[singing]
...your bulletins. Travis is going to go over the announcements.
I don't have a bulletin. There should still be some on the back cabinet there.
Raise your hand and Brother Eli will bring one to you.
We have our service and soul winning times there on the top left.
And I'll still continue to note that on Saturday we have two soul winning times.
Both of them start at 10 a.m. One of them meets here, led by Brother Mo.
And the other one meets in Baytown at Jenkins Park, and that one is led by Brother Brandon.
And for both of those, just reach out to either Brother Mo or Brother Brandon if you're planning on coming.
And then for our salvation totals, let's go over any salvations for the week.
So has anybody had any salvations since Sunday?
I know our group, we went out today and we had one. So we'll add one to the total.
So I think so far we're at 415 for the year is what it looks like.
So praise God for that. And then we have four baptisms so far for the year.
And then we're continuing to go through Proverbs chapter number one as our Bible memory passage.
We're in verse number seven for this week. So just keep working on that and don't let yourself get behind.
We're still at the early stages for Proverbs chapter one.
And then be in prayer for our expectant mothers, Mrs. Christian Rogers and Miss Corrine Darnell.
And then for our preaching schedule, we have Brother Dylan Oz here with us today.
So we thank him for coming down from Steadfast or actually from even much further north.
So yeah, Brother Dylan is now living in Fort Worth and working with Steadfast.
So be sure and take time after the service if you haven't already met him to get to meet Dylan and his family.
And then this coming weekend, we'll have Brother Ryan Urbanik from Steadfast.
And then a few weeks further out on September 13th, Pastor Grayson Fritz will be here.
And then lastly, just keep in mind that if you have any prayer requests that you want to send to the church,
email them to purewordsbaptist@gmail.com. That is it for announcements.
Brother Mo will come back up and lead us in our third song.
Turn to your third song, song 164, song number 164, Praise Him, Praise Him.
They're on the first.
Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer.
Sing O Earth, His wonderful love proclaim.
Hail, angels in glory, praise to His whole.
Jesus will guard His children, praise them all.
His excellent greatness, praise Him.
Joyful songs, our blessed Redeemer.
Sins He suffered and bled and shed.
It's the crucifixion of Jesus who was our blessed Redeemer.
Excellent.
Bible's out.
And turn to Ecclesiastes chapter number nine.
Brother Brandon is going to read for us.
So we're there in Ecclesiastes chapter number nine.
And the Bible reads, "For all this I consider in my heart even to declare all this,
that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God.
No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
All things come alike to all.
There is one event to righteous and to the wicked and to the good
and to the clean and to the unclean.
To him that sacrifices and to him that sacrifices not,
as is the good, so is the sinner.
And he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath,
this is an evil among all things that are done under the sun.
That there is one event unto all, yea,
also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil,
and madness is in their heart while they live.
And after that they go to the dead.
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope.
For a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For the living knoweth that they shall die,
but the dead know not anything.
Neither have they any more reward,
for the memory of them is forgotten.
Also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished.
Neither have they any more portion forever
in anything that is done under the sun.
Go thy way and eat thy bread with joy,
and drink thy wine with a merry heart.
For God now accepted thy works,
let thy garments be always white,
and let thy head lack no ointment.
Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest
all the days of thy life and thy vanity,
which he hath given thee under the sun.
All the days of thy vanity, for that is thy portion in this life,
and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,
for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge,
nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.
I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bred to the wise,
nor riches to men of understanding, nor yet favored to men of skill.
But time and chance happeneth to them all.
For man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in evil net,
and as the birds that are caught in the snare.
So are the sons of men snared in evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.
This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemeth great unto me.
There was a little city, and a few men within it,
and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.
Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city,
yet no man remembered the same poor man.
Then said I, wisdom is better than strength.
Nevertheless, the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
The words of wise men are heard and quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among the fools.
Wisdom is better than weapon of war, but one sinner destroyeth much good.
Do you have a word of prayer?
Dear God, we just thank you for everyone here, Lord.
We thank you for your word, your love, your mercy, your grace.
We just pray that you help us be attentive.
We pray that you can be with us and do what we're doing.
You heal my brain.
Amen.
All right, well, it's great to be here, great to meet all of you.
Thank you, Pastor Shelley, for sending me up here.
And we're here in Ecclesiastes chapter 9.
I want to focus on verse number 18, where the Bible reads,
"Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroyeth much good."
The title of my sermon is "One Sinner Destroyeth Much Good."
Let's pray, Lord.
Thank you so much for this day, and thank you for the opportunity to preach.
I pray that you fill me up with the Holy Spirit.
Help me to edify your people, Lord.
I just pray that this sermon would be glorifying to you
and help the people to search the Scriptures,
and it be filled with the Spirit as well.
Please bless the service. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Alright, so like I said, one sinner destroyeth much good.
But before that, I want to kind of give you a little bit of an overview
of this chapter. Let's go back to Ecclesiastes, verse number 3.
Verse number 3, the Bible says, "This is an evil among all things
that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all,
yea, also the heart of the sons of man is full of evil,
and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that
they go to the dead." And Solomon's just saying here that basically
all of our lives are very similar. We all experience the same
type of things. Man has evil in their heart, and when they die,
after that they go to the dead. Go to verse number five.
"For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not
anything. Neither have they any more reward, for the memory of
them is forgotten. Also their love and their hatred and their
envy is now perished. Neither have they any more apportion
forever in anything that is done under the sun." And Solomon
here is just pointing out that, hey, when you die, there's
nothing else you can do under the sun. There's nothing else that
you could change, and all of your hate and your love and your
envy, it's all perished, it's all done. Once you're dead, you
can't change anything, right? It's pretty obvious. Verse
number 10, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy
might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor
wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." So because we know
the fact that we can only change things right now in this
life, whatever we do, we should do it with all of our might.
Whatever we do, we should put all of our strength and effort
into it because, hey, when we're dead, we can't change any
things that were done under the sun.
Look at verse number 11, "I returned and saw under the sun
that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the
strong, neither yet bred to the wise, nor yet riches to men of
understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, but time and
chance happeneth to them all.
For man also knoweth not his time, as the fishes that are
taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the
snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it
falleth suddenly upon them." And he's just saying, hey, you
don't know what's going to happen in your life. We all live
in an evil time. We all live in a world of sin, in a fallen
world, and you don't know when your day is coming. Like the
fish that gets caught in the net, it didn't know that that
was going to be the day for him. And then we go down to verse
number 13, just giving a quick overview here. "This wisdom have
I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me. There
was a little city and few men within it, and there came a
great king against it, and besieged it and built great
bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor, wise
man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no man
remembered that same poor man. Then said I, wisdom is better
than strength. Nevertheless, the poor man's wisdom is
despised, and his words are not heard. And so Solomon's
saying, hey, if we have to choose between being a strong
man or being a wise man, we should choose to be a wise
person, even though you might be despised, like the Bible
said there. The wise man was despised, the poor man was
despised, and nobody remembered him, but he still
delivered the city by wisdom. If we had to choose between
being strong or having wisdom, we need to choose wisdom.
In verse 17, the words of the wise men are heard in quiet
more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools, and that's
usually the case. People who are just really loud and talk
all the time are usually the foolish ones. Often times the
quiet people are the wise ones. Verse 18, wisdom is better
than weapons of war, but one sinner destroyeth much good.
And the reason I was thinking about this sermon is recently
I've been working on demolition and destroying things is
really, really easy. It's a lot easier than building things,
right? Construction, you need to have engineers, you need
to have planning, you need to have all these permits, you
need to have a good boss, you need to have all these skilled
laborers. But with me with just this boot right here, I could
just start kicking down walls. I know because I was doing it.
It's really fun. But one sinner destroyeth much good, it
made me think how much easier it is for sin to destroy things
than righteousness to build things up. It's, you know, it's
way easier to destroy a church than it is to start a church.
It's way easier to destroy someone's family than to build
up a good family, right? This world is in a state of decay
and decay is very natural, right? But building things,
constructing things is very hard. So I'll have you go to
Ecclesiastes chapter seven. Ecclesiastes chapter seven.
And speaking of destruction, just on a side note, it's
pretty funny that these scientists, I think they're so
smart, think that this whole world was created by a
destructive explosion. Makes no sense whatsoever. If I came
in this room and just started swinging around a sledgehammer
or if a B-24 flew over and dropped a bomb on it, it
wouldn't create life. It wouldn't create a new church.
It would destroy everything. It's just pretty funny that
they believe destruction creates things. But number one
tonight, I want to point out that our sin has an extremely
destructive nature. I'll read for you again while you're
there in Ecclesiastes seven. Ecclesiastes nine, eighteen
says wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner
destroyeth much good. One sinner. Ecclesiastes chapter
seven, verse twenty. What we have to understand first of
all is that obviously all of us are sinners. So when the
Bible says one sinner destroyeth much good, we could
also apply that to ourselves. Ecclesiastes seven, verse
twenty says, "For there is not a just man upon the earth
that doeth good and sinneth not." So it's pretty obvious
we all know here that we're all sinners. So we have to
make sure that we're taking our lives seriously too because
our sin destroys a lot of good too. It's not just always
pointing out the reprobates and pointing out the wicked
people. You know, your personal sin in your life can destroy
a lot of good as well. I'll read for you 1 John 1 8 says,
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us." So obviously we all know in here
that we're sinners. If you don't believe that, you're a
liar, you're extremely deceived, and you're insane if you
believe that you're without sin. But we know that we are
with having sin, so here's the thing. We need to make sure
we take every single moment, every single decision of our
life, very, very seriously, because one sinner destroys much
good. One big mistake you make in your life, one big sin you
commit in your life, could have much, much destruction on your
life in the future. It's not like you commit a sin and it's
just a little punishment for it. You know, oftentimes we can
really destroy our lives with our sin. Go to Proverbs, Chapter
1. Proverbs, Chapter 1, back in your Bible a few pages.
Proverbs, Chapter 1. Proverbs 1.32, the Bible says, "For the
way of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools
shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell
safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil." So when it's
saying that the simple, when the simple turns away, it's in
reference of turning away from God's counsel. So us as
Christians, when we turn away from God's counsel, it says for
the turning away of the simple shall slay them, right? When we
decide to turn away from God's commandments, when we decide to
turn away from the wisdom in God's Word, that's going to slay
us. That's going to bring destruction in our lives
personally. Go to Psalm chapter 119, Psalm 119. Important to
understand this because it's not just the reprobates that are
destroying their life. It's not just the wicked people that try
to creep into churches that are destroying their lives.
Christians today, all over this country are destroying their
own lives. Things like drug use, right? It's not like a
Christian is exempt from the sin of drug use. There's
Christians today that use drugs, get addicted to drugs,
and that destroys their whole life. You know, I used to work
in the city of Portland and that city is just overrun with
drugs. Literally, you could just get out of your truck and
walk down just about any street and you'll find heroin
needles there. You could go to just about any public park and
there's heroin needles all over the place. It's like one of
the biggest homelessness capitals in America. There's
just homeless people everywhere. And the reason why is
because those people's lives have been destroyed by drugs.
That's the reason. Drugs is the reason that their life is
destroyed. Now, am I going to think that none of those people
whatsoever are saved? Well, here's the thing, salvation has
nothing to do with how you live your life. Salvation is
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Can a derelict, bum,
drug addict believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Absolutely.
And I guarantee you that there are saved homeless people in
this country today that do drugs that have ruined their life
because of drugs, right? Ruining their life because when
the simple turn away from God's law, it shall slay them.
You're there in Psalm 119, look at verse 104. "Through thy
precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."
So the word of God is supposed to illumine our feet,
picturing how the word of God should be telling us
which direction to go in our life, what to avoid on the path,
the path that we should be going down. You know, the word of God
is going to tell us to avoid that path of alcohol, right?
To avoid the path that ends up with you walking around aimlessly
in the middle of the night and getting run over by a car, right?
The turning away of the simple shall slay them.
You don't think that there's been people that have literally died from sin?
That's what sin does. The wages of sin is death, right?
And that's obviously the most important aspect of that is the spiritual application
that our sin causes us to deserve that second death.
But you know, the wages of sin often result in a physical death in this life.
I wonder how many drunk people have gotten in a fight, police get called on them,
they bow up on the police officer, and the police officer shoots them, right?
There's all sorts of scenarios in this world where your sin can lead to your literal destruction,
your literal death, it happens all the time, disease, right?
Often disease can be a punishment from God.
If you're fornicating, if you're committing adultery,
God can give you a disease that could literally end your life, right?
The turning away of the simple will slay them.
I'll read for you, or you could turn there, Proverbs chapter 3, Proverbs chapter 3, verse number 5.
The Bible says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.
Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones."
So when you fear God and you walk in His commandments, the Bible says that that brings you health.
God didn't give you His commandments just as a drudge on your life, just so it could be a net negative on your life.
And you're thinking, "Man, I'd have such a happy life if it just wasn't for the commandments of God."
No, that's not how it works. God gives you all of His commandments because it brings health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones.
Every single promise in the Bible and every single commandment in the Bible enriches your life.
There's not a single commandment that causes a negative or a detriment to your life.
Every single commandment is positive. And here's what I love about this passage.
If you don't understand that, let's say you come across a commandment, you're reading the Bible, and you're saying,
"God, I don't understand how this commandment is going to help me. This commandment seems like it's going to hurt me."
I love the beginning of this because it says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding."
If we could just understand that concept, it's going to help us out a lot in life.
When you come across a verse you don't understand, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding."
When you don't understand something, that's okay. The longer you're a Christian, the more you read the Bible,
the more wisdom you get just from living your life, someday you're going to understand those things.
But what's going to mess you up is if when you don't understand something and you say,
"Well, I'm just going to lean on my own understanding," then you ruin your life.
Then when you're a fool and you turn away from the counsel of God, then you get slayed, literally sometimes.
But God promises us when we trust in Him with all of our heart, it's going to be health to us.
It's going to be positive to us. And I want to point out how a little bit of sin has a lot of consequences.
A little bit of sin has a lot of consequences. The reason for that is because one sinner destroyeth much good.
Look at Romans 5, verse 17, "For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which received abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.
Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.
So by the disobedience of one, shall many be made righteous."
That's kind of a tongue twister, but it's talking about Adam and Eve.
When Adam sinned, he sinned one time, he committed one offense, and guess what?
It damned us all.
It damned all of mankind, for all of eternity, one man's sin.
And that's because the nature of sin is extremely destructive.
We don't even realize how destructive the nature of sin is.
And the thing is, obviously, if you commit a sin, you're not going to go damn the entire human race, right?
That's already been done.
But what you do need to understand is that your personal sin can damn your children, in a sense.
Like if you raise them your whole life, you're a drunk, you're a drug user, you don't raise them right?
Well, you know what?
Maybe because of your sin, you could ruin your entire children's future.
You could ruin your children's chance of serving God and of living a good, godly life because you yourself sin.
And that's the thing, our sin often has a way more far-reaching effect than we think.
We think that, "Oh, my sin just affects me. No one even knows that I commit this sin."
It's never true. It's never, ever true.
Even if literally no other person in this world knows that you have this sin, guess what?
It will affect them because sin's nature is extremely destructive.
You think about divorce.
Now, that's a sin that affects other people, isn't it?
I grew up my whole life with my parents in the home,
and they're getting divorced right now after I'm already out of the home,
so at least it didn't happen when I was young.
But here's the thing.
Some people, they grow up and their parents get divorced when they're three, four, five years old,
and that's all they ever know, and they think that that's normal.
And they get married and they have their first fight and they're like, "Okay, time to get divorced," right?
And then their kids do the same thing, and then their kids do the same thing, right?
Because of one man's offense.
So we got to take our lives seriously and think, "Hey, this sin that I want to commit, it will not just affect me.
It'll affect my wife, it'll affect my kids, it'll affect everybody that I love."
You know, when you sin in this church, it could affect this church, right?
You ought to think about your personal testimony.
You ought to think about the testimony of this church.
What do you want the members of Pure Words Baptist Church to be known for?
You know, I want them to be known for being zealous of good works,
for being godly, for being righteous Christians that love Him, that go out in soul wind.
I don't want Pure Words Baptist Church to be known as, you know, the adultery scandal church,
where half of the church is in adultery with each other, right?
It would be a horrible testimony.
And you know, what would happen if that was the case?
Well, it would have far-reaching consequences on other people, right?
It wouldn't just affect you.
It would affect the people that could have gotten saved if people were still in this church serving God.
It would affect your pastor who would obviously be hurt by that.
It would affect a lot of people.
Pretty much, you know, you may not be able, like that verse said,
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not unto thine own understanding."
You may commit this sin and say, you know, "Lord, I don't understand how this affects anyone else. I think this just affects me."
You just got to lean on God's Word and not on your own understanding
and just trust that it will affect other people and take your sin very seriously.
We can go on and on about listing every sin and how it can affect people,
but you just need to know that whatever the sin, it doesn't matter if it's pride,
it doesn't matter what the sin is, it will affect other people.
I'll read for you quickly. Go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians 5,
and I'll read for you James 1. It says, "Let no man say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted of God.'
For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.
But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
And that's all you need to know about every sin.
Doesn't matter what sin it is, just realize that the end of every sin is just death.
Because that's how destructive sin is. That is how destructive it is.
First Corinthians 5. So number one, we have to understand the extremely destructive nature of sin.
Number two, because one sinner destroys much good, we must execute church discipline.
Because we know the destructive nature of sin, we must be a church that executes church discipline.
You're there in First Corinthians 5. Let's start reading in verse 6.
The apostle Paul is writing to the church of Corinth and he says, "Your glorying is not good.
Know ye not that a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump."
Now doesn't this jive with what we've been talking about, how a little bit of sin has a huge consequence, right?
And he's saying, hey, a little bit of leaven in your church, a little bit of unchecked fornication,
a little bit of unchecked railing, a little bit of the sins that the Bible says are worthy of being kicked out of church,
a little bit of that just left unchecked, just festering in the church, it will leaven the whole lump.
How do you think churches are destroyed today?
You think churches just destroy because God chooses, He picks and chooses churches like a Calvinist that,
oh, I want this church to be good 'cause no reason, and I want this church to fail 'cause no reason?
No, the Bible gives us instructions on how to live the Christian life.
The Bible gives us instructions on how to be a good church and how to follow God's will for the church,
and He very strongly instructs the church to practice church discipline, right?
And when we don't do that, expect your church to get destroyed because Paul said a little leaven,
leaven it, the whole one. Let's keep reading.
It says, "Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened,
for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth. I wrote unto you in a pistol, not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether
with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters,
for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you, not to keep company,
if any man that is called a brother, be a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater,
or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such in one, know not to eat. Now, in this
church, we all believe church discipline, but you know, for a lot of churches, this is a really hard
saying in the Bible, to say that certain people that commit certain sins, that are unrepentant
of those sins, should not be allowed to attend church. And people make fun of churches like ours,
oh they shun people, they're a cult because they shun people. You know, a cult makes up their own
rules, they follow a man that makes up his own man-made rules. I just read to you from the word
of God, right? And the Bible says, Paul's saying, hey, I've commanded you not to keep company with
fornicators. He says, not altogether with the fornicators of this world. So he's saying, he's
saying, hey, I'm not telling you you can't talk to a fornicator that's unsaved. It's not like you
can't go to the grocery store and you have to ask your clerk, do you drink? Are you covetous? Are you
an idolater? Are you a railer? Are you a fornicator? You know, that's ridiculous, right? But here's the
thing, a man that is called a brother, if a man comes in this church or a woman comes in this church
and they're coming week after week after week and they're a brother in Christ and they just mention,
oh yeah, you know, I just, I live with my girlfriend, you know, I'm an open fornication and no one says
anything about that, you know, no one does anything about that. The Bible says a little leaven, leaven
at the whole lump and people accuse us of being hateful for this, but this is actually a really
loving thing to do. It's a loving thing to do to kick someone out for everybody involved. It's a loving
thing to do for your church, because here's the thing, the kids growing up in church, if they see
that fornication is just tolerated, then they're not going to take that commandment seriously.
If they say, oh you know fornication is no big deal, you know he was still able to come to church,
he was still able to serve God, no consequences happened for him, he's just not going to take
that sin seriously and he's going to just go be a whoremonger or she's just going to go be a whore,
because the church did not show from the word of God the commandments of God and did not execute
church discipline. Number two, it's loving for the person that's in fornication. It's loving for the
person that's living in that sin, because here's the thing, maybe they just don't know, you know,
maybe they're in fornication and they just don't know that that was wrong. You know, I grew up
not in a Christian home, not in a religious home whatsoever. I was not taught what the Bible teaches
about fornication. I was not taught how God sees it as an extremely wicked sin. I was not taught
that God killed people in the Old Testament for it and that it's something that's worthy of being
kicked out of church. You know, I was just taught, "Well, you know, don't do it unless you're gonna
marry her someday. Don't do it unless you really love her." Right? That's what the world is teaching
nowadays. That's what the world is teaching. But you know what's loving is to tell a person, "Hey,
we want you to come here, but the Bible says that if you're unrepentant and you're living in
fornication, we have to kick you out." That's actually loving because here's the thing,
"No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous." Right? If you're getting rebuked,
if the past is coming to you and confronting you with a sin, you're not going to be happy
about that at the moment. But you know what? If you change that in your life, it's going to bring
blessings in your life. When you don't turn away from the law of God, then you're not going to be
slayed like the fool in the book of Psalms we were talking about. But you know what? It's really sad
today that churches are just too cowardly to do what the Bible says to do. Pastors today are just
too cowardly to clear. I mean, this is so clear. Let's read this again. He says, "But now I have
written unto you not to keep company. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or
covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or extortioner with such and one no not to eat."
It's so clear, right? And here's what churches do. They'll have a person that's in one of these
sins and instead of confronting them and kicking them out, they'll just say, "Well, that person can
still come here. They just can't be a church member." I mean, we'll still take their tithe.
We'll still let them put money in the plate. We'll still let them come to church, but they're just not
a church member. The Bible says not to company with them. The Bible says no not to eat with them,
no fellowship with them whatsoever. And the reason for that is because you want to incentivize the
person to get their life right and come back to church. It's a loving thing to do because we're
not just kicking them out in the curb and saying, "You know what? Just, you know, go to hell. Have a
horrible life. You're a fornicator." You know, that's not the attitude. The attitude is, "Hey,
you're in grievous sin. You've sinned against God, and you need to get it right so that you can come
back and be in fellowship." Every single person that Pastor Shelley, I'm sure, has kicked out
for one of these reasons. In his heart, he wants them to be repentant and to come back,
right? But if they're not repentant, they're not going to come back. In churches today,
they let a little unchecked fornication, a little unchecked heresy, damnable heresy, a little
unchecked leaven, and it ends up leavening their whole lump because of the destructive nature of
sin. Because sin destroys so much, it destroys churches. Some churches won't even kick out pedophiles.
You know, I know people personally that have had to quit a church because their pastor lets the
pedophile be the song leader, right? And it's like, "Hey, here's this person's online profile.
Here's what he's done to all these kids. Here's his conviction." And they're like, "Oh, you know,
it's fine. We'll just keep him away from the kids. He can still sit in the front row. He can still
lead the songs." You know, a lot of pastors are extremely weak today, and a lot of churches are
extremely weak, and it's not because of their personality or anything like that. It's just
because they're too afraid to follow what God says to do. They're too afraid to follow what the Bible
says to do. But obviously, Pastor Shelley is the one that makes those decisions of church discipline.
He's the one that makes the decision of if a person needs to be kicked out or not. So what is our job
as a church when this happens? Go to Matthew chapter 18. Our job is to back up the pastor
and to not fellowship with a person that's been kicked out of church. The loving thing to do,
if you love the person that was kicked out, if it was your best friend, the loving thing to do for
that person is to not fellowship with them until they get their life right. God backs up church
discipline. That's what we're going to read here in Matthew 18. Look at verse 18. Jesus is speaking.
He says, "Verily I say unto you, whosoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And if you read the context
of this chapter, he's talking about church discipline, right? He's talking about people
coming before the church with their issues, and about how if the brother doesn't hear the church,
that he's supposed to be unto you a heathen and a publican, right? And he's saying, "Hey,
whatever the church bounds on earth, Jesus is saying that God binds in heaven." So when Pastor
Shelley makes a decision to kick someone out, it's not up to you whether you think that it was right
or wrong. It's up to God, and God says that he backs up what the church does. He binds in heaven
what we do in the church. So when you're bucking the authority, you're not just bucking Pastor
Shelley's authority, you're bucking God's authority as well. We need to make sure that we enact
church discipline. By the way, you know, personally, if someone's kicked out of another
church, not Pure Words Baptist Church, not Steadfast Baptist Church, they're kicked out of another
Bible-believing, good biblical church, and they're unrepentant with that church, I'm not going to
fellowship with that person either. You know, my old church, Sure Foundation Baptist Church,
if Pastor Thompson kicks someone out and he was a railer, let's just use this example, he's a railer,
he's making all these wicked lies about Pastor Thompson and about people in the church, and he
gets kicked out and he's unrepentant. He doesn't say he's sorry, he doesn't change his actions,
and he walks through the door. I'm not going to shake his hand. I'm not going to be cool with
that person. I'm not going to allow that person to have fellowship with me because God backs up
church discipline. And even though that Sure Foundation Baptist Church is not Pure Words
Baptist Church, Faithful Words Baptist Church is not Pure Words Baptist Church, you know,
if God backed up that decision, then I back it up too. And I'm not going to have fellowship with
someone that was harming people, harming churches, a little leaven, leaven it the whole lump. The
person that's kicked out of a church is a person that's doing harm to other Christians and doing
harm to a church. And you know, I'm not going to be cool with people like that. I'm not going to
love people like that until they get things right. I'm not going to welcome in people like that. You
know, I'm not going to let people like Adam Fanon come in to my church and say, so great to have you
and you know, we're going to have an ice cream special for you. Can you please close us out in
a word of prayer? And then all the church members calling him Pastor Fanon. So great to have Pastor
Fanon. You know what? I would never do something like that. Someone who's harmed so many people's
lives, someone who's harmed churches, literally split independent fundamental Baptist churches
that are serving God. And you want to have fellowship with someone like that? It's inexcusable.
It's inexcusable. If someone was a railer to Pastor Thompson, I would not bless that person.
I would not praise that person. I certainly wouldn't call that person a pastor when he
ordained himself, when he was congregationally ordained. Let me read for you Proverbs 28,
4. It says, "They that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law, contend with
them." You know, what did the Bible say at the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 5 about the person
that's kicked out of church? Go ahead and go back there if you don't mind. Let's look at what the
Bible says. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the Bible calls these people that are kicked out of church,
that leaven churches, that harm churches, the Bible calls them something. It says, "But them that are
without God judgeth, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person." What does the
Bible say that a person that is kicked out of church is called? A wicked person, right? Now if
they repent, if they get right with God, are they a wicked person? No, right? Everybody's a sinner,
everybody makes a mistake, but someone that's destroyed a church, split a church, is unrepentant
for the things that they've done has harmed people. That's a wicked person. And the Bible says,
"They that forsake the law, praise the wicked, but such as keep the law, contend with them."
You know what? If you're praising a guy like Adam Fannin and calling him a pastor after all he's done,
you've forsaken the law. You've drank the Kool-Aid is what you've done. He's a wicked man. You know
what? How much damage do you think could be done when a church does not execute church discipline?
It destroys a church. This is how churches are destroyed. It doesn't just happen by osmosis. It
happens by churches not following the Bible and not getting the leaven out of the church. That's
what we must do as a church. We must back up our pastor in this. Obviously church discipline should
never be the focus of a church, right? But you know what? If you don't execute church discipline,
it destroys everything else that you're focusing on. It makes it makes void everything else you're
focusing on. Because if a pastor is focusing on feeding his flock, preaching them good doctrine,
preaching hard against sin, and then he just makes a joke out of it by not taking care of business
when it needs to be taken care of, right? So it should not be our main focus, but if we don't
execute church discipline, then it just it makes everything else we do a joke. It doesn't give any
credence to the rest that we do. Number three. Number three tonight turned to Romans 16. Romans 16.
Number three, because one sinner destroy much good, we must preach against wicked people. Now, if you
if you watch pastor Shelly's sermons on YouTube and if you ever look at the comments, people don't
like this. People don't like us preaching against wicked people. You know, and I just wish like these
people could understand preachers, pastors, we don't care what you think. We don't care what people
on YouTube think. We only care what the Bible says. We only care what God thinks. That's all
we care about, okay? And all these people leaving all their comments about how, "Oh man, you talk so
much about Adam Pannon, Pastor Shelley. You, man, we're getting tired of hearing about Adam Pannon."
I saw this one comment. He was like, "I agree with everything you're preaching, but man,
I'm getting really tired of hearing about Adam Pannon." You know, because one sinner destroys a
lot, it's important to keep calling out wicked people. You're there in Romans 16. Remember,
we don't care what people say. We care what the Bible says. Let's look what the Bible says.
Romans 16 verse 17, "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not
our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts
of the simple." So Bible says people that teach false doctrines contrary to what we have learned,
Bible says to mark them. So how do we mark them? Do we go write some permanent marker on their face?
Like how do these YouTube commenters expect us to mark them? We mark them by preaching against them.
We mark them by exposing them, by making the YouTube clips against them, and by talking about
the things that they've done and not letting people forget the things that these people have
done to harm people. Because it says there, by good words and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of
the simple. You know why we constantly remind people of these wicked people? Is because these
people, by their good words, their fair speeches, these false prophets like Adam Fanon, they deceive
the hearts of the simple. And it's the love of the people that are going to be deceived by these
false prophets that constrains us to call out evil people and wicked people. We're not just willy
nilly calling out everybody. We're calling out people that are false prophets, that are reprobates,
that are actively trying to harm the work of God, that are actively trying to harm good churches.
Why? Because they they deceive the hearts of the simple, right? And we don't want those simple
people to be deceived. You know what? Sometimes they even deceive good people too, right? People
just dig into whatever church they're in and then their pastor endorses Adam Pan and they just have
to drink that Kool-Aid too, right? It's really sad. But you know, part of the job of a pastor is to,
yes, preach good doctrine, feed their people, but it's also to protect the flock. Let's have you turn
to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. You know, next time you say, "Man, I'm getting tired of Pastor
Shelley talking about this one person," maybe you should think about the simple people that are
hurting and that have been affected by this person that's harmed real people. Real people that have
been harmed and hurt because of false prophets. You know, maybe you should love them a little
bit more instead of just worrying, "Oh, I want to hear a different sermon." Care about people and
care about fighting the good fight. Acts chapter 20. Let me get through myself. Acts chapter 20.
Look at verse number 28. Verse 28. Apostle Paul is preaching to the elders in Ephesus and he says,
"Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." So
remember, the first job is to feed the church of God, to give them good doctrine, good sermons,
preach from the word of God. But then it says this, "For I know this, that after my departing shall
grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise,
speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by
the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears." So people are
upset because Pastor Shelley has mentioned Adam Fan in the last couple weeks and has made a couple
YouTube videos about him. The Apostle Paul was preaching against false prophets day and night
for three years with tears. Why did he have those tears? Because he cares about the people that the
false prophets harm. Because he generally cares about the churches that are being destroyed by
these grievous wolves, right? And a good pastor, a good shepherd, you know, if you're thinking in a
physical sense, you're a shepherd over a flock of sheep, you know, what are you doing? You're
feeding them. You're feeding them. You're feeding them. But when the wolf comes and you just let
them be destroyed, did you really love those sheep? Absolutely not. You get out the AR-15,
you smoke the wolf, and you move on, right? Well, Adam Bannon's not dead yet, right? He hasn't been
smoked yet. So Pastor Shelley just has to keep smoking them and smoking them and smoking them,
right? Because he loves the flock, he loves the sheep, and he loves the people that Adam Bannon
is hurting and that Adam Bannon is destroying. And you know, if you don't know who he is,
count yourself blessed, but he's a really wicked person. If you're in church long enough,
you're going to see a wolf. You know, even there in verse number, verse number 30, he said,
"Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them."
You know, if you stay in this church your whole life, it's a guaranteed fact that there's going
to be a Judas that comes in here, and that is a wolf in sheep's clothing. That looks just like
a normal member of Purim's Baptist Church, pretends like they love God, pretend like they're outwitting
souls, but someday they'll show their fangs, and someday they'll show that they want to take away
people unto themselves, and then you'll have a new person that you'll hear preached about all the
time, all right? It's always changing. But just think about this, like these people on YouTube,
they're constantly complaining, "Oh, he talks about it too much." Paul did it every day, every night,
for three years, right? What does the Bible say? Pastor Shelley's just trying to catch up. He can't
even catch up. It's impossible to catch up, right? So people need to read the Bible. Look at 2 Peter
chapter 2, 2 Peter 2. Why should we be calling these people out? Why should we care? Why should
we care about preaching against evil people? 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1, "But there were false
prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily
shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, bring upon themselves swift
destruction. Many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the truth shall be evil
spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with fainted words make merchandise of you, whose
judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." Why should we
keep preaching against these people? Why should we preach against evil people? Notice there how it's
said, "and many shall follow their pernicious ways." Right? And that's what we want to avoid. If someone's
preaching damnable heresy, if someone's preaching that you have to be baptized to be saved, or you
have to have good works to be saved, or they're denying the trinity, or they're denying the deity
of Christ, or they're preaching some sort of damnable heresy, you know, sadly the Bible says many
shall follow their pernicious ways. Hey, Joel Osteen's church is just down the road. How many
people does he fill up on his service? A lot, because many follow their pernicious ways. You know,
the disciples asked Jesus, "Are there many that be saved?" And I can't quote it verbatim, but he's
just saying that straight is the gate, narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be
that find it, right? There's very few people sadly in this world that are saved. Many people follow
the false prophets. Many people want to have their ears tickled. Many people want to hear lies, but
not very many people today want to hear the truth. That's why if you were to go to Joel Osteen's
church on Sunday, there would literally be thousands of people, maybe even tens of thousands of people.
I've never been there, but it's because many follow their pernicious ways and it's for love of people,
love of real souls that have an eternal destiny that we preach against these people and that we
expose them. It says with fainted words they shall make merchandise of you, like Joel Osteen in
Houston who charges tickets to attend his church. I don't know if he's always done that, but I've
seen on his website in the last couple months charging tickets to attend a church service.
That's called making merchandise of you. You know, some wolves are in sheep's clothing and some
wolves are in wolves clothing and people must just be drinking too much fluoride today not to see that
Joel Osteen is a false prophet that's sending people to hell. It's sad that we even have to
explain that to people today, but it's true. Paul cared about people. Paul cared about real people
that were being hurt by false prophets. You know what, your pastor, Pastor Shelley, he cares about
people too. He cares about the people over in Jacksonville that have been hurt and that are
still hurting and that thought that they were in a good, like-minded church, and turns out they're
not. It's really sad. Go to, go to Matthew chapter 15. I just want to bring up an objection to this
because there's a lot of objections that, "Oh, you shouldn't always be talking about false prophets.
You shouldn't always be calling out bad people." And they use this little phrase. You're there in
Matthew 15. They go to Matthew 15 verse 14 where it says, "Let them alone. They be blind leaders of
the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." See, Jesus said, "Let
them alone." Okay, let's see if in context that that's actually what they're, what Jesus is teaching.
Because they say right here, Jesus is teaching, "Let the false prophets be alone. Don't call them
out. Don't constantly talk about them. Let them alone." We'll go back to verse number eight.
Verse number eight. Jesus says, "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,
and honoreth me with their lips. But their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude." Notice the audience
he's speaking to. "And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear and understand.
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth,
this defileth a man." So here's the thing. Remember the audience. He's talking to the multitude. He's
calling out the Pharisees in front of the multitude. Then look down. It says, "Then came his disciples."
So the audience has changed, right? "And said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended
after they heard this saying?" So now after he's rebuked the Pharisees publicly, he's along with
his disciples and he's saying, "Jesus, you just offended these people. Aren't you worried about
how you're going to reach them? How are you going to reach the Pharisees, Jesus? You just offended
them." Let's see what he says. "But he answered and said," remember, he's responding to his
disciples privately, "Every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let
them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall
into the ditch." So here's the thing. He's saying, "I'm not trying to reach these people. They can't
be reached. They're blind." This actually teaches the exact opposite of what people try to twist.
It's funny what happens when you read the Bible in context. They say, "Oh, Jesus says leave them
alone." No, he's saying, "Hey, I'm not worried about offending them. I'm not worried about reaching
them." Because they're blind leading the blind, and the blind that leads the blind, they're both
going to fall into the ditch. Go to John chapter eight. No, Pastor Shelley isn't trying to reach
Adam Bannon. He's not trying to convince him he's wrong. He's not trying to win him over to our side.
Hey, we're leaving him alone because he's the blind leading the blind, right? They're both going to
fall into the ditch. John chapter eight. Look at verse 43. It says, "Why do you not understand
my speech?" Jesus calling out the Pharisees again. "Even because you can not hear my word." It's not
that they don't want to. It's that they cannot hear Jesus' word. He says, "Ye are of your father
the devil and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not
in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own,
for he is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of
you convinced me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me? He that is of God,
heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God." And you know, the
modern day false prophets, people that are reprobates today, they have the same exact
attributes as these people right here. When we say the truth, they cannot hear it. They have the
spirit of error. They cannot hear the truth. And when we speak God's words to them, they cannot
hear it, because they're not of God, right? So when it says, "Let them alone," hey, let them alone.
They can't hear God's word. You know, when a person crosses the line where they become a
reprobate or false prophet, they're no longer interested in truth. "Their father is the devil,"
the Bible just said. He says, "You're of your father the devil, and the works of your father will you
do." You're not going to win over a child of the devil, right? Joe Smo, who's unsaved, hey, we want
to go reach that person. We want to go give that person the gospel. We want to give them the truth,
and here's the thing, if they're a person that's seeking truth, they're going to receive the truth.
These people cannot receive the truth because they're not of God. They are of the devil.
So it's really, it's just a really silly argument how they take this one verse that says, "Let them
alone," and just run with that to say, "Oh, see, stop talking about false prophets." Like, have you
ever read the New Testament? Have you ever read Jesus' ministry? You ever read Matthew chapter 23?
He's constantly warning people about the leaven of the Pharisees. He's constantly warning you,
"Hey, watch out for the guys that go in long robes, who make long prayers, who shout out their alms
that they do, to be seen of men." Jesus is constantly warning people about evil, wicked people.
You read through the New Testament, the apostles, the disciples, they're constantly calling people
out by name and warning you of evil people. Don't let people just take scriptures out of context
and just convince you of a doctrine that's not true. That's why it's important to read the whole
Bible for yourself and not just trust the preacher that he's giving you the truth. Read the whole
counsel of God and believe the whole counsel of God yourself. Go to 2nd Timothy 4, 2nd Timothy 4,
number four tonight. My last point, because one sinner destroyeth much good, we must endure hard
preaching against our own personal sins. Remember, one sinner destroyeth much good, hey, we're sinners
too. And our personal sin, like we touched on earlier, can also destroy our lives. The reason
we need hard preaching is because it's the only thing that works. You know, if I were to ask,
I'm not going to ask for a raise of hand, but if I were to ask you, who in here has cleaned up
their life as a result of hard preaching from the Word of God, I'm sure every single person's hand
would go up, that they've gotten something right because of hard preaching. They've learned
something, they've become better people as a result of hard preaching, right? You're there in 2nd
Timothy 4. Before we read there, I'll read for you 1 Thessalonians 5.20. The Bible says, "Despise
not prophesying." A lot of people today, they despise the preaching of God's Word. They want
to come to a church where they'll have their feelings coddled, where they'll be told that,
"Hey, everything you're doing is right. You're great. You're wonderful. Can you pass the plate
with more money? I mean, you're great. You're wonderful," right? That's what most people want.
They want to be told lies today. The Bible says, "Despise not prophesying." Why would you have the
temptation to despise something that was always positive? It doesn't make no sense, right? The
Bible's saying, "Don't despise prophesying because it's going to be natural for people to despise
hard preaching." And they're going to say, "Oh, that guy has a bad spirit. Oh, that guy, he's too
hateful." They despise prophesying. That's why it's a commandment of God not to despise prophesying.
And the people that actually read their Bible don't despise prophesying because if they're in
a good church with their pastor or preacher is preaching out of the word of God, then they're
going to know that what's being said is true. 2 Timothy, I'm sorry, 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter
4. Why do we need hard preaching today? 1 Timothy chapter 4. This is a charge to a pastor. It says,
"I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the
dead at his appearing and his kingdom." Now right off the bat, that sounds like a pretty serious
charge. What if someone came up to you and just says, "I charge you before God and before the Lord
Jesus Christ?" That's, I mean, that's an intense charge, right? And the thing is, people don't
realize how much is on a pastor's shoulder. People don't realize how much that they have to be
accountable to God for what they say, for what they do, and people want to always just pick them
apart for everything that they say, right? But here's the thing, pastors and preachers, they're
charged before God and before the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, it's an important thing. If you get the
opportunity to preach, you should take it very seriously. And you should, every word that comes
out of your mouth, you should have considered and take seriously and not be flippant with it, right?
Look at verse number two. His first exhortation, it says preach the word. Now notice it does not
say preach your opinion. It does not say preach Fox News articles. It does not say preach what
you learned in college. It says preach the word of God, right? And the reason that so many churches
today are just full of sin and full of people that don't love God is because their pastor or
preacher is not preaching the word. The word of God cleanses us and causes us to have zeal and fire
for God. And if a pastor's just up reading Fox News articles, he can't really be shocked when his
church isn't fired up for God, right? I don't want to be fired up for Fox News. I don't want to be a
Fox News Baptist, constantly talking about politics, constantly talking about what's going on in the
government. You know, the Bible says trust not in princes. My trust is in God, so I'm not really
worried what all the princes of this world are doing. I know they're all wicked. That's all I
need to know. You know, politicians are evil people. I really don't care. I don't like any of them.
Let's keep reading there. It says be instant in season, out of season. So being instant means to
be ready, right? To be ready to do something. It says be ready to preach the word in season and
out of season. So we need to be ready. If you're, if you're a preacher, you need to be ready to
preach things that you may not think your church needs. You know, hey, preach the deity of Christ,
whether it's in season or out of season. If every single person in your church believes that Jesus
is God, hey, be ready to be instant and preach the deity of Christ. You know, be ready to teach
on the Trinity. Be ready to teach about going soul winning. Be ready to teach and preach the word of
God, every single subject, whether you think your church needs it or not, whether it's out of season,
something that you don't normally talk about. Be ready to preach those things too. But also,
you know, there's things that are in season in the sense that they're popular. And then there's
things that are out of season in the sense that they're not popular. The Bible says, "Hey,
I charge you before God and before the Lord Jesus Christ to preach the word, be instant in season."
Hey, it doesn't matter what people's opinions are. It doesn't matter if the whole country
thinks that pedophilia is okay. The Bible says they should be put to death, right? And if you're
a preacher, you don't need to consider, should I take, I'm going to take a Gallup poll to see
what people's opinion is about this subject before I preach on it. Nope, it's, hey, the
Bible says adultery is wicked and punishable by death. Hey, the Bible says that sodomy is wicked,
punishable by death. I don't care what any state government, city government, federal government
says about it. We don't need to take into consideration people's opinions before we
preach. We need to preach just what the Bible says, not our own opinion. And it says, "Reprove,
rebuke, exhort. With all long-suffering and doctrine, for the time will come will they will
not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned
into fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
make full proof of thy ministry. Now he gave him, he said three things there. He said reprove,
rebuke, exhort. Now two, two out of the three of those are negative, right?
Reproving someone is telling some someone that they did something wrong. Rebuking someone is telling
them very, very sharply, very strongly. Hey, you did seriously wrong here. You need to fix this now.
That's a rebuke, right? And exhortation is pushing someone to do something or encouraging someone.
But, you know, people often say, oh, this is too negative, you know, one positive.
Exhortation could actually be negative sometime because sometimes when you're exhorting people
to do right, they could be offended by that. You know, if someone's not winning souls,
if someone is a Christian that's not preaching the gospel and you say, you know, hey, Jesus said,
if you follow me, be fisher of men, right? And if you're not a fisher of men, if you're not winning
souls to Christ, you're not following Jesus. That's what the Bible says. And exhort them,
hey, go soul winning. And they're like, ouch, that hurt my feelings, right? And they get offended
because, you know, sometimes even exhortation can be negative. And the thing is you ought not care
whether it's positive or negative. When you're listening to preaching, you ought to care,
is it true? Is it what the Bible says? Go to Luke chapter number three. I want to show you
an exhortation in the Bible that was pretty negative because sometimes people say that
exhortation is always positive, which often exhortation can be very positive,
but sometimes it's negative. We're going to read John the Baptist preaching. Look at verse number
seven, he's saying, "Then said he to the multitudes that came forth to be baptized of him, 'O generation
of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?'" Does this sound positive so far?
No. It says, "Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance and begin not to say within yourselves
we have Abraham to our father, excuse me, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones
to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees,
every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? He answereth and said unto them,
He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do
likewise. Then came also the publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall
we do? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. And the soldiers
likewise demanded of him, saying, What shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man,
neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages. And as the people were in expectation,
and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not, John answered, saying
unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mighter than I cometh, the latchet of whose
shoes I am not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is
in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather his wheat into the garner,
but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable, and many other things in his exhortation,
preached he unto the people. Wow. John the Baptist was a hard preacher. I'd hate to see what his
rebuke and reproof looked like if that's his exhortation. He's talking about hell. He's saying,
hey, you bunch of thieves, stop stealing, be content with your wages, stop doing violence to people.
He's preaching hard. And he's saying, hey, just so you know, Jesus is going to come and purge his
floor. The chaffee is going to burn with fire unquenchable. Preaching about hell. The Bible
says that that is his exhortation, right? So you should never get tired of hard preaching. Never
get tired of the man of God screaming and yelling to you what the Bible says. The Bible says despise,
not prophesying. Because it's good for us. It's good for us to hear what we're doing wrong. For
someone to just shoot us straight and tell us from the Bible. Because the thing is, it's not the
preacher rebuking you. It's not the preacher that's upset with you. It's the word of God rebuking you,
right? You're doing something wrong in your life. Hey, the preacher didn't write the Bible. The
preacher didn't make up the rules. He's just reading the word of God. And you know, if a pastor's
doing his job, that's exactly what he's going to do. He's not going to spare. He's going to be
instant in season and out of season. I'll read for you Isaiah 51 verse or 58 verse one. It says cry
aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression in the house
of Jacob, their sins. You know, people like to criticize, oh, I don't like churches where the
preacher yells. What does the Bible say? The Bible says cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like
a trumpet and show my people their transgression. So what should we go with? Should I go to a church
that fits my opinion of what I believe a preacher should be like? Or should I look at what God's
perfect and errant word says a preacher should be like and go to a church that matches that,
right? We ought not trust in our own understanding, right? Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and
lean not unto thine own understanding. It doesn't matter if you don't like hard preaching, it doesn't
matter if you're not used to a church where the preacher yells, you ought to go with what God's
word says. Jeremiah 5 14 says, "Wherefore, thus saith the Lord of God of hosts." God's talking to
Jeremiah and he says, "Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire,
and this people would, and it shall devour them." You know, when I think of famous preachers,
you know, like Joel Osteen, we're going to pick on him tonight since this is my first time in Houston,
okay? When he preaches, fire is not exactly how I would describe his preaching, right? It's extremely
weak. It's extremely effeminate. He might as well just be holding his wrist all limped the whole time
with his hips kicked out to the side because it's how weak his preaching is, right? It's just,
"You're great. You're wonderful. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am." It says you're a false
prophet, Joel Osteen. That's what it says you are. And you are what it says it is. And you're going
to split hell wide open. You know, we ought to despise not prophesying. Another way we could
despise prophesying is when you're in church, you need to be paying attention. You need to be giving
church your full undivided attention. And obviously, hey, we all got kids to train. We all got kids to
raise. Sometimes the kids are acting crazy in church and you got to go give them the rod of correction.
Amen. You got to do that, right? Sometimes mama's got to feed the baby. I understand. But here's the
thing. You should do everything in your power to give church all of your attention, all of your focus,
because it's important. God is worth it. God is worth us to give him a couple hours on a Wednesday
night to give all of our attention, right? It means put away the phone. Don't be scrolling on eBay and
Craigslist and Facebook and YouTube while you're in the house of God. There's nothing that's more
important in this hour that you're here than the word of God, than singing praise to the one that
saved you from eternal hell. There's nothing more important than that. Your stupid text messages can
wait. Your stupid Facebook posts can wait, right? I understand there's exceptions sometimes to this
rule, but you know what? You ought to not despise prophesying. That's why personally I believe in
having a physical Bible in church, right? I don't think it's a good idea to have your phone as your
Bible in church. Now, you know, maybe you're a mom that's got three little ones and I get it. Maybe
you've got to scroll on your phone, right? There's exceptions to this, but as a general rule the Bible
says to avoid the appearance of evil, right? So if you can have a physical Bible, why are you going
to sit there and have the appearance of evil and look like you don't care on your phone, right?
A visitor might come in and say, "Oh wow, everyone on this church is just texting while the preacher's
preaching," right? It could look bad. And I'm not saying that if you've done that that you're bad or
you're evil or anything like that because maybe you thought you were doing okay, "Hey, I'm still
reading the Bible." I get it. It's not a sin to use your phone, okay? I'm just saying, me personally,
I like to show up to church with a physical Bible to let other people know, to be a good testimony
to other people that, "Hey, I'm taking this seriously." You know, it's contagious. When people in
church have zeal, when they care about the things that's being done, you know, that's going to be
contagious and rub off on other people. Go to Proverbs chapter 5, almost done here. You know,
we might just need to skip some of this for the sake of time. Yeah, we'll skip some of this. Go
to Romans chapter 7. Last scripture, I'll have you turn to Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7,
verse 11. Bible says, "For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Wherefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that which is
good made death unto me? God forbid, but sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me,
by that which is good. That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." And what I wanted
us to take away from this sermon tonight is that sin is exceeding sinful and a little bit of sin
will destroy a lot. The Bible says, "One sinner destroyeth much good." We must realize tonight
how destructive sin is and how much damage it could bring to our lives. You go out and commit
fornication and you think it's no big deal, you think it's no problem, and you wake up the next
day with a disease you have for the rest of your life because sin is serious and its effects are
serious, right? You get divorced, you think it's no big deal, well little did you know that your
children and their children and their children and their children are going to do the same thing,
right? Take your sin seriously and realize we need to make sin exceeding sinful in our lives.
In our homes when we teach our family, hey we need to make sure that our kids know sin is extremely,
extremely sinful, right? When even things that we think are little like lying or being prideful,
you know, the end of all of all sin is destruction, all sin. Whether you understand it or not,
you just need to trust God that that's what the Bible says. So remember, we have to realize that
sin is extremely destructive. Because we know how destructive sin is, we have to be a church that
executes church discipline. We cannot just let a little leaven, leaven the lump of pure words,
Baptist church. And because we know that one sinner destroyeth much good, we have to continually
preach against wicked people and false prophets. I don't care what the people on YouTube say about
it, it's what the Bible says to do. It's what we need to keep doing. And because we know that one
sinner destroyeth much good, we must endure hard preaching against our own personal sin. Let's pray,
Lord. Thank you so much for this day and thank you so much for your word, Lord. I just pray that we
would respect it and cherish it like we should, Lord. We know that all your commandments are for
our benefit and that you love us, God. Just thank you so much for the perfect word of God. I pray
that we would all read it every day, not just trust what a preacher says, but we'd verify everything
with your words, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.