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Who lay to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping, Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping. This, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds and angels sing. Haste, haste to bring him on the pave, The Son of Mary! Why lies he in such mean a state, Where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christian, fear for sinners here, The silent Word is pleading. Nail, spear, shall pierce him through the crock, Be born for me, for you. Hail, hail the Word! Turn, main flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary! So bring him incense, gold and myrrh, Come, peasant King, to own him. The King of Kings, salvation bring, Let loving hearts enthrone him. Raise, raise the song on high, The Virgin sings her lullaby. Joy, joy for Christ is born, The Babe, the Son of Mary! Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just want to thank you, God, for just the opportunity to meet in your house, and to hear your Word preached. Lord, I just want to thank you, God, for just healing all the people that were sick. I pray, Lord, that with the people that are still sick, Lord, that you would again just heal them, help them to be back in church with us soon. And, Lord, bless today and everything that's said and done. Help it to be for your honor and glory. In Jesus' name we ask all, but amen. Alright, you may be seated, and take your, the blue songbooks again, and we're going to sing another psalm. So this will be a new psalm that we have not sung before. So it will be Psalm 67, and your blue songbooks. I'm sorry, Psalm 67. God be merciful unto us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us, That that way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations, Let the people praise Thee, O God, Let all the people praise Thee, Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, For Thou shalt judge the people righteously and govern, The nations upon Thee, The nations of earth see law, Let the people praise Thee, O God, Let all the people praise Thee, O let the nations be glad and sing for joy, Then shall the earth yield her increase, And God, even our own God, shall bless us, God shall bless us, All the ends of the earth shall fear Him, Let the people praise Thee, O God, Let all the people praise Thee, O let the nations be glad and sing for joy. So, if I'm like one of those, what are those, camp preachers, you know, where I get a hanky up here and I start wiping my face off, getting hot. Anyway, hopefully it cools down a little bit. So, welcome, and this is the Sunday before Christmas. So, our church services are normal today as far as our Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, and then our soul-winding time at 1 p.m. Next week, it is going to be a little different. Instead of our Sunday soul-winding time at 1 p.m., we're going to have a Friday soul-winding time at 3 p.m. So, this is going to be our church-wide soul-winding time at 3 p.m. I know some may have to work, and I understand that, but I want it to be 3 p.m. just because it's still light out and it's not dark. So, but I know a lot may be off that day anyway, and so if you can make it out to that, that'd be great. We'll send out a place where we're going to be meeting up. If it's in Fairmont, we'll just meet up here at the church and figure out where we're going, but if it's somewhere else, we may just send out a location as far as we're going. So, and then the regional soul-winding times are on here, and just, again, be on the WhatsApp group there as far as where we're meeting up and times and all that stuff. The Dundalk Maryland soul-winding marathon was a success. So, 10 salvations, right? So, good job to everybody that went out there this past Saturday or yesterday. And the church service on next Sunday. So, it is Christmas, and we're going to have kind of a special Christmas service day. So, we're going to have kind of an extended morning service in lieu of having two services that day. And, again, the soul-winding time, we're moving to Friday, and you say, well, why don't you go soul-winding on Christmas? Well, I know as well that when I – Christmas, we're usually with a whole bunch of people, and the hardest time to ever give the gospel to anybody is when everybody's in a big, giant group. And so I'm being a little tactful here in the fact that I'm sure we can get someone saved on Christmas, you know, and I'm sure there's people that aren't congregating with everybody. But let's just face it, out of all the holidays out there, that's probably the one where most everybody's going to be congregated with their family and just in a big group. So, there's going to be a lot of people not home, and then when you do find people home, it's going to be like a huge group of people. And so, instead, we're going to do it on Friday. But that service on Sunday, we're going to have basically a lot of singing. I think of it as like a Christmas carol time where we're going to be reading the Christmas story, both from Luke and also from Matthew, and we're going to have the kids singing their songs. I think we're going to have to keep it really simple. We're going to do like Silent Night and Away in a Manger with the kids because everybody's been sick. And if you're like, my kid hasn't got a chance to practice, neither had mine, so no one has had a chance to practice or anything like that. And then us men, we haven't had a chance to practice, but you know what? We're going to belt it out anyway. So, we're going to be doing that, and then we're going to have kind of a regular sermon-type thing after that. And so, it's going to go a little further, I'm sure, than 12 o'clock, but after that, then you're free to do whatever you want. Obviously, you're free to do whatever you want anyway. I'm not fortunate to be here. So, I'm excited about it because I kind of want the day to be all about celebrating Christmas. So, obviously my sermon is going to be tailored to Christmas, all that stuff. So, that's coming up this Sunday. And then the next weekend is actually New Year's Eve on Sunday, so we're not going to do a staying up until midnight thing. Having church all day is enough to where I'll be wore out before we get to that point. But we do have the – or actually, I'm sorry, New Year's is on Sunday. I'm definitely not staying up until midnight and then coming to church in the morning on Sunday. But we do have a men's prayer meeting that Friday, so that's a good one. If you haven't been to the men's prayer meeting in a while, that's probably a good one to come to so we can kind of pray in the New Year, if you will. And obviously, we should be praying the same way each month, but we're kind of going into a New Year and a good time to pray. Now, our chapter memory for the month is 1 Thessalonians 3, and our verse memory for the week is 1 Timothy 4 and verse 10. It says, For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. And so a good verse to have memorized there. And then as far as birthdays, today is the 18th, so we've got Lance, Lance coming up here, Lance Symes, Lance a lot, right? Sir Lance, Sir Lance Symes. And then are the Murphys here? No, I don't see. And then Asher. So Lance, is he one? One. And then Asher, how old is Asher? One. So we've got two one-year-olds right next to each other. So we'll sing Happy Birthday to Lance and Asher. And then as far as anniversaries, we got the Murphys last week, right, as far as the anniversary, I think. If not, we'll make sure we do that. And then we have the Racine family and the Powell family anniversaries. That's coming after Christmas, so that will be next week. And then on the pregnancy list there, my wife's on there and she is pregnant. And I meant that in a good way, but I mean, but meaning we're coming down to the line here. And so being in prayer, obviously everything goes well there. I already had basically a company trip that they wanted me to do to go out to Mississippi in January. I'm like, yeah, I can't do that. So that would be the last thing. I feel like I'm far enough away as it is when I'm in Morgantown as far as making it to the hospital, let alone being in Mississippi and trying to get home. But being in prayer, everything goes well there. As far as everything else, offering boxes in the back there, the mother-baby rooms for the mothers and babies only. Who's reading this morning? Brother Anthony. So Brother Dave's going to sing one more song and he's going to be reading Exodus 24. All right, take your blue song books. Apparently we're just going to use these. We're not using the other ones ever again. We'll sing, so in the back of the blue song books we'll sing Good Christian, Men Rejoice. So if you take those. But before we, okay, I'll do the end. We'll just sing Happy Birthday to these guys. So we've got Lance and Asher, one years old, Thursday and Friday. No, Wednesday and Friday. Lance is on Wednesday and Asher is on Friday. So one year old. All right, sing Happy Birthday. Ready? Here we go. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you both. So we'll sing Good Christian, Men Rejoice. If you look, so I'm the music. The second stanza where it says news, news, joy, joy, peace, peace. You guys see that? We're not seeing any of that. That's just weird, okay? It messes up the song. This is in executive order, so it's good. So we're not seeing any of that, so we're just going to skip right to that. So just act like that's not there. Here we go. Good Christian, men, rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Give ye heed to what we say. Jesus Christ is born today. Acts and Acts before him bow and he is in the manger now. Christ is born today. Christ is born today. Good Christian, men, rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Now ye hear of endless bliss. Jesus Christ was born for this. He hath opened the heavenly door and man is blessed forevermore. Christ was born for this. Christ was born for this. Good Christian, men, rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Now ye need not fear the grace. Jesus Christ was born to save. Cause you want, cause you want to gain his everlasting hall. Christ was born to save. Christ was born to save. All right, take your Bibles and turn to Exodus chapter number 20. Exodus chapter number 20 in your Bibles. Brother Anthony will read that for us. Exodus chapter 20. The Bible reads, And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto the thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor the cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy mother, and thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, and when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, for God has come to prove you, in that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. And the Lord said unto Moses, Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen. In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this morning, where we can gather and hear your word preached. I pray it should be with Pastor Robson, fill him with your Holy Spirit. Help us all to be edified this morning. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. So you're there in Exodus, chapter 20. I just couldn't get enough of Exodus since we finished the book, and I'm actually going to be stabbing an old-eyed bee cow, a sacred cow, this morning. I'm actually surprised I've never preached on this, but I'm going to be preaching against the old-fashioned altar call, and I'm going to be hitting on why we don't have an altar call. So obviously you probably noticed that I don't have you bow your heads, close your eyes, and tell you to come up with the old-fashioned altar call. So I'm going to be preaching on why we don't have it, but I kind of first want to hit on the fact that the altar call is something that's relatively new. It's not biblical, okay? First of all, there's nothing in the New Testament, yea, the Old Testament, about some altar call when someone would preach and people would come up and pray at the steps of where the pulpit's at and everything, but I kind of want to read to you just a little excerpt as far as the origin of the altar call. So it's going to be a little bit of a history lesson, but then we're going to be getting into the Bible, and you're going to say, well, what do you have against it? Well, I'm going to get to my points as far as what I have against it, but let's see the origin. Who started this thing? It's not the Bible. It's not like John the Baptist had an old-fashioned altar call or any of the apostles or anything like that, but it says altar calls are a recent historic phenomenon beginning in the 1830s in America. I want to stop there, right? That 1830, that whole time frame right there is when there's a whole bunch of damnable heresy and false doctrine coming into America, okay? But, you know, 1830 just rings a bell with me, and I'm going to be doing a whole sermon on this dealing with our statement of faith, but dealing with the pre-Trib rapture. Do you remember where the pre-Trib rapture first came into view as far as anything historical about pre-Trib rapture? It was in 1830 by a woman named Margaret McDonald, and she was like this tongue-talking Pentecostal that had a vision about some secret rapture. Now, you know, Darby and all those that later on basically adopted this pre-Trib rapture, they deny the fact that this woman is the origin of it, but listen, if we sang to you, it is well with my soul, the person that wrote that song definitely didn't believe in a pre-Trib rapture because he's talking about the Lord descending when the heavens shall depart as a scroll, which is in Revelation chapter 6. So that alone, when I see 1830s, I'm like, oh, this isn't good. You know, like this is the Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening or whatever. This is when you're dealing with Mormonism. You're dealing with all kinds of false doctrine coming into play here, okay? But it basically had its origins around that time. It says during these people approached the chancel rails, anxious seat, or mourners bench to pray. So basically they would come up to a certain item or whatever to pray, okay? It says one of the most famous 19th century revivalists, Charles Grandison Finney, popularized the idea of the altar call in order to sign up his converts for the abolition movement. Now, let me just stop and say I'm for the abolition movement. That's where they were trying to get rid of slavery, okay? So obviously, whatever, you know, like all for the slavery ending there. But it says in many churches of the Wesleyan-Arminian theology, okay? So let's just talk about Charles Finney for a second, okay? This is the guy that really popularized this thing, okay? Charles Finney was basically a Calvinist-slash-Arminian because here's one thing that he believed, okay? He believed in free will, but it says Charles Finney believed it is possible for Christians to backslide even to the point of losing their salvation. Unsaved, so we got an unsaved guy that's popularizing this thing, which makes sense that you get into the Wesleyan-Arminian theology, okay? Well, I did a whole sermon against Charles Wesley, okay? And basically, Arminianism, you know, Wesleyanism is the fact that you have free will to choose salvation, but you also have the free will to lose your salvation, okay? And Calvinists believe you don't have free will, which stay tuned for my sermon this evening, but Calvinists believe you don't have free will and you don't even choose salvation, okay? And so we're neither one of those, okay? And that's for tonight's sermon, but we believe that you have free will to choose salvation, but once you're saved, you have eternal life and you can never lose your salvation, okay? So you can't unsave yourself once God saves you. But this guy's unsaved, you know, this guy that basically popularized this altar call. So that on its face should show you like, hey, this may not be a good thing to be doing, okay? It says the many churches of the Wesleyan-Arminian theology, the altar call, in addition to being an invitation for people to experience the new birth, is also often used to implore believers to experience the second work of grace, known as entire sanctification. Notable examples in history of using altar calls include Billy Sunday and D.L. Moody. I'm going to get to them later, but entire sanctification, basically this is a Methodist Wesleyan type of theology, basically to the point which they'll say, well, we don't believe in sinless perfection, but they're basically talking about being almost to the point where you're just not sinning much at all or something like that, okay? So another sermon for another day, but obviously sinless perfection is like entire sinless perfection, meaning body, soul, and spirit right now is heresy. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Spiritually speaking, yes, we're completely sanctified. So let's get into some verses on this, okay? So this was popularized in the 1830s. So this isn't found in the Bible. This isn't found from a long time ago. I mean, obviously 1830 is not like, I mean, that's a little ways back, but you're still dealing with like 1,800 years after Jesus died and resurrected, okay? But Exodus chapter 20, you're in Exodus chapter 20. So I'm going to get into my reasons why I'm against the altar call, okay? Well, let's ask the question. If you went into a Baptist church or into – a lot of this has to do with like Pentecostal realms and stuff like that as well. But if you went into an old IFB Baptist church that has an altar call, what's the altar? Is there like this golden, you know, this brazen altar with horns on it that they're coming in and people are holding on to the horns of the altar when they come up there? Is there something that's, you know, like where it looks like a sacrifice is being laid there? No, the altar is the steps that lead up to where the pulpit's at, isn't it? So let's see what the Bible says. Now, you say, well, you know, the argument that I've heard for the altar is like, well, you know, we're basically spiritualizing something that's in the Old Testament. You know, basically that's what they try to say is that, well, in the Old Testament there's the altar and you kind of bring your plea to the altar, if you will, but that's not really spiritualizing if it's a physical place that you're going to, is it? But let's see how that would be spiritualized when you go to Exodus chapter 20, verse 24 there. It says, That thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. There's actually explicit instructions saying that there's not to be steps going up to the altar, but yet that is the altar in the Old I.P. or in not just the Old I.P. I'm picking on them because that's, you know, kind of where I came from, but I'm picking on them because these are saved people that do the altar call and everything, but now this is just one step, but it'd be like if we had multiple steps here and I'm saying, okay, come up to this old-fashioned altar. It's like, well, one, it says don't make any steps to this altar. So the one place, and you say, well, you know, do you get any more Old Testament than Exodus chapter 20 with the Ten Commandments being stated? I don't know if you get any more Old Testament than that, you know, as far as understanding the Ten Commandments are the Old Testament, the Bible says. That is the covenant. And within that chapter we have the fact that you're not supposed to build any steps. It also states that when you build an altar you're not to hew it with any type of tool. Let me ask you a question. Do you think there's any church that has an altar call that didn't make the steps with a tool? They just stacked it up. They just stacked wood up there. They have stacked stone going up there. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, okay, but every church I've ever went into, they I'm sure had a saw, had a hammer, had some screws, and they built that thing, okay? So one, the whole premise of the steps being the altar is completely contrary to what the Bible says, and also you're not even supposed to be hewing it out of anything. Second of all, does it say to make an altar out of wood? Obviously the brazen altar was made out of wood and then it was plated with brass, right? But the idea here is that the idea of spiritualizing this as an altar is completely contrary to the Bible, okay? Just physically. I'm not even getting to the spiritual. I'm not even getting to the parts of why this is foolish to do and we shouldn't be doing this, okay? But just in the aspect of just a physical representation of what the altar call is and what the altar is, completely contrary to the Bible, okay? Now, let's spiritualize the altar, though, when it comes to the New Testament, because we go to Hebrews chapter 13, Hebrews chapter 13, because they're like, well, we're trying to spiritualize it. Okay, let's spiritualize it. Let's look at the New Testament and what does the New Testament say about the altar, okay? Hebrews chapter 13 verse 10 here. It says, we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high praise for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. Now, it's saying that we have an altar which they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle, meaning that the physical altar, the physical tabernacle, all that, right? And it's basically stating here that we have this altar and it's contrasting these animal sacrifices with Jesus sacrificing himself. Let me ask you a question. Did he go into the temple made with hands with his own blood or did he go into the tabernacle, that which is not made with hands, into heaven itself with his own blood? So what altar do we have a right to that they don't? The altar which is in heaven. Go to Revelation chapter 8. Revelation chapter 8. Revelation chapter 8. Now, I'm surprised actually that I never preached on this when I started the church. You know, when I started the church, I had a whole sermon that went like, if you think my sermons are long, you should have been here for a first sermon. Who here was here for the first sermon? First sermon, this was just like, if you had to describe, this is where I'm just like, ah, I need to get everything off my chest. It was just like every doctrine that I wanted to say was just like that day, okay? So I apologize for those that were there for an hour and a half for the sermon. But there was a lot of things that, you know, basically I couldn't say out loud or I had to kind of hold back and all that. And then when I was pastoring in church, I'm like, well, now is the time to let it rip, you know? And but it's like the altar call just was one of those things that, I don't know, I just kind of like blocked out of my mind and didn't care about, you know? So but some of you have come from those churches and I'm sure it's one of those things that you're just like, ah, you know, this altar call thing. And then obviously when you come to like a new IFB type church, then you're like, ah, I finally don't have to deal with that. But in Revelation chapter 8, again, we're dealing with an altar. What are we talking about? The heavenly altar, right? In Revelation chapter 8 and verse 1 it says, And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints and sent it up before God out of the angel's hand. So there's definitely a lot to be said about the altar, and this is the altar of incense, by the way. Okay, so you have the golden altar of incense that is before the veil and obviously before the Ark of the Covenant and all that. Now, so when you're dealing with coming to the altar and praying, there's definitely some biblical aspects, spiritually speaking, but we're not coming to a physical altar, are we? We're coming to heaven itself, to the throne, okay? Hebrews chapter 4, you don't have to turn there, but Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16, it says, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So, when it comes to this, are we supposed to be coming physically to somebody? And let me just give you an example. Maybe some of you don't know the altar call, okay? I'd say most of you probably have been to a church that has an altar call. But here's how it usually goes. At the end of the service, we're like, all right, everyone bow your heads and close your eyes, okay? Bow your heads and close your eyes, and there's usually music playing. I need brother Nick up here to like start playing, like, come, you know, give your all on the altar, like, just as I am, you know, like. You got to play it softly, though. We got to make this really emotional. So, but you close your eyes, you bow your heads, and you know what this turns into is a big confession booth, okay? And, you know, it's like if I preached on, for example, let's say I preached on pornography, right? This would be, this would be, okay, everybody bow your heads, close your eyes, no one looking around. No one looking around, which is a lie, by the way. I'll get to that later. No one looking around. All right. If you've had a problem with pornography, you know, and you want the Lord to help you with that, you know, just raise your hand. God bless you. I see that hand. God bless you. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand. Everybody's like, good night. Everybody's got a problem with pornography, you know? And then you got the people that aren't closing their eyes. They're like, oh, yeah, I knew about that person over there. It's like you preach on, you preach on, you know, loving your wife and you're like, you know, maybe some of you have been a little rough with your wife and you beat your wife, you know. God bless you. I see that hand, you know. I mean, you think I'm exaggerating, but there has been times where I'm like, who's raising their hand to that, you know? Like, who's going to raise their hand and be like, yeah. Who here wants to stop beating their wife, you know? Raise your hand. Then you feel guilty. You're like, should I raise it or not? It's kind of a leading question. So it becomes this confession booth. Now, the Bible says that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Last I checked, I didn't have my collar turned around backwards and we're not getting into a confession booth because I'm not a Catholic priest, okay? Because there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, he is the mediator, He is the intercessor. You don't need to confess your sins to me, okay? And I don't want to know them, okay? Unless it's a sin that is like 1 Corinthians 5, like we need to deal with type of sin, okay? But listen, we're not going to do this raising your hand confessional booth, okay? So one, you're dealing with the fact that when you're coming through the altar, this should be a personal thing that you're doing between you and your Savior, okay? This isn't, you know, to be done in front of the church and all that, okay? So if anything's going to be done in front of the church, listen, I'll deal with that. And, you know, it gets into this emotionalistic type stuff, but it turns into a big show, okay? Go to Matthew chapter 6, Matthew chapter 6. If I had a word for what the altar call turns into is a big pretense, a big show. It's a big show of spirituality is what it is, okay? And it also, you know, on the side of the preacher, it turns into this validation time for the preacher's sermon, right? Like if you come to the altar, it's like, man, I did a good job, right? And it's like this validation that the preacher needs validation and I have like moved the hearts of the people in this sermon and they really got something out of it and I had the Spirit of God upon me and look at the altar, it's full. It turns into a big validation moment for the preacher as far as whether he like did a good job or something, right? Instead of just preaching a sermon, let the chips fall where they may, and you know what? Hopefully you got something out of it, but you know what, I can only do my part and you know, I don't need validation. Now a lot of you will come up to me like, hey, that was a good sermon, brother, you know, that was a good sermon, pastor, and you know, I appreciate the encouragement, you know, but even at that, I'm kind of embarrassed to even like be like, oh, well, thanks, you know. It's more like, you know, I'm glad you got something out of it. Obviously, that's what I want, but I don't need validation all the time when it comes to my sermons. Now Matthew Chapter 6, the idea that I want to get across here is that when we're praying, we shouldn't be trying to do it so people see us, okay? And go to verse 5 there. So it kind of talks about the alms as well, like give me your alms. And verse 5 here, it says, And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men, verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. So listen, if I'm going to go pray about something that's personal and I need to get right in my life, that needs to be a personal thing that's done on your own, okay? Now there's nothing wrong with praying in a group, like for example, we'll pray to open the service, we'll pray to close the service, we'll pray for the food. That's biblical, but at the same time, we're not talking about personal things, are we? We're not dealing with like, you know, like I need to turn over a new leaf, I need to do all this stuff. That's not what we're talking about. We're like, Lord, please bless this food to the nourishment of our body, you know, like thank you for this, thank you for this time, you know, like all these things, so that we can all say amen, and it's not this big personal type of thing that we're dealing with. But the idea here is that they, that Jesus is rebuking them for loving to pray standing in the synagogues to be seen of men. Now this is two-fold, because the preacher can be guilty of this, because they have this big long flowery type of prayer, if you will. It's kind of like this preaching prayer like hybrid. It's hard to explain unless you've seen it, or like been at a church where they do it, but it's kind of like they're praying, but they're preaching at the same time, right? It's kind of like this mixture, and then it gets hyped because the music's getting intense, right? And you're just like, you're just like, ah, I need to do something, you know? Like, you just feel, you feel, feel emotional. And I'm going to be getting to that as well, as far as kind of this pseudo-emotional conviction, if you will, that's going on there. But the idea here is that the preacher can be guilty of the fact that he just wants to be heard, and everybody's just like, man, that was an awesome prayer, that was an awesome altar call, you know, like look at all the people that came down here. But also, people that come up to the front, it turns into a big show. I'm spiritual, look at me, I'm up at the front. And listen, I still, I remember this day where I was going to a Baptist church, and one of the church members was calling out me and all my friends because we didn't go up to the altar. And he's just like, well, they never go up to the altar. Why don't they ever go up to the altar? And he was like, you know, talking to the pastor about it. And I remember my pastor came up to me and said, hey, you know, so-and-so is just kind of like wondering like why you don't ever go up to the altar and all this stuff. And I remember telling my pastor, I said, who goes up to the altar? And we started naming off people that go up to the altar. Who doesn't go up to the altar? I said, who goes soul winning? And everybody that didn't go up to the altar is the one that went soul winning. And everybody that went up to the altar didn't do Jack Diddley. It was all a pretense. And so, you know, the thing is that it doesn't show your actual spirituality if you're coming up to the altar. Had I gone up to the altar before in the past? Sure. I mean you're kind of like, you know, you're going to a church, you're trying to follow the lead of your pastor and all this stuff. And I'm not saying it's inherently wrong, okay, what's going on as far as like praying in front of people and all this stuff. But it's very, it's very, it has a proclivity to be wrong really quick, okay. Meaning that by going up to the altar, I mean, it's really hard not for that to be a show. And you're like, well everybody's eyes are closed and their heads are bowed. Well how did that person know I wasn't going up to the altar then? I thought your eyes were bowed, you know, your eyes were closed and your head was bowed, you know. It's like soul, soul, soul didn't go up there while you're not closing your eyes, are you? So that's a lie, you know, as far as people actually bowing their head and closing their eyes. I mean, good night, can you imagine, can you imagine if we did that right now with all the kids we have? Alright parents, close your eyes and bow your heads and then all the kids just run out from underneath the, you know, like half the time I never close my eyes when I'm praying, you know, when we're at the church just, we're having like the opening prayer, I'm like I got to watch, make sure my kids aren't running out from underneath the chairs or whatever. So anyway, it turns into this big show. The Bible says in Matthew, go to Matthew chapter 23, Matthew chapter 23. Listen, we shouldn't be doing things to be seen of men. We should pray because we want to pray to God and we want to get a hold of God and we have a petition to God, we want to praise God, it should have nothing to do with what other people think. Or say. When we pray it should be from the heart and if you pray out loud it shouldn't, it shouldn't be, you shouldn't be tailoring it to be out loud. What you pray out loud should be the same way that you pray in your heart. It should be from the heart. It shouldn't be this flowery, like over spiritual type of prayer. And that's what the altar call turns into and a lot of people that will pray out loud, they'll get over spiritual and they'll go overboard. And I'm not against quoting Bible verses but you're like, Lord we beseech you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. It's like you start sounding like a Catholic priest at that point when you start going like crazy overboard with the flowery type of stuff. You're not writing an epistle to the brethren, you're praying, okay. Now when it comes to even doing works, you know, doing things outwardly here, it says in verse 5, it says, But all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. Go down to verse 14. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayer. Therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. Now go to Luke chapter 20 because I'm going to show you like what's pretense mean? Well go to Luke chapter 20 and verse 45. Then in the audience of all the people he said unto his disciples, Beware of the scribes which desire to walk in long robes and love greetings in the markets and the high seats in the synagogues and the chief rooms at feasts which devour widows' houses and for a show make long prayers. The same shall receive greater damnation. So what is a pretense? It's a show. It's just so people see it. This long over spiritual prayer and so people see it. And listen, I want you to pray. I want you to get hold of God. I want you to make spiritual decisions to follow the Lord and do what you should be doing, but this isn't the way. The altar call is not the way. And it just results into the preacher making a big show about his prayer and a big show about what he preached on and to see, oh look at everybody that came up. Come to my feet and bow down before me. Now most pastors I don't believe have that type of like crazy, narcissistic view, but do you see how that looks though? And even if they don't have that view and everybody has pure intentions, right? The pastor just wants you to get right with God. The people that are coming up are just wanting to get right with God. Even with all the purest intentions, do you see how it looks really bad though? That it's this big show, this big pretense. Someone comes in and is just like, good night. They're all bowing down in front of the pastor up there. I mean we get enough accusations that we're some kind of cold or something like that. We don't need people bowing down before me as I get done preaching the sermon. You say you're going overboard with it. You're taking it to an extreme. Listen, the man worship that happens in Baptist churches is a real thing where the man of God turns into a God man. The pastor turns into someone that can't say anything wrong. Everything that he believes is straight up gospel truth. And you know what? The altar call I think also adds to that. Now let's talk about two men that are well known for altar calls. Billy Sunday and D.L. Moody, okay? And what I want to say about these two men is that I haven't read up on these guys. So I'm not here to say like Billy Sunday or D.L. Moody is not saved because I just don't know. I don't know. I'm just going to state that I'm ignorant about I tried looking up what they believe about salvation and it's hard to find, okay? As far as like to find anything that would really just pin down because they both will say that you're saved by faith alone, it's by grace alone, it's a gift and all that stuff, okay? So on the surface let's say they're saved, okay? But you know what this turns into? You know what the altar call turns into? Shallow soul winning. It leads to shallow soul winning, okay? Because the altar call is twofold, okay? It's an invitation to like if the message laid on your heart and you feel convicted about the message, come up to the altar and pray and basically get right with God or stay right with God or whatever, right? Because they'll say you can come up here, you could be doing fine but you should come up here and just make sure you're, you know, they want everybody to come up, okay? Basically they want man, woman, child, everybody to come up to the altar and just come up to the front, okay? But they also at the same time will give an invitation for salvation. This turns into a salvation message at the end of every service. And we've been, you know, obviously our style of how we do the service and everything has been criticized because we don't give a gospel message after every service. But I'll say this, you know what we do? We run after people that are visitors that aren't saved and we try to give them the gospel, okay? And what this turns into is one, the preacher is washing his hands on the responsibility of talking to these people individually and giving them the gospel. Just like, well, I gave them the altar call. Do you know how many people I brought to services where the service was actually on salvation? Not only on salvation but on eternal security. And then I asked the person after the service, like, you know, what do you think someone has to do to be saved? Well, I think you need to be a good person and you can definitely lose your salvation. I'm like, the whole sermon was about it. Were you even listening at all? Because there is a difference between one-on-one soul winning than, you know, preaching to an audience as far as who's going to actually hear it. But two, let's say someone says, you know what, I do want to make a decision. I do want to get saved, right? And they're just like, yeah, here's what happens. I'm going to give you some things about D.L. Moody and Billy Sunday, but here's what happens. This is my experience but here's what happens. They come to the altar and then someone is called up. Let's say Brother Nick is standing there and someone came to the altar and I come down to him and they're like, hey, you know, let me get down on one knee here. Hey, brother, you know. What's going on? You're like, I want to get saved. You're like, hey, Brother Nick, come over here and, you know, he'll take his Bible. And listen, the music is playing. There's so many distractions that are going on. They're in front of everybody. How long do you think someone usually takes to give the gospel there? It's really short. I'll say that. Now, when I went to churches that had the altar call, I took as much time as I needed. I'll be like, hey, brother Jason, come up here and I'll be there and the music is still going, still going, still going. They actually closed it down one time. They're like, well, we've got to go. You guys do your thing over here, but we're going to have to shut it down because I think the piano guy was probably getting, you know, his fingers were probably getting numb from how long. Because the person was like going back and they weren't understanding it, all that stuff, okay. But, you know, obviously that's not what they're used to. They're used to just like, okay, you're a sinner. You know, the wages of sin is death. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You want to believe on Christ right now, let me pray with you right now. That's what that turns into. And they're not saying anything wrong, but they're not being thorough. It's shallow. Has someone gotten saved by that? I'm sure. I'm sure someone was ready and like there's people that are just like ready to hear it and they don't have any hang ups with that. But that's not the majority. You know as well as I do, majority of people need to know, hey, I can't lose my salvation, that, you know, there are certain walls that need to be broken down. So yeah, sure, a child could come up to the altar and then you explain them, you give them some verses and they're just like, yeah, I got it, you know. But that's not the norm. That's not usually what happens. So what you have is a lot of false conversions. You have one, two, three, repeat after me, which we're usually accused of, but, you know, this is one reason why we don't do the altar call. It's because we're against shallow soul winning. We're against this one, two, three, repeat after me. Salvation's easy. It's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, but you need to know what you're believing. You need to understand what the Bible says that you're believing. Now, let me, Billy Sunday, Billy Sunday played baseball. Like he was a, you know, major league baseball player. And we're talking back and like this guy lived back in the 1800s up into the early 1900s, right? But he's the guy that was famous for basically if you want to choose salvation, then just shake my hand, okay? Now, I'm not saying that Billy Sunday wasn't saved, but basically it says Billy Sunday was the man that stated, you can demonstrate that you believe on Christ by walking down the sawdust trail and shaking his hand. Now, one, that doesn't really make sense. Like what biblical basis do you have on that as far as that being how, I understand that there has to be a moment where you get saved, but like do you see how that really looks bad, right? You're like, hey, you want to be saved? Shake my hand. Am I saving you? Now, he may say, well, it's just a way that you can demonstrate that you believe on Christ by saying I've chosen this by shaking your hand, you know? But it gets into this shallow soul wanting to where people are just coming down to the altar and just shaking Billy Sunday's hand and be like, save, save, save, save, save. How do you know that person is saved? Have you talked to him at all? And obviously you have the false prophets out there that take it too far to think you need to have like some seven-week Bible study before you can get saved, okay? But you do need to understand that Jesus is giving us eternal life, okay? And now D.L. Moody, D.L. Moody, I was just looking up his theology and again, I'm not, I don't care to like pick up books by these guys and by D.L. Moody and read them. I just don't care about like, I hope they're saved. I hope they're in heaven, right? You know, I don't want anybody to go to hell and I hope they preach the right gospel. But in the end, I'm not going to waste my time reading D.L. Moody's books and Billy Sunday's books. I got better things in my life to do than that. Like read the Bible, play with my kids, like there's a lot of things that take priority over reading these books. But these are some quotes, okay? D.L. Moody is famous and this is just from what I've read as far as what people are saying about D.L. Moody. He's famous for not preaching on hell. And basically, his whole ministry is focusing on the love of God, okay? And this is a quote from D.L. Moody. A great many people say, I don't preach up the terrors of religion. He won't even mention hell. You know, they're telling him he's not preaching on hell. He's like, even in his explanation of why he doesn't preach on hell, he's calling it the terrors of religion. That on the surface should tell you like, man, this guy can't even say it. He can't even use the word. It says, I don't want to scare men into the kingdom of God. I don't believe in preaching that way. If I wanted to scare men into heaven, I would just hold the terrors of, I guess he does say hell here, the terrors of hell over their heads and say, go right in. But that is not the way to win men. They don't have any slaves in heaven. They are all sons, and they must accept salvation voluntarily. So there's a bait and switch there, right? Just because you preach about hell, you're basically saying you're making them do it unwillingly, okay? How about a Bible verse on that, D.L. Moody? And if some have compassion, making a difference, and others say with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. Why don't you use some Bible? How about the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Oh, I don't want to preach. I don't want to scare them. Well, you know, if we're going to use your logic that I'm going to save by love and compassion, well, some are saved by compassion, the rest are saved by fear. So I'm not saying not to have compassion. I think we should have compassion for everybody we talk to. But listen, most of the people that we get saved is because of fear of hell. That's why they're going to get saved. And that's biblical, okay? Go to Revelation chapter 14. So the two men that are very famous for the altar call, Billy Sunday, shake my hand and be saved, he's the name it, claim it preacher. Listen, if he believed that salvation was by faith and that it's very simple to be saved, and that's what his whole modus operandi was, is that salvation is so easy, but he took it too far, to the point where, and a lot of Baptist churches do this. Salvation is by faith, but they need to understand what they're believing. You can't take out the fact that they need to understand and know what they're believing, or they're going to be believing something false. That's the problem, okay? So it is by faith, but you've got to believe the right thing. And that's where Billy Sunday, I think, misses the mark, because there's a lot of people that want to believe, but they're not being told necessarily what to believe. And he also has written that he is very famous for his sermons being very simplistic, okay? And the Gospel is simple, but at the same time, don't simplify it more than the simplicity of Christ, right? I mean, don't take it to the point where you can't even read John 3.16, that he gives them to his everlasting life. I mean, if you're not explaining everlasting life, then you're not explaining John 3.16, okay? And in Revelation 14, verse 6, it says, And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. So this is actually what I believe the 144,000 will be preaching as well, but listen, it's everlasting gospel. It's from the beginning of the foundation of the world to the end. It's the same gospel, everybody's saved the same way. From Abraham to David to everybody else, we're all saved by grace through faith. But basically, this everlasting gospel, notice what it says here, because that's not the end of the sentence. It says in verse 14, I mean verse 7 there, in verse 7, it says, So when they're preaching the gospel, they're saying, The old moody would be like, I don't want people to be afraid. I don't want to scare people into heaven. What Bible are you reading? Because, you know what? The Bible says, And here, it's stating that they're preaching the gospel, and the first thing they stated is, Fear God. Fear God. Well, you know what? Another place where it says, Fear God is because he's a consuming fire. Okay? So, and hell is fueled by God. Who's a consuming fire? So yes, that is a valid way to win men, the old moody, is by preaching on hell. And listen, good luck getting people saved if they don't have any condemnation. You ever hear the phrase, there's no salvation without damnation? What are you getting saved from? And I'm not saying like every person you have to talk to, you have to get into the intricacies of hell, and like talk about how horrible hell is. Some people you do. Some people you really have to just lay it on, and be like, hey, hell is a place of torment, it's dark, there's worms there, there's obviously locusts coming out of hell, you know, so there's like all these creatures in there, it's burning, it's torment, and going deep on it, right? Other people are just like, hey, hell is a place of torment, and you don't want to go there. And they're like, yes, I don't. I don't want to go there. What's the answer? And then go on from there, right? You're not just like sitting there like, they don't need to be sweating, and just like in this state of just, you know, fear to the point where they can't even talk to you, right? That's not what we're talking about. But when you're coming from these creatures that are all based off this evangelistic type of preaching, that's what they're, you know, a lot of times preachers will be just like this fear, fear, fear, fear about it in their preaching, and you know what, sure, that'll work, but when we're talking about soul winning, we know that that type of preaching isn't going to win a lot of people. Meaning this is that preaching to a congregation is for believers. And like I said, there's been so many people that I've taken to church to hear the gospel or that the gospel is in the message or is at the end of the message or something to that nature. I've never seen any of them actually understand it until I talk to them about it later, one on one. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it's rare, okay? So when it comes to this, we need to preach the gospel thoroughly. Go to 1 John 5, 1 John 5. Why don't we have an altar call? Well, one, steps are explicitly stated that should not be built for the altar. So if you're going to have an altar call, it better not be steps, which is like everybody's altar call, right? It shouldn't be hewn then. It shouldn't be something that you craft. So build up an altar somewhere and then use that, I guess. But then you have the problem that it's going to be a big pretense and a big show. And it's going to be about this long prayer. And it's just this showy thing of spirituality that you're doing. And then two, it turns into this, or three, I guess. Three, it turns into this shallow soul winning, a washing my hands of having to give the gospel to anybody personally, and to where if someone does come up, it's going to be a very short presentation. And the problem is in a lot of Baptist churches, that short presentation, they take outdoor doors well. So they're doing the same thing outdoor door. But in 1 John 5, in verse 10 here, it says, He that believeth on the Son of God hath to witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave to his Son. And this is the record that God has given to us, eternal life, and this life is in his Son. It says if you don't believe the record, you're calling God a liar, and the record is that he gives unto us eternal life. Jesus said to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life, and says whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die, believeth thou this. And it also says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that there's people that believe in vain because they don't keep a remembrance that which was declared unto them, and that which was preached unto them. Why? Because it wasn't taught to them. They didn't actually understand it. They didn't actually grasp it when they were believing it, and they believed in vain because if you give someone the gospel and they think that they can lose their salvation, then they're not believing right, and their belief is vain. If you believe that Jesus is going to take you to heaven plus going to church, plus not killing somebody, your faith is vain. You're like, but I believe it was the death, battle, and resurrection. You know, well, you didn't actually, though, because it says that you have to believe that he died for our sins. That means all of them, and if there's any sin that could send you to hell, then you don't believe that. You thought you did, right? In your mind, you thought you were believing that, right? But your faith is actually vain because you're not actually believing that. Listen, soul winning's not a game. When it comes to soul winning, soul winning is about the souls of men and women and children, that this isn't a game. I'm not up here just about numbers, although I want many people to be saved. I'm about the actual individual person getting saved, and I'm not going to shortcut it just because I want it to look like we're getting a whole bunch of people saved, okay? And if we had an altar call, you know what would happen? We'd have a bunch of people up here giving the Gospel to people. If we had visitors and they came up to the altar, we'd have people giving the Gospel to people for a good long time that that piano would be playing because the people in our church are actually thorough soul winners, okay? I'm not saying you have to spend an hour with them, okay? You can get someone saved in 10 minutes if they're ready, right? But there's some people you know as well as I do that it takes more than that. You're there for 30 minutes. You could be there for 45 minutes, right? And the time needs to be taken. And if I have one big gripe with the altar call, it's that right there is the false conversions that happen at the altar. And you know what? The repentance of sins crowd, the lordship salvation crowd, you know what they do? They take that falseness that's going on right there with the altar call and this shallow soul winning, and they say, well, see? Those aren't real conversions. They need to repent of their sins. It's like, well, good night, man. You took it way too far the other way, right? Do you see how there's the Bible way, which is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, believe, you know, he that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life, that you need to believe the record, and this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. That's the right way. Believe it's by Him alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, and that it's eternal life, and there's nothing you can do to lose your salvation. Boom, there's salvation. You have a shallow soul winning over here that doesn't explain that and says, well, you're saved by grace. It's a gift. Do you want to call upon the name of the Lord right now? Doesn't explain any of that. Have no idea if that person even understands it. Prays with them. They go on their merry way. Could be as lost as a goose in a caboose in a snowstorm. Then you have the other side over here that says, well, you know, that's wrong, obviously, to be that shallow. We need to have a seven-week Bible study with them and make sure they turn from all their sins and that they're turning over a new leaf and made Jesus Lord of their life. So I believe that this over here has been, has given easy believethism a bad name. Okay? And there's saved people over here that do this, but this right here of the shallow soul winning, and sorry, brother Luke, I'm not trying to lump you in there and be like, this right here. This is the reason. But the shallow soul winning over here is, I believe, a big reason why, you know, the true salvation is actually mocked and ridiculed. Okay? And listen, I wear easy believethism as a banner because it's easy to believe on Jesus Christ. It's not difficult. If it's hard, then tell me that drinking a cup, a glass of water is hard, taking a bite of bread is hard, walking through a door that's open is hard, right? It's so hard that a child, that you have to be like a child to go in. You don't have to be too strong. But the idea here is that the big reason I'm against it is that. But also, the last point I want to make here is that a lot of people make emotional decisions during the altar call, okay? It's this big emotional time where people are being caught up in the moment and they're like, I'm going to make this decision. And you know what ends up happening? Nothing. You know, this idea of like, I went to the altar and man, I just really want to serve the Lord. Nothing happens. Go to 1 Timothy 1. I was going to read to you the story in Acts 19, but I'm just going to explain the story. In the story, you had Demetrius, who is basically this craftsman for Diana, their goddess in Ephesus. And basically, they got the whole city in this emotional uproar, okay? And when they went into this theater, most of the people didn't even know why they were there. They're just like, great is Diana, the goddess of the Ephesians, right? And they just keep chanting this, right? But they don't know why. They're all confused. They're like, why are we doing it? Well, let's keep doing it, right? And it's like this lemur effect, I guess, where lemurs will just fall over the person off the cliff kind of thing. And the fact that they don't really know why they're making this decision, they don't really have like a foundational truth that they're following, right? Like, well, thus said the Lord. It says it right there in the Bible. Because not only are these ultra-calls very emotional-driven, the sermons are lacking Bible in most all the cases. There's like one verse. One verse, and then it's just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And some of the stuff they may be saying is true, right? Because I can get up here and talk about things that are true that have nothing to do with the Bible. Like, guys, two plus two equals four. That's good. Everybody bow your heads now. If anybody agrees that two plus two equals four, God bless you. I see that hand. And then, see, that's true, but it's not something that's like a biblical truth that needs to be like believed and followed, right? Okay, though you should believe that, okay? It's not racist. It's math, okay? But when it comes to this, the idea here is that it needs to be based off of actual Bible and truly the Spirit of God, you know, basically maybe reproving you of sin, maybe he's reproving you of sin, and you see that and you're like, that is right. I need to get that fixed, okay? But a lot of times, there's no Bible mentioned. There's nothing biblically besides what the pastor said. It's like a TED Talk, okay? Imagine a TED Talk with an altar call, okay? That might be taking it a little extreme, but a TED Talk with an altar call where you have this guy that's up there, he's like a, what are those guys called? Inspirational speakers or something like that? Motivational speaker, that's it. It's like a motivational speaker and then we have an altar call, right? That's what a lot of these sermons turn into. And there's no basis to why they're making this, there's no biblical basis. There's no like word of God that's just like, yes, that's why. I'm gonna do it because of that. And I'm not, listen, I'm saying this in generality because there's obviously Baptist churches that preach Bible and there is Bible reasons why people are making decisions even in the altar call, okay? But let's just face it, a lot of these altar calls, it's shallow sermons with no Bible in it and then they have this emotionalistic type of altar call where people are making decisions based off of nothing, really. And the reason that they don't stick with it makes sense. There's no authority behind it. Now in 1 Timothy 1, and again, in that story, they're all confused, they don't know what they're doing there and in the end, the deputy has to come in and be like, what are we doing here? And he just basically dismisses the whole assembly. But that's how emotions and just maybe charismatic type preachers and emotions and music and all this stuff can play with your heart and cause you to make decisions that you don't even know why you're making them. And then they can be wrong decisions on top of that. Imagine in that TED Talk, the preacher is preaching some false doctrine. And they're just like, yeah, that's good, you know, and I need to come down to the altar. And then it's completely contrary to what the Bible says. So in 1 Timothy 1 and verse 3 here it 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 the 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 affirm. Now this is obviously talking about teachers, but you know what I see or you know what I think of when I think of these altar calls with sermons with very little Bible? Vain jangling. It's like all this will do over nothing. In the end, no one ends up following the Lord anymore than they were before. There's no biblical basis on what they're believing. A lot of times it's fables that are being stated because it's not even biblically true, and it's just vain jangling. So I have an anecdotal case, obviously, when I went to a Baptist church that had an altar call, and like I said, the people that went up to the altar didn't do anything. They talked a big game, but they didn't go out soul-winning. And praise the Lord the pastor saw that and knew that and understood that and just let that go. That one church member that was saying that against us should probably be looking at his own house because his own son was a sodomite. But he's talking to us about the fact that we're not going down to the altar when we're going soul-winning week in, week out, attending church on a weekly basis. You know, what would you choose? I mean, if you were a pastor, what would you choose as far as do you want the person that... It's kind of like the two sons, although this isn't the best example. It's like the two sons, he says to the one, go work in my vineyard, right? And he says, you know, no. But then he repents and goes. And then the other one says, I go, sir, and then he doesn't go. Right? Would you rather the person that comes up to the altar and says, I'm going to serve the Lord, I'm going to do what I'm going to do, you know, and everybody sees it, then they don't do it. Or would you rather the person that's sitting in the back and doesn't say that they're going to do it, but then does it? You know, I'd rather have that person. I mean, wouldn't you? So when it comes to the altar, that's my reasons why we don't do it. I mean, it's pretty basic, but... And when it comes to the soul wanting aspect of it, like, oh, you don't have a soul wanting presentation at the end of your service? Listen, we'll run after people in the parking lot to get them and talk to them. And if someone... Listen, I'm not going to tailor my sermon for the unsaved either. I'm not going to have... Every sermon is not going to be about the gospel. I assume that the people that are here at church are saved and understand the gospel. And if you want to hear the gospel that many times, come out soul wanting with me. Go out soul wanting with us. You'll hear it over and over and over and over again. Can you imagine going out soul wanting this afternoon and then I just preach on the gospel every afternoon? You'll be like, well, I just preached it five times. I heard my partner preach it at least three times and then I come back to church and I'm hearing it again, like, we get it! But they want that because their modus operandi is to bring the unsaved in. But what does the Bible say? It says, go. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every preacher. Go, go, go. We're supposed to go out. It doesn't say that they came unto the preacher. It says, how should they preach except they be sent? We send out preachers. If someone comes in that's unsaved, praise the Lord. We'll win them here. But that's not how we run things here. That's not how I believe the church is set up. That's not how Jesus said to do it. He said to go on the highways and the hedges. He didn't say to bring unsaved people into the church house. So let's end with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for your word and just pray that you'd be with us for the rest of this day as we go out soul wanting. Give us safety with any type of slick roads or anything like that. But Lord, we just love you and thank you for everything that you've given us. Lord, we love you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. In your songbooks we'll sing Brethren, We Have Met to Worship. If you would stand, we'll sing song 448. We try to preach the word. All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round you slumbering on the brink of woe. Death is coming. Hell is moving. Can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and our mothers and our children sinking down. Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered.