fake. It's a fraud. You know what you can't fake? Here's what you can't fake. Actually winning people to Christ and getting a whole bunch of people saved. Now, here's the thing. Let's say you had just some fake fraud of a pastor just getting tens of thousands of people saved. You know what I'd say? Keep him going, man. Who do I make the check out to? That's what I would say. You know what I mean? Because it's just like, but it doesn't exist. It's stupid to think that because that doesn't exist. There is no fake fraud, bad pastor getting tens of thousands of people saved. If so, I'd be like, dang, I wish we had some more bad fake fraud pastors that could get 10,000 people saved, get 10,000 people out of hell. Except here's the sad part. It doesn't exist because without Christ, you can do nothing. You can't bring forth fruit unless you're plugged into the vine. But if this narrative were theoretically true, oh, these bad churches that just get tens of thousands of people saved. Meanwhile, the good church is this little us for no more church, high steeple few people church is just such a good church, such a godly man of God. And it's like barely any results, barely any salvations, barely any fruit. I'd be like, well, what in the world? I guess we need more of this bad guy and less of this good guy because this good guy is just going to let the entire world go to hell. He's so good and then the whole world goes to hell. But again, this is stupid because there's no such thing as a good pastor who has few results. There's no such thing as a bad pastor having tons of good results. I mean, you hear about, oh, this guy went to the mission field 20 years without a single convert. That's just stupid. And I'm supposed to be inspired by that? Oh, so inspirational, 20 years without a salvation. That's just stupid. And you know what? There are two reasons why people aren't being saved. If people aren't being saved, there's one of two reasons. Number one, the gospel is not being preached. Or number two, the gospel has lost its power. Which one is it? Right? I mean, think about it. Folks, if the gospel is being preached by a spirit filled man of God, people will be saved. I don't care how unreceptive the area is. And look, we've all been sowing in some pretty unreceptive areas, haven't we? I've been to unreceptive countries. I've been to unreceptive neighborhoods. And here's the thing about that. You go to these really unreceptive neighborhoods. You go to these really unreceptive countries and it takes a lot longer to get someone saved. But it doesn't take 20 years, friend. It just doesn't. I mean, what sense would that even make to go somewhere and just beat your head against the wall for 20 years and call that serving God? Folks, shake the dust. If it's that unreceptive, shake the dust off your feet and go somewhere else. Here's an idea. Oh, I'm just really super burdened for this place where I get zero saved. Folks, life is short. Get out there and win some people to Christ. But the Bible says this. It says in Proverbs 11, are you there in Colossians? I'll just bring up, we're going to go to Colossians in a second, but I just want to bring up the famous verse. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise. Winning souls is bringing forth fruit. Okay. Look what the Bible says. You say, I don't believe you. Okay, look at Colossians 1 5. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, where have you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come unto you as it is in all the world and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God and truth. So notice that it is the word of truth in the gospel bringing forth fruit, bringing forth results of what? People being saved. The gospel brings forth fruit. It's called people getting saved, people becoming Christians. And this should be common sense anyway, because everything brings forth after its own kind. The fruit of apples is more apples. The fruit of the kernel of wheat that falls into the ground is more wheat. The fruit of the Christian is more Christians. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise. Look at verse 9. For this cause also we, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Look, God wants us to gain more knowledge and learn the Bible, but he also wants us to be productive and to actually produce fruit, to actually reproduce, to be fruitful and multiply, to get people saved, to get people baptized, to teach them to observe all things whatsoever Christ commanded. Turn if you would to Matthew chapter 7. While you're turning to Matthew 7, the Bible reads in Romans 7 verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. So the Bible is using this analogy saying you're married to Christ so that you can bring forth fruit to God. You know, what's the fruit of marriage? The fruit of marriage is children. And so again, the idea here with bringing forth fruit as a Christian is talking about winning people to Christ. And you know what, this is the one thing that the atheists and the infiltrators and the Judas Iscariots and the unsaved cannot do. What is the one thing that you can do as a saved Christian that no one else can do? You can win someone to Christ and no unsaved person can do that. Now stop and think about this again. Is that unsaved people can get up and teach the Bible and they can expound the Bible verse by verse and they can do all kinds of things but they can't actually win someone to Christ. They could plant a seed because just people hearing the Bible obviously has an impact. But eventually someone's going to have to actually be a spirit-filled saved soul when it actually preaches you the gospel in order for you to get saved. Okay. Because everything brings forth after its own kind, Christians produce Christians. You don't get a Christian from an unsaved person producing Christians. And again, you know, if people could fake this, I'd just be glad that they were faking it because they'd just be getting so many people saved. And fool us all while getting, you know, I'll show you, I'll get 50,000 people saved without even being saved myself. Ha! I'd just be like, whatever man, let this guy do what he's got to do. But it doesn't exist. I mean imagine how dumb you have to be to buy into this worldview. Oh, it gets tons of people saved. Faithful Word gets tons of people saved but it's a bad church. Like imagine being that crazy. Like imagine being that biblically illiterate to think, oh, the bad pastor gets the most people saved. The bad church gets the most people saved, right? And you know, you say, well, nobody said anything about the most. Yeah, actually they did. Here's a quote from one of these hater pastors hating on our church. Judas was the best soul winner. He literally said, Judas Iscariot was the greatest soul winner. Judas not only won people to Christ according to this bozo. And you can tell by the voice who I'm impersonating. He said, I believe Judas was the best soul winner. I mean how stupid do you have to be to believe that Judas Iscariot was the greatest soul winner? You know how many people Judas Iscariot got saved? Zip. Zilch. Because he wasn't even saved himself. But literally, and you know what, he's not the only person. Another pastor, a few months later, I'm like, are these guys getting this from each other? Or are they both just possessed by the same demons? Or are they just, I don't know, they're just dumb minds think alike or something? Another pastor literally got up and said, you know who the best soul winner was? Judas. And that was like the end of his video, like it was like a mic drop moment. Judas Iscariot was the best soul winner. Bam, what now? Your move, new IFB. Folks, that's the kind of crazy town talk from people who are trees whose fruit withers without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the root, bozos. They want to criticize the guy whose rod is budding and they come up with this crazy doctrine because they just can't face the reality that's in front of them that Aaron's rod budded. And they're just like, we don't like Aaron. Well, sorry, Aaron's rod budded. End of story. It's bringing forth fruit. That's the proof. That's the evidence. Look at Matthew chapter 7. The Bible says in this famous passage in Matthew 7 verse 15, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Now the Bible is saying you identify false prophets by their fruits. Okay, is this what most Christians are doing in 2025? Are most Christians in 2025 saying, well, you know, if we want to decide whether this guy is a legitimate man of God or a false teacher, we need to examine his fruits. Let's check his converts. Is that what they're doing? No. This doesn't even come on the radar of most people. Right? They lean on their own understanding, but here's what the Bible says. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? So I'm supposed to believe that thistle Baptist is producing a bunch of grapes. I'm supposed to believe that Pastor Thorn is bringing forth a bunch of figs, bringing forth a bunch of fruit. Well, you know, that Pastor Thorn, you know, he's a really rotten person, you know, terrible person, but yeah, obviously he gets a lot of people saved. Oh, that church is just wicked, you know, apostate church. You know, I mean, they do get a ton of salvations. That doesn't even make sense. Now, it would make more sense if they said, well, I don't think those salvations are legitimate. I'm going to do a fruit inspection. That would actually make more sense. And the Bible says that men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles, even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth good fruit. Oh, just in case you didn't get it, let me say it again. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them. And again, it's like, oh, you're not loving enough. You're a bad tree. That's not what the Bible says because, again, you're mixing up your fruits with the fruit of the Spirit. Oh, this pastor is so loving. He must be a good man of God. The devil himself has transformed into a minister of light. And, you know, I already told this story recently, but I'm just going to tell it again. I just want to keep telling this story because it's such a great story. I just want to keep telling this story about how a lady went to our church, okay, her dad died. She couldn't go to the funeral and was sad about it. And I personally said, hey, you know what we should do? We should pay for you and your kid to go fly to Australia to go to that funeral and spend thousands and thousands of dollars on flights and Airbnb so that you can be, because I'm sad about you not getting to go to your dad's funeral, right? It sounds like a loving act to me. But then now, fast forward a few years, and this woman is going around and slandering our church and telling multiple people, and multiple people have come to me and told me, she's going around saying, Pastor Anderson's not a loving pastor. Pastor Anderson's not a loving pastor. Really? Like, how many kisses and hugs do I have to give you before you consider me a loving pastor? And this is a woman that I've never said a cross word to, never said any negative thing to her in my life. Now, full disclosure, I did not kiss or hug her. So I guess I'm just not, I never walked up to her and said, I love you. I never sent any little smiling or heart emojis or something. Because frankly, that'd be inappropriate to another man's wife, right? I don't think people want their pastor being super lovey-dovey with other men's wives. You know, what it comes down to is not loving in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. But this is what the world says, oh, you know, this other pastor's so loving because he's just so soft and cuddly or whatever. But the point is that that is not the test of a man of God. Oh, I'm leaving that church. Pastor's not loving enough. I'm going to go to this lovey-dovey, sloppy, agape, Baptist church down the street. No, my friend, what the real test is, is the production. It's the fruit. You'll know them by their fruit. Not, oh, you know, you'll know them by the fruit of the Spirit. You know, why? Because that's so easily faked. You want to know what's not easily faked? Getting a bunch of people legitimately saved. See, in order to build a church like ours, there's only one way to build a church like ours, through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's the only way. It's not built by a rock band. It's not built by slick marketing ad campaigns. It's built by the power of God. It's built by the Holy Spirit. You can't fake that. You can't fake the results of a bunch of people getting saved. You can't fake that. If you, you know, and again, if it is possible for unsaved pastors to get multitudes saved, then I would say, well, just let those unsaved pastors do their thing then because they're super effective. And I would just, I'd be afraid to speak against them or talk about them or hurt them in any way because I just wouldn't want to stop their soul-winning machine. I wouldn't want to stop the soul-winning factory. But guess what? It doesn't exist. Because the soul-winning factory wouldn't exist if it weren't actually powered by the Holy Spirit. You know them by their fruits. By their fruits you shall know them. That's how you can tell the false prophet because, again, we go and talk to his church members and they're a bunch of unsaved people. Or if the church is filled with saved people, they got saved all somewhere else. They got saved all somewhere else and he's just babysitting them all, helping them get less productive over time. Go if you would do 1 Corinthians chapter 4. I've got to hurry. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Actually, let's go to 1 Corinthians 2 first and we'll work our way to chapter 4. But while you're turning there, I'll read for you from Jude. The Bible says, Woe unto them, talking about false prophets, for they've gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. And, of course, Korah is the one talking smack about Aaron, talking smack about Moses, and then God causes Aaron's rod to bud to shut up Korah and his followers. He said this will put to silence their murmurings so that they don't die. You know, I'll show them Aaron's rod is going to bud. But he talks about the false prophets like Korah. These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. So notice the false prophets are without fruit. Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. So the Bible is saying that they either have bad fruit that withers or they have no fruit. Right? They are twice dead, plucked up by the roots. The Bible does not say that they're producing good fruit. It's absurd. It's contrary to everything that the Bible teaches. A pastor that is producing good fruit is a good pastor. A church that is producing good fruit is a good church. Take it to the bank. It's a fact. Now, does that mean that every doctrine of that church is right? No. Because guess what? Every single church is going to be wrong on something. No church has perfect doctrine, including Faith Forward Baptist Church. We're all human. We're all scouring the Bible, trying to do the best we can to preach the gospel. But here's the thing. What we're talking about this morning, we're talking about a pass fail. Either the rod budded or it didn't. It's a pass fail. Did the rod bud or did the rod not bud? Okay. So we're not saying Aaron's perfect. Does anybody here think that Aaron was a perfect leader? No. And if you put your hand up, we're going to know you didn't read the whole story. Because Aaron messed up big time. Aaron messed up big time. Aaron gave in to the pressures of the people and he made the golden calf, which is a super big sin. He blew it big time. And so is Aaron the perfect guy, perfect man of God, totally without sin? Of course not. No one is. Okay. And Moses, he made some serious mistakes too. Every man of God in the Bible virtually, unless we just don't have a lot of info on them, you know, made some serious mistakes. And they're like, everybody is a sinner. Nobody's perfect. Nobody is saying that the church that brings forth fruit is a perfect church. We're just saying it's a good church. We're saying that it's God's church. We're saying it's a church that God is using. God is working through that preacher. That preacher. Those people. Those individuals. Because of the fact that they're bringing forth fruit. That's the evidence. The proof is in the pudding. Nobody's saying that they're without sin or without fault. Okay. Every church has problems. Okay. But here's the thing about churches that have problems. If a church ends up having severe problems, you know what God will do? Take away the candlestick. So you're not going to tell me, oh, this church is just teeming with fornication, but they're getting a bunch of people saved. I don't believe it for one second. Because that's the kind of stuff that will choke out the word of God and cause you to be unfruitful as a Christian. And so when we look at the churches in Revelation, we see a church where fornication about it, he said, if that fornication is not repented of, I'm going to remove that candlestick out of his place. You know, if you don't fix this and there is false doctrine, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, he said, if you don't get rid of that false doctrine, I'm going to remove your candlestick out of his place. So it sounds to me like churches that are involved in serious sin or have serious doctrinal issues, God is not going to keep them plugged into the vine. God's not going to keep them productive and you will see those churches fail and crash and burn. They're not just going to thrive and continue. Well, they have really bad doctrine, but they're just thriving and bringing forth a ton of fruit. That is a fairy tale, okay? Churches that are productive and effective at reaching their community and reaching the people around this world with the gospel are good churches. Pastors whose sermons win people to Christ and change their lives are good pastors. You say, well, no, this one pastor, you know, he was out, you know, being a whoremonger, being an adulterer, being a drunk or whatever. Look, those kind of pastors, they are not going to have effective ministries. I guarantee you that that guy was not being effective while he was living in that condition. Take it to the bank. Some pastor gets busted, you know, embezzling money for online gambling or he's out, you know, taking drugs or drinking. I guarantee you that that guy's ministry stopped being effective as soon as he started doing that stuff, if it was ever effective in the first place even. It may have never even been effective because here's the thing, maybe he was just riding other people's coattails and just filling his church with other people's converts or whatever or maybe he was effective in the past and then he got backslidden. But you're not going to continue being effective. And here's the thing, the fact that we're even talking about it shows that God exposed that guy and took him out of the ministry. He's not just going to let that guy just keep doing that. Because why? Because he can't be effective like that. He can't win souls like that. He cannot be preaching great sermons like that when you're living in that kind of wicked sin. And this teaching couldn't be clearer in the Bible. People just have a hard time accepting it because of their prejudices. You know, they just have this idea, well, I know that there's this super effective soul winning church that's bad. Well, you know wrong. Or, well, I know that there's, you know, that there's this, you know, really great wonderful godly pastor and he just has like no results. Sorry, he sucks. Get over it. I don't believe that. Well, okay, whatever. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Doesn't sound like Paul has a really sleek message or a really complicated message or anything special about his preaching of the gospel. He's like, it's pretty much just Christ crucified. And he says, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Sounds like he wasn't a super effective or bold speaker either, not a super charismatic guy. And my speech and my preaching, verse 4, or in 1 Corinthians 2, 4, was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. Do you see what I'm getting at here is why was Paul effective in his preaching? Is it because he was a great speaker? No, it's because it was a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit, which is why big mega church pastor who, look, let's face it, most of these mega church pastors are probably much better speakers than I am or many of my fundamental Baptist brethren. I mean, these guys can deliver a TED talk. Okay, very, you know, some of these guys are super eloquent. And then you look, go check the statement of faith. Salvation by faith can't lose your salvation. Yet half of their own church isn't even saved. And I'm not talking about new people. I'm talking about people who've been there for years that are not saved. Okay, you want to know why? What's the missing ingredient? Here's the missing ingredient. The power of the Holy Spirit is missing. That's why they can't accomplish anything real or spiritual. They can do a carnal thing where they just get a bunch of people and they can entertain people. And they can babysit a bunch of saved people and entertain the goats and entertain the unsaved. But they cannot actually preach a Spirit-filled life-changing sermon. They can give a beautiful TED talk that might even bring a tear to the eye, but it's not going to result in real spiritual fruit being produced. Oh, and let's talk about the other elephant in the room is that they're not even preaching from a King James Bible. They're preaching from a corrupt scripture. Well, there went a bunch of the power out the window, too, right there. The power's in the Word as well. Look at verse 5, That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. You don't logic people into getting saved. You preach them the Gospel, and the power of the Holy Spirit is what converts them. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to naught. Go to chapter 3 quickly. Chapter 3. Now, here's what the Bible says in verse 5 of chapter 3. It says, So who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? So every single man has ministers by whom they believed. Right? So you didn't just go get saved by yourself somewhere. You didn't just walk down the street and look within your own heart and find salvation in your own heart, and you didn't find salvation looking up in the sky either. You know, those things might make you think about things or seek after something, and maybe eventually you'll find God, but you're never going to find the Gospel of Jesus Christ by looking in your heart or looking up in the sky. Okay, someone preaches you the Gospel. Okay, you have ministers. Every single man has ministers by whom they believe. Maybe one person sowed the seed, one person watered, and then one person ultimately won you to Christ. Okay? Or maybe it was all the same person. But the Bible says that God gave this to every man. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase, so then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. So what we have here is a warning in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 not to overemphasize the person who got you saved to the point where you become, like, factional, to the point where it's like, oh, well, you know, I got saved from Peter. I'm of Peter. I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos. And then it's like we have, like, a splint here because at the end of the day, our allegiance is ultimately to Jesus Christ. Ultimately, we're actually saved by Jesus, and so we don't want to overemphasize the person who got us saved to the point where it becomes, like, a cult-like following of the person who got us saved. Because at the end of the day, that person still might not be right about every single thing. The Bible has to be our final authority and whatever. But then what's interesting is in chapter 4, we have something that almost goes the opposite direction. Look at 1 Corinthians 4 verse 14. He said, I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you, verse 15 of chapter 4, for though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel, wherefore I beseech you be ye followers of me. So he's saying, look, I want you to Christ, therefore follow me. And then he says in verse 17, for this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. So what we have here is a balance. Don't overemphasize the person or church that got you saved, but don't underemphasize it either, because there is a balance here. What do I mean by that? Well, I remember my dad used to always talk about using this tactic. Whenever he would win someone to Christ, the tendency is that when you win someone to Christ, they'll often want to continue going to the same church that they're already going to, especially because, like I said, on paper, a lot of these churches do have the right salvation doctrine. So therefore, let's say I knock on the door of one of these non-denom people, and I win them to Christ. When they go to church on Sunday and say, oh, I just got saved, I just realized that, you know, salvation's by faith, and I received Jesus Christ as my savior, and now I'm going to heaven. You know, people are going to be like, great, amen. Glad you're finally saved. You know, because again, on paper, that is the church's doctrine. And so what'll happen is you'll win someone to Christ, and often what'll happen is their aunt that's saved, their cousin that's saved, their uncle that's saved, their brother that's saved will recruit them to their church, which is some dead, watered-down church that never got them saved in the past, but now that they're saved, they want to jump in and absorb that person into their flock. And so this is what my dad told me that he would always say to people. Whenever he would win people to Christ and they would talk about going back to their old church, he would just say, so did that church ever get you saved? Like, how long have you gone there? Oh, you went there for how long? And they never got you saved, huh? Did they ever tell you how to be saved? Did they ever sit you down and get you saved? Hmm. And he would kind of give them that food for thought, like, look, buddy, maybe your church is dead. Maybe your church is not abiding in the vine. Maybe your church is not legit if you went there for years and never got saved, and I just got you saved right now. So maybe you should come to my church. You know, it's what my dad would basically be telling these people, because my dad was never any kind of a pastor. He was never any kind of a ministry leader or any kind. He didn't hold positions in the church. He's just a guy in the church, just an electrician who went to church, but he was trying to tell people, you should go to my church because I actually won you to Christ. You know, and again, obviously people don't have to go to our church, but it doesn't really make sense to go to these churches that are not, that didn't get you saved. Like, if you went somewhere for three years and they didn't get you saved, wouldn't you feel like that church had kind of failed you? And you'd be like, okay, I need to go somewhere else. What else are these people not teaching me? What else are these people not telling me? And so here's the thing. You know, we don't want to overemphasize the person who won you to Christ and wear it as a badge or I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, or try to, you know, say that that person can do no wrong or that they can, you know, never be wrong about anything. That's an overemphasis, but then there's also an underemphasis where basically people don't realize that the one person who got you saved is the one person that you know is legit. Because otherwise, because if you know that you're saved and you know that they got you saved, that's really the person that you can have supreme confidence about that they're legit. Like, I'm never going to doubt my mom's salvation because my mom got me saved. So I'm never going to wonder, is my mom this false teacher? Is she not saved? Is she a Judas Iscariot? Is she fake? Is she a fraud? That thought's never going to enter my mind because I already know that my mom is saved because my mom is the one that won me the Lord. Okay, and so that is worth something. You know, and the point is that I would never want to bite the hand that has fed me in such a marvelous way, such a powerful way. And so when you stop and think about it, yeah, some people could overemphasize this and become cult-like in their following of a human being and overly lift up a human leader. But at the same time, Paul did say, be followers of me, follow me as I follow Christ. And so we do need to follow human leaders. We just don't want to elevate them to a cult status. Right? We want to have a balanced view on this and say, hey, if that church is productive and bringing forth fruit, at a minimum, leave it alone. At a minimum, leave it alone. Stop and think about that. And by the way, this is why I never believed and I never will believe the garbage that people said about Brother Hiles. And you know, now that he's dead, people can keep talking crap about him and keep making the videos and keep saying all this stuff. And you know what I've noticed is that whenever anybody breaks fellowship with us, the first thing they do is start criticizing Brother Hiles too. Like, they dig up Brother Hiles and start criticizing him 25 years after his death. It just kind of blows me away. But here's what's funny about that is that to this day, to this day, in many cities across America, the best church in the city is a Hiles Anderson graduate. You know? I mean, look, if anybody at home is looking for a good church in your area, you know, one of the best ways to do it, you go to that Military Gets Saved website and on the Military Gets Saved website, it lists every independent Baptist church. And you know what? When I'm looking for a good church in an area, I do two things. I do control F for the word soul and you say, well, why is it so important that they mention soul-winning? Here's why. Because a church that is soul-winning is probably going to be abiding in the vine. Because without Christ, they can do that. See, these non-soul-winning churches, who knows what they are? There's no fruit to inspect. I don't know what they are. You know what I find is that the majority of churches that are soul-winning churches that use that term soul-winning and actually have, like, soul-winning times throughout the week and scheduled soul-winning times, you know what? The vast majority of the time, they're right on the gospel. And the vast majority of the time, when they don't have the soul-winning times, they're going to be confused about the gospel on some level. You know what I mean? Right? So I go there and I go control F, soul. And then the second thing I do is control F, hyles. That's the second thing I do. Those are the two words I look for. Soul and hyles. Why do I do that? Is it because Brother Hyles is such a bad guy? No, because of the fact that all over America, in many cities across America, the best church in that area is a Hyles Anderson graduate to this day. You know, that sounds like some pretty good fruit when you have a thousand pastors across America, many of whom are great pastors. And look, we've got a great pastor right in our town here that's a Hyles Anderson graduate, Pastor Kevin Cowling. And you know what? I think that that, besides faithful word, you know, I think that's the best church in this area. So if you get all disgruntled and upset, then go there. But you know what I've found is that that's what I always tell people, but then the disgruntled, upset people when they quit the church, they rarely go there. It's too good of a church for them. God's probably protecting them from the bozos. And you know what? Here's the thing. That guy's a Hyles Anderson graduate, and not only that, that church is probably the church that I've ever been to that most resembled the mothership. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I'm just saying, like, that place is a carbon copy of First Baptist Church of Hammond. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm just saying, man, that guy is a product of that ministry, if anyone is. And you know, that's a church that wins souls. That's a productive church. Look, I'm not going to sit there and believe that this pastor preached all these spirit-filled sermons that changed my life, that I listened to these sermons and was spiritually edified, and tons of people that I know were won to Christ by that ministry, and you still see great churches all over America that are products of that ministry, but I'm supposed to believe all these lying accusations against him. I don't believe it for one second. Because the tree is known by his fruit. That's why. And again, I'm not saying his doctrine was perfect. I'm not saying that. I'm sure that he made many mistakes and did lots. But at the end of the day, though, here's the thing. If a church is being productive or a pastor is being productive, leave them alone. Right? Don't cut down the fruit trees. Leave the fruit trees alone. Let them produce. And don't sit there and criticize and fight against churches that are being productive and whatever. But you know what? We got some wicked... And look, you say, why are you preaching this sermon? Look, you and I both know that there are some wicked, evil, conniving people right now that are so bitter and evil, and they hate our church, and they're attacking our church, and everything that I just preached in my sermon just went right over their head. They don't believe it, even though it's so clear. But you know, these vindictive, bitter, spiteful people that are just all bitter and whatever, and most of these people, I did nothing to harm them whatsoever. Like, I didn't even say a cross word to them. All right? How about the guy who pointed a camera at me while I preached the gospel? I preached the Bible way to heaven on a college campus, right, in a classroom, and he pointed the camera at me while I preached the word of God, while I preached the gospel of Jesus Christ in a video called The Bible Way to Heaven. In a video that's been viewed tens of millions of times. In a video where I don't usually go a month of my life without someone walking up to me and saying, I got saved watching that video, and anytime I'm a guest preacher anywhere, somebody walks up and says, I got saved watching that video. Five years ago, three years ago, ten years ago. And then you got the guy who held the camera now filing copyright strikes on anyone who posts that video to YouTube. Copyright strike of The Bible Way to Heaven. We're not talking about a documentary. We're not talking about some sleekly edited film. We're talking about me presenting the gospel in a video that has been known to get literally tens of thousands of people saved or more. And he's filing copyright infringement. I guess this is his intellectual property, me preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ because he held the camera. What if I told you that nobody cares how you held that camera? Or nobody cares about the lighting. You want to know what's getting people saved is the message. It's the gospel. It's the word of God, and that's not your intellectual property. But I'm just wondering what goes through the head of a person that they would do something so evil as to remove, claim to be a saved Christian, and then remove the gospel from YouTube and say, well, I don't want you posting my gospel video because I was the one that pointed the camera. Right? Is anybody listening? I mean, think about that. Is that crazy? Just, oh, we've got to purge this video. And by the way, all those documentaries that I made with him, we always had the agreement that I was allowed to put that stuff out for free. And it says on the back of every DVD, copy and share this disc. And now, oh, you copy the disc, and he's going to hit you with a copyright infringement. You upload it to your channel, you get a copyright infringement. But not even on the documentaries, which that was always our agreement. That's why I even worked on those documentaries, was it was always that we could give it away for free. But no, no, just on the Bible way to heaven itself, filing copyright strikes. You know what? That is a rotten, evil, bitter thing to do. Well, you know what? Go ahead and live your life that way, loser. Right? Go be a stupid loser for the rest of your life and be a failure. And you want to know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to go out and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I'll just preach it again. And again and again and again. And let me tell you something. Do not, and I'm going to close with this thought, do not become a bitter, vindictive loser. And you know what? Even though I'm in the right in this situation, I could also make the mistake of becoming a bitter, vindictive loser if I just obsess over, you know, all the people who've done me dirty. You know what I mean? I think Absalom was right in the fight with David in some ways. You know, he was right about his brother being a pervert. But at the end of the day, though, Absalom becomes the villain. Well, you know what? I'm not going to become the villain. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go out and just win even more people to Christ. And you know what? The best way, the best way to shut up these bunch of lying devils, these bunch of slandering pieces of crap, these bunch of vindictive, bitter, copyright strike, get you really deleted. You know what? These lying, slanderous pieces of garbage, you want to know what the best way to defeat them is? Is to just go out and just win more souls to Christ and just let the rod bud. Right? You know what? Let the dead bury their dead. And look, I'm sure there are people that have been rotten to you in your life, slandered you, criticized you, attacked. Don't spend your life trying to figure out how you're going to get revenge on them and how you're going to expose them and criticize them and do this. Don't spend your life on that, my friend. You know what you should spend your life on? Getting people saved. And you know what? Just show them your rod that budded. Because the best revenge is to live well. And all these little bitter ex-NIFB little losers can just sit around crying and murmuring and whining. No, the one thing that they can't fake is that their stick is so sterile and dry and it's not bringing forth any fruit. They've got this little dried up little stick. We're over here budding and flowering and bearing almonds at Faithful Word Baptist Church. You know, here's the thing. If you wanted to, you could go dig up dirt on anyone's past virtually and go find all the dirt in their past. I'll show them I'm just going to fight fire with fire and I'm going to dig up all this stuff from their past. No, man, because I don't do that. I don't do stuff like that. You know, I'd rather just let the dead bury their dead, walk away, and go have a great year of soul winning. And you know what? You should cut these toxic people loose from your life and don't try to get revenge on them. Let God take vengeance. Walk away and go preach the gospel of Christ. And bring forth fruit because at the end of the day the proof is in the pudding. If you live a godly, productive life, at the end of the day that's what's going to shut the mouth of the naysayers. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you so much for the vine, Lord. Help us all to stay plugged into the vine every day. Help us to walk in the Spirit. Help us to read your word. Help us to meditate on your word day and night. Lord, help us all to be fruitful, productive Christians. And Lord, help us to open our mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. Lord, if there's anyone here today that is saved but they are just not witnessing at all, they're not preaching the gospel at all, they're not doing any soul winning at all, Lord, I pray that you would just convict that person, Lord, that they would actually grow in that area and that they would get involved in preaching the gospel, winning souls, and that they would actually become productive, Lord. And Lord, I pray that you would just deal with all these dry sticks that are criticizing our church and hating on me personally and hating on our church, Lord. And Lord, help us to just forget about them and move on. And Lord, I pray that you would deal with these rotten people yourself. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. All right, ladies and gentlemen, take your hymnals, please. Go to hymn number 109, number 109. You sang great this morning. Let's send the service on a good note. Number 109, Savior like a shepherd, lead us. Hymn number 109. Much we need thy tender care. Hymn number 109. Sing it out now. Savior like a shepherd, lead us. Much we need thy tender care. May thy pleasant pastures feed us. For our gifts thy souls repay. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast bought us thy name, we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast bought us thy name, we are. We are large and now befriend us, be thy guardian of our way. Keep thy flock from sin, defend us, lead us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear, O hear us when we pray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear, O hear us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive us, poor and sinful though we be. Thou hast mercy to relieve us, praise to cleanse and proud to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to thee. Early let us seek thy favor, early let us do thy will. Blessed Lord and only Savior, in thy love our bosoms fill. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast loved us, loved us still. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast loved us, loved us still. Blessed Lord and only Savior, in thy love our bosoms fill. Blessed Lord and only Savior, in thy love our bosoms fill. Blessed Lord and only Savior, in thy love our bosoms fill.