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Alright, we're going to continue our series on the Old Paths question mark, and what we're looking at is basically a lot of traditions that are in churches that are very common. Traditions that are not biblical, they're not things found in the Bible. And today what we're going to be talking about is the old-fashioned altar, or the old-fashioned altar cause that's called in most Baptist churches. Now, there's a lot of people here today, and before I get into the sermon, I want to kind of give you a brief overview of what this means, because if you have not been at Baptist churches that have this, you might not fully comprehend this, okay? So basically what they do is they call this stage up here, they call this an altar, even though we'll see this is not an altar, and they call this an altar like they had an altar in the Old Testament where they sacrificed animals, burned incense, and did things such as that. They'll call this an altar, and at the end of the service, what will happen is I'll say, All right, we're going to pray. Everybody, close your eyes, nobody looking around, and then I'll start asking you questions. And some of the questions are geared towards those that are saved, where I basically try to make you feel guilty and say, if you learn something, if you feel you need to make changes, you know, raise your hand. And then part of the altar call, as it's named, I'll focus on people that are not saved. If you're not saved in this room, please raise your hand. I don't want to embarrass you. I don't want to point you out. I just want to pray for you. And then at the end, what they'll do is they'll have music playing, and they'll try to motivate everybody to come down here to the altar and either, you know, get saved or just pray in front of everybody. And they call that an altar call. That's a brief overview. We'll go through some stories and stuff like this during the sermon. But you know, I've been at churches where that altar call lasts like 10 minutes, and your head's down, and you're like, you look up after five minutes, oh, I've got to still have my head down. You're waiting, you know. But anyways, that is what they call an altar call. And most Baptist churches have an altar call, okay? We do not have an altar call. And so if you have not really been at Baptist churches before, you might not fully grasp what we're talking about. Some other churches, like kind of the charismatic or non-denominational crowds, they have altar calls. Not all churches have this, though. I don't believe most Protestants or Catholic churches have something like this. But most Baptist churches do. Now, the word altar is mentioned in 364 verses in the Bible, okay? When I pulled up a word search, I saw 364 verses in the Bible. The vast majority of the time, they're in the Old Testament. The reason why is because an altar was used in the Old Testament. So when you see it in the New Testament, it's usually either in the Gospels before Jesus rose again, because they're still following the Old Testament law before Jesus rose again. Or you'll see it in the book of Hebrews, where they're referencing a lot of things that were from the Old Testament. Or you're going to see it in the book of Revelation, because the Bible talks about these things being made up in heaven first, a certain pattern that was brought down to earth. So you'll see them basically before the resurrection of Jesus, Hebrews, or Revelation. And then pretty much every time is the Old Testament, okay? Now in Hebrews 8 verse 5, this is what the Bible says. Hebrews 8 verse 5, Hebrews chapter 8 verse 5, who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle. For see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. And so Moses is basically given exact instructions to make a lot of different things, and God's saying, I gave you a set pattern I showed you, and I wanted you to do it exactly like I showed you, okay? Now go back to Exodus 25, Exodus 25. And look, if you've read, I know we just finished the New Testament Bible reading challenge, but if you've read through the Old Testament, you've got those books in Exodus and other places where it's kind of dry reading, right? Where God is like, I want it to be this color, I want it to be this size, I want it to be made out of this material for chapter after chapter after chapter. And let's be honest, it's kind of hard to fully focus on that, okay? He's giving set instructions, but you know what he tells Moses? I want you to make it exactly like I told you. Hey, if I said eight feet, I do not mean seven feet. I do not mean nine feet. I mean eight feet. That's what I told you. If I said make it of silver, you can't say, well, can I do it of gold? No, because he said silver. If he says brown, he means brown. If he says purple, he means purple. You say why? It doesn't matter why. God just told you to do it like this. It doesn't matter if you understand why it's this color or this size, God gives set instructions for a lot of different things, and one of those things is the altar, okay? Exodus 25, verse 40, and this is where Hebrews 8 was quoting from. Exodus 25, verse 40, and look that thou make them after their pattern which was show thee in the mount. And so in Hebrews, it's quoting the Old Testament. That's why you see words like altar appear in Hebrews. Oftentimes it's looking at the Old Testament and talking about the laws we don't follow anymore. Now go back to chapter 20, Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20. The first point we're looking at here today, we're just looking at what is the altar in the Old Testament. We're seeing what does that even mean, okay? Because we are here in the New Testament times, and this is not an altar, and we're going to see that here in the Bible, okay? And so we might not know what does this word mean. What is an altar? Well, notice Exodus 20, verse 24. It says in altar, Exodus 20, verse 24, an altar of earth thou shalt make unto me. And he says an altar of earth, so he's talking about making an altar out of the dirt, out of the actual ground that God has created, an altar of earth, okay? Then it says, and shalt sacrifice there on thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen. So what was the altar used for? It was used to make sacrifices, to kill animals. Now look, we don't kill animals in church here, okay? Now in your free time, go ahead and kill that chicken, cook that chicken, and eat that chicken, but we're not offering, making offerings here at church. You say why? Because Jesus was the offering that rose again. That happened 2,000 years ago. And so the primary purpose of the altar in the Old Testament was to make offerings. That's why it's throughout the Old Testament. We don't make offerings anymore, okay? And so it talks about offering thy sheep, thy oxen, in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee and I will bless thee. And so this is something that took place 2,000 years ago. Jesus was the offering, slain once, one time for all sins, past, present, future, despite the images of the Catholic Church where he's still on the cross. He's not on the cross. He rose again. And that is the reason why we're not doing offerings today. That's also the reason why we don't have the purpose for the altar today either, because that was what the purpose was. Sometimes they're burning incense and doing other things such as that, but those were things that pictured Jesus Christ, and those things are done away, which is why we don't have this anymore. An altar actually had a purpose in the Old Testament of sacrificing animals and things such as that. We're not doing those things today, okay? But I want you to notice verse 25, because verse 24 said to make the altar of earth. That's kind of the first option, okay? But then it gives another option in verse 25, okay? And if thou wilt make an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, okay? So now he says making an altar of stone. And if you look at the picture here in our bulletin, this is essentially an altar of stone, okay? You're finding rocks, you know, big rocks and placing them on top of one another. You're trying to get them to fit. Now an altar of earth, it would probably be a little bit more difficult. With stones, you just find stones, you build it into a circle, it kind of works nicely. You have the offering inside, okay? So he gives kind of two options. But this is a picture where basically stones were just picked to put on top of one another, and that was an altar, okay? And so it says here in verse 25, and if thou wilt make an altar of stone, notice thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. What he says is, I want this to be natural. I don't want any tools to be used. So basically you can't just cut up the rocks to try to make them perfect and organize and things such as that. He says do not lift your tool upon this. You say, Brother Stuckey, why? It doesn't matter why. That's what God says. You're not supposed to use tools. That is what God says, okay? So here's the thing. When you're looking at this and tools were obviously used to make this, how can you call that an altar? No tools are supposed to be used to make it, okay? And look, I've been at a church where they build a stage and they had many steps, because we just have this. At most Baptist churches, they have like three steps is the traditional pattern. It takes a long time to make a stage. You need many tools. You need drill and all kinds of things. You put in nails, and a lot of different work is done. The church building at Verity Baptist, they built the stage, someone from the church who works in that in a secular field. It takes a lot of work and effort to make that, and you're lifting up a tool upon it, but God specifically said that you do not lift up a tool. So here's the thing. At every Baptist church where they sit here and tell you that this is an altar, how is that an altar? When a tool was used and it wasn't made out of stone or the earth, then it's not an altar according to the Bible, because the Bible says do not use a tool. God did not want it to look perfect. He wanted it to be more just natural and rugged, okay? Because when you have a tool, you can make it look perfectly. He didn't want that with an altar. You say, why? It doesn't matter why. That's what he said. An altar, he says, do not lift up a tool upon it. He gives set instructions. But not only that, not only does he say you're going to pollute it if you use a tool upon it, verse 26, he says, neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. So what he says is, with an altar, no steps. Now look, when you go to Baptist churches and they have their altar at the front, guess what? There's always steps. He says, no steps. You say, why? It doesn't matter. I mean, he specifically told you no steps. Look, if we had an altar in church, this is how it would look. We do it like the Bible says, okay? See, I want you to realize the purpose of a stage, the purpose of this is, because even in the book of Nehemiah when they're reading the word of God, this is made so basically, you know, when you have a big crowd, if you have a big crowd and you have no stage, it's harder to see the speaker, okay? Unless he's like, I don't know, like Shaquille O'Neal and really tall, it's harder to see the speaker unless he's like a pro basketball player. We don't invite pro athletes to preach at our church, okay? And that's why they have a stage and they had that in the Old Testament and they have a pulpit and things such as that. We're actually following what the Bible says, so that way with a big crowd, more people can see the speaker. It makes it easier. Even in politicians, they do this. It's logical. It makes sense. You have a stage, okay? But this is not an altar, okay? Those are completely different. The Bible makes it specifically clear, do not have steps at mine altar, okay? And so we cannot call this an altar. And at Baptist churches where they have three steps and they tell you to kneel at those steps, that's not an altar according to the Bible, because God specifically said don't use a tool and have no steps. I mean, it's pretty clear here. And you say, is it really that big of a deal? God told Moses, make it exactly as I showed thee in the mount. He doesn't say you can change it a little bit, okay? No, he says exactly like this. You can't change the color. You can't change the material. You can't change the rules a little bit. Oh, it's a special situation. No, it isn't, okay? He says specifically do it like this. Turn to Hebrews 10, Hebrews 10. Now you say, as you're turning to Hebrews 10, why does it say that thy nakedness be not discovered? Well, this is my opinion, because when you have an altar and you have steps, what you have is people bow down in front of everybody with their butt hanging up in the air. This is exactly how an altar call is. And quite honestly, if women are wearing dresses, they might actually be showing their nakedness by basically bowing down in front of everybody with their butt in the air and having their dresses so people are actually seeing inside their skirts. I think that's what it's saying by your nakedness being discovered. You literally will see people's nakedness if you have an altar here. I know everybody's eyes are closed, right? But if somebody happens to open their eyes, then they might actually see the nakedness of someone. That's the reality, because look, not every single woman is going to have dresses all the way down to their ankles where even if they're bending down, no, if they're actually bending down with their butt hanging in the air, which is what they do in Baptist churches, then look, their nakedness might be discovered. I think that's what it's talking about. But whether that's what it's talking about or not, it doesn't change the fact God said no steps. That is what he said. So if we were to have an altar in church, there would be no steps. This is not an altar. Hebrews 10, verse 10, Hebrews 10, verse 10, and remember it was Hebrews 8 where it talks about making the altar, but notice Hebrews 10, verse 10, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all? And so Jesus Christ, he died on the cross, he paid for our sins, he rose again. We have no need or no use for an altar in today's world. It's done. We don't have it because we're not sacrificing animals. There's no purpose to have an altar, okay? Now we saw what the altar was in the Old Testament. I want you to turn in your Bible to Malachi 2, Malachi 2, Malachi 2. And what I want to do is break down the altar into two categories, the altar call for the saved and the altar call for the unsaved. Then we're going to look at the history of the popularization of the altar call. Where did it even come from, okay? Malachi 2, verse 13, and we're going to focus on the altar call for the saved people. And here's what I mentioned at the beginning of the service in case you're not familiar with this. Basically, at the end of the service, the pastor or the person preaching will say, let's have everybody with their heads bowed and eyes closed, nobody looking around, and then he starts asking questions. And one of the questions he asks is, and it depends on the church, but the church I was at that had this, and let me just say this real quickly, I don't think that every church that has an altar call is a bad church, okay? I've been to Baptist churches that had an altar call, and I don't agree with that, but they still had the right gospel and they went soul winning, you know, an old IFB-type church. So I'm not saying every church that has this is wicked. I do believe it's wrong, but I don't think it's necessarily that they're wicked people. But we're showing what makes us different as a Baptist church and why we don't do it. So I'm not saying every pastor who does this is like a reprobate. I'm not saying that, okay? But I am saying we will never do this in our church because I do not believe it's biblical, okay? When it comes to the altar call for the saved, my old pastor would basically do this. First he'd say, if you know for sure you're going to heaven, you know, please raise your hand, okay? And so I don't really like participating in the altar call, but I always raise my hand. I was just like, all right, you know, I'll raise my hand, you know, that I know I'm saved. And then afterwards he says, all right, you know, now if you're not, you can put your hands down. If you're not sure you're saved, if you're not sure that if you died right now you'd go to heaven, please raise your hand. I don't want to embarrass you. I don't want to call you out. I just want to be able to pray for you, okay? That's how my churches used to do things, the various churches I was at. I just want to pray for you, okay? God bless you, I see that hand. God bless you, I see that hand. God bless you, I see that hand, all right? You can put your hands down. And so this is what they do. The pastor is the only one who sees who is unsaved. And then after the service at every Baptist church I've been a part of, basically the pastor waits at the door, and people are leaving, and he literally knows somebody's unsaved and he shakes hands with them, and he does not give them the gospel. And see, what they do in these Baptist churches is, well, if you want to be saved, we're going to start playing Just as I Am or Is You're All on the Altar, and just come on down when you hear the music of the first. Usually you have a worker here who will tell you how to be saved and go to heaven. Usually when they hear how to go to heaven, it's like a two to three minute conversation. Because there's music playing, and people are praying and walking around, so it's kind of uncomfortable unless you have like a side room, okay? But basically they try to motivate people to come down, and this is their version of soul winning. They don't go soul winning, just try to invite unsaved people to church, bring them down to the altar. They have this emotional thing that takes place, they pray a prayer, and usually they don't actually get saved. Now praise the Lord for people that do get saved, but usually they're getting emotional and they don't hear a clear presentation of the gospel. Look, we had in Astro Park 68 salvations yesterday. Ten soul winners preaching the gospel, ten people preaching the gospel, and look, that was over a long time period, and all the conversations were like 15 plus minutes. They weren't these two or three minute conversations. We had, what was it, 54 in Rizal Park, is that right, 54 salvations in Rizal Park, and it's eight soul winners spending lots of time preaching the gospel. It's not a two minute conversation, because it takes people more than two minutes to hear the gospel and get saved, okay? And so basically at these churches, the focus of their church is to try to bring unsaved people in, they'll preach sermons about salvation, they make them emotional to bring people down to the front to try to get them saved, and instead of preaching to the congregation, what are they doing? They're preaching to these unsaved people, okay? Now for the saved people with the altar call, basically they preach a sermon and they'll do something similar, but they'll say, if this sermon touched your heart, please raise your hand. If there is something in your life you need to get right with God, please raise your hand. And once the music comes, they expect everybody to come down to the altar and pray in front of everybody to get right with God. Not at your seat, you gotta do it right here. I say to come down to the altar, you come down to the altar, you understand me? I'm looking, okay? I say to come down to the altar, I want you to come down on the first stanza. Don't be stubborn and wait till the second. Don't wait to see if somebody else comes down, you come down and get right with God. Don't leave here with your sin, all right? Don't leave here with wicked sin in your life, okay? And this is literal. I mean, if you've been a part of Baptist churches, you get this because this is like the most annoying part of most Baptist churches, okay? But what does it say here in Malachi 2 verse 13? So let's see if this is biblical. Let's go back to the Old Testament and we'll look at the altar and does God want people to come down to the altar and just get right with God and weep and cry and say, I'm so sorry God, forgive me, let me get right with you. Notice Malachi 2 verse 13. And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering anymore, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. You know what God says? Because you keep coming down to the altar, I'm not gonna forgive you. He says, quit coming down to the altar and crying. This have ye done again every week, every week, the same people coming down. I'm not accepting it. Do not come down to the altar to get right with God. That's what he says. Look, if I preach a sermon and you feel guilty, and you feel like you need to make a change in your life, praise the Lord, you get right with God in your seat or at your home. Don't come down here. Why? He says, this have ye done again. This is a pattern for some people, covering the altar of the Lord with tears. This is someone getting down and saying, I'm so sorry I committed adultery last week. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. With weeping and with crying out, what God is saying is this, look, just get right with me. Quit just living your lives based on emotion. And this is the problem with a lot of people. They live their lives based on emotion. And that is all the altar call is. They're happy one day. They're upset one day. They're happy one day. They're upset one day. And he says, you know what? Just get right with me. Instead of just going on these big emotional things where you're doing wicked sins, then you feel bad. It's like, all right, King Saul. Quit it, King Saul. And it's like, don't come down to the altar to get right with me. No, he's tired of you, because that's not the purpose of the altar. The purpose of the altar was to slay an animal. You're not coming down to just basically weep and cry at the altar. Now go to Matthew chapter five, Matthew five. Now we will talk about the history of the altar call here later, but let me say this. There is no new thing under the sun. And going back to the Old Testament, guess what people were doing? They were coming down to the altar and crying and weeping and getting right with God, so to speak. So this was going on over 2,000 years ago. There is no new thing under the sun. And I don't have the history of going back over 2,000 years, okay? But you see in the Bible, this was a problem back in Malachi chapter two. It's something that was hundreds of years before Jesus. So this is like 2,500 years ago almost, and this was a problem. And there's no new thing under the sun. It's a problem today, okay? The only difference is at least they actually had an altar back then. Now they're still doing the same thing even though we don't have an altar, okay? Matthew five, Matthew five verse 23. And let me also say this, that look, if you've been at Baptist churches and you've come down to the altar to pray, I don't think that means you're a bad person. I will confess my faults one to another. I've done that once in my life, okay? It was a good sermon. My pastor preached in West Virginia. I got emotional. And I'm going to rat someone out here today, though, okay? Because I was sitting beside Pastor Jason Robinson, and we looked at each other. We're like, we should come down to the altar. So he might get mad at me for saying that, but he was right there beside me, all right? So I'm not the only one who went down to the altar to, you know, get right, okay? Because here's the thing. When sermons are being preached, sometimes you get emotional. When I hear sermons, I'm like, man, I need to make changes in my life. So look, I understand if you've been at churches and you came down because you're like, man, I need to get right with God. What I'm showing you, though, is God actually wants you to do that in your personal life, not in front of everybody. So I'm not saying you're a bad person if you've come down to the altar, because I have done that before. But what I'm showing you is God actually wants you to do that in your home, in your personal life, okay? Notice what it says in Matthew five verse 23. Matthew five verse 23, this is the New Testament, but realize this is before the resurrection of Jesus, okay? Verse 23, therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember'st that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. And so sometimes people would make offerings as a gift to God, basically. I believe that's what it's saying by bringing your gift to the altar. They make an offering to basically dedicate to God, and God says, well, before you come down and make this offering, get right with your brother that you have a problem with before you come down to the altar. So the pattern being mentioned is you get right with God before you come to the altar. You don't get right with God at the altar. You get right with God before you come to the altar, okay? You don't get right with God at the altar. So you want to bring that offering to God, and we don't do that now, but you want to bring that animal to slay at the altar, to bring an offering to God, hey, praise the Lord, that's great, you make sure you're right with God first. That's what he's saying. Instead of bringing your gift down, you get right with your brother first. If you've got bitterness in your heart, if you're just an angry, non-patient person, and you've got just built up emotion of being angry at somebody, you get right with your brother first before you offer at the altar. And so here's the thing, if you hear a sermon about why you need to read the Bible every day and you're not doing it and you feel guilty, God's saying you get right with God before you come to the altar. That's what he says. So when we're looking at the altar, this is not a pattern of you come down to get right and confess your sins and weep and everything. Offerings were being made, he says get right with your brother before you come down to the altar. That's what it says in Matthew 5. Turn to Matthew 6. You say, Brother Stuckey, what's the real problem with having an altar call? Because you're saying it's not biblical and I get that, I see that, but what's the problem with basically me coming down and getting right with God in front of everybody when I get emotional? The problem is I'm not a Catholic priest. I don't want to know about your sins. Look, if I preach a sermon against pornography, I don't want people raising their hands like, yep, I watch it. Look, we don't need to know that about one another. Look, the reality is people are going to lift up their eyes, okay? They're not all going to have their heads bowed, okay? People will look around. And I don't think it's healthy for a church, for everybody to know this person does this and this person does this and this person does this. Look, all of us have sins we need to get right with God. I don't want to know about all your problems, though. I'm not, you know, I don't have my collar turned around backwards. This is not a confessional booth, okay? And so, look, I don't want you to raise your hand and say, oh, man, that guy's doing that. That guy's doing that. That person's doing that. That person's doing that. I don't want to know that stuff. And I don't really understand why most Baptist pastors want to know that. It's strange. What this is is a tradition that's been passed down and people are just following this tradition because they think it's right, but you have to go back to the Bible and see, is this the old paths? No, it's not. Now, we did see in Malachi there are people doing this, but it wasn't something God was endorsing. He says no, okay? That was not the purpose of an altar, okay? Matthew 6, verse 1, Matthew chapter 6, verse 1, take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. So the Bible's saying when you're doing alms giving, this is above your tithe, but if you decide to give more than 10 percent, you give an extra, you know, 100 pesos or whatever it is, don't make it a point to be seen of men. It's like, hey, here's my alms giving, let's just bring the offering plate back in. Let me just drop it in in front of everybody. This is above my 10 percent, everybody, just wanted to let you know that. No, you don't do things to be seen of men, okay? You do these things quietly, otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Now, if you want everybody to think you're such a great person, I guess you can do it to be seen of men. If you want a reward from God, you will do it quietly, okay? Verse 2, therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. I hope that they weren't actually sounding a trumpet, but we are talking about the Pharisees, so maybe they actually were sounding a trumpet and saying, all right, we're doing our alms giving now. I don't know. He says, do not sound a trumpet like they do in the synagogues, okay? I don't know. That they may have glory of men, verily I say unto you they have their reward, but when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Obviously verse 3 is being kind of symbolic, metaphorical, but basically be so secretive that nobody knows what you're doing, okay? And look, this is referring to alms giving, but when the offering plate's going around, don't make a show of it either, okay? Just put in the money that you have. You don't have to tell everybody how much you're giving or make it a point, you know, let's say you're doing a big offering and then you have, I don't know, let's say 20,000 pesos. You just pull it out and then you're just counting in front of everybody. It's like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, you know, don't do that, right? You say, what happens if I do that? Well, basically you spent a lot of money to just get, you know, one second where people think highly of you. You get no reward from God which is in heaven. Just keep your money if you're going to do that. You're not going to get a reward for that, okay? Verse 5, 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 the reward. The Bible says that when you're praying, don't just stand up and be seen of everybody, but also don't just kneel down to be seen of everybody either, okay? Look, if you're going to do your praying, look, go home and do your praying. Now look, yeah, we prayed before the service, before we eat, we have a short prayer, but we don't just make a show of things, okay? And if you're going to pray to God, that's something you get right with God in your personal life. Don't just make it a point to kneel down and be seen of everybody, okay? Verse number 6, but thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou shalt thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. So the Bible speaks about praying in a closet, so basically you're not being seen of anybody, and quite honestly, when you have a family, you literally want to go to a separate place sometimes just to have some time to pray to God, whether it's a closet or a separate room, so I believe there's some literal truth to that, but basically having privacy, okay? If you're going to spend 10 minutes, 20 minutes in prayer, you don't want to be around where all your kids are running around, there's all this noise and text messages going on, no, you go to a private place to pray. That's what it's saying in verse number 6, and God will reward thee openly. Verse 7, but when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the Catholics do, oh wait, sorry, I misread that, okay, sorry, as the Protestants do, oh wait a minute, as the Orthodox do, no, as the heathen do, but literally, the Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, same thing, right? As the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. So the Bible says when you're praying, when you're doing things before God, don't do this to be seen of men, okay? And you know what? What's funny is, you know, this is directly in the Bible, God has to mention it because people actually do it. And they litter, I grew up Protestant. Every single week, this is what we said, we believe in the holy Catholic Church, every single week. You say, I thought you were a Protestant. Protestants are Catholics. Trust the other Protestants in this room, right, Brother Matthias? Are they not Catholics? Yes, that's right. We were raised Catholic. Let's just admit it, okay? Brother Alexander, right? That's right. We were Catholics. That's how we were raised, even though we said we were protesting the Catholic Church. But every week, and this is how they said it in my church, we believe in the holy Catholic Church. It's like, good night, do you have to sound like a cult? I mean, it's like, just say it in a normal way, right? But the Bible's saying when you're getting right with God, okay, when you're not supposed to do it to be seen of men, and this is what the altar call is. They're doing these things to be seen of men. But let me tell you the biggest problem with an altar call for saved people, because it's not just something that's not biblical and a little bit foolish in my opinion. Here's a big problem with it. Now let me actually have you turn to, hold on one second, turn in your Bible to 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4. Actually, turn to Matthew 15 first. Matthew 15. Matthew 15. I'm getting ahead of myself. Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. And so look, the problem is, as I make jokes about the Protestants and Orthodox and Catholics, the problem is Baptist churches are guilty of a lot of these same things. And the altar call is something that the Protestants, as far as I know, don't do this, at least the churches I was at, but the Baptists do this. And they literally do this to be seen of men. And I'm not saying everybody that comes down is doing this to be seen of men, but I am saying that's what's actually taking place. They're doing things to be seen of men. And look, the Bible says go home privately when you do these things, not publicly like this. Okay? Matthew 15 verse 9. Matthew 15 verse 9, but in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. The commandments of men. You say, what's the problem? The problem is that Baptist churches, they don't just say, well, if you want to come down to the altar. No, here's what they say. If you don't come down to the altar, you're not right with God. That is what Baptist churches do. They teach as a commandment. Well, show me that commandment in the Bible. Show me one verse that actually shows us, because I showed you verses that says don't come down to the altar. Okay? That's a commandment from God. Don't come down to the altar. Show me one verse that commands you to come down to the altar. But when you're at these churches, they literally say, you know what, hey, if you want to get right with God, and here's what they say. This is the most important part of the service. They preach for 50 minutes and say, this is the most important part of the service. It's your chance to respond how God has worked in your life through this sermon. It's your chance. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to get right with God? Are you going to leave here with your sin? What are you going to do? Right? And they really try to make you feel guilty and come down. And that's why many of us probably have come down to the altar before. I have done that before. Okay? Because you feel guilty. You feel emotional. It's like, man, I am a wicked person. All right? It's like, I'll come down. I'll get right with God. They basically teach it as a commandment, not as a suggestion. It's taught as a commandment in these churches. Now turn to 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. You say, Brother Stuckey, why is the altar call so dangerous though? Okay? Well, I want you to realize as we're looking at 2 Timothy 4 that when I preach most sermons, I basically have two main goals. Okay? We're going to see that in 2 Timothy 4. I have two main goals. 2 Timothy 4 verse 1, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead that is appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word, be instant in season out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. The Bible says reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Reproving and rebuking are negative. Exhorting is positive. Okay? Let me give you an example. When I preach a sermon about reading the Bible like I did before January and I try to motivate you, part of it is reproving and rebuking. I try to make you motivated and feel guilty about not reading it enough. Okay? That we need to read the Bible more. I'm saying you need to read it every day, make it a pattern in your life. But then what do I do? I give you an exhortation where I teach you how can you do this. Put aside your cell phones. Put aside, you know, the internet. Have a Bible reading plan where you can make a check mark every single day. I exhort you so you can actually do it. I basically try to motivate you or feel guilty and then give you an exhortation in most sermons. Okay? So here's the thing. If you're someone who does not read the Bible and I preach on reading the Bible, I want you to leave this place with two things in mind. One, I'm not right with God and I need to fix this. And two, this is how I fix this. Here's the problem. If we have an altar call and I preach for one hour about why you need to read the Bible and then all of a sudden you come down to the altar and get right with God, you leave feeling like you're right with God. It's the worst thing you can do. I don't want you to leave here feeling like you're right with God if you've got sin in your life. They literally destroy a one-hour sermon. Look, if I preach a one-hour sermon about why you shouldn't listen to rock music and you're guilty of that, I completely destroy it in five minutes with an altar call. It's not just something that's not biblical. I destroy everything I did. What's the point of spending hours working on this then if I'm just going to have an altar call here where you feel emotional and feel like you're right with God when you're not right with God? That destroys everything I worked on. Look, if you preach a sermon on reading the Bible, you want people, including myself, because I'm guilty of a lot of these things I preach on, I want to leave feeling, man, I need to make some changes and here's how I do it. I don't want us to all leave feeling, man, I was wrong with God but now I'm right with God. Look, here's the problem with the altar calls. It's the same people coming back every single week. It's not working. It's not working because you make people feel emotional and they haven't made real changes in their life. I do believe that in a situation like David with Nathan, he gets right with God in an instance. I'm not saying that's impossible but when you have these high pressure emotional things, sometimes people say things they don't really mean them, like King Saul. With these high pressure emotional things, it's not always realistic. Look, I want you to feel like, man, I need to make changes in my life when you're leaving here and here's how I do it. I don't want you to leave feeling like, oh, man, I was bad. Oh, now I'm good to go. It's like that completely destroys the whole purpose of preaching. You're trying to make people feel, okay, man, I need to make changes. Here's how I do it. It just doesn't make any sense. It's not biblical and it's a very dangerous thing to do and what you're going to see is people are not going to get right with God because of these emotional things in churches. Now turn to Matthew 10. If you are very right with God and I preach a sermon about how you need to go soul winning every week and you're doing it, lots of soul winning, look, that's fine. You don't have to leave here feeling guilty if you're already accomplishing it. But what I've noticed in preaching is that when people are actually accomplishing what's being preached on, they're usually the ones that feel guilty, like, man, I need to make sure I don't quit it. So I need to keep it going. It's like, yeah, I've been reading the Bible every day but I better not stop it. It's like I'm glad Brother Stuckey preached that sermon because, man, it's been tough recently. I need to make sure I'm still doing it. And so, look, I think it's good for all of us to leave saying, look, I'm not perfectly right with God. And unfortunately at most churches they don't preach much. They don't preach hard against sin and they don't really, you know, give you an exhortation of how to fix it and people basically leave with, after the altar call, they feel like they're right with God and they're really not. And it's sad because quite honestly in all of these Baptist churches here in the Philippines, they are filled with some people that want to live for God. And unfortunately in those churches, a lot of them are never really going to live for God fully because a lot of these churches, they're just not doing the right job preaching and the way the sermons and services are structured are just not according to the pattern shown to us by God, okay? So that's the altar call for the saved. What about the altar call for the unsaved? The altar call for the unsaved, basically you bring unsaved people into church and basically, you know, at the end you try to get them to come down to the altar. And what takes place is they try to get people saved at the altar rather than us trying to get people saved after the service. Now what we do is when new people come here that are not saved, we give them the gospel after the service. And what we found is it's an effective way to get them saved because we have 20, 30, 40 minutes if necessary. We have all the time in the world and that's how we try to get people saved, okay? We will do our best not to have anybody leave this place that is new and we haven't, somebody hasn't talked to them and tried to talk to them about the gospel. We want to make sure that they're saved. And look, even if people say, hey, I heard about your church from the online ministry, I've seen people visit church that have been listening to sermons for a while and they have no clue how to get to heaven, right? Because they hear a lot of sermons like, man, the end times is interesting, you know, all this stuff, but they don't really look on the stuff on salvation sometimes. And so when somebody's new at this church, we give them the gospel. Even if somebody brought them to church, let's say Brother Prince invites someone, they come to church, they say, yeah, Brother Prince invited me. That doesn't necessarily mean they got saved yesterday. They might have heard the gospel but not have gotten saved. So we still, we try to give people the gospel if they come to this church. Make sure they're saved, okay? But at other churches, what they do is they try to get them to come down to the front and if they don't come down to the altar, then they let them go unsaved, okay? What does the Bible say in Matthew 10? I'm going to actually show you perhaps the biggest verse that people that believe in the altar call use to prove their point or so-called prove their point. Matthew 10 verse 32, whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. And so they go to this verse and say, you know what, if these people are not willing to confess me before everybody in the congregation, then you know what, I will deny them and send them to hell. That's what they teach in this verse. That is what people that justify the altar call. This is their big passage. Well, Peter did deny Jesus in front of some people, so you might want to cross-reference these words when you're looking at this, okay? But it's just like you have to understand that when you have like an altar call at the end of service, most people are going to be a little bit too shy at a new church to walk down in front of everybody that they do not know and bow down and talk to a random person. They're going to be kind of shy to do that. Let me give you my honest reaction of the first time I was at a church with an altar call. I'd been saved for a few years and been to a few other Baptist churches that did not have one. I was very confused with what was going on. All of a sudden the pastor's like, close your eyes and bow your head. I'm like, what? And then like everybody's doing that, so I bowed my head and I kept looking up every minute and I'm like, no, I guess I still keep my head. I was very confused. I was like nervous and everything. I'm like, what is going on? I thought it was bizarre. You say, why? I've never experienced it before. I mean, I had heard that there was churches that did this and some of you out here, maybe you've never experienced an altar call. You might be similar. You're like, oh man, because it's weird. It's very, very strange, you know, bow your head, you know, close your eyes. You're just thinking, you know, what is going on? And I want you to realize that me visiting a church for the first time if I was unsaved, I wouldn't have come down to the altar and just kneel down in front of everybody. I don't know anybody. But do you realize that if somebody walked up to me and said, hey, you know, it was great to have you at church, you know, how'd you hear about the church, you know, do you know for sure you're going to heaven? You know what? I would have talked to them. Here's the thing. When we go out in public, you know, we don't expect people to just bow down in front of us and then we give them the gospel. No, we talk to people, invite them to church, and then guess what? Oftentimes they're willing to listen. We don't expect them to come down before us, okay? Now go to Galatians chapter 6, Galatians 6, and I've got to hurry for sake of time. Galatians chapter 6, Galatians chapter 6, you got to understand the altar call at Old Baptist Church is my number one pet peeve, okay? So I've got like a lot of build up emotion about this, even though it's been a long time. Galatians 6 verse 12, Galatians chapter 6 in your New Testament verse 12, Galatians chapter 6 verse 12, as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. The Bible speaks about people trying to convince other people to do works to be seen of men, and basically they glory in that. Like churches would have an altar call and say, man, you know, we had 45 people that came down to the altar this week, and they make it a point they're glorying in other people doing certain things. Now look, we're excited and we have baptisms, but that's actually something the Bible speaks about doing, okay? But oftentimes these churches, they love doing that because quite honestly they glory in that. And quite honestly, the pastors, they enjoy it when people are saying, yeah, you know what, I need to make these changes. And they teach them this at Bible college. They teach them on how to do it. There's like a whole course on it, how to do an altar call, okay? This is the pattern. And like what you see with some of these churches, like if the pastor doesn't get enough people to raise their hands, then he'll start changing the questions. Like it starts with, did this sermon motivate you to do this, and only a couple people raised their hands. And then they start changing and changing. You know, do you feel like you're perfect? If you're not perfect, raise your hand, all right? They keep changing until everybody raises their hand, and then it's like, all right, well now you've got to come down to the altar because you're not perfect. That's what they literally do, okay? And this is what they teach them in Bible college to do. Turn to Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4, but you know, here's the thing. When you have these churches that have altar calls, what you see is the sermons are geared towards those that are unsaved. Here's the problem with that. Church is for believers. It's a body of believers, okay? And the sermon should be geared for those that are saved. Look, the second sermon today is on clothing. That has nothing to do with getting unsaved people saved, okay? That's like the last thing you're going to talk about to try to get an unsaved person saved, okay? But I'm not preaching to unsaved people here. At least the vast majority of people in this room are saved, so I'm trying to help you learn the Bible. Well, you say, Brother Stuckey, how are you going to get people saved then? We go out and get people saved, soul winning. What we did yesterday, all day, what we're doing today, what we do throughout the week, that's how we get people saved. I motivate us and myself to live for God. We go out, we get people saved. That is God's pattern. That's for believers, not for unbelievers. That's why I don't preach on salvation a whole lot. Ephesians 4, verse 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. These are saved people, a local church, the church of Ephesus, and look, the people preaching, it's for the edifying of the body of Christ. The body of Christ, people that are children of God in this local body, okay? I preach sermons to try to help all of us out. I don't preach sermons to try to get unsaved people saved, okay? Now, turn to Matthew 9, we'll look just at a few more places, and I'm going to quickly go through a little bit of the history of altar calls. And as I mentioned, if you go back to Malachi, which you don't have to do, but in Malachi it talks about people coming down and weeping. So this has always been going on, there's no new thing under the sun. But I don't have the trail of history going back 2,500 years. I will go back to when it became very popular because it's a lot more popular today than it was hundreds of years ago. It still existed because there's no new thing under the sun, but it's a lot more popular now than it used to be, okay? Now one of the big people that promoted this, and kind of the most famous guy that really made it popular, was a guy by the name of Charles Finney. Who knows Charles Finney, anybody? Charles Finney is the scariest looking human being who has ever existed. Is that not true? I mean, he makes John Calvin look like a really handsome guapo man, okay? Charles Finney was, and you say, oh, you shouldn't make fun of him like that. Look, he was an unsaved guy. He taught sinless perfection. He taught you can't lose your salvation as long as you never sin again. He literally taught he was perfect. Does that sound like a good guy to you? He taught sinless perfection. He was kind of a forerunner to the Pentecostals, okay? Now one of the great stories I know of Charles Finney before I get into how he used the altar call, Charles Finney, one of the stories I've heard in Baptist churches, okay, was that he was preaching at a revival or something, and basically the streets were just flooded with all these wagons and horses, and he couldn't get to the venue where he's preaching because there was like 50,000 people to see Charles Finney preach. And so he's like, what am I going to do? So he just starts going from wagon to wagon. Boom, he gets 20 saved here, 15 saved here, 30 saved here, 40 saved here. A couple hours later, he's gotten like 700 people saved or something like that. I mean, it's just these ridiculous stories, and it's like, do you expect me to believe that? And you hear these in Baptist churches. He wasn't a Baptist. He wasn't saved. He taught that you have to be sinlessly perfect to go to heaven. He was a Presbyterian who left Calvinism to teach sinless perfection, okay? He went worse than Calvinism. He was not a saved guy, okay? But what he did is he had something called an anxious bench, an anxious bench. So basically, there was a bench up here while he's preaching, and basically you would sit in this bench. You know, you'd have a bunch of unsaved people sitting here, and he would basically try to really get emotional to kind of basically feel them feel nervous, like God's motivating you to get up. And basically, eventually they would hop up out of their bench and somebody would get them saved. And so he built these emotional, Pentecostal, charismatic type services, and he had an anxious bench where he would have people sit, okay? That's really, and at the end he had the altar call, but he basically had this anxious bench to kind of get an early start on the altar call, okay? He's the one who made it really popular in the 1800s. It did not originate from him, though, because if you go back to the 1700s, there was a man by the name of George Whitefield. Who knows George Whitefield? Anybody? George Whitefield is the hardcore Calvinist from the Methodists. And here's what's funny. The Calvinists like to say, oh, this is not something we do. Well then, how come your guy George Whitefield's the one who really helped to actually make it big? In the big revival in the 1700s, it was a hardcore Calvinist. George Whitefield, who was good friends with John Wesley and the Wesley brothers. John Wesley, what's the other Wesley brothers' name? John Wesley and? Charles. Yeah, John Wesley and Charles Wesley. George Whitefield was good friends with them, and then they kind of went different branches of the United Methodists. One taught Arminianism that you can lose your salvation, the other one became a hardcore Calvinist. And so he had two lines of heresy with the Methodists, okay? Even though they stayed friends their whole life, because they basically believed the same thing anyway, right? Unsafe people like to flock together. But George Whitefield was this hardcore Calvinist, and he would basically have something very similar to an anxious bench. And what he would say, though, is this. I've got to read this quote. Whitefield asked whether anyone wished to take Christ for their husband. So at the end of the service, he'd say, would you like to take Jesus as your husband here today? Okay? I'm just reading to you what this says, okay? If they did, he extended an invitation, come and I'll marry you to him just now, okay? And so, and going to the end of this, Whitefield wrote that many were married to the Lord Jesus that night, okay? So anyways, I'm not interested in being, you know, I think that's pretty weird, okay? But George Whitefield, the hardcore Calvinist in the 1700s, he's the one who really helped popularize this, Charles Finney takes it to another level. And then let me just give you D.L. Moody. He's another big name guy. He was in the mid to late 1800s, and D.L. Moody, he became more prominent with the altar call because there was the big Chicago fire where he was preaching, and he had services with thousands of people because he was like a mega preacher, and there's a big Chicago fire and a lot of people died, and he said, man, if I had just had an altar call, we would have had like thousands saved, and he forever since then always had a big altar call. No, because the Bible says we actually go out and win the people to the Lord, and look, these big emotional decisions, if you've been at churches like this, it just isn't effective for people getting saved. What's frustrating is these people, they pray after a two-minute conversation, they're not saved, and then when you actually try to get them saved a few weeks later, you're the bad guy. It's like, how dare you try to give them the gospel? We already got them saved. Are you arrogant? I had a friend of mine who would basically, during service, Pastor Jason Robinson, I'm going to rat him out again, who basically, when the pastor said to close your eyes, he would basically sneak a look around to find out who was unsaved. He'd stop them in the parking lot and give them the gospel before they would get out. This was not the church he was sent out of. This was a different church earlier, but he got kind of in trouble with the pastor because he was getting people saved out in the parking lot, and it's just like, but you feel for these people. They get saved, and then they leave here just unsaved. I understand that. I think it's great that he did that. But D.O. Moody, basically, once the big Chicago fire happened, he would basically say he'd always have an altar call to give people a chance to get saved. Some of the other big preachers that did this were Billy Sunday, who basically, his salvation was basically you'd come down, and as you shake hands with me, it's like shaking hands with Jesus and accepting him as your Lord and Savior. That's what Billy Sunday would do. Take my hand, and it's like taking the hand of Christ because the motion hits you, and you want to receive Jesus today, if you take my hand, boom. That's what he would say. And of course, we know Billy Graham in the modern day. Now let me just spend a couple minutes quickly talking about Billy Graham because, look, I'm not a fan of Billy Graham at all, and I want you to realize if you are a fan of him, which maybe some people in here are, I want you to go on YouTube sometime and watch an interview with Larry King where Billy Graham says you do not have to believe in the name of Jesus to go to heaven. He very clearly says you do not have to believe in Jesus. God is calling people out of the Hindu world and the Muslim world, and he's like people that have never heard the name of Jesus can be saved. He said you do not. He clearly says in there you do not have to believe in Jesus, and I want you to realize Billy Graham also did not believe in a literal hell. You can see quotes where he does not believe in a literal hell, and guess what? Billy Graham was very, very close friends with the Pope, Pope John Paul. He was very, I mean, go on Google and look at the pictures. Man, he's so happy to take a picture with the Pope. It's like, look, I have no interest in taking a picture with the Pope, okay? Billy Graham was a Baptist preacher by name, but he always preached a work salvation, and when you listen to him back in the 19, I don't know, 30s, 40s, whenever he started, he was preaching a work salvation at the very beginning, in the 40s or 50s, whenever he started. You can pull up old clips, and you can hear him preach a work salvation, but this is what would take place at Billy Graham Crusades with thousands of people. They'd basically invite these big crowds, and from all these denominations, this ecumenical thing, this interdenominational, tons of people come. One of the big people that played music for Billy Graham was Johnny Cash, okay? So he had these big name musical people playing music, and what he would do is you'd come down to the front with the altar call, and it actually started, the first people that came down with altar calls, at these altar calls, were actually people that worked for Billy Graham. They were pretending to get saved here to try to make people emotional, and look, this is a fact, and if you've ever talked to someone who's been at a Billy Graham Crusade, this is what took place, okay? And if you were a Catholic that walked down the aisle, this is what they would tell you, the workers in Billy Graham, it's like, all right, well, it's great to have you. What's your denomination? You're a Catholic? Here's a Catholic priest over here you can talk to. That is what took place actually, and this is not my opinion. This is a fact, and if anybody looks this up, this is true. Billy Graham did not believe in a literal hell. It was this big ecumenical thing. If you're a Lutheran, here's the Lutheran. If you're a Presbyterian, here's the Presbyterian. If you're a Pentecostal, here's a guy speaking in tongues over here in the corner. Just go follow him. That is what they did with Billy Graham. He always believed to work salvation, and he taught you do not have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven. I want you to check that out with Larry King very, very clearly, and you can go on and on about Billy Graham. I don't want to for sake of time, but I want you to realize when somebody is loved by the world, they're probably a false prophet, and Billy Graham is loved by the world, and look, all the Baptist churches, they love Billy Graham around here. I encourage you, if that's you, check out what I'm saying. Go and see if he was good friends with the Pope, and you're going to find out, wow. He actually made a statement one time, and I'm not going to perfectly quote this, but he said something like he said Pope John Paul he thought was the greatest man of the 20th century. Look, I was on YouTube, and I heard him at a Bill Clinton thing talking about Bill Clinton, and this is what Billy Graham told Bill Clinton. I believe that if you had chosen a different career path, I think you could have become one of the great evangelists of our time. Bill Clinton, I watched that with my own eyes. Bill Clinton, it's like, are you kidding me? It's like, look at Matthew 9, and look, we know the altar call is still big around here, but you're looking at all these people that are not godly people, they're not like us, they're phonies, but I just want to end by showing you the pattern when it comes to getting people to say, what is the pattern in Matthew 9, Matthew 9 verse 36? But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, a sheep having no shepherd. He saved Theon to his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. He says, send forth laborers to get people saved, not send unsaved people here to the altar to get them saved. He says, no, we go out and we get them saved. Then in Matthew chapter 10 verse 5, this is a chapter in soul winning, verse 5, these twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not. So what is Jesus doing? He's sending them out to preach the gospel. That's what you're seeing here. So what's the conclusion? What are the highlights from the sermon? Well when it comes to the altar call for the saved, you must realize the reason why the altar call is dangerous is because people actually need to leave here feeling that they need to make changes in their life. You do not want them leaving feeling like they're already right with God. Now you want to give them an exhortation of how to get right with God or make those changes, but you don't want them leaving feeling they're already perfectly right with God. And look, when I preach sermons, I always am thinking about changes I need to make. So I don't leave here just like feeling, man, I'm really right with God. You know, usually when I'm writing sermons, I'm like, man, I need to change this and this and this and this, okay? So for all of us, we want us to save people to leave saying, man, I need to make changes, okay? When it comes to the unsaved, it doesn't work because it causes us not to try to get people saved in our personal time, but just try to bring unsaved people to church. And it also causes the sermons in the church structure to be geared towards unsaved people rather than being geared towards saved people, okay? And so when it comes to an altar call, I'm not saying all churches that have this are bad churches. I'm not saying if you've ever gone to an altar, you're bad or anything. I'm just saying that it's not something in the Bible. It's not part of the old paths as they're saying, even though it was a tradition from a while ago, when it became popular, it was the last couple hundred years, it wasn't coming from Baptists, okay? It's not a tradition that's from the Bible. That's why we don't have it. And if this sermon has encouraged you, when the music starts, I want you to come right down here. No, I'm just kidding. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to see what the Bible has to say about the altar and the altar call and showing that it is not a biblical thing, God, and I ask you to help us to know our Bible and help us all in this room to understand what makes us maybe a little bit different than most Baptist churches, God. You know, we're not saying every Baptist pastor or church that has an altar call is bad. We're not saying that if people go down to the altar, that makes them bad, but we are saying it's not something that's found in the Bible and it's not something that we're going to do because we want to pattern our church exactly like you told us to, God. Help us to do that to the best of our ability. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.