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

The title of my sermon this morning is Things That Do Not Matter, Things That Don't Matter. Now in this scripture the Bible uses the word vain and when we look at the word vain throughout scripture that's pretty much what it's referring to. Things that don't matter are vain, they're vanity. Now I find a good definition of vain right here in this passage also at the end of verse 8 when it says these things are good and profitable unto men but then the contrast in the next verse says but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and vain. So that which is vain is that which is unprofitable. It doesn't do anybody any good, it doesn't really matter, it doesn't accomplish anything. That's what we mean when we talk about vanity. Now let's get the whole context of the passage here and start in verse number 5. The Bible reads not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So right out of the gate here he's explaining that our salvation is not based on our works or our deeds or anything that we've done. It's not by works of righteousness that we have done but according to his mercy he saved us and the Bible says in verse 7 that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So the way that we receive eternal life is through God's grace meaning that it's something that we do not deserve. It's given to us for free and the Bible says here that we're justified by his grace. What does justified mean? It means to be declared righteous in the sight of God. One good way of remembering it is just as if I'd never sinned. That's what it means to be justified in the sight of God. It's all through faith. It's all through grace. It's by believing in Jesus. It's not by our works or our deeds. But look what the Bible says right after that in verse number 8. This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God, so we're talking about people who are already saved, they've received eternal life through grace not by works which they've done but through his grace. It says that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. So God's telling us here that once we're saved he wants us to be careful to maintain good works. Not to earn our salvation but the reason is given in the next phrase. These things are good and profitable unto men. So what's the Bible saying? Look we're saved by grace through faith. That's what gets us eternal life. But you know what is profitable to our fellow men? It's when we do good works. The Bible says that we which have believed in God should also be careful to maintain good works because these things are good and profitable unto men as opposed to things that are not profitable unto other people. Now if you would flip over to James 2 quickly and I don't want to spend the whole sermon on this but James 2 is a passage that's often misunderstood and misconstrued to try to teach a workspace salvation. Even though there are so many scriptures in the New Testament that tell us that salvation is by faith alone, that it's not of works lest any man should boast and on and on the Bible tells us that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. But James 2 is one that will be misconstrued to teach a workspace salvation and I just want to focus on a part of it here that pertains to the sermon this morning but if we begin reading in James 2 verse number 15 the Bible says if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them depart in peace be ye warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body what did that profit even so faith if it hath not works is dead being alone. Yea a man may say thou hast faith and I have works show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works. Now I've done many sermons where I go verse by verse through this whole chapter and I don't have time to do that this morning but the thing I want to point out here is that the person who has faith but does not have works is likened unto the person who says to someone who's starving or naked depart in peace be ye warmed and filled. And what the Bible is saying is that saying that to someone doesn't do that person any good does it? Just saying that to, no if we give them the things that are needful to the body that's going to do them some good if we give them some food if we give them a coat to wear. And what the Bible is teaching here is that if we have faith but we don't have works we are not profitable unto others. See when it says what does it profit it's saying what does it profit them it's not saying what does it profit us. Look having faith profits you you're going to heaven you have eternal life. Okay but what good does it do to anybody else when you don't have the works to go with it. So the purpose of the works is to be profitable unto men to serve the Lord Jesus Christ so that we can get other people saved so that we can be a blessing to other people minister to other people and be profitable unto them. Go back if you would to Titus 3 let's finish up there. The point is that good works that we do for the Lord are profitable unto men. He said be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men. It means that it helps them it benefits them it accomplishes something for them. There's nothing vain about that there's nothing worthless about that but look what the Bible says in verse 9. But avoid foolish questions. Okay these are the things that are not profitable these are not benefiting our fellow man these are not helping anyone edifying anyone saving anyone. He said avoid foolish questions he's saying avoid genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and vain. They are worthless they don't matter. Let's look at some of these things that don't matter foolish questions. Now foolish questions I've heard it said before you know the only stupid question is the one you don't ask well that's not biblical because a lot of times that saying should be the only foolish question the one that you just asked you know the Bible says that there are foolish questions and the Bible says that we should avoid foolish questions what's a foolish question here translation into modern English a stupid question. People who ask dumb questions people who ask questions like can God make a rock so big that he could not pick it up. You know just these strange paradoxes or hey did Adam have a belly button or you know which came first the chicken or the egg you know just this kind of navel gazing stupidity and just dumb questions and just questioning things that don't really need to be questioned. You know here's a dumb question my dad was in his Sunday school class somebody raised their hand said well when the Bible says preach the gospel to every creature you know what about dogs you know every creature what about the animals do we need to get the gospel. You know that's just the kind of stupidity where you don't even want to dignify it with an answer. Questions like that don't even deserve to be answered which is why the Bible says answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou be found to be like unto him. So the Bible tells avoid foolish questions and there are people who sit around doing nothing more than just asking dumb questions and just questioning things that really don't matter they don't profit. And I think a great question was found there in James chapter 2 that we should ask ourselves every day of our lives when it comes to the things that we read, the things that we do, the things that we watch, the things that we spend our time on what does it profit. That question should be something we ask ourselves every day about everything we do. What does it profit? What does it profit? Is it vain? Is it something that doesn't matter or is it good and profitable unto men? That's a question that should be asked every day of our lives. And there are so many people who waste so much of their lives on things that don't matter and they don't ask themselves the question what does it profit? You know what's the point? Why does it matter? He said avoid foolish questions. He said avoid genealogies. You know what else doesn't matter? Our ancestry. It doesn't matter. And if it did matter God wouldn't say avoid it and he wouldn't say it's unprofitable and vain to sit there and try to figure out what your nationality is and people today they take so much pride in their nationality or the fact that they're a white person or a black person or they're Hispanic or they're this Indian tribe or that Indian tribe and they get puffed up about those foolish things. The Bible says avoid genealogies. They're unprofitable and vain. It is vain. It doesn't matter what your nationality is, who your ancestors are. You don't have to turn there but a great scripture on this is found in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 17. This is one of my favorite verses that says all nations before him are as nothing. Did you hear that? I want these words to sink down into yours. All nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity. Now you have to be pretty worthless to be called by God less than nothing. I mean if something doesn't matter that's nothing and if something really doesn't matter he says it's less than nothing and he says it's vanity, it's meaningless but yet people take such pride in the nation and their nationality. You know I'm proud to be an American and you know what God forbid that I should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hey that's something that profits. That's something that means something but today people they glory in the flesh. They glory in their race. They glory in their nationality and you know these bunch of foolish white supremacists I guarantee you they're not as pure white as they think if they actually went back and figured out there's something mixed in there. Who cares? And it's the same for any nationality because we're all of one blood and it's foolish to glory in your pedigree, your genealogy. The Bible says there in Titus 3 avoid foolish questions, genealogies, contentions and strivings about the law. This is people arguing about the Torah and this is a big thing now. Why don't they just call it the law like the Bible calls it but instead they call it the Torah because by speaking a foreign language basically this somehow gives more mystique to it and more validity to it because they don't want all these verses to come flooding into our mind telling us how unprofitable it is to strive about the law and to contend about the law. They don't want all these verses to flood into our mind telling us we're not under the law but under grace and you know the bondage of the law. So they just repackage it as the Torah and the Torah observing. It's vain, it's unprofitable unto men. These Christians we need to introduce them to the New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but they're all hung up on all of these feast days and new moons and all these unprofitable things that the Bible says are a shadow of things to come and we should not strive and contend about the law. Now we should strive for the faith. The Bible says contend earnestly for the faith of Jesus but strivings about the law, yeah they're unprofitable and vain. The Bible says in verse 10, a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject knowing that he that is such as subverted and sin is being condemned of himself. Why does the Bible tell us in this context to reject the heretic after the first and second admonition? Because he's teaching us in this passage to spend our time on things that are good and profitable unto men and not to waste our time on things that don't matter and things that are unprofitable and vain. And the Bible's teaching us that it is unprofitable and vain to argue with people who are mixed up in false doctrine. Now we should correct that person once and then correct that person twice but if that person doesn't want to receive correction, if that person doesn't want to hear the truth, it's time to move on. And people constantly ask me, you know, what do I do? I told this person this and this and this and they won't listen to anything I say. What do I do? And the answer is move on. A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject. Why? Because we have better things to do with our time that are good and profitable unto men than to waste them arguing with people who don't want to hear the truth. You know, this whole thing of arguing, debating, it really is a waste of everybody involves time. And honestly, that's why we should just tell people once, tell people twice and if they don't want to hear it, just say, okay, well, you're entitled to your opinion and just move on. You know, you can take the horse to the water but you can't make them drink, right? And if people won't believe the truth after seeing two crystal clear scriptures, they probably won't change when you show them a hundred crystal clear scriptures. You know, they obviously are subverted, the Bible says, and they're condemned of themselves, you know. But the Bible also talks about, if you would flip over to Colossians chapter 4, just a few pages to the left in your Bible. The Bible talks about the fact that we have a limited amount of time and that we should use our time wisely on this earth. Ephesians 5, 16 says redeeming the time because the days are evil, okay? Redeeming the time. Redeeming means that we're making the best use out of it, getting the most value out of our time. The Bible says in Colossians 4 verse 5, walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Why is it that we need to redeem the time according to this verse here, Colossians 4 verse 5? Because of them that are without. See, when we waste our time, we're not being profitable unto men. But when we redeem the time, we're walking in wisdom toward them that are without. Why? It's about reaching people. It's about helping others. That's what we need to be spending our time on, something that helps other people. That's what we keep seeing coming up over and over again in regard to this thing of vanity and things that don't matter. Now the Bible talks about people that are described as vain persons. And sometimes it'll say vain and light persons, okay? For example, you don't have to turn there, but in Judges chapter 9, it talks about how Abimelech hired vain and light persons which followed him. He has a bunch of losers following him. In Judges chapter 11, Jephthah, it says, there were gathered vain men to Jephthah and went out with him. What is a vain person? What is a light person? Well basically, these are people who don't spend their lives doing anything that matters. So they're just a vain person, a light person. What's the opposite of light? The opposite of light, we're talking about things, how much weight they have, okay? Things that don't matter are referred to as light. And then things that are serious are referred to as grave, okay? Heavy. They matter. They have significance. They have weight. And what the Bible's talking about here is there are people in this world that are just vain people, meaning they go through their life and all they spend time on, all they care about are things that don't matter inside of God, okay? Now when we talk about a vain person, in 2015 in our common English vernacular, if I said that someone was very vain, what 99% of people would think of is a person who stares at themselves in the mirror and is very worried about their parents, right? Now go to Proverbs chapter number 31 because that actually is a biblical definition also of being vain. Why is a person who stares at themselves in the mirror known as a vain person? A woman who really just worries about her appearance to excess and spends a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of energy on just making herself look just so and standing in front of the mirror and, you know, God forbid when it's a man that goes down that road. And here's the thing, men do it but just in a different way. You know, they don't stand in front of the mirror applying makeup and fancy hairdos, you know, but they'll go to the gym and just stare into that mirror, you know, and just become vain and the selfies, right, the poses and everything. You know, basically it's vanity. It's worthless. It does not profit anyone. What does it profit? Ask yourself, what does it profit that you spend hours every morning getting yourself ready so that you can look perfect under the world? What does it profit that you spend hours staring at yourself in the mirror and trying to shape and sculpt every little muscle on your upper arm? You know, how does that profit anyone? How is that a blessing to anyone? How does that fulfill the great commission that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ left us with to spend our lives reaching people with the Gospel and teaching them to observe the Word of God? I mean, what is the point? Look what the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 31 verse 29. It says, many daughters have done virtuously, talking about the works and the deeds that they've accomplished, but thou excelest them all. Favor is deceitful. Watch this, and beauty is vain. But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates. So according to the Bible, beauty is meaningless. Beauty is not worth spending our time on. Beauty doesn't matter, like deeds matter, like fearing the Lord matters. And today, if you're a young single man and your goal is just to marry the most beautiful woman you can possibly marry, and you have less regard for her character or for her virtue or for her godliness, but it's just based upon appearance, you are a vain and light person. If that's what you think is the important thing about a woman, or if you're a woman conversely, and that's what you care about, you say, well, here's my ideal man. The description ought to be, you know, he loves the word of God, he's a strong Christian, he's faithful to church, he's a soul winner, you know, he's godly, he's strong, he's manly. Those are good things. But when it's like, okay, I want him to have brown hair, and I want him to be this tall, and I want him to be this, you know, it's like, whoa. It's not about the outward appearance. You know, it's about the heart. And so beauty is vain. What if every woman who spends hours in front of the mirror in the morning making herself look perfect would spend that time reading the Bible? Think about the spiritual beauty. Think about the inward man that would be benefited. If we would spend our times doing something that is profitable, then to just spend our time on vanity. Here's something else that the Bible describes as vanity. Go over, if you would, to Galatians chapter number five, Galatians chapter number five. What is vanity? It's things that don't matter. What are things that don't matter? Well, genealogies don't matter, foolish questions, they don't matter. Contentions and strivings about the law don't matter. Our physical appearance doesn't matter. You know, beauty and the way that we look, it doesn't really matter, okay? What does matter? Understanding the Lord, doing things that are profitable unto other people, getting people saved, teaching people the Bible, raising our family, et cetera. Those are the things that matter. Here's another thing that doesn't matter according to the Bible, the praise of men, being popular, people liking us. But this is something that vain and light people care very much about. What do vain and light people care about? Everything that doesn't matter. So they care a lot about their appearance. They care a lot about people liking them. And they spend themselves in pastimes that are not profitable unto men, vain and light activities. Here are some vain and light activities that these kind of people would spend time on. For example, just following every twist and turn of professional sports. That's vanity and lightness. That's not profitable unto anybody to just sit there and be an expert on all the different players and you know all the sports. And you know what always blows me away is when you have people that are just extremely out of shape, but they're just really into sports. It's like, what in the world? It's ridiculous. You know, some of them need some lightness in their life, you know, a different kind of lightness. But the point is, you know, they spend their time just on a sofa, drinking a beer, watching people play a game. Now look, playing a game is not even in and of itself profitable unto men. But how much less is sitting and watching a game? How much less profitable is that unto men? You say, oh, you're getting on me or whatever. But look, I'm just saying only one life so soon has passed and only what's done for Christ will last. And you know what, you can't even name the 12 disciples, but you can name the 12 players on some sports team. You can't name the 12 tribes of Israel, but you can name the 12 quarterbacks of such and such a team, you know, for the past 12 years. You know all the stats and you, you know, you got 12 different brands of beer that you drunk while you watched your stupid game. But honestly, it's not profitable on anyone. I mean, at least if you went out and played the game, the case could be made that you're doing something for your health. You know, you're getting exercise and maybe you're even fellowshipping with friends and family and enjoying some time together. You know, I've enjoyed many times throwing a football around with friends from church or with my children or something like that to get out and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. But when you're sitting in your man cave and you know, you got your big screen and you're all slumped over and you're belching and eating snacks and eating chips off your chest and watching people, you couldn't even run around the block and you're like, you know, yelling at some guy on the screen for not being athletic enough. I mean, it's like, what in the world? But this is, these are vain, look, I'm telling you how not to be a vain and light person today. You want to be, here, here's how you become a vain and light person. Spend a lot of time on your appearance, whether male or female. Spend a ton of time picking out your clothes. Spend a ton of time in front of the mirror every day, whether it's doing bicep curls in front of the mirror or whether it's putting on makeup in front of the mirror, whatever you're spending all your time in vanity and lightness. And then for activities and pastimes, choose video games. That's got some gravity behind it. That's something that's good and profitable on demand, right? That's something that's making you smarter and making you a better servant of God, giving you wisdom, getting you in better physical condition. No, it's doing none of those things for you or anyone else. Video games, professional sports, you know, all these vain and light activities that people spend their time on. You know, it's just, you just need to ask yourself, what is a profit? And a lot of times, people who spend half their lives, literally half of their time on just completely worthless, vain and light activities will often call people who actually do something with their lives a workaholic. Here's what a workaholic, 99% of the time, you know what a workaholic is? Somebody who does something with their life. Hard worker, okay? Or they'll call, or the person who actually does something with their life, you know, they're known as somebody who just, oh, you just never have any fun, right? No, no, no. Man has its place, but not 50% of our lives. You know, just from one vain and light activity to another, it's a waste of our lives, my friend. But you know, the praise of man is also something that's very vain. People who really care about being popular and what people think. What does the Bible say in Galatians 5, verse 26, let us not be desirous of vain glory. Don't desire glory for yourself because it's vain. I like how he puts that in front of it, vain glory. And then in another scripture, you don't have to turn there, you can if you want, Philippians, are you in Galatians 5, 26? Yeah, in Philippians, just a few pages to the right, verse 3 of chapter 2, Philippians 2, 3, it says, let nothing be done through strife or, and then this time he just crunches it into one word, vain glory, vain glory. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other, better than themselves. You know, when we want people to think that we're so great, that's vain, that's worthless, that's unprofitable, that doesn't matter. You don't have to turn there, but Psalm 62, 9 says, surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie. To be laid in the balance, they're altogether lighter than vanity. Now earlier in the sermon, we had less than nothing. Less than nothing was what? The nations of the world, okay? Lighter than vanity is men of high degree. So he says, in this world, there are men of low degree, and there are men of high degree. What does this mean? Social standing, financial standing, okay? Now this would be, a good illustration, this would be like in India, where they have the caste system, and they have, you know, different people that are higher ranking in the society. Men of high degree, men of low degree. Or if you went to Europe, under feudalism, you know, you have the nobility, which are the men of high degree, and then you have the commoners, which are the men of low degree, right? Even today in England, they have what? The House of Lords and the House of Commons, they're branches of government there. The point is, that in this world, there are all different ways that we rank people. And we rank people as being wealthy people, people with money, and we rank people as, you know, not having money, and being poor, and not having a penny to their name. But the Bible says, surely men of low degree are vanity. See no one can glory in who they are, in the sight of God. God's not a respecter of any man's person. So he says the men of low degree are vanity, and it says men of high degree are a lie. And to be laid in the balance, they're altogether lighter than vanity. So men of low degree, vanity. Men of high degree, lighter than vanity. Why? Because at least the man of low degree knows that he's of low degree. The man of high degree is just as low, but he's vainly puffed up in his own fleshly mind, and he thinks that he's something that he's not. He thinks he's a great man when really he's not. When I think of degree, also, I can't help but think of a college degree, where someone earns these titles of bachelor. You know, I spent my life trying not to be a bachelor. You know, I got married when I was 19, so I could stop being a bachelor. You know, the last thing I'm going to do is go back to college so I can become a bachelor. But anyway, you know, the bachelor of sciences, the master of theology, the doctor of divinity. All these titles of degrees of, you know, hey, well this guy is only a bachelor, but he's a master. And he is a doctor, PhD. And these degrees that man gives out to exalt himself and to exalt others. These are actually lighter than vanity. Vanity is not, it's not even worthy to describe these titles as vanity because they're actually lighter than vanity. When they're weighed in God's balances. See, these things don't matter in life. Let's keep going. First Timothy chapter one, if you would, first Timothy chapter number one. What matters? Does it matter what people think of us? No. Does it matter what degree we are in society or what college degree we have or, you know, how much money we have? No, those things don't matter. Does it matter whether we're the most beautiful woman or the most handsome man? No, those things don't matter. Does it matter whether we're red, yellow, black or white? Nope, doesn't matter. Does it matter how many video games we've beat in the last month? Nope, doesn't matter. Does it matter whether we won the Super Bowl? Not unless you were one of the players. Then it probably matters. We won! You know, you didn't do anything. But I guess you're keeping them in business buying all the gear and whatever, but that was your contribution to winning. But anyway, first Timothy chapter one verse three says, as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they have affirmed. Now you say, Pastor Anderson, what does the word jangling mean? Okay, this is jangling. Right? If I shake my keys around, this is jangling. So basically instead of these people using their mouths to talk about something that matters, something that is godly edifying, something that builds up someone, something that teaches someone, something that makes them a better person, something that makes them a better servant of Christ, a better husband, a better father, a better human being, you know, that's godly edifying which is by faith in the word of God. But then there's just jangling which is just blathering. It's just making noise. It's just a bunch of noise. It's like the Bible says where people become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, but they're not saying anything that matters. You know, and they're not saying anything that matters. And here's the thing. Sometimes this kind of vain jangling can be confused for actual godly edifying because a lot of times this vain jangling has to do with the Bible. Now I'm not making this up because look down at your Bible in front of you. It says they've turned aside into vain jangling. What are the next words? Desiring to be teachers of the law. So does this vain jangling have something to do with the Bible? Yeah, but it's just asking stupid questions about the Bible and going on and on and on about things that don't matter. See there are things that the Bible makes real clear. Things that the Bible emphasizes, things that the Bible tells us over and over again and very clearly and puts great importance on. That's what we ought to talk about over and over again. That's what we ought to put emphasis on and put the importance on. But then there are people who like to find the most obscure thing in the Bible that God does not spend time on or that he does not give us any details about. Something that he just barely touches on, just barely brushes on and then they just want to delve into that for hundreds of hours and I'm going to get to the bottom of what it means. When it says, you know, that the woman should have power on her head because of the angels. You know, I'm just going to spend hundreds of hours just speculating about things that ... Look, the things that are revealed, you know, that's what we need to spend time on. There's enough in the Bible that's crystal clear for you to worry about than to just jangle on and on about angels and demons and Nephilim and all these spiritual things that you don't even know anything about that the Bible gives very little detail about. You just want to go on and on and on and on while the world goes to hell, while huge sections of the Word of God that are clear and easy to understand go completely ignored. We're just going to find the most obscure passage and just delve into some strange new doctrine or some little nuance of something and try to figure out what it means. It's vain. What does it profit? Sometimes people call this majoring on the minors. Now everything in the Bible is important, but here's the thing though. Some things are more important than others, number one, and number two is things that are clear and that are revealed, that's what God wants us to spend time on, not beating our head against things that we don't understand. It's like people who go to take a test and they just spend the whole hour on question number two. What do they tell you when you take a test? If you don't understand question number two, keep going, move on, and then later it'll come to you, maybe. But if it doesn't, at least you can do the rest of the test. People are spending their time on vain jangling. What does it say in verse five? The end of the commandment, what's the commandment? The law. The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. What does it mean the end of the commandment? What it means is that's the goal, the goal of the commandment. What's the point of why God gave us the law in the first place? Because he wants us to achieve charity out of a pure heart. He wants us to have a good conscience. He wants us to have faith unfeigned. But some people just desire to be teachers of the law. What does that mean? They like to hear themself talk. They don't understand what they say or whereof they affirm, but they like to hear themself say it. And they love the way this annoying sound sounds. See to us, this is what it sounds like. But to them it's a really beautiful sound to hear themself talk and go on and on about these strange doctrines. Don't have time to go soul winning. Don't have time to read through the Bible cover to cover in a year. Been saved for several years and still haven't finished cover to cover the first time. But oh, oh, oh, they're an expert on demonology. You know that there are a lot of people out there like this. Who's run into people like this? Yeah, exactly. What did the Bible say? It's vain. It says it's vanity. It says that it does not edify. Look at Colossians chapter 2 quickly. Colossians chapter 2. The Bible says in Colossians chapter 2 verse 8, it says beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. He says in verse 18, let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. Just intruding into things that we don't understand and he's saying they're vainly puffed up in their fleshly mind. It's not spiritual at all. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. What am I talking about here with this vain jangling? Well, you see, the things that we should be spending our time and effort on are things that edify other people. For example, when I decide what am I going to preach, I try to decide what do people need to hear. What are the doctrines that are the most important doctrines that we need to make sure everybody's nailed down on? Or what are the good works that God wants us as a church to be doing that this sermon can help inspire people to do those good works? Or what are the sins that people have in their lives that God wants us to get out of our lives? Let's preach on that and edify people and help them to become a stronger Christian. You know, what are the messages that can be preached that can edify and bless and help build up the church? That's what the decision comes down to when I'm deciding what to preach as a pastor. What do people need to hear? And let me tell you something, there's a reason why I'm preaching this sermon because people need to hear it. Because in the advent of the internet, there's more vain jangling going on than ever in the history of mankind. Because it gives people a platform where they can hear themselves talk really loudly and talk about things that they don't understand and blow off their mouth and have no qualifications but just go off and just teach all this garbage that's nonsense that doesn't edify. Look, I want to talk about stuff that matters and when people come up to me and talk to me about stuff that doesn't matter, I usually just try to change the subject and just get off that subject and just say, you know, I don't have any interest in that. I'm not really interested in that. You know, if somebody, for example, if somebody comes to me and wants to talk to me about, you know, why the King James Bible is the word of God and how these other popular Bibles that are out there corrupt and change the word of God, you know, that's an important subject. That really matters. You know, when the word of God is the final authority on all matters of faith and practice and there are Bibles out there that are completely changing God's word and, in fact, most people are falling for it and, in fact, the best-selling Bible in America today is the NIV, which is one of the most corrupt versions out there and they're removing entire verses are gone? I mean whole verses gone and they're just making huge changes where verses are not even recognizable as the same word anymore. They don't even say anything like what the original said and key doctrines are affected. You know, that really matters. But then you have these vain janglers who come at you and they want to talk about, well, in this Bible it's spelled Savior with an O-U-R and in this one it's spelled with an O-R. Why does color spell C-O-L-O-R and over here it's spelled C-O-L-O-U-R? Or they want to talk about the K on the end of music. In the King James Bible, you know, music with a K on the end versus music without a K on the end. Or, well, in this Bible the S in spirit is capitalized and in this Bible it's not capitalized. This is vain jangling. This has no bearing on any doctrine. It is not profitable unto any man and not only that, it shows that the person who's asked the question is unlearned. Because someone who is actually learned would realize that in the original languages the Bible doesn't even have capital letters because capital letters were invented in the modern era. And then in the original language the letters are just written letters. There's only one kind of letters. When you're reading a Hebrew or a Greek, you know, Bible, it's just going to be one style of letters back then. And the learned person knows that the Word of God is spoken and then written down. So capitalizations don't affect the meaning. You know, it's meant to be heard, okay? It's the word that was spoken by God. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And those who are unlearned, they think that how a word is spelled somehow changes what it means. When in reality, color with an extra U in it or savior with an extra U in it is completely irrelevant to the doctrine or the meaning. But these are the kind of things that people jangle with and waste their time on. You know, go buy video games. Go become an avid professional sports enthusiast while you're at it if you're going to sit there and jangle about spellings in the Bible, how things are spelled. I mean, look, God didn't call us to a spelling bee. We're called to be evangelists of the Gospel, not spelling bee champions. You know, but these kind of vain, people will come at you with this type of minutia and they're worried about these tiny little issues that mean nothing, okay? Where are we at? Colossians, did I have you turn to 1 Corinthians 14? What's the sermon about? What's the sermon called? The sermon's called things that don't matter, right? And I want you to ask yourself every day of your life from now on, what does it profit? The Bible says this, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. He's saying, look, there are things that you could do that aren't even sinful. They're not bad things. I don't think it's a sin to play Pac-Man. But let me tell you something, though. Does it edify? No. So sitting and spending your life, and look, I've been there, my friend. When I was a teenager, or really more of a young teenager, I guess I was more like 10 or 11, okay. But I remember there was a time when I played a lot of video games as a kid. I was addicted to video games. And just to put it in perspective for those that are from my generation, I actually beat Contra without taking a single hit. Who knows the game Contra? All right, yeah, lots of people, all right? And you know how much work went into that then. Most people have never beat Contra without going up, up, down, down, left, right, left, be a start, and putting in the cheat code to get 99 lives, okay. Very few people have beat Contra without the cheat code, and even less have beat Contra without taking a single hit. In the whole game, I'm talking stage eight, where you're inside the alien, and you're fighting against that beating heart, and all those aliens are coming at you, and the heart keeps beating faster, and faster, and faster, and faster, you know, it's like pfft. But let me ask you something, what in the world did that profit anyone? Nothing. And how many hours, and hours, and hours, and hours I wasted playing Contra. And that's just one of many games I played, and that wasn't even my main game, all right. And you know what, video games haven't become any more profitable than they were back then. What am I talking about, wasting your time, just worried about your parents, making yourself look good to other people, like that's what our life is about or something, getting together and talking about dumb things that don't matter, and just wasting our time, wasting our life. Look, what sets Faithful Word Baptist Church apart from a lot of the other churches that are out there? Well in my mind, it's that we're actually doing a great work for God in the sense that we have a team of people going out every week, yay, every day, and somebody's out knocking doors preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's not vain talking. You know, when you're going door to door and giving the gospel, when the word of God's being preached and taught, and when people get together and talk about ways that they can be a better parent, a better father, a better wife, a better daughter, a better child, better soul winner, when we talk about Bible doctrine that matters, you know, I think it's great to sit around and talk Bible doctrine. Sit around and talk about things that we learn, and hey, I was studying this scripture, here's what I found, or hey, when you read this passage, what do you think this means? But not this kind of vain jangling about just trivia, or just become trivia of just these weird speculations. It's better to talk about the doctrine that's actually revealed in the Bible. What am I talking about? People who ask dumb questions, strive about the law, and go on and on about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers. What's another waste of time that people vainly puff themselves up with in their fleshly mind? Learning a dead language. Learning dead languages, okay? This is people who want to learn Latin. Yes, I'm talking to you. People who want to spend their time learning Latin, you know what, I question the godliness of that activity. Why? Because it's unprofitable and vain. Why? Because God said that tongues are given unto us to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ and there are very few people on this earth who speak Latin, and there's no one who speaks it as their main language, as their native language. What did the Bible say? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 1, follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts. What's the main gift that we talk about in 1 Corinthians 14? What's the main gift? Tongues is the main gift of 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14 is the language chapter, the tongue chapter, and it says follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. So what's the purpose of learning foreign languages? To preach, to prophesy. So let me ask you, are you going to be preaching in Latin? Are you preaching in Sanskrit? Are you going to preach in ancient Greek, stupid pronunciation that no one uses? No. Then why are you wasting your time learning Latin? And they say, oh, well, it makes you smarter to learn Latin. Yeah, it makes you smarter to learn Spanish too. Every benefit that you get from learning Latin, you can get the same benefit from learning. Well, a lot of our English words are derived from Latin, so yeah, okay, then speak modern Latin. It's called Spanish. You ever heard of Latin America? You ever heard of a Latino? Why don't you learn Italian? Why don't you learn French? Why don't you learn Romanian? Then you could actually preach to somebody in Portuguese or preach to somebody in a language that people actually speak and you say, oh, well, I just want to be a really educated person and know Latin. Yeah, you want to be vainly puffed up in your fleshly mind is what you want to do. You want to flex your mind in front of that mirror every day with your Latin and Sanskrit and ancient this and ancient that. You know what? That doesn't profit anyone. You know what profits someone? Learning Spanish and then giving them the gospel in Spanish. Now I've studied a lot of Greek, but I always studied modern Greek pronunciation. You know what? I wasn't good enough in modern Greek to be able to win somebody to Christ start to finish in modern Greek, but I actually was able to talk to somebody and win them to Christ and the way that I got into the conversation was they were a Greek person and I spoke Greek to them and I got to talk into this person and built a rapport with that person and was able to win somebody to Christ. You know, I mean, that actually matters to something. And look, I'm telling you, people want to just waste their time and puff themselves up on things that don't matter. We need to ask ourself, what does it profit? And when we asked ourself, what does it profit? It's not always just what does it profit me? It should be like, what does it profit my fellow man? What does it profit others? What does it say in verse one of first Corinthians 14 follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts but rather that you may prophesy for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but unto God for no man understandeth him. How be it in the spirit he speak of mysteries but he that prophesyeth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. Verse nine, look at verse nine. So likewise ye except ye utter by the tongues words easy to be understood. How shall be known what is spoken for you shall speak into the air. There are it may be so many kinds of voices in the world and none of them was without signification. Therefore if any, therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. Even so for as much as you're zealous of spiritual gifts seek that you may excel to the edifying of the church. What is your gift today? Is it the gift of being a musician? Use it to edify the church and playing worldly music is unprofitable and vain. Spending your life becoming an expert musician to play the world's music is unprofitable and vain. Playing the hymns in church is profitable. Why you're edifying the church? Why? It matters? Okay. Learning a foreign language, the gift of tongues which is not babbling and falling on the ground it's speaking real languages. Hey you have the gift of tongues, you have the gift of interpretation of tongues, learn a language that can be used to preach the gospel to living, breathing human beings. Any other foreign language study is vain, jangling. Any other foreign language study is not edifying the church. It's misusing a spiritual gift at that point because you're, look God gave us our lives, we belong to him, we should spend our lives honoring him. So why would we sit there and learn stuff that doesn't edify the church? Why would we spend our piano practice time learning worldly songs when we could be learning hymns and praises to God that could be used for his honor and glory for the rest of our lives in whatever church we go to, whether it's Faithful Word or whatever other church we could minister through music, through foreign languages, whatever your abilities and skills, do them on things that matter. Flip over if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 6 and look there's plenty of scripture on this subject because the Bible talks over and over again and especially he tells pastors because the most scriptures you'll find on this subject are in 1 Timothy and Titus which are called the pastoral epistles. He's constantly telling the pastor don't get caught up in these contentions about the law, don't get caught up in these genial, don't get caught up in this vain jangling, don't get caught up in all these foolish questions. Don't waste a bunch of time on this stuff, don't, and look at 1 Timothy 6.20, oh Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so-called which some professing have erred concerning the faith, grace be with thee, amen. A lot of the vain jangling today is in the area of science, a lot of people who don't even know anything about science, haven't even studied science, not even an expert in it, don't have a job that has anything to do with science but they just want to be these amateur scientists and come at you with all these oppositions of science falsely so-called, all this nonsense and vain jangling, I have zero interest in it. Don't come talking to me about astronomy, I have no interest in it. My interest in astronomy is if there's a planet in view, I'll walk outside and look at it. Don't expect anything else out of me in regard to astronomy. I'll show you Orion and Pleiades and that's all. I can't even always find the little dipper and I, you know what, and I, you know what, seriously you are living a little dipper kind of a life if that's what you're going to spend your time worrying about. Being all dismayed at the signs of heaven and trying to figure out, look, nobody knows what's out there, we haven't been there, I'll go there someday because someday I may go beyond the farthest star because I'm going to heaven someday and until then I can wait. I don't want to talk about astronomy and you know what, I don't want to go on and on and jangle about evolution either because it's stupid and doesn't make sense. Look the fool is said in his heart there is no God. It's just science, falsely so called and people who are just amateurs and dilettantes and they just want to go on and on about it. And a lot of times these are the same people who are not doing the works that are profitable unto men. Look what the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 14. And then here's what's funny, all these bozos who want to come at you with all, they want to go on and on about their geocentricity and the flat earth and the blah, blah, blah, all this stupid junk that's meaningless, you know, they want to come at you with all this and you're just like, why, why does it matter, who cares? And they're like, oh well, it's because, you know, it disproves evolution. So what, did you know that most people were going to hell before evolution was ever even invented? Oh, but it disproves evolution, it's going to get people safe. No, you know how you're going to get people safe, take the Bible and go on soul winning. You're spending so much time with your oppositions of science, falsely so called and you think that that is your evangelism? No, evangelism is when you open your mouth and preach the gospel, preach the Bible, preach the word of God. But no, no, no, we're going to win the world to Christ by proving that it's flat. Hey, the only thing that's flat is the top of your blockhead, okay? The earth's not flat, anybody who thinks it's flat is a moron. Oh, but what about geocentricity though? Who cares? You vain jangler. And you know, you say, why do you even bring this up? It's so stupid. Because I get an email about it every day of my life. Every day I get an email, hey, what do you think about geocentricity? Listen Copernicus, I don't care. Listen Galileo, do you even own a telescope? But Pastor, I have a really important question for you. Do you think the earth is flat? Hey, Pastor Anderson, do you really think that there used to be giants 400 feet tall? No! Hey, Pastor Anderson, do you really... Shut up! Why? Because it doesn't matter and you are a lazy fool. You're too lazy to read the Bible and care about doctrine that matters. You're too lazy to go out and go to church and actually join a church instead of just surfing YouTube. You're too lazy to knock doors. You're too lazy to go soul winning. But oh, it's so fun to watch all these videos about science. I'm really into science. I really like to learn about the cosmology of the universe. Hey look, you want to go down that route, go ahead, just don't take me with you because I'm not going. I'm staying right here on planet earth. I'm not going to Kolob. I'm not going to these distant realms of the galaxy. I'm happy right here on earth with the Bible and actually caring about things that matter. And the Bible doesn't say disprove every opposition of science falsely so called. It says avoid oppositions of science falsely so called. So does the Bible say to spend our lives proving false science wrong? No it doesn't. But sometimes I just want to shake people to get this across to them like, hey, I care about stuff that matters. You speak a foreign language? Come talk to me when you're ready to actually put together a soul winning video in that language. Come talk to me when you're ready to take a missions trip with me where we'll go and win people to Christ in that language. Come talk to me when we find a neighborhood in Phoenix filled with people who speak that language and we're going to go and win them to Christ. Oh, you speak a foreign language? Come talk to me when you're ready to use it to edify the church. Don't come at me and tell me, did you know that if you go back to the Hebrew and Zachariah, just all this vain talk, not interested, not interested. I don't want to talk about science falsely so called. I don't want to talk about dead languages. I don't want to talk about people's weird theories and weird ideas and the trendy doctrine of the month. No, I want to talk about stuff that matters and I don't want to, you know, if you want to talk about this stuff, talk about it somewhere else. I don't want to hear it. I'm sick of it. Stop emailing me about this stuff and stop approaching me about stuff I don't want to hear. I have no interest in it. You say, well, you're being rude or anger or me, but here's the thing though. Okay. I don't have time. I want to do things that matter with my life. What does the Bible say in Titus? Flip over just a few pages to the right in your Bible and look, it'd be one thing if it's just, you know, if you know, I remember a couple people came up to me about this stuff and I'm just like, I very patiently talked to them about it and explained to them, no, it's not right. You know, but then it's like when it's just every day now, it just, you know what it tells me? It tells me there's an epidemic. There's an epidemic amongst Christians and an epidemic amongst the truth movement of vain jangling. And I don't want anything to do with it. All right. So let's just ask ourselves, what does it profit? Like what happens when you finally prove the geocentricity is true? Like what is that going to accomplish for anyone anywhere ever for hundreds of years? They're like, Oh, the earth is the center of the universe. And then they're like, Oh, whoops, the sun's the center. Oh, whoops, neither one's the center. Oh, did it really change the price of tea in China? No. Titus chapter one, verse nine, holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. Why hold fast the faithful word? To be able to exhort and to convince the gainsayers for there are many unruly and vain talkers, vain talkers and deceivers, especially they have the circumcision. Flip over if you would to first Corinthians 15 and I'll be done. I'll close with first Corinthians 15. First Corinthians 15, the world is dying and going to hell today. I don't care about astronomy. The world is dying and going to hell today. I don't care about professional sports. The world is dying and going to hell today. I don't need you to impress me by quoting phrases in ancient Latin. The world is dying and going to hell today. I don't want to discuss whether or not Adam had a belly button. The world is dying and going to hell today and we need to do something that will edify our church and that will edify our fellow man and we need to do things that are good and profitable unto men and worry about things that matter, worry about things that are revealed, and we need to spend our time on things that are godly and edifying and true and honest and pure and just and if there be any virtue and any praise, but we should not spend our time on dumb things that don't matter. And sometimes people will come to me and ask me, Pastor, I don't know how you get so much done and sometimes I want to ask that person, well, I wonder how little you get done. You know, when there's 24 hours in a day, when you sleep for 8 hours and you've got 16 hours to do whatever, it's amazing to me how little people get done. But here's why people get so little done, TV, you know, vain jangling, sitting around, talking nonsense, that's why. First Corinthians chapter 15, let's end on a high note here, let's end on the positive. It says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, verse 1, which I preached unto you, which also you've received and wherein you stand, by which also you're saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain. Now what does it mean to have believed in vain? You believed the wrong stuff. You didn't believe the gospel as he lays it out here, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The chapter is about people who don't believe in the resurrection. They believed in vain, because whatever they believed, it wasn't the gospel and it's not going to do them any good. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how the Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Jump down to verse 10, the Bible says, But the grace of God, by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. Now stop right there. Jesus Christ bestowed grace upon Paul. And Paul says, you know what, the grace that was bestowed upon me was not in vain because I talked more than they all. He says no, because I labored more abundantly than they all. I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. He's saying, look, I don't get the glory. It was through God's grace, but let me tell you something, I labored more abundantly than they all. We usually consider the apostle Paul to be the greatest Christian of the New Testament. That's what most people would consider. And even if you say, well, I like John better, the bottom line is he'd be in the top five greatest Christians of all time. Most people would argue he's the greatest Christian who ever lived. I've heard that my whole life in church, and I would tend to agree with that. Why? Because he labored more abundantly than the rest of the apostles. He labored more than Peter, James, and John. That's why he's the greatest apostle. Why? Because he did the works. The Bible says in all labor there is profit. In all labor there's profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. So there are people who talk a lot of vain talk and a lot of vain questions and fables and genealogies and foolish questions and arguments and debates and wasting of time. And then there are those who roll up their sleeves and labor. They work. They get something done. You know, there are people who sit around and argue and argue and argue about the doctrines of salvation. Then there are those of us who we figured out salvation the moment we got saved, and then we go out and labor with it. Get other people saved. Not just going on and on debating it endlessly. I don't want to debate. People come. A guy a couple weeks ago came to church and wanted to debate salvation with me after the morning service. I preached a Sunday morning sermon, and he walked up to me and wanted to tell me how works are part of it, and he's trying to bring in works. He wanted to, you know, argue that with me. And I was real friendly to him, and I said to him, I said, well hey, you know, actually the Bible says something a little different. Let me show you one scripture in Romans 4. You know, I want to take him to Romans 4 and show him some verses on that. And as I started to turn in the Bible, he said, oh, well I've already read that, but, and he started to talk. I said, oh, you've already read it? All right, bye. I just walked away. Because what do you tell the guy who knows everything? You know, hey, can I show you something in the Bible? Oh, I've already read the Bible. Oh, okay, bye. And the guy was just kind of like, you know, perplexed. Why? Because I don't have time to debate salvation, because I'm already saved. I already know salvation is by faith. I'm not wondering, like, is it by works? So therefore, I don't want to debate about it. You know what, if somebody doesn't believe that it's by faith alone, they're a heretic. And I'm going to admonish them once. I'm going to admonish them twice, I'm going to walk away. Okay, I don't want to debate it. No, because he didn't say I debated more abundantly than they all. The grace was not bestowed on me, but I debated more than anybody. I won every argument on Facebook. I won every argument in the YouTube comments. I debated people all over the world. I debated Muslims and Catholics and Presbyterians. I debated everybody. No, no, no. He said I labored more abundantly than they all. And you know what he did? When he ran into the debates, he's like, see ya. And he went and found the people to give the Gospel to and to preach the Gospel. Then he went and found the Titus's and the Timothy's that he could teach how to be a pastor. People who actually wanted to learn. People who were interested, not beating his head against the wall with people who weren't. Last verse, verse 58, 1 Corinthians 15, 58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So the whole sermon can be boiled down to this. What matters? Working for the Lord. That's what matters. Doing something. Getting off your duff and doing some work to help your fellow man, to be a blessing to your church members, and to be a blessing to your friends and family and loved ones, to preach the Gospel to every creature, to teach the Bible, to teach the Gospel, to teach sound biblical doctrine. That is a vain waste of your time, staring in the mirror, learning things to impress people, learning musical instruments to impress people, and going around and talking about, you know, this nonsense cosmology, astronomy, blah, blah, blah junk that doesn't profit anybody. No, let's roll up our sleeves and do some real work. And you know what? Reading the Bible is hard work. Who wants to read the Bible with me and work at it? Yeah! Who wants to learn a foreign language where we can actually get people saved? Yeah! Let's do it! Hey, who wants to go out and knock some doors? Who wants to knock every door in Phoenix, Arizona? Yeah! Amen! That's the stuff that actually matters, and I want to spend my life on something that matters, and he says, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. It's never in vain when you're working for the Lord. This can often be vain. This is always vain. That's power. That's enough. Word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for the word of God, Lord, and we thank you for your grace and that salvation is by faith alone, Lord, because if we had to be good enough to go to heaven, none of us would be going to heaven. We'd all be going to hell, Lord, because we've all sinned and come short. But Father, we pray that you would help us, Lord, to make something out of our lives, Lord. Help us to do something with our lives that matters. Help us to do something and labor and work for you, Lord, so that at the end of our life there are a bunch of people that we helped, and a bunch of stronger Christians because we taught them, and a bunch of people that got saved because we preached the gospel to them. Help us to profit our fellow man, and help us to every day when we start an activity, ask the question before we start that activity, what are the profit? What are the profit? And help us to spend our lives on that which is good and profitable unto man, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.